Raw Report
Date: 09/03/07 from Columbus, OH.
The Big News: Raw was all about temporarily writing off the many performers who exposed WWE’s wellness policy as a joke.
Conclusive Finishes: 3 of 5.
Show Analysis:
Jeff Hardy won the Intercontinental Title from Umaga. Umaga worked over Hardy, including a superkick to the floor and a Samoan drop. Umaga missed a head butt off the second rope, and Hardy came back with the whisper in the wind. Umaga hit a twisting uranage, but Hardy crotched him on the top rope and got a sudden pin. That was a weird end to the match.
Carlito approached Vince McMahon backstage. Carlito has a crappy new haircut. It looks like someone did it as a rib while he was sleeping. Vince suggested Carlito and Umaga vs. HHH. Carlito liked this idea. Santino revealed that he requested a rematch between Maria and Beth Phoenix. Maria was concerned, but Santino said he would be there to make sure everything went fine. Stephanie and Linda McMahon confronted Melina backstage, and Linda slapped her.
Santino came to the ring with Maria. He vowed to embarrass Ron Simmons when he is healthy. He is a great heel. Sandman came out. Santino made some disparaging remarks about Sandman and his stick. Sandman proceeded to beat Santino to the back with cane shots. That left Maria alone, and she was destroyed by Beth in their match. Beth no sold Maria’s attempts at offense and won with a fisherman buster. Beth said she would be receiving a title shot at Unforgiven. She cut a pretty good promo and gave Maria another fisherman buster. Candice came out but seemed afraid.
William Regal said he gave Randy Orton the night off, and welcome him via satellite. Orton said the blood was on Cena’s hands, because his father wouldn’t have been attacked if Cena just accepted the rematch. Regal announced Cena vs. Orton for Unforgiven. Cena came out really upset. He attacked Regal and laid him out with the STFU. Cena was really good here.
Paul London and Brian Kendrick beat the World’s Greatest Tag Team to become number one contenders for the tag titles. Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch did commentary, and were excited about the competition. The heels worked over London, who then got the tag to Kendrick. He exploded with all sorts of kicks and scored the pin with sliced bread #2 on Charlie Haas. Cade and Murdoch congratulated Kendrick and London after the match.
Backstage, Vince announced that Coach would be GM again. Cody Rhodes and Mickie James beat Jillian Hall and Daivari. Prior to the match, Jillian Hall disparaged Lillian Garcia. Jillian and Daivari then did some singing together. Rhodes pinned Daivari with a DDT.
HHH vs. Carlito and Umaga was brief, as the heels were disqualified for double teaming HHH. They beat on HHH for a while, but he made a comeback with chair shots. At first Umaga no sold them, so HHH brought in the sledgehammer. He hit Umaga in the head with the sledgehammer multiple times and left him laying and bloody. This was a very effective segment to put over HHH.
Vince McMahon came out, and said that his family is just looking for a handout. Linda joined him, and said she doesn’t need money. She said given his infidelity she could take him for everything he’s got. Vince sucked up to Stephanie and had a video entitled “a father’s love” to show her. Instead, it was footage of their match together. Vince was furious, and HHH appeared to reveal he switched the tapes. He said hi to Stephanie, which seemed a tease of their relationship.
Stephanie said Vince needs help and should just step down from his position. Shane joined the party, and said that there are two Vince McMahons. Shane said Vince needs to change. Vince said that he can. That brought out Mr. Kennedy, who said he is the son, and that Vince doesn’t need to change. Finally, a lawyer came out and said the son isn’t Kennedy. The son will be revealed next week. He brought a message from the mother, “things are looking up.” That seems to be a tease of a tall guy like Great Khali, but who knows where they are going. I can’t really think of anyone that would work well as a pay off for this angle. I just hate the McMahon family soap in general. It’s total ego stroking, and takes away from the wrestlers and their storylines.
Final Thoughts:
This show was average. Next Monday could be a really bad show, with a thin roster and a heavy emphasis on the McMahon stuff.
The Big News: Raw was all about temporarily writing off the many performers who exposed WWE’s wellness policy as a joke.
Conclusive Finishes: 3 of 5.
