The State Of Raw.

[Monkey_Mania]

By state of Raw I mean. How is it doing so far. With all of the roster shifts. And everything going on with Raw right now how is it doing. C.M. Punk is the World Heavyweight Champ. Santino is the Intercontinental Champion. Beth Phoenix is the Womens Champion. Lastly Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes are the Tag Team Champions.

Do you like that Raw is going fresh and trying to push newer superstars? Has Raw been entertaining to you? Do you feel the future is good, bad, or promising for Raw?

I think it is great. Some things are confusing. Personally I think It is the best it has been in a long time. Some shows aren't that great but they can't all be expected to be good. With all the fresh faces getting TV time they seem to be pushing forward. It's too bad they don't look at rebuilding the tag division.

What are your thoughts?

 

[My$terio_Fan]

Raw for me has just been meh, for me. I think it's just alright but my opinion maybe unfairly biased since my personal favorites are on smackdown/ecw. All the champions right now are good imo. Punk as champion has been booked very poorly, but I like how its something new. Cena/Batista are so stale, boring, and perdicatable that I dont want neither near the belt until they get a little less "regular". Punk just needs the right feud(probably with Jericho) and be booked to be not such a underdog(a crappy one at that) and I think he will be fine.

Beth Pheonix as womens champion & Santino as Intercontinental are a good move right now IMO. Since Kofi one the belt he just had a semi-feud with burchill, but nothing exciting happend, same with Mickie. I feel that the belts are getting a proper storyline having raws new "golden couple" holding them.

Tag Champs are good, but the division is "not there". It's just team priceless and Cryme Time. A Divsion cant prosper with 2 teams. Raw really needs some new tag teams in order to keep the division alive.

The one thing that keeps me watching Raw, and is probably one of the best storylines in a while, is the Jericho/HBK feud. First Jericho has proven he can be more than a fun, joking, heel that nobody takes seriously. Jericho has become one of the top heel in the WWE, and has countinued to grow as a character and evolve, which is good. HBK is doing his part to, and you can always rely on him to hold up his end of a feud. If anything this proves that Jericho could hold gold again and this time it wont be a complete disaster.

 

[Dead Kennedy]

Raw has pretty much hit a low that I've personally not seen since 2003. Besides from the Jericho/Michaels feud, which is the second best feud of the year, it's got virtually nothing going for it. Tag champs getting buried, World champ getting buried, and new talent (Burchill) getting buried. Pretty much a damn graveyard.

Aside from the rather obvious booking brainfarts, there's just a general lack of incentive for me to watch. Holly's in the doghouse, Mr. Kennedy got drafted, Jeff got drafted...basically, the draft turned the whole situation between Raw and SmackDown around - I was on the brink of stopping to watch SmackDown before the Draft. Now it's the same, only for Raw.

A nagging feeling that Cena is going to be allowed to desecrate the World Heavyweight Championship as he did the WWE Championship doesn't help one bit, either. The few feuds that have (or had...) promise was the Kane feud, which they ruined completely and cannot be saved unless something magical happens and the Santino/Beth feud, that was ruined by not having Santino win the Women's Championship. I thought that was the whole point. It'd have been hilarious. Hell, Santino is one of the only reasons to watch Raw now.

In short, the Draft did a huge disservice to Raw. It's been on a right downhill slide ever since. Had it not been for Jericho, Santino and...well, that's everyone, really, I'd not have wasted my Tuesday nights watching Monday Nitraw. Of course, things could improve, but that would require not burying the new talent and stop pushing Cena or Batista. And you know that ain't gonna happen. So Raw is pretty much screwed.

 

[FromTheSouth]

The state of Raw is good. It is not however, perfect by any means. The CM Punk title reign is more successful than I, or JBL, could ever have predicted. John Cena has faded to bit player on the main title stage, for now, and is more popular than before. JBL and Y2J have purloined their mic skills into monster heel status. Both were incredibly over as faces (JBL in APA) and have turned the tide to be just as over as heels.

