Raw is Pena

If you are looking for opinions on last night's WWE Raw which emenated live from Bridgeport, Connecticut, (thumbs up, yeah!), you will mostly find complaints and misgivings. Not here, not today.

Last night's Raw stood out in my mind because of a tremendous commitment to one special young man, Mr. Michael Pena. Pena lived out the dream of millions of professional wrestling fans when he was able to serve as Raw General Manager for a Day. Pena's wish was granted through the Make a Wish Foundation.

Now, a brief on camera appearance with an inappropriately dressed Maria would have been more than enough for the WWE to say they fufilled their commitments, but WWE went the extra mile in allowing Pena airtime with Mick Foley, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Edge, and Randy Orton to announce the four way main event at the upcoming Backlash Pay Per View.

Michael made these comment courtesy of WWE.com: “It’s bigger than I thought,” said Michael. “Today I’ve gotten to meet almost all the Superstars. It was very cool hanging out with Mick Foley.”

Michael showed no hesitation and no nerves when presented with the duty of making the announcement in front of a sold out arena and the millions of fans at home.

Michael added: “It was very fun and at the same time scary, because you never know what the reaction of the crowd is going to be,” said Michael, who received a great reaction from the audience. “It was exciting.”

Kudos to the WWE for really doing something special with this opportunity. It is truly a moment that I will remember for a long time.

Elsewhere on Raw, we witnessed the continuing emergence of one Mr. Bobby Lashley. With hair stipulations abounding, one has to wonder when his moniker will be changed to Bobby "The Barber" Lashley. At least it would further remove him from Lesnar and Goldberg comparisons, which WWE Magazine even makes in it's latest issue.

I read an article this morning where one fan feels that Lashley's Raw presence is a big FU (and I am not talking about John Cena's finisher to logical storytelling and to the fans. It is written that this is because Lashley is an "ECW" superstar.

To this I say, who the hell cares? Shane and Lashley put on an entertaining match, and while it ended with the typical beatdown a face normally receives, it does lead to a lot of intrigue as to how Bobby Lashley will be able to get revenge in the face of what seems like insurmountable odds. If any wrestling fan is a big enough fan to be blogging about the business, he or she should realize that when Vince and Shane are part of a storyline, that story takes presidence. Expect to see a lot more of Lashley on Raw as well as ECW. Only time will tell if he ends up overexposed, as questioned in Brady Hicks' The Wrestler article.

There is also written concern about the fact that ECW wrestlers seemingly have nothing to shoot for in the wake of the Backlash title announcement. The writers have done a pretty good job of tying up the most prominent would be contenders in a ECW Originals vs. New Breed feud, that frankly, writes itself. The most well groomed ECW title challenger at the moment is Gene Snitsky, and you can't tell me that a Snitsky/Lashley showdown at this time is a better story than what WWE is doing. The only real intrigue there currently is that they are the White and Black versions of one another with their black tights and bald heads.

I am not sure how any wrestling writer missed the memo that WWE pay-per-views would be tri-branded from now on. If you plan on being a wrestling journalist, you probably owe it to your fans to check on a WWE conference call report once in a while. This came straight from Linda McMahon's mouth weeks ago.

In one of my from the vault articles, there is an article I wrote that is almost a year old about Tag Team wrestling. It seems now that the WWE is showing some inkling of respect for the division as there was not one but two tag matches on raw that featured something more than makeshift tag teams. This is a week removed from not one but two ten team battle royals to determine the Tag Team Champions.

WWE is playing there cards right, setting up tension between Flair and Carlito for their inevitable feud. I am happy to see them building up some true anticipation for the match, rather than pulling the trigger immediately, as they have done over the past few years with many storylines. If done correctly, a Flair/Carlito feud could run for a long time. Flair has some issues with Kenny Dykstra that are seemingly unresolved. What if Carlito recruited Dykstra and two other young men (possibly WGTT or Cade and Murdoch) to form a heel faction that is representative of "New Era" Horsemen. After fans who don't know are educated by the release of this new Horsemen DVD, it would be interesting to see Flair have to tangle with a group that is as devious as he once was. Would he play dirtier than the youngsters? Would he repent for his old ways? It could make for some interesting TV.

Back to tag teams, how about Shelton Benjamin's performance in the match against the Hardys. Coming out on the losing end isn't so bad, when you get noticed. I think that people backstage had to see that fire back in Shelton that they saw two years ago. Great to see Cade and Murdoch get the victory as well, as they are more than deserving of a Tag Team title shot. Often afterthoughts on Raw, they will get the Hardys on Pay Per View.

