On Tuesday, January 30, 2007 at 12:07 AM EST WWE RAW
January 29, 2007
Dallas, TX
Commentators: Jim Ross & Jerry “The King” Lawler
Reported By: Hunter Golden of WrestleView.com
DX’s music hit and HBK came out and gave us crotch chops all around. JR and King put over HBK’s performance at the Royal Rumble last night.
Last week he said that no mere mortal man would keep him from winning the Rumble last night. He said The Undertaker wasn’t a mortal man. He said even though he didn’t win, he still meant what he said last week. He said he would be, somehow, the next WWE Champion at Wrestlemania.
He said he knew that Taker could pick which title he went after on which brand he wanted. He said if he chose to face Batista or Lashley, that left the WWE Championship wide open. He said he was taking the opportunity to throw his hat in the ring.
John Cena’s music hit the arena and he came out to the ring.
Cena said he just wanted to hear it clearly: “John Cena v. Shawn Michaels”. He said he liked it, BUT, as he said, it’s not up to him or HBK, it was up to the Undertaker. He said IF it was HBK and him, Edge’s music hit.
Edge came out to the stage to a chorus of boos. He said he knew Shawn was excited to face Cena at Wrestlemania. He said HBK had that nagging feeling of ‘almost did’ from last night. He said he beat Cena multiple times and at Wrestlemania, he should be the #1 contender.
Randy Orton’s music hit and he came out to the ramp. Orton asked him if Edge was right. He said they were tag champs but last night, it was every man for himself. He said when it comes to the WWE title, it’s the same thing, every man for himself. He asked Edge how many times he had title shots against John Cena. Orton said he hadn’t had a title shot ever against John Cena.
Cena called both of them puss-bags. He said the two could come down to the ring and get their asses kicked. Orton and Edge started heading down the ramp before Vince showed up on the monitor and told the two they weren’t going anywhere.
Vince said he would tell the audience what they want. He said tonight it’d be fan appreciation night, and our main event would be a tag team championship match pitting Randy Orton and Edge against HBK & John Cena.
****Commercial****
Cryme Tyme were walking around and JTG was trying to do something weird and acting like an idiot in front of the camera. Cute little promo about strippers.
The World’s Greatest Tag Team v. Cryme Tyme
Haas is rocking cornrows. Ha!
Haas and Shaad started things off as Haas grabbed a hammerlock to start. Shad hit the ropes and hit some shoulder blocks but was eventually tripped up by Haas from behind. Haas went to work on Shad’s left leg to neutralize the big boot.
Shelton tagged in and stomped away at the knee in the corner. He picked Shad up only to catch a few punches to the face. Shelton hit the ropes and went for the roll up, but turned it into a half crab instead. Shelton clung to the leg, preventing Shad from getting to the corner. Eventually he kicked Shelton off enabling the JTG tag.
JTG cleaned house and capped it off with a big backdrop on Haas. Benjamin got tossed over the top rope but skinned the cat into a hurricanranna to the outside on Shaad. JTG tried to roll up Benjamin on the recoil, and had it, but then Haas DDT’d him while in the roll up position, reversing the hold and allowing Benjamin to score the pin.
Winners: The World’s Greatest Tag Team via pin fall
Vince was in the back with Coach and said tonight’s fan appreciation celebration was as big as the Rumble or even Wrestlemania even. He said once this was over, he’d be a humanitarian, not a normal one, but a great one. He’d be talked about in the same breadth as Mother Teresa, Bishop TuTu and Ghandi. He sent Coach off to check on some things.
****Commercial****
Melina came out to the ring and said she will take Mr. McMahon’s advise and seize the opportunity to make this a #1 contender’s match for the WWE Women’s Championship.
#1 Contender’s Match
Melina v. Maria
Maria dropped through a go behind and went for a roll up before yanking Melina by the thong and dragging her around. Maria hit a spear in the corner before nailing the broncobuster.
Maria went for a cover but only got a one count. Melina struck back with some brutal elbows to the face and yanked Maria down by her hair. Melina tossed her into the corner and laid Maria across the second rope. She backed up and punted her into the upper deck a few times before stepping on her face in the corner.
