On Monday, March 5, 2007 at 11:33 PM EST WWE RAW
March 5, 2007
Phoenix, AZ
Commentators: Jim Ross & Jerry “The King” Lawler
Reported By: Hunter Golden of WrestleView.com
World Tag Team Champions Shawn Michaels and John Cena were in the back to kick off the fun. John Cena told HBK that he had is back. Michaels told him he didn’t need it. Oh they love each other more and more each week. HBK’s music hit and he took off for fun with Randy Orton
Shawn Michaels v. Randy Orton w/ Edge
Orton sprinted to the ring and decked Michaels in the head a few times before sending him into the ropes, looking for a back body drop. Michaels caught him and hit a swinging neck breaker before hitting a back body drop of his own then clotheslining Orton out to the floor. On his way down, Orton’s noodle bounced off the announce table.
Michaels hip tossed Orton back into the ring before tossing him into the corner and laying some chops to his chest. He whipped Orton to the opposite buckle but got caught with a boot to the floor. Orton landed some European style uppercuts before choking out the #1 contender for the WWE title out on the ropes.
Orton bullied HBK into the corner and raked his eyes before sending HBK off the ropes and catching another boot to the face. Michaels charged at Orton but found himself back body dropped to the floor. Michaels landed flat on his back with a nasty bump.
****Commercial****
We came back to HBK having a case of the crabs. The Boston types. He struggled to the ropes and managed to break the hold. Orton whipped Michaels to the ropes but had it reversed. HBK slapped on a sleeper. Orton countered out and went for a slam, but Michaels shifted hit weight and got a two count.
Michaels went to mess with Edge ‘just because’ before trying to make his way back into the ring. Orton caught him and did the feet on the ropes DDT, planting HBK’s head into the mat. Orton kicked Michaels into the corner where he hit a standing drop kick before dropping a nasty knee across the back of HBK’s neck. He went for a cover but only got a two count. Deciding to catch his wind a bit, he slapped on a rear chin lock.
HBK fought out with a back suplex that left both laid out on the mat. HBK chopped away at Orton’s chest before hitting the flying forearm and nipping up. HBK floored Orton with two punches and then connected with the body slam. He mounted the top rope and hit the flying elbow.
Michaels tuned up the band but Orton blocked it and went for the RKO but was shoved into the official. Orton laid Michaels out with a lariat. Edge went for one of the belts and tossed it in Orton’s direction, but the official intercepted it!. While Orton and Edge went nuts on the referee, HBK sneaked up on Orton and rolled him up for the pin fall victory.
Winner: Shawn Michaels via pin fall
After the match, Rated RKO tried to get their revenge and Orton hit an RKO onto the steel chair. He signaled for the con chair to, but John Cena came in and ran them off.
Apparently we’re going to find out who the guest referee is later tonight for the Umaga-Lashley match at Wrestlemania.
****Commercial****
The ECW Rewind aired, putting over the Lashley crashing through the steel cage segment on last week’s show.
Mr. McMahon was with Alejandro Estrada in the back and he wanted to know what Umaga was going to do to Bobby Lashley at Wrestlemania. Estrada said he had nothing to worry about. Coach said McMahon looked stressed tonight. McMahon got mad and said he didn’t care what the board of directors said because all they did was kiss his ass. He said the guest referee should be independent-minded, someone like his son, Shane McMahon. Coach said he was a genius.
Jeff Hardy v. Umaga
Squash coming in 5...4...3...2...1
Umaga bullied Hardy right into the corner and whipped him hard to the buckles. Hardy rolled out of the ring and started running. Umaga missed a clothesline on the floor and Hardy cold cocked him with a kick. Hardy kept sticking and moving on the outside before he ate Umaga’s shoulder.
Umaga dropped down with his big ole’ ass twice. Hardy already looks dead as a doornail. Hardy fought back a little bit with a jawbreaker but got hit with a totally vicious thrust to the throat and an awful lariat to his FACE! Umaga dumped Hardy upside down in the corner and hit his falling head butt. He propped what was left of Hardy’s carcass in the corner and Hardy ate some booty.
Thumbs are up and Umaga collected Jeff and killed him dead with the Samoan spike. That’s all she wrote.
Winner: Umaga via pin fall
A video aired tracing Lashley’s journey in this feud so far.
Later tonight, John Cena will take on Edge. Oh joy of joys.
****Commercial****
A video putting over the battle of the billionaires aired, with John Travolta and Dallas Mavericks owner all making comments over who would be the better looking bald billionaire.
