Addressing the absence of Sammartino from the MSG bit: I recognize the bad blood between Vince and Bruno, but in the companies' defense, do you think even half of the viewers even know who Bruno is? I for one didn't until I started reading blogs and magazines on wrestling. This is not to say it is a good thing, but say they really push what Bruno did for the company, couldn't that produce the same reaction that IRS got on the price is raw, being, "who's that guy?"?

RESPONSE FROM KE: I understand your point, but if you're going to do a retrospective, you can't ignore the most important figure. Some fans probably don't know Backlund or Graham either. Heck, younger fans may not even know Owen Hart.

I liked the retro feel to Raw this week, going without the Titantron added a different feel to the entrances.
Miz has looked really intense since he got the contract signing win a few months ago; much like you Kevin, I used to hate the Miz, but I think he is getting a well deserved push.
I don't know what was better, seeing Hornie's face planted into the mat, or him being carried out on a stretcher, either way, here's hoping he's gone.
As much as i dislike seeing the divas' battles usually, I must say, Melina dodging the elbow and her finishing move on Fox, really showed some athleticism.
I don't quite understand the push Sheamus is getting, but I really thought it was a good move my Cole to tend to King instead of try to announce, really added credibility to King being kicked. Also, having King not even come out again, was an even better move. I wonder if this is how Vince is testing new announcing combos to see who should be paired on what show. Personally, I enjoyed Striker and Cole's pairing together, Cole seemed dismayed by what Striker was saying at times, made me laugh. I wouldn't mind seeing them paired up more often, or permanently. The, "it's a brawl, Matt" made me laugh, Cole was getting really snotty at points.
I couldn't believe how late Orton showed up, but that was the best segment of the show by far, it's just too bad Kingston's music was botched.
It was really hard to believe that was the go-home show for a PPV.
Kevin, will you be posting who you think should get what slammy? I am curious to see what everybody thinks.

How do you ruin a high profile match such as John Cena vs. HHH vs. HBK? Have the Raw writing team write the build up to the match.

Michael Cole said that all DX cares about is that one of them gets the title. So HHH, the man obsessed with being the World Champion, will be okay if HBK wins the WWE Championship? I don't think so...

Kofi Kingston ruins Orton's car + Kingston beats Orton in a six man tag + Kingston puts Orton through a table = Kingston is going to get his head kicked in at Survivor Series

Uh, Cena pinned HHH, not the other way around.

RESPONSE FROM KE: Oops. It's fixed. Thanks.

Couldn't help but notice the brawl between Orton and Kingston spilling into the crowd and there is a RAVENS fan wearing a Ray Lewis jersey! After seeing Kofi's legdrop, I was ready to send him an invitation to the Ravens kicking squad. That man has some vertical leap!

"Take it from someone who actually sat through the Ravens’ 16-0 win over the Browns, it was about as exciting as a 60-minute Iron Man Match between The Great Khali and Vladimir Kozlov."

_________________________________

The game, itself, was bad, but I liked footage of the CFL divsion semifinals even if Chris Berman incorrectly stated that Saskatchewan won the Grey Cup last year (it was actually 2007). Go Roughriders!

As for Wrestlemania 26, I hope that you are wrong about the prospect of an Undertaker-Cena match. I would much rather see CM Punk or John Morrison take on The Dead Man and break the streak.

I could go on a rant forever about how bad Raw was last night. I can't believe the lack of hype for the WWE championship triple threat. How on earth is Hornswaggle even allowed to sniff being a part of the main event program? Did Vince Russo ditch TNA? And I couldn't agree with you more about Cena. I can't stand the guy and never have but I understand his position in the company and what he brings to the companies revenues, but his promo was attrocious. I can deal with his over the top screaming character but how are we supposed to take the championpship seriously when the WWE champion doesn't. One last quick hit on Cena, how do kids find him appealing? Honestly I try imagining myself as a kid and I couldn't see myself ever cheering a dweeb like him. Kofi is really bursting out as a star and I hope WWE does the right thing by letting Orton win at Survivor Series so we can get a proper singles feud going between the two. I found it disturbing that there was so little wrestling leading up to the ppv and it makes me think how much WWE thinks they can get away with. I know I won't be buying Survivor Series, I'm saving my $50 for another Sunday.

Given their his upcoming triple threat match with HHH and HBK, shouldn't Cena have made the save when HHH was lining Hornswoggle up for that pedigree?

