As an early christmas gift I got the 15th anniversary of RAW dvd, and it's so dissapointing to see what DX has become, they used to be so damn funny. I thought last night's episode was o.k. but I can't help but clean my glasses everytime I see Sheamus with the belt, I just can't believe what I'm seeing. Can't agree with you more about Bourne and MVP, they should have swapped places. I can't believe I'm saying this but, I really hope John Cena wins the title next week, but I see somehow that he doesn't make it to the match or there is some type of interference, unless Vince has gone totally crazy and wants to completely bury Sheamus after building him up so fast.

Kevin,
This was one the worst RAW's ever. Ever. I can't wait to see Brett Hart next year. Otherwise, I would have skipped watching this show for a while. It has been bad for over a year now.

Raw was just awful... Where do I start? The DX skits with Hornswoggle? A giant magical area under the ring? Huh?

For the second week in a row, the NEW WWE champion wasn't given any sort of focus. He wasn't even allowed to cut a promo this time, while Cena came out TWICE AND cut a promo, too.

Carlito cut the promo of his life to Cena's face a few weeks ago, and now he's being squashed by Mr. Dancing Pecs.

Shawn Michaels. The showstopper. The main event. The icon. Mr. Wrestlemania. The legend Shawn Michaels is now Triple H's valet and wants a midget as a pet.

The unified tag titles. Was it even mentioned that DX are the tag champs? Did they, at any point, wear their belts? What's the point of giving the titles to DX if they're just going to do nothing about it? JeriShow wore the titles proudly and gave it so much more spotlight.

Jericho dressed as Santa. The best heel they have in the company, dressed as Santa. And he gets attacked by a midget. Are they seriously going to involve Jericho/Show in this retarded Hornwoggle storyline?

For the first time ever, I really fear for the future of pro wrestling. Raw is being turned into a show for 9 year old kids, and Impact is being turned into a show for 50 year old wrestlers.

The show had a bit of unintentional humor. I had closed captioning on for a bit, and "Slammy" came up as "salami" every time on the captioning.

"But everyone’s sense of humor is different, and I’ve already talked to one person who said that he got a few chuckles out of the show."

So you know Michael Cole personally.

"I get more enjoyment out of watching Chris Masters flex his pecs than I do watching him wrestle. Is that wrong?"

YES.

Didn't Sheamus learn anything from DX last week? Accept the rematch and kick the ref. Done. Match over and still WWE Champion, SHEAMUS! My money says he was too busy in the tanning booth to see what DX was pulling off.

This might be offensive but: I thought Mae Young was dead?

This RAW was so bad that i immediately did two things.

1)Went and bought the replay of TNA's Turning Point

2)Watched a full episode of ROH on HDNET.

I'm in no way an indie mark. I usually scoff at the amount of spots in the usual ROH match. But something both companies did was but wrestling on the show. I remember when i first started watching, it was wrestling that drew me in. Now the WWE is pushing me away.

..... another year couldn't pass without a mention of "Little Beaver ."

Second week in a row I ended up turning away. The opening with Damon wasn't good, and they should have had somebody with experience on the mike to work with him out there from t he get-go. I turned away, then turned back when DX was going under the ring to find Hornswoggle. Absolute crap. I changed the channel when they went into the courtroom and didn't watch the rest.

Somebody needs to give Vince some competition in order for his product to improve. It's that bad.

As a longtime HBK mark it pains me to say that I am completely sick of DX. It is a mere PG shadow of the 'real' DX, and seemingly exists only to hock cheap merchandise.

One moment that stands out for me was Bourne hitting his finisher on Rhodes. He obviously wasn't going to get the win, but I was very pleased (as you mentioned) about how strong Bourne was put over in the match. And it's been a long time since we saw Bourne not doing a job, so it was nice that he got to remind some of the attention-challenged viewers of exactly how amazing he is.

This was worse than when Miller hosted by a long shot. It is like the WWE is trying to push fans to TNA with this crap. DX is old and their antics are old. Whatever needs to happen to get them to split up needs to be done.

Kev, is there anything that Sheamus can do to make you happy? He is playing the monster heel role as well as can be expected. He come out, destroys mid-carders, and leaves. He didn't accept Cena's challenge because he's a heel and heels NEVER do what you want them to do, right?
Overall, Raw stunk. It really seems like WWE is in a holding pattern until Bret Hart comes back. No storylines were advanced, just the same face(s) vs. the same heel(s). No matches made for the Rumble, or even hints, just the same angles being rehashed.

Oh well, here's to everyone having a great Holiday and New Year!

RESPONSE FROM KE: Sheamus not accepting the challenge was a heel move. My issue was, from a logic standpoint, why wouldn't he be forced to wrestle Cena since Cena has the rematch clause?

