On Tuesday, March 13, 2007 at 12:08 AM EST WWE RAW
March 12, 2007
Washington, DC
Commentators: Jim Ross & Jerry “The King” Lawler
Reported By: Hunter Golden of WrestleView.com
John Cena’s music hit and he came out to the ring. He grabbed the mic and said there’s tension in here and he could feel it. He said he had been asking himself if he trusted Shawn Michaels. He said he had been asking himself when HBK would stab him right in the back. He said he was on the doorstep of Wrestlemania and he was sick of thinking about it. He said if HBK wanted to turn on him he could go ahead, because they didn’t have any friends at Wrestlemania. But stab him in the back? No, he wasn’t down with that. He said if HBK wants to kick his teeth down his throat, he’d better come out and do it right now.
Cena cut him off and he said HBK had told him he had his back. He said the only reason HBK has his back was because of the WWE title. Michaels said he was right, and he wasn’t going to win any good Samaritan goal this year. He said he had one goal at Wrestlemania and that was to become WWE Champion. He said as far as watching Cena’s back, he said Cena looked good to him, so he had followed through with his promise.
Michaels wanted to know when Cena would turn on HBK. He said he saw the look in Cena’s eye and he knew that Cena would do whatever it took to keep his title. He said to be honest, he digs that about him, but he needed to understand one thing. He said as badly as wanted to keep that title, HBK wanted one more day in the sun that much more. Cena tossed his belts down and got in HBK’s face.
Coach’s music hit and he came out to the ramp. He said it would be a shame for the two to beat the hell out of each other. He said there were a ton of tag teams that wanted to take their titles. He said because of the contract signing later, the boss can’t be bothered with their problems. He said Cena and HBK would be running a gauntlet tonight against three teams tonight. He said if they made it to the final match later tonight, they’d be in the structure that was directly above them, a 15 foot high steel cage.
A limo pulled up to the back of the arena. Donald Trump stepped out.
One more spot is left in the money in the bank match at Wrestlemania. The last qualifying match will be tonight and feature Ric Flair v. Carlito v. Randy Orton.
****Commercial****
Money in the Bank Qualifying Match—Triple Threat Elimination Match
Ric Flair v. Carlito v. Randy Orton
Flair and Carlito went right for Orton. Orton fought both off and tried to quickly roll Carlito up with his feet on the ropes but only got a two count. Orton mauled Flair with a drop kick before Carlito jumped in and attempted a cradle.
Orton kicked out and hit Carlito with a forearm to the head before Flair tried to score an inside cradle but Carlito broke it up. Carlito and Flair hammered away at Orton with knife edge chops and beat him down into the corner. Flair hit a big chop and went for a cover but Orton kicked out. Carlito hit a vertical suplex and went for a cover but Orton kicked out.
Carlito and Flair continued their beat down on Orton hitting a chop block and then going for the figure four. Flair wrenched in the hold then stood up again. Carlito sneaked up on him and nailed him with the back cracker. Orton dumped Carlito to the floor and nailed Flair with the RKO to eliminate him.
Ric Flair has been eliminated
Carlito hit a springboard drop kick and both men were down as we went to commercial break.
****Commercial****
Orton had Carlito in a Boston Crab when we came back from the break. Orton released the hold and went to work on Carlito’s back some before bullying him to the corner and hitting a hard Irish whip to the opposite set of buckles. Orton went for a cover. Carlito kicked out of the hold but quickly found himself on the receiving end of a Randy Orton rear chin lock.
Carlito fought out of the hold and hit a back suplex leaving both him and Orton on their backs. The two exchanged right hands before Orton held himself up in the ropes, narrowly avoiding a Carlito drop kick attempt. Orton looked for the RKO but Carlito tossed him to the ropes and hit a hurricanranna. A stiff knee lift and lariat later, Carlito went for a cover and got a two count.
Orton reversed and Irish whip and Orton avoided a reverse senton only to get caught with a drop kick to the face. He went for another cover, but Orton kicked out. Carlito hit a flipping Senton, and went for yet another cover, but Orton kicked out yet again.
Carlito whipped Orton to the buckles but got sort of back dropped onto the top rope and was left crotched. Carlito reeled off the ropes and Orton hit the RKO out of nowhere and won the match.
Winner: Randy Orton via pin fall
A video recap aired of the Trump-McMahon-Umaga-Lashley fun of the last few weeks.
****Commercial****
A video replayed of The Great Khali making Kane his woman on Smackdown last week.
The Master Lock Challenge
We waited for someone to take the challenge but no music played. Masters asked Lillian if she wanted to break the master lock. He headed towards Lillian before Super Crazy’s music hit and he came out to make the save. Super Crazy pushed Masters all over the ring before going for a drop kick. Masters caught him in mid air and turned it into the master lock. Super Crazy passed out shortly thereafter and Masters posed over Crazy’s crumpled body.
Vince McMahon got out of his limo out in back of the arena. He approached Trump’s limo driver and told him to give Trump a message. He wanted the driver to tell Trump that Vince’s ‘was bigger than his’.
****Commercial****
A tribute video to the late “Big Cat” Ernie Ladd.
Orton was in the back with Edge. Orton said they were now opponents. Edge said he had won this thing before, had more wins than everyone /* out there and had worked 12 ladder matches. Orton said the only reason Edge was undefeated at Wrestlemania was because he had never faced him. He said he was also better looking.