Maria caught a roll up but only got a two count. Melina hit some knees to Maria’s gut before Maria hit a jawbreaker. Maria came charging at her but got flap jacked.
Melina grapevined the leg and stepped back with a bridge and choked out Maria for the win.
Winner and the #1 Contender for the Women’s Championship: Melina via submission
****Commercial****
Todd Grisham popped up and asked him about the match tonight. HBK said he was walking out one half of the World Tag Team Champions. HBK said Cena was no Triple H, but he’d do.
Super Crazy was in the back with Mickie. He asked her if she remembered when people called her crazy. Hilarious. He did his I’m Super Crazy thing before Melina walked in. Melina jaw jacked with Super Crazy and called him “Este Cabron” or what ever that means, so Super Crazy had Mickie slap her. Melina and Mickie brawled around a bit before being broken up.
Edge was talking to Cade and Murdoch. He talked about Orton and the WWE Championship and how he wasn’t qualified to hold it. He said however, when it came to the tag titles, no one could beat the two.
****Commercial****
Val Venis v. Umaga
Umaga has a black and blue ring around his neck. Sick.
Venis came flying off the ropes and then got flat backed. Umaga hit a nasty Samoan Drop. He dumped Val Venis in the corner and began punching away at Venis’ stomach. Umaga hit his flying head butt before gathering Venis and punching his lights out in the corner.
He lined Venis up in the corner and hit his running ass splash before connecting with the Samoan spike. That’s all she wrote.
Winner: Umaga via pin fall
Mr. McMahon’s music hit and he came out to the ramp with Estrada’s hat on his head and some security guards and Coach. He stared down Umaga before making his way down to the ring.
****Commercial****
McMahon Fan Appreciation Week
McMahon was in the bucket hot and made fun of people who wear bucket hats. He said they were ‘stupid’. He stomped on the hat then put over the fan appreciation night. He said he was getting back to the ‘little people’. He said he wanted to thank the people for making him a billionaire. He was going to give us something we’d never forget, a night in the ring with Mr. McMahon. He asked for a volunteer.
He invited a girl in a white shirt into the ring. Mr. McMahon said he’d bet she was pretty nervous standing in the ring with him. She said her name was Jackie. Mr. McMahon said he was going to give her something very special and unveiled a huge portrait of himself on the cover of muscle and fitness magazine from last year. Hilarious. He said it all belonged to Jackie.
McMahon kept on talking until the REAL Donald Trump showed up on the monitor. Trump ran him over. He said he didn’t know his audience and he didn’t appreciate them. He said they wanted value and what they got were two different things. He said people had no choice but to watch their product because there were no alternatives. He said the only way to really thank fans was to give them money. He told the fans to look to the ceiling that there was money coming down from the rafters.
It was real money for a change. Vince was furious that his money was being dropped into the fans’ hands. JR said Donald Trump had humiliated McMahon in front of all his fans. McMahon stormed up the ramp in humiliation.
****Commercial****
McMahon was wandering through the back and Coach was trying to cool him down. McMahon said he had never been so humiliated in his entire life.
Super Crazy & Carlito v. Kenny Dykstra & Chris Masters
Crazy and Masters started things off and Masters quickly bullied Masters to the corner. Masters put the boots to Crazy before Crazy ducked under a clothesline and hit some springboard moves before hitting a corkscrew elbow. Masters fought to his feet and hit a boot to the gut and tagged in Kenny.
Kenny came in fists blazing but was cut off by a quick standing drop kick from Crazy. Carlito tagged in and hit a hurricanranna on Kenny before dumping Kenny to the outside. Masters came out and tried to distract the two but he got dumped to the outside too.
Carlito and Crazy hit duel planchas over the top rope .
When the action got back in the ring, Kenny tagged out quickly to Masters who came in and went to work on Super Crazy. Masters hit a huge back breaker before mounting him and slugging away with rights and lefts. He tagged in Kenny who came flying off the second rope with a fist to the gut.
Kenny slapped on a rear chin lock. The crowd rallied behind Crazy and he fought to his feet. He hit the ropes but was met with a running reverse elbow from Kenny. Masters tagged in and Kenny helped him hit a double suplex before Masters went for the cover, but there was nothing doing. Masters dropped about four or five hard elbow drops before smashing Crazy into the buckles. Kenny tagged in and hit a nasty little boot to the face on Crazy.
