WWE Raw - March 23, 2009

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

One thing that bothered me, albeit very briefly and I completely forgot about it until something reminded me of it, was Jericho's walk and talk revealing the belts are just props sitting at the Gorilla position. Man, I want to believe these people own them!

[Monty Burns 0]

Yeah, talking about things that grinded my gears from last night's RAW - that pretty much topped the list.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

The only thing that I didn't like about end angle was the use of the sledgehammer, but I hate the sledgehammer anyway. Other than that, the Orton/HHH/Stephanie angle was gold. It put a ton of heat on Orton and almost single handedly salvaged the storyline. The Jericho beatdown of Flair was great, although Lawler looked bad just standing there and complaining about it without stepping in; if he was going to get physically involved anyway, by challenging Jericho, why not get involved earlier instead of just watching Flair get the shit kicked out of him for five minutes.

[theone 0]

The only thing that I didn't like about end angle was the use of the sledgehammer, but I hate the sledgehammer anyway. Other than that, the Orton/HHH/Stephanie angle was gold. It put a ton of heat on Orton and almost single handedly salvaged the storyline. The Jericho beatdown of Flair was great, although Lawler looked bad just standing there and complaining about it without stepping in; if he was going to get physically involved anyway, by challenging Jericho, why not get involved earlier instead of just watching Flair get the shit kicked out of him for five minutes.

Having Jericho beat these Legends senseless for 5 minutes at a time really just cements what he's been saying...nobody gives a shit about them, if someone did they would obviously come out and stop him...

 

Creative hasn't been making much sense lately..

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I thought it was strange Lawler just watched the proceedings, but I figured they didn't want to set him up as someone who can make the save when the going gets tough due to the main event segment (and yes, anyone who read the latest F4W will see I basically said the same thing as Alvarez on the subject, but I came to the same conclusion beforehand).

[ChrisMWaters 0]

For why Lawler didn't get involved...I'm thinking back to when Savage was a commentator back in 1994. He was barred from actually getting involved in matches and such. When he finally did, going after Bob Backlund during his "Snapping" phase, the next week he was no longer in WWF (course, that's part of real life, but that's how I see it)

 

Plus, Lawler has had bad luck with getting involved with things like that. Wasn't the last time with Great Khali, and Lawler got Viced?

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Yeah, before putting two and two together with the "not setting up someone at ringside who can make the save" deal, I pulled a zio and wrote my own assumption based storyline where Lawler was not allowed to get involved as an announcer.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

When Lawler challenged Jericho, did he at least explain why he just stood there and watched Jericho beat up Flair?

[zappafrank 0]

So how exactly was last night's ending PG again? It actually got a bit uncomfortable to watch after a bit.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

When they opened the show with blood (which may have been Flair doing his own thing) and followed it with an Extreme Rules match (which admittedly is not a super violent affair or anything), I did wonder if Vince's panic mode got him thinking that PG is not for him.

[JRE 0]

The Matt/Jeff build has had a good turn around. I was afraid they would take the direction of Matt continually trying to force Jeff into the match, but Jeff being all emotional about it. Thankfully- they've just switched to Jeff being furious and destroying people in Extreme Rules matches. The WM match has some good potential now. They realized that Matt Hardy burning now Jeff's house and killing his dog was ridiculous....edited it all out....and seemingly revamped the feud to something better.

[zappafrank 0]

They realized that Matt Hardy burning now Jeff's house and killing his dog was ridiculous....edited it all out....and seemingly revamped the feud to something better.

 

Yeah, I thought that was all pretty low of them to do, even if Jeff and Matt agreed to it.

 

This whole WM doesn't seem to have a very "fun" atmosphere about it. So much of it is pretty dark.

[zappafrank 0]

When they opened the show with blood (which may have been Flair doing his own thing) and followed it with an Extreme Rules match (which admittedly is not a super violent affair or anything), I did wonder if Vince's panic mode got him thinking that PG is not for him.

 

A few times last night, for the 1st time I can recall I actually was wondering, "OK, is all of this really necessary?"

[JRE 0]

They realized that Matt Hardy burning now Jeff's house and killing his dog was ridiculous....edited it all out....and seemingly revamped the feud to something better.

 

 

This whole WM doesn't seem to have a very "fun" atmosphere about it. So much of it is pretty dark.

 

 

...Maybe this is the reason for the WHC storyline?

[pochorenella 0]

The Matt/Jeff build has had a good turn around. I was afraid they would take the direction of Matt continually trying to force Jeff into the match, but Jeff being all emotional about it. Thankfully- they've just switched to Jeff being furious and destroying people in Extreme Rules matches. The WM match has some good potential now. They realized that Matt Hardy burning now Jeff's house and killing his dog was ridiculous....edited it all out....and seemingly revamped the feud to something better.

Again, Matt didn't actually confess to doing such things, rather he implied doing them. Pulling out that dog collar/leash was a total dick move that IMO cemented Matt as a good heel. This in turn prompted Jeff's angry reaction and his pissed attitude on his last two matches, just going out and beating the shit out of his opponents.

I really don't see where they changed directions or revamped anything. I see this as a natural progression of the feud.

[Atticus Chaos 0]

I will say in regards to the whole 'why would no one help?' in the Lawler/HHH situations is that if people kept interupting the heel during their nefarious acts, it would become predictable and you'd never manage to get heat on anyone. No-one getting involved with HHH and Stephanie isn't that hard to believe: HHH and Stephanie have made far too many enemies over the years, and all of legacy were there, so they aren't liked enough for anyone to risk that. As far as Lawler not helping, I agree that didn't make sense, but only because the drew such attention to him being at ringside, and you were expecting him to get involved. If they hadn't have done that, and gotten him to keep quiet instead of saying over and over again how terrible it was, you could have forgotten he was there and not been wondering why he wasn't doing anything.

