WWE Raw Report
Date: 04/20/09 from London, England.
The Big News: Shhhhh. HHH and Orton are wrestling.
Show Analysis:
Chris Jericho came out to start the show. Yes, he was drafted to Smackdown last week. The announcers half-heartedly tried to explain this, with Michael Cole at one point saying, “Remember the draft takes full effect next week after Backlash.” There was no explanation for why this was the case. So, Raw wrestlers going to Smackdown still participated here. So too did Smackdown wrestlers drafted to Raw. And for that matter, so too did Smackdown wrestlers who weren’t on Raw before and haven’t been drafted to Raw for the future. Don’t worry about it. WWE will get to enforcing this whole split brand concept eventually.
Jericho was happy that this would be his “last and final appearance on Raw forever.” I would say the odds of Jericho never wrestling again on Raw are about the same as Big Boss Man wrestling again on Raw. Jericho said that without him Raw will change for the worse and fans will be begging him to come back.
Ricky Steamboat came out and thanked Jericho for giving him the passion to perform again. Jericho said Steamboat was trying to get in the spotlight again, and that he needs to put Steamboat out of his misery. Jericho called for a singles match at Backlash on Sunday. I don’t know about doing that with a one week build. They probably should have thought about the Backlash lineup in previous weeks. Don’t you think that sounds like a good idea?
John Cena came out, but Jericho said he didn’t care what Cena had to say. He said his last act on Raw would be to walk out. As he did, Steamboat accepted the match for Backlash. Then Cena said that Vickie Guerrero wasn’t there but that she made Jericho vs. Cena for later in the show.
Batista beat Chavo Guerrero. Chavo said that he would prove that not only can he push around Vickie’s wheelchair, but he can also push around anyone on the Raw roster. That brought out Batista who immediately hit the Batista bomb for the pin. As Batista was leaving, Chavo grabbed the microphone, apologized to Vickie, and said he wasn’t ready. Batista came back to the ring. A fearful Chavo said that he was ready, but got another Batista bomb anyway. This was a funny segment.
CM Punk beat Kane in a complete waste of time. Kane went for a choke slam but Punk got out with some horribly botched thing and pinned Kane. This was another perfect example of a match that accomplishes nothing other than burying the significance of matches in general. Moreover, they only had one move to do, and they couldn’t have screwed that up any more horribly.
Santino called out Santina to apologize to her for getting her into the Great Khali kiss situation. Santino said that the people who think they are the same person are crazy. Santina appeared on the screen and said she had a blister on her lip that would prevent her from kissing Khali on Smackdown. The video started fast forwarding, and a nervous Santino tried to explain that Santina had too much Red Bull (as opposed to this being a pre-recorded video).
Santino began reading a poem for no reason, other than apparently the writers think poetry is a great addition to a pro wrestling show. Or maybe they were big fans of Lanny Poffo. Who knows? I will say this much. He was the world’s smartest man and Beefcake was double dumb. Beth Phoenix came out and said she was sorry to hear about the blister, but that she talked to Vickie and they set aside time for a Santina/Khali kiss at Backlash instead.
Melina beat Beth Phoenix to retain the women’s title. Michael Cole explained during this match that Raw could end up with the world and WWE titles, as well as the women’s and divas titles. What exactly is the take home point from that observation other than that there are way too many duplicate titles and they mean absolutely nothing? Why would you possibly bring attention to the fact that you have created both a “divas championship” and a “women’s championship”? Anyway, Melina won with a springboard elbow, bulldog off the top and the last call after Beth accidentally ran into Rosa Mendes. This was sloppy.
John Cena beat Chris Jericho via DQ. They traded punches early, with the crowd mostly behind Jericho. Cena hit the Cena slam and five knuckle but Jericho escaped the FU and hit a DDT. Jericho sent Cena into the steps and hit an electric chair. Jericho then reversed an FU attempt into the code breaker for two. Cena then hit the FU for two.
Jericho caught Cena in the Walls. Cena escaped but Jericho hit an enzuigiri. Cena went for a superplex but Edge pushed him off for the DQ. This was overall a pretty good match, but they botched a lot of spots and it was decidedly on the lower end of their previous matches. Edge hit a one man concerto on Cena after the match, and counted to 10 for the last man standing gimmick.
Big Show beat Rey Mysterio. Show threw Mysterio around. Rey came back with a bunch of flying moves until Show kind of caught him when he went for the 619 and then delivered the knockout punch for the pin.
Randy Orton beat HHH in a no DQ match. HHH sent Orton into the announce table, and Orton returned the favor. Orton hit HHH with a garbage can and with the steps. Orton went for a DDT on the steps but HHH escaped. Orton hit HHH with a chair and gave him a DDT on the chair. HHH hit Orton in the leg with a chair and worked over the leg.
