Raw 4-25

The WWE made a rash decision and decided to do the Draft without much hype. I'm sure most of it has to do Edge's retirement. I said a lot of what I wanted in the Raw preview. I was hoping for some drastic moves and Smackdown gaining some bigger names. The Draft has to help some of the mid card wrestlers especially guys like Dibiase, McIntyre and Daniel Bryan. At the end of Raw, I was pleased with several moves and disappointed in the ending. I have to tell you this is my 2nd draft of the blog. I had one complete but this piece of crap website called Blogger sucks donkey balls and erased nearly everything I wrote.

Before Raw, you have to be watching Tough Enough. The first few weeks, I had my doubts but last week and this with Bret Hart have been superb. I am a little biased since Bret has always been my favorite wrestler of all time. If you're not on twitter, you missed this epic video. The song says 'I'm going to make you cry', well I cried laughing my ass off. There is some talent on Tough Enough and I look forward to seeing what happens with some of these young men and women.

Raw started off nicely with the battle royal. The whole thing was forgettable except for Kofi and Bourne's interaction near the end. I don't remember anything else after this since afterwards John Cena was drafted to Smackdown. This moment was a giant shocker for everyone. The entire Internet Wrestling Community was stunned. I was on twitter and I thought it was going to blow up. Everyone thought this was a good move for WWE and Smackdown. I was on the fence. I didn't want to see Cena move to Smackdown. I felt it would hurt Christian's chances of becoming the face of Friday Night. WWE needs to show they are committed to Captain Charisma. Luckily the disappointment from the main event and final draft pick, lifted my spirits.

R-Truth really stepped his game up with his on stage promo. Truth saying he is finally himself is a good thing. The whole rap gimmick was played out. Truth's little kid voice made me laugh. The crowd responded hot with plenty of boos and WHAT chants. Morrison and Truth can have a hell of a story. Morrison will have to step up his mic skills. One thing was proven tonight, Morrison has the crowd behind him. I don't know whether to credit Morrison or Truth.

All I can say about Cody Rhodes is DAMN! He's completely turned me into a fan.

I was really hoping the Irish Ghost would move over to Smackdown. At the end of the night, Orton and Sin Cara were the big names heading to Smackdown. They didn't add a big heel and lost Del Rio. Sheamus can easily move over and be back into the main event picture. Sheamus has gotten the giant shaft on Raw. The match proved that with Sheamus taking two Trouble in Paradise for the loss. Obviously, Smackdown did gain one big name with Randy Orton. He was one guy I said in my Raw preview would be perfect to go over to Smackdown. I finally got one right.

The Cole and JR segment lasted way too long. Anything with Cole lasts way to long. I did find it very funny Cole received a black eye and bloody lip. Ross may have ended up with a broken hand. Lawler mentioned it later on and I saw some pictures of it on twitter. It didn't look good.

I couldn't even tell who Randy and who Ziggler were in their match. Ziggler's unique look is gone and it sucks. I know I mentioned it last week but I will continue mentioning it because I hate it. I would love to see Ziggler get a long term program with someone, anyone on Raw. He's still dinking around doing nothing.

I would have rather seen Del Rio stay on Smackdown. Friday Night seemed to feel like Del Rio's show anymore. I realize it makes sense because Del Rio's star is rising and everyone sees Raw as the "A" Show. The main event isn't much of a main event with Mark Henry involved. Mark Henry, R-Truth and Big Zeke are all heels, I'm just saying. The 6 man tag was pretty good though. The turn by Henry makes zero sense and I hope it doesn't lead to anything with Christian. He's got bigger things to do. As I mentioned, Cena being drafted back to Raw was pretty lame.

WWE has that supplemental draft coming up on Tuesday. You can expect several under card wrestlers moving in that draft. I hope guys like McIntryre and Dibiase get a chance to show they can become stars on a different show. They need to first be put in front of our eyes. If you need more wrestling be sure to check out Showstoppers on BBSD every Wednesday. You can follow me on Twitter @mccall316 or email me jcall@bigbadsportsdaddy.com. I will come back later in the week for my Extreme Rules picks. Stunner for everyone!