HHH's move is the best thing that could have happened to Raw. In the 90's, a super over face who stayed at the top a bit too long left. His name was Hogan. The kids left in the wake didn't catch on immediately, but when they did, magic happened. While it is foolish to believe that the WWE is going to catch that lightning in a bottle again, it would be naive to think that Vince and co. won't turn Raw into something special. Everything is positioned right. The top name on the show (HBK) is willing and able to put everyone over and is currently a part of the best feud in the WWE. Chris Jericho is showing the magic that made it seem like the WWE was pulling a coup the first time they got him. Batista is mega over, and Cena has found the former Rock role. He is near the top, will get his turns, but is ultimately going to be placed in the top story, even if it's not for the top belt.

It will take time, but Raw is already good. The stories are intriguing, and the matches are getting better. As guys continue to fall into their roles, and post draft story lines are started, expect the intensity to ramp up, and remember, Regal has nothing to do, and he adds a lot to the in and out of ring drama on Raw.

 

[Harthan]

I think that in general Raw is doing pretty good. The WHC scene is doing very well, with CM Punk shaping up into a pretty good champ (notwithstanding his strange hometown loss to Chris Jericho last Monday). The clean victory over JBL helped a lot for him. Punk vs JBL is actually a pretty enjoyable feud; I felt that a really strong contrast was shown between the two with the drinking contest on Raw that made me really notice that JBL is great for Punk to feud with. Of course, the inevitable match up with Jericho promises to be even better, but it's solid for now. I personally like Cena and Batista and they tend to be pretty over, although it seems like Cena is not as hot as Batista lately. Maybe I'm hearing the crowd wrong. The Kane angle with Mysterio is sort of a wait and see; I'm interested in where Mysterio goes with it, on the other hand it felt like an anticlimax of sorts but I'm willing to reserve judgment. Admittedly I'm not terribly excited about seeing Rey match up with a beast like Kane, but he doesn't have much choice if he wants to main event, I guess.

It's been said a lot but HBK vs Jericho is one of the better feuds of recent memory and definitely something that's making Raw very good. Week in they deliver great promos and they had a very good match at the Bash that solidly deepened the angle. The confrontation at Summerslam was perfectly executed; it's really saying something when a promo can be listed amongst the better spots on a PPV, especially Summerslam. Although perhaps that spoke negatively on the whole for Summerslam.

Moving on to the Intercontinental division, it's definitely populated with solid wrestlers. I thought it was an odd decision to take the belt off of Kofi that quickly, but I'm sure he'll get it back, and it sets up a good feud with Santino, with the additions of D'Lo Brown and potentially Paul Burchill. I'm way more excited about the Intercontinental scene than I have been for this entire year, when we had Hardy and Jericho holding the belts. Hardy spent most of his time as IC Champ entering in and out of the world title scene. I don't think he ever defended the belt on PPV during that time. Jericho's reign was really only to get the belt off Hardy, and then Jericho moved on to the whole HBK-Batista thing, then of course onto the current feud. Seeing the belt contested by guys who aren't on the top but are still great talents is really entertaining as it's just what the belt is for.

The Tag Team division is...iffy. I think it's the biggest problem with Raw right now. Take a moment to consider the number of dedicated tag teams on Raw. You can do it on less then half your fingers, because there's a whopping 2. It's unfortunate for them, because I think both of them are great, but with only the two...how can you even have a championship? Sure, Priceless and Cryme Tyme can easily feud for a few months, but then what? We're gonna need some new tag teams, or else it's gonna get real bad, real fast.

As for the women's division, on Raw, I think it's evenly split between solid competitors and the T&A. Beth, Melina, Mickie, and Katie Lea (and Candice to an extent) are all good contenders for the women's title and I think they're keeping it together well. On the flip side, you've got Layla, Jillian, and Kelly Kelly. Layla is pretty much Jamie Noble's valet and a commercial break dancer. Jillian is, I don't know what, a comedy routine really. Kelly is admittedly improving, but still mostly T&A for right now. Maybe in a year or two's time.

So all in all, Raw's got some solid storyline and great competitors in the single's division, the women's division is getting by solidly, and the tag division is in trouble. Raw's pretty good, but not nearly perfect.

 

[DC24]

Raw can be good but the way they book matches right now are just horrible its no reason Cena to be in a match with Dibase and Rhodes every week; Kanes getting a title shot when he ahsn't won a match since what April or May. They need to just ley Punk neat Cena or Batista and get over with all ready; HBK and Y2J is there only saving grace.

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

Raw has its flaws and it has its high points.

