Shotgun…
Disappointed Shotgun isn’t from a techno club in Berlin, tbh.
Holly and James haven’t hit me as a team that are worthy yet, so it struck me as a little odd to see them beating the Can Am Express. I get it though if you’re leaning towards Holly and James being a thing, especially since Furnas and LaFon have already had their shot. Booking is okay in that regard, but plenty to be done to make Holly/James a relevant/interesting team.
Solid response from Faarooq to accept the challenge for Mania. He put down the opposition well. Intrigued to see what the condition is. Please don’t have Ahmed join the nation. I get the feeling Rocky might at Mania though. Either way, this was a solid enough promo.
Hart winning over Shiek is a fine main event, especially with the ovation he’d most likely receive in Germany.
Sad to see Shotgun become more of a recap show now, but with Raw becoming two hours, it makes sense…
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Superstars…
I’m torn on the opener. Good match and I’m happy for Flash to be booked as a credible midcarder because Scoprio is awesome. I do have to just say in general, the booking of Billy Gunn for me has been disappointing. I guess this was all he was ever meant to be in here, but once you first unearthed the black hat, it seemed like he could be a really cool character. Unfortunately hasn’t panned out that way, and he’s seemingly just a glorified jobber.
Enjoyed the promo from Mero here to hype his confrontation with Mr. Perfect. Good recap to remind us of all the crap Mero has been put through. No wonder he’s had a personality change as of late. Good stuff.
ECW hype yay. I dare you to write Barely Legal in full with a fully-fledged Jerry Lawler invasion.
I’m all for the Mike Awesome hype too. You’re booking him really well so far.
Vader and Mankind squash to finish up is fine, and the dynamic they’ve got as a team is interesting though. Feel like an awkward match up for tag champs though in terms of fan alignment and what not though.
I guess these are both going to be more recap shows moving forward. I’m happy to be up to date so hopefully I’m in position to give some more in depth thoughts on a future addition of Raw.
Will say that I’m glad we’re getting the Michaels/Hart rematch we should have got, and the Austin/Shamrock stuff has been awesome so far.