Legacy eventually ran in. Shane and Batista tried to make the save, but of course the idiots bungled things up again. Batista accidentally speared Shane and HHH was distracted by all this and hit with an RKO for the pin. The match itself was good, but the crowd was once again shockingly silent for HHH and Orton. If HHH weren’t involved, I’m sure WWE would take this as a serious warning sign that something is very wrong. They’ve done a series of extremely heavy angles and presented this as the company’s top feud, and very hot crowds don’t seem remotely interested in it for whatever reason.
Final Thoughts:
This was another bad show. The wrestling was sub-par pretty much across the board, Sunday’s Backlash feels completely superfluous, and there was a staggering lack of attention to detail.
The Big News: Shhhhh. HHH and Orton are wrestling.
Show Analysis:
Chris Jericho came out to start the show. Yes, he was drafted to Smackdown last week. The announcers half-heartedly tried to explain this, with Michael Cole at one point saying, “Remember the draft takes full effect next week after Backlash.” There was no explanation for why this was the case. So, Raw wrestlers going to Smackdown still participated here. So too did Smackdown wrestlers drafted to Raw. And for that matter, so too did Smackdown wrestlers who weren’t on Raw before and haven’t been drafted to Raw for the future. Don’t worry about it. WWE will get to enforcing this whole split brand concept eventually.
Jericho was happy that this would be his “last and final appearance on Raw forever.” I would say the odds of Jericho never wrestling again on Raw are about the same as Big Boss Man wrestling again on Raw. Jericho said that without him Raw will change for the worse and fans will be begging him to come back.
Ricky Steamboat came out and thanked Jericho for giving him the passion to perform again. Jericho said Steamboat was trying to get in the spotlight again, and that he needs to put Steamboat out of his misery. Jericho called for a singles match at Backlash on Sunday. I don’t know about doing that with a one week build. They probably should have thought about the Backlash lineup in previous weeks. Don’t you think that sounds like a good idea?
John Cena came out, but Jericho said he didn’t care what Cena had to say. He said his last act on Raw would be to walk out. As he did, Steamboat accepted the match for Backlash. Then Cena said that Vickie Guerrero wasn’t there but that she made Jericho vs. Cena for later in the show.
Batista beat Chavo Guerrero. Chavo said that he would prove that not only can he push around Vickie’s wheelchair, but he can also push around anyone on the Raw roster. That brought out Batista who immediately hit the Batista bomb for the pin. As Batista was leaving, Chavo grabbed the microphone, apologized to Vickie, and said he wasn’t ready. Batista came back to the ring. A fearful Chavo said that he was ready, but got another Batista bomb anyway. This was a funny segment.
CM Punk beat Kane in a complete waste of time. Kane went for a choke slam but Punk got out with some horribly botched thing and pinned Kane. This was another perfect example of a match that accomplishes nothing other than burying the significance of matches in general. Moreover, they only had one move to do, and they couldn’t have screwed that up any more horribly.
Santino called out Santina to apologize to her for getting her into the Great Khali kiss situation. Santino said that the people who think they are the same person are crazy. Santina appeared on the screen and said she had a blister on her lip that would prevent her from kissing Khali on Smackdown. The video started fast forwarding, and a nervous Santino tried to explain that Santina had too much Red Bull (as opposed to this being a pre-recorded video).
Santino began reading a poem for no reason, other than apparently the writers think poetry is a great addition to a pro wrestling show. Or maybe they were big fans of Lanny Poffo. Who knows? I will say this much. He was the world’s smartest man and Beefcake was double dumb. Beth Phoenix came out and said she was sorry to hear about the blister, but that she talked to Vickie and they set aside time for a Santina/Khali kiss at Backlash instead.
Melina beat Beth Phoenix to retain the women’s title. Michael Cole explained during this match that Raw could end up with the world and WWE titles, as well as the women’s and divas titles. What exactly is the take home point from that observation other than that there are way too many duplicate titles and they mean absolutely nothing? Why would you possibly bring attention to the fact that you have created both a “divas championship” and a “women’s championship”? Anyway, Melina won with a springboard elbow, bulldog off the top and the last call after Beth accidentally ran into Rosa Mendes. This was sloppy.
John Cena beat Chris Jericho via DQ. They traded punches early, with the crowd mostly behind Jericho. Cena hit the Cena slam and five knuckle but Jericho escaped the FU and hit a DDT. Jericho sent Cena into the steps and hit an electric chair. Jericho then reversed an FU attempt into the code breaker for two. Cena then hit the FU for two.
Jericho caught Cena in the Walls. Cena escaped but Jericho hit an enzuigiri. Cena went for a superplex but Edge pushed him off for the DQ. This was overall a pretty good match, but they botched a lot of spots and it was decidedly on the lower end of their previous matches. Edge hit a one man concerto on Cena after the match, and counted to 10 for the last man standing gimmick.
Big Show beat Rey Mysterio. Show threw Mysterio around. Rey came back with a bunch of flying moves until Show kind of caught him when he went for the 619 and then delivered the knockout punch for the pin.
