On Monday, December 4, 2006 at 11:36 PM EST WWE RAW
December 4, 2006
Charleston, SC
Commentators: Jim Ross & Jerry “The King” Lawler
Reported By: Hunter Golden of WrestleView.com
Tonight’s main event will be a big eight-man match. It’ll pit DX & The Hardy Boyz up against Rated RKO & MNM.
John Cena’s music hit and he came down the ramp. Cena sucked up to the crowd a bit and then talked about his challenge from Umaga. He said some people thought he was a little crazy for accepting the challenge from Umaga. He said Umaga looked tough, but when things came down to it, Umaga wasn’t ready to fight. He just ‘looked’ tough. He talked about Estrada sitting Umaga down and ask him if he was REALLY ready for a fight.
Melina’s music hit out of nowhere and she came down to the ring. Cena told her ‘Umaga, you look very, very different’. She said on January 1st, Cena had bigger things to worry about than Kevin Federline. She put him over as a real celebrity and trained by Johnny Nitro. Cena made fun of Melina and Brittany Spears before Melina slapped him across the face. Cena went to give her an FU but Chris Masters showed up to break up the party. Coach’s music hit and he came out to let us all know Masters was sent out here to teach him a lesson. Cena said Coach sucked at revenge like he sucked at running Raw. Coach said Cena wouldn’t be facing Umaga tonight. They’d wait until New Year’s Revolution to settle that score. He said he would take the Master Lock challenge later tonight. He said if Cena lost the challenge, he’d defend the WWE Championship next week. Cena cut him off before he could get the Championship out. He put over that Charleston was the same city Eric Bischoff got fired in and that unlike Coach, at least he could create controversy.
Coach retaliated by making the Master Lock Challenge for the WWE Championship. If Cena loses, he loses the title.
****Commercial****
Edge and Randy Orton were in the back. There was a knock on the door. Kenny came back to talk to them dressed in street clothes. Kenny said the Spirit Squad was dead. He said he had the brightest future of anyone on Raw and that he had a bone to pick with DX. He asked Edge and Orton if he could join them. Orton and Edge asked him what made him think he was in their league. They ran down him pretty bad before telling him that if he wanted to hang with them, he needed to prove himself.
"Rowdy" Roddy Piper Tribute Match
The Highlanders v. Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch
Cade immediately dumped Robbie out of the ring leaving Rory in there all along. Robbie quickly regained his bearings and jumped into the ring with a drop kick before the two dumped both heels to the outside of the ring.
Once things got settled, Rory began working over Murdoch in the corner before Cade cheap shotted him in the back. Cade and Murdoch hit the inverted atomic drop and big boot combo behind the referees back before Murdoch tagged back in and hit an ultra stiff chop. Cade tagged back in and the two delivered a double back elbow before ripping the Hot Rod shirt off of Rory’s back.
Murdoch tagged back in and hit another brutal chop before body slamming Rory. He went for a second rope elbow drop, but Rory got a foot up and tagged in Robbie. Robbie came in only to get immediately cut off by Murdoch and Cade. They set up their clothesline/chop block finisher, but Rory was able to yank Murdoch out of the ring. Robbie rolled Cade up in the middle of the ring to get the pin fall.
Winners: The Highlanders
A promo aired for the K-Fed-Cena Match.
****Commercial****
Victoria v. Maria
Victoria tossed Maria to the mat hard before giving her a super-stiff boot to the side of her head. Maria fought back with some elbows, but Victoria murdered her with a vicious lariat. Victoria hit a tilt a whirl side suplex to polish her off in short order.
Winner: Victoria via pin fall
After the match Mickie James tended to Maria in the ring while Victoria took out a list and checked off Maria’s name. Victoria picked up on James’ presence and came into the ring and took James’ head off with a big boot. She set up Micke James for the Widow’s Peak and asked the crowd; “Who’s the crazy bitch now?” And delivered the move. That….was awesome.
****Commercial****
Cryme Tyme was at a Nursing Home. Good lord. I can’t even describe the skit. I shouldn’t have to. Christmas Caroling and.. well, it was funny.
