I don't know if you realize this but the build-up for Cena's match at Summer Slam is exactly the same as last years when Cena and Batista teamed the week before Summer Slam to wrestle Tag Champs Cody Rhodes and Dibiase.

During the DX segments I also thought about the payoff from JBL and why HBK needed to work. I still thought it was decently entertaining, though.

I always get a kick out of Canada crowds and their reactions to wrestlers. It seems like they lways cheer heels and boo faces. It makes for an entertaining show.

"Seeing as how Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes wrestled against a leprechaun Monday night, however, I’m not holding my breath."

___________________________

Nor should you. Bret Hart making that teased appearance was more likely than Rhodes and DiBiase brutalizing DX. By my count, DX (HHH and HBK) has suffered only two beatdowns in its existence: once by the McMahons, and once by Rated RKO. DX is an act which buries talent, not elevates it.

Epic fail by WWE trying to get fans to boo Jericho...and why were the commentators referring to Canada as "bizzaro world" just because the rooted for the better wrestler/character/hometown favorite in Jericho vs Cena??...I'm sure Orton will get a pop in St. Louis next week.

Mark Henry went from title contender to jobbing to Legacy with Hornswoggle all in less then a couple months.

And 2 gems this week as well... the cafe manager calling Shawn Michaels by his real name and the jab about Macho Man being 'the best color commentator in the biz'

By my count, DX (HHH and HBK) has suffered only two beatdowns in its existence: once by the McMahons, and once by Rated RKO

Not quite certain, but I think DX got a beatdown from the Spirit Squad a couple of summers ago...

Once again I had my hopes up high for what I thought was gonna be a great RAW only to find myself confused with all the bad booking descions. At the top of the show when all the Y2J chants started, I thought they would go on a trip down memory lane and have a backward RAW circa 1997 with Jericho playing the Bret Hart role. Sgt. Slaughter was even in charge! How great would it have been if DX had reformed a couple weeks ago and been there live making The Sarge look like a fool. Instead we get "Chef Hickenbottom" skits. They must be bad when a huge HHH and HBK mark such as myself thought they were silly. It didn't get good until the last one when HBK went on his superkick spree. My jaw dropped when Shawn "kicked" that little girl! The father in me said "That's how you want your superstars to be portayed?!?" "Is that really christian of you Shawn?!?" but the guy who was pining for an Attitude Era-esque RAW was laughing out loud!
There was no point to Slaughter being there if he was just going to dig on Canada all night. Don't they have the second biggest PPV of the year comming up? Couldn't he at least have mentioned it?
For the record I'm not holding my breath for Freddy Prinze Jr. to make for entertaining TV.
Hurry up Fri. night you can't get here fast enough.

Was the cooking stuff maybe a rib at Peter Polaco/Aldo Montoya/Justin Credible?

I love when the WWE goes to Canada, the crowds are always really into the show and cheer for whoever they want which makes it entertaining. I actually laughed when Jericho was trying to cut his promo and the crowd was chanting Y2J in the back, he actually had to stop and smile. Same thing goes for Cena, he was being booed so much that he stopped and looked around, I think it makes the show that much better. Overall, pretty good show, the bashing Canada thing got old, but next week's should be interesting with Cena and Orton having to team together against Jerishow; on a side note, can we start a petition to get that music changed for their entrance, it's unbearable.

I'm not sure if we can can say that Dx really had a beat down, they lost one match against rated RKO and not in a very clean ending. DX is just booked too strong, I'm sure they would win clean in a handiacp match against cena Batista and taker.

But well I love them and I just couldn't believe the superkick on the girl, I just loved it, I think that in the way it was made, it was funny Kevin, really :)

I laughed as well when Triple H asked HBK to come back for summerslam and that Shawn answered : I thought that was summerfest (line of the night for me!!)

I didn’t laugh, however, when Michaels apparently super-kicked a young girl.

Me neither. I thought he was just going to tell her off or spill something on her or something.

The whole thing was mostly stupid and lame, but there was one part I was amused by: when Triple H saw the waiter with the long hair (wig, whatever) from behind, thought it was Michaels, and said something like "That's different from the chaps you usually wear, 'Sexy Boy.' " And then having to talk his way out of the awkwardness than ensued.

Cracking on cities and its people and sports team is a tried and true heel tactic, but this seemed excessively mean-spirited.

I agree with this, too. What was the point, exactly? It wasn't like the Calgary audience got to see Slaughter the heel get his comeuppance, and it wasn't like they could've made a story out of this since he was just going to be there for one night.

