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» Reported by Hunter Golden of WrestleView.com
» On Monday, July 28, 2008 at 11:35 PM EST
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WWE RAW
July 28, 2008
Washington, D.C.
Commentators: Michael Cole & Jerry “The King” Lawler
Reported By: Hunter Golden of WrestleView.com
A video played last week putting over the debacle that we experienced following the World title match between Batista & CM Punk. The opening credits rolled and here we go again.
John Cena’s music hit and he came down to the ring to mixed reaction. Cole does a great job putting over the fact that we’re in Batista’s home town. Works for me. Cena said he could tell by the mixed reaction that there are some of them who know what he was going to tell them and that he was not perfect. Cena said he made a mistake and he needed to face the consequences. He said he didn’t need to go into the non-sense, but bottom line was he socked Batista straight in the mouth and he knew it had consequences. He said he couldn’t believe he was doing this but he was asking Batista down to the ring to accept those consequences right now.
Cena waited briefly before the Animal’s music hit and he came down to the ring. Batista is wearing an old Washington Bullets jersey which is just too bad ass for this recap. Batista got on the mic and said no one knew more than him that things happen in the heat of the moment. He said he knew he didn’t mean to hit him, and as far as he was concerned, they were cool. Batista said so much so in fact, that Cena was the guy he wanted to defend his world title against after he beat Punk at Summerslam.
Cena objected saying he didn’t know if Batista was the next guy in line. Batista respected that logic but he said CM Punk was beatable. He didn’t think there was any way he’d lose to him a third time. He said just like there was no way Cena could beat him.
Cena smirked and the two had an exchange of words before Cena suggested they have a match tonight. Batista said that was pretty fair.
Shane McMahon’s music hit and he said he and Stephanie were in house and sure enough, they’ve apointed a new general manager whose hit the ground running, making several matches tonight. He’d love to see Cena v. Batista, but instead, he figures to have other plans. IN the main event tonight, JBL & Kane will be teaming up against Batista and John Cena.
****Commercial****
Kelly Kelly & D-Lo Brown vs. Santino Marella & Beth Phoenix
Santino and Brown started off and Brown immediately went on the offense hitting Sudden impact before missing a charge on a whip follow up in the corner. Santino struggled to pick up D-Lo before Beth came in and showed up her Italian partner.
Brown was surprised and tagged in Kelly Kelly who immediately got her clock cleaned by Phoenix. After eating a back breaker, Santino tagged in to pick the carcass but missed the elbow drop. He cut off Brown in the corner before rolling Kelly up for the win and celebrating like a madman.
Winners: Santino Marella & Beth Phoenix via pin fall
After the match we’ve got some more awkward moments. Santino feigned a kiss a few times before back off to the ropes. Beth grabbed him on the way out and woman-handled him. He likes it. So does she. Steamy.
****Commercial****
Shane is eyeing a picture of his dad before JBL walks in who calls Vince a great man. JBL wanted to inquire about the world title. He said he’s beaten Cena and anyone would think Batista getting another shot to be a joke. JBL offered to challenge CM Punk at Summerslam. Shane said he’d take it up with the new GM. JBL said he needed to talk to him Shane’s phone rang and asked him where the person on the phone was. Shane said he ‘had to see something’ and walked off with JBL still wondering about his match.
World Tag Team Championship
Cody Rhodes & Ted Dibiase v. Hacksaw Jim Duggan & Jerry Lawler
Good lord, a King match, god is good.
Lilian Garcia said this world tag team title match has been changed by the new General Manager. The new match would be with Lawler and a different partner. Michael Cole.
****Commercial****
World Tag Team Championship
Cody Rhodes & Ted Dibiase v. Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler
Lawler advised Cole just to hang in there and he’d be ok. Lawler and Dibiase locked up and Ted backed him into the corner. He mugged Lawler for a little while before Lawler slapped him and traded an Irish whip. Dibiase hit a running knee and began laying in some punches on Lawler before Cody tagged in only to get blasted with a right hand.
