Monday Night Raw Review - 4/28/08 (just the good stuff)

Monday Night RAW Review - 4/28/08 (just the good stuff)

This isn't the first time I've written about the WWE on this page, and it likely won't be the last. Starting today, I will be reviewing each-and-every Monday Night RAW from here on out. If you don't like it, my apologies.

(BTW, somebody recently came across this page using Stumble Upon, and after reading my "How to Save the WWE" post, they decided to leave the post a review of "Dave Meltzer he is not." FYI, Meltzer is the editor for the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. This guy obviously thought he left me a bad review, but I'm glad he didn't favorably compare me to Meltzer's work (which is nothing but a composition of nostalgic garbage).

Also, I'm now 100% sure that Vince McMahon is one of my four readers, as the WWE seemed to take one of the suggestions I made last week for the show last night... more on that later.

On to the review...

Triple H made his debut as the WWE Champion to kick the night off, and although I do think he is single-handedly holding back the careers of many wrestlers by dominating the title picture, I'm starting to think that this may be the last significant title reign of his career. The WWE seems to be pushing the young stars of the business more and more (ex: Randy Orton, Mr. Kennedy, Cody Rhodes, etc), so it's only a matter of time before they are the ones to dominate the spotlight.

Anyways, the fans gave a standing ovation to Triple H, chanting his name many times over. Orton interrupts Triple H's speech, and the two get into a heated conversation that results in Orton demanding for his title re-match tonight.

The WWE Divas engaged in a 12-woman tag team match (6 vs. 6), and I spent the whole match staring at Layla. As I was staring, I did hear Mickie James's music at the end of the match, so I do think the "good girls" won the match.

JBL, fresh off a main event title match loss at Backlash, was put in a match with one of the guys from the tag team duo "The Highlanders" (not worth the work to link to these guys). JBL won within two minutes, and the crowd really didn't seem to care... I can't blame them. I really don't think the WWE knows where they're going with this guy. He does have the ability to play heel really well, but he may need to move to Smackdown, a roster with many more faces, to develop a worthwhile long-term rivalry.

After the match, JBL heads over to the announcer's table to call out John Cena. If the WWE thinks they can make that rivalry work, shame on them. Fans already had to endure that lame rivalry once before, and I don't understand why things are heating up between them again.

The surprisingly entertaining tag-team duo of Paul London and Brian Kendrick came out and got a relatively big pop from the crowd (do I smell Hardy Boyz 2.0?). Of that duo, London faced Trevor Murdoch and defeated him with a possum pin. After the match, Murdoch's regular tag-team partner Lance Cade looked disappointed with the results (a theme carried over from previous weeks). Murdoch could see the hurt in Cade's face, and to the surprise of everybody watching, stood on top of the announcer's table and sung a heartfelt Garth Brooks song. I don't know who's idea this was, but it was an interesting twist in an otherwise predictable show.

William Regal, winner of the King of the Ring tournament held last week, sat in a throne telling fans about how, as both general manager and King of the Ring, he was going to rule the WWE and command respect from wrestlers and fans alike. This went on for a few minutes, with half the crowd booing him and the other half yelling that god-awful "WHAT?" chant every time Regal paused, and then the future of the WWE, Mr. Kennedy, came out to silence him.

I think Vince McMahon did actually read my "How to Save the WWE" post last week, because in that post I specifically suggested that the company make Mr. Kennedy a face. Guess what they did last night? Yep, Mr. Kennedy got in a fist fight with Regal, and the crowd (and myself) ate it up. I'm getting giddy from the possibility of a future where Kennedy becomes a Rock-esque figure in the WWE.


Chris Jericho hosted another addition of his "talk show", The Highlight Reel, and in it he ridiculed Shawn Michaels for faking an injury, then taking advantage of his opponent's reaction to that injury, during his match at Backlash. The whole segment went over poorly, and wasn't received well by the crowd as it looked like they didn't want to buy into Jericho turning heel.

The main event of the match, a title rematch between Orton and HHH, was great. Each wrestler fought as if it were a pay-per-view match, and in some ways it was. However, as the match looked like it was going to conclude, William Regal, feeling disrespected by the way Mr. Kennedy interrupted him earlier, was shown backstage by where the editors and directors of the show were. He demanded of them that the show be taken off the air, explaining that the fans didn't deserve to see the end of the match after the way he was treated earlier, and the show immediately went dark. There was a moment where it looked like RAW would come back on air, but no, the show did indeed go off the air. How lame.

Overall the show was great with many new storylines emerging from Backlash. I can see that the WWE really wants to play up Regal as a heel so that it further propels his rivalry with Kennedy (which may be a good thing), but to end a show the way it did Monday night was as anti-climactic as it could get on a night full of drama.