Cor blimey guv’nor, that’s something I never thought I’d see – Evan Bourne in the main event. The little fella did himself justice as well. Not once did he look out of place amongst the current WWE elite of John Cena, Sheamus and Edge.

I don’t envisage a gargantuan push for him just yet, but in a short time on Monday night – a short time that the live audience lapped up with vigour – Bourne emphasised that one day he could become a regular member of the top-tier crowd.

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If that’s how post-draft Raw is going to shape up, I’m happy.

As always with the red brand, the show was not fault free, but it seems like last week’s switch of personnel will also a constitute a change in thinking – one where wrestling and the storylines linking it take precedence over dodgy “comedic” sketches.

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The “Extreme Rules” moniker conjures up images of battery, destruction, flailing bodies and an array of perilous weaponry, but WWE’s latest pay-per-view was surprisingly short on munitions and massacre.

Instead, it focused on the weaving intricacies of in-ring combat, absorbing storytelling and some damn fine wrestling. Extreme Rules wasn’t bad, it was just different to what was expected.

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I think David Hasselhoff was born cheesy. He probably entered the world singing a corny jingle or doing some dubious acting, all whilst dressed in awful iridescent garb.

The Baywatch star brought all his trashy charm to London this past week in his role as guest host of Monday night Raw, and no amount of crud was off limits.

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With Shawn Michaels having given the wrestling biz the old heave-ho and his Wrestlemania conqueror The Undertaker looking set for another lengthy sabbatical, the decision makers in the WWE need to pull the trigger and give their rising stars a break. If Monday night Raw was anything to go by, they are going to do just that.

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When it comes to car-crash TV, WWE are the masters. Dwarf skits, pec dancing, juvenile pranks, sex-crazed Punjabi giants – high jinks and silliness are never far away.

So it was no surprise that with Jerry Springer hosting the most recent episode of Raw, a mock-up of the veteran broadcasters’ havoc-heaped, screech-infested, secret-revealing tabloid talk show took place.

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Raw ended with an irate Bret Hart standing in the ring with the glowing Wrestlemania 26 sign hovering above his head. Even the most ardent of doubters must now realise that when WWE’s premier event rolls along in seven weeks time, The Hitman and Vince McMahon will do battle. 12 and a bit years after the pandemonium of Montreal, and finally there will be closure.

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I wish I could pocket William Shatner. I would take him out whenever I was feeling a bit glum or to add some joie de vivre to a night out. If he’s half as fun as he was on Raw, time spent in his company would be a hoot. This week’s guest host didn’t have that many decisions to make, but his rendition of various wrestlers’ entrance music, comedic in-ring tumble on Jerry Lawler, and “Match Negotiator” skit were terrific. The beauty of Shatner is his unpredictability, you’re never quite sure what the Star Trek-famed rogue is going to do next.

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There was devastating news at the start of this week’s Monday night Raw when Michael Cole revealed co-guest host James Roday was not in the building. That meant instead of two people I’d never heard of presenting the show, we had one person I’d never heard of presenting the show.

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Regular readers of this column – if there are any out there – may be wondering why it has been posted so late in the week. Well, much to my chagrin, my recording device failed to operate correctly in the early hours of Tuesday morning, when Raw is shown live in the UK, so I had to wait until the Thursday repeat to get my weekly fix of DX, Mark Henry and co.

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