John Cena comparing his current rivalry with Triple H to that of two years ago:
"Not a damn thing has changed!"
So sad, but true, John.
Mr. McMahon Freudian Slipping while trying to convey the "suspense" of a calling his next prize winner.
"Suspension!"
Lots of those going round these days, huh Vince?
Comments (16)
I'm surprised you weren't talking about Jericho and Flair:
Flair: What do you got to say?
Jericho: You're going to take it, alright?
Does anyone else think HHH buried John Cena in their promo because Cena got the largest pop of the night?
I liked the way Mr. McMahon kept displaying characteristics of both a well beloved promoter and an evil hated promoter. It could have gotten confusing if any new viewers were watching through the whole show. Although I think the ratings will show that there is nothing to worry about there.
No, HHH performed scripted comments that were designed to further a feud...
This whole idea that HHH wants to 'bury' the guy that his dad-in-law is pushing as heavily as he's almost pushed anyone before truly baffles me.
Ask yourself some questions:
Why does HHH need to bury anyone? He has a job for life, he's going to be running the business one day, so has bigger fish to fry.
Why would Vince allow him to bury the guy that is his top star?
Wouldn't it be better for HHH to make his companies' biggest cash cow look better considering he will have a big say in running said company?
To me the unintentional funny line of the night was Jim Ross reading a promo for The Truth campaign's new website "LOGBLOG"...
JR: Go to logblog.com and drop some logs.
Childish giggle ensues
I have to say that the promo between HHH and Cena at the beginning of Raw last night really showed me how HHH has slipped a bit in my mind and how valuable Cena can be.
Not that HHH isn't still VERY good at what he does. But when the two of them went head to head, HHH went with the same ol' calm, "I'm better than you, you have to beat me" routine. It seems like we get the same promo with every opponent.
Cena, on the other hand, really delivered. Yes, he throws a corny promo out there once in a while. But it's not the same thing every time. Last night, he showed more of the anger that I think makes him effective. Cutting off HHH in mid sentence, getting in his face, pushing him...all together, it portrayed a guy who basically believes HHH can't beat him.
I don't know...maybe I'm way off in the way I took it. And this isn't to knock HHH, becasue I still think he's damn good at what he does. But Cena last night made it seem more "real," for lack of a better word. He put it in HHH's head that even with the title, HHH isn't anything until he beats Cena.
Anyone agree, or am I all by myself on this one? :-)
Azz,
No, I agree. Cena looked focused, determined and pissed off that he didn't have the title.
His words to HHH seemed, dare I say, even a little heelish (you're nothing, you can't beat me, etc.), but they were at the very least edgy.
None of the cartoony, overblown Cena that has bored me for almost two years; none of the jokey, obnoxious Cena that makes me root for the other guy.
Good stuff.
(Also, the Million $ Mania stuff was hilariously bad. I think we can all agree on that. The one stalker-sounding girl made me cringe.)
That promo between HHH and Cena was one of the best I've heard in a long time...possibly since the Foley/Flair promo from two years ago.
One of other favorite things about last night was Vince leaving that message to that guy about missing his chance to win money. Imagine if it was you who got that message? Heelish Vince at work right there.
the funniest line of that promo was HHH sayin that all of cena's fans would be in bed when their match happens
Last night's RAW rating rose to a 3.31 based on hours of 3.27 and 3.34.
I figured there would be a slight increase once people saw MDM was legit.
Could there be worse turns than Jericho and Kennedy?
The fans clearly didn't know to boo Jericho for about half that promo.
Jericho obviously was able to pull it off, but he had to resort to very old-school methods. The Kennedy one has got me bothered more though. Kennedy was getting over by just being MR KENNEDY and not really having to do anything else. But now suddenly he's tagging with Mickie James and playing face in peril? This is not why people have been liking this guy. No brash, no loud, just another conforming face. Hopefully WWE realizes this and lets Kennedy be Kennedy and not John Cena Jr.
