Monday Night Raw – June 2, 2008: Money

Monday Night Raw
Date: June 2, 2008
Location: Rabobank Arena, Bakersfield, California
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

There’s a lot to cover here, as not only is this the night after One Night Stand, but it’s also the start of Million Dollar Mania, plus we have less than a month to go before the Draft. Things could be in for quite the change in the near future and it might start tonight. Night Of Champions is in less than a month as well so it’s time to do a lot in one night. Let’s get to it.

Here is One Night Stand if you need a recap.

Opening sequence.

Here is HHH, still Raw World Champion after defeating Randy Orton (he of the broken collar bone) to get things going. HHH talks about how the Age Of Orton is over as he and Orton knew what they were going to be doing going into last night’s match. Orton is now in a hospital room with a broken collar bone.

What matters now though is that HHH is still champ and he doesn’t care who’s next….and that is the mating call of one John Cena. He doesn’t waste time in saying you don’t need Emmett Brown to explain the future right now. Cena says they see eye to eye on almost everything except for the title, so now it’s time for the biggest thing ever. It’s the Yankees vs. the Red Sox, the Celtics vs. the Lakers, the lottery and everything else. Are you ready?

HHH says if Cena wants some, come get some, but here is Jeff Hardy to interrupt. Hardy says he won last night too so he’s in on this too. HHH doesn’t care who he faces, so Hardy pitches the match with Cena tonight. HHH: “Works for me.” Vince McMahon pops up on screen to say people want….to know about him giving away a million bucks next week. As for the people in the match, Cena vs. Hardy tonight, winner gets HHH for the title at Night Of Champions. They could have made this longer so I’ll take the slightly accelerated pace.

Mr. Kennedy vs. Paul Burchill

Katie Lea Burchill is here with Paul. Before the match, Kennedy mocks William Regal for getting fired and promises to give Paul the same beating. Hold on though as Burchill has to help Katie get ready for her in-ring debut, but he has a replacement.

Mr. Kennedy vs. Umaga

Umaga’s ribs are heavily taped and he misses a charge into the buckle to make things worse. He’s fine enough to slam Kennedy down but the ribs are too banged up and we pause for a breather. Kennedy gets sent outside and Umaga misses a dive at the announcers’ table…and that’s actually a countout. That’s a surprise.

Post match Paul Burchill runs in to take Kennedy out.

And now, Million Dollar Mania! Vince McMahon brings out a million dollars in cash and then moves it from one container to another while hyping up MONEY. He talks about how he’ll be giving the money away in increments and you have to register on WWE.com. So why is he doing this? Well there could be a few reasons, including just wanting more people to watch the show.

There are some people who have never watched before and they should come into the family. Then there are some people who never going to watch WWE because they’re SNOBS. Vince has the people show what they get to do at a WWE show by waving their signs, screaming, cheering, booing and anything else to wrap it up. He is a lot of things and a bunch of them are bad, but he knows how to hype something up. At the end of the day, he’s an amazing showman.

Santino Marella/Carlito vs. Hardcore Holly/Cody Rhodes

Non-title and MY GOODNESS FIND SOMEONE ELSE FOR THE CHAMPS TO FIGHT! How many times do we need to see Marella and Carlito against them? They’re not going to win the titles so just find SOMEONE else already. What is this, five or six times? Hold on though as we need a timekeeper and that would be….Roddy Piper! Santino, who will be facing Jimmy Kimmel’s Cousin Sal (with Piper) on Smackdown, isn’t happy.

Cody and Carlito start things off but Santino offers a distraction, allowing Carlito to take over. A crossbody out of the corner gets Cody out of trouble so Santino comes in for a judo throw. Carlito grabs a sitout spinebuster but Santino misses a headbutt. Holly comes in and gets the draping kick to the ribs but Piper grabs Santino’s leg. The distraction lets Santino sunset flip Holly for the fast pin.

Post break Santino and Carlito are happy, with Santino promising to take out Cousin Sal. He has a top ten list, but that’s David Letterman’s thing, not Jimmy Kimmel. Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien ideas don’t fly either.

Hardcore Holly yells at Cody Rhodes, who knew about Roddy Piper being the timekeeper but didn’t say anything. Piper cost them the match and Holly wants Rhodes to tell him about these things. Holly leaves and Ted DiBiase Jr. comes in to say he’s going to have a partner for his title shot at Night Of Champions.

Chris Jericho talks about encouraging Shawn Michaels last night, but for now, he wants to focus on defending the Intercontinental Title as much as possible. He’s doing it tonight, and the match is dedicated to Shawn.