MAIN EVENT
--As of right now, Cena and Batista are essentially dominating the main event. Punk is still being booked as a fluke champion even after his two pins over JBL, which I feel is a mistake as its making people look inadequate. JBL is a bore and needs to take a hiatus from the main event. Kane had a lot of momentum, but they killed it all just to throw him into a meaningless feud with Mysterio. On the other hand, HBK and Jericho are involved in a program that has been very good except for how they've dragged it out in the past month. It should've ended at Summerslam. We also have Orton, but he isn't showing up yet, so you can't count him. Mysterio as far as I'm concerned, he doesn't count either, because not only is he not an active wrestler, but his size damages the main event stars that he goes up against and I can't see him fitting well against Kane, JBL, Batista, Cena, etc. Mysterio would be better served in the midcard putting over people like Burchill and Cade. When Orton comes back, I think things will clear up a little bit, but it all depends. We've already seen Orton/HBK and Orton/Cena, so the only two fresh feuds for Orton would be against Punk and Batista.

MIDCARD
--As it stands right now, they're making a mistake. They have a really strong midcard on Raw if they want to work it correctly. In terms of faces, you have Kofi, D-Lo, Mysterio, and potentially Noble and London if they would just stop using them as jobbers already. In terms of heels, you have Burchill, Cade, Regal, Haas, Snitsky, Santino, Palumbo, and Deuce. But the problem going on now is that instead of giving us an exciting feud like Kofi against Cade or Regal, they're making Kofi and D'Lo look bad in not being able to defeat Santino. Santino is a great comedic character, don't get me wrong. I think the guy is one of the best things about Raw. But he's written as a guy who can't win unless his girlfriend helps him. He never wins...anything....so when you have someone unable to just squash the guy, it makes them look like they've lost their skills. If they would simply have Santino start to win matches on his own, he'd be able to build up some credibility, but you can't go from "comedic because he never wins against even celebrities and women" to "not even a young star like Kingston can get his title back from him".

TAG TEAM
--Uh......where? Its a shame that the WWE has three shows instead of two. If you'd add the ECW roster to Raw and Smackdown, you'd be able to add some tag teams into the mix. But right now, Raw has TWO tag teams. That's not enough for a division. What's really annoying about it is that they have two GOOD tag teams, but they aren't giving them anything to work with. Rhodes and DiBiase are going to be huge names in the next few years, and Cryme Tyme is a solid (and most importantly, "over") tag team. It really is a shame.

WOMEN
--There's a problem here, too. While Raw has some of the best that the WWE has to offer, a major player in that category, Melina, is injured. Also, I have a feeling that we're going to be subject to a repeat of the incredibly boring "Beth as champion against Candice as contender" feud. The problem with pushing a wrestler like Beth or Khali or whatever as an unstoppable monster is that they lose all credibility the moment that they lose, but on top of that, it gets boring. What did Beth do in her run with the title? She had squash matches. Snooze. What did Mickie do with her latest run? She pumped the crowd up and got them to actually pay attention to a Divas match instead of just leaving for a bathroom break.

OTHER
--Commentary could be better, could be worse. Cole isn't JR, but I don't see where all the animosity towards him comes from, especially when Grisham is boring up ECW every week and should have the target on his back instead lol. The amount of talk segments versus the amount of action has cleaned up a bit lately it seems, but I'm still tired of seeing that many repetitive promos. I'm actually a fan of Adamle as the General Manager and I think he's doing a pretty good job. He's not the best ever, but he's playing it well enough.


Overall, Raw is in better shape than Smackdown. Their tag team divisions are tied, cause they're both awful with only 2 tag teams on each roster. Their main event is somewhat tied, but Raw leads because HHH is sure to bury some people for a few more months. But the women's division on Smackdown is terrible as its essentially just Michelle and Natalya, and the midcard is suffering because they have four heels that they can build around (Shelton, Kendrick, Kozlov, and Carlito, the latter not even making his return for months) but they have NO midcard faces. Kennedy is an upper midcard talent that you could put in comparison to Shelton, but that's it. Who is left for Kozlov, Kendrick, and Carlito to face? In general, the WWE needs to have more faces, as they're really outnumbered, and Smackdown shows. At least on Raw, though, they have the solid midcard faces of Kingston, Brown, Mysterio, and Noble (if they would use him right).