The One and Only Raw Thread for 06/28/04

[Silence 0]

Tonight's Raw wasn't as bad as last week's, though I also could have dealt without the Lita pregnancy bullshit at the end of the show.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Nice to see HHH has to interject himself into everything that gets over on Raw. I used to look forward to the Eugene segments but I don't even know what I think now that HHH has messed it all up. Oh well.... not like he hasn't ruined almost everything on Raw in the last 2 years.

[cawthon777 0]

Well, I'm probably in the minority on this, but I thought Lita looked quite fetching this evening.

 

Sue me.

I've rarely found Lita to be THAT attractive ... but I agree with you on that one.

 

Raw was pretty decent. Two 15-minute+ matches, two 5-minute matches. The number of bouts may have decreased over the past few months but the quality sure has gone up.

[Guest CronoT]

Only 15 pages for RAW? Was the show that bad, or was the board that slow?

[Guest Chumpstain]

Did they build the new Winnipeg Arena yet?

The new arena is due to be finished in November. I think they'll be bringing another TV show back to Winnipeg then, but Raw and Smackdown next week will be the last wrestling shows at the current facility.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I'm getting real suspicious here. I've been patiently waiting for awhile now since Meltzer reported way back in the Observer Bischoff's contract was expiring in July for some news on him signing a new one, and no such news has been reported yet. The last Raw of June comes and I'm wondering if for some random reason Bischoff will be fired on TV. Then, while watching the show, it's announced that for reasons I find far too convenient, Bischoff won't even be on Raw next week, and the inertim GM will be Eugene.

 

While I'm sure everything is fine for Eric, part of me thinks there is some crazy plan where...

 

A. Eugene does an awesome job and Vince makes him permenant GM of Raw

B. Eugene does a horrible job, booking matches like Care Bear vs Easter Bunny, Bischoff gets blamed and fired.

C. None of the above, Eric will still have a job in the WWE.

[Guest Choken One]

Firing Bischoff would be completely stupid right now...if they insist on keeping the GM ROLE active...they have NO ONE as good as Bischoff is.

 

Sign him to a three year extention...but make him at least be an part of production like he was for WWE...he can't just be a actor.

[CanadianChick 0]

Maybe it's just me, or Triple H does a really good job at being evil, but I kinda feel uncomfortable when I watch Eugene/HHH.

 

I loved the tag match. The beginning was pretty cool, as it was the same as the start last week, except Jericho learned from Edge's mistake and started to quicken the pace after only one punch while Edge kept doing the singular punches until it was too late. Very nice touch indeed. I also loved the finish and how the legal men were involved in the pinfall. Kudos to Edge for not pinning Batista after the spear. Major kudos to Jericho for the nice selling of the concussion. It was great how this match built to seperate matches quite nicely.

 

I liked the main event quite a bit, as it showed how resourceful Benoit was. I loved how JR and King played it up as impossible for Benoit to win, and he did...cleanly! And I like Kane using the countout to his advantage. Great way to get the crowd into the match. The Lita thing at the end was sort of stupid, and could have waited until next week to get that point across. Speaking of Lita, please don't let her act anymore. When you have Stacy looking like an Oscar award winning actress in comparison, something's wrong.

[The Robfather 0]

I don't like where this Eugene stuff is going. It used to be, he'd wrestle entertaining matches, had Regal as his mentor, overcame the odds, and made people feel good about watching wrestling.

 

Now he's being played a fool by the bad guys and it just sucks!

[iggymcfly 0]

Well, I actually thought Raw was pretty entertaining tonight. Granted, I was drunk while I was watching it, and I had it TiVoed so I could fast forward through the bad parts (commercials, La Resistance match, and the Diva Search segments), but I still really enjoyed the show. The HHH/Eugene story is solid, the Lita/Kane story is decent when Lita doesn't have to act too much, and the opener and main event were both tremendous matches. This was the first time in a while when all the segments of Raw that I watched were entertaining and I never really thought about changing the channel.

 

The one thing that kind of pissed me off was Lita's random interjection at the end. The fans were into Benoit retaining and then they tried to put Lita showing how she was mad at Kane in there for no logical reason. The fans even showed that they were pissed by chanting "you tapped out" throughout the whole segment to put the focus back on Benoit all through Lita's stupid shit. Now usually I'm far from a Benoit mark, as I usually put Benoit down and mark for Kliq members like HBK and HHH if anyone, but this one time you could see that the crowd was into Benoit, and they were still focusing on random bullshit anyway after Benoit climbed the mountain in a unique stipulation that I can't remember seeing before in the WWE.

