Live Raw Review from 7/4/05 ---HBK turns heel!

RAW REVIEW


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Topics for my first post:
Review of Raw from 7/4/05 (I was there live!)

Why Smackdown! is horribly awful and will continue to get worse


REVIEW OF RAW FROM 7/4/05

I was at Raw Monday night. I have seen one other Raw broadcast in person, but I remember very little about my first experience.

Let me start off by saying that I am a huge mark for Hulk Hogan, and I have been since I was 6 years old (I am 26 now). On last week's raw, I had a huge "mark-out" when Hogan was the suprise partner of Shawn Michaels and John Cena. Once I found out that Hogan would be appearing on the Fourth of July episode, I couldn't miss my chance to see him live for the first time. So, I called my buddy Bedingfield to see if he wanted to make the 4 hour drive with me from Bakersfield to Sacramento. He agreed, and I shelled out the $90 for two tickets and another $150 for the rental car; not to mention gas, food, a $30 Hogan tee shirt for me and a $20 stuffed Undertaker doll for my girlfriend. With this much invested, and the fact that I had to work at 9 am Tuesday morning, I was really hoping for a good show.

Overall, I thought it was a good show. The Cabana was fun. When Hogan's music hit I marked out big time. Carlito and Angle were good on the mic, as usual. After they attacked Hogan and Michaels made the save, I knew we were in store for a treat.

The tag match with Edge/Snitcshsky(sp?) vs. Kane/Big Show was boring. When is Edge finally going to get his singles push? What kind of name is Snitchsky? And please don't tell me that Kane and Big Show are going to join forces to create a main-event jobber tag team.

The Highlight Reel was good. Jericho is one of the most charismatic personalities in the game, and Cena is quickly improving his mic skills. Jericho is much better as a heel and deserves a main event push. Hopefully these two will be able to work a strong program together which will last past Summerslam, perhaps culminating at Survivor Series. I think Jericho should take the strap at Summerslam uncleanly, and have him defend it against a few big names on Raw (perhaps Big Show, Kane, Flair) before dropping it back to Cena at Survivor Series.

I won't even mention the Dupree/Venis match, except to ask "why are they taping a Sunday Night Heat match in the middle of Raw?"

Chavo Guerrero's new "Kerwin White" gimmick is funny, but I have no idea where they are going with this. There aren't any hispanics on Raw for him to feud with.

The main event was entertaining. My buddy Bedingfield was shocked by the Michael's heel turn, but I saw it coming. This will build up to a huge payoff at Summerslam, and opens the door for a whole new batch of storyline possibilities over the next couple of months. This may be the feud that turns around WWE's current misfortunes.


WHY SMACKDOWN! SUCKS AND WILL CONTINUE TO GET WORSE
I have to admit that I haven't been able to sit through an episode of Smackdown! in years now. It has always seemed like the "WCW Thunder" version of WWE television. The recent draft made it worse. Batista was over with the fans, but it can only last so long for a guy with no mic skills and limited in-ring ability. Benoit is a great mat worker but his lack of charisma make him a perennial upper mid-carder. Randy Orton has potential, but is still too green. Christian is a fun character, but due to WWE's relunctance to fully push smaller wrestlers, he will likely be buried in upper mid card with Benoit soon. And Muhammad Hussan is a complete gimick wrestler with no staying power. Smackdown's only bright spot was the Guerrero/Mysterio feud, but now thats starting to get played out and weird. Is Russo writing this angle? With the impending move to Friday night, WWE is obviously making Smackdown the "b" show.