Monday Night Raw Thoughts: Randy Orton Is A Great Man

Some say that it’s during the last two weeks of promotion that you’ll know how successful an event will be. That’s good for WWE because at least they have two weeks left.

The previous weeks haven’t been very successful at getting me excited for Wrestlemania 25. Unfortunately, I bought my tickets to the event several months ago, so they already have me. But I imagine that this will be the lowest bought Wrestlemania PPV since Wrestlemania XIX unless they do something drastic in these next two weeks.

Thankfully, they’ve rehabbed their main event which was starting to look like a dud.

Randy Orton and the rest of his Legacy posse beat down Triple H, hand cuffed him to the turnbuckle and then goaded his wife to come out and save him. A newly slimmed down Stephanie McMahon appeared and pleaded with these hated men to not beat up her husband with a sledge hammer even though he just used it a couple of weeks ago to beat up Orton.

The hated men surrounded her and Orton grabbed her and DDT’d her to the mat. It was effective, if only we could’ve forgotten the last three weeks of television, as well as Stephanie’s entire TV career.

Rather than hating Orton for doing what he did, you actually felt that he achieved retribution for what Triple H did to his house a couple of weeks ago, scaring his wife in the process.

But where this entire angle might’ve been saved and where all might be forgiven was in one kiss.

With Triple H distraught while still tied to the turnbuckle and Stephanie out-cold from the DDT, Orton slithered toward her and planted a rather disgusting kiss on the side of her lips. That made the entire angle.

He followed that up by taunting Triple H with his snake-like smile and at that moment, Wrestlemania’s main event was saved. Well, at least until next week.

(Click here to see the kiss until YouTube takes it down.)

The other main event was weakened though.

Why they put Edge and The Big Show in the ring for no reason is really head scratching. On top of that, they had a terrible match. Why would we ever want to see these guys have a match again?

And is it me, or has Big Show just given up on trying to be good again? He’s been molasses-like slow of late. He should just go full circle and start dragging on cigarettes in the ring like this was Nitro.

And John Cena’s hickory dickory dock rhyme did nothing for this match. While the feud started out originally fun, I think it has run completely out of steam.

Chris Jericho and Ric Flair did a great job at promoting a match that won’t happen, unless plans change. If Jericho was Terry Funk and this was 1989, this would be the hottest match on the card.

But it’s not 1989, Flair isn’t in the match, and Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, and Ricky Steamboat actually have to wrestle.

I know they have to build heat for it somehow, and they did a great job, but they just won’t be able to deliver on what they built up unless Ric Flair is in the match. And I don’t think he’s going to be in the match.

However, I am looking forward to Jericho’s match with Jerry Lawler next week. Why was Lawler just standing there while Flair was getting killed?

I do have a few more thoughts about the show.

- I liked the 8-man tag, specifically because the finish was fun, but this Money In The Bank match has zero buzz. It’s a mid-card match.

- My friend sent me a note basically saying that they could show 100 previews to John Cena’s new movie 12 Rounds and he still wouldn’t go see it. But that’s how they book. Shove it down your throat and force it on you. Kind of how like they’ve booked Triple H since 1999.

- It’s too bad that Jeff and Matt Hardy can’t have a ladder match as it would enhance what they’d be able to do, but with the storyline they’re building, an extreme rules match makes sense.

- Santino was so awesome as a one armed wrestler. Too bad he’s terrible with both arms.

- The Shawn Michaels promo from the graveyard was very 1990s, but I think it worked very well. The build for his match with the Undertaker is simple, logical, and is working. It’s still the sole reason I’m not completely disappointed by this card. I do wish they’d mention their great Royal Rumble finish from a couple of years ago though.

We have one week to go. They really need to bring it.

Photo of Ric Flair by nwa_fan and shared through creative commons