A Ruff State of the WWE 3-22-11

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By JustinRuff · Mar 22, 2011, 8:18 PM · 1 Comment

Well, last night’s Raw was dismal. Not every episode can be life-changing, but it was just not good. We weren’t at the “Hot Lesbian Action”/Katie Vick/Test calling his fans testicles level. (In my opinion, that was the worst Raw I’ve ever seen.) But the past few Raws blew me away. This one did not. Matter of fact, it almost swung into the bad side.

Good:

-In their defense, the WWE had one purpose last night-Sell Wrestlemania. That part, I believe they did very well. I was ok with the Cole/Lawler build-up (and by the way, I love Cole’s Fortress). I do not like Grandmaster Sexay (or the Man Who Ate Brian Christopher or Ken Anderson’s fatter older brother or whoever that was), and I will pay the WWE money to never have him appear on my tv again. (I have the same agreement with them on Sean Waltman, Ashley Massaro and Hardcore Holly.) But they are selling the PPV. Cole and Lawler will be a nice chance to pop the crowd and let them settle down after seeing a major match like Triple-H/Taker or Edge/Del Rio. Plus, Lawler deserves his Wrestlemania match and putting him against Cole doesn’t hurt anybody. Also, when Austin gives his 9,000 stunners, it’ll be against Cole and maybe a few on Swagger. Austin won’t bury Swagger because he’s Austin. Austin will stun all kinds of people. He’s not beating them. That’s what the crowd wants to see.

I also liked the build-up for the Cena-Miz match AFTER a certain point. If you thought Cena was actually broadcasting from his home, I have some nice ocean-front property in Las Vegas for you. The room looked like a room in an arena backstage. Also, usually, they’ll say “Via satellite: [City he’s in].” That’s what makes it so dumb to actually think he wasn’t at the arena. It was so cheesy and so transparent, and Cena got to talk about how much better he was than The Rock because HE showed up at the arena. (And I don’t see what all the debate is over who paved the way into Hollywood. We all know it was Tor Johnson.) A lot of people hated the Miz turning the WWE logo upside down. I was ok with it. The part I liked the most was the fire that John Cena showed by attacking Alex Riley. Cena is going to put on an intense, focused face. I’ll take that John Cena. Just don’t give me SuperCena who makes poop jokes.

And then there was the Triple-H/Undertaker video package. That was (I think) the greatest video package I have ever seen the WWE do. They interviewed Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Harley Race (He looked like he lost a lot of weight. I said that to my wife, and she responded, “Yeah, he does.” My wife recognized Harley freakin’ Race. That is perhaps the sexiest thing she’s ever done.) and anybody who was anybody in the WWE. I got to see Arn Anderson, who is one of my all-time favorites, if not THE favorite. Any time I get to see Double-A, it’s automatically the greatest Raw ever. Plus, I forgot how good on the mic he was about cutting the cool, collective promo. I marked out for him, to be honest. I cannot echo enough times how good that video package was. I’ve never thought a non-title match should be a main event at Wrestlemania. Until now…

-So I’ve watched around 4 Raws in a row since giving it a try again. Used to if one was good in a 4-week period, we were happy. But I received 3 really solid Raws in a row. I’d forgotten how much I loved it. I’m even watching Smackdown! again. I’m beginning to have faith in the WWE again, which at one point, I had lost all faith in them.

Not-so-good:

-What’s up with Triple-H burying people? Did he go back to the Katie Vick era and say, “Yeah, that seemed to work?” He squashed Sheamus like bug and obliterated Ted DiBiase Jr. The only way this will work is for Ted Jr. to attack him during the WM27 match and cause Hunter to lose. The writing looks to be “on the wall” for Sheamus. I’m pretty sure he’ll be pinning AJ Styles or Doug Williams on Impact! in a matter of months.

-How does Abdullah the Butcher not get a video package? I know he didn’t wrestle for the WWF/E, but surely we can go through some old WCW libraries and find SOMETHING!!!!!!!! He has something to plug (his rib place in Atlanta). Give the man his true due.

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1 Comment

Gee Hall
March 22, 2011 at 9:31 pm

Good call with Austin just stunning all comers, that makes sense. He has it too, understanding keeping others looking as good as he can in his role. I too thought that video package was a good move, and by interviewing older guys about the history and legacy came across well. Even though they are clearly not mentioning the fact HHH/Taker have met at Mania prior.

Since I watched this late, after working a ridiculously long day with a terrible head cold, I must have FFW'd through the Abby to the HOF announcement. I heard about the video package snub, although I think they only have a little bit of footage available from the WCW and Stampede promotions…. yeah, you'd think they could've put at least 30 seconds of stuff. On the same token, I am very happy that they are at least recognizing people who never worked under the McMahon banner.