WWF Wrestling Challenge
Date: January 10, 1988
Location: Civic Center, Fort Meyers, Florida
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby Heenan

Hopefully this week is a normal episode in this series. From what I can tell this is a series of squashes plus some highlights from a SNME match with Bundy and Hogan which is really there for the post match stuff. Other than that there’s not much going on as the stuff for Mania wouldn’t get rolling until February. Let’s get to it.

British Bulldogs vs. Steve Lombardi/Terry Gibbs

Gibbs and Smith start things off as Heenan is saying the Islanders are innocent in the Matilda theft. Off to Lombardi and the Kid. There’s the snap suplex and it’s off to Gibbs. We get an inset interview from the Islanders with an empty leash which apparently explains that they don’t have Matilda. Lombadri gets in some offense on Dynamite but a clothesline puts Steve down. Back to Smith for some suplexes. Powerslam puts him down but Gibbs saves. The gorilla press headbutt combo ends this.

Rating: D+. Just a squash here but the Bulldogs continue to be awesome. It was a backdrop for the feud with the Islanders which is fine. Heenan’s crazy laughter is pretty creepy in its own right. Nothing to see here as a match but the Bulldogs were totally awesome and made up for the squash aspects of the match.

We get a clip of Matilda being dognapped which is a couple of minutes long. Basically there was a Bulldogs vs. Islanders match and Matilda went after Heenan. The Islanders got knocked to the floor so they stole Matilda.

Jack Tunney says that until Matilda is back, the Islanders are suspended without pay.

Ron Bass vs. Omar Atlas

Atlas tries to use speed which works for about thirty seconds. Heenan spends the match ranting about Tunney and the banning. Bass gives a quick inset interview about how tough he is. A modified Pedigree (no arm trap) gets the pin easily for Bass.

Dino Bravo has a new manager: Frenchy Martin. Bravo says he’ll be coming after Hogan and the title this year.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Dusty Wolfe

No name for the jobber here. Total dominance by Bigelow who shows off with some nice jumping stuff. Bigelow misses a charge in the corner and Gorilla names the jobber: Dusty Wolfe. Bigelow brushes off the offense and hits a suplex followed by a slingshot splash to literally squash Wolfe.

We go to Gene for an explanation about the Rumble Royal. Yes that’s what he said. He explains the concept and brings in the Killer Bees who are excited to be in it.

Danny Davis/Hart Foundation vs. Doug Wellington/???/???

Davis starts with let’s say Wellington. Clothesline gets two for Wellington and it’s off to Jobber #1. Bret comes in to run him over and drop an elbow before bringing in Neidhart. Here’s Jobber #2 and I don’t think Gorilla knows their names either. Hart Attack and we’re done quick.

Here are the highlights from Hogan vs. Bundy which runs like 10 seconds and is Hogan whipping Bundy into the corner and dropping the leg for the pin. Post match Andre comes in and chokes him out. The British Bulldogs come in but can’t do a thing. An army of guys come in and Duggan hits Andre with the 2×4 to break it up.

We go to DiBiase and Virgil who bring out Andre and Heenan as his latest purchase. This was a common thing back in the day: this promo aired “in the arena” on both Superstars and Wrestling Challenge. It’s the same thing and it ends with Andre saying he’ll get the belt for DiBiase.

Jerry Gray vs. Sam Houston

This is actually joined in progress for some reason. There’s nothing to see here. Gray hammers on him for a bit, Houston hammers back, a back elbow puts Jerry down and the bulldog wins it.

Greg Valentine vs. Pete Sanchez

Total domination with a lot of slams from Valentine. He sends Sanchez to the floor and puts him down inside with a belly to back. Elbow drop and figure four end this quickly.

Koko B. Ware vs. Rick Renslow

Renslow is a very hairy man. He jumps Koko to start but gets knocked down with a variety of dropkicks. Ghostbuster (brainbuster) ends this. It was barely a minute long.

Steamboat is looking forward to a good year in 1988. He has another mouth to feed now because he has a son. Steamboat wants the IC Title back and he wouldn’t mind getting his hands on Rick Rude either.

Gorilla gives us a preview of next week and we’re out.

Overall Rating: D. I really wasn’t that into this one. The longest match was about three minutes long and the matches were somehow more boring than on Superstars. It’s not terrible I guess but it’s nothing that you’re going to want to watch on a regular basis. Naturally that’s what I’ll be doing, but I have an unhealthy obsession with this time period in WWF history. Bad show, but it was about what you would expect on this show.

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WWF Wrestling Challenge
Date: January 3, 1988
Location: Civic Center, Fort Meyers, Florida
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby Heenan, Jesse Ventura, Bruno Sammartino, Vince McMahon

So the Youtube guy has a new channel up so I’ll have a fresh supply of TV for you guys. We’ll start here with a pair of Wrestling Challenge tapings from early 88. We’re about four weeks from the first Rumble and about a month from the end of Hogan’s title reign. This was the lower level syndicated show but you’ll know most of the names on it. Let’s get to it.

Apparently this is a year in review show. This should be interesting.

Heenan bails for fear of Matilda and the British Bulldogs so Gorilla commentates on his own. I’m sure this has nothing to do with this show being a clip show.

Tag Titles: Strike Force vs. Hart Foundation

The Harts have the belts here. Joined in progress with Anvil hammering Santana in the corner. Off to Bret as Tito stays in trouble. Santana manages to whip Bret into the corner and there’s the hot tag to Martel. Anvil is in as well but gets his head punched off by Rick. Strike Force double slams Anvil and the Boston Crab gives them the tag titles very quickly. Too short to rate. Expect to hear that a lot in this show.

That was from November and now we go back to March for Wrestlemania 3, which just happened to be 25 years ago today. It’s just Gene announcing the attendance record.

Quick profile on One Man Gang who gives gordbusters to a lot of people, including a referee.

We get the conclusion of the Battle For Bam Bam, which was every heel manager trying to sign Bigelow who was the hot rookie. It wound up being Oliver Humperdink in a watered down version of Macho Man and Liz from the year before.

Clip of Bigelow winning a battle royal by eliminating Orton and Hercules at the same time to win. Just the ending is shown.

The Bulldogs talk about Matilda being sick since they got her back. I saw this promo a few weeks ago.

Clip of Honky Tonk Man going to the EVIL Hall of Fame by hitting Savage with a guitar. Him shoving Liz isn’t included. Liz brings out Hogan for the save. They shake hands but it’s not the famous handshake.

Savage says he’s coming for Honky. The usual crazy promo from Savage here.

Clips from the Survivor Series, namely the tag team Survivor Series match. This is a very underrated and often forgotten PPV. We also get Andre beating Bigelow to win the main event.

Don Muraco wins with a tombstone.

That leads us to clips of Billy Graham beating up Slick but getting beaten up by One Man Gang and Butch Reed. Muraco makes the save. This was the end of Graham’s in ring career.

Piledriver music video. The cameos in this are great.

Highlight reel of Demolition set to their always awesome theme music. This transitions into almost a regular music video.

We get some clips of Billy Jack Haynes/Ken Patera vs, Demolition which was actually a somewhat lengthy feud. By feud I mean Demolition killing them every time. For some reason this is of Brady Boone getting destroyed by three Decapitators until Haynes makes the save. There’s a Decapitator for him until Patera saves….and is promptly beaten down as well.

The Slammys happened in 1987 also. Hogan calls the fans a turn on and presents the Real American Award to Billy Graham. This is the longest segment on the show thus far.

Dibiase wants the title and offered to buy it from Hogan. Hulk says no in a sequence that takes about 5 minutes.

Beefcake says that making ugly people look better is a lost art that he’s going to try to make better. His next target: Greg Valentine. He debuts the hedge clippers.

Gorilla previews next week’s show and we’re out.

Overall Rating: D+. This is a very different kind of show. That being said, the show was pretty weak for the most part. The problem is the show is all over the place and there’s no straight narrative through it. By that I mean it’s like LOOK OVER HERE and then LOOK OVER THERE! Also, a total of about 45 seconds spent on Wrestlemania? That alone brings this down. It’s a regular show next time.

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Monday Night Raw
Date: September 1, 2008
Location: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

I downloaded this show thinking that it was the 800th episode and that WWE couldn’t count, but I found out that they had a big 800th episode celebration later on. I’ve done that one already, or at least I will by the time you read this. That being said, I already have this show downloaded so I might as well throw it in as a bonus. Let’s get to it.

We open with an in memory graphic for Killer Kowalski. Always good to see.

This was taped on Sunday since Monday was Labor Day.

Here’s Orton to open the show and he’s apparently got a bad left arm. This is his return from an injury and his arm is still in a sling. Orton talks about how a brand is measured by its champions. When he was world champion, Raw dominated. Let’s look at the Divas Champion, Beth Phoenix. She’s running around like a lovesick puppy. And who is she in love with? Santino? Orton could beat him even while hurt. Moving onto the tag champions, how can Orton and DiBiase be called Priceless? It’s more like worthless.

However, that’s not the real problem here on Raw. Instead, Punk is the one running around disgracing the World Title. Four years ago, Punk was nothing in a nothing organization. Now he climbed a ladder and got a lucky win to become champion. Orton would love to take the title back right now but he’s not medically cleared. One day soon though, Orton will come back and take the title.

Cue Punk who looks WAY younger here. Punk talks about how he didn’t have his daddy and granddaddy getting him his spot. He’s world champion and he doesn’t drink, smoke etc. Know what else he doesn’t do? He doesn’t go out on his motorcycle at 3am and reinjure his shoulder for three more months. NICE. Punk calls Orton a joke and Randy goes to leave, so Punk says he’ll keep the title until Orton is ready to come back and lose to him.

Orton leaves and here’s JBL who is in the Scramble on Sunday. He says that in three days, the clock strikes midnight on Cinderella. The odds will catch up with Punk and the fans will get a real champion in JBL. JBL says he can clothesline anyone and pin them. Cue Kane who says he’s been home and hasn’t seen JBL’s clothesline there. He did however see Mysterio there, which means Rey is out of the Scramble match. Now cue Batista who spears everyone and stands tall.

