J.R.'s Family Bar-B-Q

Greetings from Oklahoma and from under the black hat while preparing to fly across the Atlantic to London this weekend for Monday Night Raw. I wonder if barbecue will be served on the flight … most likely not.

Monday Night Raw had a hard act to follow from the memorable and emotional Raw from Orlando, Fla., where the greatest wrestler who ever lived, Ric Flair, gave his farewell address. Nonetheless, the Backlash pay-per-view card began to take shape. The Raw main event for the WWE Title will be a chaotic Fatal Four Way, which really puts the WWE Championship in jeopardy, and has made titleholder Randy Orton about as happy as Hillary Clinton after it was suggested that she might make a nice “vice presidential” candidate.

After 92 percent of those voting on the AT&T Mobile text poll voted that Orton would not retain his title at WrestleMania XXIV, the odds one could assume for the second generation Superstar to retain his title against not two but three Superstars at Backlash will be even greater. One could surmise that by winning the Fatal Four Way at the pay-per-view later this month from Baltimore, the main event match could be the defining moment of the young Orton’s career. For Orton to leave Baltimore with the WWE Title and leave Triple H, John Cena and JBL all empty-handed would be damn near miraculous.

General Manager William Regal’s challenge of the Legend Killer this Monday night from Regal’s homeland could prove to be most interesting, because Regal still considers himself a wrestler first and an administrator second. A Regal victory over Orton would certainly change the landscape of Raw.

On with the proceedings … this week’s Raw Superstars of the Week are the team of Brian Kendrick and Paul London, who have put together two impressive outings in a row on WWE’s flagship broadcast. The supremely quick duo seems to have developed a little “attitude” as of late which seems to be serving them well. If Kendrick & London, who have also apparently smoothed over any internal strife they had a few weeks ago, can channel teams like The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express or The Midnight Rockers, this team can be wearing tag team gold again just as they once did on SmackDown. It would be nice to hear from Kendrick & London in the future about how they feel about their chances of becoming the World Tag Team Champions.

Read the rest of J.R.'s column at WWE.com »