Great call on Wrestlemania 3. He was even wearing Bundy's exact outfit. Your dead on with me about the entire show, including what was funny and not funny. By the way... Throw a little person into that dialogue between WWE and Damon, and you could be writing for WWE Creative.

Hornswoggle is really driving me nuts right now. He was okay early on when he would pop out from under the ring and attack Finlay's opponents, but I felt like that kind of cheapened Finlay's matches: I've always thought of Finlay as a good wrestler who didn't need that facet added to his gimmick. I was very annoyed when Hornswoggle won the WWE Cruiserweight Championship; it wasn't as bad as David Arquette winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship (or Sheamus winning the WWE Championship, for that matter), but it was close. His character really started having diminished returns for me with the Mr. McMahon "illigitimate child" storyline, but his way-too-long angle with DX has me tapping out. I would really appreciate it if he just went away.

" Of course if Kelly Kelly was covering me, I wouldn’t be in a rush to get up either"

Kev... Does your wife read this blog???

If not... have yourself a fun-filled Merry Christmas!!!!

RESPONSE FROM KE: She doesn't read it, but she gets my sense of humor. At least I think she does.

I think its very interesting to note that Swagger didn't *immediately* tap out to the STF, lasting a good 10 seconds or so before submitting...unlike what CM Punk did last week. I may be reading too much into this observation though.

And I did laugh at the Mae Young segment, but only at that part where she almost fell down. Old people are funny.

And that entire Little People's Court thing has 2009 Wrestlecrap Gooker Of The Year written all over it.

"When The Big Show squashed the little person, it reminded me of WrestleMania III with King Kong Bundy and Little Beaver. ..."

-------------------------------

Good thing he wasn't around the same time as Val Venis...

- The Sheamus/MVP fight was just plain bizarre. Having Sheamus squash a face is not going to get him over. He needs a really good war with a high-level babyface for him to be even considered worthy to be at that level. I would suggest Kofi Kingston, but I'm enjoying his feud with Orton too much right now.

- Agreed about the Swagger/Cena match. I knew Cena would win, but it was booked excellently. I even had doubts in the back of my mind at certain points towards the end that Swagger might nick it. It begs the question though, why the hell have WWE put the belt on Sheamus when they have someone as taleneted as Swagger in the wings? He's a much more viable candidate.

- Also, considering WWE's PG policy, weren't the jokes made throughout the Horswoglle/DX debacle a little bit tasteless? What sort of message is that sending out to the kids of today? Either way, it was car-crash TV.

You can go ahead and put Johnny Damon towards the bottom of the guest host rankings...he has about as much of a personality as Mark Henry.

Poor I.R.S. I'd say 90% of the audience probably didn't know who he was.

Thankfully Swagger wasn't squashed against Cena like Carlito was....and it's kind of annoying how they always portray the top heels as monsters only for them to become all scared and tepid once the super babyface challlenges them.

No need to comment on the HSwoggle disaster.

And also happy to see that Jerishow is sticking together, for now at least.

Swagger definatly came over pretty big. I think that was one of his best matches of late. We all knew he had to lose though.

Kev, you gonna do a write up on the History of the World Championship DVD? I just watched it today, and found it pretty intresting.

RESPONSE FROM KE: I've been meaning to write something on The Rise and Fall of WCW, Hulk Hogan and History of the World Championship DVDs, but other things keep coming up.

If this is the kind of tripe that WWE is going to continue to dish out then bring on the Monday Night War of 2010. Old AWA matches shown on ESPN Classic are better than RAW was on Monday.

I get more enjoyment out of watching Chris Masters flex his pecs than I do watching him wrestle.

Once again, you could say that about most of the Divas on the roster as well.

Hey Kevin
I know another male who drools whenever Chris Masters flexes his pecs. In fact it's like waving candy in front of a 5 year old. His name is Ric Flair and he must be going crazy, watching Masters jiggling his tatas, sitting at home wishing he was still in the ring chopping at those bad boys!

I've seen better acting in tough actin' Tinactin.
And we didn't need to see " Little peoples' Court" twice. TWICE!
Also, how ghetto was that bit? A jury generally has 12 members. Either they didn't want to pay 12 little people or they couldn't find 12 little people who read the script and found it funny, or, at the very least not humiliating or non- defamatory. AND...how 'bout putting a robe on the judge. AND...you're telling me they couldn't find a real uniform for "Little Rusty" the bailiff. He was wearing mechanic's overalls and a badge for God's sake. AND finally, use a room that at least comes close to approximating a court room. Did i mention they ran this TWICE! I'm done with RAW for a while. It sucks. i'll check out the 1/4 episode on DVR but I need to be convinced to come back. The last couple of weeks make me yearn for the days of General Rection stalking the squared circle and Norman Smiley making his way to the ring wearing shoulder pads and the home teams' jersey for a cheap pop.

PS- Smackdown is generally very enjoyable.

