Raw 12-7

Did you miss me? If you kept count, I went 26 weeks straight with a Raw blog. I was out of action last week with the flu. I missed a week of work and it sucked. I can sum up last weeks Raw with one sentence and one question. Last weeks Raw sucked balls. Where the hell was the wrestling? Now that is over, I can get to some other things. I have heard a lot of wrestling news since the last time I wrote a Raw blog. I have a lot to cover. For starters, I want to send out my dearest sympathy to the Fatu family. Umaga passed away late last week and its unfortunate. A great wrestler who showed off his Samoan heritage. I will get to TNA in just a moment. Mark Cuban, who I can't stand for to many reasons to type, is the host of Raw tonight. I hope another RKO is in store for that piece of crap. I'm back! WOOOO!

Before I begin with Raw, I have to talk about 2 things that I have been hearing on wrestling sites and ShowStoppers. Larry and John said on Showstoppers last Thursday they want to see Taker vs Cena at Mania 26. I have a HUGE problem with this match. When the WWE talks about matches, I always wonder who benefits? I believe there are 3 potential answers to that question. The fans and either or perhaps both competitors. Who will benefit from Taker Cena? I can't think of the answer. You might be screaming 'J Call you are an idiot. Fans would benefit. The match would be awesome.' If you said that, then think of a Cena match that had you saying, 'I'm so excited I got to watch John Cena'. Lets face it, he is not a good wrestler. Hell, his mania matches with HHH or HBK were not that great. If those two guys couldn't carry Cena. I can only guess neither could Taker. So would you really benefit from seeing him have a mediocre match vs Taker? Well its a match we haven't seen. You are right. The match has never happened at Wrestlemania. I would rather see it happen on a different pay per view. Cena would benefit from ending the streak. Yes and no. Most fans will be pissed off that Cena beat the Undertaker strictly because Cena doesn't deserve it. You can go look at the Undertakers streak. Go ahead, I'll wait....Ok your back. Did you see Stone Cold Steve Austin on that list? No I didn't think so. Austin vs Taker never happened at a Mania. Who would have benefited? Nobody. Austin would have had to lose and that would have hurt his reputation of a big match winner. If Taker lost, the streak would have been over and killed his aura of being undefeated at Mania. The fans wouldn't have won either because if the streak had end with Austin, the fans would have been split. Did Austin deserve it or not? I feel Cena and Taker would just do nothing but hurt one of the guys in it. Taker wins, Cena is now just another wrestler, instead of what kids believe he is, superhuman. I will give you one more example. Did Taker ever take on Hogan at Wrestlemania? No because it proves my point. Who would have benefited? One last question: Why did HBK and Taker wrestle last year then if neither benefited? Undertaker did benefit by finally beating Shawn. Shawn put on a better match than he did against Bret Hart over a decade ago and the fans benefited watching one of the greatest matches ever. Last year, Taker HBK was a win win win. Taker Cena is nowhere near that. I would say its a loss for all three.

TNA rages war on WWE. I have never mentioned TNA in this blog until now. Is TNA going to start the Monday Night Wars again? They have signed one of the biggest names ever in wrestling history with Hulk Hogan. However, Hogan is not the signing it was back when WCW signed him. Eric Bischoff had Ted Turner's money and plenty of free agents to make a big splash against WWE. I like Hogan and think he can help TNA. January 4th will tell us all if TNA can hang with the WWE. TNA will have a 3 hour show going head to head with Raw. January 4th is also the night THE ROCK will return to the WWE. Yes it is being speculated The People's Champion will host that Raw. Hogan and Rock return on the same night certainly sounds like a big wrestling night. TNA doesn't have the resources WCW had and has to offer something special for wrestling fans to tune away from Raw. Will a war start? Time will tell. Alright, now that those two items are out of the way. We can move on to tonights Raw.

Mark Cuban is a giant douchebag in part because I am a Spurs fan and hate the Dallas Mavericks. The other reason is because he has no idea how to bring a title home to Dallas. I had heard Cody Rhodes was calling out Cuban. Nothing wrong with a Raw starting with the Champ. At least the WWE is starting off with some damn wrestling. What a strange concept? A wrestling show with actual wrestling on it. I am sure being a WWE writer is a much tougher job than many believe. I do think the easiest part is MAKING MATCHES! Last week, there wasn't hardly any matches. I was happy for Carlito Cena to start Raw until Sheamus had to interupt. I guess Raw wasn't meant to have real wrestling matches on the show. Wow thanks for coming back Carlito. A guy like Carlito isn't a jobber. He should be in the mix for the United States title. Raw has almost to many wrestlers that another belt may need to be incorporated. I wouldn't mind seeing the Euro belt come back to help guys like Carlito and Evan Bourne. WWE screws up with so much talent anyway.

