Hey guys!  First of all thank you all so much for the comments that were left on my One Night Stand review, I appreciate every single one of them.  After such a strong PPV it was always going to be hard to follow up on it the next evening on RAW, and whilst the show itself was alright it should have been a much stronger show than it was.  But anyway, nothing is perfect but we enjoy it anyway so lets move on to the review.

The show kicked off with a promo from Triple H, declaring that the Age of Orton was officially broken, in reference to Orton's nasty injury the night before which was replayed for us.  Delightful.  Nothing like seeing a bone profusion played over and over.  Anyway, squeamish girly moment over and Hunter asked what we wanted to know. Who will be the next contender?  Cue music, children and women screaming, the rest vehnemently booing, so who could it possibly be?  Yep, Super Cena at your service.  In all fairness we knew that this was going to happen this summer, and more than likely Cena will get the belt back this summer being the only main eventer that hasn't got a child due.  Plus, the fued hasn't been done for a while so at least its fresh.  Got a little exchange between the two and out comes Hardy, wanting to be considered for the title.  Now, whatever you feel about this give Vince some credit here.  Yes, Jeff is on his last warning but he's allowing Hardy to prove himself.  If Hardy screws up then he has no one to blame but himself.  We then saw Vince doing a heelish action and interupting the three most popular wrestlers by plugging the contetst and bizzarely passing off Jeff's idea of a Number One contender match between him and Cena as his own, which was bizarre.  This was a nice little promo but Hardy really needs to work on his mic skills.  At this level it needs to be better and it is something that can easily be worked on.  So ladies and gentlemen we have your main event.

Next up is RAW's jobber to the stars vs Kennedy, in what was pretty much a squash match.  Kennedy's reaction wasn't as lively as it has been in the past few weeks but this is setting up what could be a nice little fued between Burchill and Kennedy.  Both are extremely talented and hope this fued continues after the draft.  But, my own problem is that I would hate to see this turning into a Britain v America fued which I have an awful feeling it will do, judging by Kennedy's anti British comments and the crowds USA chant.  Remember guys, we're your allies!

Next we have Vince's McMahon Million Dollar Mania segment, and I must admit when the guards were walking past the superstars and Ron Simmons 'Damned' up, I marked. So we had Vince explaining the spiel.  He is giving away $1 million dollars or something like that.  To be honest I went to grab a cup of coffee when he said that it only applied to US citizens.  But I did catch Vince's elitist rant and I do agree.  I know an awful lot of people that cant believe I watch wrestling and think its beneath them.  Bah, screw them.  They dont know what they are missing.  But if anyone wants to know more about this giveaway you can go to WWE.com and there is a press conference at 12pm PT on WWE.com.  Shameless DX style plug over.  But anyway, yes this is a desperate ratings ploy.  But it is getting mainstream media attention and if that is what it will take to get more viewers watching the show then why the hell not?

Next up we had some tag team action which wasn't exactly the most exciting match in the world, with Roddy as the timekeeper.  It was over fairly quickly and an interference from Piper gave Santino and Carlito the win.  We then saw an interjection between Cody and DiBiase Jr in the locker room after Santino's interview, and I like where they are going with this.  DiBiase Jr is fantastic at promos, I love his priceless gig, and cant wait to see him wrestle on RAW.  This is teasing a Cody heel turn and I would love it if the heel 2nd generation stable rumours turned out to be true.  WWE needs to develop new stars and DiBiase is definitely one to look out for.

Next up we had a quick Y2J interview saying how he hasnt been defending the IC title a lot and its about time he did.  Finally!  The IC title is one that used to have such prestige, and it was frustrating how it lost it.  WWE is doing the right thing here by giving a new meaning to the IC title as it is one that is reaped in history and deserves to be defended.  The matchup between JBL and Jericho was much better than we have seen them do in previous encounters, but that was probably to do with ring rust.  It was quick, brutal, and effective.  Like last week we had Y2J tease hitting someone with a chair, to back out at the last minute.  You just know one day that he will snap, hopefully seeing a Y2J heel turn.  More thoughts on that later.

