"WWE RAW" Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

Less than a month after his return to World Wrestling Entertainment, Jeff Hardy has earned himself a shot at the Championship he once defeated Triple H for, the Intercontinental Championship. The last time Jeff held a championship was July 21, 2002 when he lost the European Championship to Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam in a unification match.

And as we move towards Unforgiven, you can bet the McMahons, DX, Edge and John Cena will do everything they can to gain the physical and pscyhological advantage over their opposition. Also tonight, the tag team Cryme Tyme (http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/articles/3044814/3261698) will debut. Click on the team name to read a Muhammad Hassan/Khosrow Daivari-like disclaimer from World Wrestling Entertainment.


http://www.wwe.com/content/media/touts/feature/29062/3260898Hardy eyes IC Championship
September 4, 2006

Less than a month after making his return to WWE, Jeff Hardy has the opportunity to wear WWE gold around his waist when he takes on Johnny Nitro for the Intercontinental Championship tonight on RAW.

The returning Hardy earned his title match when he defeated "The Legend Killer" Randy Orton last week on RAW. After the match, Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro told WWE.com that Hardy's unique in-ring style may actually hinder the challenger more than help him.

“Jeff Hardy thinks he can take the Intercontinental Championship from me. He thinks he’s a risk taker – maybe an adrenaline junkie, a thrill-seeker of sorts – but what he doesn’t realize is I’m smarter than that. I take calculated risks, he takes uncalculated risks, and that’s what’s gonna cost him his shot at the title,” declared a resolute Nitro.

Will Hardy's risk-taking cost him on Monday night? Or will Nitro's comments prove wrong? Find out on RAW.

DX Destroyed?
Mr. McMahon sent a vicious message to DX last week on RAW. After recruiting SmackDown’s Sir William Regal, U.S. Champion Finlay, Mr. Kennedy and ECW’s Big Show to wear down Shawn Michaels and Triple H, the Chairman finished the job off with the help of his trusty lead pipe. He left D-Generation X in the ring in a puddle of their own blood with a message that the McMahons were ready for a rematch — in a Hell in a Cell Match with Big Show on the McMahons’ side. How will DX respond to the Chairman’s latest attempt to destroy them?

Advant-Edge?
After accepting John Cena’s challenge for a match at Unforgiven – with the stipulation that will send Cena to SmackDown for three years if he loses – Edge said he agreed only if he was able to choose the type of match.

During Cena’s match with Chris Masters on RAW, The Rated R Superstar interrupted and attacked Cena with tables, ladders and chairs. He then informed his challenger that at Unforgiven, it would be a Tables, Ladders and Chairs Match — a match Edge has never lost and one that Cena has never competed in. Unforgiven is also being held in the champion’s hometown of Toronto, Canada. Are the odds too great for Cena to overcome? Will Edge send his archrival to SmackDown?

Romance Killer
Two weeks ago on RAW, Carlito got involved in Randy Orton’s match with Ric Flair. For payback, Orton blasted Carlito and Trish Stratus against a wall while the two were sharing a romantic moment. Carlito responded to that by spitting an apple into Orton’s face during the Legend Killer's No. 1 Contender Match against Jeff Hardy, inadvertently costing Orton the match. In their game of one-upmanship, how will the Legend Killer respond?

To find out the answers, watch RAW at 9/8 CT only on the USA Network.

[VCXZX]

A great opening segment. I liked Edge dissing the CW, and talking about Michael Cole's new man-crush. http://67.18.37.14/html/emoticons/laugh.gif http://67.18.37.14/html/emoticons/laugh.gif http://67.18.37.14/html/emoticons/laugh.gif http://67.18.37.14/html/emoticons/laugh.gif

Thumbs down for them cutting Edge's entrance. :(

What is up with these hilarious Maria cutaways with the paint. They seem so random.

I wonder why superCrazy is on RAW. Nice, unexpected win by Crazy over Masters.

I'll reserve judgement on Crime Time for a few weeks, but it wasn't as bad as I intially feared.

[Supernovametalstar]

Okay, there are only so many negative black stereotypes I can take on a wrestling show. I've had my limit. I'm done with RAW now. Vince or Stephanie or whichever idiot McMahon is responsible for "Cryme Tyme" needs to seriously get their ass kicked :mad:. I hope ESPN Football destroys their ratings so they can finally rethink at least some of the idiocy that goes on at Titan Tower.

[Hyper Shadow X]

That crime time thing was stupid.

[VCXZX]

Nice ending to the decent match. http://67.18.37.14/html/emoticons/laugh.gif http://67.18.37.14/html/emoticons/laugh.gif at Orton doing the You Can't see me schtick.

