RAW Matches Announced
 

WWE.com has announced the following for RAW tonight.

- Johnny Nitro vs. Kane for the WWE Intercontinental Title
- The start of an eight-woman tournament for the vacant WWE Women's Title
- DX will face three teams chosen by Jonathan Coachman in a Guantlet match.

Looks pretty interesting. I mean, DX jobbing out Haas & Vis, Cade & Murdoch and The Spirit Squad will suck balls, but Nitro vs. Kane and the Women's Title Tournament sound serviceable.

I am a Kane mark, so I'll be pulling for him to win his third Intercontinental Championship. They can't have Umaga cause a disqualification again, they've already done that. Kane wins the title then drops it to Umaga. They can keep Nitro looking good by having Melina taken from ringside, as she can compete in the Women's Title Tournament just prior.

The mid and lower cards of RAW continue to be more interesting than the main event (as seems to be commonplace in the business today).

Why in the blue fucking Hell is Kane not being able to compete for the fucking WWE championship?! :mad:

So will we get an appearance by The Loose Kanyon and the Little Pac-er?

Holy shit, this is the perfect set up to bring back the Outsiders.

Which means the thought didn't even cross creative's mind.

Also, please keep the belt on Nitro. It's not going to do Kane any good to win it. Let Nitro run with the belt and try to make something of it/himself. He's got potential; he just needs a chance to use it.

Agreed.

Do they even have eight women wrestlers for a tournament?

They're just going to have him drop the title to Hardy, if not Kane. He's already gotten what he can from the title, he's an established singles guy. They just need to have him feud with someone who he can go over cleanly, thus looking strong.

Also, I think the most exciting team in the Gauntlet Match will be Randy Orton and Edge. We'll probably see DX defeat Charlie Haas & Viscera, then Cade & Murdoch get disqualified after chair shots, which allows Randy Orton and Edge to beat on DX. It wouldn't surprise me if Hunter & Shawn pulled out the victory, anyway.

The Kane/Umaga feud doesn't need a title involved in it, so don't put the title on Kane. I would like to see the Hardy/Nitro feud continue over the belt, since their match at Unforgiven was better than I thought it would be.

They shouldn't do. Victoria needs time off for her knee, but she will likely be in it. Beth Phoenix will be back for the tournament, while Candice Michelle qualified for the tournament last week (unofficially, but she did beat a former three-time Women's Champion). Throw in the former Women's Champions, Lita and Mickie James, and you have yourself up to five. Melina can wrestle, so expect to see her in the tournament, and Torrie can't, but she'll be there. That's six.

Jazz has done NOTHING in ECW. She lost once to Mickie James. As a former two-time Women's Champion, bring her back to RAW, at least for the tournament. I've been craving for Jillian Hall to get involved with the division, and it would kind of make sense (ECW and SmackDown! can each send a representative), but it kind of seems too squashy at the moment. I think the eighth spot will got to Shantelle Taylor, or someone, from Deep South Wrestling. They recently ran an angle where Matt Striker was revealed as the scout assigned to selecting the next women's graduate to RAW. I think he'll choose the lady down there with the most progress, and she will do OK in the tournament. Krissy Vaine or Shantelle Taylor are my best picks.

Beth Phoenix (about time for her return)
Candice
Maria
Melina
Mickie James
Torrie Wilson
Victoria

That's 7. There's Lillian and Cloe, but I don't see them fitting into the picutre. Dunno who they be bring in for the 8th spot, but I'd imagine someone new is on there way in.

I can't stand how quickly the WWE feels that they need to move titles from one guy to the next. Titles are supposed to mean something, and the more quickly that they change hands from one guy to the next the less they seem to mean. Why can't Nitro have a solid run with the Intercontinental belt? The belt isn't going to get Hardy any more over with the fans, and the same goes for Kane. Nitro, however, can go over cleanly in a program with somebody over the belt. This makes him and the title look better than having him drop it.

I guess you could throw Lita in there as well. That makes eight.

Can't see Lita being in it tbh. Loosing this tourny on her way out doesn't make a lot of sense.

I vote for putting the belt back on Mickie James. It just makes the most sense.

Agreed. Bring a new girl in, have her go to the finals against Mickie, Mickie steels the victory. you have a feud with the new girl right there, and eventually a new champion.

Why not take advantage of the Beth Phoenix/Mickie James program that they were trying to set up before? They are both solid wrestlers, and can bring that excitement back to the Women's title that Mickie and Trish provided earlier this year.

Personally I don't think Beth has a lot of potential and would rather see them try to get some one else over.

It's a ready made feud. That is if the fans remember that Beth Phoenix even exists. What am I saying? She was around for, what, six seconds? No one knows who she is.

In that case, WWE ought to try and pick up some of the Shimmer women and build a women's division based on wrestling ability as well as good looks. Who says that the women can't be hot and be able to wrestle, too?

Lita

She believes you should be hideous AND talentless.

It's good to see that she's leading by example.