J Call

Raw 4-18

Raw comes to us on Foreign land and on a delay. The show was actually done about 4 hours prior to hitting my television set. Even on tape, Raw broadcasting from overseas is special. The crowds over there are different but in a really good way. They are sometimes much better than the crowds in the states. They don't see WWE stars as often, so they make the atmosphere special. The pops are a little louder, the boos are louder and they usually stand up for big moments. However, Raw probably won't give the UK fans a shocking big moment. A lot of people are upset R-Truth is in the main event at Extreme Rules, they need to shut up after Raw.

The John Morrison R-Truth promo was a bit awkward. The whole thing started with talking about Truth not being in shape. That is about as week as a feud starting over a cup of coffee being spilled on someone. They were just creepy on the mic together. They are friends but weren't friendly and the crowd was dead. I guess Trish Stratus shoulder wasn't that cold. Morrison was getting all the heat in the backstage and now he's in the main event. I am glad Truth is going to be a heel. The rap gimmick needed to end a while ago. The entire turn took way to long on Raw. I felt the segment should have finished 5 minutes before it did. Still, Truth is a heel and has some relevance. The WWE was very PG with Truth smoking a cigarette live on television. All in all, great heel turn.

Ziggler changed his hair and not for the better. I liked Ziggler with the blond hair. I know it seems irrelevant, hair color doesn't make the man. I don't know, Ziggler is with Vickie and you would have to be pretty stupid to stick with her. He looks similar to everyone else now. Bourne and Ziggler, in limited minutes, had a good match. Dolph is a stud and I continue to sing his praises. I hope Truth heads to Smackdown and Ziggler can be pushed. He was in a match at Wrestlemania and since has taken a backseat. WWE could easily put the U.S. title on him and let Sheamus head to Smackdown. The other problem on both Raw and Smackdown is the lack of faces. The good guys are being over run by bad guys. Raw has Orton, Cena, Sin Cara and Morrison in the spotlight. I like Evan Bourne but he's not a big name face and neither is Daniel Bryan. I guess that is why Morrison is in the main event. They need a big face and Morrison will hopefully fill the role.

As I pointed out in the opening paragraph, UK fans and foreign fans in general do it better than most American crowds. Miz being booed out of the building proved my point. Miz never gets that type of reaction anywhere else. I realize Miz is in a feud with Cena, who gets booed excessively in the States. You can boo them both. Hell, scream your ass off for Morrison, he's due. I just don't understand why you boo Cena and cheer Miz. I just don't give a crap for either of them. I will root for Morrison but we know Miz will win. Extreme Rules is selling me by adding Christian in the main event with Del Rio. I love Christian and want to see him win the big one. However, Del Rio should win at Extreme Rules. I know you're pissed. Calm down because I have a rational concept. Smackdown has been ran by faces with the World Heavyweight Championship since around last summer. Kane held the title until Edge took it at TLC. It's time for Friday night to be run by a heel. Christian is due, hell he has been due for a big title for about 2 years. If you have Christian chase for 4 months, Summerslam could be the big moment all the peeps are waiting for. Edge could return to be a special guest ref, Del Rio flips the hell out and Christian manages to finally win the big one. His World Title moment would be very similar to Jeff Hardy winning his first WHC at Armageddon 2008.

The tag match was fantastic. Sin Cara is amazing to watch. He did botch a few spots a week ago but tonight, he was near perfect. The dirt sheets reported WWE was down on Sin Cara after his match with Primo. Well I think WWE trusts him a bit when he is put in a tag team match with John Cena. He overshot the moonsault and it's going to take time for the wrestlers to adapt to Cara and vice versa. Cara is still showing what he can do. The WWE is putting him in bigger matches but he would better be suited with guys like Evan, Primo and Daniel Bryan. For now, I'm happy he's getting opportunities.

I felt bad for Eve which is why she was my photo at the top of the blog. Bellas are worthless and Eve gets the victory. Meanwhile, Awesome Kong was shown again this time snapping legs off a brunette. I guess no one will be safe. The rumor has it, Kong's WWE name will be Kharma. Kharma is a bitch and she will destroy everyone. I just hope she destroys all the barbie dolls then moves on to real competition like Gail Kim, yes Kim look it up on Youtube if you don't believe me, Natalya and Phoenix. The Diva title has an opportunity to finally becomes important for the first time since Trish Stratus.

