Raw Thoughts: March 10

· We will be going live Randy Orton’s home, apparently. I think I could stake fairly decent money on the fact that Triple H may just show up, and it won’t be with a neighbourly cup of sugar.
· Just top class verbiage from Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker. Genuinely made me want to see the match even more, and I already have my ticket! I actually quite liked the fact that they occasionally stumbled over a word or two because it heightened the tension and emphasised the emotion.
· I’m also really glad the writers didn’t choose to undermine the importance of the Mania match by having Michaels superkick Taker or the Deadman chokeslamming HBK, because that would have been cheap.
· Oh, and Michael Cole saying “Vintage Shawn Michaels” straight after the promo was just so plastic and felt tacked on. I know I sound like a broken record, but Raw is supposed to be the flagship show and has the third best announce team.
· A pretty good match between JBL and Punk for what it was, and the fact that he’ll be presumably defending this at Mania makes sense, and Punk will be MITB anyway. It’s just a shame this was not a surprise because of the leaked script.
· A word on that actually. Despite being part of the hated Internet Wrestling media, I really don’t like things like the leaked script. I like to speculate and to guess on what will happen, and yeah a little inside information here and there is nice and helps me, but mostly I don’t like to know the score. I was at Bound for Glory and watched it sat two seats from Dixie Carter, and surrounded by company writers, wrestlers and agents. I watched the participants in matches go through spots and organise their matches, and it was a very cool experience. However, when we sat down to watch the matches, the three of us that were there as journalists had a competition to guess who would win. Admitted we did quite well, even guessing the manner of certain victories, but that didn’t detract from our enjoyment, and the fact that we were kept guessing made it more fun.
· Things like the leaked script make Vince McMahon and the like more paranoid and I don’t blame them, because although it’s cool to know what Chris Irvine, rather than Chris Jericho, is like, or learn bits about how the show is put together, I don’t think people ought to see such explicit detail. Admittedly, that makes me sound a hypocrite because I have seen a script such as this before, but to the majority these things should be kept secret to heighten the magic, in my eyes.
· Back to Raw, and to Randy Orton speaking from his house. Interesting that they introduced his wife. Didn’t he confess to sleeping with Kelly Kelly about six weeks ago? Bet she’s happy with that one.
· Divas lumberjacks.........the high angle shot does neither Jillian nor Rosa Mendes any favours.
· That’s frustrating. Far too short and a weak ending. For what is was, that was pretty good divas action, but how can the alleged best two divas in the company be taken seriously if their match lasts about four minutes, if that?
· To her credit, I think Maryse is as improved as anybody in the last 6-12 months.
· Edge, Show, Cena, Vickie.........what........the hell........was that?
· Ought to comment really, didn’t I? Well, it was very contrived and ought really to have been a show-ender, but while Triple H and Orton are about they are going to be the focus. I don’t know why Cena did the “I love Vickie” thing, because it really just served to confuse people, and then it was abandoned anyway. I think Cena could have just shown the “GTV” footage and had done with it. Still, they have to work it in somehow, and I’m all for having more Edge and Vickie soap opera stuff, because it’s a riot.
· Vickie better throw Alicia Fox in Edge’s face, because he has done exactly the same thing. I imagine it’s supposed to be a mirror of that incident. I would doubt this is the end of the Vickie/Edge partnership. In fact I’d suggest Edge will win the Triple Threat with Vickie’s help, and this will be revealed to have all been a plot.
· The Jericho thing worked fair enough, although I hope against all hope that Flair doesn’t come out of retirement. It was the best retirement angle of all time, and to sully that would be criminal.
· Christian working a six-man filler match. My God, what terrible use of him. Even if you are going to have him brought back in that miserable way on ECW, surely for his return to Raw you could have a 10 second vignette from backstage. Have Edge on the phone, or talking to a backstage lackey, ranting about first Cena interfering, Show being around and now his wife letting him down, then saying you should be able to trust family. Edge then looks shocked, Christian walks by, smiles, and walks away. It would just make him feel like a slightly bigger deal, and would be an impactful announcement to the Raw audience that he is back. Simples.
· The match utterly worthless, lasting only a few seconds and further watering down the Rey Mysterio act. I’ve often said that I’m not his hugest fan, but he’s a talented and over dude who was the star of the best match at No Way Out about three weeks ago. Why isn’t he front and centre of Raw right now? I’m begging for his to go back to Smackdown and have Michael hayes lay out thered (well, blue) carpet for him
· I didn’t care for that final segment. I’m ok with the overall concept, but I thought the camera work was a little too clean. The cameras were really well positioned – too much so. You need that edgy feel as though everything is live and happening for real so you can lose the reality bubble for a second. That was impossible because it felt like a movie. Especially the camera waiting outside the window.
· Orton shouldn’t have been so agile after being thrown through the window. Within 30 seconds of being thrown through several panes of glass he got up, no sign of a cut on him, and tried to a attack a handcuffed Triple H. Come Wrestlemania, ninety seconds into the match he’ll stay down for longer after a right hand.
· Sometimes less is more. I know they were going for the full effect, but they could have left more to the imagination. The reason people will instantly compare this to Austin v Pillman is testament to how that angle worked. It felt real. Both men’s characters were nutcases at the time and the camera feed broke. You wondered what the hell had happened. Would it have been the worst thing in the world for Hunter to have stormed into the living room to interrupt the interview, stand in front of the camera and smash it? Raw would then cut to Cody and Ted looking petrified for their cohort and Cole and Lawler could squeal “what the hell happened?” as Raw goes off the air.
· You then have a hook for more footage from a second camera being played on Smackdown, and a better cliffhanger feel to it.
· I don’t like the fact that Triple H has two (legitimate) reasons to be in jail and that Cena was a prick to Edge and Show. Like Bret Hart I could be accused of being stuck in the past, but I think a babyface should be in essence virtuous and heroic. Not psychotic and a piss-taker.
· An ‘eh’ Raw. Plenty of good stuff (Flair’s teasing return, the intrigue of where JBL will take the IC title, the announcement of the divas match, even if the seg was probably too short, and of course HBK/Taker) but the big title segments felt forced or out of place. Much of Edge/Cena/Show was ok, but it didn’t flow and didn’t suit characters. Triple H has gone crazy because Orton put his hands on The Game’s wife, so wouldn’t Edge want to immediately go after Big Show and knock his block off.