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Tonight is the last Raw of 2009 and that is a very good thing. 2009 hasn't exactly been a banner year for the WWE. Sheamus may be the WWE Champion, butthings are as stale as ever. Cena, DX, and Orton are still the focal points of the show. Sheamus has been an afterthought since winning the WWE Title makingalmost no impact on Raw. Last week's show was a prime example of everything that is wrong with the WWE. The WWE had a prime opportunity to build thingstowards The Royal Rumble. They had an unheard of 6 weeks until the show. Instead, the past two weeks have been based around silly comedy and meaninglessangles. We are now four weeks out until The Rumble and nothing has been accomplished other than Hornswoggle officially becoming a member of DX. Really, thatis what the entire show was based around last week. There have been a lot of bad Raw's this year, but last week's clearly stands out as the worst tome. Add to the fact that Chris Jericho is no longer on Raw, things just get worse.
However, there is hope.
Next week marks the temporary return of the Monday Night Wars. TNA will be airing a three hour special based around the debut of Hulk Hogan (and they arehoping Ric Flair as well). You can bet that TNA will pull out all the stops next week. I will be the first to admit that I am not a loyal TNA viewer, but Iwill be tuning in next week to see that they can do. This is the most momentum their company has ever had. More than when they signed Christian. More thanwhen they signed Sting. More than when they signed Kurt Angle. It's now or never for the company. Sure, I'm not a Hogan fan or a fan of the NWOreuniting (Scott Hall is returning as well, or at least until he finds the nearest bar), but these are the things TNA needs to draw viewers right now. WCWdidn't become a serious competitor to the WWE until they started plucking major names from the WWE. So if this is what it takes to get the WWE'sattention, I'm all for it.
Let's make it clear, Raw will still crush TNA in the ratings next week (despite Hogan's absurd claims of TNA drawing a 3.0+ rating). That's notthe point. The point is that now there may be actual competition to the WWE, and that is what we the fans so desperately need. We need a legitimatecompetitor to the WWE monopoly so we can tell Vince and his cronies that we're not going to just sit here and take Hornswoggle and Big D*ck Johnson everyweek. Right now, TNA is only scheduled for the January 4th Monday night show, but both Spike and Dixie Carter have said they would be open to permanentlyadding a Monday night show if things work out.
And after the January 4th show, Raw has to go up against a live UFC special on January 11th. That will likely be much more of a challenge than TNA, but Rawwill still likely beat UFC since there aren't any major names fighting that night. And the WWE will probably put up a "Did You Know" bragginghow they beat TNA and UFC. However, it will do one of two things:
1) Wake the WWE up out of this funk and make them start putting out a decent product on Monday nights.
2) The WWE will keep their head up their *** thinking they're invincible, and they will eventually be passed in the ratings.
For the short term, I think option 2 is the more likely scenario, but if things continue to heat up, the WWE will eventually be forced to improve theirproduct.
Like I said, there is hope, and right now, I'm clinging to that hope because my interest in the WWE is at an all-time low.
For tonight, Timbaland hosts Raw. I'm sure there will be some segment with the divas dancing to his music. I'll also assume we will have more DX andHornswoggle crap. We'll just hope it is less than last week. Also announced last week is that Sheamus will defend his WWE Title against John Cena. I'm torn on this one. I don't see the point of taking the title of Sheamus so soon, especially since like I said, he has been basically irrelevant onRaw since winning the title. However, it's John Cena we're talking about, so all bets are off. HOWEVER, and this is a big however... John Cena isscheduled to be at next Monday's Fiesta Bowl. Why? I have no idea. Let's see. The WWE is sending their #1 man in the company to what will be thelowest rated BCS Bowl instead of having him on one of the most important Raw's of the year. It's just baffling. Anyway, it's really hard tofigure that Cena will win the title tonight when he won't be at next week's show.
The only other thing announced for tonight is that Vince McMahon will address the Bret Hart "rumors."
Raw starts in less than two hours.
