RAW Workrate Report
WHAT WORKED:
TKG: I really dug the Rosey/Hurricane vs. Tajiri/Rhino match on Heat. Would have rather seen the singles on Heat as thats really the right place for heatless face vs. face matchups, but still fun little face vs. face singles and like the idea of a Superhero turn. Darkness Hurricane could be fun. Hurricane Shane becomes Hurricane Francis and starts telling people that "you faggots better not touch my stuff." Although they really should have mentioned something about Shane's hometown being destroyed by Ivan and Shane trying to use his Hurripowers to resurect the city, to keep the comic book continuity. And they should really make Rosey get hooked on heroin too.
TKG: Disappointed that Orton didn't suck off Vince, but the Grenier vs. Maven match was a nice parting gift for Barrnet.
TKG: Trish invites the Diva winner to a special initiation. Sweet they still haven't fired PS Hayes.
TKG: Main six man was fun as Flair is kind of good as poor man's Buddy Roberts and Batista is surprisingly good in Gordy role. Helmsley sucks as PS Hayes as he can't stall, show ass or throw punches. He is good at playing with his hair. While Helmsley was controlling Benjamin in a headlock, Helmsley complained about his tights being pulled. Doesn't even know how to heel stall properly, you complain about the tights when opponent has control. Like the continued protection of the Batista lariat.
PAS: I amused that Smackdown and RAW are doing the old school finisher burying thing that WCW and WWF used to do. Disco is doing the stunner, and Gillberg using the spear, now Batista is knocking people out with the Smackdown champs finisher, and Paul London is doing a more dangerous version of the Pedigree.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
PAS: The theory of a season premiere is to put your best foot forward. RAW opened with a pair of middle age cokeheads jabbering for fifteen minutes to set up a one armed retard coming out to making monkey faces.
PAS: Wow, the only realistic acting Lita has ever done is her morphine drip stare. I think she has been using the method.
TKG: Who was the indy guy working as a doctor? The Smithsonian is opening the new Native American museum tomorrow, so I guess Gatorwolf wasn't available.
TKG: How are they going to work a heel fitness guy on RAW? I mean who can he feud with? I mean heel fitness guy would make sense in the NWA feuding with Dusty and Norman the Lunatic. But RAW is filled with nothing but roided up guys. who is he going to feud with? The only way I could figure this helps is if Vince still has Ico-Pro he has to get rid of.
PAS: This is what the fourth heel fitness gimmick the WWE has run. Someone clearly made Stephanie do crunches in high school.
TKG: Jim Ross "What a competitive match these two have had, at times these two are mirror imaging each others styles." I love when Ross has to call matches by reading talking points that have nothing to do with the actual work. God this match stank. It wasn't even like I was watching a match, it was like I was watching the two walk through the match. The crowd was deader for this than they were for the face vs. face match before it. Crowd only got into it after the big Jericho bump during break. It was smart having Jericho be the guy who was going to do extended selling but still this wasn't as good as Eigen vs. Kawabata.
PAS: God this was awful, the whole match felt like they were running threw it at half speed backstage. Worked like a bad indy match, like TNA ran Michael Shane v. Showtime Eric Young, at least TNA would have that match only run 4 minutes. Speaking of amusing commentary, I liked Lawler anticipating Micheals kip-up, Lawler is a really adaptable worker, and you could tell he was disgusted by a guy working his hack formula match.