RAW REcap & Review for June 2, 2009

As seems to be the case quite a bit of the time lately, RAW was extremely sub-par.


The show started out with another of Randy Orton's labored and unequivocally boring promos. Here's the rundown, "Blah blah blah...Batista...blah blah blah...kicked him in the skull...blah blah blah." Are we ever going to hear something different from this guy?


Next Ric Flair (if you were in the same room as me you would be able to hear my teeth grinding right now) came out to--believe it or not--challenge Randy Orton to a fight in the parking lot. I admit that Flair is one of the greatest of all time, but let's face it, he's a jackass. The more I learn about Flair's business politics and his personal life, the less tolerable I find him to be. Ric Flair was given, and I realize I have mentioned this before, one of the greatest sendoffs in the history of the business. Nobody will get the kind of sendoff that Flair did, not even Hulk Hogan. Now because of a large monetary debt that Flair owes to Vince McMahon, not to mention his massive ego, Flair is back just over a year later. For me, it's nothing less than disgusting.


Also, I understand that being a wrestling fan requires the suspension of disbelief. I can do that, but let's be extremely realistic. In a fight, Ric Flair would get beaten senseless by Randy Orton. Why is WWE putting their self-proclaimed Viper, the biggest heel in the company, against a man who passed his prime a few thousand miles back? Granted, Orton seems to be squashing Flair every week, but it still doesn't make sense.


The next segment was a Divas tag match. Have I mentioned before how much I hate random tag matches. If they don't mean something, if they don't advance an established team in a tag division, they don't mean much to me.
Kelly Kelly and Mickie James took on Maryse and Beth Phoenix. My question is this, why put two extremely talented wrestlers--Mickie and Beth--in a match with two marginally talented women like Maryse and Kelly. I cannot say for sure but Maryse and Kelly may be better wrestlers than WWE allows them to be. We've seen that before in many cases before. My overall point is that the quality of the match--which only lasted about four minutes--is reduced by adding two women who are more attractive than they are talented--with the exception of Maryse, who do not find attractive (she looks like she needs a sandwich).


Next we had a tag match featuring William Regal teaming with Matt Hardy against the Colons. This match was effectively a number one contenders match for Hardy and Regal. Who in the name of hell ever thought that Regal and Hardy could be a good team? Why even consider putting the belts on them? This is another example of how degraded tag team wrestling has become.


Now let's turn to the idea of Vicki Guerrero and "Santina" Morella in a Hog Pen Match this Sunday. We haven't seen one of these since the days of Phineas and Henry Godwin. As ridiculous as it is, I think the match is going to have a lot of comedic value. I can't stand Vicki Guerrero but it ought to be enjoyable to see her--where she belongs for pissing on her husbands memory and the Guerrero name--wallowing around in slop.


Next up was a Miz promo. I am actually enjoying these promos--up to a point at least. Miz made yet another excellent point about the popularity of John Cena. He brought up the point that a majority of Cena's audience is the same audience that Hannah Montana has. It's not untrue. Let's put it this way, I know people who were shameless Hogan and Rock marks--both men being essentially the same thing as Cena--and they hate Cena. They push him like he's Superman when in reality, he’s boring and incredibly cliché.


I want to make a point here that I know Cena is a much better wrestler than his gimmick allows him to be. I have seen footage of him from his UPW days. He has wrestled very good matches against Samoa Joe in UPW. when he first premiered in WWE, I liked him, but what he's been transformed into is a clown and a corporate icon.


With all that in mind, I couldn't have cared less about Cena and Chavo vs. Miz and Big Show. How do you get anybody who's over the age of 15 or not a shameless mark to give a crap about this match? You don't.


The show took an upturn at this point. MVP took on Kofi Kingston for the United States Title. These are two guys I want to see more of. Guys like Kingston and MVP are the future of wrestling. They are both excellent at the primary part of the business…WRESTLING. MVP is also very talented on the microphone, and while Kingston doesn’t stand out on the mic at this point, he could in the future.


The match itself was very well wrestled, if not a bit formulaic. The end result was a new Unites Sates Champion, Kofi Kingston.


I’ve already made my view of Ric Flair’s business politics and on his lifestyle very clear. This is the part where I grudgingly admit that the final segment of this week’s RAW was the best part of the entire show, and the best part of the past few weeks of RAW. Flair proved that he can still go. He can still put on a great show. I just hope that Batista and Orton put on a great match Sunday, something that will do this angle some justice.


To recap everything:
1. Randy Orton’s promos are still boring.
2. Flair is still an egomaniac, but a great performer.
3. Vicky Guerrero is still horrible.
4. Matt Hardy and William Regal have no business tagging together.
5. I still don’t care about Cena vs. Big Show, no matter what the match stipulation is.
6. The Hog Pen Match at Extreme Rules should be entertaining.
7. MVP and Kofi Kingston need to get more in-ring time on TV.
8. The Divas are still underestimated and underutilized.
9. Though I’m not a fan of his personal life, Ric Flair is still the man as far as wrestling is concerned.