Post #777. God's favorite post? Maybe.
Anyway, I'd love to come on here and say that this commercial-free RAW was one of the best of the year. It wasn't. I can say it was good. For the most part, it was well-booked. There's just one thing that glares at me, that's just begging me to go into full-nerd rage mode. You know it's coming.
Fifty-something Bret Hart, stroke survivor, is your new United States Champion.
I'm sure if I were there, I would have been swept up in the moment and cheered my balls off. And yeah, on a show where you blatantly were going to end with Batista making John Cena squeal in the Rings of Dave (my name for the move, feel free to steal it), you need to have a big moment to send the crowd home with a good feeling. The match itself was played perfectly if they were actually going to go with Hart facing off against Miz instead of naming a replacement up until the very end where Miz tapped to give up the belt. It was a clusterfuck, everyone got involved everywhere. It was a moment, but honestly, even going into the match as one of the foremost Hitman marks ever, it was tough for me to swallow. But I will say this. They did it in a way where I wasn't ready to throw my TV out the window, and really, if it were anywhere else but in Canada, it wouldn't have flown the way it did. I'm just going to leave it alone. Plus, Miz's pre-match promo was nothing short of epic, as was Jericho's promo to the Hitman. That show thread wasn't a total lost cause.
The rest of the show was pretty good despite Buzz Aldrin's senility making things painful whenever he talked. Other than that, you had a really good Christian/Edge match. Christian has stepped up his game bigtime, almost as if he heard me telepathically criticize his work in the beginning portions of this year and dared to work his ass off to keep his Worker of the Year mantel. With the matches he's had against Sheamus, Ted DiBiase, Kofi Kingston, Cody Rhodes and now Edge, he's starting to put together a nice hot streak of good-to-excellent matches. It really reminds me of a big reason why I love the WWE style, but that's fodder for another post tomorrow. SOMEONE REMIND ME TO WRITE THAT POST.
Anyway, Virgil being there was a lolwut moment, but you know he's going to cost Teddy Jr. his match at Over the Limit. It was great seeing Evan Bourne again get to fly around the ring like he's King Shit (because he is King Shit), and even better to see Zack Ryder be the one who got to interrupt the doddering old man whom Canada shat upon. Hell, even the faux commercials were funny. And of course, Jack SWAGGAH~! continues to show why he's awesome and Randy Orton continues to endear himself to me by making his stomps look like he's actively trying to kill a man.
Despite the fact that the Hitman as US Champ and Aldrin left a sour taste in my mouth, I thought RAW tonight was good if flawed. Maybe it was my own high expectations for what was to be for the US Title situation, but hey, it could have been worse.
Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!
Were you aware the U.S. Title had not been defended on TV or PPV for 85 days until Monday's Raw? Miz's successful title defense over MVP (in a match that wasn't even announced beforehand) February 21st at Elimination Chamber was the last time the U.S. Title had been defended in a televised matchup.
ReplyDeleteThat's one reason why a retired wrestler winning the U.S. Title doesn't bother me because the title has been essentially "just there" for months.
It was in the back of my mind. It's funny, the WWE goes through stretches where the secondary titles are hothothot and then stretches where they don't matter. It sucks when they don't matter, especially when they could be used as a centerpiece for a good midcard feud.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong. I hate Hitman as the US Champ though. I just couldn't get the vitriol gland to work as much last night.
I think it angered me more that Bret Hart said that TNA potshot (I thought it was) eariler about how he wasn't an old fart trying to keep his boots on and he goes and wins a US title.
ReplyDelete