I know I said I had cancelled my recording but curiosity got the best of me and I watched any way. It was an alright show, not the best after that amazing ppv but decent. Smackdown is still cancelled. My new reason for watching Raw is "Simply Priceless".

Well, what I saw last night was a Ted DiBiase strongly reminding me of Randy Orton - young, overly self-confident, cocky. It might be a great thing to have Orton and DiBiase join forces in the future, maybe together with Rhodes. A heel stable comprising those three might well just be what WWE needs.

But as we know WWE, they won't do it anyway. What a shame!

Hey Kevin I got to admit that your not quite as funny as Roch is on his blog...but you do get some good ones off as well.

"It’s always good to see Marella win a match. You have to love how he does the marching band over-the-top celebration every time he gets a victory, while Carlito remains cool and just looks at him like he’s an idiot. Hopefully, Cousin Sal won’t end Marella’s winning streak at one this Friday on Smackdown."

This whole paragraph had me laughing.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: No shame in not being quite as funny as Roch. When it comes to one-liners, Roch (pronounced Rock, for those not familiar) is the Great One.

Although he is funny, Marella’s act is getting old, because he loses so much. They should bring up Carlito’s brother from FCW and make them a tag team on Smackdown.

the hardy vs cena match, i was sitting on my couch during the match and was calling what cena was doing right before he did it, its so predictable with him in the ring

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: Fair enough. But if you don't like predictable wrestlers, I'm guessing you weren't a fan of Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan or Bret Hart.

Did Roddy Piper really need to take his shirt off just to ring the bell last night?

I'm sick of the Orton-Hunter-Cena monopoly on all the main events. That was a perfect chance to elevate Jeff Hardy.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: I can't disagree. Hopefully, Hardy's time is coming before the year is over. It might have come already had he not gotten suspended for two months.

Kevin,

What was your take on the fan coming in the ring at the beginning of the Cena-Hardy match? I’m assuming it was a shoot, since the confusion for about 30 seconds or so seemed pretty genuine — to the point where Cena and Hardy just grinned at each other and shrugged while pausing to let order get restored.

Do you know if WWE (and TNA, for that matter) has a policy like the NFL and Major League Baseball where the cameras will not focus on outsiders who interfere so it doesn't give them validation by putting them on TV? Right after the run-in, the cameras were in on Hardy and Cena so tight, there was no way of seeing anything.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: IT definitely was a shoot, and, yes, the cameras do cut away just as in spectator sports.

I thought the Hardy/ Cena match was very good. While not thrilled with Hardy losing, I understand it; he still has something to prove after his suspension. In a way, it might be better to postpone Hardy's title chase, so by the time he gets his shot, he can actually get a title run; at this point, I think it's too soon (at least in his own mind) for HHH to drop the belt
And to be fair, Hardy did sell his injury from the PPV: he limped halfway down the ramp before resuming a normal run to the ring (my tongue is firmly in cheek, by the way).
this might be just me, but after seeing Orton take a nasty fall and knowing he's out 3 months, couldn't HHH's promo have been a little kinder? His whole "the age of orton never existed" schtick has rubbed me the wrong way. and "The Age of Orton is Broken"? real classy.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: I hear what you're saying about the promo, but since the plan likely isn't for Orton to turn babyface, the old-school mentality is that you don't want to encourage sympathy for a heel. Triple H was cutting the promo in character, and his character would not feel any remorse about Orton getting hurt.

Pretty decent showing last night. I was wondering where this Jericho-HBK thing was going. I have a feeling we will see them go at it for the IC title at Night of Champions. Good too, it's time to see some gold around HBK's waist again.

Was really hoping for a Hardy win last night. John had his moment in the sun, so I think its time to give it to Hardy. Had to laugh about the guy running into the ring though. Although Jeff didn't look like he found it too humorous at all. That must be a scary.

On a side note, I don't know why, but I got a chuckle out of Kennedy counting down when U-Manga was outside the ring. I really hope Kennedy gets a good push. He cracks me up.

And really, did we have to see Rhodes-Holly vs. Santino-Carlito for the 980th time???? It's getting old. We have other tag teams in the division guys. Let's let them get a crack at the titles once in a while.

I don't see the point of having Hardy be the one to do the job for Cena right after what seemed like such a big victory over Umaga, but then again, there were no other big winners from Raw to face him. Still, perhaps it would have been better to have either Michaels, Jericho, or JBL pick up a win last night and face Cena for the #1 contendership next week, maybe even advancing the Michaels storyline with a run-in. That way no one loses momentum AND a heel character picks up heat.

I completely agree about their match, too. I've never really considered either wrestler to be in the upper echelon when it comes to working, but they showed they were certainly capable of being there. I'm not suddenly going to rescind all of my past comments about Cena, as I do think he went for a long period of time with a mediocre at best workrate. I'm not saying that's entirely his fault and I'm not saying he CAN'T work, I'm saying for a while he didn't and I got pretty tired of it. If he can put on matches of this quality all the time I'll go from being one of his biggest detractors to one of his biggest fans.

Kevin, My favorite wrestler was Bret Hart. just seems with cena its flying shoulder, flying shoulder, you can't see me than the FU.
but i would agree with you on one thing, I think he needs to go heel. I probably could stand him more as a heel.

I'm actually liking Dibiase alot, decent mic skills, just want to see him wrestle. Kennedy/Burchill actually look really good fighting eachother. Should be a very good program and cement Kennedy as a face.

Hardy and Cena put on a hell of a match, worked extremely well together even though it was predictable.

"I'm sick of the Orton-Hunter-Cena monopoly on all the main events."

I too am quite tired of it, especially in regard to Hunter and Cena. It seems like those two have dominated Raw forever. I think WWE really, really, needs the upcoming draft so that Raw can be rearranged.