Piper seemed off kilter all night (no pun intended) and missed the mark with his tasteless joke about wrestlers who have passed away.

The tease with McMahon turned out to be pretty pointless. Vince did his best to make it work, though.

Kudos to Orton for putting over Kofi. This has the makings of a very good feud.

Another inane promo by Cena in a pattern that is now well established. He's starting to make a parody of the business he's in - nothing he says either appears very believable, or has much comedic value.

The DX segment was also bad -- I guess they are tweeners now. Their sophomoric attempts at attention getting have also worn thin.

Overall, I agree with you that this was a disappointing show.

Kevin , you missed your calling .
When your blogging days are over , you should try your luck on the comedy club circuit .

"Was it me or did it look as if that woman from “The View” raided Michael Jackson’s wardrobe? ..."

I know you're probably still trying your best to 'stay hip' and all Kev, but I think you're better off referring to Gerard Way of 'My Chemical Romance' here. Also, what was up with HHH's shot at her, saying "She couldn't afford one"?

WM 26 headliner: HHH vs Sherri Shepherd, unsanctioned match?

"I popped when he said that the Yankees don’t deserve to be champions because they bought the title. ..."

I think that everybody who has ever followed baseball and isn't a Yankees fan (either due to not living in NYC or being a Mets fan or whatever) did as well. There's an awful lot wrong with Major League Baseball, but the lack of a salary cap is certainly on the list.

No matter what happens at Survivor Series, no matter how the feud ends, I'm sure Kingston's going to come out of it looking great. He definitely looked great on Monday.

"I really don’t know why WWE bothered to do the winning streak gimmick with Swagger in the first place if this is all that came of it. ..."

Me neither. Unless at Survivor Series Swagger's going to be like "Hey, you stopped my winning streak, Miz--I just didn't get around to telling you off on Monday--so screw you and your team!" and a feud between the two begins there, it seems pretty pointless.

"I’m not really sure what the point is of Hornswoggle..."

If I got to write this blog for a day, that sentence would have ended right there. Hornswoggle needs to go away.

Surprisingly, I thought this was one of the better Raws in recent memory...perhaps it was the pay per view like atmosphere of Madison Square Garden with the narrow entranceway and all that, but it had a different feel to it...the Iron Sheik/Iron Chef thing didn't work, but I got it - not sure if that's good or bad on my part...Piper was horrible, Masters was awesome, and whoever attacks a midget gets major heel heat in my book, regardless of how "over" they are...I think I actually heard Orton say to Kofi during that exchange "Am I bleeding?"...After that point Orton never turned his head towards the camera again...take away the Piper and his pointless Roast of the Dead, and it was a pretty good show...will be interesting to see what The Body has for us, besides promos for his "Conspiracy Theory" show

Do you think DX gets a tag team championship run after this PPV?

Do you think Stacy does a swerve and actually will be the guest host for RAW Baltimore?

or about as motivated as you are in covering the best ppv of the year in Turning Point or TNA.

Hey Kev, the tombstone on Cena wasn't completely unprovoked - He did a blind tag in the match that Taker clearly didn't like.

Kevin The Iron CHef is a great show, that involves a challenger chef battling a Iron Chef in "Kitchen Stadium". It japensnes with american voice overs. The host of the show Chairman Kaga is a great character and would be interesting as a manager in wrestling or general manager. The whole iron chef actually has a wrestling feel about it.
It worth watching at least once.

Strange is the best word for the show.

It another example of potential foreshadowing, Cena scored the winning pin on Triple H in the triple threat. Judging by WWE’s booking tendencies, you know what that means...yeah HHH with a another title run...ugh!

Miz over MVP... was'nt happy, but if he is gonna generate that much heat, I guess it is good for business.

I knew we would see Masters perform agian, I was only a matter of when. However, I do think Creative dropped the ball on his face turn. Also, since Masters is so limited with his ring skills he has to go the Hogan, Cena route and just create and rely on signuature moves only.

and during the retrospective on the garden, no trace of the triple threat match between HHH, HBK and Benoit which I understand because of the Benoit tragedy but this is sad cause it's certainly one of the best match (if not the best) of all wrestlemania matches

Kudos to Orton for putting Kofi over....hopefully DX and Cena took some notes.

