THOUGHTS ON THE UNUSUALLY AVER
By: Brian Fritz
6/1/2004 2:56:00 PM
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Raw ended its streak of outstanding shows last night with a very average effort from Montreal. There was some good wrestling on the show but there were also some really weird storylines (or lack thereof) that didn’t really seem to make sense, especially when it dealt with Kane.
STANDOUTS
1. While there was nothing flashy, there were two really solid matches last night which showcased some of the young, up and comers in WWE. I thought La Resistance had a better than average match with Chris Benoit and Edge last night. Rob Conway and Sylvan Grenier have both improved as of late, especially Sly who seemed somewhat lost several months ago. Now, the two make for one of the best tag-teams in the company. (I know that’s not saying much these days with tag-team wrestling being almost non-existent but they are a good team). Yeah, it seemed weird that these two defeated two big name singles guy in Edge and Benoit with no outside interference out of nowhere but it makes sense. A true team needed the tag belts and Edge and Benoit didn’t need the gold anymore. Shelton Benjamin and Randy Orton also came though with a good match and I expect even more from the two of them at the Badd Blood PPV.
2. I don’t know how much it is worth but Matt Hardy got a singles win even though it was against the “red hot” Garrison Cade who has now lost two weeks in a row. Let’s just hope that this is the beginning of a larger push for Version 1.
3. Another nice video piece done by the technical staff covering Triple H and his dominance in the Hell in a Cell match. That package shows how brutal the match should be and how tough it will be for Shawn Michaels to defeat him in that element.
TURNOFFS
1. Time to run down the strange storylines of the week. Two of them deal with Kane. The first was using Kane in a match with Eugene which I thought was a no-win situation no matter what they did here. What they did do was put Kane in a match with a “special person” that included him getting in very few moves, tons of rest holds and someone no selling his offense come the end of the match with Eugene “hulking up”. So, Kane cannot even beat someone like Eugene but he is a viable threat to beat Chris Benoit for the World Heavyweight Championship at Badd Blood? This made Kane look utterly hopeless and he has no chance of winning that title. WWE cannot seem to find anything with the Big Red Machine these days. He always seems to get put in horrible situations in which he cannot look good. I think the best thing for everyone right now would be to take him off TV for a couple of months after the PPV and then bring him back fresh.
2. Weird storyline #2: no mention of the ongoing saga between Kane/Matt Hardy/Lita. I don’t get that one at all. Did it just get dropped? What is happening next in that mess? Shouldn’t we get some kind of explanation? All of them were on the show too but nothing on this storyline.
3. Strange storyline #3 had to deal with the Badd Blood PPV and the lack of push towards the show. It just seemed to be an event that was on the horizon rather than just two weeks away. The biggest match for that show is supposed to be Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H but HBK wasn’t even on Raw. There wasn’t even much talk about Benoit vs. Kane either. No exactly the way to get people excited about a PPV.
4. Well, WWE found a way to do it. There was simply too much Eugene on the show last night. I think he needs to be used in limited doses rather than the focal point of the show.
5. Since I’m on a rant here, Kane vs. Eugene should NEVER be the main event of anything! Very little Triple H, no Shawn Michaels, no Ric Flair and after the first match, no Chris Benoit or Kane. The show just about came to a halt following the opening bout except for the good match between Benjamin and Orton.
OTHER NOTABLES
- Another reason why it made sense to take the tag belts off Benoit and Edge the way they did last night was to set them up for a feud this summer. Looks like the two could be squaring off in a big match for the title then. There have even been some rumors that Edge may be in line for a heel turn which could be interesting. Some have even speculated that he could be shifted over to Smackdown then which could only help that brand.
You can e-mail me at bfritz1wrestling@yahoo.com
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