Dykstra continued to work on Crazy with some elbows to the back of the head before going back to the chin lock. Kenny went for a back suplex and connected, but took some Super Crazy punches to the head as a result. Crazy dragged himself to the corner and tagged in Carlito.
Carlito and Masters went at it with Carlito hitting a nice springboard back elbow. Carlito hit his knee lift/clothesline combo before drop kicking Masters to the mat and going for a cover but Kenny broke it up. Super Crazy ran back into the ring and the two spilled over the top rope and to the floor.
Carlito missed a whip follow up and wiggled out of a military press attempt and nailed a back cracker out of nowhere and made the cover for the win.
Winner: Carlito & Super Crazy via pin fall
Todd Grisham was in the back with Randy Orton. He asked Orton about the tension between him and Edge. Orton said winning the World Tag Titles was a highlight of his career. Orton said he agreed with Cena that Taker needed to choose which title he was going for. Orton said he looked forward to tonight being victorious in that very ring and thanked him for the interview. He didn’t mention Edge once.
****Commercial****
Intercontinental Championship
Jeff Hardy v. The Great Khali
The referee went to show the belt and Khali grabbed it from him. Hardy tried to punch Khali, but got dumped over the top rope like he was a rag doll. Khali picked him up from outside the ring and brought him up to the apron and hit a few clubbing blows before just chucking him into the ring.
Khali hit a head butt out of the corner and chopped Hardy in the head. Khali hit a huge chop to the chest before Khali went for a body slam. Hardy slid out and tried to mount some sort of offense, but Khali just smacked him back down to the mat.
Hardy ducked under a punch and hit whisper to the wind . Khali stumbled onto the ropes and Hardy tried to crotch him there. Khali shoved him off before regaining his senses and chopped Hardy off the top rope to the floor. The referee made the 10 count to end the match. JR and King wondered if he just showed up to destroy someone.
Winner: The Great Khali via count out
A sneak peak at the Go-Daddy Super Bowl commercial aired in which Candice will star in.
****Commercial****
Vladimir Kozlov was in the crowd. He said only in America could money fall from the sky. He said he loved the Double Double E, but he wasn’t impressed with Undertaker or anyone /* in the Royal Match. He said something in Russian and left it at that.
A highlight video aired putting over the sensational Umaga-John Cena Last Man Standing match for the WWE Championship from last night’s Royal Rumble.
Cena was talking to Ric Flair about how excited he was about winning the World Tag Team Championship with John Cena. Flair warned him that all could go well, they could win the titles, be celebrating in the ring, but then who? Who makes the statement? Superkick? The smile went right off Cena’s face.
****Commercial****
World Tag Team Championship
Rated RKO v. John Cena & Shawn Michaels
HBK started us off with Edge. The two locked up and struggled all over the ring. HBK was whipped to the buckles but avoided the follow up attempt and hit some chops. Edge caught one of HBK’s legs, but HBK slapped him and hit a back elbow to floor him.
HBK hit some chops on the ropes. Edge came off the ropes and HBK met him with a knee lift, flooring the champion. Michaels tagged in Cena who hit a punch to the gut and then a hip toss. Cena hit a body slam and followed it up with a power elbow and went for the cover.
Cena hit a DDT on Edge who kicked out of the cover attempt that followed it. Edge rolled to the corner and yanked Cena down on the buckles allowing himself to tag in Orton. Orton hit some upper cuts which left the WWE Champion floored. He mounted Cena and began to punch away at his head.
Cena came roaring back with an Irish whip and a vertical suplex before going for a cover which Orton kicked out of. Cena caught a thumb to the eye while stalking Orton in the corner. Randy pressed his advantage, punching away at Cena’s face before hitting a gut and going for a slam of sorts, but only to have Cena wiggle out and send Orton clattering off Edge and almost got a roll up out of it.
Orton flat backed Cena with a clothesline but as he looked up, he noticed Edge was walking up the ramp. Edge was shouting that he thought that the hit was on purpose. Randy was telling him to get back here, that he didn’t mean it. The two squabbled as we went to commercial.
