RAW Rewind

Okay, so I had planned on doing this last night, but circumstances beyond my control (read: my cable modem suddenly not working) pushed it back to today.

So, you saw my running commentary of RAW and already know what happened. No need to do any recaps or direct you to where you can find one.

I'm in the midst of three days of sensory overload thanks to it being the end of the month at the job, so this'll be kinda brief and to the point.

- The Shawn Michaels speech at the end was very heartfelt and touching without being overly schmaltzy. We'll all miss ya, HBK. Enjoy your retirement and don't make a mockery of it like your old buddy the Naitch has done for TNA. One of these days, I'm gonna do a big anti-TNA rant, but not today.

- Those of you expecting/fearing a big Jack Swagger push on RAW (looks in the direction of Mr. D. Kincannon in Denver), you don't have to worry. Because (spoiler alert) Jack Swagger defeated Chris Jericho at the latest Smackdown taping to become the new World Champion. No, it doesn't make a lick of sense to me either, but what do I know?

- I called Randy Orton being Cena's mystery partner, but pretty much everyone else with half a brain would have, too. I mean, it was pretty obvious. That said, it is amazing how over Orton is as a face. I daresay he's more popular than Cena right now. Next step - have him cut a promo basically saying that he's a changed man, but not that changed. Just do like Stone Cold did - just be yourself and wrestle heels. You'll be way over like that, and with Swagger out of the picture, I expect that Cena/Batista/Orton will be fighting over the WWE Championship in the coming months.

- Looks like Triple H and Sheamus will be continuing their feud for the foreseeable future, which is fine. I just hope that Trips actually puts over Sheamus some time in an actual match.

- Guess the Ted Dibiase push is on hold since he lost to Triple H at Mania and jobbed to Christian on RAW. I foresee a brand switch during next month's draft. Cody Rhodes? Headed for mid-card jobber status, methinks.

- Just move the Hart Dynasty to RAW and be done with it. They've been buried on Smackdown and would be a good team to go up against (and hopefully beat) ShowMiz. Also, god help me for saying this, but I think the Miz is one of the best things on RAW right now. He's definitely the most improved wrestler of the past 12 months.

- Overall, it was a pretty uneventful show for the first RAW after Wrestlemania - some good things, some not-so-good things and some profoundly awful things. I think the Guest Host concept needs to go away - too many "C" listers hosting these days. Let's get a permanent GM, like, oh, Bret Hart. Just a thought...

By the way, don't expect very many live blogs going forward. It was fun to do but a royal pain in the ass. That said, I do plan on live blogging during next month's WWE Draft and during the first round of the NFL Draft in two weeks.

Well, I'm off to have some leftover pizza for dinner. See yinz tomorrow.

JD