The Raw is War Workrate Report
A weekly look at what did and didn't work on Raw is War by Oliver Postlethwaite
Monday, May 4th, 1998
What Worked
All right, now I'm ready for a full on Mick Foley vs. Steve Austin feud.
Vince needs to reel himself in a little but he was still fun to watch giving
hell to Foley. Austin was freaking great on commentary during Mick vs. Funk,
acting like a real wrestling fan, commenting on the match, and not at the
expense of putting himself over. He even managed to bring a little fire
out of Jim Ross who called his best match in a long time.
Terry Funk vs. Mick Foley was goofy in parts (the moonsault into the
concession stand area) and totally cool and brutal in others. Whether
intentional or not, there was a method behind the madness of the WWF
working with ECW last year 'cos now their putting on better TV, and
making ECW look really weak. I'm impressed that McMahon said yes to
two blade jobs two weeks in a row. Funk deserves credit for doing
things to his 53 year old body that I wouldn't consider doing to my
25 year old self. I'm really happy that Foley's getting pushed to the
top 'cos he deserves it. I'd be the first person to admit that WCW's
wrestling smokes the WWF's on a match per match basis but Titan is
really winning in the "God damn, I've got to watch this match!" game.
Steve Blackman running in and stopping Marc Mero vs. Jeff Jarrett worked
for me. Matthew Fox and Blackman, are they the same person?
Mr. McMahon gave a super duper interview to the Canadian fans on the
TSN broadcast of Raw regarding his involvement as referee in the Helmsley
vs. Austin SkyDome main event. Yeah, why shouldn't he give the loyal
Canadian fans what they deserve? He was the model of comportment the
last time he was ringside in the Big C!
What Didn't Work
I enjoyed The Rock and Owen Hart vs. Blackman and Farooq but I can't
call it a good match, 'cos I mainly enjoyed it for Owen growing his
old heel hockey hair back, and Farooq being a surly bastard. Blackman
screwed up a bunch but at least he tries cool stuff and he'll be good
one day, I hope. The Rock's eyeballs suck! I don't want to see them
anymore.
Damn, Severn's matches went downhill after his debut against Scorpio,
and as much as Savio Vega is a doing nothing stiff, he still throws a
mean kick and he's hung around forever while still keeping himself
semi-over and he definitely does not deserve to be jobbed out to a man
who kick ass in real fights but is kind of dry in the pro-style, and
ain't getting over. Boriquas forever!
Aside from the novelty of Chyna in the ring (that was far from a perfect
Hurracanrana, Ross) the DOA and LOD 2000 Flushes vs. DX was devoid of
anything redeeming. Billy Gunn as the power house of DX? Hey, he has
cool tights but let's not get out of control. It's a good thing that the
LOD and DOA are gonna feud 'cos they both suck and neither team should
be wasting the time of the promotions top heel group.
Well, you know, I was glad that Goldust got some offense in on Kane
and didn't have to job to the living breathing soap opera but this all
still sucks.
Ollie