There are several other thoughts that might have come across Johnny Damon's mind while kissing Mae Young:

"I wish I was at Fenway Park."

"I need to fire my agent."

"Where's Damian Jackson when you need him?"

(Explanation: Damon and Jackson collided in the outfield in Game 5 of the 2003 ALDS between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics. Damon suffered a concussion and had to be carried out on a stretcher.)

hey kevin i can tell you that in new england any red sox fans looked at the may young moment and felt ha ha johnny we call that red sox revenge for how he left the red sox.

Am I the only one who has never seen DX wearing their belts?

Hey Kev,

Enjoy reading your blogs. RAW was horrible as it has been lately. Except the tag team and Jack Swagger match everything else was crap. Though the chris jericho "main event" was not bad .

Even though I am a bret mark and I cant wait for him to turn up , I will say this : I'm saddened a generation of children will best remember Shawn Michaels as a goofy sidekick who wanted a pet midget. How the mighty have fallen , from having the match of the year to this.

Ironically I feel Shawn needs Bret the most to snap him out of this stupid storyline with DX. Ur commets?

Kevin, you wrote: "My issue was, from a logic standpoint, why wouldn't he be forced to wrestle Cena since Cena has the rematch clause?"

If I'm correct, you can't use your rematch clause like you cash in a MITB contract, ie "I can get my title shot whenever I want". You are supposed to ask officially for the match beforehand, and it only makes sense that Sheamus was not forced to compete when Cena asked for his rematch, especially since Sheamus had just had a match. Or did I miss something about the rules?

By the way, I totally agree with Mark K. when he writes "Didn't Sheamus learn anything from DX last week? Accept the rematch and kick the ref. Done. Match over and still WWE Champion, SHEAMUS!" This "Champion retains by DQ" is the worse rule ever!

Hornswoggle in DX...I guess we now know who spots Triple H @ the gym.

the dennis miller episode was still worse than the damon episode

mvp more deserving than sheamus? you have to be kidding me. they are both undeserving, but atleast Sheamus has a good look and attitude. MVP is washed up and hasn't changed in years. Or maybe that was just you making a joke...I still don't know which are your jokes and which aren't.,...since I thought Raw was quite good this week and the jokes were too.

Between Johnny Damon, Mae Young, Hornswoggle, Sheamus, more of the lame PG DX...this may have been the worst RAW of all-time or certainly up there. Oddly enough, the only thing that saved it is a very good John Cena match. Jack Swagger should be the one with the belt around his waist, not the giant useless Sheamus. And I agree Evan Bourne looked really good.

Thank GOD for DVRs! This Raw was about 20 minutes when watching on a DVR. The hornswoggle skits with DX are just stupid and annoying and pathetic. Once Bret Hart shows up, Raw will be watchable again!

hmmm... OK, Kev, you are right, RAW SUCKED! But did you notice that Sheamus' championship belt didn't have his name on it? When they showed the shot of Sheamus holding up the belt after winning it from Cena, it had Cena's name on it -- obviously. But take a look at it last night -- no Sheamus name. Now, I could quasi-justify it on the RAW episode right after the win, but two weeks later and they can't find an engraver? Your thoughts?Perhaps Sheamus wasn't supposed to win? Perhaps a transitional champion? Still the name should have been there -- where's the continutity police?

Oh, and my thoughts on Hornswaggle -- get a few other little people and let the wrestle every other week... "Midget" wrestling used to be big -- at least then there would be a purpose behind having him on the show as the dirty face and grunting gimmick has gotten really old.

I suggested after TLC that I thought it was possible that Sheamus wasn't booked to win, and that both men were supposed to go through a table, but that Sheamus missed his on the outside. That would explain the (seemingly) genuinely befuddled reaction by the announcers, and would perhaps also explain the way Sheamus has acted since then.

Most of us were quite surprised that Sheamus barely made an appearance on last week's Raw. Perhaps it was due to him taking an awkward fall and suffering a minor injury, preventing him from doing anything the next night.

I'm not surprised that Sheamus won after the ridiculous push that he received, but the way that Sheamus has been used since suggests to me that something is off here. Just an idea.

Is it me or is Maryse making a cover boderline soft-porn. I had to watch it twice but when she was attempting a pin on Melina she had her had on her breast. I've noticed she done that a couple times.

Now I'm convinced HBK and HHH personally ask Jericho every week to insult them and their recent antics. A kind of guilty conscience in practice and as a secret apology to all their followers since the days of 'Chin Boy Sgt. Slobber' and 'Vin Man'.

Unbelievable. Couldn't help but take a shot at TNA even though you were speaking of how bad a WWE show was. You are such a TNA hater.

RESPONSE FROM KE: Good grief.

How ironic, your attempt at humor with that Damon and WWE writer dialogue fell short too.

