Last night's edition of Raw totally vindicated Harrogate's high hopes for the program. Week by week, new life bubbles beneath the surface of what was only a month ago bad programming. Reasons? Among the many: The "K-Fed" stuff has played a big role, and Bischoff's entry into the fray has played an even bigger role in its own way. Bischoff has done a wonderful job cashing in on our memories of the WCW excitement he created in the late 90s, giving us the NWO--probably the most effective heels of all time.
But really, John Cena has to get the most credit for the current upsurge. It's getting to the point that his entrance is the most scintillating moment on television, even better than Brit Hume's "Grapevine"--Indeed, Harrogate is deeply impressed with Cena's ethos-crafting ingenuity. It's impossible for those who don't watch the program to understand what Harrogate's talking about here--but YOU, the legions of readers who tune in to Harrogate's piercing analyses week in and week out--you know exactly what he's talking about, don't you? Last night Cena delivered once again, exploiting the Coachman joke to the fullest (and in Harrogate's view, setting up Coachman's eventual conversion to good guy--vote Coachman for Cyber Sunday!), and then intimidating Booker and Big Show to such lengths that Harrogate half expected them to both bow out of the pay-per-view altogether. While it could be anybody's game at Cyber Sunday, Cena is going to be the top draw of this program for months to come, belt or no belt. But Harrogate implores Vince--leave the belt on Cena for a while, let him ascend to the epic proportions to which is is capable of going. Let this title run mean something!
Tears welled up in Harrogate's eyes when Dusty Rhodes took the microphone last night. Not only did hearing The American Dream talk trigger legions of childhood memories, but Rhodes was absolutely right when he said that this is our historic chance to see him and Ric Flair team up for the first time in their epic careers. Harrogate would love to see these two take the World Tag Team Championships from the anemic Spirit Squad. Really, Vince, it's time you let the Tag Titles Mean something again. For God's sake, man, what with the problems in Iraq and with North Korea and the broken health care system and the impending theocratic revolution in this country, the least you could do is give us a Tag Team Champion that we can be proud of. :-)
Finally, Triple H's Pedigree is by far the smoothest and most violent finishing move on record in WWE at the moment. Only Diamond Dallas Page's Diamond Cutter rivalled this move in terms of Harrogate ancitipating is arrival on the scene. Depicted above, Hunter Hearst Helmsley delivers the crushing Pedigree onto a hapless Edge, who would return later only to be beaten up again. The show appropriately belonged to DX, even though Michaels was nowhere to be found. Harrogate believes DX will continue to doiminate until the vaunted return of Hall and Nash (NWO), and with them the conversion, yet again, of Hulk Hogan to bad guy. NWO Renaissance is coming! But as one rhetorically powerful front row sign put it last night, Where Oh Where is Sting?
In the words of Ron Simmons, "Damn!"
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