Randy Orton beat HHH in a no DQ match. HHH sent Orton into the announce table, and Orton returned the favor. Orton hit HHH with a garbage can and with the steps. Orton went for a DDT on the steps but HHH escaped. Orton hit HHH with a chair and gave him a DDT on the chair. HHH hit Orton in the leg with a chair and worked over the leg.
Legacy eventually ran in. Shane and Batista tried to make the save, but of course the idiots bungled things up again. Batista accidentally speared Shane and HHH was distracted by all this and hit with an RKO for the pin. The match itself was good, but the crowd was once again shockingly silent for HHH and Orton. If HHH weren’t involved, I’m sure WWE would take this as a serious warning sign that something is very wrong. They’ve done a series of extremely heavy angles and presented this as the company’s top feud, and very hot crowds don’t seem remotely interested in it for whatever reason.
Final Thoughts:
This was another bad show. The wrestling was sub-par pretty much across the board, Sunday’s Backlash feels completely superfluous, and there was a staggering lack of attention to detail.
posted by Todd Martin at 11:24 PM
8 Comments:
They aren't into the feud because they're never given an opportunity to cheer the babyface. It's always back and fourth or Triple H in control. When Trips was working on Orton's leg you could hear a "Let's Go Orton!" chant that was replaced with "Whoos!" when he put on the figure four.
That main event is what should have been done at Mania. It was bloody fantastic, and surprisngly the run ins didnt take away from what was a great match.
But I felt that Jericho vs Cena was ruined by the run in. Cena should have had the supersuplex reversed into a codebreaker, which would have been sick, and helps get over not only the fact that Jericho is a top star, but that Cena isnt superhuman.
The draft is a joke. If the draft doesnt come into effect until after Backlash, why did Big Show and Chavo appear?
And I have to disagree about your Chavo-Batista "match". It wasnt funny, it totally undermines Chavo and the talent he has. If the best they can do for Chvao Guerrero is a jobber who pushes his dead uncles wifes wheelchair, he would be better off bringing back Kerwin White.
WWE really needs to get rid of a PPV, as Backlash is being rushed, because Judgment Day is in the middle of May, and this is because there is TWO PPvs in June. Wouldnt surprise me if the buy rate for this event is extremely low.
What possible motivation would Chris Jericho have to turn up. It is like when Edge came out last year (when Punk cashed in) simply to say "Hey Raw, I was drafted last week and youll never see me here again, but wait Im here now, contradicting myself"
And why has it taken Steamboat two weeks to find Jericho to thank him and to ask him for a match?
All we ask if for some simple logic to be applied. But no, WWE cant even manage that.
Edge has no chance to wit at Backlash, either. And there is no chance HHH will get pinned.
Does WWE think they are getting buys when they have a PPV just three weeks after a disappionting Wrestlemania?
How many times are they going to give us Edge vs. Cena?
Let's look at who is not on the Backlash card which is five days away:
Undertaker
HBK
Mysterio
C.M. Punk
MVP
Big Show
Kane
Shelton
Take this for what it's worth - I likely set the landspeed record for FFing through a show via the DVR during last night's epic edition of Raw.
Need I say more?
Let's go Red Wings.
- Matt in Anchorage
I thought Jericho/Cena was a really impressive match, at least for Cena standards. It was pretty back and forth with lots of near falls and very few restholds.
I was bummed out by the run-in, but at the same time it at least got over the last man standing match, and served a purpose. I guess they just didn't want Cena losing, and didn't want Jericho losing with a fresh start on smackdown. but my philosophy is that if you don't have the balls to have 1 guy lose, then don't make the match between those 2 guys.
Orton/Triple H was good too. Orton's come a long way with his selling. he even sold his leg while pinning Trips after the RKO. that's attention to detail in my book.
so while you say it was a bad raw, and in some ways it was, it definitely had some decent moments in terms of wrestling, as we got 2 matches that were pretty lengthy in terms of TV matches.
and while I don't fancy Melina at all, I did like Beth's match with her. I know you called it sloppy, but in regards to wwe women matches, this match was pretty impressive.
I think the main criticism with Triple H vs Orton is "why?" We just had a main event with them at the 25th WM - why would a rematch be necessary? There was a definitive win. It's getting stale (and it ain't Orton's fault).
Any word on when "Everyone's Favorite Wrestler" (mine, anyway) RVD might be coming back to wrestling? Would you guys rather see him come to TNA than back to WWE/ECW? TNA has seemed more interesting than WWE these days, IMO. (I'd also like to see Sabu come in with him) Man, I miss the old ECW...
i went to the o2 to see this, and the cena jericho bout was extremely exciting, the crowd were into it and edges interference went down a treat. even the HHH/orton match was ok, and normally they try so hard not to hurt eachother its just crap. although my opinion would oif course be biased as we only get wwe twice a year here, but i thought the show was good where it had to be. FYI they did the end of the cm punk/kane match twice, and still couldnt get it right. fire kane.
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