Michael Cole getting off the headset was great. My ears stopped bleeding as Ross and King were the only ones on the mic. I hated the entire segment. Cole has just gotten to the point of annoyance passed Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan and the Jersey Shore combined. It's time for him to get his ass handed to him at Extreme Rules. I was really hoping for Swagger to turn face. I guess that's not happening for a while. To bad, I wanted to root for a fellow Sooner.

I actually enjoyed the Sheamus Santino match. The Irish Ghost shouldn't miss an episode. He just needs a real story. Daniel Bryan hasn't done anything since 3 weeks prior to Wrestlemania. WWE already hosed us on not getting the match on the Mania card. Now, Daniel Bryan, who is extremely talented, gets to do nothing. You piss me off sometimes WWE. It's not rocket science. It's to damn late for a rematch to be set back up for the next pay per view. They could make it up to us by giving them a 20 minute contest on Raw for free. That's to easy.

I was happy to see Randy Orton and Punk given plenty of time to have their main event. The broadcast on TV made it sound like Orton got the biggest pop of the night. Say what you want about how it was something we saw at Wrestlemania, it was damn good. Randy and Punk helped revive me in the broadcast because I was bored. The only thing I want to see is Orton getting help against Nexus. Once again, I bring up Daniel Bryan. If the WWE wants to build a new star, add Daniel Bryan to this story and have Orton feud with Mason Ryan, Daniel with Punk. I think we can all agree Bryan and Punk would be a blast to see. Punk should have gotten the upper hand tonight with a GTS to end. Other than that, I was pretty happy with how Raw ended.

The overall show wasn't memorable. WWE hasn't done enough build for Extreme Rules. I'm looking forward to Christian and Del Rio over anything else. Morrison in the main event should quiet some of the critics that were super pissed R-Truth got that spot last week. Somehow, the match will probably end up in a fatal four way as you can't turn Truth heal and then not put him on the pay per view. Remember, you can e-mail me jcall@bigbadsportsdaddy.com and follow me on twitter @mccall316, I tweet live during Raw and TNA Impact. Make sure you tune into my boys John Conner and Larry Stanley on Showstoppers on BBSD. Stunners for everyone.

J Call

Raw 11-15

The Old School Raw might have been just what this WWE blogger needed to boost his spirits. The shows the past weeks have been sub par. Okay, in actuality they sucked. I'm trying to be nice but it's hard. Even Smackdown didn't do much for me. I'm not going to mention TNA and their lame ass new title. Before Raw, I have to get to a great email I received the other day from a loyal reader.

J Call,
I've been reading your blogs for a while. I'm disappointed you've never taken an email. You talk about several wrestlers past and present. The WWE roster is full of potential. Who do you see as an underutilized wrestler in WWE?

Mark Robinson, Portland, Oregon

My apologizes for not taking email before. I love your question because yo u could name several guys or Divas. I keep coming back to Teddy for the answer. Ted Dibiase Jr. could be a U.S. champion already. His body of work isn't huge. He was part of a great stable for 2 years. Dibiase, along with fellow Legacy brethren Rhodes, has only held tag gold. Daniel Bryan has nobody as a threat to his title. I'm sick of the Goldust thing. Teddy has the skills and tools. He should have had Million Dollar Challenges when he brought in that belt. He and Morrison never matured. Crowds don't feel he is relevant. The fans are right. I wouldn't have changed his music either. The way I see Teddy is getting in the U.S. picture once the Goldust deal finishes. He's going to be in the MITB match at Mania. In another year, things will be different for the Fortunate son. Thanks for you the email.

If you would like to email a question to me, send it to jcall@bigbadsportsdaddy.com. I am still conducting my WWE DVD contest. If you send me a picture with a sign that says, "Sheamus the Irish Ghost" and I can tell you took the sign to a WWE event. I will send you a WWE DVD. I'm not lying. This contest is in conjunction with BBSD.

