[derfsucks]

Random fact: Today's my dad's birthday.

Other random fact - in four weeks, I'll be attending RAW in Denver with the Wife. Should be a hoot. Anyhow, on to the preview from WWE.com:

***

After months of chasing Randy Orton and the WWE Championship, The Game is finally back on top. Triple H won the hard-fought Fatal Four Way Elimination Match at Backlash to reclaim his throne as The King of Kings and become the new WWE Champion.

As Triple H knows from experience with this being his 12th reign as World Champion, when you’re at the top, the target is on your back. Who will set their sights on The Game and his newly won gold? Will Randy Orton be looking to regain the WWE Championship and reinstate the “Age of Orton”?

Also, after defeating three Superstars in one night last week on Raw, General Manager William Regal will be officially coronated Monday night as the 2008 King of the Ring, in a ceremony full of pomp and prestige. Will the newest English monarch be a benevolent ruler or a cruel dictator? Will The King of Kings and new WWE Champion steal his glory? We'll find out as the crown and scepter are bestowed to Regal Monday night.

Last night, Shawn Michaels put his body on the line and gave everything to finally silence Batista once and for all. Will HBK be well enough to make it to the ring after the heated battle? Will Batista have gotten the point and leave The Showstopper alone?

Fully recovered from the Money in the Bank Match at WrestleMania XXIV, Mr. Kennedy will make his triumphant return to Raw. Will he be looking to throw his hat into the ring with the new WWE Champion? Or will he decide to avenge his loss at WrestleMania? What’s up next for the Green Bay loudmouth as Raw hits the Garden State?

Backlash also saw The Glamazon get the win in the 12-Diva Tag-Team Match by pinning Ashley. Was this just a message to Michelle McCool and Women’s Champion Mickie James? Will Beth Phoenix be aiming to get revenge on McCool for her slap last Monday, or will she focus on regaining the WWE Women’s Championship?

We’ll see the answer to all these questions and more when Monday Night Raw airs live at 9/8 CT on USA Network.

***

[Batman]

All hail the fucking King! That was awesome!

[Jack Quinn]

Regal popping Kennedy was awesome.
Regal demanding we go to black, not so awesome.


The rest of the show was a whole lot of meh

[Batman]

You were enjoying that match?

Come on, it was a great way to establish that he's not going to be hemmed in to doing babyface things even though he's a heel because "he has to do what's best for the show/ratings."

Jericho was awesome, too. It took me about five seconds of seeing him in a tux before the lightbulb went off. "Oh, he's going to give Shawn an Oscar. Of course." Good stuff.

[Jack Quinn]

actually, even though I hate HHH, I WAS kind of enjoying the match. Enjoying it enough that I would have liked a finish. Regal demanding they go to black was just stupid. You want to have him establish that he is not going to tolerate being disrespected, then have him come to the ring with a chair and lay out both men. Fading to black is just lame. We ripped WCW when they did it, its no different here. I was ok with it last night, but the more I thought about it, the more it just annoyed me. It was stupid.

And the Jericho stuff was ok, but I just can't bring myself to care about Jericho, especially when it sure looks like he is mailing it in half the time.

[Concrete TG]

I coulda used you last night, Sergei....

I will agree that last night was a really odd show and probably deserved the really odd ending.

As the main event started, JR made a comment about Regal being on a tirade backstage since Kennedy interrupted him that he wasn't getting ANY respect from anyone on Raw, which led to him storming the production truck and shutting the show down for the home audience. (from reports, he then went out to the ring and told HHH and Orton to go home, the fans in attendance didn't deserve it either. HHH pedigreed Orton and called it a night.) This establishes him as King and Tyrant and apparently the heeliest heel of all, judging from reactions last night.

Just more "wonk" to add to the wonkiness of last night.

Trevor Murdoch breaking into song was absolutely surreal - compounded by the fact that he CAN sing (or maybe it's just an easy song to sing since he didn't sound bad). Not sure where we're going with it, I was just waiting for Cade to go beat him up.

The women's "rematch" was just kinda... there.

YtuxJ was back to his shit-stirring self, but HBK no-sold the entire segment. I think he was selling the wrong leg, too.

Piper! Thanks for coming!

Burchill got TV time!

I wonder what was cut/changed at the last minute to make this show so off-base. Maybe they had something planned for Umaga (who lost his mother? over the weekend, I know he's off on berevement) or if/when they'll be debuting Santino's new bodyguard.

So yeah, weird show. Weird ending that really didn't bother me.

Oh, and Derf - have a great time I'm going to the 5/12 Raw in Detroit.

[bdbdbd]

Murdoch singing saved the show for me. And Michaels limping on the wrong leg and Jericho not noticing, that was funny.

The ending was stupid only because it made "Russo sense". If we can see it, the commentators are supposed to be able to see it, that's why they have those monitors on their table. At least WCW had their announce crew see what was going on when they did pretty much the exact same thing all those years ago.

[Concrete TG]

From PWHeadlines (who stole it from PWInsider):

"In the arena we had no idea that Raw was cut off. The match was reaching it's climax when Regal came out and stopped the match. Very strange ending. The fans in the arena felt royally ripped off and rightfully so. Also noticeable was Jerry Lawler seemed very upset about something at ringside after the match was stopped. He was saying something to Triple H and didn't look happy."

[jetskid48]

They did something stupid with the blackout the end. There were plenty of other ways including just walking out to the ring and doing what he did to the live crowd that would have at least given us some closure, which would have been better and still unique.

That said, while I won't forgive them for being unique, I'm not really going to hold it against them outside of just ruining the main event. I still think they have some sort of plan for Regal, so I want to see how this power stuff continues.

Jericho stuff was good, and I liked how it just ended. But the only way this makes sense to continue is if Batista is still included, otherwise the events of Backlash seem really weird.

Seeds may have been planted for Burchill to have some sort of relation with Regal after coming out and saying he got a favor from Regal to make a handicap match. Funny that I deemed Katie Lea "British Dark-Haired Lita" the first time I see her, and then we're getting her flying off the top rope onto men just like Lita at first.

I don't even know what to make of the Murdoch thing. It's def not a bad thing, but wow were we confused when that happened. It was pretty funny that the fans were sorta booing the whole time he sang, but once he finished he got a round of applause.

I guess the only other thing of note from last night was the Kennedy return. Are they planting the seeds for a feud? Are they turning Kennedy? Is Kennedy just a jerk? No idea. The Regal stuff can go so many directions right now, especially with him staying as GM, I'm interested what they're planning with him.

[derfsucks]

Apr 29, 2008 10:20:33 GMT -5 Concrete TG said:

Oh, and Derf - have a great time I'm going to the 5/12 Raw in Detroit.

Oddly enough, I'd rather be there. Wife and I are hankering to move back to the Detroit area to be near our families, heh. Too bad employment is shite around there these days.

[Jack Quinn]

employment, real estate, winters you name it. Stay away. Stay far, far away