Cody laid in some punches before Lawler turned it around and laid in some punches. Rhodes hit a knee to the gut and a second rope bulldog for a two count but Lawler kicked out. Cody slapped on an arm bar and Cole is crapping his pants in the corner. Cody went for an elbow drop that missed by a mile before Lawler began laying everyone out with punches.
Lawler looked for the pile driver until Ted nailed him from behind. Cole tended to Lawler and apparently that’s a tag. Cole’s in the ring now and nailed Cody with a right HAND! The crowd’s molten. Cody looked for some more punches and nailed Cole with a big clothesline to get the win.
Winners & STILL World Tag Team Champions: Cody Rhodes & Ted Dibiase via pin fall
****Commercial****
Jamie Noble is out in the ring with Layla. Jamie Noble is the rising star on the show and he looks like Barack Obama. I agree and he’s way blacker, too. He says he’s going to show to his new girlfriend (whose not really sure herself) why he should be the new IC Champion. He called out Coffee Kingston. Yes, he said Coffee.
Kofi Kingston v. Jamie Noble
The two locked horns and Noble backed Kingston into the corner and beat him around before hitting a body slam and a quickie cover attempt. Noble whipped him to the corner and ate a boot and a bunch of strikes from the Intercontinental Champion. Kofi hit a bunch of kicks and drop kicks before hitting the boom boom leg drop.
Noble’s in trouble here and Kofi hit’s a cross body only for Noble to roll through for a two count. Kingston hit the big wheel kick to Noble’s noggin’ and that’s it.
Winner: Kofi Kingston via pin fall
The World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk is walking towards the ring and he’s facing the hottest free agent in wrestling apparently.
****Commercial****
Mike Adamle is with Jerry Lawler and JBL to call the match.
The new big name free agent is...
CM Punk v. William Regal
This’ll rule.
Regal grabbed a side headlock before Punk fought out. Regal bridged out and slapped on a rear chin lock before Punk countered into a hammerlock. The two wrestled around on the mat some more before Regal slapped a headlock back on.
Punk hit a jawbreaker and a heel kick to break the hold and get a near fall before slapping on an arm bar. Punk hit some punches in the corner before Regal fought his way back with some boots and punches before kicking Punk’s head off the ring post. Yikes.
Punk’s bleeding out of the nose as Regal covers him for a two count. Regal Slapped on a half nelson and hung Punk up on the top rope before planting a forearm into his face. Regal got a cover for his efforts but again, the champion kicked out.
Regal locked in a full nelson only for Punk to fight out but Regal cut him off with a right hand. Regal just hammered away on his face with forearms before slapping on the half nelson again. This is some rough stuff. Punk fought out again and now we’ve got a strike exchange. Punk hit an impressive series of strikes before cold cocking Regal with a side kick for a two count.
Regal fought back though and hit a RELEASE DRAGON SUPLEX! HOLY CRAP! Punk landed squarely on his head and Regal slapped on the half nelson again. Punk fought to his feet though and managed to nail Go 2 Sleep out of nowhere for the win.
Winner: CM Punk via pin fall
JBL ditched the mic and made his way into the ring. As the two exchanged words, Kane’s pyro hit and he’s carrying his sack again. He eyed both men before clocking JBL. Punk hit a kick only for JBL to deck him with a big boot. Kane and JBL are at each other now and this doesn’t look pleasant. Up next is Chris Jericho’s final highlight reel.
****Commercial****
Highlight Reel
Chris Jericho’s music hit and he came out to the ring with Lance Cade for the final Highlight Reel. BTW, the flat screen is still broken.
Jericho said he told the truth and was vilified by the fans. Jericho said he had matured and moved on, taking his career to a new level, forced to do so by all of the fans. He wasn’t the international star before, he was a party host, an entertainer and he said he was glad to do it. He did what the fans wanted to do rather than what he wanted to do, despite being the first Undisputed Champion. He said it was a pathetic mistake to please and pander to these people.
He said he needed to reach for the golden ring of another world title, not appease them. He said tonight would be the final Highlight Reel ever. He put together a farewell video for a man we wouldn’t ever see again. He wasn’t talking about HBK. He was talking about Y2J. A farewell Video aired of Y2J highlights.