I must say I'd love to see Raw start using that video package and music every week. They could keep the platform out front as well. I loved when they did live interviews in front of the crowd. It keeps them involved instead of staring at a large screen. Sometimes simplistic is better than trying to out do other and creating fancy backgrounds. I could tell after the 1st segment, I was going to love Raw. The feeling brought me back to my childhood.

I was very happy to see Ziggler on Monday night again. I hoped he was facing Bryan. Henry's sexual chocolate role was a sweet touch. I forgot all about that. They had a quality match. Nothing special but forged Ziggler in the right direction. My problem is Ziggler's finisher. Henry kicked out of the Zig Zag which makes me believe the sleeper is going to finish Ziggler's matches. The Zig Zag is much better. He can hit that for a surprise finish. The sleeper is to predictable.

The Dynasty finally broke up for good. The finish works much better now that Kidd is going to be the heel. David will make a better face. After the match, I couldn't help but wonder what the Nexus would do with the tag titles. They need a new contender. Luckily Raw later in the night solved the issue.

We haven't seen Harvey Whipelman or the Brawler in years. I don't need to see them again either. Big Zeke is on a tear but I think he's got to be a heel before he strikes it big. He has the look and he made a good heel on ECW. The change will come soon.

The GM is certainly not old school. The match made with Barrett and Truth was interesting. Barrett hasn't done enough to win over fans as a true main event star. At least Nexus was banned from ringside so it was a classic one on one contest. Barrett needs to win without interference week after week. Before Raw hit the airwaves, I worried this show wouldn't help continue stories. By this time of Raw, they had which eliminated my fears.

Miz weaseling out of his match with Cena wasn't what I had in mind. The match with Riley wasn't anything more than a typical match with Cena. Riley didn't show much offense. The finish was good. Orton and Cena furthered the story and the announcement of Piper's Pit to boot. I've said for weeks that I'm tired of Cena. Well I am. Survivor Series couldn't come soon enough for the send off.

The WWE needs to learn to stop giving the Shiek a live mic. He always rants on Hogan. Shocking, the tag titles have a future opponent. I've mentioned before Santino and Kozlov would make a good tag team match for Nexus. The Morrison save leads to a match at Survivor Series with Sheamus. Thank you! The setup with Brisco and Arn was really well done. Good to see Brisco and Arn needs to be on TV more.

Kofi's return was nice but he hasn't had much interaction with Nexus over on Friday night. He isn't doing anything on Smackdown. He feuded with Ziggler for the IC title for a long time and now has nothing to do. I'd like to see them start a Kofi Rhodes story. I think those 2 would mesh well. George "The Animal" Steel? Hilarious. I can't recall the last time I saw that guy. Kofi hit a beautiful Trouble in Paradise. Opponents need to take lessons from Otunga on that move. Sometimes it looks horrible.

Truth and Barrett put on a decent match. I thought it should have went 2 segments. They had it set up for 2 and instead of a commercial Raw stayed with it. Barrett still didn't show much offensive skills. That's why the match needed to be longer. He still hasn't proved enough to me that he can headline pay per views. WWE had to give Barrett time and failed.

Tito Santana looked great. Tito never got the credit he deserved as an in ring performer. I know some people don't like Del Rio. I'm in the opposite field. Del Rio does a good job and actually gets a crowd reaction. He gets serious heat. His mannerisms are a bit much at times. Even so, Del Rio is here to stay and I'm all for that. Got to love the Sarge except for his wrestling. I didn't need to see that. He could have called someone down to face Del Rio. I guess it got Alberto over. MVP isn't finished with Ziggler yet so the save didn't make much sense. MVP deserves one more shot for the IC title before moving on. Hell, Ziggler hasn't had many opponents since winning it from Kofi. Perhaps, they could make a triple threat and give the IC title meaning.

Mae Young didn't know what PG meant either. Bitches and sluts, sweetness. You see the world didn't collapse when she said that. WWE take notice. We like hearing that. It even got a big pop. I'll bet you if your grandma said slut or bitch you would laugh your ass off. The whole segment didn't help Natalya and LayCool. I'm sure Smackdown will do that.

