Thoughts on Monday Nght RAW and the updated Wellness Policy

Monday Night RAW came live from Washington D.C. last night and, continuing in the tradition of the last few weeks of programming, offered an action packed show with some surprises along the way.

Before I get to last night's show though, World Wrestling Entertainment recently announced some updates to their Wellness Policy. On July 21st, WWE announced that it will be retaining ImPACT Inc. to manage operations and administration relating to their wellness policy. The ImPACT Inc. programme is also utilised by the National Football League, National Hockey Leagues and major league baseball and soccer, with Dr. Joseph Maroon, the program’s Medical Director, coordinating a team of physicians and medical personnel for program implementation. New drugs have also been added to the policy's banned substance list, namely anti-estrogens, which can be used to mask the effects of steroid use. Mandatory pre-contract cardiovascular, drug screening and physical exams for potential new performers are also going to be implemented as well as mandatory cognitive tests for performers to monitor brain conditions. WWE is now using The ImPACT™ Concussion Management Program for all WWE performers, something which I for one am all for. Following Chris Benoit's death last year and, former WWE superstar, Christopher Nowinski's work and research on Benoit's brain, it became clear that landing on his head a couple of hundred times a year was far more detrimental to his mental state than any steroid use and it's great to see WWE heeding Nowinski's, and other doctor's, advice, hopefully preventing a similar tradegy occurring down the line.

While it's open to some debate as to whether these changes to the Wellness Policy have been made to protect the welfare of WWE performers or if the updates to the policy are to keep WWE's hands clean and the stockholders happy, I prefer to not take a cynical view of this. Deep down, I genuinely believe the company and, more specifically, Vince MacMahon, care about the men and women who work for him and is only acting out of concern for them, rather than protecting his company's reputation. Good work all round if you ask me.

So, onto last night's RAW then. A decent Batista - Cena segment opened the show (with Batista getting an impressive hometown pop) before Shane MacMahon cme bounding out from backstage  doing his awesome little dance (is there a name for this dance? If so, I need to know). I'll admit, while discussing what I thought would happen on this week's episode of RAW earlier on in the day with a friend, I said I didn't mind what happened as long as Shane 'O Mac did his little dance when he came out. And he did. And I marked out. Seriously, the rest of the show could have been an Iron Man match between Big Daddy V and Mark Henry and I would have still rated the show highly.

But luckily, there was no Iron Man match. Shane did say that, WWE champ, CM Punk will be facing a mystery opponent though, someone Shane refers to as "the most technically sound free agent around right now". It was obviously going to be William Regal, back after his suspension, but it was great fun watching the IWC go into overdrive, thinking Ring Of Honor star "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson was going to debut. Shane also mentions the new RAW General Manager will be announced tonight too.

From there we see the Santino Marella - Beth Phoenix angle progress. My fascination with the "Glamazon" grows almost daily, in a manner that's borderline stalker-esque. Santino continues to be the funniest thing on RAW though, getting the win in the mixed tag team match by rolling up Kelly Kelly. He then proceeds to celebrate this win as if he's won a title at Wrestlemania, rather than pinning a 120lb female. Now THAT'S good heel work!

Next up we see Jim Duggan and Jerry Lawler taking on the tag champs, Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes. Well, we thought we were going to see it, but the new General Manager has decided that Michael Cole will take Duggan's place. In all honesty, I was intrgued by the thought of erstwhile play by play man Cole in the ring. Cole comes off the starting blocks with a bang, displaying the kind of technical wrestling expertise that mirrored the work of Bret Hart, Ric Flair and... no, not really. Cody Rhodes just about knocked his head off and pinned him. As Cole is obviously incapacitated and can no longer do commentary, ECW play by play man, Mike Adamle, come out to take his place. Now, anyone who watched Adamle's first few performances on ECW will agree that having him commentate on live TV has all the makings of comedy genius.

A suitably bizarre RAW continues with an Intercontinental Championship match between Kofi Kingston ("Jamaican Me Crazy!" yells Adamle) and Jamie Noble. Unfortunately, due to time constraints I'm guessing, this match is little more than a squash in Kingston's favour which is a shame as Noble can hold his own with the best of them and is consistantly serving up slices of fried gold on the mic. Hopefully, we'll get to see a programme with these two after the feud between Kingston and Paul Burchill is over.

CM Punk up against the mystery opponent is up next and, would you Adam 'n Eve it, it is indeed William Regal, wearing new ring attire that sort of makes him look a bit like Mae Young. Which surely can't be a good thing. Luckily the match is though, with Regal kicking Punk's ass quite soundly, even busting his face open hardway with continued stiff kicks to the head. Punk pulls out the win but Regal looked mightily impressive in his first match back, post-suspension. Get him in a feud with someone who can match him in the ring and on the mic and everyone's a winner.

The last ever edition of the Highlight Reel with Chris Jericho follows. I won't go into too much detail about, needless to say that if anyone reading this is a heel wrestler then a suggest you take a look at this segment for some hints on how to cut a tremendous heel promo, with Jericho justifying his actions perfectly and even slipping in a line about challenging  Punk for the title which got me all kinds of excited.

Jim Ross then shows up at the announce table. Which is lovely. He's only been gone a few weeks but I miss J.R yelling "Bah gawd!" on RAW. After a nice little women's match between Mickie James (who I finally saw some filthy pictures of earlier. She seems so innocent too) and Jillian Hall, it's main event time with Batista and Cean taking on Kane and JBL. A pretty decent match it has to be said but I was just waiting to hear who the new GM was going to be. And it's Mike Adamle. MIKE FUCKING ADAMLE. This is either a stroke of genius or just the most bizarre decidion I've heard in quite some time. Adamle then announces that it will be Cena vs. Batista at Summerslam which is something I would have thought would have been best left for a Wrestlemania main event. It still could be of course but I have doubts as to whether or not a programme between the two Superstars can go for the best part of eight months.

I personally hope "The Adamle" goes on a reign of terror. The RAW preview for next week has already called him "the absent minded commentator on ECW". You're the GM Adamle, don't take shit from no one! Next weeks RAW could be throughly entertaining.