Show Analysis:
Jeff Hardy won the Intercontinental Title from Umaga. Umaga worked over Hardy, including a superkick to the floor and a Samoan drop. Umaga missed a head butt off the second rope, and Hardy came back with the whisper in the wind. Umaga hit a twisting uranage, but Hardy crotched him on the top rope and got a sudden pin. That was a weird end to the match.
Carlito approached Vince McMahon backstage. Carlito has a crappy new haircut. It looks like someone did it as a rib while he was sleeping. Vince suggested Carlito and Umaga vs. HHH. Carlito liked this idea. Santino revealed that he requested a rematch between Maria and Beth Phoenix. Maria was concerned, but Santino said he would be there to make sure everything went fine. Stephanie and Linda McMahon confronted Melina backstage, and Linda slapped her.
Santino came to the ring with Maria. He vowed to embarrass Ron Simmons when he is healthy. He is a great heel. Sandman came out. Santino made some disparaging remarks about Sandman and his stick. Sandman proceeded to beat Santino to the back with cane shots. That left Maria alone, and she was destroyed by Beth in their match. Beth no sold Maria’s attempts at offense and won with a fisherman buster. Beth said she would be receiving a title shot at Unforgiven. She cut a pretty good promo and gave Maria another fisherman buster. Candice came out but seemed afraid.
William Regal said he gave Randy Orton the night off, and welcome him via satellite. Orton said the blood was on Cena’s hands, because his father wouldn’t have been attacked if Cena just accepted the rematch. Regal announced Cena vs. Orton for Unforgiven. Cena came out really upset. He attacked Regal and laid him out with the STFU. Cena was really good here.
Paul London and Brian Kendrick beat the World’s Greatest Tag Team to become number one contenders for the tag titles. Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch did commentary, and were excited about the competition. The heels worked over London, who then got the tag to Kendrick. He exploded with all sorts of kicks and scored the pin with sliced bread #2 on Charlie Haas. Cade and Murdoch congratulated Kendrick and London after the match.
Backstage, Vince announced that Coach would be GM again. Cody Rhodes and Mickie James beat Jillian Hall and Daivari. Prior to the match, Jillian Hall disparaged Lillian Garcia. Jillian and Daivari then did some singing together. Rhodes pinned Daivari with a DDT.
HHH vs. Carlito and Umaga was brief, as the heels were disqualified for double teaming HHH. They beat on HHH for a while, but he made a comeback with chair shots. At first Umaga no sold them, so HHH brought in the sledgehammer. He hit Umaga in the head with the sledgehammer multiple times and left him laying and bloody. This was a very effective segment to put over HHH.
Vince McMahon came out, and said that his family is just looking for a handout. Linda joined him, and said she doesn’t need money. She said given his infidelity she could take him for everything he’s got. Vince sucked up to Stephanie and had a video entitled “a father’s love” to show her. Instead, it was footage of their match together. Vince was furious, and HHH appeared to reveal he switched the tapes. He said hi to Stephanie, which seemed a tease of their relationship.
Stephanie said Vince needs help and should just step down from his position. Shane joined the party, and said that there are two Vince McMahons. Shane said Vince needs to change. Vince said that he can. That brought out Mr. Kennedy, who said he is the son, and that Vince doesn’t need to change. Finally, a lawyer came out and said the son isn’t Kennedy. The son will be revealed next week. He brought a message from the mother, “things are looking up.” That seems to be a tease of a tall guy like Great Khali, but who knows where they are going. I can’t really think of anyone that would work well as a pay off for this angle. I just hate the McMahon family soap in general. It’s total ego stroking, and takes away from the wrestlers and their storylines.
Final Thoughts:
This show was average. Next Monday could be a really bad show, with a thin roster and a heavy emphasis on the McMahon stuff.
posted by Todd Martin at 8:28 PM
11 Comments:
Todd, with your idea the "things are looking up" could be a tall guy, could it be Big Show? Has he been planning to come back soon?
I wondered if "things are looking up" was a reference to a wrestler who looks and/or points to the sky as part of his pre-match ceremony. Offhand, I can think of Sabu and Chavo Guerrero, neither of whom is likely to end up being McMahon's storyline son...
