NEWS: |WWE| The following report is from WWE with full credit going to Aubrey Sitterson…
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In a rare champion vs. champion encounter, WWE Champion Triple H and Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho went head-to-head on Raw in a non-title match that ended with Lance Cade’s unexpected interference. Despite the emergence of John Cena, who came to aid his Night of Champions opponent, it was Y2J’s alliance with the hostile former World Tag Team Champion that stood tall.
The Game and Y2J’s confrontation grew out of Jericho’s behavior last week, when he brutalized Shawn Michaels, smashing his head into the Jeri-Tron 6000. Jericho was initially confronted on Raw by Ric Flair in the “Nature Boy’s” return to WWE for the first time since retiring. As the Intercontinental Champion headed out to fight Flair in the parking lot, he was confronted by an angry Triple H, spoiling for a fight. While Y2J’s encounter with Flair never happened as a result of Mr. McMahon having The Dirtiest Player in the Game escorted out of the arena, the WWE Chairman set up Triple H vs. Chris Jericho for that very night.
The match came to a finish not with a Pedigree or Walls of Jericho, but with the surprise involvement of Lance Cade, who rushed in to attack Triple H while both The Game and Chris Jericho were outside the ring. As Y2J and Cade brutalized Triple H, John Cena entered the ring and dropped both of The Cerebral Assassin’s attackers, only to be assaulted by Triple H himself. While their opponents were distracted with each other, the unusual alliance of Jericho and Cade took advantage of the situation and put them both down.
Cena barely had time to recover from his match earlier that night, a Street Fight against Umaga. The two men fought as relentlessly and brutally as that match stipulation requires, but in the end, it was John Cena who came out on top, pinning Umaga and showing The Cerebral Assassin exactly what he’ll have to compete against at Night of Champions in just two short weeks.
Another Night of Champions match will feature World Tag Team Champions Hardcore Holly & Cody Rhodes defending their titles against Ted DiBiase and a partner of his choice, who has yet to be revealed. Though past weeks have seen the champions struggling in the ring, Monday night was a return to form as they defeated Cryme Tyme in a non-title match. DiBiase continued to be a regular face around the ring however, entering the arena and standing by during his future opponents’ bout.
The night’s second tag match was an intergender confrontation between Mr. Kennedy & WWE Women’s Champion Mickie James and the team of Paul & Katie Lea Burchill. Since defeating their friend and former GM William Regal, Mr. Kennedy has been on the Burchills’ bad side. The British siblings were victorious in this match-up, continuing their rivalry with Kennedy and making things look a little more dismal for Mickie at Night of Champions in her championship match against Katie Lea.
Raw also saw a confrontation between former Intercontinental Champions Jeff Hardy and Carlito. Hardy has been making a tremendous showing lately on Raw, just narrowly missing out on No. 1 contender status for the WWE Championship two weeks ago, but managing to take out both Triple H and John Cena last week. He continued to give the audience what they wanted by pinning Carlito for the win.
In what was surely the hottest competition of the night, the WWE Divas participated in a Summertime Beach Bikini Blowout, including Maria, Eve, Jillian, Layla, Lena Yada, Maryse and Melina. In spite of Jillian trying to serenade the audience, it was a beautiful contest, with special host Charlie Haas announcing the winner as the lovely Maria.
Though WWE fans are always delighted by explosive matches and beautiful women, for the second week in a row what had them all jumping out of their seats was Mr. McMahon’s Million Dollar Mania. Over the course of the night, the WWE Chairman gave away $1 million of his own money to Raw fans viewing at home, going on to announce that even with the 2008 WWE Draft next week, there’s nothing stopping him from doing it all again. While all Superstars, Divas and even announcers will be eligible for the Draft, you are still eligible to win your share of $1 million. Make sure to sign up today, and be sure to read all about this week’s winners.
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Not a bad promo between HHH & Cena. Their feud has changed from professional to personal with Cena questioning HHH’s abilities and HHH taking shots at Cena’s fans. I’m surprised that their feud became personal so quick. If these two are going to feud for the whole summer (or a few months), then wouldn’t make sense to play it slow? Ah well. Their promo was very good and very believable.
Why does Umaga continue to get booked in these matches? He’s the main event jobber. How is Cena vs Umaga entertaining? It’s not. But as for the match, it wasn’t half bad. But still, a street fight didn’t save these two because a WWE street fight is basically a normal match with weapons as decoration. The weapons don’t really get used, but they’re still their. I wanted to like the Street fight, but I just couldn’t. Umaga completely botched Cena’s leg drop by the way.
Is it fair for Vince to ask wrestling fans to bark like a dog? I doubt they care since they’re getting a lot of money.
It’s really sad how WWE misuses the divas.
That sucks…it went to voice mail. Sucks for him…but it’s hilarious for me.
I am very surprised that Carlito was on RAW after his comments. I guess complaining does get you somewhere.
I did not like the Carlito/Hardy match. They didn’t work together well and the match felt choppy. It started off well and then started getting weird after Carlito’s move to Hardy off the ropes (like a swinging DDT thing-a-mijigger). Match just wasn’t entertaining or good.
Good to see Flair again and he was actually involved in an angle. And then got his ass thrown out! I thought that was pretty funny. But I think WWE could have used him better. Instead of having Flair run an errand for HHH, why not have Flair stand up for HBK and fuel this feud. Flair could have definitely sold the angle with his mic skills and take some the work out of it. But I guess not.
But when I think about it, what was the entire point of having Flair lead Jericho to HHH? Yes, we’re getting a match out of it later on in the night, but that’s a lot of work and TV time to set up a match. Maybe WWE has something planned. But I say that a lot and WWE constantly proves me wrong on that.
Once again, not a good match. The mixed tag match could have been good, but I’m convinced it was booked half-assed. Or maybe the more logical explanation is that WWE cut all the time down to push the million dollar giveaway. Hmmm….ratings are down so WWE gives away money to the fans to raise ratings, but the show suffers as a result and makes it worse. But back to Kennedy/Mickie/Burchills. In the very limited time they got, it was a decent match. Kennedy’s spear to the outside was a really nice move, but the finish was awful. Mickie James is the champion so she shouldn’t lose to a stiff backbreaker. Awful finish in my opinion. BTW, Katie Lea is impressive.
I saw Cryme Tyme lose, but I literally turned my head for a minute and then it was over by the time I turned it back. Soooo I guess I really don’t care.
Finally a good match and it was the main event. HHH & Jericho had a back and forth match with plenty of counters, reversals and a sneak attack. The wrestling match was very good and it was a relief to see some actual wrestling on the show. Cade officially got his push with an appearance in the main event alongside Jericho. It was a great way to end RAW because you wonder why Cade came out and did what he did. It’s a cliffhanger basically and now it’s a reason to watch RAW next week. WWE could use some more cliffhangers and they’ve been doing it a lot lately which is good.
Overall, this RAW episode was awful. It was downright boring at times and the wrestling matches were rushed, short and not even good. The only good match was the main event, but the show is two hours long and it is a wrestling show last time I checked.
I don’t know if WWE has dropped this Cena/Mickie angle, but it’s unfortuante because they spent somce good time building it up. And now it looks like it’s completely gone. Good job WWE. Also, Jericho made a promise to defend his IC title more often so he should have defended it tonight. It wouldn’t make much sense, but still, it would go along with what he said weeks ago. RAW felt half-assed tonight, rushed, and there was no flow to the program. It was just a bad RAW with a good main event and a great ending. Awful show. Giving away money does not help either.
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