Stinger's RAW Thoughts - 8/12/07

Stinger's RAW Thoughts:
August 12, 2007

The Matches:

Sandman vs. Mr. Kennedy - Of course Kennedy wins a meaningless squash against a washed-up ECW original, as he should. Fortunately, the match wasn’t very long. Wasn’t very good either, but that was to be expected once Sandman’s music hit. Hopefully Kennedy moves on to better things, very soon.

Cryme Tyme vs. Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch - This was a decent-to-good tag team match, and a prime example of two different styles and two reasons why WWE should push the tag division. Cryme Tyme can be an exciting team, as well as entertainers if they don’t gone on for too long. Cade and Murdoch are a good old-school Southern style team, and being from Alabama and growing up on NWA and early WCW, it’s nice to see again. Cade & Murdoch win via DQ.

Snitsky vs. Robbie McAllister - Someone tell me why Snitsky still has a job, and why a decent team like the Highlanders are being fed to this waste of time. Snitsky wins in less than twenty seconds. Like everything Snitsky does, it sucked.

Charlie Haas vs. Cody Rhodes - This was actually a decent little match, but unfortunately the crowd didn’t care very much for it, though there was a “Let’s Go Cody” chant. I’d like to see more from these two, though I suspect the eventual Cody Rhodes vs. Shelton Benjamin match will be better and will have some crowd support. Poor Charlie, he picks up another lose, this time via a simple small package.

John Cena & Umaga vs. Randy Orton & Carlito - Good main event, though nothing better. Cena played the face in peril, being dominated by Carlito and Orton for the majority of the match. Cena and Umaga botched a tag, which offered up a moment of confusion, before Umaga came in and clean house. Apparently Super Cena tagged Umaga on the back while he was running the ropes, as Cena came in and hit the FU on Carlito to pick-up the pinfall. Umaga is on fire, I see big things in his future.

The Entertainment:

The Vince McMahon Soap Opera - Naturally, WWE takes an angle that could be realistic and blows it way out of proportion by revealing that Mr. McMahon has been sexually active since at least twelve (12) years of age, and that his illegitimate child is a WWE superstar; and it can be anyone, even Rick Flair! So not only is anyone on the roster a potential “bastard”, we’re suppose to believe that it’s sheer coincidence McMahon’s child is a current WWE superstar. They never cease to amaze by taking the stupidest possible route and going way over the top. Many unentertaining segments of Vince talking about his sexual activity (including doing it in corn fields, on Mount Rushmore and on an iceberg) and Boogeyman singing “Cats In The Craddle”, and Coach trying to figure out who the child is. Not really entertaining stuff, certainly nothing that would logically increase ratings.

WWE Idol - Much like “The Dating Game” last week, this was a genuinely fun segment where William Regal shinned. These are the types of segments WWE should do if they want funny and entertaining segments, not over the top McMahon soaps. Regal, Maria, Ron Simmons and Mick Foley all made this segment work (and sadly, even Santino played his role well). I hope these little game shows continue, they’re quite fun; especially when you’re a mark for Regal, Maria and Simmons.

King Booker/King Lawler Segment - This only served to have Booker attack King Lawler and announce the Booker vs. Triple H match at Summer Slam. WWE wasted a perfectly good opportunity to boost the ratings by bringing Triple H out there, like the fans wanted. But now, we’ll have to shill out $40 to see the return of the King of Kings. No thanks, I’ll skip.


Overall, while this was one of the better RAW’s of the past couple of months, it was still nothing to write home about. McMahon just isn’t entertaining in this story, and nothing is exciting about the road the angle is taking. It’s just the same old, same old McMahon soap that’s heading down the predictable path. This RAW, like most others, was also lacking in the wrestling department. From my view point, it seems like it would be in WWE’s best interest to cater to all types of fans. So with that said, how come they can’t give us fans that love to see GOOD wrestling one good to great match a week? It’s really not that much to ask, especially when you show that much crap and make folks pay $40 for a two and a half hour PPV.

- Stinger