After watching this week’s edition of WWE Raw on The Score here in Canada, I came up with the idea of a “Why?” List. Think “Things that make you go “hmmm”,” but different, due mostly to a lack of interest in dealing with any potential trademark lawsuits 🙂
1) Triple H is still the COO, and John Laurinaitis works for him. But, wasn’t Triple H relieved of his duties a couple of weeks ago? And if he really is still the COO, why make Johnny the interim GM of Raw at all if Triple H can just overrule his decisions? Doesn’t this essentially mean that nothing has changed since the vote of no confidence? Why does the current creative regime have no understanding of storyline logic at all?
2) Triple H ordered Johnny Ace to sign Kevin Nash to a big contract so that Triple H can “legally” tear him up in the ring. Why? Didn’t Nash gloat a while back that he’d signed a guaranteed deal so he’d get paid whether he worked or not?
3) Christian and Cody Rhodes both lose in individual competition at Vengeance to Sheamus and Randy Orton respectively, and so WWE goes and books a tag match with these four, and has the heels lose again. Why? Do they NOT want any viable heels on Smackdown! moving forward?
4) John Cena comes out with new T-shirts two or three times a year, and every single time they are the typical 1980’s style WWE T-shirt that you might buy at the live event, but you’ll never wear again out in public unless you’re under 5-years old because they’re so goofy and embarrassing. Why does he (and/or the merchandising team) have such terrible tastes in clothing?
5) CM Punk is one of the few characters that has kept me interested in WWE programming, but on Raw he told Alberto Del Rio that he deserves a title shot despite the fact that he’s lost every major match he’s been involved in over the last two months, including two high profile PPV matches in a row. Why does he deserve a title shot given that sort of shoddy record/booking?
6) John Laurinaitis gives Punk a very easy order – if you want your WWE Title match, just say you respect me. But Punk decides to pull a Hogan or Cena and rather than do the obvious and lie (Heaven forbid the babyface lies!), he mocks Johnny and risks losing the match. Why not just lie (especially when it’s such a stupid and unimportant lie) to better your career?
7) Alicia Fox has been anything but a prominent character on WWE’s flagship show for months. Her only TV time has been in the WWE’s “Be a Star” campaign commercial, in which she does her best to look just like Rhianna. So WWE decides to put her over Natalya clean despite the fact that Natalya (along with Beth Phoenix) has been the focal point of the Divas division for some time. Why? I understand that this means that Fox will be the next “Diva of the Month” to get a spot that will be taken away inside of eight weeks, but still, why?
#8 (using a bracket turned it into a smiley face) Something I’ve noticed – WWE has a thing about giving mid-card characters an item of clothing to wear to the ring that you never see them in otherwise; not in backstage promos or segments, not in run-ins, nothing. Joe “Don’t call me Mcgillicutty” Hennig was given a backwards hat to wear in the brief time that he and David Otunga were tag team champions. Otunga wore an unbuttoned shirt to the ring during the same period. And now they’ve got Wade Barrett wearing an open trench coat that he takes off as soon as he gets on the stage. Why? Do the creative powers within WWE actually believe that if you’re wearing a trench coat or a hat to the ring, the fans will think you’re a bigger deal?
9) Michael Cole and John Laurinaitis both still have prominent positions on WWE television. I have to use caps for this one – WHY? CM Punk put it best on Raw when he said that Laurinaitis has a “deer in the headlights” look. Johnny is an awful speaker, a terrible all around performer, and he takes away from every segment he’s in because he’s so bad and unbelievable. And Cole? How stupid does WWE think the fans are to have Cole constantly go back and forth from being the straight-laced play-by-play guy, to the obnoxious heel announcer? He doesn’t have good heat. He has “this guy is irritating so it’s time to change the channel” heat. Ideally, WWE has JR beat Cole next week, take over the Raw chair, and they give Cole a fresh start doing PBP only on Smackdown!. But we all know that that is unlikely to happen.
10) John Cena spends several minutes at the end of Raw thinking about who he’ll choose as his tag team partner to face The Miz and R. Truth at the Survivor Series. Keep in mind – this is after WWE announced several weeks ago that The Rock will team up with Cena at the Survivor Series. And I don’t know about USA Network in the States but here in Canada, they aired a promo all night long during the two-hour Raw broadcast for The Rock/Cena tag team at the PPV. It made Cena’s decision (and more so the fact that he paused to actually ponder his decision) so fake that the entire live crowd chanted “Rocky” because they already knew. Just one big all around “Why?” on this one.
As always, I welcome your feedback!
JimmyVan.com 