 

All around, it was still a good show, but I think they should show a little more respect to their very over world champion, and put a little less focus on dumb bitches that can't act or wrestle like Lita. Also, the backstage skits that give away storylines and show no functional purpose such as the one where HHH told Naitch that he was setting Eugene up piss me off a little bit too. They could have just as easily let this segment off, as well as the one where Lita tols Stacy that she was pregnant and the show would progress just fine. In fact, back in the day when Raw was at its peak, they would always let the storylines stay dormant until they climaxed in the ring, and it helped tremendously. Yet I'm getting off the main point. All around, this was a very interesting/entertaining episode of Raw that kept me tuned in throughout, and I was thought about tuning out altogether. If the WWE would keep putting out shows that were just this well thought out, they would have no trouble climbing back into the high 4.0s, and just maybe even crack that elusive 5.0. Good show WWE.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I still think HHH has ruined the whole Eugene thing by making it about him now. Eugene had a few months in him as a mid-card underdog with William Regal being his manager. The audience doesn't know what to think of any of it right now and the WWF doesn't have the ability to keep Eugene over in this capacity IMO.

[Guest TigerDriver91]

I was really starting to like Eugene, but now I am just pissed off by Triple H putting himself into everything and ruining it all.

 

Should also mention that I didn't like how there were a few commercial breaks during the main event. The stuff with Lita at the end was ridiculously stupid and I was hoping to see the chokeslam because I am mean

 

Diva Search

[King Cucaracha 0]

Well, some people will never get over the whole 'HHH has power' thing, so of course you're not going to enjoy when he's put in a storyline. Drawback to being a smark I'm afraid.

 

Personally, I think the storyline is being done really well. It puts Trips over as someone who'll do anything to get to the top. It puts Eugene over, because in the past two weeks Triple H has sold for lowly Nick Dinsmore more than anyone would be expected too, and he's beaten down William Regal. It puts Bischoff over as big, bad GM. It gives Regal a chance to show he's not just a comedy performer.

 

Plus it's actually been booked pretty well.

 

I guess my prediction was right too. Benoit makes Kane tapout, and people are still bitching that he wasn't put over. Hello? What do you expect him to do? Get involved in the Lita/Kane feud that has nothing to do with him? Try and act concerned for Lita' well-being? He wrestled. He won. He made the monster tapout. They displayed Benoit's positive traits in wrestling, and made sure not to expose his weaknesses.

 

But then again, it's Benoit, so nothing is EVER good enough for him.

[Guest TigerDriver91]

Tajiri made his return to the ring tonight in a Heat match against Chuck Palumbo. Victoria wrestled Gail Kim, while Garrison Cade faced Maven... and Val Venis wrestled some indy guy whose name I do not recognize.

[Guest Choken One]

I would have liked Tajiri to make a more...triumphant return of sorts...guess that three week period was just a mirage.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Personally, I think the storyline is being done really well. It puts Trips over as someone who'll do anything to get to the top. It puts Eugene over, because in the past two weeks Triple H has sold for lowly Nick Dinsmore more than anyone would be expected too, and he's beaten down William Regal. It puts Bischoff over as big, bad GM. It gives Regal a chance to show he's not just a comedy performer.

 

Yeah and that's why the crowd sat there in confused silence during the whole this but I guess it will be the limited scope of the character that will get blamed if his heat starts to greatly diminish from now on. I don't think Eugene can work outside of the underdog style.

[Guest Ray]

I marked out when they announced Regal would be wrestling on Raw. I just thought I'd tell everyone that.

[Cherry Blossom Viscount 0]

Personally, I think the storyline is being done really well. It puts Trips over as someone who'll do anything to get to the top. It puts Eugene over, because in the past two weeks Triple H has sold for lowly Nick Dinsmore more than anyone would be expected too, and he's beaten down William Regal. It puts Bischoff over as big, bad GM. It gives Regal a chance to show he's not just a comedy performer.

 

Yeah and that's why the crowd sat there in confused silence during the whole this but I guess it will be the limited scope of the character that will get blamed if his heat starts to greatly diminish from now on. I don't think Eugene can work outside of the underdog style.

See, the thing is, the corwd really does not knpw what to do. With this new "empowered" Eugene, they can't really boo him because he's basically a puppet with his strings being pulled by the ruthless HHH, but, they can't cheer his cactions either, because they are dastardly and benefit HHH, which people are (supposed) to hate. The crowd does not know what to do.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

And that's why it's stupid. You've created a character that can't be reacted to. HHH did not need to get involved with Eugene as they had a perfect formula going for Eugene's character. They've totally thrown that to the curb and now they are in serious danger of cutting the whole gimmick off at the knees.

[deancoles 0]

I would have liked Tajiri to make a more...triumphant return of sorts...guess that three week period was just a mirage.

