So, last night's RAW (Spoilers obviously!)

Well, that sort of went over like a fart in church really, didn't it?

John Cena's opening promo in response to the Rock was actually very good, and its lear that the WWE have agreed to Rock's request to turn off the PG monitoring and keep the staff writers out of the feud, and let them go at it. Cena's good on the mic when he doesn't have to spit out the corny cheesball crap the writers make him say, and he proved it there.

Taker's return got absolutely no reaction from the crowd whatsover, and I think it was a HUGE mistake to do it the week after the Rock returned, because everything else after that feels kinda flat. It was also a mistake to give it such a build but then have him walk out to the same music, same entrance, same pyro and with the same costume. The second he walked out the crowd took one look, decided they had seen it all before, and they weren't interested after that. Obviously the specualtion over Sting didn't help the situation either!

What's more, after all that build up, they they had HHH utterly upstage him by cutting across his music. I like the idea of Taker .v. HHH at Mania well enough (though to be fair they could both work with new talent instead to get them over!) and if they use the end of Shawn's career as the reason, that will work, but the staredown just felt a bit forced. Taker shouldn't have turned back.

The Miz/Cena tag team rubbish. Did they really need to win the titles and thus make the belts look even more useless than they already were? Heath Slater didn't even bother enterting the ring to break up the first pin, and then it was obvious Miz was going to screw Cena in the rematch.

Lawler .v. Cole at Mania as predicted. Glad King is at least getting a match, and it should be entertaining. But will the RAW GM reveal himself to prevent Cole getting a whupping?

Overall, given the build, a very disappointing RAW.

So the WWE make an error with a big match...no surprise there then! I agree that they shouldn't have had so many big returns at the same time, especially if they are not going to to tweak Taker at all. Why make the big song and dance if he's the same?

It's frustrating because, like you say, Taker and Trips would be more than capable of getting some new talent over. I said before that it feels like it's been done. So having Trips come back to a King v King match would have been better.

The tag team belts are now worth less than the ones the sell on the merchandise stands...

Wow. Yeah. Sounds like the total shits. *sigh*

WWE. Fucking up shitloads of positive momentum since 2003. I'm not surprised though. With WWE it's always 5 steps forward and then, the next night, 12 steps back.

Also, I agree with the crowd. Undertaker. Yawn. Triple H fued with Taker. Double yawn. Don't care. Totally takes the complete wind out of my sails, that's for sure.

In how many ways do I think that Taker vs HHH does not even begin to interest me in the least? Let me count the ways.

1. First of all, it's been done. Taker and HHH already had a Wrestlemania match. So yeah. Don't care, been done, don't want to see it again.

2, It really just lessens the impact of Takers streak when you count things like jobbers and repeat challengers into it. And HHH is one of those repeat challengers. Another reason not to care.

3. Y'know I was positive that Sting really was part of this. I mean, dead positive. I was thinking there was NO WAY with all of the coincidences piling together (Sting not resigning with TNA, this being the time in his career that even he knows he'd have to jump on the one thing his career needs before it's gone, the current product as it is and his fears being no longer worth the risk of not taking) that Sting could do anything else BUT show up.

But this is the only thing they could have done. Now I really do see that he's not coming to WWE and he never will.

But for what? Triple H. I think WWE really sells short the audiences ability to care about returns, that everyone can see coming, of the obvious players who have already have their careers cemented permanently as HHH's is, in which there was absolutely no surprise.

And even then as you've mentioned, any reason HHH might have for wanting to fight Taker at WM (AGAIN... *rolls eyes*) is really stretching it. Especially if this really is over Shawn, which would be remarkably stupid and I don't think ANYONE would buy that excuse. I sure don't.

I mean, what can Triple H say? "Boo hoo. You had the great match that retired my friend, even though I've betrayed and kicked his teeth in numerous times myself, but that was different. How DARE you have a match with him and win your match fairly? I hate you now for that." It would make Hunter sound like a 7-year old child.

So I agree with the crowd. I'd be deader than dead for this, had I been there.

In the end, we've got the return of someone challenging Takers streak who was already a casulty of it once before, coming out of the blue to challenge Taker for the most weaksause of reasons, when just about every WWE fan on the Planet firmly wanted someone completly different than what they got.

And the kick in the pants of this whole thing is that WWE brought this on themselves by making Taker's mysterious return advertisment look too much like Sting.

In the end, I think this was WWE's plan all along. Use the timing of Sting's departure from TNA, make a promo that looks very similar to him gimmick, take the WWE mainstay that has a slightly similar gimmick, say it was his all along, generate the buzz, and then count on everyone sticking around after the bait and switch and deciding to watch anyway, disappointment aside.

I'm sure WWE isn't threatened by this dead crowd response anyway. They have everyone just because of The Rock now, so all they'll do is just reair it, edit in more cheers, and it'll all be dandy still.




Lastly on the subject of the GM, I'm still convinced the GM IS actually Cole.

They've been pushing Cole so hard, having him work two shows, having him tout his own fanbase, "Coleminers", generate massive amounts of heat, give him a character, get everyone talking about how much they hate him, and also.. they have tipped it off so many times.

Think about it.. they would have have spent all these months to push Cole so hard just to pay it off at one WM match. There's gotta be more to it, for all this time spent establishing his new character over every other storyline they have going right now, and making Cole the 2nd biggest heel in the company right now unless they've been building it somewhere.

And both the GM angle and the attention and push Cole's been getting have to converge. And not just because he's been the focal point of both the GM heat and his Miz-Loving heat. I reeeeeally think they've telegraphed this blatantly.