Shelton Benjamin broke the laughs up backstage. Super Crazy “no Comprende’d’ So Benjamin challenged him to a match. Super Crazy said he’d face him before calling him a ‘biotch’.
****Commercial****
Shelton Benjamin was in the ring and called Cryme Tyme a joke. He said Super Crazy would have to pay a price for what Cryme Tyme did. Shelton called himself an ‘edgelucated’ Black man and called Super Crazy out to the ring.
Super Crazy v. Shelton Benjamin
Benjamin immediately hit a knee to the gut before dropping a right fist on his head. Crazy was whipped to the buckles but on the second attempt came back with a flying cross body block and a nice hurricanranna. Shelton recovered and missed one kick but connected with a second right to the face of Crazy.
He hit a nice looking delayed back body drop before talking some trash. He went for his Showman’s splash, but missed. Super Crazy capitalized and looked for the moon sault but no one was home. Benjamin quickly recovered and hit the T-Bone Suplex for the victory.
Winner: Shelton Benjamin via pin fall
After the match, Charlie Haas showed up out of nowhere and began celebrating with Benjamin, who looked baffled by his presence.
****Commercial****
WWE Championship—Mater Lock Challenge
John Cena v. Chris Masters
Cena took his shirt off and sat down in the chair. After some stalling, Masters finally cinched in the hold and tossed Cena all over the place. Eventually they collided with the referee. Cena slapped on Master’s own hold and made him tap to it.
Winner: John Cena
Umaga ran down to the ring afterwards and put the beat down on Cena. Security came out and tried to hold the two apart. Umaga tossed Cena over the table before Umaga leapt over the table to mug Cena. They brawled all over the ringside area. If you’ve seen one of these angles, you’ve seen all of them.
****Commercial****
Viscera was in the back with Torrie Wilson. He was trying to convince her to ditch Carlito and roll with him. Carlito came in and spat apples in Visc’s face and told him he needed to eat a little healthier. Ron Simmons came out and gave us our weekly ‘damn’.
JR and King recapped the Flair-Rated RKO incident from last week.
DX was with Todd Grisham. HBK talked about Ric Flair and how their attacking him made this feud personal. He said the pain and humiliation they put him through last week wasn’t going to compare to what they suffered at the hands of DX. They walked off all angry.
****Commercial****
Carlito v. Viscera
Viscera came right at Carlito and planted him with some big, mean chops. Viscera hip tossed Carlito over to the other buckle before choking him out. Carlito broke the hold and fought back with some punches before getting nailed wit ha lariat. Carlito continued to fight back but Viscera again knocked him to the mat and stood on his chest.
Viscera landed a head butt before plopping Carlito down to the mat. He looked for a big elbow drop, but Carlito rolled out of the way. Carlito hit some knees and forearms but got caught in a side slam. Viscera did his hip swivel and went for the super sized bump and grind but Torrie grabbed Viscera’s leg. Viscera dragged her into the ring and went to attack her. Carlito saved the day though and hit a flipping Senton and a springboard moon sault to steal a victory.
Winner: Carlito via pin fall
Torrie planted a big wet one on Carlito after the match. PS, her top broke.
Armando Alejandro Estrada was in the back goading John Cena. Coach stepped in and said he refused to be pushed around. He told Cena that the stipulation still stood, but that Estrada may have out-smarted himself. Next week, Estrada will face Cena in the ring in a 1 on 1 match.
****Commercial****
Val Venis was out in the ring getting people to kiss in the crowd. Venis hit on two girls at ringside and tried to get these two chicks in the front row to kiss. He brought them into the ring and they pecked each other on the lips. The two ripped into each other and went at it. Eugene came out and asked the girls to give him a kiss. They refused and Eugene said they should because he was ‘special’. He went to force himself on one of the ladies and Val broke it up. He cleaned Venis out and screamed to the crowd and to the announcers that he was special.
