Here’s just a few things on my mind after watching Monday’s RAW and reading some news reports that have come out recently. We’ll call this one, “Quick-Hits.” In staying true to the name, this intro is done. Let’s “quickly” get right into it. (See what I did there? Quickly? Whoa boy!)
AJ Lee Cartoon
By now everyone has heard about the cartoon going around the WWE locker room that mocks WWE Diva AJ Lee for her supposed fan-worship of former WWE Diva Amy “Lita” Dumas. The cartoon features two separate drawings. One of the drawings is of the famous photograph of a young AJ getting emotional while meeting Lita, while the other shows her in bed with her current real-life boyfriend CM Punk, with the caption, “Call me Lita.” What is everyone’s take on this thing? Mine is simple. It’s funny. Bad taste? Sure. But funny is funny, and, well, c’mon. That’s funny. The WWE locker room has long been compared to a college fraternity. The travel schedule is brutal and at times the fellas will do stuff that is in bad taste simply to help pass the time and entertain each other. Boys will be boys. I don’t deny that it’s hurtful, and like I’ve mentioned a few times now, in bad taste, but in my opinion…it’s funny!
Big Show’s Push & Daniel Bryan
What happened to the big push WWE was giving Big Show? Has it completely died out, or are we just in the midst of an in-between phase? In my opinion, it’s not too far-fetched to assume that it was done by design simply to try and get the focus off of Daniel Bryan as a main eventer for the time being. WWE always claims they listen to what their “WWE Universe” wants and acts accordingly. The fans could not make it more obvious that they want a Daniel Bryan run on top, however WWE dangled that carrot in front of them for several months, didn’t give it to them, and are now simply trying to get past it. Sure, Bryan received a match with the newly crowned WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton on RAW this week, but it was a non-title match with yet another b.s. non-finish. I’m hoping all of this stalling is only a way of holding off until WrestleMania, where Bryan gets his big “moment” on the biggest stage possible. Hopefully that’s not a case of wishful thinking on my part. We’ll see!
WWE App
It seems like we’re going to have to live with the fact that WWE is going to spend many segments of their three-hour WWE RAW show every Monday night attempting to lure fans into downloading their WWE App. It’s smart business, so I’m well aware of why they’re doing it, but there has to be better ways of incorporating it organically into the show. Random matches where fans get to vote on opponents or stipulations is getting played out at this point. If they’re determined to make the App such a large focus of the show every week, which they clearly are, can’t they come up with some more creative ways of doing it?
Kane
Is WWE ever going to do anything with the new “Director of Operations” version of Kane? When they first made the switch, I wrote a lengthy piece here at eWN about how this was the fresh coat of paint the Kane character needed after so many years of basically doing the same thing. Boy was I wrong. Since switching the Kane character, he has basically done nothing. He’ll pop up every now and then, but he doesn’t really do, well, anything anymore. It was funny to see him in a suit and act all “corporate” once, maybe twice, but now they need to go somewhere with this character or get rid of it altogether. Just my opinion!
Vince McMahon
So that’s it, huh? After weeks, dare I say months, of reports claiming Vince McMahon was coming back to play his “Mr. McMahon” character on a regular basis on WWE television again, he pops up a few times on TLC and that’s it? I’m sure he’ll be back in time to set up the rumored program for WrestleMania XXX, but in the meantime, with The Authority gimmick getting force-fed to us on a weekly basis, can’t we get him in there and do a slow-build to wherever they’re ultimately going with this thing? I’m sure I’m being a bit impatient here, but as a self-admitted “Mr. McMahon” mark, I’ll keep complaining until he’s back. Period.
Rey Mysterio
How many times is a star with legitimate name value going to be brought in and have no real significant role of any kind? If we are in a transition phase where the idea is to build the stars of the future, which it feels like we’re in right now, can’t the stars with name value from the past play a role in helping establish them? At first it was, “Rey Mysterio, take your time healing up. Don’t rush your return.” Then it was, “hey Rey, we need you at RAW on Monday so we can squeeze you into Survivor Series.” Now it’s, “Hmmm….I dunno, we’ll tag you up with Big Show until we figure something out.” Let’s do something with these guys! He’s still fun to watch in the ring, he still has name recognition, but what he doesn’t have is much longer on his badly beaten up knees. Let’s get some mileage out of them while we still can, no? You’re trying to establish a ton of monster heels right now, what better way than to have one of them destroy the little guy and get some heat in the process? “Nah, Rey-Rey, tag up with Big Show. Jump off his shoulders a couple of times, and well, we’ll probably have you and ‘Sin Cara v 2.0’ set a mask record at WrestleMania.” Okie dokie.
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