MVP & The Miz, Superstars Preview

MVP has finally arrived to Raw. This past week's episode of WWE Raw 04.27.09 saw the show's recent #1 draft pick, Montell Vontavius Porter, emerge from backstage to interrupt Randy Orton's "everyone will fear and respect me" speech in the ring. The usually cocky MVP was able to taunt Legacy and Orton enough to earn himself a match against the WWE Champion, but only non-title. Not sure why WWE couldn't have really kicked it into high gear and made both men cockily put their belts on the line, since the finish saw no real winner. The finish to their match saw MVP get booted out of the ring by Orton, right before Shane McMahon headed into the ring to attack Orton with a Kendo stick. The finish was able to save face for MVP in that he didn't actually lose the match or get dominated by Orton, and actually had a pretty good showing. If MVP loses his US title somehow to Dolph Ziggler, I can see Porter becoming one of the main men in the hunt for the WWE title on Raw but probably not capturing it quite yet. He may be challenging members of Legacy for the time being, The Miz, or Brian Kendrick.

Then there's the Miz who cut a pretty nice promo piece in the ring where he insulted an already injured John Cena, called him out a few times, and then proclaimed himself the winner by forfeit. Miz 1 Cena 0, as Miz himself put it. Expect Miz to either get thrown into a tune up match against Cena by Vickie Guerrero, where Cena loses the match due to Big Show's interference, so Miz can continue saying he's beaten Cena. Another good thing for WWE was when Miz told people to "Google him" and ended up becoming the #1 hot search on Google that same night. Note to Mr. McMahon and WWE creative team: if a superstar can get you a lot of web traffic just by saying "google me", then let this guy continue with his schtick. Also, make sure you've got his WWE profile ranked #1 on the Google search. The fans loved to hate Miz, and The Miz may take over Chris Jericho's spot as next most-hated heel after Orton.

In terms of great matches, the ECW seems to have what it takes (see ECW Recap 04.28.09). Week after week they seem to be showing some good ones, usually involving Evan Bourne or Christian, Swagger and Tommy Dreamer. Last night they held a ECW title match when Tommy Dreamer challenged Christian for his new title, stating he didn't have much longer to win that title under his contract. The two put on a nice matchup, with Jack Swagger spoiling the show by coming out to attack both of them. He didn't want Dreamer winning the title before he had a chance to get his rematch with Christian, which will officially come at Judgment Day. The WWE could do a great service by making more matches like this on its other shows as well. As mentioned above, there's no reason not to create excitement by making Orton & MVP both put their titles on the line on Raw, only to have Shane McMahon interrupt it. It would make WWE seem like they are trying to give the fans more of what they want.

Looking ahead to the next WWE Show. WWE Superstars on WGN this Thursday will feature ECW stars Evan Bourne and Paul Burchill in a rematch. Last time they met on ECW, Bourne got the victory, so Burchill is out for revenge. One half of the unified tag team champs, Carlito, will battle Legacy's Ted Dibiase. I'm expecting that Legacy is going to claim those unified tag titles some time soon so that they are wearing gold with Orton, or perhaps Dibiase will take MVP's US title. Also on Thursday's show, the WWE Smackdown divas will see tag team action as Gail Kim and Maria go up against Michelle McCool and Alicia Fox.