Intercontinental Title: Chris Jericho vs. John Bradshaw Layfield

Jericho is defending and I’d like to know how a loss in a first blood match gets you a title shot the next night. Jericho takes him down by the arm and goes to the armbar to start but JBL is right back. A full nelson goes on (that’s so weird to see as a random wear down move) but Jericho escapes as well, setting up a tornado DDT. The Walls are blocked so Jericho hammers away in the corner instead. They head outside and JBL kicks him in the face and grabs a chair. The referee tries to break it up and gets shoved away, which is good for a DQ.

Rating: C. They didn’t have much time here as it wound up being about moving things forward with the ending. Jericho wanting to wrestle more and suddenly caring about Shawn is interesting though and you can imagine quite a showdown between the two at some point soon. JBL needs a win sooner than later, but that isn’t exactly how things go for him most of the time.

Post match Jericho kicks the chair into JBL’s throat and teases a bit swing but stops himself and leaves.

Beth Phoenix/Katie Lea Burchill vs. Mickie James/Melina

Katie and Mickie start things off with Mickie spinning out of a wristlock and snapping off the hurricanrana out of the corner. Melina seethes at Beth from the apron (not even holding the rope) as Katie takes over and brings Beth in. Mickie looks at Melina, who demands and receives a tag. That means Melina can go of on Beth, who has to roll outside to escape.

Beth finally gets in a hard clothesline for a breather, allowing her to ram Melina’s back into the apron. We settle down to Katie missing an elbow though and Mickie comes back in to clean house. The top rope Thesz press lets Mickie hammer away but Katie blocks the MickieDT. Beth adds a cheap shot and Katie gets the big upset pin.

Rating: C. This felt like a couple of stories tied together, as Melina wants to wreck Beth and Katie gets her upset pin to likely get her a title shot. It didn’t make for the best match though, as Melina going nuts and then getting taken out so quickly didn’t work. The division needs some fresh blood though and Katie could be a nice boost.

Post match Paul Burchill comes out to celebrate with Katie, drawing in Mr. Kennedy to beat him up.

Cryme Tyme comes out to go after Vince McMahon’s money but security isn’t having it.

Jerry Lawler registers to win the money, but the service is temporarily unavailable. It’s also unavailable for WWE employees, as was mentioned last night.

Lance Cade vs. Trevor Murdoch

Murdoch has new music about being a cowboy. Before the match, Murdoch sings about wanting to fight so Cade drops him in a hurry. Cade puts the head against the post for a big boot and hammers away as he seems to be in a violent mood here. Murdoch fights back and hits a running knee but gets punched out of the air (where he probably shouldn’t have been). Cade grabs a sitout spinebuster for the fast pin. Well that was abrupt.

Video on Edge beating Undertaker in a TLC match to win the Smackdown World Title and getting rid of Undertaker in the process.

Mickie James is in the trainer’s room when John Cena comes in. Cena apologizes for causing so many people to think they’re dating, but it happens when a man is seen with a beautiful woman. She says Cena is hot too (Mickie: “Just saying.” Cena: “Thank you.”) but Cena says she left something last night…and hands her some women’s underwear.

John Cena vs. Jeff Hardy

The winner gets the title shot against HHH at Night Of Champions. After a show of respect, Cena grabs a headlock to as much avail as you would expect. We pause as a fan runs into the ring and Cena and Hardy pause to chuckle for a bit. Hardy gets a headlock of his own as the fans boo (presumably as the fan is taken out) but Cena reverses into a chinlock. That’s reverses into one from Hardy as they’re not exactly going full speed yet. Cena gets in a drop toehold but Hardy kicks him to the floor for a dropkick through the ropes.

We take a break and come back with Hardy hitting the sleeper drop for two. The release fisherman’s suplex gives Cena two of his own but Hardy is right back with a Twist of Fate. The Swanton only hits mat though and Cena initiates the finishing sequence. Hardy slips out of the FU though and hits the twisting mule kick, setting up the slingshot dropkick in the corner for two. The Whisper In The Wind gets the same but Hardy has to escape another FU attempt. Hardy goes up but Cena pulls him out of the air and hits the FU for the pin and the title shot.

Rating: B-. The stuff at the beginning with the fan messed it up a bit but this really picked up once they went to commercial. The other important thing here is that Hardy was able to hang with Cena for a good while, which should bode well for his future. Cena getting back into the title picture, especially with Randy Orton injured, is the right call though, as he’s the most reliable of all the options.

Overall Rating: C-. The main event was helping some but this was a pretty lame Raw. The Million Dollar Mania being the big selling point didn’t help as you can imagine the amount of time commentary spent talking about it. Other than that, you had a bunch of short matches and one good main event, but that’s not enough to make the whole thing work. Not much to see here but I’d wonder how many plans had to be changed due to Orton’s injury.

 

 

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