Caliban

I'd like to see someone brought into the team to eventually replace Animal. Heidenreich seems to fit into this style of tag team, but Animal needs to be phased out. Some sort of passing the torch storyline with Heidi, Animal and whoever could be neat, and we end up with a new, over, historically significant tag team...

Crazy Flair is still awesome.

It should be Dominick suspended above the ring. A little comedy in the 11th hour from this crappy angle. Haven't watched SD since the Bash.

First guy that came to mind when I read the thread title was Shelton Benjamin. But as great as their matches would be, Shelton can't carry a feud of that magnitude yet, and for Benjamin to be made a STAR, he'll need some semblance of character. He hasn't found it yet, but hopefully his time will come. As for right now, they need to shoot Carlito to the top. All Carlito needs IMO to be a great main event heel is to work on his physique a little, and have a great feud where he is put over in a memorable match. And HBK is the man to do it. I think Carlito and HBK would mesh well in a feud.

Is it just me, or is Todd Grisham starting to become a decent announcer? Not great or anything, just decent, but that's an improvement from just bareable.

Aw, I'm disapointed now, I was looking forward to Punk doing the Hogan ear-cupping routine.

This is really stupid. He sucked during his first run... bringing him back for one appearance on Raw is fun, but to sign him to a contract just shows how insane WWE are at the moment.

So which is better? "YEE YEE YEE YEE YEE YEE YEE YEE YOO YOO YOO YOO YOO!" or "AHHEYYYAAAEEYAAAEYYAAAEYYAAEYAAA"? Sorry.

Wow, that's fucking weird. I was watching the 1994 KOTR only yesterday, and was thinking how Tatanka's "get head smashed into turnbuckles, start Indian war dance" routine was similar to Eugene's.

They should rename RAW, there is NOTHING raw about that show these days. The show feels so polished and scripted, Smackdown is even worse for this. You can feel the commercial breaks coming just by what the wrestlers do in the ring. The backstage segments are badly acted and they don't feel like they are live and spontaious. I can't really describe it better. But it doesn't feel like Raw anymore. And even my casual fan friends asked me if WWE were "running out of ideas" when they wheeled out the midgets. I'm starting to feel like I can't watch WWE beause it's aimed at 11 year olds. And that "mole" on Smackdown was so fucking bad, even the kids must be thinking "how stupid". The best thing that can happen to the wrestling industry is for Stephanie McMahon to die. Sorry if that sounds cold and heartless - but the bitch is ruining wrestling. I'm sure an interview with Charlie Hass which was published in this month's Powerslam will be transcribed on the net soon where he highlights the problems with the writers they have. I can't understand why WWE doesn't use writers who know - you know! - wrestling.

Hey, knowing how much WWE loves rematches at the moment, to the point that the feud is dead half way through, Jericho may well win the title, then lose it again at Unforgiven. But then again, this Chris Jericho we're talking about.

101. In twenty years time he can win a Gimmick Battle Royal. Just in case.

57. His finisher is a camel clutch. A CAMEL CLUTCH!!!

Absolutely nothing, then...

It will be edited out of all UK showings.

Tremendous PPV. Top to bottom, better than WM 21. I'll write more tomorrow. Quick results and match ratings... Carlito beat Shelton Benjamin ***1/4 Victoria beat Christy * Kane beat Edge ***1/2 (easily their best match) HBK beat Angle ****3/4 (as good as Mania IMO, but not better. A very different match from Mania) Cena beat Jericho and Christian ****1/4 (Really good, but too short, was 15 minutes, 5 more minutes was needed) Batista beat HHH ****1/4 (Loads of gimmicks ala the ONS main event, a chair with barbed wire wrapped around it was used, went too long though at 25 minutes. )

I'll wait a month for the real prelim buy figures. I don't think they will be much different from these numbers though. This "prelim buyrate" is someone looking at all the buzz on the Net and guessing a figure.

Surely no PPV buy info is available this early.

He almost killed Gertner by almost shoving him over the balcony too.

Rewatching the match, Guerrero rolls out the ring after quite an intense mat-wrestling reversal sequence. Eddie is outside for ages, doubling over, visibly in pain. That's when he broke his nose I reckon, in that sequence. So you can't fault him for his performance after that. And Eddie's just started what looks like a major push for his character, so he's right in being pissed with a quick tap-out finish... but not in this context. The results of the matches didn't matter one bit on this night.

Austin's segment with Hassan and Daivari should be good for a laugh. And the main event is interesting. Christian/Tomko vs Jericho/Cena? Has a lot of potential if you ask me. At least they have a main event announced this week, they need another solid draft pick now to show fans that the bookers aren't pussyfooting around anymore.

After six years it finally takes an ECW crowd to chant "Shut the Fuck Up" at Micheal Cole. I loves it, I does.

When Cena came out, it really did feel like a massive occasion for WWE. Then JR opened his mouth and out came cliché after cliché. Ross said "This crowd is electricfied" and I immediately thought of the Rock. All I should have been thinking about as a viewer is Cena and how him coming to Raw would really shake things up. Ross and King have been the announcers on Raw since 1998. These days, whenever they speak over an angle it just makes it seem a retread of anything that has happened before. When you've been announcing 8 years, you've got to be a genius to still have fresh material. Today JR is fine when it comes to mid card matches and the like, but when it comes to the really big angles and matches... it just seems forced somehow. It really is time for a change of announcers of WWE wants to make this feel like a new era and not the same old, same old. I don't need to hear JR make the same damn calls he made in 1998 when I'm supposed to be watching the hot new stars of 2005. Who should replace him, I don't know. But does anyone know what I mean with this?

From BIG DAVE (Meltzer)... Raw last night drew a 3.7 rating.

Agreed, though I did spend most of the show wondering what the hell the main event was...