Again Raw is being taking away from the wrestling to the celebrity host. I don't mind having an in ring promo but not two of them back to back. I can hardly count Cena Carlito a match. Kofi Orton with Cuban as the ref. Oh boy I hope he gets his ass beat. Nice comment by Rhodes and making fun of the Mavs. I always liked Cody, lol. Cuban must have taken some pills or drugs thinking the Mavs will win the title. The WWE teams up two guys that are never used. Good move, WWE. Evan and Primo are completely underused and this is a perfect way to use them. I guess this match happened on Superstars. I had no idea because only 10 people watch Superstars on WGN. I just think about Primo and Bourne used in WCW Cruiserweight division. Michael Cole talked about how Bourne is one of the hottest stars on Monday night Raw. Really? If Bourne was so hot then he wouldn't lose every damn week on Raw. I guess that is why Cole is the best in business at sucking.

My future wife and Diva champion Maryse faced off with Gail Kim. Has the WWE given me a reason to care about this match? I didn't think so. Although I like both women and the match could have went a little longer. I can only bet that Maryse vs Melina will happen very soon.

A long ass DX promo with Hornswaggle. Midget crotch chops are funny but it took forever to have Hornswaggle do it. Raw lost some steam here in my eyes. Another week of very little in ring and way to much out of the ring. I can only hope Kofi Orton saves us after the first hour was very weak.

Will the WWE actually give the best feud going on Raw time to develop a story inside the ring? Kofi and Orton is a great feud helping Raw right now. I have been saying for several weeks, I want this feud to end up having three matches. We get the first tonight in a straight one on one contest. Feuds seldom end without having a gimmick match or two. The WWE should capitalize on this feud by stretching it out with two gimmick matches. The first could be a cage match. After the second match and both men win one, you need to end it with a rubber match. Randy is not going to win the Rumble and neither is Kofi. I want Kofi to win tonight. Orton win at the Rumble but have Kofi eliminate Orton later in the night. Then at No Way Out, Kofi and Orton could tear the house down with a falls count anywhere anything goes match to finish off the feud. You just got excited reading that, admit it. Cuban screws over Orton with a fast wicked fast count. I guess technically this is the 2nd match after last nights. This feud was way to quick sense now we are having the rubber match this Sunday at TLC. I don't fully understand why the WWE rushed into having three matches in three weeks. I guess we will see the payoff at the pay per view.

I sure as hell didn't think Miz would lose his United States championship against Mark Henry. I don't mind Mark Henry and think he has a spot on Raw. He just doesn't deserve a singles championship. I got what I thought I would get out of their match. I didn't expect a very long match and Miz won. Where does Miz go from here? He beat Henry maybe it is time for MVP to get a shot.

Time waster number 2 on the evening. Anytime Hornswaggle and Chavo are in the ring, Raw is wasting time. I wonder if the WWE knows they have a pay per view this Sunday. The go home show of Raw is having Jillian and Chavo take on Hornswaggle and Chavo. I think after this show, I won't be buying TLC. The WWE is doing nothing to make me want to see the ppv. They didn't even hype the Orton Kofi match. No they decided to announce it 6 days before the show. I can't believe the crowd got behind Chris Masters. The WWE fans do some strange things and that was certainly one of them.

In case you are not on wrestling news sites all the time like myself. Chris Jericho faced DX one on three because Big Show isn't allowed to wrestle. Big Show had knee surgery and hasn't healed yet. He will be ready for TLC, but until then, Jericho has no partner. Jericho and Show will definitely win tag team of the year by default. The match did not last long either. JeriShow dominate DX. I won't be picking against DX now. I think the match at TLC will be a great match. The JeriShow DX match will be perhaps the best match on the card. I have a feeling we are going to remember one other match more than any other. Who am I talking about? Tune into ShowStoppers to find out.

The final segment to leave a lasting impression on everyone before the ppv. The sign of the night "Sheamus glows in the dark". That is awesome. I give props to the women for that one. Sheamus made a nice case on why he will win. Cena kept pretty cool for the majority of the promo. I was waiting for Cena to get into his passionate speech voice. The promo failed to give me a real reason to think Sheamus is going to walk out TLC with the WWE title. Why did Sheamus have to look intimidated by Mark Cuban? At least I got my wish of Cuban getting destroyed by the end of the night. Come on Mavs fans. You know deep down you enjoyed Mark Cuban going through that table. I know I did. The FU to Sheamus on Sunday should be through 2 tables to make sure it puts a stamp on Cena beating Sheamus.

I just felt like Raw was flat tonight. The show that is suppose to build momentum and make me want to spend 40 bucks this Sunday failed. I didn't see enough wrestling or enough with the feuds themselves. Yes, Raw had some nice in ring promos. Hornswaggle was in 2 full segments which is one and a half to many in my eyes. ShowStoppers will have all of BBSD's pay per view picks. I sucked at Survivor Series and I will make sure it doesn't happen again. I hope you enjoyed the Raw blog. I hope this is the beginning of a new long streak. Week one in the books. I will catch you next week.

J Call