Raw Revelations: Calgary Kid, DX & Slaughter

If Dr. Ken did his job of completely annoying anyone watching Monday Night Raw last week, then Sgt. Slaughter did his of annoying the Canadian fans attending Raw live last night. Many fans and analysts called last week's Raw unbearable and a complete travesty, so it makes sense that they toned down the guest host role quite a bit this week. Let's face it Slaughter is no Jericho on the mic these days, and that was seen by his fumbling of lines. Slaughter seemed to have little "control" in terms of talking to any wrestlers or setting up matches (until the end of the show). Amazingly, the fictional GI Joe character didn't even promote the new GI Joe movie or show clips of it, but then again he's not in the movie. He did however march out onto the ramp and call the fans "maggots", then completely made fun of their flag, anthem and hero, Bret Hart. Slaughter had Jillian Hall use her awful screeching voice to sing the Canadian national anthem, then as his grand finale, had Bret Hart's music play, making fans go absolutely bonkers. Joke was on them, when Hacksaw Jim Duggan came out waving an American Flag in their faces.

One highlight of last night's show may have been The Miz making his surprise return to the ring and WWE Raw. Last week a stipulation in his match against Cena was should he lose he was banned from Summerslam, Staples Center and Raw, forever. Cena won. This week, Miz came down dressed up as a wrestler called "the Calgary Kid", someone who even Michael Cole couldn't find out about on Google. (Funny enough later that night "Calgary Kid" was a top Google search) That's because there never was a Calgary Kid beyond a children's TV show. Anyhow, the masked marauder dressed in red was able to beat Eugene (another surprise) in a "contract on a pole match". The winner would be put back on Raw, and when Calgary Kid won it, he joyously ripped off his mask to reveal The Miz. That definitely was a great spot that they need more of on Raw. Kinda reminded me of the old Blue Blazer gimmick, the Patriot, and even the Conquistadors from WWF days. Great stuff.

I also enjoyed the Big Show versus Orton match despite its cheap ending with Orton getting the countout on purpose. What can you expect from Orton, but seeing Show dominate, and then Orton with some clever comeback moves was great. Was hoping for some sort of interference allowing Orton to hit an RKO, but instead Orton decided to retreat from the match prior to Summerslam. Big Show got his revenge later in the show with a Chokeslam.

Raw also produced Gail Kim in a pinfall win in a Fatal Fourway match involving Kelly Kelly, Beth Phoenix and Alicia Fox. I was surprised by this one due to her recent losses on Raw, and fully expected Beth Phoenix or even Kelly Kelly to win this one. However, Gail Kim is from Canada originally, and the fans seemed pleased by her victory. The action in that match was top notch for a divas match too, with a lot of great moves and pinfall attempts. The divas even started doing the jump onto other divas in a pile outside the ring move that wrestlers do. Anyways, Gail will get a future shot at Mickie James and the Divas title.

Sorry to fans of the DX reunion, but that may be something WWE needs to move on from. While I have nothing against HHH or HBK, the DX humor can grow old fast. Let's hope Legacy eliminates them eventually, because we've had a bit too much DX. Michaels may even do better on Smackdown. DX is just overplayed, unless they want to bring back some other members like X-Pac and Chyna Doll to make it more interesting. Also found it odd that Shawn Michaels superkicked a little girl (off camera), when WWE wants to achieve a more PG rating. Couldn't he have just dumped ketchup on her or thrown salad at her? Not only that, but remember back to when Shawn Michaels defeated JBL...He was given all the money JBL owed him, yet now HBK is flipping burgers? Strange but true....

The main event match pitted Chris Jericho against John Cena. The crowd was really behind Jericho in the earlier part of the night, and Jericho vowed he would finally defeat Cena in front of his homestate fans. Later during a backstage segment with Big Show, Jericho showed his true colors and talked about disliking Canada. Unfortunately for Jericho, the fans saw it, but they didn't seem to turn on him too bad. There was a typical mixed Cena crowd. In the one on one match, Randy Orton came down to interfere causing a DQ. Jericho was upset, and he and Orton got into it. When Y2J was shoved outside the ring, Big Show arrived to dismantle Orton. This melee brought the Sarge back out to actually announce and schedule a match, but for next week. Next week we'll see John Cena join forces with Orton to battle Show and Jericho which will be one of those typical "we don't like each other but can we co-exist" type tag situations.

Next week Raw will have guest host actor Freddie Prinze Jr, who's been in all sorts of movies including Scooby Doo, I Know What you Did Last Summer and She's All That. He also was a former creative staff member with WWE in 2008 as noted by his Wikipedia and by JR's blog August 2008. As of February 2009, Prinze was no longer involved. But Prinze is a known wrestling fan who was shown attending Wrestlemina 24, and made a cameo during The Dirt Sheet once. In addition, he's got an official profile at WWE Universe where he records his thoughts. His most recent blog entry there was called "If Wrestlers Ruled the world" and on August 17th, he'll rule their world, for a night.