Kofi Kingston vs. Charlie Haas

Haas is dressed as Cena in another imitation. Cena is out after having neck surgery so the fans popped big for the music. Kofi speeds things up to start but Haas knocks him down. He sets for the Shuffle but Kofi kicks him in the head followed by some dropkicks. Things speed up again and there’s the Boom Drop. Charlie gets in a right hand and tries the FU but Kofi escapes and Trouble in Paradise ends this quick.

Priceless yells at Orton so Orton slaps them and says take some action.

Teddy and Tiffany go to see Adamle because they run ECW. There’s going to be a battle royal for the ECW Scramble guys as well as one with the Raw guys. Adamle thinks this could become a tradition on Labor Day, like a Jerry Lewis telethon without the sick kids. Kane comes in and says Rey isn’t coming back like Adamle says. Adamle says he was hoping to make Rey feel good and show up either tonight or at Unforgiven.

Battle Royal

Matt Hardy, Finlay, Mark Henry, Chavo Guerrero, The Miz

Henry is champion coming in. I don’t think the winner gets anything here. Everyone goes after Henry to start but he throws them all away with ease. Matt is the only one that has any luck against him as he and Miz manage a double DDT. Finlay slams Chavo onto Henry, which is kind of stupid as it keeps Henry on the mat. Miz puts Finlay onto the apron but walks into a side effect.

Finlay comes back in for a double clothesline on Matt to put them both down. Henry throws out Chavo and Miz at the same time and then splashes Finlay in the corner. Matt goes after Henry as does Finlay but they can’t throw him out due to reasons of fat. Finlay is easily thrown out by Mark and after a brief flurry from Matt he’s tossed too to give Henry the pretty easy win.

Rating: D-. So let me get this straight: Henry, the champion and favorite coming into the match on Sunday just threw out all four of his opponents in about three and a half minutes with complete ease. How exactly is that supposed to make me want to see the match on Sunday again? Why are battle royals so hard to get right? They really should be easier than this to book.

Jericho looks at the contract for his unsanctioned match on Sunday with Shawn.

Jamie Noble vs. William Regal

Noble wants to date Layla so she’s here too. I don’t remember that pairing very well at all but this brings it back a bit. Granted it’s not exactly the biggest angle of all time. Regal annoyed Layla when she was dancing and Noble saved her so there’s your background. Regal is in his one piece swimsuit attire and he pounds Noble down with ease. A full nelson is easily countered and they trade some rollups for two. Regal punches him in the face to put him down as the beating continues. Out of nowhere, Noble grabs a small package for the quick pin. This was like a minute long.

Jillian Hall sings a bit before the next match.

Jillian Hall/Katie Lea Burchill/Beth Phoenix vs. Mickie James/Candice Michelle, Kelly Kelly

The Divas were much hotter in 2008. Beth is Women’s Champion and says she’s a great champion, which is a message to Orton. She says no one can challenge her which draws out Candice to be the mystery partner or something. Kelly vs. Katie to start with Kelly proving why she should stick to looking good, which she is in a bikini and chaps.

Off to Mickie and Jillian with Mickie getting caught in the heel corner. Beth comes in for a slingshot suplex for two. A neckbreaker lets Mickie tag in Candice, who just wasn’t that good. She cleans house and goes up in the heel corner for a cross body. Beth rolls through but Candice rolls into an ugly small package for the pin.

Rating: D+. Candice brought this WAY down. She was botching everything she tried and really messed up the match. They tried really hard to make her into the big deal of the division and it never quite worked. On another note, the Divas looked WAY better back then and could work better matches too. Such a shame.

Recap of Jericho vs. Shawn which was about Shawn having a bad eye and having to retire. Jericho blames Shawn for it and in a fight between them, Jericho punched Shawn’s wife. Shawn can’t quit after that so there’s an unsanctioned match this Sunday. This is a long
video but it’s good.

Santino Marella vs. D’Lo Brown

Santino debuts the Honk-A-Meter before the match. I saw this match at a house show earlier in the summer. Brown starts off fast getting two off a clothesline. A Shining Wizard (actually called that) sets up the Low Down but Santino moves and gets the very fast pin.

We get a classic moment from September of 1997 and the first Raw in MSG. It was the night Austin first Stunned Vince.

John Morrison/The Miz vs. Cryme Tyme

Cryme Tyme has the tag title belts which they stole. It’s a brawl in the aisle to start and here’s Priceless to beat down the thieves and to take back their titles. No match.

After a break Priceless shows Orton the belts but don’t say a word.

Smackdown Your Vote, the Republican edition. I’m a political geek so this is awesome.

Batista is asked what his game plan is for tonight. It’s to destroy everyone.

We run down the card for Sunday.

Battle Royal

Kane, Batista, CM Punk, John Bradshaw Layfield

Rey isn’t here but he’d be in the match on Sunday. Orton is at ringside when we come back from a break. Kane comes out last instead of Punk for some reason. Batista knocks everyone down to start and hits the worst spear I’ve seen in a very long time on JBL. Batista is a monster but there was zero impact there at all. Kane breaks up the Bomb on Punk with a big boot and Punk clotheslines Batista out.

A backdrop puts JBL out and it’s down to two. Punk tries whatever he can against Kane but the big boot and side slam take him down. Punk hits three knees in the corner but the bulldog is countered. He tries the GTS but Kane elbows out of it. Punk tries to springboard into the clothesline but Kane catches him by the throat and shoves Punk out for the win.

Rating: C. See how easy it is to give us a little drama going into Sunday? All you have to do is give someone other than the champion a win and it makes the fans think there’s some doubt as to who wins. The good part of a battle royal is that it makes the winner look good but the loser doesn’t lose anything because it’s just a battle royal.

Post match Punk and Orton stare at each other and Punk slaps him. Also Rey returns, completely defeating the purpose of not being in the battle royal, to beat down Kane and send him into the post and hit a 619 around the post.

Time for the contract signing. Jerry is the moderator and explains that there are no rules and WWE is absolved from any liabilities in the match. Both of them sign and Jerry thanks them but Jericho cuts them off. He wants to know why we have all the security. Shawn says it’s not his idea because if it were up to him it would be just the two of them. Jericho and Shawn agree that the security isn’t needed here so it’s just the two of them.

Jericho says he followed the advice Shawn gave him at Summerslam, “you know, before I hit your wife in the face.” He told them that he’d never be an egomaniac like Summerslam. Then he said not to watch Summerslam because he doesn’t want them to see what he’s capable of doing. Shawn says his family won’t be watching either. Someday he’ll tell them about it all though. About the day that his father almost walked away but couldn’t turn the other cheek because sometimes you have to spit in the eye of evil.

Shawn talks about how he’ll never forgive him for what he did, but he hopes on day God forgives Shawn for what he’ll do to Jericho on Sunday. They both get up but Lance Cade comes in to save Jericho which goes as well as you would expect for him. Really strong closing segment.

Overall Rating: B-. This was an odd show but it set up an odd PPV. The problem is that there were 15 people tied up in three matches so you could only do so much on TV before the PPV. That being said, the build was mostly good and the Shawn/Jericho stuff was awesome. At the end of the day when you have great promos and great matches, the feud is going to be great by default, and it was, giving us the feud of the year. Good show.

Here’s Unforgiven if you’re interested:

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Monday Night Raw
Date: November 3, 2008
Location: St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, Florida
Attendance: 12,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

This is the REAL 800th episode, at least according to WWE and is a three hour show. It means I’m probably wrong about some of the previous centennial episodes but does it really matter? Anyway we have a big long card and a bunch of highlights from the first 799 episodes which I’m sure we haven’t seen a million times before. Oh and Batista defending against Jericho in a cage. Let’s get to it.

DX fights Miz/Morrison tonight.

Here’s Orton to open the show. He says to either fire Adamle as GM or he’s walking. Shane and Stephanie won’t fix things so he’s going to put a stop to it. If you think he’s bluffing, try him. Orton gets a chair and sits between the announce tables.

Hardys vs. The Brian Kendrick/MVP

Matt is ECW Champion and Jeff is about a month and a half from winning the WWE Title. We get a clip from Episode #764: Jeff diving off the tower onto Orton from earlier in the year. Jeff vs. MVP gets us going with not much at all. Off to Matt so the Hardys can screw up some basic stuff. Back to Jeff for Poetry in Motion as the fans aren’t that interested so far.

Off to Kendrick who jumps onto Jeff’s back and kicks away at it. Sliced Bread is countered and Jeff hits the sitout gordbuster and brings in Matt. Matt cleans house, knocking Kendrick to the floor and hitting the Side Effect on MVP for two. MVP gets a shot in and it’s off to Kendrick. The referee didn’t see it so while he’s being put out, the Twist and Swanton get the pin MVP.

Rating: D+. Pretty dull match here as I think the Hardys were there to give us some kind of a nostalgia feeling, but it doesn’t quite mean much when the team hasn’t meant anything in years at this point. Also the lack of doubt as to who wins here kind of hurt things too. Kendrick’s push started and stopped in about the course of a month.

We get a clip of the first episode where Heenan couldn’t get inside among other things.

The Kid beats Razor Ramon on Episode #17. That really was a huge deal.

Battle Royal

William Regal, Manu, JTG, Shad Gaspar, Cody Rhodes, Jamie Noble, Snitsky, Ted DiBiase Jr.

Orton is still at ringside. The winner gets an IC Title match next week. Santino is on commentary as he’s champion. He declares himself champion of the world as this match is going nowhere. Snitsky the Bald is sent out by all three members of Priceless, but DiBiase throws out Manu and Rhodes in a nice move. Regal and Noble go to the floor but not over the top. Oh ok Noble is out. We have Cryme Tyme, Regal and DiBiase left. DiBiase fights the tag team and throws out JTG. Shad misses a boot so Ted can toss him, but Regal sneaks in to throw out Teddy for the win and the title shot, which I think he would win.