Back in the days of the Hart Foundation vs. D-X version 1.0 (HBK, Trips and Chyna), when Bret trashed the U.S. on the mic, Shawn was there to tell him off and fight him over it, and that gave the American fans something to cheer about. And when they were in Canada and Shawn was dissing Canada, the Canadian fans were able to see Bret take him on and that gave them something to cheer about.

In this case, there's no face to complement the heel, if Slaughter was meant to be a heel at all. I honestly wondered whether VKM wrote Slaughter's speeches--if he really believes that stuff and just wanted to take the opportunity to stick it to Canada. If so, I'm not real happy about that as a Canadian. I've got two words for anybody who thinks their country is superior to somebody else's country and acts all arrogant about it, and those two words are not "too bad."

I admit that I there was one part of that which made me chuckle, though. When Jillian Hall was mangling "America The Beautiful" and Slaughter acted really moved and pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. I actually felt a little sorry for American viewers there! :p

I don’t want to pile on the fans in Calgary, but those who got all excited when it was teased that Bret Hart would be making an appearance are incredibly naive. ...

Agreed. I guess I should be grateful that the only thing they did was bring out Duggan, rather than bash Bret or Canada some more.

The DX promo would have ended well with the old lady...please WWE no more superkick on children.

DX is indeed used to bury teams...ala the Spirit Squad.

Miz actually looked great...I hate his charater... Miz keep the mask and shut the mouth.

I'm a Slaugther fan but he was not good...period!

I was hoping the "Calgary Kid" would turn out to be Lance Storm. Alas, fooled again.

To Bret: I'll sign that petition!

I haven't cared much for these DX segments (and I'm a huge HBK mark), but I think the humorous route was definitely the way to go with Shawn's return. When last we saw him he was in a serious program with 'taker, and that match was a classic. It would be a mistake to come back on a serious note, since DX-Legacy sure as hell isn't going to live up to HBK-Undertaker. And I liked the superkick to the little girl!

A lot to complain about with this Raw, but a huge improvement over last week.

Raw was meh. Jericho jobbed again, this time in his home country. Even got laid out after the match. Cena's superpowers haven't waned a bit.

I wasn't too surprised to see HBK as a chef. I sort of expected that the moment they talked about his new profession. Exceedingly charismatic people I knew always had a great interest in cooking for some reason.

The fans in Calgary were probably just wishful thinkers - they didn't buy it when Slaughter wanted to bring out Celine Dion, but they were probably hoping for Hart and so cheered (even though they knew there was no chance in hell of that happening).

Speaking of smelling stuff and wishful thinking, though, I wonder if Rock is going to come around as a guest host... Eugene was there last night to do Rock's signature moves, and there was someone in the audience holding a life-size Rock picture.... A sign, maybe...?

I thought for a minute there they were going to do another Mickey Rourke angle with HBK. Like when he had to start working at the deli.

The highlight of the night was the Divas match between Gail Kim, Beth Phoenix, Kelly Kelly and Alicia Fox. Most of these four way matches don't work very well but this one was exceptional. Everyone had a chance to shine and worked well together.

Is it me or did Lillian Garcia introduce Alicia Fox as Alicia Keys?

Super-kicking a young girl. Brilliant writing WWE.

Other than the humor of Michaels and HHH, the show was a complete wash.

It was great to hear Y2J get his deserved respect and who knew that the Miz was in that kind of shape?!

Masters has man boobs and Eugene should be Santino's next target.

RAW is.... AWFUL.

i read somewhere that this would be the lamest return ever from shawn's point of view.! my hopes were high though....!! i have been wanting to ask you a ques for a very long time kev..!! considering shawn is retiring at wm 26,can we expect atleast one title reign from him.?as lame as this may sound...but shawn has won the world heavyweight title just once! ( first elimination chamber match as far as my memory serves me..)
n i am very excited about next week's raw ...big fan of freddie prinze jr.

RESPONSE FROM KE: It's been speculated that Shawn will retire at WM 26, but I wouldn't say it's etched in stone by any means. I do think he will get another title run.

I thought the Miz was gone for at least a little while, but back so soon as Ron Simmons would say DAMN. Seeing Chris Jericho more or less jobbing to superman Cena makes my blood boil. For me he is in a class of his own and should be in contention for the WWE title. The constant bagging of Canada got tiresome quickly . The DX skit was funny except for HBK superkicking a young girl, nothing funny about that part, but overall not a bad show.

the dx promo arent really part of the storyline i think there just meant to be silly videos they put together to make us laugh

Is it just me, or does Gail Kim's ring attire seem to defy gravity? I'm not sure whats up with the sleeves thing, but she must have tons of two-sided tape to jump around in that outfit.