Why should Cena got a title shot right then? We've seen people challenge champions for title matches YEARS in wrestling and it not being allowed on the spot even if they had a rematch clause. Plus Sheamus had just had a match. You can't just call your title match any time you want unless you have the Money in the Bank briefcase to cash in.

The first half hour of raw was so bad, I changed the channel to a Star Trek NG rerun. When I first saw Cena vs Swagger I was disinterested, but came back to Raw halfway through the match, and wow, was it the highlight of the night.
So we know "Little's People Court" was taped a few weeks ago. Didn't someone at WWE look at it and say "let's fix this" or even better, "let's not air this"? Is everyone at WWE that dumb?

I already semi-ranted on this cluster, but there was just nothing remotely entertaining.

After the ratings came out it made me think Johnny Damon was telling himself "at least no one will have seen this."

Amazing a show can be this bad and seemingly not be at risk of cancellation.

I'm a huge fan of MVP as well, but I think this is the closest that he's going to get to the WWE title. I've given up on the company giving him a proper push.

RESPONSE FROM KE: I pretty much have as well. It's a shame.

Missed Raw (guess it was a good thing I did) because I was attending a Smackdown/ECW house show, here's a few things I noticed.

Drew McIntyre was great on the mic and in the ring, he cut an awesome promo, mocking John Morrison, telling us we were to respect him as champion, and even insulted some people in the crowd.

Christian and Zach Ryder put on the best match of the night, both guys really put in the effort and the match was pretty long as well.

The other thing I was surprised at is The Undertaker, who took alot of bumps for a guy who was at a house show and is reportedly injured, I guess that's part of the reason why he's so respected.

Apparently Jericho was on Raw therefore it is axiomatic that I was not called a mucilaginous troglodyte....disappointing.

Just like he did to Big Show, I really wish Josh Matthews could've asked me what I thought of Raw's Christmas show this year. If he did, I would have replied with the God's honest truth - it was awful. I rarely say this about any WWE show, but I honestly hated pretty much all of it. I'm all for comedy skits on wrestling shows, but WWE's attempts at being funny here were sickening.

I understand that Vince is now trying to put across a more family friendly show, which is great, but he seriously needs to remember that there are still older fans like me who, for some reason, still take time to watch his product week after week. I don't know about the majority, but I found the "Little People's Court" stuff not only completely humourless but also really offensive. And it was really sad to see two genuinely great wrestlers like Hunter and Shawn reduced to doing skits like that. And, the worst thing about the whole piece was that it was probably their idea to do it in the first place. Quite frankly, it made me want to vomit.

I have to say that baseball guy's performance as guest host made the whole show even more agonising. I mean, my God, was this guy bad. And who the hell was he anyway? Just like Vince needs to realise that there are older fans watching, there are also plenty of fans outside the U.S watching. For the past three of four weeks we've had guest hosts that nobody outside America would have the faintest clue about. At least next week we have Timbaland, who is part of popular culture which makes him recognisable, as opposed to some random American sports guy who does not excite us U.K fans one little bit.

For me, the best part of the show was when the Miz said he wants to be WWE Champion soon. I would honestly love that to happen. I really wish WWE would do that. It makes me cringe every time I see Sheamus as champion now. A performer like the Miz deserves even a shot at the title much more than that guy does. I mean, one week he's falling out of developmental, next he's the champion on the main show. What a massive joke.

I agree that there were two good matches on this show - Cena/Swagger and the six-man tag. That was the only saving grace on a show that I would rather soon forget than have to relive ever again.

I never thought I'd say this, but I hope TNA Impact beats the stuffing out of Raw on Jan 4th. That way, at least Vince will be forced to come up with something better than this God-awful display.

And you know what the worst thing about this whole sorry mess is? I'll be naive and stupid enough to tune in next week.

"I get more enjoyment out of watching Chris Masters flex his pecs than I do watching him wrestle. Is that wrong? ..."

_________________________________

Your Q & A with Masters would be an interesting read.

A pretty tragic Raw once again. Thank god for Smackdown and Tna. Hopefully the new year will be better with the build up to Wrestlemania

Yeah, pretty much agree with you on this entire RAW, Kev. Horrible show.

Always Bret Hart to look forward to next year, though.

I agree with Paul.WWE should bring guest hosts who has international recognition.On second thought,Stop this concept.Bring back the regular General Manager concept.

You're too kind, Kevin, to say simply that their "attempts at humor fall short" (oh, hey, I just got that!). RAW was so bad that I think WWE was just baiting TNA into wasting its airtime taking shots at them again. That tactic has been run further into the ground than even the NWO.

Chris' comment... that Ric Flair is sitting at home wishing he could knife-edge chop Chris Masters' pecs... is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time.

I check this blog from work, and I am at my desk trying very very very hard not to crack up. Comment of the week, for sure!!!