His return was on international Heat in a Tag Title match with Rhyno, So his return was as bad as you can get.

[Cherry Blossom Viscount 0]

But then again, it's Benoit, so nothing is EVER good enough for him.

Well, I wouldn't exactly say THAT now. I just feel the Benoit/Kane encounter could have been booked a tad better. First of all, Benoit had way to much trouble with Kane, he should have gotten into the ring, punched Kane, knocking him out like the man Benoit is, then slapped on that move of all moves, the Crippler Crossface and made him tap in 0.438583 seconds. After the match, he should have beaten Kane to a bloddy pulp, then ripped him apart like a phonebook, all with his bear hands mind you, and then ripped the flesh from Kane's bones with his teeth. After this, Lita would come out, and Benoit, being the kind soul that he is, would offer to take Lita's pain away.....by giving her the greatest sex of her life, as Chris Benoit is not only the rabid wolverine, but the rabid sex machine too. So, after giving Lita some life changing sex, he'd shoot his little soldiers into Lita and his superior sperm would overtake Kane's evil seed and transform that demon spawn into a bouncing Benoit baby boy (I dare you to say THAT 318 times fast) that would come out looking just like Matt Hardy, so everyone can be happy, as that's the type of guy that Benoit is. Then, after all of this, he would go into the back and beat up all of Evolution with his pinky finger while reading War & Peace and translating Egyptian Heiroglyphics. After Evolution was dispatched he'd talk to Eugene while HHH was sucking him off (Benoit of course) and then after Eugene knew the REAL truth, Benoit would take him out for Ice Cream, because THAT is the type of hero, the type of champion, the type of MAN, Chris Benoit is.

 

Oh, on the way to the ice cream parlor, Chris Benoit saved 466 kids from a burning orphanage.

 

Oh yes, yes, LOL2004!

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Tajiri made his return to the ring tonight in a Heat match against Chuck Palumbo.

Hmm, Palumbo wrestling on Heat?

 

I may have to check out Heat for the 1st time in months.

[Guest Fook]

But then again, it's Benoit, so nothing is EVER good enough for him.

Well, I wouldn't exactly say THAT now. I just feel the Benoit/Kane encounter could have been booked a tad better. First of all, Benoit had way to much trouble with Kane, he should have gotten into the ring, punched Kane, knocking him out like the man Benoit is, then slapped on that move of all moves, the Crippler Crossface and made him tap in 0.438583 seconds. After the match, he should have beaten Kane to a bloddy pulp, then ripped him apart like a phonebook, all with his bear hands mind you, and then ripped the flesh from Kane's bones with his teeth. After this, Lita would come out, and Benoit, being the kind soul that he is, would offer to take Lita's pain away.....by giving her the greatest sex of her life, as Chris Benoit is not only the rabid wolverine, but the rabid sex machine too. So, after giving Lita some life changing sex, he'd shoot his little soldiers into Lita and his superior sperm would overtake Kane's evil seed and transform that demon spawn into a bouncing Benoit baby boy (I dare you to say THAT 318 times fast) that would come out looking just like Matt Hardy, so everyone can be happy, as that's the type of guy that Benoit is. Then, after all of this, he would go into the back and beat up all of Evolution with his pinky finger while reading War & Peace and translating Egyptian Heiroglyphics. After Evolution was dispatched he'd talk to Eugene while HHH was sucking him off (Benoit of course) and then after Eugene knew the REAL truth, Benoit would take him out for Ice Cream, because THAT is the type of hero, the type of champion, the type of MAN, Chris Benoit is.

 

Oh, on the way to the ice cream parlor, Chris Benoit saved 466 kids from a burning orphanage.

 

Oh yes, yes, LOL2004!

 

I just want to say that was the funniest damn thing I've read in months.

 

Props to Yami.

[Cherry Blossom Viscount 0]

RduoCurry Industries, eat you heart out.

[The Tino Standard 0]

One thing that I noticed Benoit did in the championship match was a subtle, but VERY nice touch... After Kane broke out of the crossface, Benoit went back to work on Kane's shoulder. He threw him shoulder-first into the ringpost, then went for another German. But instead of delivering it straight over his head, he leaned left and dropped Kane right on the injured shoulder, then rolled over and slapped on the crossface for the win.

 

I think the modified German went right past everybody, but that was a damn fine piece of paying attention to detail.

 

Now THAT is a world's champion I can cheer for.

[Guest Nelly's Bandaid]

I liked the end sequence a lot, between the tweaked german to how he rolled over for the ropes but wasn't there, even Kane's selling after tapping, doing more so a fatigue spot than a broke-down spot with the knock down.