You said your're not really sure what the point of having HSwoggle around....you could say that about pretty much any story line in wrestling today.
But I was happy to see Matt Striker fill in for Lawler, it only left one suck up at the announce table.

I was disappointed in the NYC crowd...they're usally a bit more vocal and tend to root for heels.

Ugggh another 'Razzie' moment for John Cena's acting career, most of wwe promos are corny and somewhat amsuing...but he is just unbearable to listen to or take seriously

Raw felt strange this week. Not having the stage and Titantron was probably what threw me off the most. During his confrontation with Vince, and before Vince came out for that matter, I thought Piper had a few too many before the show started.

Speaking of Kingston...his theme needs to be altered or change to go along with his new push

To any readers who may not understand the push Sheamus is getting, he is apparently in good with HHH, which pretty much explains it. I actually think he has potential, so I don't mind, really. What I don't like about it is that it's taking away a push for a more deserving guy (be it Swagger, Bourne, or MVP).

The 30 Rock actor was Judah Friedlander. You may remember him as one of the production guys in The Wrestler http://www.fancast.com/blogs/wp-content/post_images/Big-Blog-judah_mickey.jpg

(Additionally, he has worn a Cactus Jack shirt on the show... he by all means seems a genuine fan)

Line of the night, Lawler early on Raw: The Miz's parents wished they never met.

Amongst the other stars there were some members of the Black Eyed Peas as well. They were only on for a hot second, so you might have missed them.

Thank goodness there was a short ramp to the ring Monday. Guess they had to since Raw is only a 2 hour show and they had the Undertaker and Randy Orton making entrances to the ring in the same night. I'd like to see a race between the 2 to the ring with a turtle to the ring...

Here's what i liked: melina's matrix move, kofi's aggression, the iron shiek saying whatever he says, the undertaker's entrance, the end of the main event match, mcmahon. Vince is still the star of the show.
Here's what i disliked: hornswoggle again, piper was awful, dx acting corny, cena trying to be funny, no reference to cowboy bob orton, the crown was weak.

you could see the frustration on orton's face when he had to kick piper in the head because of the bad kofi music timing

I'm not sure why anyone would surprised Piper was so bad, he hasn't been entertaining on the mic in years. Much like physical talent, the gift of gab/humor can be incredible but when it goes, its gone. (i.e see Chase, Chevy)

I echo the comment of someone earlier about Stryker being an upgrade over Lawler. The King's shtick has gotten stale, and ever since he stopped being a heel announcer there's no point having him out there.

Kofi laying out Orton was just fantastic. RAW should have quite while it was ahead and ended the proceedings right then and there.

If Kofi isn't the top guy in the company he should be. Kofi is the new Jeff Hardy - without all the baggage.

WWE is doing everything right in trying to get Sheamus over as a star, but I’m still not feeling it.

Statements like this one above are why you are the voice of reason. For me, it feels like RAW isn't over until I read get to review your perspective of it.

Keep up the good work!

I thought the strangest part about RAW was that it ended at a quarter-after! (Or was that just the Pacific coast replay?)

I was really worried the triple threat tag match would turn into an immediate schmoz, knowing how fond WWE is of ending their go-home shows for Survivor Series with a huge melee.

As it turned out, the match they had was one of the most fun main events I've seen on RAW in a long, long time!

I can picture it now

"Here is your winner and the NEW, WWE Champion... HONRSWOGGLE"

RESPONSE FROM KE: If Hornswoggle was around in the Vince Russo-era WCW, I could see it happening.

I think with the weekly guest manager they should also have a weekly Hornswoggle beating, where each talent gets to perform their finishing move on the leprechaun. Sad to admit it but my favorite moment of the night was the HHH's pedigree on Hornswoggle.

Always have to take shots at TNA, don't you? You WWE mark. Can't even resist doing it in a WWE story. How about you talk about some of the stuff WWE does bad and TNA does good like, ummm...wrestling? Did you see Turning Point? When was the last time WWE had a *wrestling* match that good for the WWE/world title? Or as good as Angle/Wolf?

RESPONSE FROM KE: I praise and criticize both companies. If you don't see that, you're blinded by being a TNA mark. I think I am less critical of TNA than a lot of the stuff out there on the Internet, and I have even had TNA wrestlers themselves tell me that.

it was about as exciting as a 60-minute Iron Man Match between The Great Khali and Vladimir Kozlov.