Rating: D-. Really boring match here with an ending that you’ve seen a million times before. Well you’ve probably not seen a million battle royals but you get the idea. Still though, boring match and it was about as cheap of a way as you could get to give Regal the title shot. Nothing else to say here.

Shane and Stephanie arrive. Stephanie says Shane can handle this, referring to Orton I think.

Episode #409: Vince buys WCW but Shane steals it from under him. Still a huge moment, still amazing how much they screwed that up.

Orton is in the ring again and talks about how Adamle slapped him in the face. Therefore, either Adamle goes, or Orton goes. Cue the dancing McMahon who says he doesn’t appreciate this. Orton says that Vince would get this done immediately. Shane says he’s not his father but they have the same last name. Cue Adamle who says everyone in charge of Raw has always had an agenda. He wanted to be the first unbiased GM, but unfortunately that hasn’t been happening. Therefore, he’s quitting, and also drawing the biggest pop of the night.

Orton however wants an apology still. Shane says Orton should apologize to Adamle. Orton has had an excuse of a bad shoulder lately, but Shane thought Orton looked fine at Cyber Sunday. Shane thought something was up so he went to Orton’s doctors, who said that Orton has been cleared to compete for months. Orton doesn’t want to come back until Survivor Series, but Shane thinks it should be tonight. Randy says he doesn’t have his gear, but Shane says he’ll take care of that. It’s Orton vs. Punk tonight.

Senator Barack Obama asks if you know what he’s cooking. Senator John McCain wants to know if you know what he’s cooking.

Vladimir Kozlov vs. Charlie Haas

This is during Charlie’s imitation period so he’s Bret the Hitman Haas here. He even cuts a quick promo but the voice doesn’t work at all. The fans didn’t screw Vladimir at Cyber Sunday. Vlad screwed Vlad. Boot to the chest, suplex, headbutt, pin in 25 seconds.

After a clip of Batista winning the title at Cyber Sunday, Big Dave says he’ll keep the title tonight.

Episode #257: DX invades WCW. HUGE moment here.

D-Generation X vs.  John Morrison/The Miz

HHH is WWE Champion. DX does their intro and we get a clip from ECW where Miz/Morrison made fun of them for being old and then beat up some DX impersonators. Shawn points out that the impersonator has a huge nose. Maybe Shawn just got used to it over the years but THAT THING IS HUGE! They also mocked his chaps. You can punch his wife, you can spit in his face, BUT NO ONE MOCKS THE CHAPS!

HHH points out them making fun of Shawn for losing his hair. Shawn doesn’t remember this. HHH: “Well I’m pretty sure…” Shawn: “No they didn’t.” HHH: “Shawn I’m sure…” Shawn: “Drop it!” HHH: Well ok….” Shawn: “WE WILL NEVER SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN!” HHH makes fun of Miz/Morrison’s high school pictures. Miz looks like a horse and Morrison enjoys rest stop sex. Shawn says he’s ready, the fans say they’re ready, we get a clip of Big Dick Johnson giving Miz a lap dance for some reason which traumatizes Shawn, and now we get to the DX intro, complete with more gay jokes from the Game. Funny stuff.

Oh yeah we have a match to get to. This is joined in progress with Morrison getting two on HHH. HHH takes his head off with a clothesline and it’s a double tag. Shawn knocks Miz down and hits the elbow to set up the Kick. Morrison breaks that up and Miz takes over via a clothesline. Miz whips Shawn into the corner where Shawn flips, followed by Miz’s corner clothesline.

Morrison comes in and pokes Shawn in the eye so Shawn kicks him in the head. Off to HHH who cleans house with the knees to the face. Facebuster looks to set up the Pedigree on Morrison but Miz breaks it up, only to walk into the spinebuster. Morrison imitates Shawn with a forearm, nipup and then tuning up the band, with the kick connecting on HHH. Miz and Morrison do crotch chops and Miz loads up a Pedigree, which is easily countered. Shawn kicks Miz’s head off and the Pedigree ends this.

Rating: C+. Not a bad match at all as Miz/Morrison got to show off a bit here. There was never any doubt as to who would win as the non-degerates didn’t mean much yet. Seeing them imitate DX’s stuff was good though and that’s what popped the fans for the most part. Fun little match.

JBL is with Shane and says he should be the new GM. Shane says he’ll think about it and has an idea about putting JBL in a match tonight. JBL thinks he means making the cage match a triple threat for the title, but Shane says it’s against the Undertaker.

Episode #243: Mike Tyson is here. Another HUGE moment.

Face Diva Team vs. Heel Diva Team

It’s a sixteen Diva tag. Do you really think I’m listing off all of them in what’s going to be a two minute match at longest? There are only seven good Divas so here’s Mae Young to be #8. Beth pounds on Kelly to start but Kelly uses her screaming headscissors, which is her only offense three and a half years later. Here’s Mae and Beth sells WAY too much for her. She knocks down everyone but falls down. A brawl breaks out and Beth rolls up Mae for the pin. As usual, three girls were in the match. If I remember right Mae was legit hurt in this.

Smackdown ReBound of the casket match with Taker vs…..Chavo Guerrero? Big Show interfered but Taker won anyway.

Episode #456: Rock challenges Hogan.

CM Punk vs. Randy Orton

Punk and Kofi are tag champions here in a reign I don’t think anyone remembers. This is as a result of Orton punting Punk at Unforgiven and costing him the world title, which somehow wouldn’t have a proper blowoff match until 2011. Punk takes him into the corner to start but Orton pounds him right back down. Here’s the Orton Stomp and a knee drop for two. Off to a chinlock which is broken up quickly. Punk avoids a charge in the corner and hits the springboard clothesline. Orton comes back with a clothesline in the corner and loads up the RKO…and here’s DiBiase for the DQ. Too short to rate.

DiBiase pounds on Punk and Orton punts DiBiase all the way into The Marine 2. Ted gets stretchered out.

Rhodes and Manu yell at Randy about it and Randy says if you have a problem do something about it right now. No one moves.

Episode #772: Floyd Mayweather is thrown over the top. This wasn’t exactly what I’d call a huge moment.

Stephanie is looking very good in her office when Adamle comes in. He says he’s leaving because she micromanages. Stephanie says being in charge is her birthright. He leaves and Shane comes in. He has a major announcement about Survivor Series but he won’t tell her.

Episode #475: Undertaker vs. Jeff Hardy in a ladder match for the title.

Here’s JR to call the next match and probably the rest of the show. Unfortunately it’s him and Tazz instead of him and Jerry like it should be.

Undertaker vs. John Bradshaw Layfield

Taker grabs a headlock to start and hits a quick Old School. JBL shoulders him down and punches Taker in the corner. That doesn’t last long as the punching comes from Undertaker now, followed by a big boot and legdrop. The chokeslam hits and Taker does the throat slit. JBL escapes the tombstone and they collide with JBL falling to the floor. John looks to get back in but Taker sits up, so JBL bails for a countout for another short match.

JBL tries to walk out but Shawn throws him back in for a tombstone.

Jericho comes in to see Shane and the announcement is that the winner of Batista vs. Jericho gets to defend against the returning Cena at Survivor Series in Boston.

Episode #304: Ausitn and the beer truck.

Here’s Kung Fu Naki for a demonstration in the ring. Ok so I have his song on my iPod. Sue me. Horny comes in to dance with him. Boogeyman comes in to terrorize them and dances a bit too. Goldust, Jesse, Festus, Hacksaw, Slaughter, Lillian, Dusty, Cole and King all get in and dance too. Why is this happening? Oh ok, it’s so Ron Simmons can get a line in.

Episode #775: Flair retires. I can’t watch that anymore.

Episode #630: Edge and Lita’s wedding.

Kofi Kingston/Rey Mysterio vs. Mark Henry/Kane

Kofi is a tag champion with Punk but for some reason he’s in this match instead. Rey vs. Kane to start and It hink you can figure out what’s going on here: Mysterio moves around a lot and gets in a few shots but Kane runs him over. Off to Henry who runs him over even more. A splash misses and here’s the tag to Kofi. His kicks don’t do anything as Henry just throws him around. Kofi manages to get in a shot to send Henry to the corner and he knocks Kane off the apron. Henry gets tired of being on defense and catches a top rope cross body in the World’s Strongest Slam for the pin. Basically a squash.

Kane throws Mysterio out…and here’s Khali. He chops down both other monsters and Rey’s music plays for some reason.

Video on Raw being a longer running show than ANYTHING, except for World Championship Wrestling on Saturday Night which ran over 20 years without missing a week but we don’t count that because it makes us sound bad.

Video on Cena, who is coming back at Survivor Series. It’s kind of a career retrospective.

Shane and Stephanie say nothing of note.

Episode #761: Tribute to the Troops 2008.

Raw World Title: Batista vs. Chris Jericho

Batista won the title at Cyber Sunday, 8 days earlier. Pin, submission or escape as usual. Jericho charges straight at him which goes about as well as anyone else charging straight at Batista goes. He tries to run over the top but Batista catches him and hits a suplex followed by a clothesline for two. Jericho gets rammed into the cage and screams in pain. Or is it laughter? He’s always been a complicated guy. Batista rams him into the steel again and we take a break.

Back with Jericho hooking the Walls of Jericho on the apparent injured knee of Batista. There’s some tape on there but you would have to know to look for it. Batista kicks him off but he kicks him to the door so Batista has to make a diving save. They fight near the open door and in a smart move, Jericho throws Batista’s leg out the door so he can slam the door on it. Nice move.

We’re told that the knee injury too place at Cyber Sunday. That makes sense. Back in the middle of the ring Batista hits a spinning Bossman Slam for two. Jericho goes right back for the knee and loads up the Codebreaker, but Batista rams him into the cage instead. A spear misses though and Batista is right back down after hitting cage. Jericho goes up to escape but climbs down in front of the door which Batista throws open and pulls him back in. That was creative.