****Commercial****
Rated RKO & MNM v. Degeneration X & The Hardy Boys
All four went at it and the faces dispatched of the heels in relatively short order. Triple H went to work on Randy Orton on the outside, bashing Orton’s head off the announce table before tossing him back into the ring.
Triple H booted away at Orton in the corner before choking him out against the ropes. The Game bashed Orton’s head off of HBK’s boot before tagging in his DX partner. Michaels hit a swinging neck breaker and landed a rough chop to Orton’s chest. Triple H tagged back in and landed a boot to the gut and mounted the third generation star and pounded away at his forehead.
Orton managed to tag in Nitro who was getting turned inside out as well. Matt Hardy tagged in an hit a back elbow and a body slam. Hardy followed up with a leg drop before going for the pin fall. Jeff Hardy tagged in and hit a nice sling shot drop kick and went for a cover, but Mercury broke it up. Hardy went for the cover again but again Nitro kicked out. Matt tagged in and he and his brother stacked up MNM in the corner and hit their springboard spalsh.
****Commercial****
We came back to Hardy pounding away on Johnny Nitro. Nitro countered a drop kick in the corner and tagged in Joey Mercury. Mercury pounded away at Jeff before tagging in Randy Orton. Orton put the boots to Hardy before quickly tagging in Johnny Nitro. He and Mercury clotheslined Jeff Hardy using the bottom rope before hitting their double gut buster. Nitro hit his spinning leg drop and went for the cover, but Hardy kicked out.
Edge goaded the crowd before pummeling Hardy and slapping on a rear chin lock. Hardy fought out of the hold only to get hit with an Edge standing drop kick. Edge tagged in Orton and the two hit a nice side suplex, inverted DDT combo. Edge tagged back in and went for the cover but Matt Hardy broke it up. Edge tagged back out to Orton and he hit his Garvin stomp before hitting a big knee drop to Hardy’s face. Orton slapped on a rear chin lock long enough to tag in Joey Mercury. Hardy hit whisper in the wind out of nowhere and tagged in Matt. Matt hit a double clothesline before all hell broke loose.
Eventually it ended up coming down to Triple H one on one with Orton. Triple H hit a big spine buster. Kenny showed up and whacked HBK with a chair shot ringside. Triple H went to chase Kenny. Matt Hardy hit a side effect on Randy Orton. Jeff Hardy mounted the buckles to hit a Swanton Bomb, but Joey Mercury shoved him off the top rope and to the guardrail. Edge climbed in the ring quickly and hit Matt Hardy with a big spear and got the 1, 2, and 3 for the win.
Winners: Rated RKO & MNM via pin fall
After the match, Triple H and Michaels looked astonished that they lost. They retrieved Kenny from ringside and hit a sweet chin music and a pedigree on the youngster. Rated RKO and DX stared each other down as the show went off the air. RAW THOUGHTSThe Good-- There were a lot of little things I liked about tonight’s Raw.
1.) Victoria is awesome as a heel. This is a feud I’ve been waiting for, for a long time. Nothing overly complicated, just straightforward.
2.) Kenny joining Rated RKO will be a great idea.
3.) Charlie Haas and Shelton reuniting? Please say yes. A month ago, the tag division on Raw was in shambles. Since then we’ve gotten DX, Rated RKO, Cade/Murdoch, The Highlanders and Cryme Tyme. With the potential addition of The World’s Greatest Tag Team, you’ve got one loaded tag division.
4.) Having Carlito on the show for the sake of having him on the Show was a good call.
5.) Coach NOT being a joke is long overdue.
The Bad-- sigh...
Why, no matter what, does DX have to come out on top in every segment they’re in? Honestly, this is just stupid. Edge and Orton outsmart them, only for Triple H and HBK to ‘out-do’ them one more time getting the last laugh wrecking their lackey. Wow. There’s nothing left to talk about.
