WWE RAW 900: What I Want To See

Tonight, WWE RAW hits a historic milestone with its 900th edition of Monday Night RAW, and because of that, I expect more from the show than we'd get on any other Monday night.  The fact that WWE is having Smackdown also show up at RAW suggests that they intend to have tonight be special as well.

Here is what I want to see when I tune in tonight.

No Goofy Hosts

I don't care if a former wrestler hosts RAW, or if someone like "Mean Gene" Oakerland takes the job of keeping the show running, but I don't want to see any goofy hosts tonight.

No one like Florence Henderson should show up; I don't want to see a movie cast try double-duty of promoting their movie while trying to remember wrestlers names.  There's no need for non-wrestling professional athletes to make appearances.

In fact, I would say that if there were going to be a host for tonight, it needs to be Jim Ross.  I don't know what his current physical status is, or if he even has a contract with WWE anymore, but it would be a great opportunity to see Good Old JR again.

If there is a host tonight on Raw, and they aren’t previously involved with the WWE in some significant way, I will be very disappointed.

Big Announcements

I want some big announcements to happen on the 900th edition of RAW.  The world will be tuned in and RAW will likely have one of its top rated shows of the year, so why not use this platform to help drive excitement towards Night Of Champions and beyond?

I fully expect that there will be the announcement that at Night Of Champions, Kane will be defending his World Heavyweight Championship against The Undertaker, likely to happen in a Casket Match or Hell In The Cell.  I don't believe it was made official back on Smackdown, and since The Undertaker is going to be in attendance, announce it here and now.  It's already a travesty that RAW doesn't do any sort of Smackdown Recap, especially given all the time they spend on Smackdown reminding viewers what happened on RAW.  At least do Smackdown a solid and help push one of their biggest angles.

I also want it made official that at Night Of Champions, "American Dragon" Daniel Bryan Danielson (my name for him) will be facing The Miz with the United States Championship on the line.  My first inclination was to think that "American Dragon" should fight The Miz on RAW and take the title from him tonight, but that would leave The Miz without something concrete at Night Of Champions.  I would actually be interested in seeing "American Dragon" wrestle Alex Riley tonight on RAW.

The WWE decided to consolidate the Unified World Tag Team Championships and have The Hart Dynasty only carry two belts instead of four, and now it's time to see them in action again, somehow setting up the match in which the titles will be defended at Night Of Champions.  It would be nice if they followed up on the beatdown Hart Dynasty received from Nexus prior to SummerSlam and somehow put together a team from Nexus to challenge for the belts.  I don't even care if they're defending against Santino Marella & Vladamir Koslov at Night Of Champions; I just want to see something happen.

If WWE is going to continue with the concept at all, they may as well utilize The Rock as a future guest host for RAW, and before the end of the show tonight, I want to know when The Rock is going to be the guest host.  He has already stated publicly that he'd love to get the opportunity to guest host, and anyone who is familiar with him knows that he'd be a great guest host. 

They'd be wasting the opportunity if he's hosting tonight's RAW with no notice.  Even if they did announce it weeks ago, it would still be a wasted opportunity, as The Rock is going to pull in viewers who will likely watch the 900th Episode regardless of who is doing the host duties.

Throwbacks

WWE has started using their tape library more frequently these days, and that needs to continue.  I saw SummerSlam Moments in the past two months which dated all the way back to the late 80's and WWE has also produced a DVD set which highlights some top moments from Monday Night RAW the first two years it was on the air.  Some of the top moments I want to see?

Bret Hart attacking (verbally and physically) Vince McMahon from 1997.  This was arguably the first time that Vince McMahon became a "heel" character, and with Bret Hart on the show tonight, this would be a great opportunity to feature those moments.

I want to see Steve Austin & The Beer Truck.  I don't know if the TV-PG status would allow for this segment (or practically any of the segments involving Steve Austin), but I'd like to see it.  Were the show not TV-PG, I'd also like to see the Brian Pillman - In Home Invasion segment, but that's not going to happen.

Fans need to see more Doink.  He was a great character, a staple on RAW, and the more you show newer fans glimpses back to what the clown had to offer, there's a great chance that the sales of the RAW DVD would go up, and WWE could easily bring Doink back into the week-to-week list of characters, especially since multiple individuals could don the costume and facepaint to play the character in a given week.

