An Amazing Raw

On paper, with just four matches on the card, anyone who didn’t watch Raw this week might think they didn’t miss much.

However, this was a RAW that will be remembered for quite some time.

Why?

It was the first RAW in years that felt like anything could happen, at any moment.

It also proved that great promos, which build to future matches, are just as important as the matches themselves.

The show started off with a bang, as Triple H cut a solid promo, before being interrupted by Sheamus. Unfortunately for the Celtic Warrior, he was kicked in the groin by “The Game” and then pedigreed through the announce table.

So much for “The Game” putting Sheamus over.

Soon, after, Evan Bourne made his return and strangely enough took on Sheamus and defeated him with his beautiful Shooting Star Press.

Right now, the only wrestler’s stock lower on the show is Ted DiBiase.

All of this occurred during the first 20-odd minutes and as a result, the show had a great pace early on.

Great promos later on by Michael Cole and the Miz continued the excellent pace of the show. Cole, who is now being trained by Jack Swagger for his match against Jerry Lawler at Wrestlemania, cut the type of promo, any potential wrestling manager should watch for inspiration. Evil, cowardly and slick, Cole is playing his role perfectly here. While the match between him and Lawler won’t be great as far as the in-ring action is concerned, the psychology is there.

The same thing goes for The Miz. While he’s still not where he needs to be as far as his in-ring ability, the WWE is getting a ton of mileage out of his mouth and ability to cheat and catch opponents off-guard.

It’s a big start.

While John Cena was funny during his promo with the Miz and the Shawn Michaels promo continued to further the angle between HHH and ‘Taker, The Rock promo was again, the mark-out moment of the night. The WWE is playing things smart here by not having him on the show last week and having him appear “via-satellite” this week. This guy is a ratings draw and it would be a huge mistake to over-saturate the shows with him- in the flesh. Make no mistake, Wrestlemania is going to be special this year and like many of the other players, The Rock is playing his part incredibly well.

Why can’t this show always be like this?

Well, because Wrestlemania season is upon us. This is when Vince McMahon pulls out the big guns. With Stone Cold Steve Austin appearing next week, it looks like things are just getting started.

Matches:

Evan Bourne vs. Sheamus: A match that lasted less than two minutes, but you can’t complain when Bourne delivers the best looking Shooting Star Press in the business.

Mike McGillicutty vs. Randy Orton: Another quick one, which saw the Viper take care of Mr. Perfect’s son with an RKO and a punt to the head, building more heat towards the CM Punk/Orton encounter at Wrestlemania.

Diva Battle Royal: a waste of time, but anytime the sexy Bella twins and Maryse on TV is entertaining. At the very least, it’s working towards an angle between a program between Eve and the Bellas.

Alex Riley vs. John Cena: A match which saw The Miz do whatever it took to help Riley secure a victory, but it wasn’t enough. A nice bit of fun revolving around Miz’s phone helped the mediocre match, which was better once it ended. With Riley being canned as the Miz’s protégé due to the loss, can Miz be more focused going into the biggest pay per view in the industry? If he’s on his game again next week, then this match will be deemed as a good piece of the ultimate story.

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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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