RAW Is Nitro

Keeping with the vein of overexaggerating RAW's flaws via comparison to a shitty wrestling program, here we are! Some may say that Nitro is an improvement over Impact, and truthfully, this week's RAW was better than last week's if you looked past the main event stuff going on. But the main event stuff... sheesh, how fucking bad was that? And while I was irritated that Triple H made Priceless look like extras in a Jean Claude Van Damme movie again and that he was made to look stronger, faster, smarter and braver than everyone on the roster upon his return, that wasn't what peeved me most.

What did? Well, first, there was King treating Batista's arm injury like the President had just been shot and then talking about it over the course of the night in lieu of what was going on in the ring. A page right out of the Schiavone playbook. Then there's the obvious deus-ex-machina heel GM action going on with Vickie Guerrero all but ensuring that Randy Orton would become Champion via less than honest means once again. Oh, and then you have the ref starting the 10-count, then stopping it and then no mention of who the WWE Champion was at the end of the night whatsoever. Did Mike Chioda finish his count? Did Orton win by DQ? No questions were raised by the announcers at all over this. The whole issue of the WWE Championship was dropped in favor of selling a story. Again, the WWE shows that they don't care about their title belts when really, the title belt SHOULD BE THE STORY!

RAW needs an overhaul. It's so frustrating to watch because given the roster (even with Trips and Orton at the top), it should be entertaining week in and week out. All three brands have good rosters, yet Smackdown and ECW come through each week and deliver. Why not RAW? My theory is complacence. Really, RAW is the only show that's on a network that isn't going to send it anywhere. It's on the best timeslot for wrestling possible. It also has the luxury of getting all the WWE's biggest names on the program. Batista, Orton, Trips, John Cena and when he returns, Shawn Michaels don't need to do anything to get reactions. And they do get reactions. Last night, Trips got a hero's welcome, and the crowd didn't quite care that the story they were watching unfold never went to completion and instead went straight to another arc. So RAW is fine, right?

Well, maybe, maybe not. Nitro got great crowd reactions for returning stars, but WCW brass kept doing stupid shit, like the fast count that wasn't a fast count in the Hogan/Sting match at Starrcade. Or the tazer finish. Or the Finger Poke of Doom. Or anything Vince Russo did. WCW pissed away the fans' goodwill steadily until they were ready to sell to the enemy. This is a trap that Vince McMahon would be wise not to fall into.

Then again, the way the rehash is used as a crutch in wrestling, I wouldn't be surprised if the haughty and stubborn McMahon and his legions of TV writers, offspring and Triple H are unwittingly treading the familiar territory that WCW explored to their doom.