[Sparty]

Oh yes, the Mike Adamle Era has begun.

Good show tonight, I thought. They advanced some stuff and came out of nowhere with the GM, so kudos for that. But who will now be the voice of ECW?

Tune in to Sci-Fi at 10 p.m. Tuesday to find out!

[creepy]

I didn't get to see the very end due to me not remembering that they've been overrunning for the last 13 years. How did it happen? I'm sure it will be replayed on ECW.

I was hoping that an omgwtf moment was going to happen and after Cole and Lawlers match Shane comes and announces that the new GM would announce the rest of the solo. And that GM?

?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?

Paul Heyman.


Heyman talks trash about Vince for a few and then introduces RVD as the hottest free agent and the match happens but ends quickly due to Sabu or Shane Douglas or somebody coming out to murder CM Punk and then....................... I woke up and got Regal. Nice to see Regal back, let's see push #60 and what it can do. And I like Regal, so hopefully they push him correctly this time (Ehhhhhh, nevermind).

[bdbdbd]

I fully support Mile Adamle as GM for a number of reasons. He's off the announce booth, they set it up in a somewhat sensical way, he's off the announce booth, he's a natural heel (I noticed a "Fire Adamle" sign in the crowd last night), he's off the announce booth.

Oh, he's off the announce booth.
Styles return? Please?

[National Champion Chris Cole]

The Regal/Punk match was really good. Jericho's segment was fantastic as usual. Santino & Beth make me laugh. I FFed the Main Event which isn't a good thing but otherwise it wasn't a bad show.

[gobshite]

Is Regals top to cover his flab now he's not on the juice again?

So Adamle is boss, and the first thing he does is make his announcers fight the tag champs? Ok...

Then the second he's announced as GM (and i did find it cool that the camera was on Shane, then panned back to the ring to find Adamle already there), was to smugly announce that Cena and Bats are going 1 on 1 at SummerSlam? Cool.

It would have been better if they'd got a way to weasel Regal back into the spot, but oh well. Can't win em all...

[National Champion Chris Cole]

It makes sense for Adamle to put Cole in the match. He needed Cole injured so that he could be at the announce booth when the big announcement came. I'm not sure why JR was there other then to cover for the fact that Adamle was.

[Concrete TG]

I'm at "wait and see" for Adamle as GM. It was a real "WTF" moment, which I'm sure what they were shooting for, but given how much I wasn't into his commentary I don't know how he'll fare. Then again, Vickie Guererro blossomed from a cue-card reading cardboard cutout to the most hated person on Smackdown. Adamle might be able to pull it off, too.

The rest of the show was pretty good. Regal/Punk rocked. Santino/Beth was good, but I was waiting for Beth to carry Santino to the back (like she did at the house shows this past weekend.





Jericho's promo was a bit long but interesting. The video package was way too short - then again, most of us could think of at least another dozen segments that should have gone in there.

Putting cole in the tag match was just.... odd.

Main was by the numbers and enormously shadowed by the GM announcement.

Still a good show.

[Fire-Babe]

I'm still perplexed by Jericho's promo. It went on way too long, enough to get cut off by a commercial break, and I'm still confused as to the point. He's going to be No-Fun Jericho now? Is that the only way he thinks he can get any heel heat?

(Here's a thought, Chris: You could, you know, actually wrestle more than one show a month. )

I was shocked when they announced Adamle. I thought it might be one of the announcers, but I was thinking JR. I was hoping it was Bischoff. I was REALLY hoping it was Heyman after someone in chat suggested it. So while it's good that I was surprised and that yes, Adamle is off the announce table, I'm kind of underwhelmed still. But he might be good in that role.

[Eric O'Mac]

Moose suggested Orton as GM. I would have been on board for that. But I'll wait and see Adamle. No reason to shit on it yet.

I liked the Jericho promo. I don't think he was cut off by a commercial break. He was done when it went to commercial. They've done that with him for a few weeks now, most notably when him and HBK were having words. Stare down, go to commercial. It's a nice change of pace to go straight to commercial after a promo instead of having to listen to the announcers talk about the implications of Jericho's promo and hearing the entrance music in the background.

