“Tween” Lover…And Other Thoughts From Last Night’s RAW

Historically, wrestling has been made up of two types of characters:  Babyfaces (good guys that the crowd will cheer) and Heels (despicable characters that everyone can root against.)

However, there is a third category that is not as well defined:  The Tweener.  These characters will act in a morally ambiguous way and will wrestle everyone, Heel or Face.  Some of the greatest champions in the annals of the business have been Tweeners:  Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H and especially the legendary Ric Flair are all examples.

It seems that Randy Orton has come back to the WWE as a Tweener and I, for one, am loving it.  Orton has the physical talent, the mic skills and the ability to sell a match with anybody on the WWE’s roster.  He is their wild card and the possibilities for headlining PPV’s are endless.  His versatility is one of the biggest assets the company has.

This young superstar has the potential to carry the WWE on his back much the way Austin did in the late 90’s.  This could be ”The Age of Orton” indeed.

Other thoughts from last night’s show:

- I take back everything nice I said about Mike Adamle’s improving stage presence.  He stumbled over his important number one contender speech like a three a.m drunk.

- That was an impressive finishing maneuver by Jamie Noble (an Oklahoma roll into an armbar submission.)  It was even better that he was able to put Paul Burchill away with it.  It’s been a nice few weeks without the presence of “Stiff Boy”.

- Speaking of impressive, I am really bowled over by the talent of Evan Bourne.  I would love to see him somehow turn heel and have a program with Rey Mysterio.  These two would need parachutes for all the flying they’d be doing.

- Speaking of Rey, I was rather disappointed with the match between him and Kane.  The crowd wasn’t into it and both performers were off their games.  They are capable of better.

- Kane is one of the more underrated promo guys on the roster.  His speeches are captivating.

- Santino continues to find fresh new ways to reference WWE’s extensive history of ridiculous gimmicks to hilarious fanfare.  Cowboy Bob Orton’s cast is one of the funniest situations the business has ever seen and it’s a shame that a lot of the younger viewers probably had no clue what he was talking about.

- Charlie Haas, on the other hand, suffered a rare misstep with his Jim Ross impersonation.  Unfunny and inaccurate in both speech inflection and accent, he needs to stick closer to home in terms of who he imitates.

- The Y2J-CM Punk match was one of the better cage encounters I’ve seen in awhile and it’s mostly due to Jericho’s performance.  Any pro will tell you that wrestling inside a cage is much more difficult.  The steel structure must be incorporated seamlessly into the fight or else the match will fail spectacularly.  However, this is easier said than done.  Y2J is one of the best “ring generals” the sport has ever seen.

- Finally,  I will be posting my exclusive interview with WWE Hall of Famer and wrestling legend Afa the Wild Samoan on Thursday.   Don’t miss it.

   

 

 

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