The Wrath of Tito - Monday Night RAW review, Eddie/Bradshaw, HBK, and more
Submitted by Mr. Tito on Tuesday, June 8, 2004 at 10:55 AM EST
Welcome to the latest edition of the Wrath of Tito. Many readers were quite surprised to see a Smackdown review column. Hey, I felt like doing it and I was somewhat pleased with the show. I can't guarantee that I'll be reviewing Smackdown every week, for Thursday nights and Fridays are pretty busy for yours truly.
Rest in peace Ronald Reagan, America's 40th president. I have full thoughts on Reagan on my BLOG, if you choose to read them. I won't put them here in a wrestling column.
-A big issue lately has been the conduct of Smackdown's two main eventers, Bradshaw and Eddie Guerrero over on the German tour. To obtain some extra heel heat, Bradshaw gave the Nazi salute to the fans without prior knowledge or permission from the WWE road agents. What Bradshaw did was disgusting. That salute is something of which Germany has been trying to avoid for over 50 years now, and especially after the Berlin Wall was taken down. It was not necessary and it should be demanded of Bradshaw to apologize for his actions. I'd suggest punishing Bradshaw, but at least having Bradshaw telling thousands of fans he was wrong for his actions could be punishment enough.
With Eddie, he turned heel in Germany due to the lack of crowd support he was getting at the shows. I have no idea why Germany would jeer Eddie, given that Germany could support Eddie since Spain is in the same European Union (maybe that represents tension, I don't know? Any German fans want to help?). Eddie got upset at the crowd, for he has a track record of letting crowds get under his skin, and got on the mic and said "Germany sucks" and flipped off the crowd. Now, this is BETTER than having a Nazi salute given to them, but Eddie is the company's face. So he's not over in Germany. Big deal. Eddie should have been man enough to bite the bullet and keep wrestling as a face. This, or the WWE road agents should have presented a situation where he could be presented as a face in the booking.
After this happened, there were questions regarding if Eddie is buckling under the pressure again and if this was a sign of it. It's clear that Eddie has to be frustrated under the current Smackdown conditions. Eddie's the world champion, yet ratings and business are sinking. It's NOT his fault! Smackdown lost Kurt Angle to injury and Brock Lesnar to probably the NFL. They also lost Triple H because he used politics to get off that show. 3 major blows. Eddie has no main eventers to wrestle, insomuch that main eventers must be repackaged, which is what you see with Bradshaw, whom I think is getting rushed to the main event position. In my opinion, if you take Eddie off of Smackdown, the show's ratings would get much worse.
-I seriously laughed at the thought of Japan's Dreamstage Entertainment being considered as a competitor to the WWE. LAUGHED. Why? Until this company gets on American cable stations, they are dead in the water already. This is why NWA-TNA didn't even phase the WWE when they were on Pay Per View. Wrestling's landscape is that you must have a television deal to advertise your product, and that leads to higher attendance, higher advertising dollars, and Pay Per View buys. And the rumors have it that they want Steve Austin and Bill Goldberg. Big whoop. Yeah, pay top dollar to a guy who is too injured to wrestle in Steve Austin. Bill Goldberg, although I liked him in the WWE, didn't give an added boost to the WWE's business with his presence (merely kept numbers stable). I'm sure they'll go after the other tired veterans, such as Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, probably the Steiners, and maybe even Hulk Hogan. Who cares?
-I didn't catch the NWA-TNA show on last Friday, for I was at work and forgot to set my VCR. However, I was told that FOX Sports Pittsburgh pre-empted the show?
-By the way, congrats to Shawn Michaels, whose wife is expecting another child. I guess he's getting July off to spend time with his wife. Isn't it amazing how Shawn Michael's life has turned around for the better? Many suggest that while his back injury was painful, it may have changed his life. Before, he had a bunch of demons in his personal life and was a headache backstage (I love the story about Undertaker taping his fists before HBK wrestled Austin at Wrestlemania 14). Michaels would eventually become a born-again Christian, which got his head straight, and became a dedicated husband and father. Complete congrats to him. He seems to be full of life, too, as he hasn't lost his smile since coming back to professional wrestling. He's given RAW a great competitor and the Benoit vs. HBK vs. HHH feud has been providing fantastic match-ups. Keep up the fantastic work, HBK.
-By the way, watching Smackdown, I noticed something. Back in October of 2000, Burger King announced that they would be pulling their ads off of WWE Smackdown due to Parents Television Council or the PTC's pressure. When I watched Smackdown this past Thursday, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Burger King has ads on Smackdown again. Isn't that something? Now granted, the WWE/UPN can't get big offers for advertising, hence the many video game advertisements, but this is a good deal.
