RAW 5/21 and ECW 5/22 Thoughts
After spending two hours watching WWE RAW on Monday night as well as an hour last night viewing ECW - I can say that I am overly frustrated with where the major storyline for the entire company is going. I wrote this a few weeks ago, but now the point has to be driven home more than ever after the last three hours of TV - and that point is that Vince McMahon needs his character to get off of TV - ASAP!
The last four PPV's, Wrestlemania 23, Backlash, Judgement Day, and now the upcoming One Night Stand, have all been dominated by WAAAAYYYY too much TV time for McMahon. I understand WM 23, and even to a bit Backlash, but the McMahon-Bobby Lashley feud is so stale right now, and now they are going to push yet another match our way at the PPV in less than two weeks.
The focus on RAW this past week was all on that match, as they made Lashley go through four sub-par matches, vs Chris Masters, Vicera, Umaga and Shane McMahon, to earn his title shot in a Street Fight vs Vince at the PPV. Of course Lashley won all four, with the last match vs Shane being billed as the main event, which is another subject all together. So now we get Lashley vs Vince for the ECW strap at ONS in a Street Fight. One word - ugh.
The rest of RAW was just three other matches minus the Lashley gauntlet. Ric Flair and Carlito went to a rare double count-out, Candice pinned Melina in a non-title match, and the Hardys beat Johnny Nitro and Kenny Dykstra. That match also had some post drama, as the World's Greatest Tag Team attacked the Hardys, only for them to be saved by the now face team of Cade and Murdoch. I see a four-way coming for ONS between the four teams involved here.
ECW was a little less focused on the McMahon-Lashley saga, but they did bore down the show with a long segment of highlights focused on Monday night and the upcoming PPV match. All I can is that if McMahon beats Lashley at ONS, this company has completely lost its mind after what was a solid stretch of two good PPV's with Mania and Backlash.
The main event of ECW was RVD and CM Punk vs Marcus Cor Von and Elijah Burke. It was an okay tag, with the faces winning, only to then have the heels both beat on RVD and Punk to end the show. With RVD out of the mix here shortly, there seems to be a growing thought that that face of the show will turn to Punk, who seems to have turned his attitude around and is out of the doghouse with the higher ups in the company.
Matt Striker beat Brett Major in a short match. That match based around the fact that Striker has lost a lot recently, and that Bukre was mad at him for not getting the job done in recent weeks. Kevin Thorn was on the show, and they explained Ariel not being with him by basically saying he wants to go at it alone. Weak. He beat a jobber, who in the ECW.com review was described as a "hapless foe."
The opener was Tommy Dreamer vs Snitksy, which ended with mean Gene pinning Dreamer, only to then post match have to battle RVD, who was slammed with a chair the week before by Snitsky. Look for this to be a possible match at ONS, which is still scheduled to be RVD's last match with the company.
So here we are, now just really days away from another PPV (too much too soon), and the shift in the roster is really taking form. In the last few months, we've already lost a number of major stars due to injury - HHH, Undertaker, Ken Kennedy, and now Shawn Michaels. That is why we've had to resort to guys like Khali in main events, moving Edge to SmackDown, too much Vince, and throwing Mark Henry back in as a main event guy. Let's hope some of the big names get better soon based on the changes the company has had to make.