[JRE 0]

Well, yeah- you're right that promo was part of this direction. I'm just glad it's progressed this way rather than continuing to build the match with bad in-ring promos. It didn't make sense to have wrestlers popular for fast-paced offense and high spots try to cut promos.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I like how the crowd demanded HBK's help during the Orton/HHH/Steph deal. That's not his current storyline, folks!

[King Cucaracha 0]

The Matt/Jeff build has had a good turn around. I was afraid they would take the direction of Matt continually trying to force Jeff into the match, but Jeff being all emotional about it. Thankfully- they've just switched to Jeff being furious and destroying people in Extreme Rules matches. The WM match has some good potential now. They realized that Matt Hardy burning now Jeff's house and killing his dog was ridiculous....edited it all out....and seemingly revamped the feud to something better.

Again, Matt didn't actually confess to doing such things, rather he implied doing them. Pulling out that dog collar/leash was a total dick move that IMO cemented Matt as a good heel. This in turn prompted Jeff's angry reaction and his pissed attitude on his last two matches, just going out and beating the shit out of his opponents.

I really don't see where they changed directions or revamped anything. I see this as a natural progression of the feud.

 

I don't think he even implied it, did he?

 

Seemed to me they had him take responsibility for the storyline stuff and have him talk about the real-life stuff in a way where people could draw whatever conclusion worked for them. The dog leash thing, he explained that he was hanging onto it until it was the right time, but obviously he didn't care about anymore.

[pochorenella 0]

Yes, I guess you're right.

[Enigma 0]

No-one getting involved with HHH and Stephanie isn't that hard to believe: HHH and Stephanie have made far too many enemies over the years, and all of legacy were there, so they aren't liked enough for anyone to risk that.

 

This is exactly correct. This is the same Stephanie McMahon who, while very pregnant, poisoned Shawn Michaels' water. Thinking about that made me laugh about the "H-B-K" chants.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

I like how the crowd demanded HBK's help during the Orton/HHH/Steph deal. That's not his current storyline, folks!

It sounded to me like they were chanting for Cena near the end.

 

As for Matt 'admitting' to setting Jeff's house on fire, etc, in the original interview he did admit to it all but, as usual, they changed direction from the taping of the show to it's airing and edited that part out. I think they realized that even that was a little too much for wrestling.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah I can now see Shawn saying "Hunter, I might make the save for you but not your cunt wife that damn near killed me!"

 

I agree that the build to WM is way too dark and bleak. Not in a UT/Kane sort of way where it's so obviously sci fi that it isn't realistic, but in this "Psycho attacked my wife" or "One guy maybe tries to kill his brother" way.

 

As far as Matt/Jeff goes, thankfully they made it Extreme Rules. I had been worried that the match itself wouldn't be much without a stipulation.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I like how the crowd demanded HBK's help during the Orton/HHH/Steph deal. That's not his current storyline, folks!

It sounded to me like they were chanting for Cena near the end.

 

I think they may have once they gave up on "H B K!", which they were definitely chanting at first.

[King Cucaracha 0]

I agree that the build to WM is way too dark and bleak. Not in a UT/Kane sort of way where it's so obviously sci fi that it isn't realistic, but in this "Psycho attacked my wife" or "One guy maybe tries to kill his brother" way.

 

[TheFranchise 0]

Fans chanting HBK didn't surprise me in the least. How many times have they made the save for each other in the last three to four years or so? Even when they aborted the DX Reunion storyline, they always had each others back on TV and had the odd one night appearance. If one was getting beaten down, it was always a safe bet the other would make the heroic save.

[theone 0]

The Matt/Jeff build has had a good turn around. I was afraid they would take the direction of Matt continually trying to force Jeff into the match, but Jeff being all emotional about it. Thankfully- they've just switched to Jeff being furious and destroying people in Extreme Rules matches. The WM match has some good potential now. They realized that Matt Hardy burning now Jeff's house and killing his dog was ridiculous....edited it all out....and seemingly revamped the feud to something better.

Again, Matt didn't actually confess to doing such things, rather he implied doing them. Pulling out that dog collar/leash was a total dick move that IMO cemented Matt as a good heel. This in turn prompted Jeff's angry reaction and his pissed attitude on his last two matches, just going out and beating the shit out of his opponents.

I really don't see where they changed directions or revamped anything. I see this as a natural progression of the feud.

Matt DID come out and admit he did those things a few weeks ago but they edited it so it never aired on TV

[TheFranchise 0]

Yeah, the stream of SmackDown! I saw had him strongly imply that it were him.

[Atticus Chaos 0]

After re-watching the main event, I've come to the conclusion Orton has the craziest eyes ever. You know how talented a wrestler is when they can rise above terrible booking, like getting beaten up with Shane McMahon, and still look terrific.

 

I'll also give credit to Steph that she was put there to 'save' the angle and she certainly did that. HHH as well managed to make himself look sympathetic and even I felt bad for him when he was telling Stephanie to stay back because he knew she was walking into a trap. Just a great ending and slightly disturbing-in a good way.

[TheFranchise 0]

They've got one more Raw til WrestleMania.

 

They could feasibly undo all the good work next week.. They need to top themselves for one last week. But how do they?

 

Knowing the E, we'll end up with HHH and John Cena vs Randy Orton, Edge and The Big Show.