Raw Thoughts

What a fine episode of Raw aired on Monday night. From top to bottom it was a good show with plenty of angles being shot for Unforgiven and for the first time in forever all the matches booked for the show have been determined with two weeks to go.

Edge's opening promo was really good. I like it when he's out there without Lita as the heat is actually on him rather than her. A great start to the show and the fact I really want to see this match means the job has been done. I'm interested because they're really pushing the Cena going to Smackdown angle so I have to say that Cena wins because I can't see him going to Smackdown when he's Raw's top babyface and WWE's biggest star.

Remember when Edge went for neck surgery and he said he couldn't work any more of the TLC style matches? This will be his fourth since he has returned.

The DX stuff was kept to a bare minimum this week which is fine by me. Seeing Hunter and Shawn do what they did makes me happy as rather than doing their stupid antics they actually looked like they wanted to fight and that's what will sell the PPV. I haven't seen ECW yet so can't comment on the angle shot there on Tuesday.

In big news Super Crazy (the cruiserweight) returned to WWE on the Raw brand. The brand which has no cruiserweight division. Then again, does Smackdown? His shock win over Chris Masters made me laugh as John Cena couldn't beat Masters last week. This either means Crazy is getting a mini-push, Masters has pissed someone off or Masters is going to destroy Crazy next week.

Jeff Hardy vs Johnny Nitro was actually a really good match. I laughed at how they alluded to Nitro's press conference being boring (like watching paint dry actually). This ended exactly the way it should have done with Jeff looking like he can win the belt and Nitro looking like a dip shit heel. If people believe the challenger has a chance of winning the belt then they may just buy the PPV.

The Highlanders are now number one contenders for the tag belts and get the shot at Unforgiven. There's no interest in this feud from anybody and the number one contender's match was another example of how weak the tag division is. Maybe Cryme Tyme can sort it out. They look cool.

If Trish wins the belt at Unforgiven is the women's division done for? I would say she can't loose in her home town but this is WWE after all and burying people in their home town is what they do best.

Speaking of which is Ric Flair the greatest man to have ever lived? The Flair flop was absolutley great this evening.

I'm interested in Umaga vs Kane. Shock horror. See what booking can do?

The main event was solid and was a decent TV match. The crowd were rabid for Cena and I thought the only thing they did wrong was not do the hot tag. Cena just came into the ring rather than getting the big pop for the babyface team come back.

The only feud I don't have any interest in is Carlito/Orton. They did well together tonight but nothing that made me go "wow I want to see a singles match between these two guys!"

Overall it was a really good show from top to bottom. Nothing on the show was bad and nothing was fantastic; it was just a solid show that built angles for the PPV, ie the job of the TV show. It's an example of how if you book things correctly and get people interested in the feuds that are going on and keep the bullshit to a minimum you'll get a good TV show. The Atlanta crowd were hot and really added to the show tonight.

I've just had a thought. Maybe Cena is going to Smackdown. The plan is to get Smackdown rocking again on the new network. Maybe moving Cena there is a way of getting the viewership up?