Spinebuster puts Jericho down but the Batista Bomb is countered as Jericho grabs the cage and tries to climb out again. Batista manages to throw him off but gets crotched to put both guys down. They go up again and Jericho almost gets caught in a top rope Batista Bomb. He manages to pull something off the cage and rams it into Batista’s head which allows him to get over the top. Batista grabs the top of Chris’ head but can’t stop him and Jericho wins the title.

Rating: B. I liked this a lot more than the Edge vs. Cena cage match that I did recently. The best part here was that they actually came up with some creative spots and we got a surprise ending. Why they gave Batista an 8 day reign is a little unclear but I’d assume it was so they could give us a surprise here, which is fine. Good main event.

Overall Rating: C+. I liked this show but it wasn’t great. The problem was that they didn’t seem sure if they wanted to do a regular show with nostalgia thrown in or vice versa which makes the show feel uneven. It’s entertaining enough though and that’s the important idea. Coupling that with a good main event and the show is definitely more good than bad, but it’s not a great show or anything.

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They’re two of the best matches ever, but which is better?As great as Shawn vs. Taker was in that I was literally almost jumping off my bed with each kickout, I think it’s more exciting than good.  With Savage vs. Steamboat, the match is virtually flawless with no botches or anything resembling one.  They’re both great, but the one from 87 is just better from a qualify standpoint.

Thoughts?

Wrestlemania 25
Date: April, 5 2009
Location: Reliant Stadium, Houston, Texas
Attendance: 72,744
Commentators: Jim Ross, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler
America The Beautiful: Some Pussycat Doll

Please keep in mind that this show was partially written live so excuse some of the in the moment emotional reactions.

Since this show literally is happening tonight, I won’t bother with any kind of a recap. We start with your standard history package that somehow never gets old to me at all.

Money In The Bank: CM Punk vs. MVP vs. Kane vs. Christian vs. Finlay vs. Mark Henry vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Shelton Benjamin

Finlay is breaking out the old school Fit Finlay shoulder pads. I’m digging it. After ten minutes of entrances, we’re underway. As usual I’m not even going to bother trying to keep track of everything that’s going on in this as it’s going to be all over the place like it always is.

Henry and Kane clear the ring almost immediately and the fans chant for Christian. Christian and Shelton take care of them as it’s back and forth already. Kofi may have hurt his knee on a big jump over the ladder and a dropkick. Henry and Kane go up but can’t get anywhere as we’re three minutes in. An army of midcarers takes care of Henry.

Four guys go up the ladder and the big guys take them down again. Finlay clears the ring and dives out on Kane. Christian takes out Kane and Finlay as this is kind of all of the place. What a shock indeed. Henry takes out all three of them to continue the tradition. Punk and Kofi hit stereo suicide dives. Shelton dives off the ladder and more or less lands on his head.

Shelton may have killed himself with that stupid flip. That scared the heck out of me. Also for those interested, I just found out that the tag titles was the preshow match with the Colons winning. It’s your general spotfest so far and that’s what it’s supposed to be. Crowd is fairly hot too.

Horny busts out a stepladder which gets him nowhere at all. Naturally a jumping midget can take out six guys. Finlay brings out the big ladder which is required viewing anymore. Kofi takes a good shot and is down already. He’s taking a big beating and it’s working pretty well.
Kofi is bumping like crazy in this match. I’m loving him so far as he’s the highlight of the show. Kane and Henry were dominant early on but here come the smaller people. Henry is back and is setting up a ladder. While he holds it up, Kofi runs up the side of it but falls and is caught in the World’s Strongest Slam in a sweet spot.

MVP comes in to pound of Henry which gets him nowhere again. MVP stops Shelton, Punk stops MVP, Christian stops Punk. Punk and Christian do a cool spot on a ladder that’s balanced from one ladder to the top rope and even though the Unprettier was botched, that’s hard to blame them for.

MVP almost makes it again but Shelton makes an incredible save. He runs up a ladder leaning against the ring then across a ladder between the rope and a ladder in the ring and then up the other ladder that MVP is on to make the last second save. That was incredible and as usual Shelton gets the spot of the match.

The botches in this match are killing it. These matches are really hard to call. Kane, Christian and Punk are fighting on the ladders and all but Punk fall, making him the first two time MITB winner!

Rating: C+. The problem here is the botches. There were a ton this year and the winner was kind of a letdown, and remember Punk is my favorite wrestler. It was a great opener, but not a great match if that makes sense. Too many people and really just a lot of one on ones for about twenty minutes. Not bad.

Axxess recap. Would be funner to be there to watch it.

Kid Rock performs. We don’t care as this is a food break for me. He’s on his third song and the reaction is priceless. There is absolute silence here as the fans simply could not care less. He does two old songs and his new one. My lord this is a waste of time. We don’t get the tag title match but we get this? Waste of time.

He is on his fourth song now. At least All Summer Long is a decent song, but do we need to hear this now? My goodness, he’s doing another one. The divas come out to dance with him. My headache is now at the grab a hatchet level, as this is at ten minutes now. After a big pyro display, it’s time for the battle royal. Holy goodness I’m bored.

25 Diva Battle Royal

Not even going to try to call this as we don’t even get the intros here. This is a freaking joke, thank you Kid Rock. No Trish or Lita means this isn’t a legit battle royal. We don’t even have a list or a face shot of all the divas. It’s a standard battle royal and I literally couldn’t be more bored. The commentators are sucking up to Kid Rock and I’m about to mute this. Literally people are being eliminated and it’s the first we hear of them. This is pathetic.

Santino is in drag as this is somehow even dumber every second. Never in my life have I seen a worse Mania match, period. Final there are Melina, Beth and Santino. I knew it. Freaking Santino wins. The commentators apparently don’t realize the massive tattoo on his chest. Has wrestling really fallen this far? The SFAC is going to be proud of this, and that is completely sickening to me.

Rating: N/A. This is the worst Mania match of all time. It was designed to get a stupid comedy guy on the show, we don’t know who was in it, they got no face time, and Kid Rock is the cause of it. I am officially angry about this freaking show. Such a waste of time. I’m not rating it because there isn’t a rating low enough for it.

Chris Jericho vs. Roddy Piper/Jimmy Snuka/Ricky Steamboat

Jericho has to beat all three to win. Massive recap as we’re somehow led to believe that Rourke won’t be at the show. Yeah right. Rourke actually is here. I’m surprised. They kind of get their own intros as their musics play but they stand on the ramp instead of going to the ring. Piper gets a decent pop. He looks decent too. Considering he had cancer less than two years ago, this is amazing. Flair accompanies them.

Piper is wearing a shirt which is likely a good thing. PIPER THROWS A DROPKICK!!! Off to Snuka who does his usual offense that gets him nowhere at all. And there’s the Liontamer to end him. He looked awful out there. Piper is mind blowing here. He looks as good as he did in WCW. Now is that a compliment or not?

As I type that, he’s eliminated via Codebreaker. This is literally 5 minutes in and it’s 1 on 1. I know this didn’t seem like it was five minutes but that’s how slowly these guys are moving. The old guys are getting to throw out some basic offense but it’s just leading to them being eliminated. Steamboat skins the cat in his 50s and of course we don’t see it. HE JUMPS OVER THE TOP ROPE! This is making up for everything.

Ross talks about how Jericho is staying with the Legends like it’s surprising. Steamboat is tearing this up and I’m wanting to stop the review to look at him go. This is incredible stuff considering no one expected a single thing out of him. He gets the cross body for two as Jericho is reeling. And then he walks into the Codebreaker to end it. That was amazing while it lasted.

Steamboat had me freaking out. Flair runs in and gets beaten up too. Of course Rourke gets in the ring and they have an impromptu boxing match. Rourke knocks him down as this is somehow dumber than it was before.

Rating: C+. Considering their ages and level of rust, this was mind blowing. Jericho had to win though. Steamboat had me on the edge of my chair. How he’s not called one of the best ever is beyond me. We’re three matches in and Steamboat has carried this. That’s a very bad sign. Let me make sure I have this straight: four hall of famers can’t beat up Jericho, but a 56 year old guy that boxed almost 15 years ago can beat him up?

In something funny, when they said go into the storm, it thundered at my house.

We get the recap talking about how Matt more or less tried to kill Jeff about three times. Of course he doesn’t prosecute him. He wrestles him. You have to love WWE.

Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy

I miss Matt’s old heel attire. He looked like a legit monster. Naturally they got rid of them and made him an overrated face again. This has happened before but they made it big this time. I don’t think people are interested in this but whatever. Matt takes a shot with a WWE poster. How EXTREME! Matt takes Jeff down but Jeff gets up first. Well of course he does.

Crowd is waking up a tad here which might be exactly what this show needs. Matt has a bit of a gut which surprises me. Poetry in Motion with the assistance of a chair misses and here comes Matt. He takes out Jeff’s knee and just cracks him with the chair for two. Matt grabs a dry-vac from under the ring. Why a dry vac is under there is beyond me but it’s WWE so I’ll just kind of go with it.

Side effect on a chair gets two. Matt is dominating here as he bends Jeff’s back around the post. It’s table time but there’s no D-Von around to get it. What are we going to do??? They slug it out and neither guy goes through it. This is intense but kind of dull at the same time if that makes sense.

Jeff gets a kendo stick to crack away at him and here come the required trashcans. Slingshot dropkick into the can into Matt has him in big trouble. Swanton misses and Jeff is in trouble. Twist of Fate connect and only gets two. Almost zero heat on the kickout either. Matt goes for a Swanton which is blocked. The people of Houston just avoided a huge earthquake.

Matt gets CRACKED over the head with a chair in a sick looking and sounding shot. Jeff sets Matt on a table and then another table on top of that and splashes it and dang if he didn’t almost hit him! Back in the ring it only gets two. This needs to end like now.

The more successful one goes to the floor and pulls out some ladders. Well of course he does. Jeff misses a huge bump by setting up a huge ladder and then climbing up a regular one and jumping over the big one. He crashes down in pain and I’m slightly entertained. Matt does a sick looking Twist of Fate on a chair to close this out.