Overall, RAW was so-so with a lot more empahsis though on good wrestling.

[Frank Castle]

Not a bad Raw. I was really impressed with Hardy's match.

[SirLemming]

I wasn't able to see about half of the show. Seemed like it had some good stuff on it. But I disapprove of Super Crazy being on Raw -- they seem to just be taking guys away from Smackdown for no reason now. Or, even if there IS a good reason, Smackdown really just can't afford to lose many more wrestlers. They have enough to rotate things a bit, but it's still pretty imbalanced.

And, of course, I'm still sick of the McMahons vs. DX. There is no need for this cell match. This angle needs to end immediately. Two of the greatest wrestlers in the business are being forced to feud against non-wrestlers for practically half a year (especially if you count the McMahon/HBK feud that started this thing). This evil boss, "impossible odds" stuff just isn't fresh at all anymore.


Y'know what else isn't fresh? Interference and other DQ-ish stuff. It's pretty much every match now. They do whatever they can to get JR to say "They're not supposed to be here! Brehhhh! Brehhhhh! Shakira! Katrina!"

[hobbyfan]

I agree that McMorons vs. DX must end, and soon, but Crazy Vinnie is just that. Crazy. He doesn't know a good ending if it came up and bit him on the ass.:mad:

Main event had a terrible finish. Why does Trish job here? Maybe she wins at Unforgiven after all, then loses the title the next night?

Best match on the show was Nitro-Hardy, so naturally, it was the first match. Stupid writers.

Maria watching paint dry was this week's running gag. Why? Because she doesn't get it.:D

Super Crazy now on Raw? WTF? Looked good against Masters, although the moonsault didn't land square.

4 title matches at Unforgiven. Now that's more like it. I see 2, maybe 3 title changes.

[SirLemming]

I agree that McMorons vs. DX must end, and soon, but Crazy Vinnie is just that. Crazy. He doesn't know a good ending if it came up and bit him on the ass.:mad:
Or kissed him.

[The Penguin]

It’s not that I haven’t agreed before, but tonight I really noticed what a drag Jerry Lawler is on the broadcast. Every once and a while he still acts like a heel, but he’s pretty much a face and he and Good Ol’ JR just agree on everything. With JBL actually knowing what his role as the heel color man, it’s a lot more noticeable than it was when Tazz was on the blue crew. I pictured a JBL or a Jesse Ventura like announcer responding to some of what JR had to say and the commentary was a lot better in my head.

Edge’s promo featured plenty of visual aides. If Edge had to do it over again, he might have just stood in the ring. Cena used them all as aides to show Edge what he intends to do the Rate R Superstar.

Jeff, those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. His attempt to tell Maria that the Nitro-Melina press conference was less entertaining than watching paint dry fell as flat the coat he was putting on the wall. (And if that’s not enough for ya, WWE.com gives you the opportunity to watch Maria watch paint dry (http://www.wwe.com/content/media/video/specialty_clips/3199666/3262398/090406mariaexcl).)

Nitro-Hardy was decent match and with more time at Unforgiven I’m hoping for a great one. Both men are extremely athletic and Johnny Nitro can fly when he needs to.

Wow, hard to believe it was 11 years ago that Nitro started. It either doesn’t seem like it was that long ago or feels like it took place in some distant time. Not sure if that makes sense, but somehow I think it does.

I liked Shane’s interaction with Lita over the backstage fighting that had just happened. Even with as evil as the McMahons have been lately, they still aren’t going to let the heels make decisions for them.

Super Crazy on RAW?! Wazupwithdat? If he should have gone anywhere from SmackDown! he should have gone to ECW. I really don’t understand what the idea is here. What can he possibly contribute to the Monday night product? Five-star HEAT matches is all I see in his future. I find it a bit surprising to see Masters lose again.

Nice to see the McMahons and DX have a shorter, less important segment this week. It still advanced their match, but less to the overall show. I liked it that way.

And Highlanders pick up win number six on their way to another shot at the Tag Titles. The match seemed kind of messy with three guys in there officially at one time. They should have just thrown Venis & Snitsky or Hacksaw & Eugene (despite their rough week) in there too and had two guys in the ring.

Anyone notice the "Alliance" WCW shirt the guy in the first couple was wearing on the Kiss Cam? Those were the days. It could have been so great.

I suppose you can’t be in the South without bringing Ric Flair out even he wasn’t going to do anything at all. I swear they make all the Divas look like :ack: with the way they’ll make out with different people each week. The ones they try to sell as hos are actually usually loyal on-screen to one guy.

Umaga. Kane. The monster battle has begun. Hopefully this will manage to last more than a couple of weeks.

Okay, I don’t know about anyone else, but I found Cryme Tyme hilarious. It would have been offensive if they just had two guys go into the store and rob it, but the voice over made all the difference. It’s very tongue in cheek. Peace out.

The issue of Cena and a man who once hired someone to take him out teaming together not withstanding, the six-person tag was very refreshing. It was a wrestling main event that got a decent amount of time and the pay-off was the finish of the match, not some big event that happened after it. I almost didn’t know what to do with myself.

[TnAdct1]

Okay, I need to ask. Who or what is "Cryme Tyme", since I didn't notice when I was watching Raw and surfing the Internet at the same time?

[MGFanJay]

I dug the main event, but nothing else really stuck out to me as being good. The Hardy match was better than I expected, but still not anything great. Cryme Tyme is hilariously terrible, so I enjoyed that little segment. It was nice to see the Heat guys on Raw, and Teddy Long getting a great reaction made me happy. Crazy-Masters was horrible, but Crazy on Raw was a genuine surprise, and while I doubt he'll go anywhere on Raw due to the lack of a cruiserweight division, I like that he changed up his attire - although I do prefer his old stuff.

[The Penguin]

Okay, I need to ask. Who or what is "Cryme Tyme", since I didn't notice when I was watching Raw and surfing the Internet at the same time?I can do you one better. You can watch Shad Gaspard & JTG ready themselves for the RAW tag division by "working on their speed" here (http://www.wwe.com/content/media/video/tvshows/raw/200609/3262126/090406crymetyme).

[Jin Kazama]

Oh, Maria. If anyone can pull off watching paint dry for two hours, it's you.

I can easily see Super Crazy being the new Tajiri. He'll pick up a fluke upset win once every four or so months, and be soon put in a mis-match tag team with someone who's good on the mic. Too bad Regal is on Smackdown, because he's normally their go-to guy for that.

[bigddan11]

Super Crazy debuts, but I wasn't that impressed with his performance. Maybe it's because he and Chris Masters are solely midcarders who need a big name to push them over the top and make them look decent.

The rest of the show was what I was expecting: set up the Unforgiven PPV, and now we have these coming up:
http://www.wwe.com/content/media/images/309846/1242350/3240220/20060828_uf_cenaedge_new.jpg
(C) Edge w/ Lita vs. John Cena
http://www.wwe.com/content/media/images/309846/1242350/3240220/20060828_uf_dxmcmahons.jpg
Degeneration X vs. The McMahons & The Big Show
http://www.wwe.com/content/media/images/309846/1242350/3240220/20060904_uf_hardynitro.jpg
(C) Johnny Nitro w/ Melina vs. Jeff Hardy
http://www.wwe.com/content/media/images/309846/1242350/3240220/20060904_uf_tagteam.jpg
(C) The Spirit Squad vs. The Highlanders
http://www.wwe.com/content/media/images/309846/1242350/3240220/20060904_uf_carlitorton.jpg
http://www.wwe.com/content/media/images/309846/1242350/3240220/20060904_uf_kaneumaga.jpg

Considering it was mostly a set-up show, then it was decent, but they really need to stop focusing too much on the Entertainment aspect of World Wrestling Entertainment.

[SonGoku V3]

If done right (which I'm not holding my breath for), Cryme Tyme could be as good as Los Guerreros. I hope this is good, and they don't turn into "K-Kwik" styled characters...it might be tough though even if the writers and the two guys pull it off. Even though this is an unfair train of thought, it is still taboo to have Black people play up a certain stereotype where as the Muhammad Hassan's, Mexicools, Highlanders, etc. can sometimes get overlooked.

[EinBebop]

http://www.wwe.com/content/media/images/309846/1242350/3240220/20060904_uf_trishlita.jpg

It's a shame Lita's so deteriorated, because it would be so cool to let Trish's retirement match be the main event, otherwise. Maybe they'll have a screwjob here, and let them have the main event on Raw the next night, in a Jeff Jarrett house-of-a-thousand-run-ins match to cover the lack of ability.

[Wonderwall]

Man, who woulda thunk someone could make paint dry somewhat interesting. Maria is too hot, if theres one thing I hate about CM Punk its that hes all over that:p . Its a little refreshing not hearing everyone crap on RAW, tho its not as bad here as at some other places.

[SirLemming]

Considering it was mostly a set-up show, then it was decent, but they really need to stop focusing too much on the Entertainment aspect of World Wrestling Entertainment.
More accurately, they need to focus on "Wrestling Entertainment" and not just "Entertainment".

[Kasumi]

If done right (which I'm not holding my breath for), Cryme Tyme could be as good as Los Guerreros. I hope this is good, and they don't turn into "K-Kwik" styled characters...it might be tough though even if the writers and the two guys pull it off. Even though this is an unfair train of thought, it is still taboo to have Black people play up a certain stereotype where as the Muhammad Hassan's, Mexicools, Highlanders, etc. can sometimes get overlooked.

<3 you. That's exactly what I'm thinking. If you just got offended by them then why the heck didn't you stop watching when those gimmicks came up? Anyway, Cryme Tyme needs to be over the top zany to work. I'm entertained and hopefully this turns out well.

The Jeff/Maria/Paint segment? OH THE IRONY IT BURNS US! Seriously. Jeff using paint and having none of it on him? Win. Also, Melina needs to stop changing her hair style so much. Stick to one and keep it.

Tables, ladders, and tables? Not exactly a screw up there WWE but funny to point out. Anyway, Edge's promo was kinda decent. I'm enjoying crazy, I'm-gonna-kick-your-ass-Cena better than everything else he's done.

I almost forgot about Kane there. So yeah. Not caring about Umaga/Kane. I was more excited for a re-hash of Umaga/Flair. Nice return, of the Flair Flop by the way.

And I still don't care for DX even when they decide to be mature. GO MCMAHONS!

Orton won Player of the Night yesterday. He and Edge have the same gimmick but Orton showed that he can outheel Edge any day of the week. I can list all the little things he did but that would take too long (my favorite was him clucking like a chicken to make fun of Trish's hair. What's up with women and that?). Gotta love how they had more Orton/Cena interaction than Edge/Cena and Orton/Carlito. Fun match with lots of effort from everyone but Orton just ruled all.

[email2003]

The whole Maria watching paint dry was "STUPID!" Waste of air time.

[krazymed]

WWE has always been and will always be an organization that exploits negative stereotypes about different ethnic groups for ratings and money. They do not care if people are offended, in fact they encourage it because that gets a rise out of people.

No matter how funny or unfunny the Cryme Time was, in the end it will offend a large portion of the audience like every other angle before it, because that is what WWE does.

[Tapout]

WWE has always been and will always be an organization that exploits negative stereotypes about different ethnic groups for ratings and money. They do not care if people are offended, in fact they encourage it because that gets a rise out of people.

No matter how funny or unfunny the Cryme Time was, in the end it will offend a large portion of the audience like every other angle before it, because that is what WWE does.

Good. If you're self-obsesed enough about your race to be offended by over-the-top silliness like WWE puts on display, you deserved to be offended by it. Lighten up and have some god damn fun for once.

[krazymed]

Fair enough. I wonder, though, if Latinos find the Vickie-Rey-Chavo storyline "god damn fun." Because for that storyline to take place, Eddie had to die. Was it worth it? To have a close family member die and then have to speak his name in a goofy storyline for the past TEN months...?

[SirLemming]

I don't think that one's a Latino issue, I think it's more of a human issue.

[The Myst]

So I stayed away from this for two weeks, I put it on one night, what's the first thing I see? The McMahons and DX. No thank you. And I've seen Cryme Tyme on YouTube and that's the most racist thing I've ever seen in my life. For the record, I wasn't offended by it. It takes a lot to offend me. I was more baffled that they actually aired this.

[krazymed]

I don't think that one's a Latino issue, I think it's more of a human issue.

To a certain extent, yes. But the big reason this has been drawn out for so long is because it is supposed to resemble a Mexican soap opera, much like the whole Dominic thing from last year. In other words, WWE is putting on a shameful version of what would otherwise be entertaining to a certain group of people in the hopes of getting a reaction. The big problem, of course is that everything in a soap opera is fake. Eddie Guerrero dying was not.

[MGFanJay]

The absurdity of Cryme Tyme is what makes it so great. Is it racially insensitive? Very... BUT it is also played for comedy, and it succeeds.

[PTurkey]

What is up with these hilarious Maria cutaways with the paint. They seem so random. Am I the only one here that recognized the pattern? Lets see: they cut away when Viscera & Charlie Haas made their entrance, when Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch made their entrance, and when SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long made his entrance. What do these have in common?

ANSWER: Watching these things is BORING and WWE is entertaining you more by showing you paint dry. It works as a subliminal message too, so if you don't think they're boring, you see Maria having more fun than you so you'd realize that paint drying truly is more fun than those dudes and that show.


Also: Cryme Tyme sounds like a winning gimmick as long as they keep it funny in a Fridayish sort of way.