RAW's main event was great. With few exceptions, that was one of the best cage matches in recent memory put on by the WWF. The Regal-Jericho match-up was marred by both the conflicting styles of the participants, and the lack of any real heat by the crowd. Rock-Austin was hampered by the beginnings of Austin's heel turn, which made the crowd unsure who to cheer and who to boo, and also the general consensus of everyone watching both at home and at the arena that the Rock was somehow going to get screwed. I don't think that the FED has given away the World Title on Free TV since the Triple H-Big Show match from the 1/03/00 RAW. But Monday was different. You had two participants who could match each other move for move in the ring, and also a clearly defined role for each man in terms of crowd heat. However, the crowd took away from the suspense of the match. They never seemed to get fully into the thing, even when counting along with Benoit's suplexes. I think that we may have been spoiled by the white hot crowds in Canada over the last few weeks, but it seems that the WWF doesn't seem to have the same sort of crowd heat in many of the places they put on shows lately. (Ouch!) The Minnesota crowd by all reports popped bigger for the Benjamin/Lesner dark match than they did for the TV main event. In fact, it seems that there are only a few places where there can be guaranteed hot crowds anymore. (OWWWWW!) Many of the arenas the Fed went through in Apr-May in the BCC (Before Canadian Chris) era seemed to suck the heat out of the majority of the matches. One of the things I think that contributes to a casual fan stopping to watch Raw or Smackdown is the presence of crowd heat. (Owwwwww! I keep getting pecked by these crows. Get them off me!) May be the WWF should try and schedule a double shot Raw/Smackdown once a month in one of their bread and butter territories, i.e Chicago, MSG, Texas, Boston etc.

But then again, what the hell do I know?

Some thoughts