Rating: C. This wasn’t terrible and the ending was perfect. Matt’s finisher, not Jeff’s mistake ended it. There was no way Jeff could win this and he didn’t. It wasn’t great, but it could have been far worse. Not terrible. I just don’t think they had the intensity they wanted with this and it kind of showed through.

Legends of Mania commercial.

Orton is getting ready.

IC Title: JBL vs. Rey Mysterio

I miss the intros as I heat up my tacos. Mysterio looks like Doink the Clown. How does he manage to come up with a dumber outfit every Mania? Rey looks so ridiculous as apparently he’s the Joker. He’s also wearing bright green suspenders. Holy goodness it’s a 10 second match! WHAT ARE THEY DOING??? Rey hits the 619 and a splash and wins it?

Rating: N/A. This is officially the dumbest Mania of all time. There has to be like 40 minutes each for the last three matches.

JBL’s big announcement is that he quits, getting the pop of the night.

Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels

If this match isn’t a 5 star classic, this is officially the worst Mania of all time, end of argument. Massive recap to start of course. The entrances are of course mind blowingly sweet with Taker coming up out of darkness and Shawn coming down from the ceiling in a white chariot like an angel. Ok that was awesome.

This just feels epic on all levels which is how it’s supposed to feel. And here we go. The fans pop for the bell. Think they’re excited? Sign a few rows back: It’s still real to me blast it! OH YES! Shawn scores a few points with some chops and then runs. Taker blocks a punch and throws Shawn over the top but Shawn catches himself.

HBK fakes a knee injury. Now that’s just brilliant. You know he’s never done that for Wrestlemania before! Basically an extended feeling out process here as neither guy can get an advantage going here. Big back drop by Taker and Shawn is in some trouble. Elbow gets one only. Old School gets a big ovation and Shawn is in trouble.

And so much for that as Taker misses a kick in the corner and Shawn goes for the knee. There go the dueling chants. Sharpshooter is blocked so Shawn uses a reverse figure four and Taker is in little trouble because he’s not going to tap. Taker’s solution to get out of this? Punch Shawn in the face. You can’t beat simplicity at times.

Taker unloads on him in the corner and gets the Snake Eyes and big boot combination. Shawn gets a bad crossface out of nowhere which sees Taker laying on his side. Taker stands up and gets a side slam to break up the hold. Nicely done. Shawn kicks him in the face and Taker glares at him. Forearm puts Taker down and we get a nip up at the same time Taker sits up.

Shawn sets for the elbow from the top but Taker sits up and Shawn is in trouble again. He counters that but walks into Hell’s Gate as he goes for the Figure Four again. A rope is grabbed and we head the to floor. Apron legdrop misses and Shawn avoids trouble. Baseball slide puts Taker down again. Moonsault to the floor misses though and Shawn is in big trouble again.

The momentum is changing every few seconds here and it’s great stuff. Taker hits the ropes and OH MY FREAKING GOODNESS! Taker dove over the ropes but overrotated and slammed his freaking head into the floor! He more or less killed a cameraman and there was a loud cracking sound. Luckily the replay shows that it was just the camera hitting the ground which is a nice break I guess.

Wow that was insane looking though. I was legitimately thinking they were going to have to stop it there. That was as scary as any bump I’ve ever seen. SOMEHOW, and I mean that literally, Taker isn’t dead. Shawn does a semi-heel turn and tries to get the count out win. To be fair though that might be better for Taker’s health at this point.

Taker BARELY makes it back in at nine and a half. I was actually thinking it was over there. There are those dueling chants again. Superkick is caught by a BIG old chokeslam for two as the crowd explodes. Tombstone, superkick, chokeslam. All of those were countered in a row but Shawn gets a BIG superkick for two. Sweet goodness I’d have bet on that one.

Shawn’s ticked off face is great. Taker grabs him by the throat and goes for the Last Ride but Shawn gets a sunset flip. Taker grabs him again and is like boy you’re getting drilled and hits a HUGE Last Ride for TWO. Wow these kickouts are incredible. Taker goes up and misses an elbow as both guys are down again.

Shawn is sent over the top but Skins the Cat. Taker catches him AGAIN in the Tombstone and Shawn is DEAD. Apparently DEAD doesn’t mean three though as Shawn kicks out AGAIN. This is incredible. Taker’s face is like NO FREAKING WAY. Shawn counters another Tombstone attempt with a spinning DDT of all things.

Michaels somehow gets up to the top rope and hits the big elbow but both guys are down again. Sweet Chin Music out of NOWHERE gets two. Well of course it did. With nothing else left from either guy they slug it out from their knees. Shawn chops away but Taker kicks him in the face to put him down.

Tombstone is countered AGAIN and Shawn gets a boot into the jaw of Taker in the corner to buy himself some time. Shawn goes up for a moonsault press but Taker somehow catches him and Tombstones him to death to FINALLY end this. In-freaking-credible. Absolutely amazing stuff and it WINS.
Rating: A+. Wrestlemania has been saved. Future edit: no it hasn’t. Go watch this match right now as it’s the best match I have ever seen.

Draft is coming in 8 days. I’m shaking after watching that. Never before have I been on the edge of my seat for a match.

World Heavyweight Championship: Edge vs. John Cena vs. Big Show

Standard recap leading to Edge and Show coming out first. Cena’s old rap song comes on and an army of John Cenas come out. There must be 80 or so of them. They all do You Can’t See Me and then Cena’s music hits. Pretty cool visual. We get the big match indroduction which I always love. Cena gets a decent pop with boos mixed in.

Edge is champion coming in here. We head into the triple threat formula almost immediately with various people being knocked out for awhile each. That’s fine but it gets rather repetitive. About five minutes pass with nothing but various one on one combinations. That’s not terribly interesting but it’s what we’ve come to expect in these things.

Cena hits his top rope Fameasser off the top rope and down goes Show. Off to Edge vs. Cena as I doubt Show will be in there for awhile. Edgecution gets two. More weak stuff here as Show is in faster than I expected him to be here. Chavo of all people runs out to save Show and takes an FU for his troubles.

Show gets tied up in the ropes and loudly shouts GET ME OUT OF HERE! Cena goes off on Edge as the fans aren’t really liking him. Five Knuckle Shuffle to Edge. Vickie gets up to save Edge but winds up getting speared onto Chavo. Both guys go down and Show is still stuck. Ah there he’s out.

Show goes off on them and manages to chokeslam Edge. FU attempt on Show but he gets out and drills Cena with the punch. Loud THANK YOU BIG SHOW chant from that. Edge gets a running spear through Show through the barricade. Back in the ring Cena counters the spear into the STFU.

Finally Show comes in for the save as this is actually pretty good. Back to Show vs. Edge for awhile as JR runs through Show’s measurements again. Show misses a Vader Bomb and here comes Cena again. The two non-monsters suplex Show in an always cool looking spot.

Everyone trades some more finishers and Edge gets a spear for two on Cena. Here’s your HOLY FREAKING CRAP spot of the match as Edge jumps on Show’s back with a sleeper so Cena is like screw it and picks up BOTH OF THEM AT ONCE IN THE FU! Edge falls off and Show takes the FU. Cena hits one on Edge onto Show for the pin and the title. Freaking sweetness.

Rating: B-. This was better than people gave it credit for. This wasn’t supposed to be the great and mighty be all end all title match and it wasn’t. It was a way to get the title onto Cena and make him look strong. It wasn’t bad and it accomplished its purpose. I liked it, but dang this would have been better if it was three matches earlier.

WM 26 is in Phoenix.

HOF Ceremony. Austin drives his ATV around and has a mini beer bash to kill time. I have no problem with this at all. It was needed to give the fans a breather and it’s not like Austin doesn’t deserve it.

Attendance is announced, but not called a record as we kill off even more time.

Massive recap video beforehand which kills the time so dead it’s scary. They’ve hated each other since Evolution, Orton is nuts and kissed Stephanie, HHH snapped, Orton faked being insane, HHH can’t disqualified or he loses the title.
WWE Title: Randy Orton vs. HHH

In the back, HHH passes both McMahons. Orton’s entrance literally goes on nearly two and a half minutes. There’s no special ordeal or anything. He’s just walking really, really slowly. HHH’s intro is long but not as long. We get BMI. Orton gets an RKO inside of two minutes but goes for the Punt and misses. HHH is up in about a minute and hits the Pedigree. What in the world is going on here?

And remember, HHH can’t get disqualified in a match based on hate. This is going so slow that it’s painful. They’re moving like molasses out there for crying out loud (as I quote my inner Hayden Panitierre from Remember the Titans). HHH has a bad shoulder now. Orton takes over for a good while as he works on the arm.

I like the pace of this match as it’s very slow but more violent. That’s what this is supposed to be. You’re supposed to have a guy that’s completely insane and a guy that’s desperate to defend his wife’s honor. Would you expect guys to be using Greco-Roman style here?

I like the brawling stuff. Wait for it…wait for it…YES! We get an Orton chinlock! All is right with the world! This is a more physical style and while it’s not great, it’s also not awful. This match isn’t really building to anything though. Ok I’m thinking I’m changing my mind on the pacing thing. This needs to be FAR more brutal given the story backing it up. It’s similar to Kane/Undertaker at Mania 14 where they were supposed to be in a war and just weren’t at all.

Orton takes him down with the backbreaker for two. I love that dropkick that Orton has. HHH FINALLY sends Orton to the floor to break the very long stretch of momentum he’s had. On the floor HHH keeps teasing various weapons shots but won’t do them because of the title thing. He sets for the Pedigree but Orton backdrops him through the announce table.

Elevated DDT hits on the floor and HHH is more or less done. He beats the count of course and Orton mixes up his offense with various types of stomps. Orton catches HHH coming of the top rope (WTF???) with a sick dropkick. Ref goes down and Orton hits an RKO. He gets the sledge but gets kicked leading to him getting punched beyond all reasonable measure. Pedigree and Orton is dead. Fireworks and we’re out. Well, that sums up the whole show.

