Thanks for the Fish

And my point was that the wwe could have plugged a up and comer into the feud alongside Batista and Cena rather than Flair. McMahon bellyaches, but they never seem to want and push a mid card guy unless it's against other midcard guys. What if MVP was tagging with Batista and Cena? It would elevate MVP AND Cody and Dibiase as they wouldn't seem so weak as to being in a 3-on-2 match and being the underdogs. Whenever there is an injury angle, it's always a top guy taking out the injured top guy. Rather than gaining one mention of history in a future promo to sell a PPV you could mint a new upper carder. Rather than Batista getting taken out by Orton, why not have had Mike Knox take him out? Mike goes on an elevated run given the rub of taking out Batista and then there is a ready made Batista vs Knox program waiting when Batista returns. If the wwe is trying to re-establish Big Show as a legitimate threat he simply should have went over Cena CLEAN at the ppv. But since Cena can't job unless it's to HHH, and eventhough the storyline is he's incredibly beat up, he still beats Big Show with his finisher. Why am I then supposed to care about Big SHow last night? Because he scared Miz out of the ring and beat up Lawler? Raw is unwatchable because it's the same tired guys wrestling each other, giving the same interviews and having the same matches. And Ric Flair comes back and is inserted in a top angle and gets prime TV time that could have went to a kid looking for a break.

Flair should have stayed retired. When the wwe should be making new stars, they have Flair come back and eat television time. You don't get an epic send-off retirement and come back a year and a bit later. Raw is virtually unwatchable these days outside of Miz and you know Miz will get jobbed out in 10 seconds to Cena eventually.

Ric Flair should stay retired. Then again he probably needs to money bankrolling Reid's smack habit.

Could Punk lose twice in one night? I could see him getting decimated by Umaga and then still cashing in MITB to try and beat Edge in front of his home town only to come up short. I could also see him beat Umaga with a roll-up or something, and then Umaga costs Punk the MITB match. I like the former idea, with Edge beating Hardy, maybe quickly with a fluke pin and then goads Punk into cashing in his shot with Edge being relatively unscathed and Punk all beat up from the umaga encounter. I'd like to see Big Show go over 100% clean. Cena will lose nothing from the job, but Big Show would get a huge rub form the win. Orton is retaining. Will it be clean, or will Legacy get involved is the only question. Swagger probably needs the win, even if it's just to keep their feud going. It's not like Swagger has any other ready made feuds waiting for him should Christian beat him again. I wonder if the bookers will try and get The Hart Triology on the PPV some how to show the non-ECW viewing wwe universe that they exist. Harts helping Swagger could set-up a Swagger/Smith/Kidd vs Christian/Finlay/Bourne match/program. Morrison will likely go over, to build on his face push. I'd like to see Haas cornering Benjamin though. Having a cornerman would be something different. Jericho/Mysterio could go either way. Jericho could win the title to further their feud, or Jericho could lose and become infatuated with Mysterio and winning the title from him to further the feud. Depends on how long the program will last, a simple Jericho win and refusing a rematch unless Mysterio puts his mask on the line could be a possibility. If the two are given an extended feud a la Jericho and HBK who knows what will happen.

'Twas a good show. Morrison as a face will be able to bust out more flippy shit. Haas was given a shot of instant credibility in that match, he'll never be a top guy, but he could be an "Enforcer" type. Jericho and Edge are playing their roles perfectly, showing there is many different ways to play a heel. Also I love the fact that just because they're heels doesn't mean they have to like each other. Fun dynamic and the two had a PPV quality match to close the show. Ricky Ortiz is crud, but it seems like he's heading for a heel turn, so maybe that will help him catch on. Not saying he's near Duwayne Johnson, but Rocky Maivia sucked as a babyface. Alicia Foxx is so damn thin I think she's going to break in the ring. Match was rather ho hum, the SD! Diva's division has never really gained it's footing. They're missing a face to really build the division around - Melina isn't that Diva, Gail Kim could have been, but it seems that the bookers are already souring on her - I think it was a styles clash for her, as the NA girls are more work orientated and I don't think the Divas of SD! could keep up with her. I think Mickie would have been the better draftee - she seems to have a fan following. Michelle McCool is bland. Dolph Ziggler was a one trick pony on Raw, but he seems to be getting a legitimate chance on SD!, jury is out on him but at least he's getting the chance. Kid's on his third gimmick now, so he much be able to work to keep getting repackaged. Mike Knox shouldn't be lsing in two minutes to R-Truth. But I guess it's a feud brewing, so that's better than being forgotten about. I still think Knox needs something to further establish a gimmick - maybe a Ross sit down interview. I think a backwoods/extreme survivalist gimmick would work with him.

