Just when you think Raw is going to be the same old matches and promos as always, Vince manages to throw in a suprise. No one can actually say that they saw this coming. I mean whether you like the new storyline or not, can you honestly say that's what you expected to go down on Raw tonight? I sure as hell didn't.
My expectations for tonights show went something like this:
Vince comes out either at the top of the show or after the main event to announce that the new General Manager of Raw would be none other than Charlotte's own "jet flyin, limousine ridin, kiss stealin...The Nature Boy - Ric Flair".
I also didn't anticipate Randy Orton regaining the WWE Championship. With the return of Triple H last week, my money was on him. Him winning the championship would've made for a dominate return that's for sure. The storyline at this point doesn't really matter. I mean Orton lost to Batista, and Batista wound up injured resulting in the title being vacated. The title was going to change hands tonight either way as a result of all that, and since that was the case it isn't like people could reasonably say they are sick of seeing the title change hands, it has no credibility, etc. For my taste, it didn't make sense for Batista to get the title so quickly, but he did. It gave us a new champion and opened up opportunities for new feuds at the least. I'm a huge Randy Orton fan, but that was needed - it still is. The unfortunate part is that whether Batista would've been injured or not, the feud would've stayed Orton/Batista with Triple H in there sooner or later because there aren't any other heels on Raw that are over enough to put into the title picture at the moment.
I never thought I'd being saying this, but I was kind of hoping that John Cena would've won tonight. I'm not a fan of his, at least not a huge one. Since he has been out of the title picture for a while, it's been a bit better. He defeated Big Show a Extreme Rules, which more or less ended that feud. I mean he's beaten Big Show several times now, so it's run it's course. By giving the title to Cena in the Fatal Four Way tonight, the resulting John Cena vs Miz feud would've been money! I'm not saying that the Miz is ready for the title just yet, although I wouldn't mind seeing him win it. I'm just saying that the poster boy for the WWE, the man who is still the most over face on Raw despite not being in the title picture in a while, would be feuding with a man who despite all normal reasoning is the second biggest heel on Raw at the moment. The Miz has improved leaps and bounds. He is something fresh and exciting. Randy Orton's feud and subsequent momentum stalled somewhere along the way. The Miz gets huge heat,real heat, not the cheap kind. He's been going on with all this stuff about Cena for weeks now, and as a result is "7-0" against Cena. Instead of completely killing off Miz's push in a squash match which is what I'm thinking is going to happen, wouldn't it be better to put him against Cena for the title at least once? Sure, he wouldn't win the title that early in his career, but it would be a new feud as opposed to Orton/HHH, Orton/Batista, Orton/Cena all for the millionth time. There could be a number one contender's match (the Battle Royal main event was that opportunity) which the Miz manages to win somehow. With their only being two weeks until The Bash, it would've worked beautifully. They already have the build up for the feud because Miz has been running his mouth about Cena for almost a month, not to mention he attacked him with the chair last week. They could have some filler matches for the next two weeks, and then finally have their match at The Bash. If the writers and Vince liked the payoff from that, they could continue the feud for a few weeks longer. If not, then at least for two weeks, Miz got a huge push (which he deserves in my opinion) that in the least puts him in contention to become United States champion, and the viewers got something new.
I don't realize how I got off on that rant, but back to the point...I didn't see tonight's Raw turning out the way it did completely. Triple H winning the battle royal - yeah seen that coming a mile away. A few other matches, I figured out (Jericho/Mysterio for instance), but the new GM & owner part I didn't. Trump being the owner more than likely will lead up to a Team Trump/Team McMahon Survivor Series match. In the mean time, I'm being optomistic about the storyline. Vince seen a chance to grab ratings with something "shocking". If it works fine, if not, then again - it is at least something new. When the announcement was made, I was really hoping it would've been Ted Dibiase, Sr. or Eric Bischoff. That didn't work out though as we now know. I look for Trump to announce Flair as GM next week, or sometime soon thereafter. Although, tonight would've been the ample time to do so since Raw was in Charlotte. If it isn't Flair, I'm not sure who it will be. Any thoughts on that? Also, what's up with all the title matches going on recently? They were all defended tonight in some pretty big time matches, so where is the logic in having Orton face HHH in the LMS match for the title next week? The show being non-commercial, and the match being such a big time (all be it a worn out) match should result in more viewers, but it doesn't make sense. They give away matches like that with The Bash only being two weeks away. They don't really get time to even build up hype for that PPV as it is, people aren't going to want to pay good money to watch the PPV unless they come up with some pretty huge matches. They get to watch all these title matches on Raw, then we see Orton vs HHH for the millionth time next week, and more than likely it will be Orton vs HHH at The Bash, so where is the logic? Unless, there is some sort of swerve in the match next week - maybe Legacy gets involved or something like that to where the match isn't really finished. In any case, it should be interesting to see how this whole Donald Trump thing plays out, to see what sort of changes he makes. I realize I got pretty off topic at times, so I apologize.
