But enough of that aside, and a few long hours after going out of town for something today, I'm cranky and ready to rant about professional wrestling. One trend I'm beginning to notice is that the WWE is getting rid of creative guys or road agents who seem to clash with the McMahons. Take, for instance, today, with Terry Taylor, who was released recently by the WWE. Now granted, that road agent has a bad history, namely wanting to jump to WCW in late 1999 to join Vince Russo, but Terry Taylor isn't the only guy getting released or punished for disagreeing with the McMahons or not being a "yes man". For instance, Paul Heyman was completely demoted as Smackdown top writer and turned into a ridiculous consultant, where he writes reviews of every shows that don't have to be read by the McMahons. I'm sure his opinions about the shows get torn up and thrown away the second they are faxed. Seriously. Then you have Edge, who was asked to start contributing ideas or reviewing WWE shows as well while on injury. His ideas or thoughts on the shows weren't of the McMahons, so his brief term as creative consultant ended within weeks of beginning. Then, you have the guy the Rock suggested from the California based UPW federation. He didn't agree with the McMahons, so he was ousted.
It's pathetic how the McMahon dictatorship is drastically hurt the company. Their ideas are NOT working, and having a creative team who must agree with them on everything is even worse. That's the problem with the monopoly the WWE has on broadcast television. The WWE is still in the top position and the McMahons are still millionaires. Until that's threatened, they'll keep putting on bad show after bad show. They don't have to try as hard while on top, and their egos have become so big that they believe they can do anything and get away with it, such as the ridiculous Mr. America/Zach Gowen bullshit we've been fed for the past few months now.
The worst is that the WWE had something in Smackdown before Paul Heyman was demoted. That was by far, the best series of shows the WWE was producing. Some would suggest that he had great levels of talent to work for, and simply putting them together is something anybody could do. No, the fact that he put great talent together for awesome feuds, such as Angle/Benoit and the tag team wars is something HE did and he recognized would produce awesome matches, whereas a McMahon "yes man" would push hard for Vince's favorites to be the stars, such as Albert, Big Show, and the Undertaker, while taking a gigantic shit on many wrestlers. Hell, Paul Heyman was the one who pushed for guys like Matt Hardy to become the next pushable stars in the WWE, but once Heyman was gone, guys like Hardy were depushed. Smackdown with Heyman in charge is what I want to see, not all of this garbage with older veterans ruling Smackdown that we see today.
There is some buzz regarding Bret Hart possibly being enticed into going to the WWE to make a fairwell speech or to maybe offer his side of the Montreal 1997 story (1998 fans, quit asking me about this! You should know by now what it is. Click Here to read all you need to know about Bret Hart, please.). I seriously hope that Bret NEVER and I mean NEVER goes to the WWE for anything. The WWE have shit on him and his family way too much throughout the past few years. But Bret has taken more crap than anybody. For one, the WWE didn't follow his contract on the way out of the WWE. I know, it's the heat of competition that caused it to happen, but still, Bret is a man of respect and he was told and promised nothing crazy would happen by his employer, Vince McMahon, whom he gave over 10 years of his life to. Secondly, Bret was promised file footage and pictures of his WWF career by Vince on many accounts, just for Vince to turn around and say "I don't recall promising that". Finally, the WWE keeps egging on the Montreal thing. MOVE ON, it was many years ago. The worst was when the Hart family was at ringside for a Canadian wrestling event and the WWE used a Montreal-like screwjob to finish a match, with the Harts right there to see it! Screw the WWE, Bret, they don't deserve you. You've made good money in the career. Just relax and enjoy retirement. Don't embarrass yourself or disappoint the fans you still have.
Honestly, I have nothing else to say, other than the All Star Game in baseball SHOULD NOT determine homefield advantage in the World Series and that Terminator 3 is a fantastic movie, one very worthy of the series.