It was great to see Mickie James and Victoria back involved with women's wrestling on Raw, as these are the top two in-ring divas, hands down. All four women put on a great match, and how great did Mickie and Victoria look in their new gear? Wow!

Rounding out the show, was one of the best matches on Raw in a long time. Michaels and Orton really put on a show. This is the type of wrestling you hope to see when you turn your TV's to USA on Monday nights. I know a lot of places are shitting all over every little idiosyncracy from last night's raw, but for me, I thought the show was certainly a step in the right direction. More on This Story...

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

We Want Wrestling! This chant has become ever more present and popular among today's wrestling fan.

Thanks to Vince McMahon, D-Generation X and many others, an actual in-ring product has been all but missing from WWE "Raw".

The straw that broke the camel's back was the abysmal Rosie VS. The Donald Skit that occured on the January 8 episode of "Raw".

At TNA's Final Resolution, the Voodoo Kin Mafia (who the majority of wrestling fans I talk to still refer to as the New Age Outlaws) claimed victory in their war against McMahon because of the way the "Raw" skit was received. Little did they know that a few minutes later, they would be receiving the same chant.

Former WWE Diva Search winner and current TNA Knockout Christy Hemme confronted VKM in the ring, leading a much needed movement in the world of professional wrestling, that has unfortunately been spearheaded by the wrong leader. Hemme began to talk about how women receive no respect in professional wrestling, an all too true fact. However the fact is, Hemme has never done anything to earn it.

However on WWE's "Raw" roster, there is a woman who has done more than enough to earn her respect.She is a former 2 time WWE Women's Champion and former PWI Woman of the Year. However, when the prominent women of wrestling are named, she is often left out. Her name is Victoria, and she has arguably been the most consistent in-ring performer on any brand of Sports Entertainment for the past five years.

Victoria's matches with the likes of Trish Stratus and Molly Holly revolutionized the role of women in professional wrestling. Her unique athleticism enables her to perform both military presses and backflips.

Victoria is the epitome of toughness. The WWE had enough confidence in Victoria to let her compete in cage matches and street fights. Victoria has done most of it with a knee brace on, because she opted not to have surgery on an injured knee.

Her first major run had it's legs cut out from under it, when Victoria was turned babyface at the height of her popularity. While normally this would make sense, the WWE decided to change the psycho character fans grew to love to a generic dancing character. Still Victoria was producing weekly in the ring.

Victoria has been forced to step back and give Diva Search winners time to shine. Both Christy Hemme and Candice Michelle have been featured at Wrestlemania's over Victoria. When Victoria attacked Candice, Christy, and Maria, her actions were met with applause by the audience.

Together with Lita, Molly, Jazz, and Trish, Victoria established a new place for women in wrestling, and elevated the Women's championship to a place where models with limited wrestling knowledge and ability could not compete. Fans wanted to see the four star matches that Victoria and Trish could deliver over the T&A of the new divas.

Still, most of the credit for the limited respect today's wrestling women do get goes to Trish and Lita. However, with both women recently retiring, Victoria has had the opportunity to step back into the ring with the new class of female, and to be quite frank, she looks more beautiful than she ever has.

Showing shades of her past "psycho bitch" character, Victoria has been one of the more entertaining aspects of "Raw" since November. She has consistently delivered solid performances against various women on the current roster, which is quite a feat.

Victoria and Mickie James, if done right, has the potential to be the next great rivalry in the world of women's wrestling. These two women have the potential to go to WrestleMania 23 and deliver the greatest women's wrestling matches ever, and one of the all time classics for any sex, provided that the WWE keeps their story going.

Victoria has been an often-overlooked aspect of the WWE in a number of ways. However, if WWE fans are clamoring for great wrestling, they need look no further than the fiesty raw diva with red streaks in her hair. If Playboy is looking for a best-selling issue, they need look no further as well.

Victoria has gone on record to say that she would love to pose for the magazine and I will go on record as to say in my opinion she has the most attractive body of any WWE diva, ever. That's quite a statement.

Maybe someday Christy, Candice, and Maria will do something to earn the respect that women in professional wrestling are clamoring for.

However, Victoria has not only been a featured Diva over the course of the past five years. She has won the first women's steel cage match. She has had incredible matches with a variety of women and men. She has been one of the most entertaining and consistent performers in professional wrestling. She's tough, she's innovative, and she's beautiful.

If we want wrestling and if we are going to begin giving women in wrestling their proper respect, then we need look no further than the master of the Widow's Peak.

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