Rating: F+. The ending was just a total letdown. Screw a good pace. This was a complete waste of time and had nothing good to offer at all. The ending is HHH’s revenge for his recent losses. Terrible way to close it out, absolutely terrible. Never in my life have I seen someone with a bigger ego. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever here for HHH to go over. Not a single one.

Orton was pushed to the freaking moon recently and he gets nothing for it? Likely he’ll get the belt at Backlash or something, but this was a waste. Any credibility he has is killed. That was awful and I don’t want to see even the letter that comes after G for a long, long time. Horrible.

It’s the same issue that many recent Mania main events have had: it’s not a bad match, but there’s nothing mind blowing. It’s like they’re in safe mode or something. Orton catches HHH coming of the top rope (WTF???) with a sick dropkick. Ref goes down and Orton hits an RKO. He gets the sledge but gets kicked leading to him getting punched beyond all reasonable measure. Pedigree and Orton is dead. Fireworks and we’re out. Well, that sums up the whole show.
Overall Rating: D. This show had one good match in it. That’s all. You have a decent opener so that was ok. Then the Women’s match was absolutely a disgrace. Never in my life have I seen a dumber thing. Seriously, we get a ten minute concert of all things and then you don’t even see the older divas, in a match for NOSTALGIA get introduced? My goodness that’s a joke. Plain and simple, that was pathetic.

That was to get a weak comedy act in when it could have been something very cool. Austin could come out at the end but not come out to beat up Jericho? That would have saved that whole thing. Hardys match was just ok. Not great but could have been worse by far. IC Title was to get to JBL quitting so I don’t even call that a match. Then we have the one match: Taker and HBK was an absolute classic, hands down.

Maybe not the best ever as Steamboat and Savage was almost too incredible to ever be passed, but this was by far the best match in many years. After that, the three way was ok and the main event was just a waste.

Overall, watch Taker and HBK and if you’re out of other good matches to watch, check out MITB and the Triple Threat. Other than that, avoid this show. Is it the worst Mania of all time? It’s not due to HBK/Taker, but that’s literally the only thing keeping it ahead of 2 and 9. Terrible show.

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NXT
Date: March 28, 2012
Location: Philips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia
Commentators: Josh Matthews, William Regal

Who would have thought that when we started this season that it would run through Wrestlemania 28? That’s the point we’re going to reach unless there’s some divine intervention and this season ends after today. Now the good thing is they have an angle that has a mystery to it after last week with Striker disappearing. Let’s get to it.

Hunico vs. Derrick Bateman

Bateman controls to start but gets backdropped into the corner as Hunico takes over. Elbow drop gets two. Oh make that one. Regal explains why Camacho hangs out with Hunico, which is apparently due to a gang attack that Hunico bailed him out of, resulting in a stab wound which is why Hunico wears a shirt in the ring. See how easy a story that was to explain?

Bateman gets beaten down for awhile until he comes back with a cross body. Hunico hits one at the same time though and both guys are down as we take a break. Back with Hunico chopping and pounding on Bateman. His shirt is torn now too. Hunico goes up but jumps into a dropkick as Bateman gets a breather. He launches Hunico over his head and into the buckle chest first.

Hunico pounds down on him again as Regal is talking about WCW. He seems to think it was funny and I can’t say I argue. Bateman tries to suplex Hunico in from the apron but Hunico falls on top. Bateman rolls through for two but stops to go after Camacho. The distraction allows Hunico to hit his modified Angle Slam (it’s the Angle Slam but he hooks the other guy’s head, almost like a torture rack) for the pin at 7:00.

Rating: C-. I wasn’t really all that into this. I’ve been liking Hunico more lately but this was a miss for him. Granted that could be because Bateman is a waste of time and space but maybe that’s just me. Nothing that great here as they went back and forth, but there wasn’t much selling in between.

Video on Rock vs. Cena from Once In A Lifetime, which wasn’t bad.

Video on HHH vs. Taker, which I think is the same one from Raw.

Video on Punk vs. Jericho, which I don’t think has aired before. It’s about Punk’s rise to the top of WWE over the years and then shows Jericho exposing Punk’s family history.

Maxine is on a phone and wants a list next week. Curtis comes up and apparently the list is about Regal, who is into some freaky stuff. This is news? Maxine gets off the phone and Curtis says that the company has been trying to keep Striker’s whereabouts on the DL. It happened on NXT. How much more DL can you get?

Maxine yells at him because Curtis hasn’t found out anything about Striker. Watson and Riley pop up and Watson yells at her for taking the spotlight during his match by rubbing Regal’s feet. Maxine asks how mad Watson is at her in a strange bit. They go down the hall and run into Natalya and Kidd. They’re talking about the economy. Ok then. The walk continues and they run into Gabriel. I think they’re looking for who stole Striker.

Now they run into Titus and leave, but the camera stays on Titus. Young comes in with a flower pot which Young says is for Tamina. O’Neil says take her to McDonalds. Young says he lies, cheats and steals in the ring but he can’t do that with Tamina. I’m not the biggest Eddie fan ever, but NO WAY does Young deserve to be able to say that.

Curtis and Maxine pop up again and accuse Titus of the kidnapping (they haven’t actually said those words yet, but rather “it was you” every time). Titus tries to kiss her for some reason but Curtis pulls her away. Young and O’Neil leave and Maxine gets a text. The kidnappers say that after Mania, she’ll give them what they want and they’ll get Striker back. LONG backstage segment here but it covered a few things which is good.

Video on the Divas tag, I think from Extra. I have no issue looking at Maria Menunos.

Titus O’Neil vs. Jey Uso

Young and Jimmy Uso are on commentary. So I’m assuming we’re not going to talk about the Striker stuff on commentary are we? Josh points out that the Usos aren’t that successful when they’re in singles action. Jimmy says that’s true, because they’re a team. Simple yet true. This is your usual power vs. speed match with Titus controlling early but Jey taking him down. He goes up but Titus rolls to the floor before the jump and we go to a break.

Back with Titus hammering on him, using the clubbing forearms. Jey gets in a shot and comes off the top with a cross body for two. Titus runs him over with another clothesline for two. Off to a chinlock to eat up some time as Jey comes up with exactly the same kind of offense you would expect from him. The Umaga attack hits in the corner as does the Samoan Drop. The Superfly Splash hits knees though and the Clash of the Titus ends this at 6:22.

Rating: C-. I wish I could care about this feud, but it’s just not happening. The problem in modern WWE for guys like the Usos is that the tag titles are never defended and the champions are basically jobbers when you need to get bigger names over as singles guys. Titus is a heel now but he’s the same guy he’s always been, just with a sneer now. Nothing match but technically it was fine.

Tamina comes out to check on Jey and glares at Young for some reason.

Overall Rating: D. The problem here is that this show was a commercial for Mania with a backstage segment and about 15 minutes of wrestling to fill in some gaps. That’s totally understandable as well as no one is going to care about anything with four days before the biggest show of the year. Not a good show or anything, but this had zero expectations coming in so it’s fine.

Results
Hunico b. Derrick Bateman – Spinning Torture Rack Slam
Titus O’Neil b. Jey Uso – Clash of the Titus

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New Year’s Revolution 2007
Date: January 7, 2007
Location: Kemper Arena, Kansas City, Missouri
Attendance: 10,000
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

Now before we get to the buildup, this date is more important around here for another reason. On this date, within 24 hours of each other, myself, Lee and Ricky all signed up here. That is never going to be topped, period.

As for the show, it’s a far more traditional PPV this time with a better looking card. The main event here is Umaga vs. Cena for the belt with Umaga being the undefeated killing machine. Also on tonight’s card we have Rated RKO vs. DX for the tag titles where the ending is a bit important. The rest of this is decent looking but not great.

This is the last of the series so I figured I’d just knock the whole thing out in two days to save some time. All that being said, let’s finish off the New Year’s Revolution series.

No intro video here which is kind of odd really. Instantly we’re lowering a steel cage to set up this.

Intercontinental Title: Jeff Hardy vs. Johnny Nitro

And after that we go to the intro video. That’s the ECW style which is different and I still don’t like it. To be fair though, here all we saw was a cage lowering instead of a whole intro, but I still don’t like it that much. It talks about DX and Rated RKO and the title match. Melina’s skirt MIGHT be 5 inches long. Jeff is champion here in case you were wondering. These two had a kind of long feud over the belt.

This is just after December to Dismember, which freaking sucked and it sucked hard. The crowd is way into this mind you. I like having a cage match like this where it’s going to be fast paced to open the show. I’m not sure on the cage actually, but one thing it does accomplish is prevent the show from grinding to a halt to set it up. Nitro hits that sweet springboard rotating kick that he does at times.

I can’t decide whether I like Melina screaming or not. They’re starting off a bit slow here but that’s fine as they could be setting up for a hot finish. In a spot I liked a lot, Hardy goes for the Whisper in the Wind but instead he jumps up to try to get out of the cage. Again, that’s thinking while wrestling. You can win by pin here too. The fans are way into it so that’s always a good sign.

Nitro climbs up but Hardy makes the save, getting Nitro’s legs stuck in the top of the cage, more or less putting him in a massive Tree of Woe. Melina smacks Jeff’s hands with her belt and Nitro gets a nice missile dropkick. We get the double escape attempt as Nitro goes over the top and Jeff goes through the door. Nitro puts his feet on the door while hanging on the top of the cage to block it. Jeff dropkicks the door so Nitro crotches himself on it and walks out. Creative ending there.

Rating: B. Very fun match here as both guys were moving and the crowd was into it. That always makes things better in the end as the match came off fast and crisp. These two worked well together and made the title look important, at least for awhile. Fear not though, as Santino would show up to kill it in the near future.

Rated RKO says they’ll take out DX and the nostalgic run is over. That’s most amusing.

Tag Team Turmoil

The idea here is a gauntlet match where you have two teams start and they have a match, then the winners face the next team. This was a bonus match that was thrown on so this is really just to fill in time. The winners get a future tag title shot. There are five teams in this and the first two are the Highlanders and the World’s Greatest Tag Team.

