Happy New Year everyone, and it’s good to be back. I can’t wait to talk about last night’s Raw, but it’s not the entire show I want to focus on, it’s the main storyline that is carrying Raw, a storyline that I had no interest in when it began, but I sure feel different about now. Raw was a mixed bag, and that’s two in a row as far as I’m concerned. As good as the show has been last week’s show and last night’s show could have been better, but what really saved both the shows from being sub par was the main angle that I must get into. Let me give you my highlights and then look out because I have nothing but praise for two stars.

The highlights for me had to be the excellent tag team match between Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz and Morrison. Really how could this one miss, not with these four guys in there. I thought the action in this match was outstanding and the Miz and Morrison definitely have become one of the best tag teams in the WWE in a very long time. I also enjoyed watching another tag tem match with Melina and Goldust vs. Beth Phoenix and Santino. I’ll be honest with you I really didn’t expect the guys to go on as long as they did since they seem to protect Santino when it comes to wrestling. But Goldust and Santino did a nice job, however it was Melina and Beth Phoenix that really looked good here. In just the few weeks since Melina’s return she has looked excellent in the ring and I’m happy that Phoenix and Melina have this feud going. I think we are going to see a really good match at the Rumble when the Glamazon puts her title on the line against Melina. And I thought Stephanie came through last night. She looked good and each time she showed up it seemed relevant to what was going on with the show. It wasn’t like she was just out there to be out there. So there were not many highlights, but at least there were some.

But the highlight of the night was without a doubt the whole JBL/HBK storyline. I thought the opening was sweet. I loved the whole thing with Randy Orton and Chris Jericho in the ring moaning and groaning about the JBL win from last week. And then we got HBK and JBL, and things really took off, when Jericho laid in on Shawn with insult after insult. Shawn’s body language told the whole story. You could just see how miserable he is with his decision to work for JBL. I thought he stole the show last night, but so did JBL. I have always said anyone that works with Michaels should kiss his feet, because for the most part Michaels can make anyone and any angle absolutely shine. And that’s just what’s going on with JBL. What this storyline has done for JBL is just amazing. I can’t tell you how much I love this angle, and even though in reality it’s far fetched, it is now become a hot hot feud. Along with this angle John Cena became a part of it wondering if Shawn was going to take him out because of orders from the boss, Bradshaw. I totally and I mean totally loved the Cena/Michaels interaction backstage.

Cena was 100 percent right when he asked HBK if he was getting Shawn as his tag team partner or JBL’s puppet. And what came off so well here was when Shawn angrily came back with “I’m nobody’s puppet.” Cena just looked at him and backed off by saying nothing. This was the way it should have played out. Finally creative didn’t have Cena going over the top by giving Michaels a rah rah speech. This was another very strong segment. And then the main event with Michaels and Cena taking on Orton and Jericho really put the icing on the cake. Here we had HBK being told by JBL to have Jericho or Orton hit their finishers on Cena, and then Shawn would hit the lottery if he super kicked Cena and let Orton kick Cena in the head. Oh and by the way JBL with all his power informed Michaels that he would not be in the Rumble this year because JBL needs HBK in his corner when he faces Cena.

Of course all of this just showed the agony that HBK is going through and during this main event you had Cena wondering if he was going to get attacked by Michaels, and JBL watching the match backstage. This match was done well, but the ending came off brilliantly. The end of the match was exciting as Michaels gave Orton sweet chin music after Cena prevented Orton from giving him the RKO. And then Jericho showed up and he got just what Orton got, and then HBK pinned Chris for the win, and now it’s just Cena and Michaels left in the ring. Cena looked extremely cautious because he had no idea what Michaels had in store for him. And while that is all going on JBL tells Todd Grisham that he talked to Stephanie and she agreed to a match between Cena vs. Michaels next week with JBL in Shawn’s corner. And then it was a camera shot back on the two faces still in the ring, with Cena pumping up the fans for HBK. This main event was good very good, but it was the storytelling by HBK, Cena and JBL that really made this something to see.

As I said this show was a mixed bag, but what once was a weak angle for me has totally become a very good storyline and that’s thanks to Shawn Michaels and JBL. I have no idea where this is all going to end up, but I’ll tell you I look forward to so much more from both of these guys. By the way we also found out that Raw might not be Stephanie’s show. I loved Jericho going in and telling Miss Smug that even though she rejected Orton and Jericho’s formal complaint about the way JBL won last week, he didn’t stop at Steph. He also sent it to Vince and he then got a call from McMahon’s office saying that Vince will be back in two weeks. Stephanie certainly didn’t look happy about that. We got another thumbs up segment. So I think the good outweighed the bad, and as I said a few weeks ago I’m getting more hyped week after week for the Royal Rumble. Okay I will be back over the weekend with my thoughts on Smackdown and Hunter’s Triple Jeopardy matches. Of course you know I’m looking forward to those matches.

Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com