Welcome to my weekly Raw column now known as The Raw Deal. It was a name suggested by a few readers and I liked it enough, so that’s the name of it going forward. If you missed last week, basically what I do here is give reactionary thoughts to what happened on Raw without going into the detailed play by play because frankly you can get that elsewhere on the internet including here on Rajah.com. What I do here is go over the matches and segments, praise or criticize when need be and wrap it all up in the final section where you’ll see the three stars of the show, my final thoughts and a rating out of ten. To open every edition of The Raw Deal, I’m going to write a paragraph or two about something that’s on my mind for the week called “The Deal On…” that hopefully catches on.

The Deal On…Mr. Kennedy Getting Fired…Fired
I’m sure I’m not the first one to use that joke, but hey it’s funny…funny! Okay I’ll stop. I have to admit that when I saw Ken Kennedy (real name Ken Anderson) got fired I was very surprised. It’s one of those things where I do see the point of view of WWE while also seeing why the decision might have been a bit sudden. The knocks on Kennedy as far as I know were due to the fact that he was considered a sloppy worker by his peers while also talking a bit too much when he’s done interviews outside of WWE (not to mention saying he never did steroids, then getting caught a few weeks later proving that he did). Last Monday he made the mistake of giving Randy Orton a back suplex on his injured left shoulder, which didn’t directly get him fired, but it didn’t help his cause either. According to the very recent edition of Bryan Alvarez’ always excellent Figure Four Weekly (available at f4wonline.com) the guy wasn’t liked by some top guys, so it would have been hard for him to crack that top ceiling anyway.

On the other hand, this is the same guy who they once had win the Money in the Bank match while also planning to have him revealed as Vince McMahon’s bastard son, which would have most likely led to a main event level push. At some point they really liked the guy. They even had him star in one of the WWE movie projects that nobody ever seems to watch. Even last Monday on Raw they had him cut a promo about being the “next world champion.” It’s not like he came out to say that. They told him to. That’s why I’m confused as to why one day they can back the guy as a future world champion while a couple days later they can release him just like that? It seems a bit like a rushed decision to me. I don’t think he’ll have trouble landing on his feet as TNA waits for him in about 90 days with open arms. Maybe he’ll end up back in WWE some day. It’s happened before with Jeff Hardy. Even Kennedy’s good friend Matt Hardy got fired. Obviously he’s come back and things have been good since. I do think he’s a good talent with the potential to be an above average promo while also having some good matches. What hurt him in WWE was they didn’t know if he was better as a face or heel due to never really having a memorable feud. Part of it is due to injuries, part of it is due to the lack of quality writing. I hope he succeeds at what he does next because he does appear to be a genuinely good guy who you want to root for because of the injuries he’s had to overcome.

From Birmingham, Alabama here’s the Raw Deal…

Orton promo with Legacy and Flair
I don’t mind starting the show off with Orton in ring without hearing that theme music. He ran down Batista with the usual. At this point in the show I wondered if people really care about this feud or if they’re as bored of it as I am? Anyway, Cody won a coin toss to “earn” the right to wrestle Batista in the cage. They’re protecting Dibiase a lot more since he starred in one of those WWE Films that nobody’s going to watch when it comes out at the end of the year. Then Cody gave a promo that nobody believed about beating Batista because cage matches are in his blood. That’s about as true as Kennedy last week saying he’s going to be the next world champion. Flair interrupted, went nuts like only he can and we got a parking lot fight out of it. That’s fine with me. I love how excited Flair got as if he was ready to fight immediately even though they had to wait two hours. Got to love crazy old guys like Flair.

Batista d. Cody Rhodes in a cage (1/2*)
It lasted three minutes. Cody got no offense in. Way to show him, kid. Next.

Big Show was great in the backstage segment with Vickie and Chavo. I’m all for the berating of The Miz because I think that adds to his character as a douchebag with no friends while Show has really done a good job of being a heartless heel. We find out that Chavo gets “randomly” chosen as Cena’s partner in the tag match against Show and Miz.

Maryse & Beth Phoenix d. Mickie James & Kelly Kelly (*)
They got about three minutes. Maryse pinned Kelly. Typical divas match without much happening.