I see the Women's Tournament looking like this:

-Candice Michelle vs. Lita

-Melina vs. Mickie James

-Beth Phoenix vs. Victoria

-Torrie Wilson vs. Jazz

Lita defeats Candice Michelle with a Litasault, advancing to the second round. Mickie James lands her Mickie-T on Lita, winning her match. Beth Phoenix and Victoria work a nice match, which ends with Beth getting the pin after a sunset flip counter to the Widow's Peak. Jazz pins Torrie Wilson after the Fisherman Buster.

That gives us a second round of:

-Lita vs. Mickie James

-Beth Phoenix vs. Jazz

Mickie James defeats Lita with the Mickie-T. Lita may be leaving the WWE soon (I think they may be able to convince her to stay, yet), so putting her over makes little to no sense. That of course seems to imply Jazz goes over Phoenix. They should try to keep Phoenix looking strong, so I'd have Victoria cost her the match, which allows their feud to continue on Heat, occasionally making it to RAW. So at Cyber Sunday we get:

WWE Women's Championship Tournament Finals
Mickie James vs. Jazz

It probably won't happen like this, but this is the best match I can see taking place, and it is clear who the face is. Mickie James wins the match, and her second WWE Women's Championship. Give Mickie a new belt, to sort of signify a new era for women's wrestling, and then have ODB come up from OVW to feud with her, while Victoria plays the mentor role to Krissy Vaine/Shantelle Taylor from DSW, who feuds with Beth Phoenix while Victoria takes some time off, but continues to appear on WWE TV.

But is it really doing anything for Nitro at the moment. I like Johnny, and I think he has a lot of potential, but if you keep the belt stoic for too long, it will eventually mean nothing. Look at Orlando Jordan. He was a guy with talent, held the US Title for a long time. He's probably been the worst US Champion since the belt was revived in 2002.

If long reings are going to mean anything, they need to be eventful, and they need short reigns to compare to. Let's take a look at the World Tag Team Championship. In the last year or so, there have been three World Tag Team Champions. Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch were the Champs this time last year, then Kane & Big Show held them, then The Spirit Squad won them. Do those titles mean anything because of their long reigns? Not really.

For the Intercontinental Championship to mean anything, it needs to be in big matches. The Six-Pack Challenge last week was a good idea, but the WWE needs to follow it up. Nitro needs to feud with people. In my ideal world, Nitro would feud with Val Venis, who recruits Melina for a movie. Nitro defeats Venis to retain the title, and is then attacked by Joey Mercury, looking for revenge after being betrayed by "NM". Mercury defeats Nitro to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. I could also see 2 Cold Scopio feuding with Nitro down the line.

The question is whether or not Nitro needs the Intercontinental Championship. My opinion is that he doesn't. A character like Umaga needs it more. Nitro's win at Vengeance (which I was one of the few to predict) was an establishment win. It's just so they can lay claim to Nitro being a capable singles talent, and justify pushing him. He's done better than expected with the IC Title, but they can't keep it on him for too long, or else it will get stale.

All Nitro's matches are based on the quality of his performances. His match with Jeff Hardy was good, and any other match people want to see involving Nitro involves someone bouncy. Nitro going through Jeff Hardy, Val Venis, Joey Mercury, Shelton Benjamin, Super Crazy and 2 Cold Scorpio seems like a lot of fun, and it would be, but do you really trust the WWE not to fuck it up majorly? I don't.

All Nitro really needs to do to get over, is wrestle in fun matches. If that happens, people will care about him. Keeping the IC Title on him is just a matter of deciding whether or not you trust Nitro to get over by himself, or not.

<font color=goldenrod>If I were booking:

-Nitro retains

-Beth Phoenix, Victoria, Lita, Melina, Candice Michelle, Torrie Wilson, Mickie James, and the newly acquired Jillian Hall make up the women's tourney

-DX's gauntlet opponents: Spirit Squad, Cade/Murdoch, The Outsiders</font>

They are building towards a Mickie\Lita match, so that will be the finals.

Unfortunately, I think you're right. I just hope they blow it off in the semis.

I think that could be a decent women's fued that could last until Lita leaves.

Then Mickie could move to Melina, since they did/do have real life heat.

Er do you realise how long Cena and Batista have held the WWE/world heavyweight titles for? It would be good to see Hardy go over Nitro eventually, I think Nitro will retain tonight via Umaga inteference.

Those matches do nothing for me.

So Edge has won and lost the belt how many times this year? If I'm not mistaken the answer is twice, and for no good reason with no real drama. And I guess that's more of the problem than the frequency of the changes; giving the belt to people at a time when no one gives a fuck about the change or the guy winning the belt. Or when people do care, giving the belt back to the guy that people hate.

In short, Cena is a bitch.

I think the Womens title bogs down Raw. I think it should become a tri-promotional belt accesible to all 3 brands and their divas, thus being featured on the show whos superstar its held by, with random challenges and defenses on all the shows. By doing this, I'd like to see the European Championship re-activated to the Raw Brand for mid-carders not being used, and the TV Championship on ECW for guys like CM Punk, Test, and such. Just an idea

John Cena as WWE Champion sucks balls, but the period of tme in 2000 where The Rock and Triple H exchanged the WWE Championship numerous times was one of the best times for the WWE.