Another throwback that WWE should give us on tonight's show is Yokozuna, one of the biggest parts of the early episodes of RAW and one of their Top 5 Big Men of all time.  Just as with Doink, if the WWE gives the fans a taste of Yokozuna, it could really help sales of the RAW DVDs.

The Rookies

First and foremost, I want to see the three remaining rookies from NXT season two show up at RAW with their Pros.  This is a chance to really help legitimize the concept, increase viewers for Tuesday's NXT (which I believe might be the last episode in this "season") and give these rookies the chance to stand out.  It did wonders for Alex Riley when he appeared on RAW to help The Miz attack "American Dragon", and tonight could continue that trend for him and the two others.  The fact that most of you don't even know who I'm talking about when I say "the two others" is all the more reason why those guys need to show up.

One of the best RAWs in recent history was the one to follow SummerSlam whereby each of the Nexus members were featured in matches.  For obvious reasons, we don't need to see a repeat of that night, but it would be good to see more of their guys in action.  It's a shame that Skip Sheffield is currently injured because he's one of the top guys I'd like to see from that group in the ring. 

It could also be interesting to see them take on guys from not only RAW, but Smackdown as well.  I already mentioned that they should have two of their guys form a tag team to take on the Hart Dynasty, but another couple ideas I have for them are mentioned later in this article.

Big Names Sound Off

As I previously mentioned, I think The Rock should be involved in tonight's RAW 900 in some way or another.  If there are no plans in the works for The Rock to be a guest host in the near future (or in the foreseeable future which WWE might want to discuss right now), then at least get a pre-taped segment with The Rock to help give a special little moment to the fans.  The Rock was a huge reason why RAW was so successful over the years, and they should do whatever they can to get him to send a video message to the fans - regardless of whether it's live or not.

I'd like to think that Triple H could do something similar, where we could get an update on his condition and not be physically involved in anything.  A lot of people were hoping for his return back at SummerSlam, and having a pre-recorded segment would be a good way for him to be involved without doing anything.

Though he's not one of my favorite wrestlers by any stretch of the imagination, I do recognize the huge role that Shawn Michaels has played over the years and he should definitely be a part of RAW 900.  In fact, I'd love for him to be at ringside if his former student, "American Dragon" has a match against The Miz OR against Alex Riley.  It would certainly help give "the rub" to "American Dragon" Daniel Bryan Danielson, who the WWE has tapped as a potential superstar in years to come.

Building Of The Mid-Card

I don't know if certain guys are going to ever break out of the mid-card to become main eventers, but there are certain guys who should definitely have more prominent positions on RAW 900 to help build them up in the eyes of the fans.

We need to see (and hear) Kofi Kingston on the mic.  Regardless of whether or not they want to book him in a match for tonight's show, I want to hear what Kofi has to say about what is going on currently between he and Dolph Ziggler over on Smackdown.  They've got a good program going on and the RAW 900 viewers need to hear more about it.  This could be a strong factor in determining whether Kofi Kingston will be a future main eventer or whether he'll be the next version of Shelton Benjamin.

We've seen that Ted DiBiase Jr. is trying to resurrect the gimmick that his father made famous, and now it's time to kick it to the next level.  Tonight, I want to see DiBiase Jr try to buy someone off.  Give him the chance to gain some extra heel heat for a reason that doesn't have much to do with Maryse.  Let him talk, let him sell the angle, let him show what he can do aside from just walking to the ring and using his body language to communicate. 

There's the possibility that DiBiase could be a future main eventer.  He's got the look, the size, the strength, the charisma, and now it's time to let him continue to improve on his mic skills and take the character to the next level.

If he's not injured, I want to see Evan Bourne fly in a match.  In fact, Justin Gabriel vs Evan Bourne (or some partnering match variant) sounds like a damn good idea to me.  These guys are both really exciting, and the fans deserve a hot match like this on the card.

To help push another hot angle that's currently transpiring on Smackdown, how about we get to hear from Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero?  They are considered by many people to be the best heels in WWE, and they should be on RAW 900 hyping the Intercontinental Title and their feud with Kofi Kingston.

RAW / Smackdown Interactions

I realize they won't be facing off against one another on pay per view for roughly six weeks with Bragging Rights coming up in a month and a half, but we really should get some interactions between guys on the two main brands of WWE.

For the rest of my article, including my thoughts on Edge and Christian, Drew McIntyre, the Straight Edge Society, Brock Lesnar, old-school Divas, Maryse and more, visit my website: www.GuysNation.com