Next up we had a diva tag team match with arguable some of the most talented divas on the roster.  Well, at least these four can wrestle.  We saw some good moves from all four women and this match lasted longer than some of the mens matches tonight.  I love how after Katie and Beth got the win they used it to further spark the Kennedy Burchill fued, which I believe will be a great fued.

We had Cryme Tyme randomly wander on to the stage to look at the money.  They were stopped by guards and then they went.  Random.

Next up we had a very short lived match between Cade and his former tag team partner Murdoch and this match was all Cade, and was over farily quickly.  Cade dominated in this match and we can possibly see him in the IC hunt later in the year.  Murdoch, who knows?  There's only so far a country singer gimmick can take you.

Finally we had the announcers mention that Taker's career had 'ended', and made it clear to the fans that he is ineligible for the draft so there will be no chance that he will simply come to RAW.  None of us seriously believes that Taker has gone for good as it has happened numerous times before.  We all know that when a wrestler retires or is fired, they'll be back.  Hey, I doubt it'll be that match longer until we see Flair back.  Woooooooo.

Segment time again, and here we have Cena and Mickie.  Unfortunately no Adamle which sucked.  It'll be interesting to see where they take this storyline, but it was so cringeworthy seeing Cena drink from JBL's magic love potion.  Come on!

 So we have our main event and for the first time ever we have Cena v Hardy which was a much better match than I expected, despite the infinite amount of headlocks.  It was very quick and fast paced, but of course it ended up with a Cena FU and he picked up the win.  The two men handled the fan distraction very well and simply resigned themselves to watching the fan being taken away which was pretty amusing.  The crowd was distracted by it, so you might as well watch.  But this is the second week in a row that this has happened so we'll probably be seeing tighter security at events from now on.  Also Vince made a comment earlier about the amount of security so the fans shouldn't try anything funny, which was no doubt a reference to last weeks fans incidents.

So there we go, that is a quick summary and review of RAW. Overall it wasn't the most exciting show in the world but it was alright, and it was a nice way to build up one of the matches for NOC.  For the majority it was all about the mon-nay (am I the only one or does anyone else really hate when Vince does that), and if it creates interest in the product then I am all for it.

Cena's getting booed again now he's back in the title hunt which doesn't come as a surprise.  Now, whilst the HHH v Cena fued hasn't been done really since early 2006 in that instance HHH was a heel, even though Cena was being booed.  There is only so much interest a face v face fued can generate.  The best fueds are the face v heel, we all know that so if they want to carry this fued on for a while someone has to turn heel.  With Orton gone RAW is left with one major heel in JBL, but they need more with all the faces there so what can they do?  Turn Y2J heel and thrown him in the title hunt?  Turn HHH heel?  Turn Cena heel?  My point is someone needs to turn heel.  Hardy will still be in the main event scene and you have your three most popular guys fighting for the belt.  An all face fued just isn't exciting.  At the moment a heel Y2J turn has been teased, with him no doubt probably fueding with HBK.  What about turning HHH heel?  Wouldn't work.  He's firmly in Flair country now.  Even if he went heel people would still buy his t-shirts and cheer him.  Cena?  This would be the most viable option but the Austin heel turn in 2001 was diastrous for merch sales and Vince will be keen to avoid this.

But, remember we have a draft coming up!  Things will be mixed up and we can see some badly needed heels in the main event scenes.  The RAW main event scene cannot survive with just JBL as a heel.  Orton wont be gone that lot but still this is a time where Vince needs to get his viewers back with new and exciting fueds.  Hopefully the WWE has something up its sleeve.

So there you have it.  Again please your comments as they are greatly appreciated!  I do realise that my blogs are getting longer an longer but I like to give my readers some hopefully good reading material!

Until next week!

Soph x