****Commercial****
We came back to Cena in mid-victory sequence with Edge. He hit the inverted suplex and then went for a five-knuckle shuffle, but Orton caught him in the ropes and punched him right in Cena’s injured ribs.
Edge pressed his newfound advantage as he dropkicked Cena to the outside. Edge followed him to the outside and began working on the rib area of Cena before tossing him back into the ring. Edge tagged in his partner, Orton.
Orton did the good ole Garvin Stomp before jaw jacking with Cena for a little while. Orton landed a stiff knee to the abdomen before going for a quick cover attempt. Edge tagged in and landed a boot to Cena’s gut while Orton held him.
Edge hit a chop before hitting a standing drop kick. Again, he went for the cover, trying to squeeze more energy out of Cena. Orton tagged right back in and drove two knees into Cena’s chest before going for another cover, but Cena kicked out. Orton hooked his legs and slapped on a sleeper hold right in the middle of the ring.
Cena used his power to get to his feet with Orton still on his back. He rammed Orton into the buckles a few times and broke the hold. Orton tossed him into the ropes but crashed and burned trying to hit a drop kick.
Cena crawled to the corner and tagged in HBK. HBK came in and took everyone out. He went into victory sequence with Edge before hitting his flying elbow. Michaels tuned up the band in the corner. Orton broke up the party though, ducking under a punch and hitting a drop kick to the gut. Edge rolled over and tagged in Orton officially.
Orton came in, looking for the RKO. Michaels barely blocked it and tagged in Cena. Cena went for the FU and connected on Orton. Cena made the pin fall and we’ve got new tag team champions.
Winners and NEW World Tag Team Champions: John Cena & Shawn Michaels
After the match Cena began to celebrate. HBK dropped his belt looking to super kick Cena. Cena turned around just in time and got right in HBK’s face and asked him if his title was what all this garbage was about. The two started jaw jacking before the lights went out and the Undertaker rose from beneath the stage, staring him down from the ramp. We went off the air with the two still staring each other down and JR saying that it looked pretty obvious that Taker wanted Cena at Mania. RAW THOUGHTSThe Good-- Well, coming off a sensational Raw last week and a great Royal Rumble, it would have been unrealistic to think WWE would even bother to top them tonight and sure enough, they didn’t.
That being said, it was still a very solid show and the next step on the way to Wrestlemania.
The slow burn with Orton and Edge is great right now. Orton’s not mentioning Edge in his promo once, Edge talking about how differently he viewed Orton in this and that, all that was good. Nice, slow burn. Now that the tag belts are off them, I’m sure we’ll see a minor acceleration of this feud.
While I think Taker will likely get Batista at Mania, I’m glad they’re pulling out the whole “He can challenge anyone he wants” card. Have him scare Batista, Lashley and Cena. Nice touch.
The tension between HBK and Cena is great right now between the almost-super kick and the “Cena’s great, but no Triple H” comments, you’ve gotta love it. Cena’s coming off as the overly optimistic if not altogether naïve baby-face champion. Flair slapping him into reality was great. I like the first few initial steps they’re taking with all this.
Super Crazy has seemingly caught on with fans for whatever reason, so WWE seems content to go with him for a little while. It looks like he and Carlito will be jostling for who’ll be the top mid card baby face for the foreseeable future.
Umaga got set right back on track and rightfully so. It’ll be interesting to see where they go with him for Wrestlemania.
Even the Mr. McMahon stuff was pretty decent as we actually DID get an appearance from the Donald tonight. I’m slightly interested to see where they’re heading with all this.
The Bad-- Nothing was ‘bad’ tonight.
The Ugly-- Nothing.
Overall- B --- Not as strong as last week’s edition, but then again, expecting that would have been unrealistic. This was a fairly solid show for the most part. Everything was at least watchable on some level and I even enjoyed the Trump-McMahon segment. All the matches were decent with the tag title change opening up a ton of possibilities for Mania. Strong Raw but not overly spectacular.
Quick Results
The World’s Greatest Tag Team def. Cryme Tyme
Melina def. Maria
Umaga def. Val Venis
Carlito & Super Crazy def. Chris Masters & Kenny Dykstra
The Great Khali def. Jeff Hardy
HBK & John Cena def. Rated RKO to become the NEW World Tag Team Champions
Who’s Hot, Who’s Not?
