Beginning at 8:00 Harrogate will be continually updating this post, following the action on Raw. A couple of things to bear in mind as you all go out and get all the beer, burgers, and dogs for your Raw party:
1)Accept the fact that Edge (depicted above) is WWE Heavyweight Champion. Indeed, to paraphrase a great sitcom moment, it is the Summer of Edge.
2)George Lakoff's ideas on framing, which have achieved popular attention through his engagement of how the GOP frames the political discourse, offers a particularly accurate lens through which to observe WWE's superproductions. Sweeping definitions regarding masculinity and heroism abound, as do very specific treatments of the role of women in a male-dominated society. Lakoff's work helps us understand how WWE is able to provide such a compelling construct within which it is impossible to imagine manliness as synonymous with, for example, baking cookies for the kids' sleepover.
See y'all at 8:00!
8:06 p.m. Memphis, Tennessee, baby! Monday Night Raw is rocking out tonight!
Things kick off with one of the very worst Elvis impersonations Harrogate has ever seen. Damn those McMahons! Now Edge interrupts the women's championship match and announces he's taking over Raw. He exploits the Rhetorical Situation to the fullest, playing up his whiny rep with the fans. But like him or hate him, he is indeed the Champ! More later...
8:23 p.m. Edge is getting pretty free with the violence against women thing, in Harrogate's opinion. Thank goodness for Carlito!
First match of the night: Big bad Kane destroys Shelton Benjamin and becomes number one contender for Johnny Nitro's Intercontinental Championship Belt.
Typical Cena, he's a true soldier, his rhetoric drips with integrity. Harrogate loves Cena, was pleased wit Cena's implication that Leda (Edge's woman) is a walking venereal disease. And then Crying Bitch Illustrated, that's powerful rhetoric.
The Cena/Viscera match should be entertaining. Both guys put on a helluva show in the ring.
8:42: Cena disposes of 500 lbs worth of faulty rhetoric. I wouldn't want to be Edge at Summerslam! (And why can't Big Visc accept that Lillian just wants to be friends?)
8:53 p.m. Last night Harrogate wrote: "Harrogate predicts that McMahon will find some sneaky way to get Michaels out of the arena so that Triple H is surrounded by numbnuts, with no allies": Exactly what has gone down in Memphis. Sigh. Triple H better have an ace in the hole....
9:11 p.m., Harrogate's discomfort with Edge's lack of chivalry grows. How dare he spear Trish (though some may argue that it was inadvertent, Harrogate suspects otherwise)! It is at this point that Mrs. Harrogate goes to bed, secure in the knowledge that she will be updated as to Triple H's fate in the morning....
9:30 p.m., Harrogate has always been a huge Ric Flair fan. "Also Sprach Zarathustra" is definitely the greatest entrance music in the history of entrance music. Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! An "I Quit" match between Flair and one of
Mommy PhD's all time favorite's, Mick Foley: With all due respect to Harrogate's esteemed fellow blogger, Foley's goin' down at Summerslam!
9:54 p.m., All right, all that's left now that the dust has cleared, is the main event. For Harrogate it's been all about Umaga/Triple H all week. Strap on your rhetorical seatbelts, it's about to get hairy up in Memphis!
Well, we called it from the beginning, Umaga's unbeaten streak continues, and though he's certainly a rolling ball of blades, lately his wins are all coming due to external help, to phrenetic undulations disrupting what should be a stable Rhetorical Situation once the men in tights step into tha squared circle. Burke, Harrogate believes, would emphasize the importance of Scene to what is happening with Umaga right now.
Regardless, it's been a pleasure: good evening everyone!
4 comments:
DId the bad acting end with the Elvis scene or did it stop after the Kane and whomever the other person was while the two people looked on "in horror?"
The bad acting never ends, in life or wrestling! But show some respect, John Cena in da house!
As I think about it: is it really "physical violence against women" if a man and woman fight in wrestling. I mean, since there is no actual violence, could the Edge actually commit an act of violence against Trish? Should this make us uncomfortable?
Solon, your stock and trade involves breaking down metaphor.
As a literary critic I too must worry constantly over representations of violence, metaphorical and otherwise.
What we witnessed between Edge and Trish is deeply troubling in my view. It will be interesting to see how WWE finishes out the thread of that plot--will Edge be fially reprimanded for his reckless ways? We shall see..
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