Alright, on to the RAW review!
RAW is TITO
The show started off with Gail Kim vs. Lita. Yeah, give me a reason to watch my Pirates vs. Texas Rangers, Cubs vs. Cardinals, or even the Stanley Cup Finals. Good thing I have two televisions rigged up in my room... While Gail is far away from impressing me as a wrestler (but she has nice new set of boobs, quoting Robin Hood: Men in Tights), but she's improved by simply making herself a submission threat. She needs to hang around with Dean Malenko, asap! Several minutes of torture later, Lita won on a DDT. Alrighty... what's funny is that this was to convince fans Lita could replace Gail Kim in the Women's title match, as Kane later convinced Eric Bischoff to add Lita to the Gail Kim vs. Victoria match, which later turned into a 4 way match (joy). The WWE worked for many weeks to build up Victoria vs. Gail Kim, and the carpet was pulled beneath them. Good thing the WWE doesn't give up on feuds the week before a Pay Per View. :rolls eyes:
You knew Johnny Nitro was dead already the second he was booked against Eugene.
Next match was Shelton Benjamin vs. Batista. Not a bad midcard match, as in my opinion, Batista continues to get better by each month that passes by. At least he can improve, whereas fellow Evolution member, Randy Orton, can't. An athletic match up that saw power collide with ability. Batista won the match after Orton provided some distraction. Maybe Orton will drop the IC title and Benjamin will now feud with Batista? It would provide better matches, in my opinion...
We actually got to see A-Train wrestle on RAW tonight, which is rare ever since his trade from the Smackdown roster. This is odd, considering how many times Vince wanted to push him on Smackdown. He wrestled and lost to Chris Jericho in a short match, which is unheard of in the former land of giants known as Smackdown. Why was he even traded?
Triple H came out to briefly talk about HBK and then go to the skybox. Why not show up in the skybox and say "hey, look at me up here in the skybox".
Next match was a handicap match between Chris Benoit vs. La Resistance. Benoit has great chemistry with Conway, but not with Grenier. The match was your typical handicap match until Edge ran in and caused a DQ. Eric Bischoff was fired up about this and gave Edge/Benoit a title shot, but at the Pay Per View. Hey, Chris Benoit is wrestling twice? You can't beat that and the PPV is now more worthy of a purchase. Bischoff, however, is still horny for a handicap match and promises to keep it going.
Bischoff then adds Kane to the match to make it Kane/La Resistance vs. Edge/Benoit to continue the handicap match. Pretty funny stuff from Bischoff. The match was actually quite short, but the finish was pretty cool. Kane's size and power enabled him to overpower Benoit and get out of the crossface. Kane then delivered a chokeslam and got the cover. Benoit knows how to take the chokeslam, as I still insist that the chokeslam that the Big Show (then named the Giant) gave Benoit at a Clash of the Champions was the best chokeslam ever. Everyone assumes Kane will lose at Badd Blood, but at least this was a decent effort to make Kane look strong heading into the show. That's all we can ask.
Eugene vs. Johnny Nitro was up next. Odd how Johnny Nitro is a trained gynist, yet he can't use it in the ring. Pretty entertaining match, as Eugene did some classic Junkyard Dog tributes and some funny oldschool corny moves. While I may not agree with the WWE using a mentally handicapped character, the guy playing Eugene stays in character great and is a good performer. So long Johnny Nitro, as I assume you're getting sent back to OVW? After the match, Eugene and the Coach confronted each other and Eugene caused the Coach to fall. Ok...
Poor Lita can't even act out a phone conversation correctly. Kane reveals it was he who helped Lita get into the Women's title match and that he wants to butter her muffin. Ok, I'll stop with the movie quotes today!
Our main event was Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton. Not a bad match overall, as HBK is probably the best at carrying Orton through a match. HBK added a little intensity to the match, though, as he had an extra bit of adrenaline flowing tonight. It showed after Batista created a disqualification, and HBK then attacked both Orton and Batista (I loved the superkicks!) and then went after HHH in the skybox. It's a good way to add fuel to HBK vs. HHH, which wasn't there last week when HBK wasn't even on the show! (Yes, I know the WWE's intention of keeping HBK from Canada, but still...) End of show...
LAST WORD: A great Pay Per View build up show for two matches (HBK vs. HHH and Kane vs. Benoit). Yes, it's a few weeks too late, but it's better than nothing. Decent wrestling, but nothing spectactular. The midcard, as always needs work and the Women's division needs to find its own identity. I'll give this show a [ B ], although that may be generous.
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@That's all for today. Thanks a million for reading.
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