Speaking of which, the feedback on the Smackdown column was just unreal! My added feature of "What's Wrong" really pissed off a lot of readers and/or WWF marks. Awwwwww, cry me a river that leads to an ocean! It's the truth, right? Oh, I'm sure many will say "look at how high Smackdown's ratings were". Yeah, that's right. It couldn't have been from the interest of Triple H's return. Oh no.
Oh well. I'll have you know that I won't be doing the "What's Wrong" for RAW, cause I may have liked the show. We'll find that out shortly, so on to the PDC.
The WWF missed a big money main event last night. They should have had the Rock run down and save Ric Flair to make a Main Event of Rock/Ric Flair versus Chris Jericho/Vince McMahon. Maybe they'll save it for Smackdown?
Our first match of the night was Bubba versus Spike, the battle of the Dudley Boys. OK match, and a good set up match to hype the Pay Per View tag battle over the titles. It's the typical formula that the WWF does to hype tag matches, but it works, to a degree, most of the time. Tazz vs. D'Von on Smackdown?
Next, is was the unfortunate match up of Tajiri/Hurricane versus Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo. Oh my God, the WWF is trying to push a Mtv Heat feud on RAW. Notice how quiet the crowd was for this match, especially with the Dallas crowd being hot for most of the night? The fans popped a little bit for offensive spurts of Tajiri and Hurricane, but they were dead when the heels did ANYTHING. That shows you that nobody cares about Billy Gunn ever since the New Age Outlaws got old, and that nobody wants to care about Chuck Palumbo, even if Stevie Ray kept insisting that he was one of the 10 best WCW wrestlers on every episode of Thunder.
Oh gosh, Kurt Angle had a hell of a time cutting a heel promo on Kane with the crowd continually shouting "What" throughout. If Angle looked at Jericho's great promo cutting earlier, he would have seen how Jericho controlled the crowd's precious "What" chants.
Next match was for the #1 contender's spot for the Women's title, Jazz versus Jackie. At least it was short. Why even bother having the match in the first place? Jazz got new music, by the way, which makes it even more confusing for fans to pop for her. This title is worthless no matter what you try, so why try to have a #1 contender's match that nobody, in their right mind, wants to see? Boy, is Jazz a sloppy wrestler or what? Her timing against Jackie was terrible!
What is with Kurt Angle?!? He just knows how to get a good match out of Kane anymore. Although their RAW match wasn't as good as the Smackdown, it's certainly up there. Awesome running belly-to-belly suplex from the top rope by Angle on Kane. I like the psychology of the anklelock between these two guys, and how Angle actually made him tap during the Smackdown match. I said it yesterday: Kurt Angle seems to bring the best out of his opponents.
The WWF did good on pushing the feud between Stone Cold and Triple H tonight, with each wrestler talking smack on the other and having their wives fight. However, they should have mentioned some history between the two. Austin should have been mad at Triple H for getting injured in the BIG tag match against Benoit/Jericho, and Triple H should have told everyone where he beat Austin once (No Way Out 2001). That complicates the heat between the two.
Next match was Rob Van Dam and Edge against William Regal and Test. Makes sense. I see that RVD, too, has new music. I hope info comes out on what band made the song. Could it be Slayer? I know they were working on a theme for Test, which could have easily been given to Rob Van Dam? I don't listen to enough Slayer, sorry, to clarify this situation. Decent tag bout, with William Regal coming out on top. Wow, before RAW, I was pretty much predicting that Regal would be the new IC champion at the Rumble, but I don't know now.
Next, it was Booker T versus the Big Show. It was the same as the other Booker T vs. Big Show matches, where Booker bumped around a fatass Big Show, who stood in the middle of the ring. At least the rightful winner occurred, with Booker T getting the dirty win. Even better, the Big Show didn't "get his heat back" by attacking Booker T afterward. God, I really hate that idea the WWF continually uses for their protected wrestlers, like the Big Show.
The Stone Cold Steve Austin promo was just utterly ridiculous. I'm sure if I was in Dallas, seeing RAW live, it would have been fun. But the promo was just stupid on television. My good pal "Shooter" Shawn Valloric of WrestlePalooza.com counted a good 115 Whats from Austin and the Crowd during the promo. That's just insane!
APA/Rikishi versus Chris Jericho/Christian/Lance Storm was next. Not a bad six man match, with spot after spot getting hit, but the emphasis of having Jericho in a six man that doesn't matter towards the Royal Rumble makes no sense to me at all. I guess the Rock had the night off? Unless it's a personal emergency, why the hell would you give your #1 contender for the World Title the night off on the RAW before the Pay Per View? Bad, bad planning by the WWF here, unless, again, it was a personal emergency.
In the end, we get "sports entertainment", with Triple H cutting a promo, and Steve Austin attacking. Again, it's good to push Austin versus Triple H, but at least explain some history behind those two. And didn't Austin vs. Triple H win "Match of the Year" on the Best of 2001 show for their No Way Out 2001 match? Why yes it did!
After fighting a while, the Undertaker ran down and attacked Triple H, and then Steve Austin to finish out the show. It's good Royal Rumble hyping, but I have a bad feeling that Triple H and/or Steve Austin will be fighting the Undertaker at No Way Out 2002, for our enjoyment, I suppose.
LAST WORD: Probably the best WWF show in weeks, with it's few errors like having Billy Gunn/Chuck Palumbo on RAW, and some ridiculous "sports entertainment", which is usually a given with all WWF shows anymore. Other than that, good show by the WWF, although I mark for Main Events instead of brawls made from promos. I'll give it a
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@That's all for this edition. I hope to be back, tomorrow, with more rants and raves about the world of pro wrestling. Until the next PDC, why not chill?
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.