On Monday, November 13, 2006 at 11:37 PM EST Rated-RKO Champions
By Zack Zeigler
November 13, 2006
Results courtesy of WWE.com
What a night for more than 15,000 WWE fans at the sold out Manchester News Arena in Manchester, England. Jeff Hardy became the new Intercontinental Champion and Rated-RKO – Randy Orton and Edge – became the World Tag Team Champions.
After delivering a con-chair-to to “Rowdy” Roddy Piper before the match began effectively knocking him out of the competition, Ric Flair was left to defend the tag team gold on his own. Despite a valiant effort from Flair, Edge and Orton were simply too much to handle.
“I was the youngest World Heavyweight Champion and one of the longest Intercontinental Championship holders in history and now I’m a World Tag Team Champion,” said Orton after the match. Edge added, “What you’re looking at is the dawning of two new Legends in this industry – the Rated-R Superstar and the Legend Killer.”
Seeing the two Superstars who vowed to destroy DX hoist their tag team titles to the booing crowd had to have struck a nerve for DX. Triple H and HBK were forced to be on guard all night thanks to a $10,000 bounty that Mr. McMahon’s Executive Assistant Jonathan Coachman offered to any Superstar who could remove DX from the building.
From the time Coachman issued the bounty, a long night began for DX. After competing in a Handicap Match against Viscera, Charlie Haas, Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch – and feeding off the frenzied crowd’s energy to defeat four of the most repugnant Superstars in WWE – The Game and HBK also had Mitch, Mikey and Nicky of the Spirit Squad, Chris Masters and even Eugene attempt to collect. But DX came up with a clever remedy for their problem: they turned themselves in to Coachman and claimed the reward money themselves. Later, the quick-tongued Shawn Michaels was able to score two ringside tickets from Cryme Tyme.
While Edge and Orton walked out of England with tag team gold around their waist, WWE Champion John Cena’s stay wasn’t nearly as glamorous. The Champ had the unenviable task of taking on the undefeated Umaga in a singles match. While Cena looked strong and easily gave the Samoan Bulldozer the toughest challenge of his WWE career, ECW World Champion Big Show – who will team Umaga to take on The Champ’s team at Survivor Series – interfered on Umaga’s behalf and the bout was called a No Contest. The Samoan Bulldozer and the Extreme Giant manhandled the WWE Champion like nobody has done before, with a deadly Samoan Spike from Umaga and a thunderous chokeslam by Big Show capping off the beating.
Also, the back and forth battle for the Intercontinental Championship between Johnny Nitro and Jeff Hardy escalated into a new stratosphere. Last week, Nitro was able to reclaim the Intercontinental Title after Eric Bischoff ordered the match restarted. Unfortunately for Nitro, despite his girlfriend Melina’s best attempts, Hardy walked out of Manchester with the gold. But like a sore loser, Nitro continued his assault on Hardy and attacked the new champion with a ladder.
"It was nice to walk out of England with my title back, but the ladder is my comfort zone and I’m more than ready for a Ladder Match with Nitro next week,” said Hardy.
That’s not all. Mickie James defeated Women’s Champion Lita in a non-title match, Johnny & Kenny of the Spirit Squad defeated the Highlanders and Chris Masters’ Master Lock Challenge was answered by Jerry “The King” Lawler, who was unable to be the first to break the dreaded Master Lock.
With two short weeks until Survivor Series, it became overtly clear that all hell will break loose on Nov. 26 in Philadelphia.
Matches:
* Mickie James def. Women's Champion Lita (non-title match)
* Edge & Randy Orton def. World Tag Team Champions Ric Flair & Roddy Piper
* D-Generation X def. Lance Cade, Trevor Murdoch, Viscera & Charlie Haas (Handicap Match)
* Johnny & Kenny def. The Highlanders
* Chris Masters def. Jerry "The King" Lawler (Master Lock Challenge)
* John Cena vs. Umaga (No Contest)
* Jeff Hardy def. Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro