November 19, 2002
Some time has past since the last Rant, I know. But for good reason. I didn't want to talk too much about the horrible Necrophelia angle that went on. I tried to say something about it, but decided to scrap it and wait till I saw something decent on WWE television.
Well, that time has come. Time has passed and some things have changed, and hopefully for the better. Shawn Michales, is the new World Heavyweight Champion on RAW. Doesn't that sound weird? He's only had 2 matches in the past four years, and hasn't had a match televised on RAW in almost 5 years. But that second match found him picking up the gold.
I did not see the Survivor Series PPV. So I won't talk much about it. I heard it was "average at best", but hey, it got the gold off of Triple H. Who according to WWE.com was injured in the "Elimination Chamber" main event.
Maybe that means we won't see him for awhile... Let's keep them fingers crossed.
Now let's talk about RAW. I thought it was the best RAW in a very long time. Triple H wasn't on it, so that was quite nice. The matches were pretty good for the most part. Say what you will about the Al Snow/Chris Nowinsky hardcore match and the Stacey Kiebler/Victoria match, they did what they were intended to, and were more than just mere filler.
The main event match of RAW was very very good. Rob Van Dam, Booker T and Chris Jericho in a no DQ triple-threat match to decide a #1 contender for HBK's World Title. All three competitors looked great, even though they were all rather banged up from the night before. These three are the ones who'll be at the top more often than not in the coming years, if you ask me. I thought it was a pretty cool touch having them do that "finisher stealing" spot where Booker had Jericho in the "Walls of Jericho", which was broken up by RVD who delivered a Scissor Kick to Booker, then shortly after Jericho hit a Frog Splash to Rob Van Dam. The face-first bulldog type move Y2J hit on RVD outside the ring looked seriously sick. So much for these guys trying to take it easy out there. The match ended with a "5-Star Frog Spash" delivered by Rob Van Dam. Whose hand was raised at the end of the show by the man he'll be facing next week on RAW(!) Shawn Michaels.
But the one thing alot of people will comment on would have to be the impact made by the newest Superstar in the WWE, "the Big Bad Booty Daddy" himself, "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner. The Genetic Freak looked as impressive as he ever did as he delivered one of his classic sexual innuendo-laden promos and then later ran into the main event delivering an overhead Belly-To-Belly suplex and a Double-Underhook Powerbomb to Chris Jericho. Which prompts us to ask, will he be a babyface? Will a program with Jericho happen? Heck, will we even see him on RAW again?
Well, I don't have any sources in the business, but from the looks of things, I'd say yes to all of the questions.
In the simplest sense of terms, as long as the fans respond positively to his promos and he continues to battle with heels, he'll be a babyface. The little verbal, and later physical confrontations between Jericho and Steiner were well put together; goofy heel, intense babyface, good combination. It's pretty obvious he'll be on RAW since it is the weaker of the two shows right now, they need to have Scott Steiner. Another plus to having a program between Jericho and Steiner is that Jericho is one of those who can bump like nobody's business, and the way he'll sell for Steiner should be more than enough to put him over as a monster. Also if they keep things going in the same direction, they can throw Christian into the mix, there's another who can sell like there's no tomorrow and also the two together, Y2J and Christian can occasionally get the upper hand over Big Poppa Pump to keep the heat going. I think it could work well.
It's pretty safe to say that it's be best RAW has been in awhile and hopefully they can keep it that way. Especially that whole part about Triple H not being there was excellent.
Now let's look toward SmackDown, which will be filmed tomorrow. It's a good bet that Scott Steiner will show up there, too. Since at Survivor Series he did attack both Chris Nowinski and Matt Hardy. They will probably set up a possible program there as well... just to keep people guessing. It probably won't be confirmed that Scott will be on which show for a couple weeks, but I reckon it'll be RAW since their ratings are so bad.
In speaking of SmackDown, as you may know, has lost a few guys recently which are being explained as "trades for the Big Show". On Survivor Series, they showed that D-Von will be back as a Dudley now, teaming up with his "Half-Brothers", Bubba and Spike. Also on RAW they showed that the Big Valbowski will be there now. As will Maven, who is clearly there to start a program with Christopher Nowinski when he's fully recovered. I can't imagine them trading off so many guys for one that's as weak as the Big Show... but... in an ultimate sign of stupidity...
The Big Show is now the WWE Champion on SmackDown having defeated Brock Lesnar. This, I don't understand, I am not even going to try to make any sense of it. Big Show is not that good. Hopefully WWE will see the error in their ways and put the strap on someone deserving.
To go over everything... HBK might pass the torch to RVD next Monday. The Dudleys are back to spice up the Tag Division on RAW. Scott Steiner should be on RAW. The Big Show will probably lower the ratings of Smackdown a bit. Los Guerreros are the Tag Champs on SmackDown and the team of Benoit and Angle will now be broken up and the official babyface turn of Angle is around the corner. Bradshaw when he's back from his injury should go to SmackDown to reunite the APA with Ron Simmons. At the PPV Victoria won the Women's belt, and Kidman won the Cruiserweight belt, hopefully the action in those divisions gets spiced up some more. Victoria and Steven Richards... obviously Stevie likes women who can kick his ass. Al Wilson and Dawn Marie... Viagra at work. Do you love your Testicles? Wouldn't it be great if Stacey Kiebler loved 'em too?
That's all for now. Thanks for reading.