RESPONSE FROM KE: Having worked at WCW, I can tell you that you are correct. I think it was Tylene Buck (Major Guns) who told me that tape was the key to avoiding wardrobe malfinctions.

The only thing good about the show was Chris Jericho. He was awesome.

All those Canada and Bret jokes were awful, ridiculous and were bad in taste. Why can't move on? Bret has moved on. Its high time that WWE moves on as well. And if WWE doesn't like Canada, why do they keep coming back. Maybe just maybe that's why the fans in Canada cheered for their top heels and jeered their top faces.

And DX vignettes were quite lame. In fact, DX 3.0 has always been lame. Shawn Michaels probably made the lamest comeback in the history of pro wrestling. Thanks to our "intelligent" WWE writers.

And Miz was awesome!!!!!! Thank god he's back.

I loved the whole DX segment. it's true to their personality although I agree the HBK comeback could have been with a higher payoff. OK folks he didn't abuse the girl stop being so damn sensitive. The entire skit was classic DX and it is again headed for DVD #3. The Bret Hart thing pissed me off. I know he and the WWE are forever at odds but it would have been awesome to see him one more time.

Jack Swagger is the 2nd best thing happening on Raw right now, next to Orton.

I'm sick of DX totally ignoring its history that includes X-Pac and Road Dawg Jesse James and Bad-Ass Billy Gunn, not to forget Chyna.

Not only is DX's humor played AND wattered down, its just not believeable with how old they both are.

Michaels being a chef was also not funny and not-believeable.

Superkicking a little girl? No class, which would work with the OLD DX which was truly degenerate, but it doesn't fit in with their new wattered down kid-friendliness.

WWE needs to figure out if its family TV or not and stick with whatever decision they make.

I know everyone is supposed to stick to their own brand, but when Bret's music was teased and Duggan came out the Hart Dynasty should have made an appearance. They should have come out and delivered a beat down to Sgt Slaughter and Duggan, then took the mic and delivered some kind of anti-American speech that displayed their annoyance of Bret's theme being mocked again (Shawn did it a while back). This would have gotten a pop from the Canadian crowd and if replayed next week in St Louis would have gotten them some nice heel heat.

DX segment was awful, as is the way they have dropped the ball with Mark Henry, he was looking good for 2 weeks there......

My favorite line of the night was also when Shawn said "I thought it was Summerfest." For some reason I enjoyed the lame DX comedy skits. I've always enjoyed this HHH character more then his King of Kings superman character.

The rest of the show was pretty lame IMO, although I am liking the Jericho and Big Show combination more each week. I think Show is really being helped by the pairing, and having him Suit Up is a nice touch. Jericho is really gold in his promo work.

Michaels and HHH were just stupid. plain stupid. I really thought they were going to do one of those WHERE IS HE?! skits. they did that with the Undertaker in the early 90s when he returned to summerslam to face the other undertaker. The Summerfest and calling michaels by his real name were funny, everything else catered to the 12 and under crowd. Poor Rhodes and Dibiase, no chance in winning with The Kliq there.

It's funny that WWE, Vince, and HHH keep trying to bury Bret, but he still gets the biggest pop of the night. I'm sure Vince hates that he can't buy Bret back after everything he has put Bret through.

This could also be another reason Shawn wasn't live at the show, the Canadian fans would have booed him out of the building.

DX = Stale

Lillian did say Alicia Keyes. So it wasn't just me. The divas 4 way match was the best thing I've seen from the divas division in years.

Once Sgt. Slaughter came out, I completely lost interest in the program and wandered into another room. His raspy voice just sort of irriates me.

Less than a week until I'm at the live show here in St. Louis. Should I bring a Kevin Eck sign?

RESPONSE FROM KE: By all means.

Kevin, a very dicey move by Jericho,taking the RKO out of the Attitude Adjustment. I watched the sequence of moves in slo-mo and once Orton hooked his head for the RKO,Jericho's body angle was pointed straight down. It appeared Jericho sensed that and got both of his hands down just before he made impact with the ring,possibly avoiding a broken neck. WWE can't afford to have any more main-event stars getting injured and missing significant amounts of time.

Everything storyline is rushed because there is too many pay-per-views. There is no time to establish the backstory and build up a fued when you have to have something big every 4 weeks. As long as they have this mindset, the shows are never going to get better.

Yes I smell it, and two days later I still can't get the stench out of my nose.

So all I could think of at the end of the show is how much I want to see Randy Orton and John Cena team up permanently.

Do you think there's any chance we'll see a heel turn for Cena soon? I think he and Orton would play very well together - except it wouldn't make sense for John Cena to just "join" Legacy given how big he is.

One can hope though =)

Kevin, I agree with you about The Miz. I used to find him annoying, but he has grown on me. I'm glad he's back......it'll be interesting to see how WWE uses him.

