MALE CHEERLEADERS: Missing ingredients in Monday Night RAW?

Do Monday nights really need a little "Spirit" uplifting?

P.O.L.I.T.I.K.O.
By Jeff Ty

The recent developments on Monday Night RAW have not been very pretty, with Cena’s lingering mixed reactions and the blasphemous angles by the McMahons that earned a censor from our very own JACK TV as concrete examples. Of course, there are still superstars who continue to give the fans what they want, like Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Rob Van Dam, Shelton Benjamin, Carlito, Chris Masters, Mickie James and Ric Flair. Then there is Edge, which despite being forced to short live his WWE Championship title reign, has been simply very solid and impressive as a top heel on RAW. It is a contrast to the newcomer Umaga, which is just a repackaged Jamal from 3 Minute Warning. Some of us know what happened to Jamal and his ex-partner Rosey after the gimmick died away fast. Jamal suddenly disappeared, while the latter became S.H.I.T., or Super Hero In Training. That’s okay, Rosey still a lower-card wrestler even though he was repackaged. For his equally huge counterpart, Jamal or Umaga was recently seen pinning a 16-time world champion at Backlash in Lexington, Kentucky, USA.

Jesus. The “Naitch”, Ric Flair, pinned by Jamal, or “Morning”/Umaga?

For that, I could still take that as a grain of salt. After all, WWE had Mark Henry in the main event of Royal Rumble this year. Or some guy named Gunner Scott pinning a five-time WCW Champion on Smackdown just few weeks ago.

Even though the fans would just groan and let these slip away, somehow we just have to think of the other WWE superstars that already paid their dues and are in dire need of showing their true mettle in a major angle, not just as a filler wrestler or a jobber. Rob Conway. Trevor Murdoch. Paul Burchill. Psicosis. Super Crazy. Sylvan. And for those superstars who thought they have had it, like Carlito, Chris Masters, Lashley, and MNM, they would only find out that the next big thing is not either one of them.

The Spirit Squad, composed of 5 male cheerleaders. I had tried to neglect their names, but their annoying entrance pains me to remember some of them: Nicky, Kenny, Johnny, Nicky, and …? Wow, that’s good, 4 out of 5. On their debut, I thought that their presence was just a waste of time getting into my nerves and others’ nerves as well. Wrestlers are supposed to be tough, but some smart aleck backstage thinks that executing stupid cheers about worthless things would take these clowns to the next level. I really feel for Lilian Garcia, while announcing the guidelines for the Royal Rumble match proper, the Spirit Squad interrupted, came uninvited, and deliberately sucked the excitement and life out of Miami fans for the Royal Rumble match. Fortunately, Triple H’s entrance restored some much-needed order in the arena that night. When you make your debut on a pay-per-view, a major one at that, you would right away know the true reactions of the fans towards your character. At Wrestlemania 22, the Chicago fans let the WWE know that John Cena absolutely sucks. The Miami fans at the Royal Rumble were caught off-guard by these idiots and fell dead silent. “What the hell is going on”, I could feel someone asking while I watched the cheerleaders pollute a tradition known as the Royal Rumble. If you have to get some heel heat, do it in a more conventional way, for Pete’s sake. I honestly believe that WWE programming is no joke. Really.

Just hours removed from the first May edition of RAW, they were named co-General Managers. Okay, so what, they “helped” the McMahons win at Backlash. Then as I read along the RAW results, they personally had controlled RAW as co-GMs. First, they made a Diva Tag Team Cheerleader Match. In this one, they had two of the best female wrestlers in Mickie James and Victoria losing to eye candies Maria and Torrie Wilson. They had the guts to manipulate Shawn Michaels and Kane. If that wasn’t enough, they also manipulated Triple H and Edge. What? The last straw –

A Spirit Squad member challenging Cena for the WWE Championship. If you have monitored champions and challengers for this very prestigious title, their names wouldn’t raise eyebrows, with the exceptions of Mr. McMahon and Eric Bischoff, but please, they are there because it is in the storylines. Now, they have an ordinary novice wrestler having a shot at the WWE Championship.

That’s right, the WWE Championship.

I will tune in to next week’s RAW and decide if the Spirit Squad is really the missing ingredient or the lost piece of jigsaw puzzle that would make Monday Night RAW great again since the Attitude Era.