WWE Raw Review - 23rd June 2008

Instead of my usual style Raw review this week I am going to talk about the draft movements in detail that took place on Monday night.

From Smackdown to Raw – Rey Mysterio

Not surprised by this one Rey has done anything he possibly can on Smackdown and his highflying style will fit well on Raw. Being on Raw will also give him time to develop his character and persona which has never really been done well on Smackdown.

From Raw to Smackdown – Jeff Hardy

Again not surprised by this one after the drugs violation when Jeff was on a main event push on Raw this could be seen as some sort of punishment. Also Jeff Hardy’s body is worn down so I think Smackdown will be an easier gig for him. The fans love Jeff but has terrible mic skills and no character so I think he will fit in better at Smackdown.

From ECW to Raw – CM Punk

A great move to push CM Punk. However CM Punk struggles in five minute matches so he will never get the chance to show his full potential on Raw. I think he would have been a better fit with Smackdown.

From Smackdown to ECW – Matt Hardy

A great draft for ECW. I think Matt is a great fit for the brand and takes the US title with him. Shame the Hardy Boys reunion on Smackdown only lasted five minutes but for once I think Matt will have the chance to be the star he deserves to be on ECW.

From Smackdown to Raw – Batista

Batista needs freshening up as his character and work has been stale for some time. With Batista wanting to take time off I think this is another way of WWE convincing him not to take time off. Due to his cross promotional work as of late the only feuds out there for him at Raw are Cena and Orton when he returns.

From Raw to Smackdown – Umaga

Again Umaga needs freshening up. After a run in the main event when he first came the last 6 – 12 months have seen him rarely used in a major PPV feud. I think Umaga has the chance again for another main event run at Smackdown.

From ECW to Raw – Kane

Not a biggee, the only interesting thing about this one is that he still the ECW champion.

From Raw to Smackdown – Mr. Kennedy

Again not another biggee just another sign that Mr. Kennedy is going round in circles as he returns to where he came from. Annoyingly this may cut short his programme with Burchill.

From Raw to Smackdown – HHH

This has been rumoured for some time. With Smackdown going on to a new network and WWE wanting to start off strong and with Stephanie expecting their second a lighter schedule for HHH makes sense. Also HHH has been on Raw forever so it’s nice to show that nobody is safe in the draft and this could open up some interesting possibilities for him.

Commentator Draft – Michael Cole and JR change places

This was one of the most shocking drafts of the night JR and the King have be an institution on Monday nights and now its going to be Cole and The King. Michael Cole has called all but two Smackdown’s but again with Smackdown going to a new network and the chance to reunite old friends Foley and JR it makes sense.

Overall

Mainly good and interesting decisions by the WWE creative team. From a creative point of view I don’t think they should do a draft before a PPV as the week before a PPV should be used to build the matches not confuse them with draft moves but I understand from a promotional point of view as the draft is a way of getting viewers to tune in and then buy the PPV.

As far as the title picture is concerned this is what I think will happen. HHH will beat Cena and his title will be the Smackdown belt where as Edge will lose to Batista with that belt becoming the Raw title and start his raw career off with a bang. If not Cena will beat HHH and Edge will beat Batista which is equally as possible.

WWE Raw Review - 26th May 2008

I was looking forward to Raw tonight with one Night Stand only a week away I was looking forward to see how the headline feuds would develop and get us in the mood for the PPV.

Good Points

Lots of Vince segments

I think Mr. McMahon is one of the best on screen characters in the WWE so to see him heavily featured was great. He proclaimed that tonight was going to be Fan Appreciation night which lead to many funny backstage segments with wrestlers coming to Vince and telling him what he should do to show appreciation to the fans. This culminated in the end with Vince saying that he is going to be giving away some of his millions in the coming weeks on Raw which has never been done before.

New Wrestler Debuts

Was great to see WWE legend the Million Dollar Man introduce his son and latest addition to the Raw roster who is also called Ted Dibiase. Immediately he laid down a challenge to the tag champs and set the wheels in motion for a feud with Holly and Rhodes.

Finally Burchill has a feud

After Mr. Kennedy getting William Regal fired last week Burchill this week decided to blindside Mr. Kennedy after his match with Carlito and after he had been distracted by Katie lea. I just hope they handle this properly and make it a good feud so that Burchill can get some regular TV time and a PPV match.

Bad Points

Lack of build for One Night Stand

Besides the first ten minutes which had a face off between HHH and Randy Orton little was done to build the main event matches for ONS. The last match of the night was Jericho vs. HBK when you also have Cena / JBL or HHH / Orton who should have been part of the last match. The show was then ended by a great Vince McMahon segment but in my opinion this should have been saved for the episode of Raw after One night stand.

Silly Roddy Piper segments

Now I know they want to give Roddy something to do and that the involvement with the Jimmy Kimmel show is great publicity but I can’t stand these segments with Roddy getting involved with the people on the show. If they were to be having a match with either Roddy or the guys from the show on One night Stand then it would make sense but at the moment it just provides a throw away segment every week.

Overall

The complete opposite of last weeks show, last week was heavy on the build for ONS but light on the entertainment whereas this weeks show was light of the build for ONS but heavy on thee entertainment.

WWE Raw Review - 28th April 2008

After a very entertaining and interesting Backlash I was looking forward to see what the fall out would be on Raw. However little did I know that a disaster in booking and a terrible show awaited me.

Good Points

Kennedy is back and already lined up in a feud

After pushing Regal at the KOTR and then not having him on Backlash, Regal was finally put in to a feud with none other than the returning Mr. Kennedy. I am interested to see where this feud goes as although it is a bit down the card for Kennedy after being pushed in to main event status over the last few months.

