WWE Raw Review - 9th June 2008

The last week has been a hive of press conferences and media relations for the WWE in the build up to Mr McMahon’s Million dollar Mania which was happening tonight on Raw. With Smackdown gaining on Raw every week in the viewing ratings WWE were hoping this would be a ratings winner.

Good Points

Three Good Feuds

Chris Jericho / Shawn Michaels feud

This has to be the best feud on Raw after tonight’s show. Jericho is one of the most intelligent guys on the mic and played the crowd brilliantly tonight. This ended with Jericho finally snapping after weeks of threatening to by putting HBK’s head through a TV screen.

Mr. Kennedy / Paul Burchill

Great to see Burchiil in a feud with such an established star. Although Mr. Kennedy got the victory in their match an attack by Burchill on Kennedy after the match means it isn’t dead in the water. Unfortunately though unless one of them gets a title in the next couple of weeks we won’t see them at the next PPV.

HHH / Cena

Good to see these two headlining again. Although this has been put together due to injuries to other stars I would quite happily sit through a series of matches of these guys culminating at Summerslam.

Bad Points

Mr. McMahon’s Million Dollar Mania or should I say madness

The viewing ratings are in from Monday night’s and after Vince gave away his own money and the ratings haven’t improved so Vince gave away his money for nothing. There were many segments of the show dedicated to the competition which were agonising to watch. First off when Vince tried to dial the number of the winners many of the calls didn’t work and watching someone make a phone call in a five minute segment isn’t entertaining.

Beth Phoenix getting misused

After being built up for months as an unbeatable wrestler Beth seems to now be coming out on a weekly basis to lose to Mickie James. For Mickie James to be built again she needs a strong opponent to go against.

Santino and Carlito getting the mess around

Again it’s another case of crazy booking. After weeks of being built and getting mic time this week they lost to Cryme Time to who are regularly on Raw and with no mic time. If this wasn’t bad enough Ted Bibiase Junior and a partner of his choosing have next tag title shot and the tag champs just lost to the new pairing of Snitsky and Umaga in a non title match.

Overall

You could fast forward through a lot of this week’s show if you have it on record. Besides Jericho’s Highlight Reel there wasn’t much mic time for anyone and there was no flow to the show thanks to the Million Dollar competition. Three good feuds are in place they just now need to give them time and develop them properly.

WWE Raw Review - 2nd June 2008

After the lowest viewing ratings in some time for Raw last week WWE really needed to start bringing their A-Game to get the ratings back. We had the fall out from One Night Stand and Mr. McMahon’s Million Dollar Madness to look forward to so I was intrigued to see what Raww was going to be like this week.

Good Points

Good development in the main event scene

After Randy Orton breaking his collarbone at One Night Stand HHH opened the show to inform everyone he had ended the era of Orton. This meant we needed a new challenger so John Cena and Jeff Hardy came down to the ring to both stake their claim for hwy they should be the number one contender. This created the headline match of Raw between Hardy and Cena with the winner getting a shot at HHH. Good to Cena not stuck with JBL and to see Hardy getting his push back after his recent suspension.

Burchill / Kennedy feud

Great to see WWE investing time in this feud. We thought we were going to get a match between the two but Burchill pulled out due to Katie lea having her first match later in the show in his place Umaga stepped into face Mr. Kennedy. This left Burchill with a chance to do a run in and blindside Kennedy in typical heel fashion. Not to be out done later in the show Kennedy attacked Burchill when he came down to celebrate his sisters’ victory.

Chris Jericho turning

Chris Jericho is going through an interesting character progression in the mid card of Raw. After coming back as the fan favourite he has now on many occasions showed heel or close to heel like qualities turning and flipping on some of his opponents. This has been teased for some time now and I for one am looking forward to when he fully lets go.

Bad Points

Mr. McMahon’s Million Dollar Madness

It’s a good way to get people to watch as people will watch for a chance of winning a million but from a televisual view point it sucks. What s entertaining about someone announcing how to win a million dollars. If there was an interesting task that entrants had to complete to win the money that would be one thing but all they have to do is register on WWE.com.

Night off for HHH

After the first fifteen minutes HHH effectively had the night off with only brief non wrestling appearances throughout the show. With both TNA and WWE at the moment they start to need using their champions better on TV.

Lance Cade and Murdoch

No one really knows why they are feuding, Murdoch likes to sing Lance Cade has no character or personality whoever came up with the idea of putting these two against each other.

Overall

No substance. Without Orton now we are left with only two big drawing main event stars and a weak to non existent mid card. The WWE aren’t going to create any new stars over night so they really need to step up their creative ideas to keep us entertained.