Ric Flair told Carlito he was going to make him his woman tonight, go to the money in the bank match and win another world title at Wrestlemania.
McMahon discussed the board of directors with Coach.
****Commercial****
Master Lock Challenge
Jim Duggan is taking the master lock challenge tonight.
Masters locked in the hold while Duggan carried on. The Master lock was locked in and Duggan struggled to break the hold. Duggan flailed around for a little while and gave it a good fight, but eventually passed out to the hold.
Mr.McMahon was in the back walking around in the hallways.
****Commercial****
John Cena was in the back. The mic didn’t work initially. HBK came up to Cena and told him he had his back tonight. Cena did an impression of the ‘I don’t want, I don’t need your help’ thing before slapping him on the back and saying ‘thanks’.
Announcement of the Guest Referee for Wrestlemania 23 Match
McMahon’s music hit and he came out to the ring. He said before we find out who this referee was, he said he wanted to tell us what would happen next week. He said Trump would be on Raw next week and there would be a contract signing. McMahon said if he gets in his face, he’s going to give him a good old billionaire ‘bitch slap’.
Erich Bischoff’s music hit and he came out to the ramp. Vince asked him what he was doing here. Bischoff said he wasn’t the special referee. He said he happened to live in Phoenix and figured he’d stop by and say ‘hello’. He said he had a lot of free time since Vince fired him on national television and hauled out of the building on a garbage truck.
He said he wanted to stop by and tell him how much we’re all going to enjoy Trump shave his head bald. McMahon said that was nice but he might as well interview everyone if Bischoff was going to talk to him. He wanted to know who the guest referee would be at Wrestlemania.
Mick Foley’s music hit and he came down to the ring wearing a referee’s shirt. Mick said hi to Foley. McMahon was ecstatic about Foley being chosen. Vince said he looked great. Foley said it was ironic that when he left here, he was kissing McMahon’s ass and seven months later, Vince was kissing his. Vince said he wanted bygones be bygones. Foley asked for his job back and he got it.
Foley plugged his book and then asked for unfettered access to come and shill it whenever he wanted to. He said he called into question a lot of things in the book. Vince said he’d do for you what he did for him. Foley stopped after being announced as the referee. He said there was a little bit of a mix up. He said he wasn’t the special guest referee for McMahon’s match, that he was the special guest official for the Suns’ Gorilla v. Charles Barkley rib eating contest later tonight. The Gorilla came in and did a fun little dance, etc. McMahon demanded he get out of the ring.
Shane McMahon’s music hit and Vince had a look of euphoria and did a little Shane o Mac dance for us all. Shane seemed to be hesitant and wanted Vince’s attention. Vince paid him no heed and introduced him. Shane said the board voted 5-4 and they lost the vote.
Vince asked him who the referee was. He told Vince and he almost began to cry before the glass shattered and here comes Steve Austin. Vince went to shake his hand and was beyond sensitive. Austin laughed at him. Austin toasted the crowd a few times and McMahon looked utterly helpless in the ring.
****Commercial****
Foley was in the back with the Gorilla. The two walked down the hallway and Faarooq watched them disappear into the sunset. Ladies and gentlemen, your weekly ‘damn!’.
Ashley was our special guest ring announcer.
WWE Women’s Championship—Falls Count Anywhere
Melina © v. Mickie James
Melina did her split thing and got drop kicked to the outside of the ring. Mickie went for a cover but the champion kicked out. Melina took off out into the back and tossed a garbage can at Mickie’s face. Mickie went for a cover on a table but only got a one count.
James smashed Melina into the door way before busting into the Divas locker room and beating her all over the place and tossing her into the couch. Melina ate the wardrobe before Victoria interjected her self. Torrie sprayed her in the eyes with hair spray before Candice came out incredibly angry.
The screen went black and we went to commercial.
****Commercial****
The two rolled out onto the ramp when we got back from the ramp. Melina slammed Mickie’s head into the ramp and pursued her down to the ring. James scuffled around the ring with Melina until she went for her tornado DDT off the top rope. Melina decked her in the gut and power bombed her hard to the mat, hurting James’ head enabling her to get the pin fall.
Winner and STILL Women’s Champion: Melina via pin fall
After the match, Melina and Ashley had a bit of a confrontation, which ended in Melina being shoved on her backside at the end. Ashley climbed in the ring and raised Mickie’s hand to Melina’s disgust.
****Commercial****
Money in the Bank Qualifying Match
Ric Flair v. Carlito
The two locked up and Carlito floored Flair with a shoulder block and went for a quick cover. The two locked horns again and Carlito rushed Flair to the corner and hit some shoulder thrusts. Carlito hammered away with some punches and kicks before Flair fired back with some strikes of his own.
