WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 20th February 2009

After all the developments from Raw it was now Smackdown’s turn to build their feuds for Mania.

Good Points

Jeff and Matt get ready to get it on at Mania

After a little lull in the Matt screwing Jeff storyline this week Edge was used as the decoy to push the feud. All show had been building the main event between Edge and Jeff after Jeff teased Edge about beating him in three minutes. After a solid main event Matt came down and got the match thrown out after he delivered a Twist of Fate to his brother and left him lying. The way they used Edge in this storyline makes me think he will on his way to Raw in the draft.

HHH shows the Smackdown crew about intensity

His pre-recorded interview with JR only lasted one question and a couple of minutes but HHH showed intensity on a crazy level which made the storyline fee believable. These two could tear the house down at Mania. The thing now is that with the level of intensity HHH has set they now need to maintain it five or six weeks.

Booking for next week

I liked how they started hyping matches for next week’s show on this episode of Smackdown the build also involved some hilarious segments which were filmed at the valentines date with The Miz, Morrison and The Bella Twins.

Bad Points

Kozlov in the Undertaker mix

On Raw both JBL and HBK were touting themselves as opponents for The Undertaker at Mania but this week Vickie said it was going to be Kozlov who gets the nod. All I can say is that I hope isn’t going to be Undertaker vs. Kozlov as rumours have it as Kozlov should be no where near Mania or no where near doing a programme with Undertaker. I think he needs to go to ECW.

Not much wrestling

Like Raw not much wrestling again this week with the only thing decent besides the main event being the US title feud match. To have only four matches in two hours is unacceptable to me as a wrestling fan.

Overall

Unlike Raw this show featured on two storylines and built them well which I found more interesting to watch than Raw’s scattergun approach. The only thing with the whole Orton / Stephanie thing is the fact that HHH is champion has been overlooked.

WWE Raw Review - 16th February 2009

Afer a surprising and eventful No Way Out tonight was time to make sense of it all and see where we were going in the run up to Wrestlemania.

Good Points

Cena speaks

Finally Cena got some in ring mic time now that he isn’t the champion, go figure. Cena and Edge opened up the show with a great war of words which set the wheels in motion for their feud.

Great segment from Roddy

Jericho continued to build his Mania appearance and was then cut off by Piper who gave an emotional promo about the Hall of Famers to which Jericho retaliated by beating him down. WWE still look a bit uncertain on whether Rourke is going to be fighting at Mania but with or without him they are doing a great job of building the heat for Jericho.

Bad Points

Too much talking

It was like the WWE creative team wanted to set up the entire Mania card in one night. The little wrestling they had was poor and most of which had nothing to do with current feuds or build for Mania.

What’s the point of the Draft?

The Draft is next week but already we had Edge, Vickie Guerrero, HHH and Jamie Noble from Smackdown on the Raw show this week and throughout the year we have seen many stars show up on different brands. The Draft use to be major but now that anyone can turn up at any time on any show it has lost it’s appeal.

What was the point

After a heavily billed no holds barred match at No Way Out tonight Shane and Randy had coincidentally healed in order to main event Raw in a non sanctioned fight which set up a feud for Orton and HHH after Steph was on the receiving end of an RKO.

Overall

After the controversial booking of no Way Out WWE followed it up with a Raw that made matches that happened at No Way Out pointless and future shows like The Draft pointless. With the amount of weeks we have before Mania the WWE don’t need to rush what they are doing which they seem to be doing at the moment.

WWE Raw Review - Monday 12th January 2009

With two weeks before the Rumble it was time for WWE to go in to over drive pushing it’s only match on the card at the moment for the Royal Rumble whilst the return of Vince McMahon next week was left hanging over the heads of all on Raw.

Good Points

Cena HBK

They built the main event for Raw brilliantly through out the show with JBL telling HBK that tonight was his Wrestlemania and then some brilliant promos by Cena showing how much he respected HBK as every good guy should. These two then went on to put a brilliant main event to close out Raw with HBK getting the win in the non tile match leaving Cena laying in the ring for JBL to laud over.

