On my drive to work this morning, I saw a truck with CNC on it.  Which made me think of CTC on RAW.

And the thought that followed was that I really enjoy Stable factions.  I miss stables in the WWE.  I am really hoping that CTC and the Worthless-Orton pairing might end up adding another 1 or two people to each group (or more) and we might see Stables coming back.

I think my favorite professional wrestling stables have been the MInistry of Darkness, D-Generation X, The Brood, and The Hart Foundation.

What was your favorite stable?  (And why, if you have a specific reason...  :)

Gee...  another scramble...  Guess I should have seen that coming.  But it's still sad.  1 was interesting.  2 was making it almost silly, 3 just makes it boring.

Literally it makes the idea of Unforgiven so dull to me that I don't think I will be watching it.  Probably not even if they put it on broadcast.  How sad is that?  There is such a thing as overkill even to as die-hard a fan as myself.

That being said...  Let's think about a couple of the matches.

Before matches...  Tiffany either needs a longer, looser skirt, or wider heels on her shoes.  Then perhaps, she wouldn't nearly fall over when posing on stage.

Matt Hardy vs. John Morrison (The Shaman of Snooty) - I honestly wasn't sure who would win that one.  Both are very good wrestlers, and very impressive to watch.  I know Matt has been getting a heck of a chance to push towards the belt, and Morrison held it not too long ago...  but I didn't have a real guess as to who would win this one.  I admit that I was happy when Matt won.  I would really like to see him wear the ECW belt.  My personal opinion is that he is far more deserving of it than the World's Strongest Chump..  I mean Champ, really.  That's what I meant.  :)

Miz vs. Evan Bourne - I was impressed.  Here was another match-up where I literally didn't know who would win.  Even more so than the previous match.  Evan has been getting SUCH a push (deservedly so, in my opinion), that I wasn't sure on the outcome.  I hate to see him lose, but at the same time, I think that he has not had time to establish himself, his character, or his style enough to really be "deserving" of a title run.  I put deserving in quotes, because if this was a sports competition, he would pretty much always be making a title run, but since this is entertainment, you can actually draw it out a bit more and do more character development.  I want to see him on the mic more, and getting a more rounded character.  I still hold with the belief that part of what makes The Undertaker and Kane so danged popular is that fact that their characters have a TON of depth and history to them.

Chavo Geurrero vs. Tommy Dreamer - I was sad that I knew the outcome of this one right away.  I was kind of sad, there was a part of me hoping that Tommy might actually get a win, but no.  Chavo got to be the winner.  It makes me feel bad for Tommy.  I'd like to see him win against someone bigger than a toothpick.  A win where it actually looks like a wrestling match instead of swatting a bug.  That being said, the match was pretty good even if it was predictable.  I did enjoy how Chavo got tied to the tree of woe.  It looked SO much more plausible than the normal "lift the "unconcious body" up and it just HAPPENS to wrap it's feet around the turnbuckle" bit that is normally done.

Finlay vs. Mike Knox - This was so predictable that I was actually reading a book through this match.  Finlay I like.  Mike Knox I do not.  And it's not that I think his character is a creep, I just don't care.  He has no depth, no persona, NOTHING to make me interested enough to even boo.

I admit, I had trouble even thinking up 4 ECW stars who would be given a chance at the title.  I had forgotten Chavo, since we see him so much over on Smackdown.  And Finlay I had actually written off since he also got a chance over on Smackdown.  So I got confused.  :)

It's been a couple of days, but I still think that Friday's SmackDown was one of the BEST episodes they have had in a long time!

Vickie's image on the TitanTron was terrible though.  She looked washed out terribly.

My friends and I often discuss the "After the PPV" shows, since they are of the opinion that it's not as worthwhile to watch them or go to them.  So much of the time is devoted to recap.  This is one of their main reasons for not going to the Seattle RAW show with me.