No Santino in Calgary on Monday night? Have they run out of material for him?

they didn't buy it when Slaughter wanted to bring out Celine Dion

I think they would have booed even if she were really there. Being Canadian doesn't mean you have to like Celine Dion, and a lot of us got sick of her a long time ago. I don't judge people's musical tastes, but I haven't met anybody who admitted to being a fans of hers in like...ever...

OK folks he didn't abuse the girl stop being so damn sensitive

I know that she's fine, and I've got to say that she did some pretty good acting for a kid that age. (Although maybe if you tell a kid "Just be as loud and as much of a brat as you can," it isn't too tough for them. ~_^ ) It's just the fact that the image which was inevitably put in our heads, of the kick actually connecting, was not pleasant. Particularly since it's the kind of thing that, if done to a kid for real, could result in...well...death.

Usually when they put that "viewer discretion is advised" message on the screen, I've watched and not been disturbed or offended or anything. This was one of the very few times when I was.

Hickenbottom? What kind of a stupid name is that? Have to admit that was hilarious.

RESPONSE FROM KE: It was. I wonder what segment of the audience got it.

DX is way overdone like those burgers they were flipping. Yep, HBK was paid a ton of money when he was employed by JBL, so now he has to flip burgers...Maybe WWE will come up with a story that HBK developed a habit for crack and expensive hookers yet bypassed the drug testing at a cafeteria job.

I agree completely, kicking the little girl was probably something designed to make everyone 15 and under laugh at it. But I can't think of many movies that even do that sorta thing. They probably could have put all that DX BS footage on WWE mobile or their website and spared us.

I actually enjoyed Slaughter getting a rouse out of the crowd by joking with them. That coupled with The Miz gimmick was like the WWF of yesteryear...Miz should have kept that gimmick going and donned a different name each week "St. Louis Kid" etc..

Everybody, let's hear it for Mark Henry...He was given this huge move to Raw to get a pinfall over Orton, so that he could be elevated to the role of Hornswoggle's new Big Brother. What's next, sweeping up Festus and Eugene's manure backstage?

When Bret Hart's music came on, little eight-year-old Kristina came alive once again. Though I knew he wouldn't show up, the guy is still the best there is, the best there was and (probably) the best there ever will be. It's a shame that McMahon doesn't see how much old time wrestlers are valued and how he screwed have the the relationships he had with them to keep his ego in tact.

I rewatched "Wrestling with Shadows" recently and forgot the anger and heartbreak Bret endured at the hands of McMahon, one of the reasons why I stopped watching RAW in the first place a few years ago. Here's a guy who did so much for the sport, yet they bring back Chris Masters who has abused the WWE "policy" for years - only to wrestle in a very s----- (excuse the language) match Monday.

Lame, McMahon Lame.

Hopefully these writers get their acts together very soon. I don't think I can take more of the same storylines coming from the Orton, Triple H and Michaels camp.

I wonder what segment of the audience got it.

By now, probably pretty much everybody who's looked at his Wikipedia entry.

I found this episode of Raw unentertaining and offensive. I'm a proud Canadian and I just don't enjoy watching my country get bashed.

"I found this episode of Raw unentertaining and offensive. I'm a proud Canadian and I just don't enjoy watching my country get bashed."

-----

I guess you haven't watched WWE for that long if you found this recent episode offensive :)

Dear Sirs,

I was very offended by Raw. It's extremely insulting to see both Eugene and Chris Masters back in the ring after being fired. Not to mention Mark Henry being made into a sideshow dancing black Leprechaun gimmick. Also, I couldn't tell if Jack Swagger was high off chronic, but he seemed to be laughing a lot while trying to do his lines on the mic. Let's hope Freddie Prinze Jr brings some A-list movie star class and dignity to WWE on Monday. That's what us fans really want!

Kev - Quite suprised you were against the final bit of the DX sketches this week. On the whole, yes, they were terrible and really self indulgent, but from the start of the segments all i wanted to see was Shawn super-kick the little girl, but with this being the PG era i knew it would never happen. And then it did! It's massively tongue-in-cheek (even by wrestling standards) and is the first thing apart from Santino that has actually made me laugh on Raw recently. Shawn Michaels can flip flop between goofball and badass without problem, we all know what to expect so it doesn't seem weird.
I don't think we are supposed to believe that (in the context of kayfabe) he actually did kick the girl, from the way Cole was laughing when they cut back to the arena i assume they were DX created skits, everyone featured in them was "in on the joke"...not to be taken as part of the real story. So just lighten up and have a laugh, atleast for a few seconds Raw didn't feel PG.