Raw Goes Old School

Aside from sparkling commentary from Jim Ross and a great episode of Piper’s Pit, Raw Old School was a complete waste of time. Sure, the little montages and jokes to the old production values of the show were charming, but the overall wrestling action was a joke.

The WWE had a good opportunity to show off some of their newbies on Monday, with the Nexus involved in two big matches. The first had David Otunga taking on Kofi Kingston, which turned out to be a lackluster contest, which ended with Kingston’s finisher in unspectacular fashion. The second bout, between R-Truth and Wade Barrett was a disaster too. Simply put, R-truth needs to rap less and wrestle more. On the other side of the ring, it’s obvious that Barrett needs a new finisher. Simply put, his “Wasteland” maneuver would have been a set-up hold for a marginal wrestler like Sean O’Haire back in the day.

If this guy is going to be taken seriously, he needs a move that puts people in the seats.

In other matches, Vladimir Kozlov and Santino Marella became the number one contenders for the tag team titles after defeating the Uso Brothers with Marella’s cobra finisher. What a joke. Marella is funny and deserves a spot on the show, but seriously, to beat a team of two good young pups like that is an idiotic move on the WWE’s part.

However, even more sillier was the pacing of the Jack Swagger and Daniel Bryan match. With Ross calling the action and these two fantastic athletes in the ring, this could have been classic. Instead it’ll be remembered more for Ross hitting the increasingly annoying Michael Cole with his cowboy hat. After the match, it was obvious Ross is still on top of his game and what a shame. This show needs him more now than ever.

The last segment of the show was a great one, but proved how far gone the WWE is. Listening to Roddy Piper talk about how John Cena can’t let Barrett win the title without earning it, because it would tarnish the title was beautiful, it really was, but it’s too late.

Letting rookies like Swagger and Sheamus win the title and guys like Rey Mysterio who in spite of his excellence in the ring should have won the title years ago when he could actually still go at an optimum level, have tarnished this title for the foreseeable future.

While having an event like this was cute and nostalgic, in the end, it did nothing special and nothing you’ll remember, but that’s how this company rolls nowadays. In order to watch the best these guys have to offer, you’ve got to pay for it.

It’s getting old boys

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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