Floyd Mayweather episode of Raw lacks punch

To paraphrase a famous movie quote, as far as Raw guest hosts go, Floyd Mayweather could have been a contender. He could have been somebody instead of a bum, which is what he was.

Based on Mayweather’s showmanship and his fine performance at WrestleMania last year, I was expecting the boxing star to be an entertaining guest host on Monday night’s episode of Raw. Instead, “Money” Mayweather was practically worthless.

He didn’t make his first appearance on the show until late in the first hour, and he was in just two segments total. Mayweather, who was supposed to be in charge of the show, didn’t even book the main event (Triple H did). The only talent that Mayweather interacted with was Chris Jericho, The Big Show, MVP and Vince McMahon.

Before Mayweather finally graced the audience with his presence, the announcers kept saying that he was “on his way” and would “be here any minute.” I’m guessing that Mayweather really did arrive at the arena a lot later than he was supposed to, because it sure seemed like WWE was stalling for time. The segment at the top of the show with DX and McMahon lasted more than 20 minutes, and the first match did not take place until 9:32. Perhaps Mayweather was running behind schedule because of the police investigation of a shooting outside a skating rink in Las Vegas Sunday night that allegedly involved one of Mayweather’s associates.

With Mayweather’s lackluster appearance setting the tone, Raw just never hit its stride this week.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

The DX-McMahon segment, which saw Shawn Michaels and Triple H set up an elaborate celebration in honor of McMahon’s 64th birthday, had its moments, but it definitely began to drag after a while. At 9:18, McMahon asked, “How long is this going to go on?” I was thinking the exact same thing. …

When a large fake birthday cake was brought to ringside, I was certain that either Santino Marella in drag or Mae Young was in it. Instead, Big Dick Johnson popped out (I can’t believe I just wrote that). How does a gyrating, oiled-up fat guy in a Speedo qualify as family entertainment? The divas have reportedly been reprimanded for showing too much cleavage, but the obscene BDJ is OK? What is the “WWE Universe” coming to? …

Based on how Triple H was interacting with McMahon during the birthday segment, it seemed as if WWE was asking viewers to suddenly forget that McMahon was his father-in-law. Their family ties were acknowledged later in the show, however. …

The six-man tag match main event that pitted DX and McMahon against Legacy was OK. McMahon got a nice birthday present by scoring the winning pin on Orton. With the way it was done – Orton took a super-kick from Michaels and an Attitude Adjustment from John Cena in succession to set up the pin – I didn’t mind it the WWE champion jobbing to the WWE chairman. …

I like the way WWE followed up on the incident during the Orton-Cena match at SummerSlam in which a fan jumped in the ring and got involved in the action. Legacy acknowledged in the opening segment that the “fan” was Brett DiBiase, Ted Jr.’s younger brother, but that Orton had nothing to do with his actions. It was presented in a way that suggested Orton was behind it without having him come right out and admit it. …

The confrontation between Mayweather and The Big Show, his opponent at WrestleMania XXIV, was disappointing, although I’m not sure what more they really could have done. With Mayweather scheduled to fight on pay-per-view in less than a month, he and his people most likely didn’t want him doing anything physical. …

Mayweather was booed at first, but the fans warmed up a bit to him when he sided with MVP and Mark Henry. …

MVP was very good on the mic when confronting Jericho and The Big Show. Henry got a big pop when MVP revealed that Henry would be his tag team partner. I liked the pairing of these two. …

In the nontitle tag match between MVP and Henry and champions Jericho and Big Show, MVP pinned Jericho after using brass knuckles that were handed to him by Mayweather. Babyfaces using brass knuckles to win? What’s up with that? …

Something tells me that whenever the Jericho-Big Show team needs to lose to build for a pay-per-view match, Jericho will always be the one doing the job. …

Alicia Fox pinning divas champion Mickie James in a six-woman tag match was a surprise. Is the James-Gail Kim program over already? …

Is it just me, or was Jillian Hall’s voice not that bad when she was imitating Marilyn Monroe singing “Happy Birthday?” …

What was with all the noise in the background when DX was plugging merchandise backstage? If that was an inside joke, I must be on the outside.

Source: baltimoresun.com