That would be almost as awesome as a Mr. Kennedy vs Batista Ironman in a battle of who lasts the longest before getting hurt while they are getting a megapush.

I would like to see Scott Hall or Jake Roberts as guest host of Raw, as both these guys are almost unparallelled in the business with their great storytelling.

On a serious note, this latest promo proves John Cena is a tweener. The WWE found possibly their biggest pot of gold, ever. Cena's character has been altered a good amount since he first debuted. Much like the Rock, he was a bland babyface who turned heel and gained popularity through his witty promos, in Cena's case it was raps. If you watch some of his earlier stuff (2003-2005) he was an Attitude Era-esque character. As he became more and more mainstream, moved to Raw and carried the company, his character was made more and made family-friendly. Look at the Edge and Lita promos from 2006 and look at the poopy jokes now and this change is evident. I would submit to you all here that as Cena's character started getting boo'd by the smarks, the 'E decided to continually make him more childish. The end result is that the people who were buying his merch bought more of it, and the people who he annoyed, started despising him. Now, they all want to see him lose just as much as a Hogan-kid wanted to see all those big bad heels get the leg drop. Think about how happy the Cena-haters were when Taker gave him the piledriver. Now, they are all pumped at the idea of Taker vs Cena at WM26 just to see Cena lose.

Honestly speaking, Cena is not much different from Hogan or even Austin. Doesn't lose clean much, doesn't sell much. Hogan could never wrestle, Austin didn't wrestle. Cena is somewhere in between. He has his fair share of 4 star matches (WM23, LMS vs Umaga, LMS vs Edge, TLC vs Edge, some of the Orton matches) but is in no way, shape, or form a technical star. Taker's character is more cartoonish and his promos are the same. He also plays politics and doesn't put people over, possibly more than Cena. But the IWC, in general, adores Taker. Possibly because he has been around since when they were all children, and he takes long leaves to heal up. Cena is a legit tank and heals faster than anyone can imagine, so we are over saturated with him. He doesn't lose much, but since much of his time since WM21 has been with the belt, it doesn't make sense for your champion to lose a lot. It's all about the money, and Cena is rather good at bringing that in.

Hey Kev, This show was all over the place, not just in terms of Piper's ranting but of the quality. I agree about the Bruno Sammartino not being there really is an issue. He has him in the very opening teaser but not in the retrospect?

Also, just my opinion, but I'm tired of the Yankee bashing across the boards. I'm a long time Yankee fan and people like to say they bought the championship. If they did, where has it been for the last 8 years? No one says anything about the Red Sox (second highest payroll) buying it twice or Atlanta and the Mets (3rd and 4th highest) not winning anything. There will always be "new fans" of any team that wins a chanmpionship (well, maybe not the Marlins), but true Yankee fans stick around, that's how they make their money. And by the way, there is a salary cap and the Yankees pay every dollar of their fine that they are over. It's the other owners that get that penalty money and pocket it rather than spend on the team as the fine was meant to be.

Nothing worse than going out in front of a hot MSG crowd and laying an egg. All of the talking and silliness seemed to take the steam out of the crowd. It's kind of funny how the most entertaining part of the show was a video package of the past. Too bad Smackdown wasn't at the Garden

It doesnt matter anymore what Cena says,does,heel,face,whatever,as long as he keeps wearing those (what we called) "pedal pusher jeans" and sneakers he is just something to laugh at.
My opinion is Piper is all done-a shame,but really the only thing he ever had going for him was those "instant freakouts"-he was the best I ever saw at doing the "out of nowhere" turn.
I too am appalled at the thought of Hornswoggle playing a role in a Survivor Series Main Event-but if we are gonna do that,maybe we can involve Waltman and Chyna somehow too?
I like the thought of Jesse guest hosting.but Im flashing that he really wont be able to improve on those cool shots Monday of him with Adrian and the shades and the feather Boa.Those guys were truly electrifying in a way DX could never be.

I enjoyed the main event and the Kofi/ Orton confrontation but the rest of the show was pretty average. HHH doing the job stunned me as it's been a fair while since he has lost clean. Don't know weither to order the ppv or not as the only match that interests me is Kofi/ Orton which I reckon could be really good but the other matches don't appeal to me in the slightest. Nice comment about that women from the view Kev.

Oh i just remembered.We also used to call those pants Cena wears "clamdiggers".And we laughed at those too.