Umaga-Cena I could care less about. The #1 problem I notice with this creative team is that they often confuse their OWN perception of who the big stars are with what the FANS consider to be big stars. I really think most in the back think this Umaga-Cena match is a big deal. A really big deal. But I don’t. Thus, the problem, fundamentally. Complete and total failure to gage fan reaction in booking. There are times where the crowd brain farts and you just ride out the storm, much like they did a year ago when Cena was getting booed out of the building. They rode it out. But this isn’t a ‘fans have lost their minds’ scenario. Most people with wrestling brains would realize this, but unfortunately for WWE, no one with much ‘wrestling’ knowledge is working for the company these days.
The Ugly-- How anyone thinks a retarded heel, literally, a retarded heel, is going to work...is beyond me. I love Dinsmore, the man’s a stud not only in the ring, but in the fact that he got this gimmick over to begin with. But I don’t think Ric Flair could get over a sinister retard.
Overall- C- --- This was a pretty average show. Some new, albeit minor, things developed to keep me a little interested, but other than that, just a really average exhibition of wrestling. It wasn’t terribly compelling, the main feuds are a complete disgrace, but there’s usually enough counter-measures launched by WWE in the undercard to keep smarks like us going ‘what if they push X’. They’re not, they’ll never push those guys. WWE’s pretty darn awful these days.
Quick Results
The Highlanders def. Cade & Murdoch
Victoria def. Maria
Shelton Benjamin def. Super Crazy
Carlito def. Viscera
Rated RKO and MNM def. DX and the Hardys
Who’s Hot, Who’s Not?
Biggest pops
1. John Cena
2. DX
3. Carlito
4. The Hardys
Most Heat
1. Edge
2. MNM
3. Randy Orton
4. Victoria
Match of the night: Rated RKO & MNM-DX & The Hardys *1/2
Power RankingsWWE Champion: John Cena (Last Week: WWE Champion)—I’m just really burnt out with John Cena at the top of the WWE right now. I recognize the guy’s talent, I recognize that he’s over, but man oh man how anyone above the age of 12 isn’t sick of the same thing every week has got to tell me what they’re taking. I want some.
Intercontinental Champion: Jeff Hardy (Last Week: IC Champion)—After winning the Intercontinental Championship, he’s formed a tag team and that IC division we had a month ago is pretty much non-existent these days. You’ve got to love living in the past.
1.Umaga (Last Week: 1)—Tons of talent, but honestly, this feud is going to suck. I realized that as soon as we had another ‘security breaks up the big brawl’ and the GM books a Champion v. Manager match we saw in the last feud had for the WWE Championship.
2. Triple H (Last Week: 2)—Someone tell me why I should even bother.
3. HBK (Last Week: 4)—See Triple H.
4. Edge (Last Week: 4)—Gets the win, but still WWE thinks we don’t get that DX could possibly beat God and Jesus in a tag team match. They’d probobly have to face God’s manager, maybe that’s Moses with a Megaphone, in a handicapped match or with a hand tied behind their back. Oh wait, I forgot, that’s only for John Cena feuds. Poor Edge, he’s going to stay on as the super face punching bag for another month.
5. Randy Orton (Last Week: 5)—See Edge.
6. Carlito (Last Week: 6)—Wins a match, gets a big reaction, but apparently, I guess the Chris Masters feud ended. Meh, who needs feuds anyway. Everyone knows wrestling is fake, so why would they care about feuds?
7. Johnny Nitro (Last Week: 7)—I guess he’s a tag team wrestler again. He is also Kevin Federline’s full time personal trainer. That must be high-paying these days.
8. Kenny (Last Week 9)—I really hope he ends up with Rated RKO, but I now have no clue if that’s really going to happen. If it is, at least Triple H and HBK have squashed him so badly that we’d never feel as if he were a threat to anyone other than himself. Silly, bumbling heels.
9.Shelton Benjamin (Last Week: NR)— He was the only guy who won a match that MIGHT go somewhere higher. Charlie Haas turned up though so like the rest of the roster, he’s going to form a tag team too and together they’re going to show us how well they can lay down.
10. Mickie James (Last Week: 10)— No reason to drop her off, no reason to promote anyone.
Dropping Out: Ric Flair (Last Week:8 )