I don't know how true it is, but I've heard that it comes from your mothers side. In the very least that would be right half the time.

Good look if he's going to be brought in as Festus' brother.

So can Sheamus O'Shaunnessey be too far behind to join Finlay? Smith is a future world champion. And I think The Hart Trilogy would fit great in The Legacy.

"The Hart Trilogy" is a pretty good name as well. On occasion Nattie holds the opponent for the Hart Attack finisher, at least she did in developmentals. We know he's a Hart, can we drop the "DH" and call him Harry Smith? I know it's too much to ask for Tyson Kidd to be TJ Wilson.

So when Creative has nothing creative to offer, the wrestler can still get blamed. Neat little trick Stephanie.

I think he should be Hornswoggle after drinking some sort of potion. Horny drinks a vial of something, starts getting a nervous tick and then dives under the ring. A few seconds later SOS comes out wearing remnants of whatever Hornswoggle was wearing. No not really.

Booking for audience pops while killing the at-home audience once again with the Santina booking. Fans want to see it live and pop for it, but the at-home fans who have to suffer through it on a weekly basis want to gouge their eyes out, but decide to turn the channel instead. Cena's backstage interview/promo about "we're all going though tough times" was lame as hell and a shameless pander attempt by the writers. Miz' DDT to a kneeling opponent could be a solid finisher. Much better than his knee lift to neckbreaker finisher he has used in the past.

Were the ropes electrified or something at the end? Why wouldn't Batista just exit the ring to go after Orton in the aisle? Instead he yells at him to come back into the ring. Why didn't Batista just go after him further on the outside? This Raw was crud. Though I barely watched, just had it in the background.

So who is going to team with Kendrick? They should have kept Ezekiel Jackson with him if they planned even a tag push, so it's likely that the team will be on job squad. The Miz makes some sense I guess. Nobody else on Raw would fit. Maybe a developmental?

Why is "b-u-t-t" automatically capitalized?

And the Owen/Austin botch was a mix-up. Austin was expecting a tombstone type with Owen dropping to his knees and Owen did the BUTT first variety. Basically when the spot was discussed prior Austin asked what style Owen woudl use and Owen said "to his BUTT", and Austin said he was more comfortable with the knees variety and both thought it was settled with "their" style to be used. So Austin situated himself for a tombstone and Owen dropped to his BUTT - and we all saw what happened.

If the wwe wants to mint Morrison a face, he needs a strong heel to play off of. I don't think Benjamin is going to cut it. The matches will be very solid, but both are lacking on the mic that they can't get themselves over.

Jericho asked for/pushed for a program with Mysterio, and much like the HBK/Jericho feud both wrestlers are going to have a lot of storyline input. I wasn't looking forward to a Jericho/Mysterio program and would have much rather had Jericho "make" Morrison, but I dug the HBK/Jericho storyline, so I'll give Jericho/Rey a shot. Supposedly it's going to be based in part around Mysterio's mask - will we get a mask vs hair match as the blow off?

Benjamin is just there to mess with Morrison, though I like the idea of a serious WGTT (not that Raw WGTT comedy attempt) more than either wrestling as singles anymore.

Zach Ryder is a Lee Hotti-esque Jersey Guido? He needs more orange tan in a bottle, and to learn the "pout" pose for every picture.

And wrestle/feud with who? I guess Finlay could bring in SOS to be his second/tag partner. Otherwise Hart Foundation 2.0 vs Finlay is lame. HF2.0 will fail anyways, because none in the group can work the mic and not even Bret Hart himself could get over wearing hot pink this day in age.

So Miz is all piss and vinegar calling out Cena and then he vanished into thin air when he gets to the ring? Cena fans = kids and their cougar mothers.

"The Miz" should call himself Mike "The Mouth" Mizanin. "The Miz" is a crud name, and the silly gimmick he came up with ten years ago on TRW.

I co-sign. MVP vs Regal over the US title could be a really solid feud. I still am not feeling MVP as a face though, but workrate wise it would have a lot of potential.

I'd let him wrestle himself and treat him as more of a legit threat. However that ship has likely sailed after being treated as a joke basically since his debut. At one point Santino was going to get a faction around him, with Rosa Mendez and OVW's Al Barone as two rumored members. How could he be taken seriously as a manager when he's a joke in the ring though? What could he possibly offer a wrestler that said wrestler would want Santino to manage him. I guess I always looked as a manager as more of a coach rather than an agent/hype guy. Armando Alejandro Estrada was a solid enough manager/mouthpiece and look where that got him.