Brawl In The Family…And Other Thoughts From Last Night’s RAW

That was a pretty darn good punch that Chris Jericho threw at HBK’s wife’s face, wasn’t it?  Fake or not, it appeared to have at least connected.

The WWE is famous for involving a wrestler’s real life family in storylines.  Some of these storylines turn out to be violent ones.  Note that I am not necessarily taking them to task for this.  The McMahons themselves have all been involved at one point or another (remember when Kane infamously powerbombed Linda McMahon on the steel ramp?) and they haven’t asked anyone to do anything that they wouldn’t do.

Wrestling is supposed to be about the illusion of violence.  As Mick Foley pointed out in his book, Foley Is Good, you never see a reverse Irish whip take place in a real fight.  Wrestlers are trained professionals who make their living pretending to hurt one another (though many actual injuries do occur, despite the good intentions.)

My question is:  Why would any wrestler allow his spouse to even be put in the position where something could go wrong?  For the most part, these women do not have the training to defend themselves properly and are entirely dependent upon the “assailant” to keep them safe (a notable exception to this point would be the Undertaker’s ex-wife Sara, who clearly had some martial arts training prior to engaging in her storyline’s activity).

My wife is the most important person in my life.  I don’t care how much I trusted Chris Jericho, there is no way I’d ever let her be on the receiving end of even a fake punch.  Who would I have to blame if, tragically, the illusion became real? 

My philosophy has always been that you never gamble with what you cannot afford to lose.

Other thoughts from last night’s show:

- Mike Adamle has been an announcer for many years and, from what I understand, is well regarded in the industry.  Having said that, it’s simply painful to watch him, week after week, stumble through his duties as commissioner of RAW.  When he can’t even correctly read from a sheet of paper without letting his nerves cause him to bungle simple words, the time has come to reassess this dubious appointment.

- Perhaps he was just jazzed to be in Chicago, but CM Punk certainly put on a show last night.  He performed better than I have ever seen him do so.  It always breaks my heart when a wrestler is forced to “do the job” in his hometown.

- I don’t know where the writers are going with this “Lovable Loser” angle with Jamie Noble, but it’s starting to annoy me.  He is a talented wrestler who I would love to see go against someone like Rey Mysterio, but consistently letting him get squashed by the likes of JBL is just a waste of time.

- You’d think someone would have told Kane that he had what looked like a piece of broccoli stuck in his teeth before his closeup.  I could barely watch the big guy because I was trying to hold back the waves of nausea that threatened to overcome me (Perhaps I’m a little sensitive, but food stuck in the teeth is a huge pet peeve with me.)

- I would have much rather had Cryme Tyme take the belts from Rhodes/Lil’ Dibiase in an actual match, but at least we’re heading in the right direction with this storyline.

- I’d love to see a three way (get your mind out of the gutter) dance involving Beth Phoenix, Mickie James and Katie Lea Burchill.  When you watch Katie Lea in the ring, you get a sense of what a great Ring General she is.  Kelly Kelly wouldn’t have pulled off half of those moves without her assistance.  

- Speaking of Burchills, I know I’ve been tough on the “Human Ironing Board”, Paul Burchill…and with good cause.  However, he did impress me a little bit against Batista last night.  Still, it did my heart good to watch him get planted with that powerbomb, though.

- Finally, it’s nice to see D. Lo Brown back in action.  He went through unbelievable anguish when he accidentally paralyzed Darren Drozdov years ago during a match.  The fact that he is even able to step back into a ring is a testament to his courage and character.

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