Tales From The Fish: Finally A Good Raw

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Hey yo and welcome too a long awaited new edition of Tales From The Fish. I am as always your fan friendly Canadian Mr. C.C.. On this edition of Tales From The Fish, I will talking about Raw from February 8th and the fact it was actually good. So without further ado, lets get started.

For the longest time I haven't had any expections of WWE's "flagship" show being good. As you may or may not know, they have been having guest hosts. Most of the guest hosts have to something to promote. For example, Bob Barker had a book, Jeremy Piven had a movie, Seth Green had Robot Chicken, etc. Now the February 8th edition of Raw, the guest host was NASCAR driver Carl Edwards. The only thing he was pushing was the Daytona 500.

Going into the February 8th Raw, I again had no preconceived notions that it was going to be good. Although Raw was better then expected which was a pleasant surprise. For the last how many weeks and months Raw has looked like the B show. Well, between you and me, SmackDown has always been better then Raw. But the reason Raw gets better ratings is because it is pushed as the main show. That's another column for another time.

Instead of going over everything that happened, but I will highlight the good and bad parts of the show.

Good

-Right off the start the guest Carl Edwards did a bang up job in the opening. He actually knew how to speak on the mic and did a back flip off the top rope. He carried on this good work he did in the opening segment and took it right through the rest of the show. Edwards was one of the few non-wrestler guest hosts I enjoyed aside from Shaq and Bob Barker.

-Christian showing up on Raw was a plus in my books. Even though he is getting a great push being on ECW, its great to see on somewhere other then ECW. Christian insulting Sheamus was funny also. Christian can turn off the funny at anytime. Its not like Santino Marella who has been basically pushed as a comedic wrestler. But I digress, Christian is the ultimate package. He can wrestle, work the mic in either making you laugh or just cut a good promo and make people look amazing. Him showing up on Raw just confirmed it.

-Degeneration X is no longer the WWE Unified Tag Team Champions. I knew they were going to lose them sooner or later. But it made sense that they did it this way because they have been teasing a Shawn Michaels heel and with the way Michaels screwed up and costing them the Unified Tag Team Championship is another good way to further that.

-To coincide with Degeneration X losing the WWE Unified Tag Team Championships, teasing Shawn Michaels turning heel is great. Sure we have seen him heel in the past, but he hasn't been heel in well over ten years. That heel turn he did in his feud with Hulk Hogan doesn't count because when he does turn heel, it will be a long term heel turn. Sure its great that Michaels is face and all of that, but it will be refreshing to see him as a heel. It is long overdue for him to be heel. Plus him acting desperate in wanting to face Undertaker has been an interesting storyline to say the least.

-Randy Orton doing a job was great to see. I am not a Cody Rhodes fan by any means, but damn it is about time we see Orton do a job for someone in midcard and lower. You could say he lost to Kofi Kingston, but that was once he lost to him. The other times we have seen him beat Kingston. All we see him do a job for is fellow main eventers like Triple H, Batista, John Cena, and Undertaker. There is no shame in doing a job if it fits.

-For the first time, I actually agreed with what they had John Cena say. Don't get me wrong, I am still not a fan of Cena, but him saying Vince McMahon is all about the dollar is the truth. Sure it seems odd coming from the WWE's current cash cow, but it still sounded right even though Cena said it. Regardless of what I have said about Cena in the past, I liked the fact that someone finally, whether scripted or not, said something about Vince being greedy.

-The ending of Raw was very good as well. Bret Hart jumping Vince McMahon from behind seemed like poetic justice in some round about way. Vince kicked Bret down, but Bret didn't stay down. Even though he is not what he used to be, Bret better know what he is doing by possibly getting back in the ring. I sure hope he doesn't end up getting seriously hurt. But I digress, the whole throwing around equipment brought back memories of Montreal. Even though I am sick of talking about the whole Montreal screwjob, I liked the ending overall.

Bad

With the good, you have to have some bad. So lets get to it.

-Sheamus going over on Christian was expected, but not necessarily wanted. It would have great to have Christian go over on Sheamus will still making him look great. See, the whole reasoning with Christian going over is so that Christian might possibly get a shot at the WWE Championship. Christian has been long overdue for a run with the WWE Championship or World Heavyweight Championship for that matter. But not to stray to far off to this point, I still think that Sheamus could have done the job and looked good.

-Taking the Unified Tag Team Championships off of Degeneration X was good and all, but why couldn't they have put them on The Straight Edge Society? I mean its been two months or so since Big Show was Unified Tag Team Champion. I personally like Jeri-Show more so then the combination of Big Show and The Miz. Who was the brains behind giving The Miz another title? Its not like he defends the one he already has and that being the WWE United States Championship on a regular basis. Even the without giving the Unified Tag Team Championships to The Straight Edge Society they haven't lost any steam. It would make what The Straight Edge Society doing seem validated in some round about way. Like they were being rewarded for their work in converting people you could say. But I hope they don't give The Miz and Big Show a long title reign because I just can't see it being interesting.

-Maryse turning face? It surely seemed like she is. If you listen to her doing guest commentary during Gail Kim's match, you would get the sense is leaning towards a face turn. She also continued her ascent towards a face turn by saying that she is looking forward to her match against Gail Kim. It just seems out of place with Maryse acting all nice. I was waiting for Maryse to layout Gail Kim with the French Kiss (DDT) or do something. Gail Kim seemed reluctant to shake her hand and seemed reluctant to believe what Maryse said. Or maybe this is a swerve to become a bigger heel. I just can't buy Maryse as a face just out of the blue. A face turn over a period of time seems more appropriate.

-Is Cody Rhodes turning face? It seemed like they were teasing it. If you seen the way he was acting during his match against Randy Orton, you could see him acting like a babyface. I thought they were turning Ted Dibiase face as they were teasing it for months. But in the same facet they are seemingly turning Rhodes face as they as I said were teasing it. Remember the last time Rhodes was face? He got little to no reaction AT ALL! It didn't help they teamed him with the "Rookie Killer" Hardcore Holly. They are building Rhodes up as weak looking face. They need to build Rhodes up properly to have him as a credible face. Whether they do that remains to be seen.

Overall Raw had many more good points then bad. I haven't been able to say Raw was good in a long time. Even though SmackDown is my favorite WWE show and brand, this episode of Raw gives me hope that Raw can hopefully turn around.

Thanks for reading and see you on the flipside!