Biggest pops
1. Shawn Michaels
2. John Cena
3. Jeff Hardy
4. Super Crazy
Most Heat
1. Umaga
2. The Great Khali
3. Rated RKO
4. Mr. McMahon
Match of the night: Cena/HBK v. Rated RKO **1/4
Power Rankings5 Points= Title Win
4 Points= World Title defense/win
3 Points= Singles PPV Win
2 Points= Tag PPV Win
2 Points= TV Singles Win
1 Point= TV Tag Win
0 Points= Loss
I figured that’d be the most fair way to do it. Again, I won’t entirely be ranking guys based on their points, but it’ll give us an idea of how WWE is pushing their guys and how they view their own stars over time. More of an ‘interesting to see ‘ type thing than anything super official.
WWE Champion: John Cena (4-3, 11 points) (Last Week: WWE Champion)—Cena picks up another title, and in the process, the mystery of the Wrestlemania main event begins to take shape. First off he had a flat out sensational win over Umaga last night, a match I’d say is our first genuine MOTY candidate in the WWE and easily the best Last Man Standing match I’ve ever seen. Cena’s on a roll.
Intercontinental Champion: Jeff Hardy (6-1, 15 points.) (Last Week: IC Champion)—Hardy finally has that six match winning streak snapped, but he’s still getting quite a decent push in the mid card. No one has more wins or points than Hardy does right now.
1. HBK 2-2, 3 points (Last Week: 3)—Between his performances in the last three weeks and second place showing at the Royal Rumble last night, that HBK’s the #1 contender for Cena’s belt, at least in terms of the guys on Raw. Add in the fact that the man that he’s hoping to challenge is co-tag champs with him and the fun should begin very soon.
2. Umaga 2-2, 3 Points (Last Week: 1 )— Despite losing his rematch with Cena last night, WWE went out of their way to insure he still looks strong. With his performance last night, he left very little doubt in people’s minds whether this guy is the real deal or not. Umaga’s one of the top in ring performers in the WWE right now, period. While I think his future on Raw is in question, he would make an excellent heel on the Smackdown or even ECW brand.
3. The Great Khali, 3-0, 5pts. (Last Week: 5)— A squash win over the Intercontinental Champion and eliminating almost a third of the entire Rumble field himself is reason enough to vault the guy into the top three. Thanks to Edge and Orton’s recent semi-cold streaks, Khali moves into the #3 spot.
4. Edge 2-2, 6pts. (Last Week: 3)— Edge loses the tag titles, but a very strong showing in the Rumble keeps him in the hunt at #4.
5. Randy Orton (1-2 , 4 pts.) ( (Last Week: 4)-- I enjoyed Orton’s performances last night and tonight as well, but let’s face it, he doesn’t have much in the way of wins to talk about. He’s clearly a step above the rest of the top 10 right now, but lacks the wins to warrant putting him much higher up the card.
6. Carlito 2-3, 4pts. (Last Week: 9)—Carlito gets another pin fall victory in a tag match against Masters, which I think pretty much places him above Masters on the card for the time being. They seem to be trying to test both him and Super Crazy to see which mid card face is worth pushing right now.
7. Kenny Dykstra 3-3, 6pts. (Last Week: 6) —Dykstra didn’t take the fall and looked good enough tonight, so there’s no real justification in tossing him further down the rankings at this point.
8. Super Crazy 2-2, 3 points) (Last Week: 10)—As odd as it might seem, Crazy seems to be catching on with fans. That’s why these nice lower mid card feuds are worth it. You never know what the fans will get into.
9. Chris Masters, 2-3, 5 pts. (Last Week: 7) )— After getting hot for a little while there, Masters seems to be cooling off a bit. Super Crazy seems to be getting a little traction, so it’ll be interesting to see where this feud ends up going.
10. Ric Flair, 1-2, 2pts. (Last Week: 8) — Flair drops to the 10 spot again this week, but that’s primarily due to inactivity. No real net loss for the guy.
Royal Rumble Predictions
I went 3-2 last night which brings my sorry behind to 6-5 overall for the year. Barely breaking .500.
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