Regal / CM Punk series

This week Regal managed to con the ref in to believing that CM Punk had hit him with a low blow to get him disqualified. Stephanie wasn’t having any of it though as she announced that there would be a third match which be no DQ next week. I just hope they finish off the series with a great match as they have built the storyline well they just now need the pay off of a great match.

Bad Points

Jericho is fired

The big shcker on Raw was Steph firing Jericho. This was done within the first half hour of the show when only after a few weeks of slight fallings out Steph fire her in the ring and then Jericho wasn’t seen for the rest of the show. I know this is just to set up a storyline for Vince’s return but it could have been handled so much better. Steph isn’t put across as an irrational character so it made no sense for her to fire Jericho for no reason.

Silly swerves

Raw saw the return of Ted DiBiase who looked to be returning to back up Madu and Sim in a scuffle with Orton and Cody Rhodes however Dibiase swerved them and then joined the team of Orton and Rhodes. DiBiase was put on the shelf in the storyline because he was kicked in the head by Orton so the swerve makes no sense. Swerves are great but there has to be a reason to them. Hopefully Dibiase will be given mic time next week and a decent reason in the storyline why he did what he did.

JBL not in action

In the run up to the Rumble we should be seeing square offs and coming togethers between JBL andd Cena but we haven’t seen any of it. The fans are more interested in what HBK is up to and what he is going to do rather than worrying about the two guys actually in the main event.

Overall

Quite simply a mess, the creative team needs to really refine it’s storylines and really think hard about which ones it should be pushing.

WWE Raw Review - 1st December 2008

Recently Raw has been consistently good but not excellent. Now that all the big hitters like Cena, Orton, Batista, HBK, Jericho and JBL are all fit it will be interesting to see if the show quality improves with it as normally the more main event stars you have the better the show is.

Good Points

John Cena against the world

Chris Jericho did a great job on the show tonight. He started off with a great n ring promo which was set up reminiscent of Cena’s last week with Jericho walking through the crowd. Then then antagonist Chris Jericho managed to get under Orton’s skin telling him how Cena always upstaged him and managed to get hi on his side against a common enemy. The show ended with Jericho, Orton and Second generation stars laying the beat on Cena which was a good finish.

Stephanie takes control

No Shane tonight as Steph laid down her authority in control with some good backstage stuff and some good mic work which included a great line about Adamle. She also announced a huge three hour special of Raw next week which will see the return of the Slammys and some big cross brand matches.

Santino Marella

Again Santino provided us with some great slapstick comedy on Raw as he tried to emulate Melina’s ring entrance. This segment was also used to push a Melina / Beth Phoenix feud which should be interesting.

Bad Points

JBL / HBK deal storyline

The storyline idea between these two does not play out well on a wrestling show. Supposedly JBL has offered HBK a private deal that the fans don’t know about and JBL is waiting for HBK’s response. This storyline may have played out in a soap but in wrestling it ended up in a mess which saw HBK walking out of the ring to a chorus of boos.

Dolph Ziggler

After many weeks of backstage segments featuring Dolph he was thrown in the deep end with Batista. Dolph a) shouldn’t have been put in a match against a main event star right away and b) shouldn’t be in there with Batistaa who couldn’t help anyone have a good match and would just be interested in squashing him. I think a feud between Dolph and Santino would have been the best way to start.

Overall

A good show with lots going on. It’s still a case of the main storyline being executed well but the rest of the show flagging behind some what. WWE creative need to invest more time in the under card feuds.

WWE Raw Review - 24th November 2008

After a pretty average Survivor Series tonight it was the WWE’s turn to start the ball rolling for Armageddon. Who would win the right to face Cena and what other feuds were they going to build for the Undercard.

Good Points

Shane and Stephanie running the show

Was good to see these two attempting to run the show in the absence of a GM. They made some good matches and argued over the direction of the show which was a good little storyline. Not sure how long this will continue but to me it beats having a GM.

Cena vs. Jericho for Armageddon

I think this was the right choice of match to end the year with. They set it up nicely with a triple threat on Raw to find out who would face Cena between Batista, Randy Orton and Jericho. Although Batista got the shaft when he was champion it has set him up nicely for a feud with former Evolution team mate Randy Orton which will help Orton get back to the main event scene after months off.