My heart warmed up to see JR. Bryan and Swagger, with time, could put on a wrestling clinic. They did a nice job with the time given. To bad the entire match was ruined by douche bag Cole. He ruins everything and that's his character. Cole could be wiped off the face off the Earth and only his mom would miss him. Good Ole Jim Ross could have told him Raw got their highest ratings ever when he and King called the action alone. What should have been something cool was a cluster of 3 guys talking over each other. Vintage Cole. Bryan and Swagger is a match I would watch again. I swear I wrote about Dibiase way before Raw started. You know my feelings on the attack. Dibiase and Bryan, where do I sign up?

No main event but a Piper's Pit was sweet. You can give Piper a mic and he brings it every time. He can always deliver a great promo. The face to face with Cena was fantastic. It provided a different view for the heel turn on Sunday. The ending was a great prelude. I'm ready for the finish and see what Cena does. He got the final word on Raw. I honestly have no clue what is going to happen. I've always though Cena would turn on everyone. I don't know now. Orton should have been out longer in the segment. I've written it dozens of times, the WWE title takes a back seat to no one. The whole Cena thing took away from the title and made Cena the story. Yes, Cena is important but the title is what every body wants. Piper tried to make the title feel important. To little to late.

Raw felt special. This type of show was just what I needed. We saw some new things tonight. Dibiase and Bryan is a huge lift for the show. I can't wait for that to develop. The tag champs actually have a title defense ahead of them. We might see both on Sunday. Some of the backstage skits all the Rhodes and the Morrison segments worked and others, Atlas, didn't. Altogether, I felt Raw brought something to the table. I shall return later in the week with my Survivor Series picks. If you need more wrestling opinions, check out the podcast of Showstoppers on BBSD.

J Call

Good Ole' JR

The latest news in wrestling is Jim Ross's contract is up and the WWE will not be renewing his deal. The best wrestling, perhaps in all of sports, announcer is going to hang up the black hat. I am deeply saddened and pissed off by the news. I don't understand why you would let the best announcer walk away and a guy like Matt Striker or Michael Cole have jobs. Jim may end up at TNA or other side projects. With the news and an uncertain future, I felt compelled to write my idol a personal letter directed to him.

Dear Good Ole' JR,

I heard the WWE is not going to renew your contract and your time in the wrestling industry could very well come to an end. You have probably heard it before by some of the biggest names in wrestling but it should be said from this moment on, Jim Ross is the greatest announcer wrestling has ever had and most likely ever will have. Your relationship with the wrestlers was showcased by your brilliant calls. I could name a ton of moments I can remember and never forget. Most of my memories come from the "Austin Era". You and Steve had a relationship one could only dream about. I have heard many stories where Steve said you were the one that put him on top of the wrestling world. The thing I admired the most about your announcing was how you could tell the story to the fans.

We all witnessed some instant classic with beautiful storytelling during the match. You would always understand the story and illustrate it to us. The most important thing is you never took away from the story. You enhanced it. The announcers today have not learned that which hurts the wrestling product. You knew what to say and how to say it or you knew when to stay quiet and let us enjoy the moment. Great broadcasters have learned the art and you painted the most beautiful paintings.

The other thing I want to say is you always saw the potential in wrestlers even when they didn't. You always said Shelton Benjamin was the best pure athlete in the WWE. I couldn't argue that point. Shelton displayed how good he can be during the Money in the Bank matches. However, he never fully understood "it". I'm not an insider and I have no idea your relationship with Shelton. I do think he should have listened to you a little closer because he could have been something special. I always admired your honesty during any of your broadcasts and the insight you gave us.

You can not be replaced. I know the WWE has tried to move you to different shows and different partners, it never mattered. You were the main attraction at the table. I am not sure if you will come back to the WWE or sign with TNA or stay retired. All I know is, no one can wear the black hat you have left behind. Thank you for the wonderful memories. I wish you nothing but the best in your future.

One of many true wrestling fans,
Joel McCall

P.S Can I get Vince McMahon's number? I thought I would ask.