We came back to Jericho who said he’d never be a puppet of the fans again and would be respected. Jericho said he did what he had to do and put HBK out for good. He said those highlights to him mean more to him than the highlights of his career to that point. When he destroyed HBK, he destroyed the fans as well.
Cade said it was obvious the people didn’t appreciate him, but he did. He said before he took him under his wing, his career was floundering. He said unlike Shawn Michaels, Jericho saved him and he was forever grateful.
Jericho told HBK to stay home and move on with his life. Hold on to your wife, raise your children and enjoy your new life away from the wrestling business because he deserves it. He should be thankful for what he has and move on, just like Chris Jericho has. He said he heard all this blabber about the other wrestlers on Raw wanting a title shot, but no one deserved it more than him.
****Commercial****
Looks like JR’s just showed up and we’ve got a three man commentary team.
Mickie James v. Jillian Hall
James and Hall locked horns before Hall hit a knee to the gut only to get caught in the corner in a head scissors. Hall countered the move and hit a face buster before pulling back on the hair. Jillian hit a hand spring elbow before hitting a neck breaker for a two count.
Jillian slapped on a dragon sleeper hold before hammering away on the chest of Mickie. Mickie powered up and hit some knees to the head but Jillian slammed her back down and sang a note for us. She went for a big boot but James hit a roll up for two.
The two exchanged strikes in the middle of the ring before Mickie ducked under her and hit the thesz press and some right hands to the face. Mickie hit a clothesline and missed the Mick Kick but rolled out of whatever Jillian had in store for her and hit the implant DDT for the win.
Winner: Mickie James via pin fall
Mickie James celebrated with her Dad who was at ringside after the match until Katie Lea showed up and pearl harbored Mickie from behind, sending Mickie reeling into the ring post.
Katie Lea hoped the new GM was watching because he needed to take note of the next Women’s Champion and her brother, the future Intercontinental Champion.
****Commercial****
Todd Grisham was in the back trying to get the inside scoop from Shane on who the new GM is. He wanted to know who ‘he’ is. Shane said it could be a ‘she’. The GM’s here, and we’ll find out soon.
****Commercial****
John Cena is in the back with Cryme Tyme. They’re scheming against Batista. He walks in and Cena excuses Cryme Tyme. They talk for a while. Batista told him to stay out of his way. This isn’t going to be fun.
****Commercial****
John Cena & Batista v. JBL & Kane
JBL started things out, taking the match to Cena with clubbing blows. Cena came back with his snap mare before Batista tagged in in a not so friendly way and stared down JBL. Batista hit a kick to the gut and backed JBL into the corner before botching a back drop and getting a clubbing arm across the back. Batista no sold the move and power slammed JBL for an interrupted two count.
Batista and Cena don’t seem to be getting along to well…
****Commercial****
We came back to JBL wearing out Cena in the corner. JBL hit a neck breaker on Cena before tagging in Kane. Kane booted Cena on the mat before snap maring him and hitting a drop kick to Cena’s head for a two count.
Kane worked over Cena in the corner before hitting a big scoop slam for another two count. Cena fought out of a headlock before hammering away at the midsection of Kane. Kane eventually gathered him and bullied him to the corner where JBL tagged in and began planting blow after blow on the back of Cena.
Kane hit some upper cuts while Cena fought back with right hands. Cena charged Kane only to get caught in a sidewalk slam for yet another near fall. Kane went for the lariat off the top rope and whiffed. Cena hit a clothesline and we’ve got a race.
The crowd’s hot for the Batista tag and the Animal comes in and cleans house. Batista ducked under a JBL clothesline and hit a spine buster before taking out Kane. JBL and Batista slugged it out while Kane yanked the top rope down, causing Batista to clatter to the floor.
JBL went for the cover, but only got a two count before Kane tagged in and dropped an elbow. Kane drove some shoulders into the mid section of Batista before gathering the former champion and slapping on a body scissors.
