phoenixastraea | RAW Hit's and Misses

RAW Hits:

Orton/Edge Promo: Wasn’t Edge right on when he busted on DX for “shamelessly shilling their merchandise?” Wasn’t it great when Edge called the audience “chumpstains”? I definitely popped. Again, Edge is gold on the mike and makes up for the dearth of talent in Lita and Orton. As for Lita, did someone direct her to Tina Turner’s hairstylist? And how on earth do those fake things stay inside that shirt? Was anyone else waiting for another wardrobe malfunction? Cheers to them both actually acting like strong heels. I hate to say it, but DX losing last night was definitely a good thing.

Bischoff: It looks like Eric Bischoff is here to stay, considering he has his Titantron back and his theme music. I certainly hope so. Wasn’t his promo pretty good, blaming the fans for DX’s first loss? Great idea. I also loved watching him set up match after match with demented glee. He needs to replace Coach and fast. The fact that he won by a landslide shows just how popular he is with the fans. He also did a nice job giving Maria’s character more depth, revealing her ditzy routine as just that; an act. He plays off the characters well, manipulates events well, and is oh so wonderfully EVIL!!!

Roddy Piper: Fuck Yeah, tag champs! Seeing Roddy with gold around his waist thrills me to no end and his promos are as gold as the belt. SO many ‘OH SNAP!’ moments, including such gems as “Edge?! YOUR show? It’s nothing but a Roddy Piper Ripoff!” and “Randy, you can’t even rip off your old man right!!!” ZOMG Awesome eleventy one and all that rot. Also a fan of the idea of a No DQ match with Orton/Edge and Piper/Flair, once again showing that Bischoff needs to come back to RAW full time. He’s already having too much fun with being back in the ring and its adding some freshness to the card. It's great to see him back in action, lily white legs or no.

Jeff slamming Melina down on the mat. The only thing that would have made this more satisfying would be if he’d been able to complete the Swanton on her skeezy ass.

Lawler Calling out Bishoff: Say what you will about him but I was all about Lawler standing up and going in the ring and calling Bish out for a match, either to defend JR or for himself. Good stuff and definitely unexpected. Double pops to him laying Coach out on his whiny ass.

Cryme Tyme on Color Commentary: OH SNAP! these guys are great. Them talking to Shelton was hilarious. We definitely need more of them. Their interaction with JR is absolutely endearing. Hearing JR pick up lingo like “Carlito is getting his shine on” and “bling bling” is excellent. His sad plea of “Are you gonna come back and see me?” when they got up to leave definitely got a huge AWWWW from me. Four stars for the Double Stuffed Oreo. =^)

For every title being put on the line tonight: Hey! I got a free PPV and a decent one at that!

The Main Event: From Flair's excellent 2 count timing to the last minute run in by DX(which we all expected, to be fair, but even so, given the lateness of the hour, I wasn't sure whether they'd taken the night off after all). Even still, it got a big pop from me seeing the boys help out the Tag Champs. I can't even tell you how incredible it was to see Shawn dancing around again. The hotness was too much for me. That boy can STILL shake it!

RAW Misses:

Nitro’s pink coat and his presence. What was the logic of bringing Snoopy back in as an IC contender when he clearly hasn’t cared in weeks? Bizarre logic considering he’s spent more time with Paris Hilton and K-Fed than chasing the IC title. Then again, why am I surprised? It’s the E!

Putting Jeff’s title on the line two days in a row. It definitely defeats the purpose of him defending it at a $40 price when they defend it the very next day on RAW. I’m also not a fan of JR calling Jeff’s moves ‘unique’ since his return. Grab a thesaurus, JR and find other ways to discuss his technique. (Edit: See my final Miss of this Review).

Eugene flipping out. What could have been a touching moment for him and Duggan turned into an uncomfortable bloodbath. I don’t know about you all, but I’m definitely done with the tastelessness of his mentally handicapped gimmick and am not a fan of its continued exploitation.

John Cena being all late. Ummm, shouldn’t your ass have come out right after Umaga Samoan Dropped Maria like a ton of bricks? NOT after he Rikishi’d her against the turnbuckle. What were you waiting for, the audience to pop?!

Shelton and the Race Card: Again, did Shelton suddenly remember that he’s supposed to be an angry black man? I love how after Cyber Sunday, Creative suddenly remembered all these dead storylines that it’s supposed to have tied up weeks ago. Sheesh.

For every title being put on the line tonight: Nearly every title that either changed hands or was defended last night was put on the line again tonight. Now, for someone like me who didn’t buy Cyber Sunday, I don’t mind…but what about you folks out there that shelled out $40 for the show only to have those matches count for squat?

Overall Grade: 3 outta 4 stars. Highly entertaining RAW with some solid spots and some fun booking thanks to GM Bishoff. Looks like Creative is finally starting to get wise.