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RAW THOUGHTS
by Dave Scherer

I really enjoyed most of this week's edition of Raw. There were some fun moments on the show and once again, Mick Foley showed the entire wrestling world not only how to do a great promo, but also how to do great business, all in a 10 minute span. That one segment alone will make this a memorable episode of the Monday night flagship brand. There were a lot of other parts of the show that I liked as well, so let's get right to it.

Plusses: If you didn't see Mick Foley's interview on Raw this week, you need to go out of your way to get your hands on it. It was an amazing piece of business by one of the true masters of the art. Up until now, I hated the angle with Mick playing coward. In one ten-minute span, his incredible talent turned that all around for me. ... I liked the opener. The two on three was fun and the guys worked hard. Randy Orton followed his push from the Rumble up with a solid effort for his team (at least until he missed the RKO at the end). Chris Jericho and RVD did well for their side as well. Ric Flair is a treasure and Batista was used properly in that he wasn't overexposed or left in the ring to long. ... I enjoyed the women's tag match. I hope that they continue the push for the "new Victoria". I thought they cooled her down way too fast, back when she was doing her initial run. ... Along those lines, I am also starting to like what they are doing with Trish and Jericho. That was another angle that I didn't care for at first, but am enjoying more now. I hope they continue going in the right direction with it. ... I loved that they have already started the push to WrestleMania. It may be six weeks away, but that is really no time to push the biggest show of the year. I like when they do the longer build to the big shows. It gives the events a more special feel, as if they are saying to us 'it's important' so it must be. ... And speaking of Mania, I am finding myself intrigued by the match-ups that will come from the cross promotion of the two shows. While I have never been a fan of the brand extension, at this point in time the two "companies" are separate enough that matches involving workers from each show will have an added value over the matches that we have seen over the last year. I think seeing Kane vs. The Dead Man version of Undertaker and Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg will be as close to "dream" matches as the company can get right now and will help get buys for Mania. ... I have to admit it, I liked Jackie's flash last night. It was a great "shocking" moment that I didn't see coming.

Minuses: I understand that they want to build suspense for the Torrie Wilson-Sable edition of Playboy and all, but of all the people who they expect us to believe didn't know who would be posing nude in March, they choose Jerry Lawler? Come on! If anyone would know who is naked, it would be him!

A Mixture Of Both: While I didn't exactly love the way that they had Chris Benoit debut on Raw from a storyline perspective, I do like that the Wolverine will finally be getting something of a main event push against HHH. He obviously deserves it and getting a World Title match at WrestleMania is a reward that he has more than earned. I would have rather seen him come out and confront HHH and say that he has earned a title shot and wants it with the World Champ, not the WWE titleholder, but you can't have everything.

Rhetorical And Unanswered Questions:

Am I the only one who never gets tired of the "10,000 people here are calling you an a......." line?

Hasn't it become really obvious when they are setting up the "go to commercial" spots in the long matches, as they did in the handicap tag bout?

Is Orton going to have heat with HHH for saying, "I'm that good"?

Were the writers winking when they had Christian say, "This is RAW! Not an episode of 'The O.C.’ "?

Was I the only one who popped when Steve Austin promised us a Mick Foley interview?

Is Jericho the only one in the world who didn't know that Christian showed Trish his chick pix last week?

Will someone please strike the word puppies from Jerry Lawler's vocabulary? Please?

OK, isn't it time for Austin to kill the four-wheeler gimmick already?

OK, so let me get this straight, Steve Austin puts over Shawn Michaels for his work the night before, and then gives a title match against HHH to Chris Benoit instead?

When Chris Benoit said he was "the last person you two expected to see" to HHH and Shawn Michaels, are we supposed to believe that even though he was dressed to wrestle, they never saw the Wolverine in the back before coming to the ring?

So, now that Raw got Chris Benoit, does that mean that Smackdown will get Kane to feud with Dead Man make up for it?

Could they possibly book Coach to be any stupider than he is now?

I mean, who walks up and mocks their boss and doesn't expect something bad to happen?

If they wanted to approve Raw house show attendance, shouldn't they just have Jackie Gayda take her new "flash gimmick" on the road?

Does anyone really believe that Brock got so big from "Cell-Tech" or "Nitro-Tech"?

Did Jerry Lawler take Tony Schiavone lessons with the "greatest Raw ever" line?

Doesn't it make you old when you actually remember seeing Pete Rose run over Ray Fosse live at the All Star game?

Why would Foley have to wait for Randy Orton to come out when Orton wanted to kill him earlier?

Was I the only one who was waiting for the cheap hometown pop from Foley?

And, was anyone else happy when we got it?

Wasn't it bizarre seeing Mick Foley doing a great promo with a wad of spit hanging off of his face?