WWE Raw 17th December (spoilers inside)

Mr.Nice Guy

I thought this was a good show - especially in the second hour - and despite having what I considered to be a hideously bad segment, I really liked Raw this week. Some thoughts...

The week after the big anniversary show rating and so we open with...a diva match! Must admit that surprised me. Felt it was alright enough.

Ugh. That Vince promo. What? Why? No one needs to see Vince having a breakdown. Vince is at his best when he doesn't give a sh*t about anyone and he's full of himself. This segment was painful. Jeff's promo was bland and Triple H's "comedy" was crappy. I hated this part of the show. What happened to the Hornswoggle 'tough love' story? Also I would have liked Triple H to have acknowledged his loss to Jeff and to give him props but what can you do.

Handicap match was run-of-the-mill. I guess Triple H had to destroy somebody. At least it was nobody important.

Poor Holly and Cody. Nobody cares. The least over tag champions I can ever recall.

I like the fact that they are continuing with the Flair retirement angle. It's something I can get behind and I thought Flair gave a great promo prior to the match. He made it seem like it could be his last night. The show really picked up from here.

I thought JBL cut a great heel promo and Y2J was real good too. I enjoyed this segment. I'm surprised JBL is heading to Raw as a wrestler but it will be interesting to see how it pans out. Who will replace him on Smackdown I wonder? I'm absolutely gutted that Booker is no longer there to take his place on commentary as that would have been f*cking brilliant.

Carlito and Santino together as a team sounds good fun to me. Should make for some very funny moments. How gorgeous was Maria tonight? As Ron Simmons would say, DAMN.

Looking forward to Ric against HHH at New Year's Eve. I wonder if Hunter will put him over clean.

I enjoyed the main event even though it wasn't always fluid. It's great to see Jeff getting a lot of momentum at the minute. Did you hear the pop when he pinned Orton? I hope those in the WWE were listening. It was a fun main event with a cool finish. I'm still not a fan of Kennedy's in-ring work though. I felt he was really sloppy and lethargic in there.

Overall I liked the show. To anyone who hasn't watched it I'd recommend skipping through the dirge at the start of the show and get to the latter half of the broadcast which was very entertaining.

Mossy Monk

I watched the Vinnie Mac bit at the start, saw Triple H coming out and make a little joke about how he is family and turned it off.

EdK

MMM Kelly


And Victoria


And Maria


And Mickie

That is all, nah was ok sick of Vince to be honest himself and HHH take over the shows, Kennedy is over rated aswell

The Great One

IMO Raw is really on form atm

I like how it actually seems like WWE might give a snit about the Raw tag division again. Cody Rhodes and Hardcore holly as Champs with Cade and Murdoch, London and Kendrick and now Santino and Carlito (w/Maria) they actually have a nice little division especially when you consider all four of these teams got in ring air-time on RAW and that the Highlanders are still about not to mention the rumoured dudleys return.

They also have a number of stories going at once meaning there is very little filler matches/time on the show atm and the filler there is, is usually covered by HHH who love him or hate him gets a reaction. examples of this are

the elevation of the hugely over Jeff Hardy to main event level and his imminent Champion vs Champion bout at the Royal Rumble with.

the y2J vs JBL storyline, where the returning Jericho will have to deal with another return that of the wrestling God John Bradshaw Leighfield who is moving to Raw.

The 2 every second week storylines (are atleast thats my impression)

Flairs Retirement angle: He has now had 2 retirement matches in what 4 weeks and his evolution reunion and now its another forthnight until he facesd HHH in his next retirement match. its a good idea to spread it out so as the give the story longevity on the way to Wrestlemania.

And Hornswaggles tough love angle: mostly there as comedy for the kiddies but unlike flair this one may not staty as a Raw angle as it depends on how involved in the story they want to get Finlay

add to all of this the fact that the Royal Rumble is coming up and that anyone not involved in an angle will no doubt have this to build up Raw is look good to The Great One right now

Minto

RAW was great last night. I missed some of the diva's match, but what I did see was good.

The Vince angle was ok. It's nice to see WWE giving Hardy a chance to do promos. I think a Triple H heel turn is on the cards.

Tag title match was passable. Nothing great, but I didn't fall asleep.

Ladies and gentlemen, Ric Flair still has it. He cut an excellent promo. I'll admit, I had a tear in my eye. The match was good too. He had me believing in wrestling again like only Ric Flair can. The was good too. "One last thing, Wooooooooo!"


Y2J and JBL looks to be off to a good start. This feud should bring out the best in both of them. They'll need to step up with the commentary on SmackDown! now that JBL is back.

The main event was good. They all (bar Kennedy) put on a good match. Hardy is way over and regardless of the plans for 'Mania he should win the title at Royal Rumble. Maybe even main event against Triple H for the title.

FutureGuy

I think Flair will beat HHH, resulting in HHH saying he's gone soft, and he should stop giving a damn about the fans and start looking out for himself. Cue insta-heel turn.

And if you think that sounds like it has been done before, then you are right (after losing to Hogan).

Machismo Fan

The Jericho and JBL segment was gold. That is the kind of thing that draws money, not the super over team of Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly. It will be a good run up but will end up being a poor match. But if we can go by that segment, future promos should be good.

Mitch Connor

FutureGuy wrote: »

I think Flair will beat HHH, resulting in HHH saying he's gone soft, and he should stop giving a damn about the fans and start looking out for himself. Cue insta-heel turn.

And if you think that sounds like it has been done before, then you are right (after losing to Hogan).

Hogan vs Kahli
Orton vs Batista
HHH vs Flair

WM 24.

Fozzy

I just watched this, there was some stuff that deserves some commenting

Jericho and JBL's interaction is the sort of stuff that gets people interested. Real good stuff there

I'm not really liking the way they're going about Flair's retirement angle. It's not making any sense to me in having him win matches by countout. If Flair is winning matches cleanly then that should suggest to the fans that he's still got it and deserves his place on the show. But if he can't manage to decisively beat his opponent then I'm left feeling like he just isn't good enough. And it would have worked much better if they started off with him beating the guys lower on the card first. I thought his promo was ok, but there was something about it that made it feel like it was a watered-down version of the old Ric Flair. I think he's got better in him but he's got to stick to the script

HHH really made Jeff's win look unimportant. Oh well. I guess he'll still use his loss in that match as an excuse for when he inevitably buries some more guys next year

Santino was great

During the main event, when Shawn was going for the hot tag, I had my eyes on him and I was wondering what the hell he was doing, he was taking so long to make the tag even though he was right beside Jeff. It looked so stupid. Then I rewound it and I saw that Kennedy was just lying there instead of making his tag first. You'd think he'd have learned little things like this when he first started wrestling, seeing as everyone else on the roster knows them