New feud for Jericho

Was great to see a new feud started between HBK and Jericho after what happened at Backlash. Jericho claimed that HBK feigned his injury in his match against Batista during his Highlight Reel section. The only problem is where does this leave Batista? Unless we have Batista vs. Undertaker for the fiftieth time there is not much out there for him. Although I’m looking forward to the prospect of another HBK vs. Y2J match after their Wrestlemania classic.

Bad Points

JBL goes from hero to zero

After being in the main event at Backlash JBL this week was booked against one of the Highlanders who haven’t been on Raw for many months. The great consistency in the WWE booking at the moment is great. JBL Booked against a Highlander, Cena nowhere to be seen and no match for CM Punk add to this Cody Rhodes beating Marella and you would start to think they are employing five year olds in the WWE creative department.

Crazy Cade and Murdoch

After their most recent defeat against Kendrik and London Trevor Murdoch took it upon himself to stand on top of the announcers table and sing a song. Murdoch doesn’t have a history of singing so for him to do it with no reason was highly bizarre.

Shoddy camerawork

Some of the camerawork this week resembled some of the live TNA programmes. Don’t who they had on cameras this week but whoever they were it wasn’t the best.

No strong HHH promo

After winning the belt at Backlash many were expecting a strong HHH promo to start his reign as champion but instead of being given the chance to do this he was cut off within a few minutes by Randy Orton and then we barely saw him until he got in the ring for the main event.

Worst ending ever

Randy Orton and HHH gave us a good long match compared to many other Raw main events but was ruined by a Vince Russo WCW booking style ending. For no reason whatsoever William Regal ordered the feed to be shut down during the main event so the show went off to darkness with fans watching at home wondering what was going on. It wasn’t like Regal had been threatening to do something like this for some time or that Regal has a history of psychotic episodes. It was like they had no ideas for the finish so at the last minute someone came up with this hairbrain idea.

Overall

Besides a couple of moments of the light the show was the most unusual mess of a show I have witnessed in some time. Big improvements need to made from this terrible outing.

WWE Raw review 15th February 2008

Now that the hype from No Way Out has died down and because we are still five Raw’s away from Wrestlemania it is now time for the creative team to start working overtime. Normally there is only three or four Raw’s between main events so the creative team have to be sure to pace the feuds right to make sure they reach bubbling point just before Wrestlemania. With the importance of Mania and the extra editions of Raw I was interested to see how the creative team were going to work this one.

For me this Raw will be remembered for a couple of good matches and some terrible booking which was annoying after witnessing a well booked Smackdown last week.

Crazy Booking

There were three booking decisions for me that made no sense and one case of lazy booking. First off we had Jeff Hardy fighting Chris Jericho and if Chris Jericho won he qualified for ‘Money in the Bank’ at Mania. For all of you who watched Raw last week you are not wrong, Jeff Hardy did qualify last week but in a crazy booking idea was put against Chris Jericho. You knew Jericho was going to win as Hardy had nothing to fight for which is stupid booking. It was a much better match than the qualifying matches last week on Raw which I said they needed to do but they souldn't do that at the expense of sensible booking. So well done WWE for listening to me about match quality now sort out the booking. However Jericho’s backstage segment with Regal was very funny and a great moment for long term WWE fans as Jericho joked about things that happened when they last feuded.

Next we had Vince McMahon coming down to the ring to demand an apology from JBL over the beating he gave his illegitimate son. To which JBL informed Vince that he had found out that Hornswoggle was not his son after all. After all the build up they gave the storyline when Hornswoggle was announced as Vince’s son it made no sense to say it was all untrue now with no warning, no hints or no flowing storyline. The only reason they did this was to get a JBL/Finlay/McMahon feud going for Mania when if they just kept the JBL / Jericho feud going which was starting to get hot instead of dropping it with no warning then they wouldn’t be in this position desperately trying to find JBL a storyline.

The final bit of madness came at the end as after John Cena had won the tag match for him and HHH against Randy Orton and Mr. Kennedy for Kennedy just to come back in and deliver his finisher on Cena as the show went off air. All through the show they were building Kennedy with backstage promos where he was telling Randy Orton about how he was going to win ‘Money in the Bank’ and cash his chance in that night at Wrestlemania. When it is Mania time you have to push your main event as the biggest attraction every Raw not have someone who isn’t anywhere near the main event of Mania in a non feud storyline match which is ‘Money in the Bank’ pushed ahead of the main eventers as it devalues your main event.

Lazy Booking

Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels was finally officially set up when Flair came in to the ring after HBK’s match to say he wanted to fight Michaels at Wrestlemania. To this HBK said he didn’t want to be the one to retire Flair to which Flair replied he just wanted to have a great match at Wrestlemania to which Shawn agreed to. Now if you didn’t want to fight someone or retire them you wouldn’t have your mind changed in the space of a minute after a couple of lines. All I have to say is very lazy booking.

Again there were some good points though

Stronger Matches

After last week there was an improved level of match quality with Hardy / Jericho being match of the night. The quality was also help by the return of DH Smith a rare appearance by Carlito and a solid main event. The WWE managed to get more out of ring segments and better quality matches which is the mix they needed.

British Invasion

Was great to see Burchill, Katie and Regal in a backstage segment togther after watching DH Smith son of the British Bulldog have his first match back. This was Burchill’s first proper backstage segment so it was great to see although he didn’t get any in ring time this week. They even teased the possibility of him having a match at Wrestlemania so watch this space.

So all in all hat WWE need to do now is really focus in on the feuds, simplify them and apply logic. The match quality has gone back up and the time spent on out of ring segments compared to in ring stuff has become more balanced so it just needs better booking and I am sure we will have an awesome Wrestlemania as they have the matches and the talent to make it a memorable one.