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LOOKING AT A "THE MCMAHONS WEREN'T THERE BUT REALLY WERE" EDITION OF RAW

The Thoughts:

Ah, what a difference having not having the McMahons pushed down my throats would make in enjoying Raw.  Actually, that was a question, not a statement, because even though Shane and Vince didn't appear on camera, they may as well have since they were, once again, the focal point of the program.  It was as clear as a star-filled, cloudless sky who the top characters on the show were last night and The Macs were right there at the top of the list.  That is just the way it will be until their feud with DX runs its course, which it theoretically has to do sooner or later.  I guess last week's 3.3 quarter hour wasn't relayed to the chairman. 

As for the rest of the show, there were a lot of positive things that I enjoyed.  When you take away the overpushing of the "injured McMahons", which I wish WWE would have actually done when they were putting the show together, it was largely a fun two hours that benefited from having a great crowd.

The Angles:

First off, I can't believe that WWE actually found a way to make the fans that hated John Cena one minute cheer for him the next.  That was really fun to watch.  All it took was Edge calling the Montreal fans "froggers" and not real Canadians for the crowd to do as quick a 180 as you will ever see.  If I were one of those easily manipulated fans, I would be embarrassed that I was so easily played with. A true fan, especially in Canada, would have cheered at Edge's obvious attempt to turn them. Instead, they were lemmings. With that said, Edge was fantastic in doing so.  It was a strong angle to get the show off and running, well at least until the "tag team who doesn't belong in the main event" showed up.  That isn't a shot at Cade and Murdoch either, it's just that it would have been more believable if WWE had, oh I don't know, actually built them up a bit before tossing them in the main event.

Man, sometimes wrestling, OK WWE, is so lame that I want to turn it off. Shelton Benjamin doesn't get used for weeks and when he finally gets on TV, they have him do a promo where he says he is being held down because he is black. Why has to be so classless with some things is just beyond me.  It's sad. Really, really sad. 

Lita and Mickie James' deal was fine for what it was. There is a Women's title and they need a beltholder now that Trish is gone and they are the two most likely contenders for it, so having them do an angle makes sense. 

OK, so one minutes Chris Masters, Randy Orton and Johnny Nitro are ready to fight each other and it all takes for them to forget about that was Carlito coming out? Well, it was far fetched but at least it set up a good match.  Also, Johnny Nitro was worlds better on the mic than he was with Melina a few weeks ago.

I haven't really cared for the Cryme Time bits so far, but I could at least see how some people liked them. Tonight's bit was just stale, dopey and ridiculously stereotypical.  It seems like whatever juice creative had for them has already been used up, which is pretty scary.

The Matches:

As I have said many times, I don't like seeing the guys take unprotected chairshots to the head, but I won't kick that dead horse again. Kane and Umaga had the kind of bout that they needed to have to keep their feud going. It was stiff and played into the fact that the two men are "monsters" and that is what their feud will be about.  It was fine for what it was.

On the one hand, I love the idea of WWE using veterans to establish and elevate young talent. The problem, however, is that the only one seemingly doing so is Ric Flair, and that is just downright wrong to me. Then, Flair won and I was thinking, "What was the point of that match?" At the end of the day, it was decent.  I am just not sure what the point of it was exactly. 

I liked IC scramble match.  It made for some good TV and was a welcome change from the weeks where we get zero good bouts on the show.  There were a lot of good spots and it was very cool to see that six people actually cared enough about the IC Title to actually want to win it.   

The Lita vs. Candice match wasn't great but it was better than I expected it to be.  With that said, I don't need to see it again any time soon.  I can appreciate the screw finish but doesn't it make Candice the heir apparent to the Women's title since, well, she actually won?  Candice with the belt would be downright horrible.

The main event was fine for what it was. The purpose of the match was to try and give John Cena some face rub from DX since the male audience likes them and hates the champ.  On that end, it may have helped a little.  The flip side is, Triple H came across as the top guy in the match, which doesn't do much for the current titleholder.  It seemed like H went out of his way to show that he was the "uncrowned champion".  It definitely came across to me. ... It was amazing to me that after all these years, Shawn Michaels finally got a babyface reaction in Montreal.  Damn, who would have thought that it would only take nine years for the fans there to forgive him for turning on Bret Hart! ... As I said earlier, Cade and Murdoch seemed out of place in this spot, not necessarily because they don't belong as much as they just haven't been pushed like they should be in that slot.

The Questions:

Who didn't expect John Cena to get booed in Montreal, especially after he beat Edge? 

Doesn't WWE realize that if they want Cena to get over with the males in the audience, he has to drop the wannabe rapper/thug stuff? 

How friggin' fickle are the people in Montreal for hating John Cena one minute, then loving him as soon as Edge said one bad thing about them? 

If you were Edge and going to have a backup plan, would you pick Cade and Murdock? 

Since we already knew that Cena would be teaming with DX at upcoming house shows, was anyone shocked to see them come out and make the save for the champ? 

When Coach informed us that the McMahons wouldn't be on Raw, did anyone else say, "THANK GOD!"? 

Well, did you say that until you found out that even when they aren't on Raw, they are on Raw?

How sad is it that the only way Shelton Benjamin can get on Raw is to do a promo about Vince and saying he is being held back by his skin color? 

Why would A. A. Estrada fall down on the ramp way rather than, oh I don't know, just turn around and run his ass off away from Kane? 

Boy, could that "season premiere" of Smackdown look any more underwhelming or what? 

Does it really matter what Maria says as long as she just stands there? 

How the hell does Spirit Squad Johnny get a match with Ric Flair anyway? 

And, isn't that just wrong, on many levels? 

Why did they have to show us the recap of the opening angle when we already saw it the first time? 

If Randy Orton is the future of the wrestling industry, as he claimed, doesn't that paint a pretty ugly picture of its long-term prospects? 

Wow, was that Johnny Nitro who actually cut a solid promo? 

Well, at least until Randy Orton jumped in anyway huh? 

Was it meant as comedy when Chris Masters said that he was actually the future of the business? 

Boy, watching the Smackdown rebound, does that program look totally "B Show" compared to Raw or what? 

Wasn't it pretty clever of Triple H to paint the "D" backwards on the camera so we saw it the right way? 

Why would Lita waste her time with Mickie James when she had Candice beaten and could have gotten the pin? 

Did you notice how hard they pushed the PPV replay? 

And, didn't you just know it was because the recent drop in the domestic buyrates? 

Wasn't there something just ridiculously disturbing about them showing a picture of Vince McMahon's bloody face in Big Show's bare ass? 

Wasn't it nice to see DX wrestle someone other than the McMahons? 

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