Shocking Monday Night Raw Recap

I love how some websites try to get your attention by using the word ‘shocking,’ I mean is there really anything that we are shocked by these days? Moving right along...

Last night’s Monday Night Raw was the best one since the night after Wrestlemania, when Ric Flair gave his farewell speech.

I tip my hat to the writing staff because they started off with what I love to see and go figure but it was a wrestling match that opened the show. For too long now, Raw has begun with someone coming out and talking for 10 or 15 minutes then we go to an Axe Body Spray commercial. Incidentally is it just my t.v. or do they show the same Axe commercial over and over again? I digress...

I thought the first hour of Raw was the best way to book a wrestling show – good, solid t.v. matches and a few quick, yet meaningful vignettes, such as the one with Mickie James and Katie Lea (pictured above). They’ve also been picking their spots better in the use of Mr. McMahon.

This morning we found out why McMahon set the stipulation that whoever lost between Mr. Kennedy and William Regal would be fired. So it appears now that Theodore Long will be the new General Manager of Raw. I feel a bit nostalgic but I remember when Long was a ring attendant and then a referee back in the old N.W.A.

My only complaint about MNR– and it is a minor one – is that the Piper’s Pit went about 10 minutes too long. I’m sure there are people out there that absolutely hated last night's Raw and that it was the last wrestling show they will ever watch because Steve Austin or The Rock didn’t show up. It’s funny to me – and this is why I stopped going to 1wrestling.com – but if so many people hate the W.W.E. why did they just have a record year in revenue?

I’m digressing again, but I sent an email a few months back to Bill Apter over at 1wrestling and complained about the amount of negative feedback they put on their website from fans. It just seemed disproportionate to me that so many letters they would print were anti-W.W.E. I remember similar stuff in Pro Wrestling Illustrated in the 1980s, oh and you know who was in charge of PWI? Yeah you guessed correctly, Bill Apter.

He wrote back to me that he never had a problem with the W.W.E. and that the letters they post reflect the majority of the emails they are getting. I still find it hard to believe. Apter is a classy guy from what I gather and I have no problem with him personally, I've just always sensed an anti-W.W.E./anti-northeast thing from the wrestling pundits.

Nonetheless, I liked Raw last night.

Good show!