Did you notice that the crowd went nuts when Stephanie came out, roaring at level typically seen for Hogan, Rock, or Austin? While giving this thundering ovation, they just appeared to be sitting there silently, which was quite a trick on their part. Apparently the sound guy doesn't want to offend Big Steph, because I don't normally notice when the sound is enchanced, but this was just so ridiculous that there was no way to ignore it.
So, again, we're left with just plain bad TV. No drama or even halfway decent sitcom would have a story as full of holes as this one.
Now we're supposed to believe that McMahon only had one affair, which could explain him pretending otherwise, but would not explain why he would take it seriously when other people were trotting out women who purported to be his former lovers.
Worse, we have the lawyer of the woman come out and produce one of the all-time stupidest segments in TV history. The lawyer announced DNA tests confirmed the son in question is a WWE superstar. Think about that sentence for a second. I could see him saying they confirmed that the woman's son, who is a WWE superstar, is Vince's son. But they confirmed he is a WWE superstar? That's just idiotic. Then the lawyer goes on to announce the tests results will be revealed next week on Raw. He could have at least said "in one week" or something that didn't make him seem like he was shilling for the show, which obviously a lawyer out to get McMahon wouldn't be doing, right? Well, not if the writers for his character were any good anyway...
It was fun to see the Wellness Policy victims get jobbed out though.
One more thing Todd. Who do you have this weekend Hendo or Rampage?
I believe that Big Show has no interest in returning to wrestling, so I would be very surprised if he were to play that role. His body is so broken down that he just wants to take it easy. I've criticized his push in ECW because I thought it was the wrong fit, but he seems to be a genuinely nice guy who has given a lot to the business.
The other looking up reference I could think of was something to do with God. Shawn Michaels would be a better choice than most, just because they have the history. I just hate the idea of the guy being someone where five years from now everyone will think "remember when they did the ridiculous angle that guy was Vince's son?"
I noticed the sound for Stephanie relative to the people in the background as well (and all the McMahons to some degree). I was going to say something about it, but I was kind of piling on the segment already so I figured I'd give them a break. But yeah, that was some pretty ridiculous overdubbing. They wouldn't do that for, say, London and Kendrick.
Hendo-Rampage is a total pick'em to me. I'm narrowly taking Rampage, but I wouldn't be surprised either way. It's going to be an exciting fight, so I'm hoping it will last three or four rounds as opposed to ending early. I wrote a piece on the fight for SI.com that will presumably run at some point over the next couple days. I went up to Big Bear to see Rampage train a couple weeks ago and got some quotes from him, Juanito and co.
"Things are looking up..."
* Either a huge, tall guy, as you guys brought up on here.
* Triple H was on the screen during the segment, everyone was "looking up" to him...
Just my two cents...
Eddie's right - I said right from the start of this angle that the bastard son is Triple H. It would fit in with your fears about ego stroking, Todd - but having said that it also gives Vince another out on TV if they (kayfabe) push Vince out of the chairman's seat. After all, that was the original plan before Benoit did what he did. Vince take an extended break from TV.
But let's face it - I'd rather have Trips in a storyline seperate from the WWE title than being involved in it. No matter what it is.
Mark my words, the resolution of the bastard storyline will be:
1: Hornswoggle, who will then become mini-me Mr. McMahon. Zaniness ensues.
Otherwise it will turn out to be a big joke on Vince by HHH and the others who will drop either slime or poo from the rafters onto Vince as he looks up (HHH does believe in recycling jokes after all). Zaniness ensues.
At least the creative team threw me a bone, allowing William Regal one more "Umanga" reference before his departure...Good times.
I know it's idiotic to bring up, but how come the announce team slobbers all over HHH when he attempts to kill someone with the sledgehammer as a 'face, but then act like he should go straight to gas chamber when done as a heel?
Maybe "things are looking up" means this entire angle is going away for good? One can dream, can't he?
- Matt in Anchorage
My first thought was Hornswoggle too.
Cody Rhodes didn't get any of his dad's charisma, did he? And tagging him up with Mickie James, who exudes charisma, is a mistake. It just makes him look even more boring.
I get the feeling that no matter who they decide should be the son, it will be a bad angle.
I just want to add this - one could say that the attack with the sledgehammer by Trips on Umaga was symbolic of Vince's view of the drug users? Thoughts on that?
As I said...
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