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 - 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.