The crowd rallied Batista to a half guard where he whaled away on the Big Red Machine. Kane held onto Batista and Cena got cheap shotted in the process. JBL beat down Batista in the corner until Batista was able to hit a spear out of the corner.
All hell broke loose until JBL clocked Batista with a big boot. JBL accidentally hit Kane. While the two scuffled, Batista hit a spear only for Cena to catch a blind tag. He grabbed Kane and hit an FU for the win.
Winners: John Cena & Batista via pin fall
Batista and Cena jaw jacked in the ring until Shane’s music hit and he came out to the ramp. He said this was how we started tonight. The new Raw GM is...MIKE ADAMLE?
He announced that at SummerSlam it would be John Cena v. Batista. It got zero reaction.
RAW THOUGHTS
Show Thoughts-- Well it’s certainly a shocker, but I’m not sure if it’s in a good way.
Part of me thinks Adamle will be a fantastic GM given his overall presentation and face it...the guy doesn’t know a wrestling move in the world, but he DOES work the mic well and is comfortable there. He could do well. On the other hand, no one knows this guy enough to care. The ‘huh’ reaction from the crowd tonight may have been the biggest ‘hah’ moment I’ve seen on Raw in years.
As for Cena-Batista, I don’t know if we’ll see that at SummerSlam. At least I hope they don’t. It’d be a huge, huge mistake as this is the one huge draw match outside of Batista-Orton they’ve got left to play. I know ratings aren’t where the company wants them right now, but this would be a horrendously poor knee-jerk move to put this match on at SummerSlam. With Kane, JBL and Jericho also announcing their intentions to be champion, you’ve got to wonder if WWE’s got something up their sleeves. There was SO MUCH emphasis on who the new #1 contender would be, that I can’t imagine they wouldn’t have something big for SummerSlam regarding the belt.
And to boot, I can’t imagine the WWE would put the blow off match to the company’s biggest feud (Edge-Taker) on the same card with Cena-Batista. I can’t see them actually going through with it, but then again, they could. With the possibility of Jericho-HBK potentially being ended there, too, I’d be shocked to see them go with all three at SummerSlam.
Aside from the sort of weird surprise GM, the rest of the show was really great. A lot of peaks and valleys with some good storyline development along the way. Jericho’s promo was incredible again but the real tip of the cap goes to the mid card. Regal came back and had an awesome match with Punk. Kofi and Noble had a fun, short match. Mickie and Katie Lea is something I’d love to see again and the Santino-Beth love story continues. Cody and Dibiase were fun tonight as well. The mid card has really been can’t-miss stuff week in and week out.
So all in all, given the ending, I GUESS it’s sort of a mixed review. I loved the show for the most part, and am really left weirded out by the ending. We’ll see how things pan out.
Overall Grade: B
Quick Results
Santino Marella & Beth Phoenix def. D-Lo Brown & Kelly Kelly
Cody Rhodes & Ted Dibiase def. Jerry Lawler & Michael Cole
Kofi Kingston def. Jamie Noble
CM Punk def. William Regal
Mickie James def. Jillian Hall
John Cena & Batista def. JBL & Kane
Who’s Hot, Who’s Not?
Biggest Pops
1. Batista
2. CM Punk
3. Kofi Kingston
4. John Cena
Most Heat
1. Chris Jericho
2. JBL
3. Kane
4. Cody Rhodes & Ted Dibiase
Match of the Night: CM Punk v. William Regal **3/4
Power Rankings
5 Points= Title Win
4 Points= World Title defense/win
3 Points= Singles PPV Win
2 Points= Tag PPV Win
2 Points= TV Singles Win
1 Point= TV Tag Win
0 Points= Loss
World Heavyweight Champion: CM Punk 5-0-2, 15 Points (Last Week: World Heavyweight Champion) -- All things considered, as much as his Summerslam future is in question, Punk had another good week with a really good match with Regal.
Intercontinental Champion: Kofi Kingston 5-1, 13 points (Last Week: IC Champion) -- Kofi’s certainly become the anchor of the mid card of late, and it’s been paying dividends. He’s getting over with the crowd and he’s one of the most fun matches ever single week out. Another solid week for Kofi.