Carlito whipped Flair and Back body dropped him to the mat before giving him a drop kick right to the mug. Carlito went for the cover but only got a two count. Carlito put the boots to Flair on the mat and suplexed him before going for another cover.
Carlito landed some chops in the corner before putting the boots to the 17-time former World Champion in the corner. Flair caught Carlito and low blowed him before chopping the youngster to the mat. Flair hit his running knee drop to Carlito’s head before going for a cover of his own.
The Nature Boy slapped on a chin lock before Carlito fought out and hit a springboard back elbow. Flair and Carlito went at it some more before Khali showed up out of nowhere. Flair chopped away at Khali but was tossed aside. Carlito laid a nasty beat down on both, tossing Carlito to the outside and flat backing Flair in the middle of the ring with a choke slam.
Khali grabbed the mic and said he wanted Kane.
Winner: No Contest
We’re going to find out the fourth member of the WWE Hall of Fame Class when we return!
****Commercial****
A replay of the Austin appearance aired. Stone Cold is showing up on ECW tomorrow night!
We have a new member of the Hall of Fame. He is NICK BOCKWINKEL.
Edge was in the back with Randy Orton and asked Randy if he had his back. Orton told him he couldn’t look after him tonight. Edge said he hoped it wasn’t about tonight. Orton said right now he doesn’t have his back, period.
WWE Champion John Cena is on his way to the ring.
****Commercial****
John Cena v. Edge
MNM’s music hit and Mercury, Nitro and Melina showed up. Edge took the mic and said that he was so ready to kick the crap out of Cena right now. He said he was also a huge civil rights activist. He said Arizona was one of the last states to recognize MLK Jr. Day. He said he wouldn’t wrestle with bigots. Instead, because Johnny Nitro’s grandpa is black, he’ll be wrestling him tonight.
Johnny Nitro v. John Cena
Nitro jumped Cena and put the boots to the champion on the mat. Cena reversed an Irish whip but found himself quickly ejected to the outside and slammed into the ring post by Joey Mercury.
Nitro picked up Cena’s remains and flung him into the ring steps. Cena rolled into the ring and Nitro covered him for a two count. Nitro slapped on a rear chin lock and the champion fought out. Cena hit a kick to the gut and fought back with some punches to the face before turning him inside out with a hugely stiff lariat. Cena hit a shoulder tackle and then his inverted slam. Cena went for the five-knuckle shuffle and connected.
Mercury and Edge were chased off the apron before Cena went for the FU. Mercury jumped in and blatantly got a disqualification.
Winner: John Cena via disqualification
MNM hit the snap shot after the match before HBK came running down the ramp. He stopped however, and watched the beat down for a little while. He turned around and walked back up the ramp, appearing to ditch Cena altogether. He thought the better of it and chased MNM off. Cena watched in confusion as HBK slowly walked up the ramp. RAW THOUGHTSShow Thoughts-- Tonight’s show seemed to be a half breed of the usual run of the mill show and the kind of show they’ve been producing the last few weeks. There was a lot to like but a lot to dislike as I felt the overall length of the segments, especially the McMahon stuff, was ENTIRELY too long.
The Orton-HBK match was pretty good stuff with a fun ending and a great way to get the ball rolling for the night and increasing the hate between Orton and Edge. John Cena comes in and saves HBK without question, sets up for the big moment later in the night.
Then we just got way, way, way too much McMahon for the next 45 minutes. I’m all for putting over Umaga, which was great, but then we had about six different McMahon segments. One with him walking down the stairs, one yelling at Estrada, one on the phone with the board, one of him out in the ring, just too much. The Austin thing was done well but again, it didn’t need to be 20 minutes. I noticed they started the segment around 9:50. Austin came out at EXACTLY 10pm.
After that, the show got quite good and made up for a lot of the McMahon over exposure. Melina and Mickie James put on a ridiculous, but altogether fun Falls Count Anywhere match and went all over the arena (remember, that’s the point) before we got a decent little ending. Obviously not the match of the year or anything, but I completely enjoyed the bout. The hair spray ‘bump’ Victoria took in the back was pretty funny.
We then moved onto the Carlito-Flair stuff which was enjoyable while it lasted. I’m all for WWE pushing the hell out of Khali as a monster, but they’ve got to commit to doing it and keep his attention solely focused on Kane for this feud. Last week he sort of came off as a bit of a comedy character and then this week they totally reverted back to what they’ve been doing. I thought it lost its effect a bit.