[derfsucks]

Show was odd ... Entertaining and still very 'WTF!?!', only in a different way than the last few weeks.

I know the Dave/Cena angle's supposed to be 'Wrestlemania' caliber, but everything involving those guys fell really flat last night - the exception being Dave's Wes Unseld throwback jersey, which was goddamned pimp. I enjoyed the swerves on the GM and 'hottest free agent' bits, as I was **SURE** JR was the new GM after Cole got his ass whooped, and I was **EVEN MORE SURE** that Punk was taking on RVD.

At the end of the night, though, I was DYING laughing at Adamle's smarmy smile as he already stood in the ring with Dave and Cena when the announcement was made. The GM announcement was 'underwhelming' as a main event centerpiece, but I have to admit that I'm really looking forward to seeing Adamle's role in next week's Raw. There is a ton of potential there.

Jericho's 'death to Y2J' bit was absolutely awesome. I could watch two hours of him alone lately.

[Lucky]

I can not. I was really enjoying Jericho's promo before the video and thinking to myself how awesome it was that he and HBK have been delivering the goods so consistently that I'm actually no longer phased by a good promo as I now expect it. But then when he kept going after the video? I just got bored to tears and had to fight not to hit the FF button. He really seemed like he had no direction with that 2nd part of the promo at all and as much as the cut away to commercial thing can be cool it strikes me as stupid when it comes after something with no impact like Jericho saying he wants the title.

Another entertaining RAW though. I just watched it on DVR so I FFed through the Tag Title match and main event, both of which I had no interest in. The rest had plenty of entertaining. I could nitpick but RAW's running better than it has in a long time and I should just be happy with that. I think anyone who knows me knows what my problems with RAW were.

And I failed to record the runover so I missed the Adamle announcement entirely. I must say, as sucky as Adamle is as an announcer I have nothing but contempt for JR and King when they just gang up on him about it. It just comes off meanspirited and obnoxious. And JR giving Adamle a hard time about calling a cradle "what a move" is just the height of hypocrisy from Mr. "high impact move." I have actually enjoyed JR with Foley for the most part but putting him back with King and putting him in this "This is my job, you little shit" role has just reminded me of why I have hated him for so long. God it was a good move to get him off RAW. That really might have been the best thing WWE has done in years, IMO.

[Moreofabreadguyanyway]

Jul 29, 2008 11:18:47 GMT -5 Lucky said:

And I failed to record the runover so I missed the Adamle announcement entirely. I must say, as sucky as Adamle is as an announcer I have nothing but contempt for JR and King when they just gang up on him about it. It just comes off meanspirited and obnoxious. And JR giving Adamle a hard time about calling a cradle "what a move" is just the height of hypocrisy from Mr. "high impact move." I have actually enjoyed JR with Foley for the most part but putting him back with King and putting him in this "This is my job, you little shit" role has just reminded me of why I have hated him for so long. God it was a good move to get him off RAW. That really might have been the best thing WWE has done in years, IMO.

I actually thought J.R. and especially King were being very kind and respectable to Adamle, at least compared to the abuse that poor guy took from Taz every week.

[Lucky]

Oh, I agree Taz is rude too. But Taz is rude to all of his partners. It always comes off light to me and Adamle and Tazz act as friends ribbing each other. JR and King basically treated Adamle like a nuisance who was hurting things. And JR outright rode him about certain things. Again, one of them being not calling the name of a move which is just so ridiculously hypocritical coming from JR and WWE.

I would say that my hatred of JR clouded my view but I really have enjoyed him on SD the last few weeks. It was a light switch almost. So it made me more confident that I really did hate JR's performance and not just him.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

It's amazing what being able to play off a guy like Foley will do, huh?

[Lucky]

Really, I think I've preferred JR whenever he's with ANYONE other than King. He just seems to try harder. He and King are friends who are WAY too comfortable with each other and I think it hurts them both. Cole/Lawler hasn't been good but I even think Lawler has been better when separated. But Foley is a guy who is smart and articulate and JR respects. So he actually seems to work to do a good show with him. I also think that Foley being new at this JR may actually try to help him as opposed to King who I'm sure he just figured knew his trade.