Roddy Piper has cancer here, which is a point as the Highlanders are also from Scotland. The WGTT are Benjamin and Hass for those of you that aren’t familiar with them. They really were good. Rory shows off his wrestling abilities and outmoves Shelton. That’s pretty impressive actually. Their names are Rory and Robbie in case you didn’t know that either.

After a bit of a brawl we have Shelton hooking a superplex from the top rope to put the Highlanders out. Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Jim Duggan are a team here. Why’s that? I have no idea at all but it was a flat out terrible time for the tag belts back in the day so there you are. This one is far shorter as Duggan does most of the work and gets beaten down before getting a hot tag after about a minute or two.

Crazy comes in and cleans house but the Mexican gets a German suplex from the American for the pin. And people say WWE isn’t international. Cade and Murdoch are in next. They would soon become the flavor of the month in the tag division, meaning no one cared about them but they were pushed anyway as there was no one else around at all to do it otherwise.

They slow it down a lot here and take it to the mat with the rednecks dominating. That makes sense at least as we have the WGTT in trouble here. They were ok I guess but I never really could get into them. Vince had a deep infatuation with rednecks and hillbillies over the years though. Not quite to musclemen levels but close enough. Haas gets Murdoch in the Haas of Pain which was always awesome but Cade jumps him off the top to break it up and get the pin.

Crime Time, the hot team at the moment comes out to a great pop. JTG just bleeds charisma. He’s talented too so I’d pick him as the more talented of the two. Lawler actually has some information as these are the final two teams in this shindig. The heels are dominating early on here if you can call this early on. More or less at this point it’s just a regular tag team which is ok I guess. Shad gets the hot tag and cleans ring.

This was back when the team was interesting and funny rather than being the only face team on the roster and therefore over by requirement. They hit their assisted neckbreaker on Cade to win it. They never used the title shot as they were released a bit before it.

Rating: C. It ran for a bit too long but seeing four actual teams out there is a nice sign. This was ok but nothing great though. The pacing was fine though and it wasn’t bad at all for a gimmick match. This was meant to fill in time and it did its job rather well indeed.

Vince and Coach are talking about the Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump feud. This led to the midget match between the two that Meltzer said was the worst match of the year. And the main event from the previous Raw had been Kevin Federline vs. John Cena. Let that sink in a bit.

Kenny Dykstra vs. Ric Flair

Dykstra is the only person left from the Spirit Squad and now he’s just arrogant. He stole Flair’s robe after beating him twice by cheating and Rated RKO giving him a conchairto. Flair is wearing a very pink robe. That’s the only way to describe it: very pink. We’re starting off with about as basic of a match as you could possibly ask for. Dykstra puts on the worst Boston Crab I’ve seen this side of WCW.

Flair’s back is worked over as this just isn’t that good. And now Flair has the figure four for no apparent reason but the crowd pops like crazy for it. Maybe there’s something to this Flair guy. I keep wanting to make South Park jokes because of the commentary. Kenny gets a low blow out of nowhere and rolls up Flair for the pin.

Rating: D. This was just boring. I mean I kept waiting on ANYTHING to happen and it never came. However, great props here as they had Flair do the best thing he could do: he put Kenny over for the third time in a row, so I don’t question the booking at all.

Nitro has a big bag of ice on his balls. Apparently we’ll be getting MNM vs. the Hardys soon. Melina runs into Victoria and she says that they should be a team. This went nowhere.

Women’s Title: Victoria vs. Mickie James

So for a month and a half, Victoria has had a hit list of the Divas to get to James and this is the end of that. Mickie is still rocking the insane skirts at this point. Ross and Lawler talk about Jack Doane’s hometown for zero explainable reason. Lillian is cheering for Mickie as Lillian almost got a Widow’s Peak on Raw.

Mickie starts throwing punches which is weird to see. And Lawler gets to use the line of he loves to see her wrestle but he’d love to see her box. Ross misses it though so we get no rebuttal. Melina comes out to help Victoria and it doesn’t work as Mickie hits her spinning DDT for the pin.

Rating: F+. Only reason are all the great shots. The booking here makes zero sense as they built Victoria up as the monster for a month and a half and now it’s just thrown away. Oh well, they looked hot so that’s all that matters in this division.

Hulk Hogan DVD ad. Again, this is far funnier now.

We recap DX vs. Rated RKO which started as the heels were tired of DX monopolizing the main event. Holy shoot that isn’t supposed to be a shoot. Rated RKO also beat the heck out of Flair. That became the focus of the feud because it’s required by WWE law that Flair is referenced at least once a month, as WWF/E MADE Flair, not that other NWA or WCW thing.

Raw Tag Titles: Rated RKO vs. DX

The combination of Burn In My Light and Metalingus (Edge’s theme for those interested) is SWEET. This starts as a massive brawl on the floor if nothing else. And we get a bell. At least it wasn’t that long. Fans are WAY behind DX here. Shawn and Edge are in there now and let the loud spot calling begin. We get the reference of course to DX never holding the tag titles which wasn’t as big of a deal as it was supposed to be.

This is more of a physically based match as they’re just out there beating on each other with Edge working on HHH’s leg. Shawn gets the hot tag to take control. The crowd is way into this match too as they have been all night long. Shawn launches himself over the ropes to take out Edge and Orton which looked pretty good. There’s that cursed DX chant again. Shawn is down because of an Edge spear on the floor so he’s your degenerate in peril.

Oh and he took a belt shot too. I wonder if that’s like a Jell-O shot. Oh I had to go there so give me a break. Shawn is busted up pretty bad over the forehead. More or less he’s just getting his ass handed to him for a long time while getting in various little shots here and there to make people know he’s still alive. He blocks the RKO and begins the crawl. I wonder if Miley Cyrus considered that for the Climb.

Yeah I’m way too bored here which is odd as this has been pretty good so far. HHH gets the hot tag and goes off. CLOTHESLINE FOR EDGE! HIGH KNEE FOR ORTON! FACEBUSTER FOR EDGE! SPINEBUSTER FOR ORTON! TORN QUAD FOR HHH! Yep, HHH messes up a spinebuster and blows out his other quad, putting him on the shelf until Summerslam. Ross tries to say it’s the same leg that Edge worked on earlier, which is nonsense but nice try anyway.

He tries to keep going to his credit but his leg is just freaking gone. They need to go to the end now as HHH is trying but this simply isn’t working. Orton tries to end it with a chair shot but for some reason he pulls back to hit HHH but stops and then runs away with the chair. HHH tries a Pedigree but it can’t work and he can’t even cover. Edge gets up at two and you can tell Edge and Orton have no idea what to do. Enter Shawn to save the day.

He kicks the tar out of Orton then throws a plancha. He punches the referee and lays them both out with chairs. Notice what he’s doing here: he’s taking the focus off of HHH to keep the fans from losing the focus of the match. DX then puts both of them through tables at ringside and Rated RKO looks dead. Shawn and Cena would win the titles in about three weeks.

Rating: B-. The ending isn’t fair to grade but dang man, points to Shawn for taking charge out there at the end. HHH kept going too to his credit as no one would think a thing of him if he just laid there holding his leg. Not a bad match, but other than the beatdown it’s nothing that you’ll remember later on.

Cena does an over the top interview about the main event but he’s intentionally being over the top, which is kind of funny but not great. You can vaguely hear the Spanish announcers talking during this.

Carlito vs. Chris Masters

This is about Torrie or something. I really don’t care though. The announcers try to cover up the fact that no one cares at all about this by saying the fans are just in shock. That’s rather amusing indeed. More or less this is about Masters trying to get the Masterlock while Carlito does everything else. Masters uses something like a rollup out of the Masterlock and the tights for the win.

Rating: F-. This was just freaking pointless and Torrie had that stupid dog with her that I always wanted to break. Total filler and the chance to bridge the double main event.

More or less, Umaga is unstoppable, Cena is going to try to stop him. That’s it.

Raw World Title: John Cena vs. Umaga

The big match introductions never get old to me. This is during Cena’s year long reign that made him so freaking hated. Umaga is just destroying him early on so cue up the Superman music for later. Cena has had maybe two moves in ten minutes. This is domination. Take out the Superman music and give us the Zeke Jackson music.

Cena hits the Throwback but he apparently hasn’t read up on his stereotypes as a shot to the head won’t hurt him at all. Ross references Yokozuna with Umaga, which is a bit much for my taste. The FU doesn’t work either. More or less the fatness of Umaga is too much. And it’s nerve hold time. That gave me a funny image of Samoans in a medical school learning how to do those holds. That’s rather amusing.

After the hold though he RAPS UP and starts his ending sequence, only to not be able to get the FU. Umaga goes for the running ass shot but Cena gets his feet into the chest and rolls Umaga up for the pin. I’ll give them that one: that was a lot more realistic than just getting the FU for the pin, and they kept Umaga looking strong.

Rating: B. Not bad at all here as this was in essence a throwaway show and a token title defense for Cena, although in the end it wound up paying off. That’s always a good sign as this wasn’t a terrible match at all and was actually pretty entertaining. They kept both guys looking strong which set them up for last man standing the following month.

Overall Rating: C+. There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad here. Again that’s something you saw a good deal of with the brand only shows, as so often they could build to a good main event or events but the midcard was just BAD. This was a decent enough show though as the good matches all delivered. It was by no means great but it would be worth checking out if you have some time to kill and there’s nothing really good on. Check it out I guess, but nothing to go out of your way to see.

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Monday Night Raw
Date: October 2, 2006
Location: Landon Arena, Topeka, Kansas
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

This is the 700th show and since I’m trying to find this, #600 and #800, there’s no way of telling which order I’ll be doing these in. As for this show, the main event is Edge vs. Cena in a cage for the title with Johnny Boy defending. This is the go home show for No Mercy 2006, and believe it or not I haven’t done that one so there’s no link to it at the bottom. I’m not sure if that’s ever happened before. Let’s get to it.