I have a suggestion to make Cena more interesting: Do a storyline in which a "fan" who represents all the Cena haters gets involved in the action and tells Cena exactly what he thinks of him. Surely WWE has a developmental wrestler who can do it?

I sense the disappointment that JBL isn't being used in a title programme from you Kev. I see your point, but I just don't see him being that good a performer, and also one that I think people hate, but isn't really a super heel. I can't see Cena going heel, maybe I am wrong - would he come across as a credible heel?Oh how I long for the days of Triple H at the height of the McMahon-Helmsley era. For me, the best heel I have seen. You also need a top face...and there was the Rock. No one comes close to that currently.

Cena vs Triple H is the right call... I think a Hardy title shot at Summerslam, and possible win would be just what is needed...though Raw needs a top level heel - JBL - no. Umaga - no and is beaten far too easily these days. Triple H seems like the only candidate. However, until the draft comes along, we can speculate as much as we want...but fresh feuds are what is needed....and Edge needs someone other than Batista now.

Speaking of first. This was the first time that CENA and JEFF HARDY wrestled each other, but it is also the firt time that I have see an fan (unscripted) to try and enter the ring.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: Fans hopping the rail and running into the ring has been happening for decades.

Look, I like Jeff Hardy as much as the next person. He's got a different, quirky style, takes ridiculous risks, and is enjoyable to watch. However, two points based on the comments already made here.

First, for the people saying that Cena and Trips (or Flair and Hart, for that matter) are predictable and do the same things in the ring, I've noticed that Hardy is guilty of the same. The difference is that the former set of performers aren't high flying wrestlers. Hardy pretty much does the set of moves in his matches, too, and roughly around the same time in most matches.

Second, while I would be more than happy to see Jeff in the main event scene and gunning for the title, he just returned from his 2nd Wellness suspension since he returned to the 'E in August of 2006. Less than two years back and two Wellness violations. That's pretty serious stuff there. No one ought to be blaming the WWE for being slow to put the strap on Hardy, or even being slow for getting him back to being a credible threat. It's more than reasonable that Hardy is going to have to earn some trust back before they give him that kind of shot. Considering that being a title holder does carry a certain amount of responsibility in branding and the integrity of the company, it's not too much to ask to give the management a break.

If you really want to blame someone for why Hardy isn't in the title hunt, blame Jeff Hardy.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: Excellent points as always.

Oh no , Roch Kubatko's baseball blog mentioned here ? He owes you one Kevin , if you can get him away from Anita Marks .

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: Roch was a WWWF fan back in the days of Bruno, Superstar Graham, Ivan Putski and others, so he's OK in my book.

Kevin, I read through the official rules of McMahon's Million Dollar Mania. McMahon isn't playing heel so far, but these are the 8 prizes that will be given away:
$250,000, $200,000, $200,000, $125,000, $98,000, $75,000, $51,998, and $2. That's right, somebody will be winning $2. Should be hilarious, something tells me the heel in Mr. McMahon will have a good time with that specific drawing.

The match between Cena and Hardy was good aside from the match being very obvious with their scripting of moves where you can sometimes see one guy for a few seconds waiting to have the other guy land a move on him.

Also, I was a bit disappointed Hardy didn't get the push for the title shot. It's like the company doesn't have confidence that Hardy can be in a main event feud yet they build him up and tease the fans about it.

How about having Randy Orton become the leader of the young heel faction..He is a 3rd generation superstar so it would make sense if he was in the group..He could use the group to take control of Raw

Michael, not to reiterate something that I've already written on this post, but ...

You said:
"It's like the company doesn't have confidence that Hardy can be in a main event feud yet they build him up and tease the fans about it."

Correct. The company doesn't have confidence that Hardy can be in a main even feud right now. They put him in one for the WWE title between Armageddon and the Royal Rumble. Most wrestlers don't get the title the first time they challenge for it. Then they were moving him to win the MITB match at Wrestlemania and back to the main event scene. Before that could happen, he got suspended for a Wellness violation. His second in less than two years. That's pretty serious stuff. The WWE simply cannot have their champion go down for Wellness violations or any other drug related issue with the current atmosphere created by the Chris Benoit inicident and, to a lesser extent, the tragic death of Eddie Guerrero. As it is, the WWE is having a tug of war with Congress and other legislatures who've turned their eye on the world of wrestling so as to appear to be taking some action in some sphere.

So, no. The WWE doesn't yet trust Jeff Hardy to carry the company on his back. The only reason why we get foreshadowing of Hardy in the title scene is because he is super over with the crowd. In that sense, the WWE is paying attention to what the fans want and giving what they can feasibly offer until they can be 100% sure that they won't have a scandal on their hands.

There are a lot of considerations that go into who becomes champion. One of them is reliability. Hardy, as of right now, isn't reliable.

I reackon that the Undertaker will return to Smackdown when Vickie is fired by the chairman of WWE. I also think that Edge will be drafted to raw or ECW. If he goes to ECW kane will avenge his Brother (Undertaker).

I really like the notion suggested by Nathan above that Randy Orton should take control over the young heel faction on Raw. Maybe it can be called something like Generation Next and feature Rhodes, DiBiase, Orton, Neidhart and Carlito (if the singing thing keeps getting people pissy with him, maybe Trevor Murdoch can join too, keeping with the stroyline). It would not take long for Carlito to get back into the IC title picture and the others can all work toward natural title ambitions.

If we want to really get ambitious and try out GenNext as a show defining group perhaps we can convince Shane McMahon to be their benefactor. He’d be a great fit in that role and provide some of the credibility and (dare I say it?) gravitas, every heel faction needs.

Some starting points at least.

why can it be a triple threat match. Two raw people and one ecw