But I also kind of thing that JR simply feels RAW is his job like so many fans do. Its understandable. JR and King have been there so long that having a sense of ownership is natural. And every time one of them has been taken out they eventually went back to it. But I think on SD he can just do his job and try to make a show and partner better. Its refreshing, really. But this may be me projecting my dislike for him.

And of course I'm sure JR and King were SUPPOSED to be dicks to Adamle. That JR was getting on Adamle for something he does is probably something JR and WWE are barely even aware of like they don't notice when someone says Matt Hardy is going for ECW gold. And I think I'm in the minority in that I really don't like to see people embarrass Adamle just because he's poor at a job he was thrown into without proper preparation. I have empathy for people in that position and I think the anger fans show towards them is unreasonable. So Adamle's peers picking on him comes off as heel stuff to me while I'm sure some just enjoy it and think its their voices. Oddly enough this is much of the same problem I have with people who exhibit such vitriol towards the Diva Search girls.

[Moreofabreadguyanyway]

Jul 29, 2008 13:50:53 GMT -5 Lucky said:

Oh, I agree Taz is rude too. But Taz is rude to all of his partners. It always comes off light to me and Adamle and Tazz act as friends ribbing each other. JR and King basically treated Adamle like a nuisance who was hurting things. And JR outright rode him about certain things. Again, one of them being not calling the name of a move which is just so ridiculously hypocritical coming from JR and WWE.

I don't know, I detected a genuine dislike on the part of Taz for Adamle, and he always gave him a hard time and treated him like a joke. I don't think he was just playing around most of the time. He'd make an occasional joke about how nerdy Cole and Styles were when he worked with them, but I really felt like he genuinely disliked Adamle.

[firebreakerchip]

I love this new "mature" Jericho is makes so much sense in context of the storyline and feels natural and organic, which is a feeling that lacks in most of the forced, artificial WWE storylines. The best part came in the form of Cade thanking him for saving him because it opens up so many storylines down the road. It just ties up everything from Jericho's return and works in all the little details. I was afraid that storyline was going to get stale or they were going to run out of ideas (see Angle/AJ, which was wicked hot and has seemed to cool recently). I have been very impressed with this depth of the storyline and Jericho's new direction as a cult leader and savior for dead-end wrestlers could keep this storyline going well into the future. In my mind, I love him to pick up another wrestler while somebody like London stands up to him and resents the idea of being under Jericho's new vision for pro wrestling. The best way to promote his new vision is to chase the title and eventually capture it. I am keeping my fingers crossed for Punk/Jericho at Summerslam. Jericho tries to recruit Punk because Punk like Jericho is a paragon of virtue through his straight edge personality. While Punk points out that Jericho had gone over-board and that his means to an end are wrong and violate actually what he preaches. I could dig that program. Though Punk needs a storyline quickly as possible as he was thoroughly overshadowed last night.

The World Champion was a complete afterthought even though he did have a rocking match with William Regal (glad to see you again). I hated the finish out of nowhere, which always bothers me. However Punk did look strong as he took quite a beating and still won the match. Still Batista/Cena/Jericho dominated the show while Punk looked more like an I-C champion than their peer or better. Lastly, given that JBL was protected last night it looks more and more likely that we are on a collision course with Punk/JBL. JBL and The Great Khali could be the two world champions ewwy. That’s as bad as the Orton/Khali pair from last year and the Orton/JBL pair from 2005.

Santino/Beth are a lot of fun. Mickie was showcased, but sadly she continues her feud with that god-awful Burchill chick.

The rest of the show was forgettable. What the hell was that main event, a freaking cure for insomnia. Batista/Cena well I thought they would wait until Wrestlemania. But if they want to get it out of their system now well I am not going to complain.

Admale who the fuck cares. The guy is completely incompetent and if they can even squeeze a little goodness might as well try. Lord knows it took over a decade for Mark Henry to figure how to work.

I have given up on Smackdown after the Khali debacle, but Santino, Regal, Mickie, and Jericho are keeping Raw on my TV schedule. I think Raw has been missed opportunity after missed opportunity since the draft. I don’t feel as energized as I was after the draft.