We open with the cage around the ring.

Here’s DX to open the show. This has been the summer of their reunion and the eternally long feud with Vince and Shane. We get some clips of Unforgiven and the Cell match which was more or less the final destruction of Vince and Shane. The cage is up now. Before they can say much else, Coach comes out to yell at them. He makes a match on behalf of the McMahons.

D-Generation X vs. Lance Cade/Trevor Murdoch/Highlanders/Viscera/Charlie Haas

This is under Texas Tornado rules. Everyone rushes the ring and are pretty easily dispatched. This is exactly what you would expect: DX dominates and barely breaks a sweat. Top rope elbow hits Charlie, Chin Music, Pedigree, done in about two and a half minutes.

Coach says this isn’t over yet. HHH says they’re throwing him out and taking over.

Intercontinental Title: Johnny Nitro vs. Jeff Hardy

Nitro is defending. JR gives us a factoid about Melina: she likes three way sex. Well you can’t say he beats around the…..never mind. Nitro controls to start but Jeff comes back with a quick Twist attempt. Melina tries to distract Jeff but only gets him to dive on Johnny as we take a break. Back with Nitro holding a reverse chinlock. During the break the slingshot dropkick from Hardy missed to give the champion control.

Jeff fights up but misses the Whisper in the Wind. Nitro stomps away in the corner and Jeff hits the post. Dang Melina can scream. Off to a surfboard submission and Jeff is in trouble. Jeff comes back with a mule kick and then a second one as Nitro is in some trouble very quickly. Whisper in the Wind gets two and Nitro heads to the floor. A baseball slide sets up the railing run and Melina gets taken out too. They both go up, resulting in Jeff backdropping him off the top and hitting the Swanton for the pin and the title.

Rating: C+. Pretty decent match here as both guys were still young and fast. It was clear that Jeff was going to be the bigger deal than his brother and that Nitro was going to be a decent sized star himself and this was a good example of that. Nothing great here but a title change is always cool to see.

Speaking of title changes, here’s a clip of the initial MITB cash-in to pump up the main event tonight.

DX harasses Coach through his locker room door.

Next week is the Raw Family Reunion.

Maria is with Jeff who says everyone is gunning for him. This turns into a discussion of Extreme Strip Poker on ECW. Melina comes in and screams for awhile until Jeff covers her mouth for a big pop.

Coach is on the phone with Vince who wants Coach to go to the ring. He opens his door really carefully and this is coming off like a BAD horror movie. Coach walks for awhile but stops when he sees HHH in front of him. He goes back the way he came and Shawn is waiting on him. I kid you not: a knockoff version of the theme from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly comes on, A FREAKING TUMBLEWEED ROLLS BY, and Coach runs into the women’s locker room. DX goes in with HHH being excited and Shawn covering his eyes.

HHH stops to flirt but Shawn pulls him through a door. Coach runs through another door and finds Big Dick Johnson dancing. Coach runs out and trips over a mop bucket, allowing DX to catch up to him. They stalk him out the door and ram his head into the production truck, because that’s how nice they are. They put him in a rolling trash bin and have a janitor throw garbage on him. This ate up like 6 minutes and was either really funny or REALLY stupid, depending on your tastes.

Clip of Cena winning the title back at the Rumble.

DX comes in to talk to the Spirit Squad and there’s a new dress code in effect, according to HHH, “by the orders of Mr. John Laurinitis,” complete with an imitation of him. They have new outfits for the Squad.

Umaga vs. Snitsky

This is when Umaga is still an unstoppable monster. He has a loser leaves Raw match next week with Kane. Power brawl to start with Snitsky getting a jumping shoulder block, but falling prey to a Samoan Drop. The running hip attack in the corner (IT’S UMAGA’S MOVE JOSH, NOT RIKISHI’S!!!) sets up the Spike for the quick pin. Squash. Umaga wouldn’t lose until January when Cena beat him.

Orton isn’t worried about Carlito. That takes him a minute or two to say.

Video on The Marine. That movie sucked but the girl looked great. Cena did his own stunts apparently.

Randy Orton vs. Carlito

This is a rematch from Unforgiven where Carlito tried a double springboard dive but Orton caught him in an RKO to end it. Carlito was in one of the biggest pushes of his career at this point but it was dying quickly. Orton starts off fast and sends Carlito into the post and out to the floor. Back in he does it again and Carlito is in trouble. Carlito comes back with a rana but Orton hits a single arm DDT for two. The arm work keeps going so Carlito comes back with a jumping back elbow. A springboard spinning senton gets two. Another springboard cross body is rolled through with Orton pulling the tights for the pin.

Rating: D. This was really boring with the arm work going on for awhile but not meaning anything at all. Carlito’s push was more or less done after this as Orton would team up with Edge in two weeks to form Rated RKO. Not the worst match ever, but did anyone care about Carlito? As in like EVER?

Edge cost Cena the world title at One Night Stand.

The Spirit Squad doesn’t want to wear the outfits. DX threatens to strip them of the tag titles because DX has that authority now. HHH: “Those guys are so gay.”

Cryme Tyme video on a cop having a doughnut. JTG slaps the coffee into his face. We get a chase around a fence so it’s agility training. Uh…yeah.

Nicky vs. Sgt. Slaughter

Nicky is more famous as Nick Nemeth, who is more famous as Dolph Ziggler. The Squad is in female cheerleader outfits. One of them has skid marks. Can we get this over with already? Why is Sarge in this? Sarge makes fun of them and the beating begins. He hooks the Cobra Clutch and spanks Nicky. A gutbuster gets two.

Sarge pounds on him in the corner but Nicky whips him in and SARGE DOES HIS OVER THE CORNER BUMP!!! HE’S 58 YEARS OLD HERE!!! That was insane!!! Nicky hooks a sleeper back inside which gets him nowhere. A modified Codebreaker gets two and Nicky works on the arm. DX pops up for a distraction and Sarge rolls him up for the pin. Too short to rate but DANG that bump was impressive.

Edge won the title back on an episode of Raw.

The Marine is premiering at a Marine base.

Women’s Title Tournament First Round: Mickie James vs. Victoria

DX says they have to fight in lingerie. I’m not complaining. Trish retired as champion so we need a new champion. They slug it out in the corner with Victoria taking over. Mickie comes back with right hands and a rana attempt but it gets countered into a Boston Crab. That doesn’t get anywhere so they tumble to the floor. Back in Mickie wins with a sunset flip. This went nowhere.

Cena and Edge fought again on SNME with Lita cheating to keep the belt on Edge.

We get some clips from an interview with Eric Bischoff about his book.

Bischoff and Masters are in the back when DX pops up for a book plug. Their words, not mine. He says DX was an NWO ripoff and that’s that. Eric leaves and HHH asks Masters if he wants to write a book. Masters says he’s thinking about it and HHH says “What are you going to call it? How To Lose 50 Pounds In Four Weeks?” That’s a steroids reference in case you didn’t get it. They laugh afterwards.

Cena and Edge also had a match at Summerslam. You may be noticing a pattern here. Edge won with brass knuckles.

The cage is lowered.

Then Cena won the title in a TLC match at Unforgiven, which gets us here.

Raw World Title: Edge vs. John Cena

In a cage. Just in case the videos they’ve given you all week haven’t been enough of a build, Edge also caused Cena to get beaten up by Booker and his crew. This gets big match intros which is certainly should. You can win by pinfall, submission or escape. Cena has a bad arm so Edge gets in what he can on it. That doesn’t work at all so Cena suplexes him for two. Edge goes back to the arm but walks into a belly to back suplex for two.

Cena whips Edge into the corner where he tries to climb out but Cena slams him off for two. FU is countered into an Edge-O-Matic for two. Off to an armbar which is quickly broken. Cena takes him down and goes up but Edge hits the arm again to knock him off the rope. A spear puts Cena into the cage but Edge can’t follow up. They both go up and Cena bulldogs him off the top as we take a break.

Back with Edge working on the arm but walking into a belly to belly suplex for two. A Canadian spinwheel kick takes Cena down but he can’t follow up. A delayed cover gets two. Edge goes for the door but Cena saves, only to get kicked in his arm. Now the arm goes into the cage and Edge goes for a climb. Cena goes after him and they slug it out while sitting on the top of the cage. John drops to the top rope and pulls Edge back in by the leg.

Edge suplexes Cena off the top rope and they’re both down again. The challenger covers for two and Cena starts his comeback with one arm. He loads up the FU but Edge grabs the cage to counter and rams Cena’s head into it. Cena tries it again and they go up the ropes, only for Edge to drop down and hit an electric chair drop for two. Edge goes for the door but Cena saves him.

Lita throws a chair in through the door to Edge before the cage is shut and gets ejected for it. Time for a slugout, resulting in Edge clotheslining the referee. Edge gets the chair and misses a shot to Cena’s head that would have killed him. Cena responds by killing Edge with an even bigger chair shot. There’s the STFU but there’s no referee. Cade and Murdoch run in for no apparent reason other than for DX to come in for the save. They take Cena out and drag him to the door but yep, here’s DX for the save. Shawn superkicks Murdoch into the door, which rams into Edge’s head. FU keeps the title on Cena.

Rating: B. This was a TV match and that makes the rating go up. The ending is really stupid because it’s all about DX again. Other than that, this was solid enough for a supershow main event. Cena vs. Edge was one of the most played out feuds in forever though and it got pretty dull over time, especially when it was clear Edge was never going to get the clean win over John. Still good though.

Overall Rating: B. Like I said, this was the supershow since there was a two month gap between Raw PPVs. The main event is solid and we got to see the IC Title change hands which is always cool. Not the best supershow they’ve ever done, but it’s certainly a fun Raw and bigger than most of their shows. DX was in full overkill here but thankfully Rated RKO would form soon to give them something to do.

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There are a bunch of matches here which could be considered the main event. What do you think it was?For me it’s Michaels vs. Flair.  The ending was obvious and now it means nothing, but at the time there was something that seemed like it was the biggest moment in a long time.

Thoughts?