FLASHBACK: One Year Ago today on Let's Wrestle - RAW 4/16
The Following was Posted One Year Ago Today on Let's Wrestle
Monday night's edition of RAW from Milan, Italy was a show in which the crowd reactions really made up for what otherwise was an okay edition of the show. For some odd reason, people in Italy seem to not like John Cena all that much, as he did not get over during his handicapped win over Edge and Randy Orton. Possibly the bigger story is we will have a WrestleMania 23 rematch next Monday night when Shawn Michaels takes on Cena in London, England for the WWE title.
The other big angle on the show was the open, which saw Vince McMahon and his good pal Umaga challenge a "fan" from the large crowd in Milan. That "fan" ended up being OWV's Boris Alexiev, who came in, got some offense on Umaga, and then after being beat on was helped out by Bobby Lashley, who came in after it was announced by McMahon that he wasen't going to be there. Lashley, after hitting Umaga with a chair, put the "fan," who was announced as Santino Morella, on top of the IC champ for the three-count. Morella was announced as the new IC Champ, which has its drawbacks on so many levels I don't know where to start.
Of course you knew the moment that Alexiev walked into the ring he was a wrestler, gee, maybe the ultra-large back tattoo gave it away, or the fact he knew what he was doing 3 seconds into their "match." I thought the whole angle seemed really weak, and the fact they put the belt on someone that no one knows, means that any value the IC belt had now goes down the toilet. Plus the fact that he needed help to beat Umaga means that this guy is not going to be able to get over, and the minute that he does start wrestling for real, its going to look like he's been a wrestler from day one. Kind of takes us back to the days of Hillbilly Jim coming in from the crowd back in the 1980's.
There were four other matches on the night along with the main event, which included Carlito and Ric Flair again losing, this time to the World's Greatest Tag Team. They are doing an angle where Carlito suffers losses, then gets mad at Torrie and Flair, which will eventually lead to him going heel and pushing that feud into high gear. Johnny Nitro beat Eugene in a quick squash that had no real heat behind it.
Chris Masters and Super Crazy had a decent match, with Masters getting over with a pinfall win. The other match was a singles match with Lance Cade going over on Jeff Hardy to push their upcoming tag title match at Backlash. The story here is to get the heel over so it makes you think that they have a shot at the PPV, which they really don't.
Then the main event, which saw Cena get booed, but then get the win when Michaels came in after the ref was knocked out, went for sweet chin music, and hit Edge instead. Cena then FU'ed Michaels, and pinned Edge. A decent ending that should set up next weeks match, and the Backlash main event. You can already see major interference next week for the main event, which will taint any finish.
All in all, kind of a bummer show considering the crowd they had watching live. I am interested to see the reaction that is given to ECW and SmackDown tonight. ECW has my interest after last weeks heel turn from C.M. Punk. How the crowd sees it is a different story.
Monday night's edition of RAW from Milan, Italy was a show in which the crowd reactions really made up for what otherwise was an okay edition of the show. For some odd reason, people in Italy seem to not like John Cena all that much, as he did not get over during his handicapped win over Edge and Randy Orton. Possibly the bigger story is we will have a WrestleMania 23 rematch next Monday night when Shawn Michaels takes on Cena in London, England for the WWE title.
The other big angle on the show was the open, which saw Vince McMahon and his good pal Umaga challenge a "fan" from the large crowd in Milan. That "fan" ended up being OWV's Boris Alexiev, who came in, got some offense on Umaga, and then after being beat on was helped out by Bobby Lashley, who came in after it was announced by McMahon that he wasen't going to be there. Lashley, after hitting Umaga with a chair, put the "fan," who was announced as Santino Morella, on top of the IC champ for the three-count. Morella was announced as the new IC Champ, which has its drawbacks on so many levels I don't know where to start.
Of course you knew the moment that Alexiev walked into the ring he was a wrestler, gee, maybe the ultra-large back tattoo gave it away, or the fact he knew what he was doing 3 seconds into their "match." I thought the whole angle seemed really weak, and the fact they put the belt on someone that no one knows, means that any value the IC belt had now goes down the toilet. Plus the fact that he needed help to beat Umaga means that this guy is not going to be able to get over, and the minute that he does start wrestling for real, its going to look like he's been a wrestler from day one. Kind of takes us back to the days of Hillbilly Jim coming in from the crowd back in the 1980's.
There were four other matches on the night along with the main event, which included Carlito and Ric Flair again losing, this time to the World's Greatest Tag Team. They are doing an angle where Carlito suffers losses, then gets mad at Torrie and Flair, which will eventually lead to him going heel and pushing that feud into high gear. Johnny Nitro beat Eugene in a quick squash that had no real heat behind it.
Chris Masters and Super Crazy had a decent match, with Masters getting over with a pinfall win. The other match was a singles match with Lance Cade going over on Jeff Hardy to push their upcoming tag title match at Backlash. The story here is to get the heel over so it makes you think that they have a shot at the PPV, which they really don't.
Then the main event, which saw Cena get booed, but then get the win when Michaels came in after the ref was knocked out, went for sweet chin music, and hit Edge instead. Cena then FU'ed Michaels, and pinned Edge. A decent ending that should set up next weeks match, and the Backlash main event. You can already see major interference next week for the main event, which will taint any finish.
All in all, kind of a bummer show considering the crowd they had watching live. I am interested to see the reaction that is given to ECW and SmackDown tonight. ECW has my interest after last weeks heel turn from C.M. Punk. How the crowd sees it is a different story.
Labels: ric flair, Santino Marella, umaga, vince mcmahon