I need to go off on a tangent here because frankly I think the women in this company are used horribly. It’s not that I think they lack the talent. Not at all. I honestly think that Maryse, Beth and Mickie are all very good women’s wrestlers while Kelly gets better all the time. I also really like Melina, Gail and Michelle over on Smackdown while Natalya’s in ring talents aren’t being used while she’s on ECW. The rest are fine at what they do because they’re supporting players. The problem is there hasn’t been a good women’s story that made fans care about them since what, Trish vs. Mickie three years ago when Mickie came in as Trish’s stalker fan? These days in WWE the same formula exists for every women’s feud. The champion wins a few matches to establish herself, the next challenger pins the champion in a tag match or goes on some streak to earn the shot and then they either do the switch or keep the belt on the champion. Rinse and repeat. There’s never a rivalry. They don’t get a chance to build a hatred for eachother. It’s just smiling babyface going against bitchy heel week after week without any sense of differentiation from feud to feud. What’s the difference between Mickie vs. Maryse this year and Mickie vs. Beth from last year? Well, the belt changed, but other than that it’s just a face challenger going against a heel. The company employs 20 women on the three shows, yet they barely get any promo time unless you count Tiffany, who is terribly miscast as an authority figure despite the fact that she is amazingly hot. When was the last time you heard anything from my girl Mickie? I saw Melina bitch slap Alicia Fox on Smackdown a few weeks ago. Good. More of that! Give us a reason to care about their matches instead of giving us the same 3-6 minute matches on TV every week. Sexy? Sure although not as much as they used to be since the PG rating is there. Smart? I have no idea since they almost never talk. Powerful? If you say so. All I’m saying is invest some time as a writing team to create actual storylines for these divas that are supposedly smart, powerful and sexy. Don’t tell me they are with your slogans, show me they are! Also, for the 10 or so that never seem to be used why not make them managers or pair them up with male wrestlers so that they can actually show some personality once in a while? It’s not hard to do this stuff. It just takes some effort, which is obviously something that the WWE creative team is not interested in doing. A terrible waste of talent.

That felt good. By the way, I saw a bit of that “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” show with Torrie Wilson on it. That moron Spencer Pratt was mad at her, so he called her a steroid user. What a genius that guy is. I feel like I’m a better person for never having watched a show like The Hills or knowing who this tool is. Being famous because a camera follows you around to show how much of an idiot you are in your daily life is not something to be proud of. Torrie looked nice in the bikini by the way, but not so much the rest of the time although part of it is obviously the surroundings of being in a jungle. I won’t be watching that show again.

The Colon Brothers d. Matt Hardy and William Regal (*1/4)
This was fine for a formulaic tag team match. They beat up Primo, he got the hot tag to Carlito, the makeshift heel team miscommunicated and it cost them the match when Carlito hit his finisher. Would love to see an actual feud for the Colons that leads to a PPV match.

Flair talked to Batista backstage in a segment that I thought was poorly acted. It was as if they told Flair to say these lines, he had trouble remembering them and Batista probably didn’t know to react to it very well. The gist of it was that Flair wants him to be an understanding friend that lets him have his fight with Orton because he needs it to prove that he’s still got it.

They actually had Vickie snort like a pig while Hardy and Regal told her they had a plan. Feel the comedy.

John Cena & Chavo d. Big Show and The Miz (*1/4)
This was fine, albeit brief. I thought it would have been better to have Miz pin Chavo instead of having Chavo win. Then again, nobody’s going to remember it a week from now. This was all about building the idea that Cena won’t be able to make Show submit. I’m not sure how they’re going to book it, but after seeing this I’m fairly certain that Cena’s winning on Sunday. I’d be fine with a Show win, though, because Cena needs to show some vulnerable sometimes.

I enjoyed the brief backstage interview with MVP and Kingston. We need more of that. It shows the competitive fire of both guys without having either one of them come off as jerks.

Kofi Kingston d. MVP to win the US Title (***1/4)
This was terrific. Reminded me of the good days of Smackdown from 2002-2003 when they actually had longer matches that told a story through the wrestling. Giving them 12 minutes was fine with me. Babyface title matches work best when they are competitive and when it’s treated like a special thing if the belt changes hands. That’s what they did here. It was back and forth with each guy getting multiple nearfalls, not being able to hit their finishers and then having that final sequence where Kingston pulls it out by countering MVP’s attempt to get the win. Post match was good with MVP looking upset at losing, which helps the value of a belt that rarely gets defended on PPV. It’s also good to see Kofi being genuinely excited about winning it. We need more of this on Raw. It doesn’t have to be face vs. face. We just need more competitive singles matches that don’t always have a ref bump or a ridiculous finish to tarnish the work put in.

They’ve added Kingston vs. MVP vs. Regal vs. Matt Hardy for the US title at Extreme Rules. I’d expect Kingston to retain while hoping there’s another singles match against MVP somewhere down the line. My preference is that Kingston holds onto the belt going forward while MVP moves up the food chain to become a main eventer sooner rather than later. I hope that’s the plan.

