WWE Raw Review - 5th May 2008

After last week’s shocking episode of Raw I was hoping to see some clearer direction in tonight’s show and two hours of understandable entertainment.

Good Points

Making the best of the bad situation

After Regal’s crazy moment last week of cutting the Raw feed the WWE have decided to run with the ball on this one. The show turned in to the Regal show as at numerous occasions he would interfere in matches by switching off the lights or changing commentators. From an entertainment point of view it works but from a visual point of view if I was to be channel surfing and I came across raw when it was in darkness I would probably keep on switching. Only problem was that too much time was given to Regal on the show.

Recent returns of legends

Last week Rowdy Roddy Piper made an appearance on Raw backstage which he followed up with another appearance this week which was added to by Trish Stratus featuring in a backstage segment with Trevor Murdoch. It’s great to see legends used in small roles and I think they can continue to add to the shows.

Continuing push for CM Punk

This week on Raw CM Punk got the chance to wrestle Randy Orton to add to his CV of main event stars he has wrestled. He was kept strong as the match went to a no contest after Regal turned the lights off which was good thinking by the creative team.

Bad Points

Who is in the main event for Judgment Day?

If it hadn’t been for the last moment of the show with Randy Orton delivering the RKO on HHH after his main event match teaming with Kennedy against the entire ECW roster I would have had no clue what the main event for Judgment was if I had just tuned in to Raw for the first time. Regal vs. Kennedy should be a great feud but it shouldn’t be pushed ahead of HHH vs. Orton.

Mix of reality in Wrestling

Finally the return of Calirto’s Cabana where this week he interviewed Roddy Piper following the Rowdy one slapping Santino last week on Raw. This was a great idea but poorly executed as Roddy had to bring up Santino’s recent brush with the law. It would have only been the internet wrestling fans that knew about this and the core of WWE’s audience those who don’t log on to internet forums all day would have been left confused so it was silly to bring it up.

Poor handling of Burchill and Katie Lea

With these two now getting a regular spot on Raw the creative team need to give them promo time and put them in to a storyline with someone and not just have them fighting against jobbers or guys who are rarely seen on TV each week.

Overall

A vast improvement from last week but that wasn’t too hard. I may not like the storyline with William Regal but it is good to see WWE committing to it and trying to make it work.