I really enjoyed RAW last nite, last weeks MDM segments came off as amateurish and awkward, this week they ran pretty smoothly. It was good to see an actual fan win some money too.
Another thing, I'm from the UK and have no idea how the American tax system works but wouldn't the winners loose alot of their prize to taxes? And is that why Vince is flying them all in for press conferences, I'd say they'll be getting comp tickets to some events too. And the guy they made sing was hilarious, all i could picture was Cartman from south park.
There were some great matches (apart from the diva thing).
Kennedy's spear on burchill through the ropes was awesome.
The CodyBob/Crymetyme/TDjr bit actually moved things forward surprisingly, sets up TDjr/Mystery partner winning the titles and feuding with cryme tyme, which could be pretty good with the whole millionaire/theives thing.
The Jeff/Carlito match was solid as was Cena/Umaga. The HHH/Jericho match was great, plenty of false finisher setups and the Cade run in at the end surprised me. I think a few stables would spice things up a bit and maybe improve ratings.
how do you email seth? If you are reading this seth can you email me.
GizDD: You have to pay taxes on any prizes you win, whether those prizes are in the form of cash, goods, or services. The tax is usually about 30%, although it will be higher on the higher payoffs.
For example, say the $300,000 winner was single and made $40,000 a year. His tax rate would be $39,148 + $59,119.50 (base tax + 33% of the total above $160,850), for a total of $98267.50.
The part that sucks about non-cash prizes is that the tax is based on the estimated retail value. Say Vince flies you to a press conference on a ticket you could have bought online for $100 but is estimated to be worth $500. You'll wind up paying more in taxes for your free ticket than you would have had to pay for the ticket!
JET
r2j - I completely agree. Kennedy has been headed for an Austin-like natural face turn for over a year and a half. All he needed to do was tell Edge or Orton or some other heel that he wants the damn title. That would have been it - hook, line, and sinker. I've said it before but Kennedy versus a heel HHH at Wrestlemania could propel Kennedy to superstar status.
Said much better than I, Nolan. That was exactly what I was thinking.
Thanks Jet, that's a real bitch about the tax, I know you guys get a rough deal on minimum wage and tips gettin tax etc but I had no idea about the tax on prize winnings. I'm sure it's similar for our national lottery in the UK but seeing as i've never won i've no idea :)
Some more thought's:
After watching ECW last night I'm convinced WWE are actually trying to improve the in-ring product, they've been putting on matches they know will will and balancing that with comedy/storyline advancement matches.
I mean the in-ring product on RAW was pretty good, ECW had that throw-away match with Armando-Horny, then 2 pretty decent matches with Sydal/Striker and Kofi/Knox (I thought it was hilarious that striker busted out all these big moves against sydal, obviously because everyone else on the roster is too big to pull them off on) then the obvious Morrison/Punk match, their work together is always solid.
The final segment kinda fell flat with me, I'm enjoying Big Show doing his whole always happy gimmick but Mark Henry just killed it.Is he getting the exposure he is now because of the Hayes incident?
A big shift on the rosters would make things alot better all round though.
I know this probably has very little chance of happening but what if as part of the Draft Cena goes to SD and batista to RAW, then at night of champions they both win their respective title matches effectivley setting up Cena/Edge and Trips/Batista, though just typing that makes it feel like it's a step backward rather than forward.
Would Jericho work as the leader of a group of disgruntled wrestlers who feel they're being held back by HBK/HHH etc? If they added carlito in there and maybe one or two more after the draft (a Matt Hardy heel turn would be cool) it could work well.
@NOLAN - I think you've hit the nail on the head there about kennedy, Its been a while since they got someone over the way they did with Austin Vs Bret in the noDQ submission match at WMXII, i really think that's when austin became a proper star, passing out in his own blood.
They could do the same thing with Kennedy-HHH, give Kennedy a title shot at Armageddo, have trips keep beating him down and kennedy refusing to give up, have the match stopped by the ref. Then have Kennedy win the rumble and go onto WM to face HHH. I think that would really give it a big match feel (which some of the WM events the last few years have been lacking)