2009 Running Pro Wrestling Thread

Fixed (and did I miss anything?)

 

As bad as Vince is, he couldn't even top this:

 

Show will probably turn on his team to help Jericho's team win.

The SD team looks especially weak, so it can be a "shocking" upset when they win, it will get Jerishow more over as heels and Jericho can continue running his mouth about how smart he is.

The Jerishow team has been one of the best part of WWE in recent month and has actually made the tag titles interesting. I can't believe they'd want to end that already.

 

I always thought that was funny. I saw a Fred Ottman interview where even he admitted it was a funny mishap.

And now that I think of it, I did miss a few crappy Vince ideas: I forgot about the World Bodybuilding Federation, the guy who would promote merchandise at ringside while the matches were going on, the big red X when Outlaw Ron Bass rubbed his spurs against Brutus Beefcake's forehead, Mr. Ass and The One gimmicks for Billy Gunn, the Undertaker getting mad because the male Creature of the Night got beat up (really, who gave a shit?), the Fake Diesel and Fake Razor Ramon and Dusty Rhodes bringing the woman her pizza, then eating it right in front of her.

It's a miracle that I've been watching this for over 20 years, ain't it?

 

So, nothing on tonight's show? Well, then, I guess I'll go first.

Until the final 10 minutes, I was convinced that this was one of the best Raws in quite some time. With the exception of the Melina-Jillian match, every bout on the card was either really, really good (Cena vs. HHH) or a really, really good storyline (Orton-Dibiase).

I loved, absolutely loved the whole Orton-DiBiase thing and seriously hope the two fight for the strap at Survivor Series. I mean, obviously Dibiase isn't main title holder worthy (Yet) but the two have a good chemistry in the ring (as their match a couple months ago proved) and I think the storyline is fresh enough that it compels me to want to watch.

That being said, the downside to Raw tonight was the ending. I was looking forward to a Michaels-Jericho match as I love watching those two guys go at it. To have the match crumble before it even stated was a shame.

Still, good show tonight. Almost convinced me to go out Sunday and watch Bragging Rights. Of course, then I remembered Cena and Orton are fighting for an hour so I highly doubt that's going to happen but still ....

Oh, and am I the only one who kind of likes that Snoop Dogg song? It's catchy.

 

I'll agree - This was the best Raw in a while, and nothing really fell flat to me except for the final 20 minutes or so. Does ANYONE like Hornswaggle at this point? I understand that the WWE wants to go fan friendly, and I imagine he might appeal to kids, but that whole skit was getting overwhelming boos from the crowd until Snoop showed up last night.

I also didn't like the ending with Jericho vs. HBK, which led to a brawl, which the WWE does to hype EVERY PPV, it seems. I would have at least had some of the lesser Smackdown guys ambush one of the bigger Raw stars backstage, since they presumably won't be going over at the PPV.

 

I liked the part where Snoop booted out Santino, Jillian and Chavo with a decidely non-PG-like 'Get yo asses out of here!" followed by the Hornswaggle/Cole TV break.

Liked how the crowd was cheering DiBiase on. He even got a 'Teddy' chant. This is starting to remind me of when Batista turned against Evolution. They didn't just have him quickly turn, but they built it up for a couple of months.

The ending blew. One of the many things that doesn't make sense is why are the Raw wrestlers unhappy that the Smackdown guys are on their show when just a couple of weeks ago, Raw wrestlers were on the Smackdown anniversary show?

If the two brands were kept truly separate, I might actually like the whole concept. But when guys and gals are switched every few weeks, sometimes with little explanation, it tends to water things down a lot.

 

Totally agree. Jericho is on Raw every week. I realize he's the tag team champion and thus has the right to do so, but it feels like he's just doing promos and wrestling singles most of the time.

 

Is Edge coming back at all?

 

Edge is out for a long time. Probably the Rumble at the earliest. I'd guess more likely Wrestlemania. SummerSlam at worst. Achilles ruptures are turrible.

They've left open a possible Jericho-Edge feud when the latter returns. Jericho talked all sorts of shit about Edge after Big Slow joined forces.

 

I'm guessing it isn't even the semi-main event (Cena-Orton main, Undertaker-Punk-Batista-Ray secondary main). And it does a credible job of introducing Estrada and Mcintyre to the portion of the audience that doesn't follow Smackdown.

As for Raw: I liked it way more than most weeks. Probably my most favorite show since The Price is Raw, and that was almost entirely the concept.

As mentioned a handful of times, they've got a pretty good slow-burn turn with DiBiase and Orton. After a handful of false starts, it's really hard to find fault with the way they've been built up the last few months, and with the Marine sequel coming out around Christmas, DiBiase should be finishing his turn around then. Not sure if they'll replace him in the stable or just have Rhodes and Orton go their seperate ways, with Rhodes in the U.S. title mix. Given that they transitioned the name Legacy from the stable to just the Rhodes-DiBiase tag team, my money's on the latter.

For having wrestled 700 times in the last 18 months, Cena and HHH managed to have a very fun match. They're doing a suprisingly good job building up the idea that Cena might be gone; the post-match reactions were spot-on, and the Cena-Orton video package really gave you a feel that something epic is about to end (though I remember they went to similar degrees to end the Cena-Edge feud).

I didn't mind the ending segment. They needed to push the 7-on-7 match (as illogically as it's been constructed) and there was almost no way s Jericho-Michaels match would have gone over as well having to compete with Cena-HHH and given the time constraints. Perfectly acceptable by me.

I do wish they'd put something tangiable up for grabs in this match. Winner gets extra draft picks next year? Winner gets to pick a member of the losing team? Whoever gets the pin earns a World/WWE title shot at the next PPV (thought that'd diminsh the Money in the Bank match)?

 

Concerning last night's RAW, I've got two words for ya: Marty freakin' Jannetty