Our first match was Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Trish Stratus vs. Test, Steven Richards, and Victoria. Easy one to pick who gets pinned, besides the females. Not a very good match, whatsoever. For one, there was no tag team chemistry, which was a constant theme throughout the night. Secondly, Steiner and Nash on one team?!? Oh my Gosh, that's Senior Citizen hell right there! Ok, they aren't of that age yet, but they sure move like it lately. The worst news of this match is that it looks like we'll see a rematch between Nash and Test, a match that would seriously show if the WWE is putting up with Nash's backstage ass kissing or not. I say let Nash lose twice to Test.
Our next match of the night was Maven vs. Lance Storm. This "boring" chant stuff just has to go, and it will be a more damaging gimmick than it would be helpful. I love the WWE's reasoning behind this. Oh, let's do the "boring" chant for this match so that the fans won't do it in other matches. So what are you saying? It's becoming common in your matches lately? THEN CHANGE THINGS AROUND!!!!!!!!!!!! Give the fans an interesting product, not one where stale wrestlers aren't motivated to put on something special anymore for the fans. This match ended with Maven getting the victory, which is total crap for as hard as Lance Storm works in the business and for how Maven was handed his wrestling career.
Before we had the Dudleys vs. Evolution match, we had lots of time wasted with National Anthems. I love USA's National Anthem, but don't use it for a storyline. Use it when you mean to show respect America instead of as a rebuttal to the evil French tag team. Ok, so we had another unorganized six man, only this one was elimination, and it ended with Triple H winning for the team. Seriously, what's wrong with having the Dudleys pulling out a surprise victory? I'm sure that arena would go bonkers and the element of surprise could return for the WWE. But not in this era, where Triple H must remained undefeated at all costs on a television show.
Next, it was Rosey vs. Rodney Mack, a very poorly worked match. Mack is insanely overrated and Rosey is out of shape and just doesn't look marketable as a wrestler. So he's a fat guy in street clothes? Why the hell should we care? I don't know why the WWE keeps booking a horrible midcard, but then again, you need several bathroom breaks per show.
Booker T vs. Christian was next, wrestling the same match as last week. But the funny thing was the discrediting of Booker T, as we had a disputed finish between 2 referees and it caused the match to be restarted. I hate that finish, and I hate seeing it on the first title defense by Booker T. If you can't clearly see how wrestlers or champions other than Triple H are sabotaged, then you don't know what you're watching. Booker T has discussed retiring in a few years. I would move that up to now because the WWE, while control freaks like Triple H are backstage, sitting in on production meetings, will never give a man like Booker T, Rob Van Dam, or Chris Jericho the benefit of the doubt when it comes to credibility. Never.
Gail Kim vs. Molly Holly was boring, as I'm not too impressed with Kim's ability that they keep trying to hype or preach about. She doesn't do anything spectacular in that ring. Sure, she looks fantastic. But she can't wrestle or do anything that any other women's wrestler already can do or have done. I don't know how the WWE can't see flaws within the Women's division. Then again, they can't see flaws in their whole company, so who cares anymore?
So Kim vs. Molly was your main event? Pathetic. Our final segment was Jim Ross interviewing Kane. Before the interview started, Kane whipped out the gasoline can and threatened to burn JR if he made fun of him. Oh please! The WWE ripped this gasoline can gimmick off of a backyard wrestling character named Burt "the Goon", which you can clearly see him holding the gasoline can in the second picture to your left. All joking aside, this interview was a joke and setting Jim Ross on fire was the wrong way to go. Welcome to 2003. Shock Value no longer works. Get a clue WWE before you lose more fans.
LAST WORD: Wow, leave it to the WWE to put on one of the WORST RAW's heading into what could be one of their biggest shows next week at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. This show featured horrible wrestling in the form of bad gimmicks/wrestlers wrestling and terrible tag team chemistry. The Kane storyline is a total trainwreck and it won't get poor Kane over or a main event push anytime soon. It's so sad to see a federation you WANT TO SEE just crumble before your very eyes. That's why I'm more of a casual fan lately than the die-hard I once was. I'm flunking this show, thereby giving it an [ F ] because I hated this show completely. Nothing interesting, nothing fun, and nothing fulfilling about watching last night's show.
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@Just chill till the next episode...
Take care, and thanks for reading!