The main event was a total let down and to be honest, it was kind of unnecessary. Edge could’ve wrestled the match with Nitro and company as back up. The HBK stuff at the end was done absolutely brilliant and the crowd was chewing on their collective hats wondering what HBK was going to do. It’s just not my cup of tea when WWE advertises a main event, especially a good one like this, and then don’t follow through.
Overall- C+-- This wasn’t a bad Raw by any means, but unlike the past five or six weeks, the flaws and the bad stuff was definitely noticeable and effected the show for me. The Raw brand is SO GREAT when they keep everything coming from the ring and I’d like to see them stick with it. Again, nothing offensively stupid or anything, but not on par with the past shows. What needed to be drilled home was done in spades though, so I really can't kill it.
Quick Results:
Shawn Michaels def. Randy Orton
Umaga def. Jeff Hardy
Melina def. Mickie James via pin fall
Ric Flair v. Carlito went to a No Contest
John Cena def. Johnny Nitro
Who’s Hot, Who’s Not?
Biggest Pops
1. Steve Austin
2. John Cena
3. Shawn Michaels
4. Jeff Hardy
Most Heat
1. Umaga
2. Mr. McMahon
3. Edge
4. The Great Khali
Match of the night: Melina-Mickie James **1/2
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
WWE Champion: John Cena (9-3, 22 points) (Last Week: WWE Champion)—The HBK feud, as mentioned above, has been the best built Wrestlemania feud since The Jericho-HBK feud a couple of years ago. Every year we get a little bit further, and the ‘tease’ has been executed beautifully. I almost feel like we’ll see Cena, not HBK, be the guy to move first.
Intercontinental Champion: Umaga 5-2, 13 Points (Last Week: IC Champion) — Umaga has such a natural energy about him and it really carried an otherwise fill in the blanks squash match. He’s getting a blistering amount of heat these days and is making this whole McMahon-Trump thing worth watching single-handedly.
1. HBK 7-2, 14 points (Last Week: 1)— There isn’t a person in the WWE who’s better at doing the tease like HBK. This has just been an awesome program with Cena and finally, we have a Wrestlemania-worthy main event match and story line.
2. The Great Khali, 5-0, 9pts. (Last Week: 2 )— Came in and did his thing, but an otherwise quiet night for Khali.
3. Jeff Hardy (9-3, 21 points.) (Last Week: 3 )— Good lord did Umaga squash his melon tonight, but due to Edge’s inaction and no one /* really doing much of anything below him, he lucks out and stays put.
4. Edge 3-5, 8pts. (Last Week: 4) — Edge’s heel act just gets better by the week and he’s really just getting natural now. The whole “Even I make mistakes, you know, believe it or not” was hilarious. The MLK Jr. speech was so preposterous is almost made the segment work. Again, Orton takes the beat down, Edge saves himself. A good heel always stacks the odds in his favor. Perfect.
5. Ric Flair, 3-3-1, 5pts. (Last Week: 5)-- Flair’s stick work has been awesome the last few weeks and I hope it keeps it up. I want to see Flair continue to make Carlito ‘his woman’. Sure he gets an ugly beat down from Khali, but a draw ain’t a loss.
6. Carlito 4-5-1, 7pts. (Last Week: 6)— Tonight was a decent way to protect both Carlito and Flair, give them a little meaning in a match and then build the story a bit. I know I’m going to get at least 123 emails this week about how mindless it was having it as a MITB qualifier, but I like it. Gave us a little added reason to watch the segment even though it wasn’t totally followed through with. It’s the little things folks.
7. Randy Orton 1-7 , 4 pts. (Last Week: 7) —If Chris Masters had won a match rather than a Master Lock challenge, I’d have moved Orton behind him. Total punching bag. At least now the losses are for a purpose.
8. Chris Masters, 3-4, 6 pts. (Last Week: 9) — Masters is the only guy who moves anywhere this week. He didn’t really get a win per sae, but they put him over with a little Master Lock Challenge stuff. Because Crazy didn’t do anything and Nitro lost, Masters gets bumped up a spot, but not enough to warrant him being over Orton.
9. Super Crazy 3-3-1, 5 points (Last Week:8) )— Quiet, otherwise inactive week for Super Crazy.
10. Johnny Nitro, (2-5-1, 2pts ) (last week NR) — Shows up for an entirely random John Cena match with an expected result. Sure he loses, but Dykstra didn’t even see TV. Nitro stays in the top ten, again, by the skin of his teeth.
OTHERS : Kenny Dykstra 3-5, 6pts. (Last Week: 8)