When I heard that Rowdy Roddy Piper was going to be the General Manager of the last RAW before the Survivor Series, I thought for sure that he would play the role of an instigator to raise tensions between DX going into the every-man-for-himself environment.

But that did not happen, so now we go into Sunday thinking that since nothing has happened, something MUST happen there! But what if nothing happens again? I bet the buyrate for Armageddon will reflect that collective disappointment.

"How does Chris Masters keep a straight face when doing his dancing pecs routine?"

How did Vince McMahon keep a straight face when he screwed Bret.

How did Vince keep a straight face when he put Christian on ECW.

How did Vince keep a straight face when he makes Triple H the WWE Champ.

How does Vince keep a straight face when he looks at Stephanie in front of Triple H.

Hows does JR keep a straight face when he thinks about BBQ when doing commentary.

How does Vince McMahon sleep when he let Nigel McGuiness a.k.a. Desmond Wolfe, one of the best free agents in the world go to the opposing company.

Why am I even asking these quesions, when we all know the answer.

WWE+Bad Buisness Choices= Hulkamania's Main Event Show I mean TNA

The RAW in Baltimore is going to be hosted by Verne Troyer! Seriously? Guess they couldn't get a "big" name to host that night! At least Hornswaggle will have someone his size around!

At least Judah Friedlander (the guy from 30 Rock) is an actual WWE fan and on one of the episodes of 30 Rock he wore a Cactus Jack shirt

"Take it from someone who actually sat through the Ravens’ 16-0 win over the Browns, it was about as exciting as a 60-minute Iron Man Match between The Great Khali and Vladimir Kozlov. The Ravens looked about as inspired as Kevin Nash at a house show, and the Browns’ offense was more pathetic-looking than a Lacey Von Erich chokeslam"

...Those are all good things...Right?

"Also, just my opinion, but I'm tired of the Yankee bashing across the boards. I'm a long time Yankee fan and people like to say they bought the championship. If they did, where has it been for the last 8 years? No one says anything about the Red Sox (second highest payroll) buying it twice or Atlanta and the Mets (3rd and 4th highest) not winning anything."

I'll begin complaining about the Red Sox after they buy it a few more times.

My problem is that the playing field is not level because not everybody has got as much money to spend or is willing to spend as much as Steinbrenner. This means that even though the Yankees may have the occasional season where they don't make the playoffs (which over the last 15 years would be...2008, 1997 and 1995), the deck is always stacked in their favor and against everybody else.

Meanwhile, the team in my hometown, the Blue Jays, have not been to the playoffs since 1993. The Orioles have not been to the playoffs since 1997. This is in large part because your Yankees outspend them year after year.

"And by the way, there is a salary cap and the Yankees pay every dollar of their fine that they are over."

NO, there is not a salary cap in baseball. There is a luxury tax. A luxury tax is different than a salary cap, because it doesn't prevent Steinbrenner from spending as much as he wants to--it merely discourages him. Steinbrenner's attitude has always been that he'll incur and pay whatever penalties he needs to so long as his team wins another pennant, and since he has virtually unlimited wealth there is no tax that will stop him from doing so.

A salary cap would make it illegal for the Yankees to sign any new players to contracts if their payroll already exceeded the cap's limit. That is how the NBA does it, and you might notice that the playoff picture in the NBA is a lot less predictable than in MLB. And you may not see it this way, but that's a good thing.

Kofi is the new Jeff Hardy - without all the baggage.

Posted by: Aaron Goldstein | November 18, 2009 9:57 AM

Hmmm. Ya think maybe that's why he's no longer from Jamaica, mon?

Hey Kev, I have kind of a random question. What do you think of Kofi's finisher, Trouble in Paradise? I'd personally like to see something smoother.

RESPONSE FROM KE: I have no problem with it.

Shouldn´t be the most important thing the WWE title? Watching RAW these days I get the feeling that the most important is Hornswoggle?!. But well what else to expect when they clearly focus on the kids.
The building of the Cena/HBK/HHH match at the PPV is really a shame. There seems no heat or rivalry at all. I mean it comes over like HBK and HHH couldn´t care less about winning the title.
I just hope they break up DX sooner than later. It worked for me the 1st time they reunited a couple of years ago but this time I find it pretty boring. And that saying me as a huge HBK fan (better call me an HBK mark) means a lot.
I think it´s pretty clear that Taker vs. Cena will take place at next years WM. Besides, is there anybody else left than Cena?