Bad Points

JBL / HBK feud

Haven’t really got in to this one so far and the horrible direction on Raw isn’t helping. This week it was JBL alluding to a deal he was trying to strike with HBK which nobody in the audience knows about. They need to get HBK out of this tag pairing with Rey Mysterio and just let him get on with his feud properly.

Intercontinental Title tournament

This is something you have when a title is vacant not when you have a champion. I believe the tournament will run to Armageddon with the winner getting the shot at the PPV but by having a tournament it will give little or no time for a real storyline or feud to develop between Regal and his challenger.

Overall

Seen a lot worse outings than this. Did what it needed to do and with the Main Event scene looking stacked again it should hopefully be a good end of year in the WWE.

WWE Raw Review - 17th November 2008

After being away for a week and missing a whole weeks worth of programming I was out of the wrestling loop. Being out of the loop and it being the last Raw before Survivor Series I had some catching up to do.

Good Points

Freshening Up

It was good to see Stephanie McMahon on the show and an opening segment which was reminiscent of the late 90s where Stephanie came out to lead an open forum in the ring which lead to huge in ring melee in which HBK got the upper hand on JBL. Also the presentation of backstage segments was different with HBK’s backstage segment walking through the corridors with Rey where HBK addressed the camera and the fans at home whilst acting like an announcer announcing that his match was coming up after the break.

Push for Miz and Morrison

After appearing on the 800th Episode of Raw against DX this week they got an upset win over Rey Mysterio and HBK with HBK being the one getting pinned in the centre of the ring. It made no sense for HBK to be the one to take the fall but it was great to see the continuing rise of this tag team.

New faces

After a little bit off screen it is great to see Dolph Zigler doing his usual bit getting involved in backstage segments. It’s also good to see Mike Knox getting some TV time as he got a couple of segments in which he got to intimidate the injured Evan Borne as this also gave Evan a reason to still be on TV. Mike may be another Snitsky but great to see him getting a chance.

Bad Points

Structure

The structure of Raw needs changing as it is too formulaic at the moment. Now people are giving promos and backstage segments just before the commercial break and then having their match straight after. You need to build matches throughout the show and not just a few minutes before the match.

Not enough Cena

As the big thing about Survivor Series is Cena’s return I was expecting more mentions to it, more videos about it or even an appearance from the man himself. I think this could have been built a lot better but we will see what the fan reaction is like this Sunday.

Overall

A good outing of Raw but due to no Cena they couldn’t build the main event which a PPV should be all about. It will be interesting to see how the Survivor Series Tag matches pan out and what Cena does on his return.

WWE Raw Review - 7th July 2008

After the best episode of Raw this year I was wondering what the creative team were going to pull out the bag this week.

Good Points

New Feud for Burchill

After his last feud finished very abruptly with Mr. Kennedy Burchill has now been set up as an opponent for Kofi Kingston. Burchill waited for Kofi to secure the victory over Charlie Haas before laying him out. Good to see Burchill already being put in the Intercontinental title scene.

In ring return of Rey Mysterio

Was great to see Rey back in the ring and eased in lightly against Santino. All of his trademarks were as crisp as ever and I can’t wait to see what the long term plans are for him.

More out of control action

This week it was Stephanie’s turn to come out and appeal for calm before Raw started. However what we witnessed was out of control as all the top stars booked themselves in to the main event match to become number one contender for CM Punk.

Bad Points

Poor match quality

For CM Punk’s second title match he had to go against Snitsky In a middle of the card match. We also had Charlie Haas and a terrible Diva tag match to add to the mix. It was like Smackdown last week.

Use of Smackdown stars

I thought it was poor to start Raw with Vickie Guerrero in the ring talking about how CM Punk had ruined her life. I think yes use Smackdown stars on Raw and vice versa but don’t use storylines which have only played out on a specific brand on the other brand. Viewers need continuity and consistency.

Kane getting pushed

Out of nowhere Kane received his biggest push as he went crazy after the main event following Batista beating him in the fatal four way. Add to this what looks like the return to the JBL / Cena feud and Raw suddenly looks a mess again.

Overall

Making the show seem uncontrollable is good entertainment but there has to be some sensible booking underneath the madness.