How do you follow up a great match? With the Santino/Vickie feud. Ugh. I like Santino, but this is awful. On Sunday “Santina” is going to dump the slop on Vickie the pig (because if you’re unlike the smart, powerful and sexy WWE divas who have no fat on them you are a pig) and the announcers are going to laugh at it as if it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever seen. And it won’t be.

Randy Orton fights Ric Flair outside then inside the cage
This started out as cheesy in the parking lot setting, so I’m glad they took it out to the ring. I’m sure that some people are going to gripe about Flair getting too much offense in on Orton, but I’m okay with it. Flair was fired up, he was rested and he had a lot of hate in him, so it makes sense that he would look strong before tiring out. The problem is it makes Orton look weak initially, but I think by the end he came out of it well. That beatdown after the other Legacy members came out was great. Reminded me of the Horsemen beating up Dusty Rhodes in a cage except the crowd wasn’t nearly as loud in this case.

The problem is this whole thing makes Batista look like a complete moron…unless it leads to him turning heel soon. I understand that Flair wants to fight his own battle, but where’s his friend when he is on the receiving end of a 3 on 1 beatdown? They beat him up for two minutes before throwing him in the cage and locking it. Batista cares so much that he’ll only come out after he’s locked in a cage. Then he apparently doesn’t realize you can climb into a cage just as you could climb out of it. The drama was good with Orton hitting the RKO on Flair, then waiting a good minute to unleash the kick, which Batista saw coming. I thought the intensity there was better than what these two have done in the past, so at least the build to the match ended on the right note. It’s good if you forget that Batista’s a terrible friend that comes out too slowly to help out a 60 year old man. Of course if he turns heel soon then they can reference this night by saying he let Flair get beat up instead of helping him like a real friend would. I guess I’m being too picky by actually using my brain to think about this stuff.

Three Stars of the Show
1. Randy Orton – He has really reached an awesome comfort zone as the top heel. It’s just a shame that there really aren’t fresh babyfaces to make him even better.

2. Kofi/MVP – Easily the best match of the night.

3. Ric Flair – Probably the last time we see him for a long time. His energy was a nice addition to the show.

Final Thoughts
Aside from the terrible Santino/Vickie stuff, this show did a good job of promoting an Extreme Rules PPV that did not have that much hype behind it beforehand. While I’m not that excited about Orton vs. Batista because it has been done before, they did a better job in making me care about it than they did in the previous week. I’m also pleased that they added the US title match to the PPV because I think Kofi and MVP deserve that even though it is a four way at Extreme Rules instead of a straight rematch. I’m not sure what to think about Show/Cena. Their build here was okay, but I have my reservations about them making the fans care about a submission match.

Overall, I have to say it was much better than last week. Good promos, a very good US title match and a much better job of getting fans interested in the main program means a happy WWE viewer in me.

Rating: 7 (out of 10)
Last week: 3

I will probably write a quick preview for the Extreme Rules PPV that will most likely get posted after Smackdown this week. I’m not sure if I’ll have the time, but I will try my best. I won’t be watching the PPV live because I’d rather watch game 2 of the NBA Finals. Lakers in 6 by the way, although I have to admit I’m a bit leery as a Lakers fan because Orlando plays so well as a team. If they can hit their threes the Lakers will be in trouble. I just think my boy Kobe’s going to do everything he can to ensure his team wins, which may be too much for the Magic to handle. Anyway, when I write The Raw Deal next week I’ll toss in some PPV thoughts as well because I will most likely watch it on Monday before I see Raw that night since that’s a day off for me (so are Tuesdays, which is why I’m able to write this column regularly).

I appreciate any feedback you guys can give so please send me your thoughts at [email protected] about anything related to WWE past or present. I try to reply to every email I get within a reasonable time. I think starting next week I’m going to post a few (probably 3) emails in every edition of The Raw Deal, so please send in your thoughts because they could appear right here in this space. I won’t post any email addresses, but if you leave your name or sign the email with some kind of name I’ll share that in here. If you don’t want your name posted just ask. In the future I may do a column full of mailbag questions because I get some good ones on a regular basis that I’d love to share. Please, keep sending them in.

Lastly, I posted my most recent PPV flashback of WWF Ground Zero 1997 yesterday, which featured the first ever Michaels/Undertaker PPV match. I’ll probably get to Badd Blood 1997 (with the first Hell in a Cell match) later next week before then moving on to the highly anticipated review of Survivor Series 1997. I actually haven’t watched SS ’97 in about seven or eight years, so re-watching it and writing about it again should be fun.

Smell ya later,
John C. – [email protected] (You can add me on facebook here if you want)
MSN: [email protected] – Do not email me here! Will not be read!

Visit My Archives to view ten years of The John Report columns.