1. Chris Jericho 12-13-1, 26pts. (Last Week: 1)-- IMO, there shouldn’t be any question that Jericho’s the top candidate to win the belt next, but I don’t think it’ll come soon. The HBK stuff certainly isn’t over yet, and that’ll likely be resolved before Jericho gets his run. Stay tuned though, he’s still wicked hot.
2. John Cena 17-10, 28 points. (Last Week: 3) -- Cena inches up to the #2 spot this week for getting the pin fall in the big tag match. Anyone remember the last time wins and losses meant so much at the top of the card?
3. JBL 10-17, 19 points (Last Week: 2)-- Takes a step back this week, but for all intents and purposes, I’d pick JBL to get the title shot at Summerslam right now. At the very least he’ll get a shot, but it may be a multi-man match. I think he’s got the heat so far to warrant a one on one match, especially given the strength of the card already, but I’m thinking it’ll be a multi-man match instead.
4. Batista 2-1-2, 3 Points (Last Week: 5)-- So on the surface, it looks like he’s headed into the biggest match of his career, but I wouldn’t be so sure yet. Either way, he’s easily been the more over of the two heading in. IF it happens, it’ll be a whale of a match.
5. Shawn Michaels 15-4-1, 20pts. (Last Week: 4) -- Not in action.
6. Paul Burchill 5-2, 7 points (Last Week: 6)-- Not in action this week.
7. Rey Mysterio 1-0, 3 Points (Last Week: 7) --No signs of Rey Rey tonight, but I can’t warrant dropping him, although I’m darn close to doing it.
8. Ted Dibiase, Jr. 2-2, 5 Points (Last Week: 8)-- Great tag work with Cody in a super fun match with Lawler and Cole this week. These guys are a heck of a pairing for sure.
9. Cody Rhodes 8-7, 8 points (Last Week: 9)-- See Dibiase.
10. Kane 0-4, 0 Points (Last Week: 10)--He takes the pin fall in the loss but then again, he’s still massively over with this new ‘is he alive or dead’ tweener thing. Taking four straight losses isn’t usually good, but he’s still got momentum. He needs a win soon though.
OTHERS :
D-Lo Brown 1-1, 2 points (Last Week: NR)
Santino Marella 6-9, 6 points (Last Week: NR)
Jamie Noble 0-1, 0 Points (Last Week: NR)
Deuce 0-0, 0 Points (Last Week: NR)
Chuck Palumbo 0-0, 0 Points (Last Week: NR)
Matt Striker 0-0, 0 Points (Last Week: NR
Randy Orton 10-9-2, 20pts. (Last Week: INJURED)
William Regal, 3-5, 9 points (Last Week: NR)
Paul London 3-6, 3 points(Last Week: NR)
Jerry Lawler 0-1, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Lance Cade 2-5, 4 points (Last Week: NR)
Jim Duggan 0-1, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Rory 0-2, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Charlie Haas 0-1, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Robbie 0-2, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Mick Foley 1-0, 1 point (Last Week: NR)
Sgt. Slaughter 0-0. 0 pts. (Last Week: NR)
Val Venis 0-1 0pts. (Last Week: NR)
Snitsky 2-6, 3 points (Last Week: NR)
JTG 4-2, 6 points (Last Week: NR)
Big Shaad 4-2, 4 points (Last Week: NR)
Ken Kennedy 10-7, 22pts. (DRAFTED TO SMACKDOWN)
Carlito 9-9, 13 pts. (Last Week: DRAFTED TO SMACKDOWN)
Brian Kendrick, 3-8, 3 points (Last Week: DRAFTED TO SMACKDOWN)
Trevor Murdoch 0-8, 0 points (Last Week: DRAFTED TO SMACKDOWN)
Super Crazy 0-3, 0 points (Last Week: DRAFTED TO ECW)
Harry Smith 0-1, 0 points (DRAFTED TO SMACKDOWN)
Back To WrestleView.com
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