I think that the after the PPV shows are less about the wrestling and more about the storyline continuation.  I love the wrestling, but I am a HUGE storyline person, so I find the after the PPV shows very interesting since you get to see so much twisting of characters and stories.

I LOVED the last bit of Smackdown when the Undertaker came out after Vickie.  I thought that was FANTASTIC.  I laughed for probably another hour after the show concluded.

On a different note, anyone on Fan Nation out here in the Seattle area and planning to go to the RAW show in October?

I now have a ticket to see RAW when it comes back to Seattle in October!

I shouldn't have spent so much money, but it's RAW!

Taking my camera, and myself, and I'll have to see if I can find my autograph book.  :)

Really?!  That explains so much!  Like the sounds of frogs in my head.

I adore Kane.  I always have, and probably always will.  He's my absolute favorite WWE person of all time.  I like him in the mask, out of the mask, in any costume.  I like him as a Heel, I like him as a Face, I just like him Sam-I-Am.  :)

I was intrigued by the new intro music, that is so VERY reminiscent of his earlier themes.  I always look forward to hearing what he has to say, and I laughed so hard last night during Kane's announcement on RAW. 

I admit that I was kind of stuck on the fact that Kane pronounced Rey's name as "Rey Mysterioooooo" which made me giggle.  But I will cheer any time I see Kane, no matter what he's up to.  I cheer harder when he teams up with or goes against his brother, but I will always choose Kane first!  :)

I'm looking forward to seeing what else he does with Rey and this theme!

Jericho is heading back into Whiny Boy Jerkface.  Which I think is fantastic.  I love when he does that.  I think Chris Jericho is one of the all around most Versatile people that RAW has.  He can be a face, and he can believable flip that around and be a great heel as well. 

My personal opinion is that one of the reasons Colin Delaney was let go is because the fans didn't respond to him with the abrupt heel turn he took.  I was discussing that with my wrestling social group last night.  We decided that the most probable reasons for the lack of reaction was twofold. 

1. The heel turn did not seem to make any sense.  He claimed he was being held back by Dreamer, and yet after turning, he did not start winning matches.  He just appeared to flail around trying to find someone else to cling to. 

2. Most of his story arcs had been drawn out about 2 to 3 weeks too long, and so the fans (with their nototriously short attention spans ;) had already decided that he was never going to amount to much, and hey, this is a good time to go get a soda. 

I believe that if he had been allowed/able to win more than once, especially if it was somehow due to help from a mentor, he might have gotten more of a stable fan base.  As it was, he showed no skills on the mic, no interesting emotions other than "please don't squash me TOO hard", and he had no real depth to his persona. 

From experience, I've run characters like this.  They are lackluster, uninsteresting, and easily forgettable.  Colin should have been shown with the proverbial extra head to generate interest.  Some options might have been, spunk, grit, and fire:  good mic skills to be able to verbally assault and insult people to the point where they attack him and he gets thoroughly squashed, but he comes back and does it again.  This time, LEARNING from his previous attempt, and he manages to get the upper hand for a few seconds, and then is squashed.  But that learning would be critical.

Another option could have been what I almost thought they were going for originally...  the bookworm/nerd stereotype who slowly morphs into the brawny hero figure.  However, Colin showed no muscle development in the last 9 months, and showed very little apparent improvement in skills or techniques.  (Both of which seemed odd, since he should have, and didn't.)

There were plenty of options.  I wrote characters for improv and games, that frequently started out like Colin, and generally improved.  But a couple just went haywire and I dumped them. 

Others...  ah, there were others who spirals rapidly out of my original plans, but became so hugely popular that they ended up being in use for over a decade.  I rather miss designing characters and their storylines. 

Anyway, I didn't mean to prattle on about Colin Delaney... 

Short version of my thoughts on RAW...  I enjoyed it.  I look forward to what happens next.  I think the Championship Scramble is interesting, but I think it sucks for Punk, since he hasn't had the belt long, however, it will be VERY interesting to watch!