Monday, August 24, 2009

Instant Feedback: RAW Is Strangely Entrancing

First off, thanks to everyone who helped kick off the LiveBlog experiment. Sorry for not being on the ball for that, and I was the reason for the lag on some of the comments being posted. Especially sorry to commenter Paulie, who missed out completely and probably signed off after I got around to okaying his comment. I will do better next time! As for next time, I'm not sure when that will be... perhaps the DragonGate USA PPV that's taping in Chicago? Probably before then too, perhaps for the LeBron James RAW, which according to Da Meltz, is all but booked.

Anyway, maybe it was the company in the LiveBlog, but I had fun with RAW tonight even with how bad it came off. The beginning was self-serving, and really, anything involving DX to me seemed unfunny. Still, two things really stood out to me as improvements. One was that they're really making a push to make the Tag Team Championships main-event caliber titles. It started at the Shaq RAW, where Cryme Tyme headlined RAW and then segued into a primo build towards a challenge at the PPV. Now, you've got Mark Henry and MVP actively looking to challenge for the Championships. While I can't say I'm a fan of how it went down, it's still nice to see the belts treated as such. There really aren't a lot of face teams outside of Cryme Tyme, so it'll be hard to get actual tag teams mixed into the fray, but they've ramped up the credibility build for Legacy and the Hart Dynasty as well as CT.

Second is what seems to be the end of the worst feud of the year, Hornswoggle and Chavo Guerrero. As a bonus, it looks like Chavo is going to get the honor of making Evan Bourne look good. Honestly, if I had to see Chavo make someone look good, 11 times out of 10 I'd rather it be Bourne. Let's face it, Chavo's worth right now is as jobber-to-the-up-and-comers, and while his skills have diminished over the years, he can still help accentuate Bourne's strengths in the ring, moreso than shortish matches against Jack Swagger ever would. Even if it's just a prolonged series of Superstars matches, it's okay in my book.

I've become resigned to the fact that RAW will forever be the spankrag for Vince McMahon to try his variety show bullshit. There will always be good wrestling on it, and that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make. Maybe that's how I should view every RAW from now on.

(PS, isn't it funny that on the same day that the LA Times runs an article on how family friendly the company is becoming that they open the show with a fat guy in a thong dancing around? Yeah, thought so.)