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MIGUELITO'S RAW THOUGHTS
July 8, 2002
I cannot believe that I missed the deadline for Slashwrestling's third annivesary celebration! I blame vacation; time never seems to run coherently when one is on vacation. And it always takes a while to get back into the swing of things afterwards.
Anyway, I hereby dedicate this edition of Raw Thoughts to CRZ and Slashwrestling. In honor of Slashwrestling's third anniversary, I also introduce a new format for Raw Thoughts. (For more 3rd Anniversary stuff, see the last couple of bullet points below.)
I love to see WWE shows taking place in Philadelphia. Vince and crew are smart; they realize that they need to throw some bones to the ECW loyal. This has always been true, but it is even more important now that ECW has been absorbed by the behemoth that is WWE. The fans in Philadelphia appreciate it, and this fan here in Denver appreciates it, too.
This time around, WWE has a heads up on this. Rob Van Dam is the Intercontinental Champion. RVD has always been ECW's darling; whether fans hated him or loved him, RVD was truly the Whole F'ing Show in ECW. Also, Paul Heyman plays a crucial roll in WWE as Brock Lesnar's agent, which means that the former owner of ECW is guaranteed to get some mic time in Philadelphia.
WWE tailored a lot of RAW towards the ECW faithful this week. Heyman cut a wicked promo on former ECW stars, saying that he made and then took advantage of ECW and its wrestlers for his own personal gain. Tommy Dreamer came out to stand up for the memory of ECW and ECW fans. We had an impromptu match between Dreamer and Brock Lesnar. Lesnar took care of Dreamer in fairly short order, but Rob Van Dam came out to pick up the gauntlet. RVD tossed Lesnar, then put a big-time beatdown on Heyman. RVD capped off the very ECW-like segment by hitting Heyman with a Van Terminator. It is impossible to overstate just how good this segment was.
The main event was also reminiscent of ECW. The Dudleyz, RVD, Benoit and Guerrero all spent time in ECW, and are all still favorites of the ECW crowd. Putting these five men into this match was a great idea on behalf of the creative team. Allowing these men to wrestle for 10 minutes was even better.
Thoughts:
I could be wrong - and I hope I am - but it would appear that Booker T is being shifted out of his current program with the nWo and into a program with Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero. While the idea of a string of Benoit/Booker T matches is definitely promising, moving Booker T out of the top feud on Raw is not. Booker T should be the person carrying Raw right now, which means that Booker should continue feuding with the nWo. If HHH joins the nWo, then everything might be all right. But if HHH feuds with the nWo, expect Booker to get knocked down the card a notch. And that just isn't right.
A general rule of thumb: If Jim Ross says that something sucks, you can be damned sure it sucked. The mixed tag match between Trish/Bradshaw and Jackie/Nowinski was awful, just plain awful.
Any night where we get to see Benoit in the ring twice is a Very Good Night. I now long to see Chris getting 10-15 minutes in the ring. Benoit is still regaining his form, yet he is already more technically sound than all but two or three wrestlers on Raw. Benoit needs to be quickly elevated to the top of the card.
There aren't many men on either side of the WWE that deserve a title more than Jeff Hardy. Unfortunately, it was pretty obvious that Jeff would be walking away with the European championship. More could've been done to keep the outcome of the match a mystery; instead Regal and Hardy had a straight-up, boring match.
At what point did Kevin Nash turn into Glass Joe of Punch-Out fame? Nash tore his bicep earlier in the year when he gently grazed it in a match. Now he tore his quadricep as he stepped gingerly in the ring. How Nash gets through a normal day without a few broken bones is a mystery to me.
Props to Shawn Michaels and the Big Show for improvising a finish to the main event after Nash went down. The ending to the match may not have been pretty, but it wasn't horrible, either.
It's hard to believe that Slashwrestling has only been here for three years. It seems like I've been coming to CRZ's corner of the web forever. I don't know how I'd spend my Tuesday mornings and my Friday (or Saturday... or Sunday... sometimes Monday...) mornings without CRZ's recaps, and I don't know how I'd get through the rest of the week without being able to read the other columns that are posted here. Slashwrestling.com brings joy to wrestling fans everywhere. Thank you, CRZ, for creating it. I hope to see Slashwrestling here for many years to come.
I have been submitting articles on and off for over two years now. While I write for a couple of other wrestling websites now, Slashwrestling remains my main priority. I love the sense of community that CRZ has fostered here. I especially love the fact that Slashwrestling is done out of love for wrestling, not out of an attempt to make money. As long as Chris keeps posting my stuff, you'll be able to read articles from me here on Slashwrestling. And that's not a Bad Thing, that's a Good Thing.
That wraps things up for me. I am off on a busy weekend. Mile Hi Pro Wrestling(MHPW) is holding a show Friday night, June 12th (7:00pm), at the Aztlan theater. The Central Wrestling Organization (CWO) will be holding their show - CWO Grand Finale - Saturday night, June 13th (7:00pm_, at the Buffalo Rose in Golden, CO. And the IWF will be holding a show in Fairplay, CO at the Ladies Biker Run on July 14th at 1:00. I'll definitely be at the MHPW and CWO shows. If you see me (look for the fat guy sitting at ringside), feel free to say hello!
- Miguelito
[slash] wrestling
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