It seems my views on recent RAWs are opposite to those expressed by Rick Scaia. Oh well...

Mostly I enjoyed this week's episode of Smackdown! at least - and I made a point of not reading any spoilers before to ruin the surprises.

While some of the logic seemed a bit wonky (John Cena required a handicap match for the Great American trophy, when the others didn't?) the idea of the Great American award made me wonder: is this a way to ressurect the Great American Bash as a PPV name? Probably, and I'm the one person who just figured it out.

One thing struck me though: the Big Show / Paul Wight is Canadian. If he wins, they can't truly call him a great American.

RAW was disappointing to me... until the last match.

Until then, it felt like more of a "same old, same old" vibe. Kane squashes another guy, in this case Tajiri. Cripple H gets himself inserted into another World title match. Outside of Rhyno getting a squash, Lance Storm dropping his funky act, and Tajiri misting Coach, what was really new with the roster changes?

(Oh yeah: Chris Jericho got to resurrect his "Trashbag ho" bit for Trish instead of Stephanie.)

Then, that final match. A story built up the entire show, leading to Shelton Benjamin getting a clean win over H. The match was built up well, it was exciting... this is what they should do more often.

A-Train and Chuck Palumbo on RAW? Kweeweeco and Jackie Gayda on Smackdown!?

I can't see any of these trades improving either brand. Rico's gimmick is a bit too flamboyant for SD!, and A-Train... well, he'd stink no matter what show he's on. At least we won't see Funaki squashes by him every week now.