Mainly, Cole's obvious personal reactions to everything the GM interrupts, the way he's pleased that everytime the noise sounds that all attention focuses on him, and the way he gets silently butthurt with a reaction shot everytime someone says something bad about the GM without him verbally defending the GM out loud.

The GM is Cole. I'm sure WWE is going to think this is a major, Shamalyn-esque twist of massive proportions and that they've gotten everyone. But not me. I can see a mile away that it's Cole himself.

But then again....... on the other hand, I thought Sting was coming in, and I thought that made perfect sense and was convinced of it, so I dunno really what to think, anymore.



The Raw GM could turn out to be Hornswaggle or Goldust for all we know. I certainly wouldn't put such a baffling misstep past them.

It's probably Jeff Jarrett or Russo

Speaking of Taker pops, I remember when we went to SD! in London Rob told me off for trying to start a 'Taker sucks' chant, this was when he was a face in a feud with "Great" Khali BTW. He said I'd get us beat up!

I have never been against anti-crowd feeling chants at wrestling shows. I remember at a WWA (remember them?) show in London, while the rest of the crowd were cheering an appearance by Bret Hart, I was in the 3rd row yelling "Piss off back to Canada" and when Scott Steiner confronted Bret (who was the WWA Commissioner at the time) I was starting a "F**k him up Scotty, f*** him up" Actually got a few people in on that one.

Well the reason I was booing him was because Khali was in the ring speaking about something I couldn't understand, and the bell kept ringing and his music started playing but he didn't come out.

Then I remembered someone saying he never goes on the UK tours because he can't assed. While everyone else was in the middle of an "Undertaker" chant I was the one trying for "Taker sucks". I knew he wasn't coming out and he didn't. What a sell-out. Fucking Undertaker.

Quote :

while the rest of the crowd were cheering an appearance by Bret Hart, I was in the 3rd row yelling "Piss off back to Canada"

LOL

Reaper wrote:

while the rest of the crowd were cheering an appearance by Bret Hart, I was in the 3rd row yelling "Piss off back to Canada" and when Scott Steiner confronted Bret (who was the WWA Commissioner at the time) I was starting a "F**k him up Scotty, f*** him up"

MAXINE DOES NOT APPROVE.



haha, I just thought i'd sketch this little picture real quick of what our CXA's own resident Bret Hart fangirl, Maxine, thinks of Shand's chant. Because the image just popped into my head.

Personall;y i'm glad that triple h is back even if it is because of shawn and taker, for one it will get my wife off my case asking every five minutes when is he coming back, i agree tho taker not coming back tweaked or even a music change kinda annoyed me, i mean wwe spent a shit tonne of cash gettin the rights to that johnny cash track that would have been perfect, also on a cheerier note 3 things in the last 7 days that have made me real happy,

1 the rock returning and making micheal "im a complete tool" cole to STFU last week was like the wrestling gods answering my prayers
2 Jerry "the king" Lawler (all hail) throwing the miz into micheal cole at elimination chamer was priceless and believe me i have watched that many times since sunday and it still puts a smile on my face.
3 the lovely trish stratus has returned to me and my big screen tv, i finally have a reason other than stone cold to watch tough enough after wrestlemania, because lets face it without Trish or Lita the divas have gone to pot really.

Anyways thats my 2 pennies oh btw nice to see most of you again.

Midlandson

Finally, Brummie has come back.......

(oh come on, someone had to do it)

He has...he has an appointment with the Dean of Smackdown University...

RAW... *yawn* It didn't compare to last week, solely because The Rock wasn't there this week.

Edit: Hey Brummy!

Wasup Brumster (this is Joxide)

hola boys and gals (u know who i mean jox lmao) hows everyone?

Just to finally contribute to this after watching it, all I have to say is I actually remembered why I liked Cena to begin with on RAW. It all seemed so genuine for a change in that classic promo. I hope we see more of that.

Yeah. As much as I deplored Cena's incredibly immature homophobic dick-n'-gay jokes that were never funny, it's actually welcome this time.

Thing is, I've been wanting Cena to turn heel for the longest time, and this is probably the closest thing we'll ever really get to it.

I lol'd on some of Cena's jokes, but then jokes about knobs appeal to me more than most :p

yeah but you can't beat a good knob gag jox bud he he

You want to gag Jox with your nob? That's just wrong!

you see i knew you'd be the one to completly miss the joke there shane just proves how much of a pleb you are lmao

You're the joke

LMFAO at the segment on Smackdown, recapping Undertaker and HHH returning. When it's about to tell us the moment when HHH made his return, the voiceover said " Just as the crowd was whipped into a cataclysmic frenzy, it happened. " . When it said that, I laughed because the crowd definitely didn't get that excited when I watched it all happen on RAW.

"cataclysmic frenzy?" That's a weird way to spell "dead, emotionless silence and lack of response."

SMACKDOWN SPOILER ALERT!

Vickie Guerrero getting fired was hilarious! Finally, Booker T did something funny

Just watched the segment. .........sweet jeebus that was bad.

That was one of the most obviously desperate attempts to get over an angle that died on it's ass that I've ever seen. It was funny, it was so bad. When WWE get their production right, they are brilliant. When they let the 15 year old on work experience put a video together, they get this shit.

Hunter and "The last outlaw" (FFS!!!) need to do some real work next week to make people care about this match and not think it's entirely secondary to Cena/Rock. Cos right now, the mere suggestion that the eyebrowed one might lay a single hand on Barney is more appealing than their match.

Maryse kissing Yoshi Tatsu is more of an appealing storyline to me than Taker/HHH right now.