A public service announcement aired on the titan tron. A man was reading a newspaper. He talked for a little while and then took down the paper. It’s THE ROCK! Rock asked us all what Umaga meant in Samoan. He said he knew a little something about Samoan and that Umaga meant ‘shriveled up monkey penis’. He asked Vince how he was going to beat Trump with a shriveled up monkey penis. The Rock went through his schpiel and gave a smile for us all. Everyone smelled what he was cooking.
The Tag Team Gauntlet match is next!
****Commercial****
A nice little video aired reminding us that Ashley will be very nekkid in this month’s edition of Playboy.
World Tag Team Championship—Gauntlet Match
Match #1: John Cena & Shawn Michaels v. The World’s Greatest Tag Team
The World’s Greatest Tag Team is up first. All four went at it at the opening bell and Cena and Benjamin ended up in the ring together. Cena hit a clothesline and a flying hip toss before hitting the fisherman’s suplex for a two count. Shelton reversed a whip attempt and Haas went to jab a knee to Cena’s back but the Champ caught him and tossed him off the apron.
Cena turned around only to get nailed by Benjamin with a drop kick. Haas tagged in and put a nasty little beat down on the Champion. Haas whipped Cena to the buckles but missed the follow up and Cena hit a bulldog. HBK tagged in and went right at Haas and cleaned him out in short order before cutting off Shelton Benjamin.
HBK turned Haas inside out with a DDT before knocking Shelton to the floor. HBK went to finish the job, but Cena tagged himself in and slapped on the STFU for the tap out win.
The World’s Greatest Tag Team has been eliminated
MATCH #2: Shawn Michaels & John Cena v. Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch
The rough Texans hit the ring and went right to work, cleaning out HBK in relatively short order with the chop block-lariat combination. Cade ended up in the ring with Michaels and dropped an elbow before going for the cover. Cade whipped Michaels off the rope and hit a nasty looking flying lariat and got a two count. Cade slapped on a bear hug HBK fought out but was cut off in short order by Cade.
HBK came back with some chops and hit a n ezeguiri on Cade before crawling to the corner and tagging Cena. Murdoch tagged in as well and he and Murdoch went at it. Cena hit a shoulder block and immediately went into his victory sequence nailing the five knuckle shuffle. Cena went for an FU and while he had Murdoch on his shoulders, HBK hit sweet chin music on Murdoch’s face just for fun. Cena and Michaels were really not getting along now.
Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch have been eliminated
****Commercial****
MATCH #3—Steel Cage Match: John Cena & Shawn Michaels v. MNM
We came back to Mercury in solid control, holding a rear chin lock on John Cena. Cena fought out of the hold and then tagged in HBK. HBK put the punches to Mercury before hitting a running knee lift. HBK went for the flying forearm but Mercury side-stepped him and HBK crashed into the cage.
Nitro tagged in and hit a hangman’s neck breaker before going for a cover attempt. MNM hit a double gut buster on Michaels and again, went for the cover. Nitro began laying the boots to HBK’s midsection before laying out the show stopper with a body slam. Nitro went for a cork screw moonsault off the second rope but missed.
Mercury cut off the hot tag attempt on the part of HBK and tagged himself into the match. Mercury went for a back body drop but got tagged with a boot in the face and then a clothesline. Cena got the tag and laid out both members of MNM with clotheslines before picking up Joey Mercury and tossing him face-first into the steel cage. Nitro followed him shortly thereafter. Mercury is busted open. Cena and HBK began to try and one up each other. Cena went for an FU and HBK went to hit sweet chin music again, but Cena dropped Mercury to prevent him from getting the one up.
Cena waited for the FU again before HBK hit sweet chin music. Cena connected with his finisher and made the cover for the win. The two stared each other down.
Winners and STILL World Tag Team Champions: John Cena & Shawn Michaels
The cage was raised and the other tag team made their way into the ring to attack the champions. HBK and Cena cleaned house but Cena almost hit HBK with a chair. JR and King postulated about what Cena’s real intentions were. Cena walked off to the back.
****Commercial****
Edge came out in his street clothes and grabbed a mic. Jeff Hardy stood in the ring ready to face him in their scheduled match tonight. Edge said he wanted to beat Hardy badly and show him what the pecking order was all about but they were in Washington, D.C., home of the Washington Redskins. He said he was going to be damned if he was going to wrestle in a city that allowed people to use those kinds of racial slurs against Native Americans. Edge said he had an Indian friend who would be taking his place. The Great Khali came down the ramp. That’s one big Indian. Edge taunted Hardy on the outside.
Jeff Hardy v. The Great Khali
Hardy came after Khali and then got chopped in the head. Khali tossed him into the ropes and decapitated him with a big boot to the face. He picked up Hardy and slammed him to the mat with a double choke slam.
Kane’s pyro went off and he came out to the ramp with a chain with a hook on it. Khali and Edge were not too excited about it, so they left. Kane ripped the announce table to shreds with the hook for fun and then did his little pyro thing and stared Khali down from the ring.
No Contest
Donald Trump was in the back with what looked like a special assistant. He asked her if his hair looked real or not and she couldn’t tell.
****Commercial****
The new newest member of the WWE Hall of Fame announced it’s newest member tonight. It’s MR. FUJI.
Todd Grisham was in the back with Mick Foley. Foley shilled his book and then got himself a cheap pop. The book is a national best seller. He said it was a best seller because of his brutal honesty. Foley said he’d be showing up on ECW tomorrow night. Ashley showed up and offered to trade her Playboy for his book. Foley stopped at first and then Ashley showed him some pictures and he said he only had one thing to say about those pictures. Ron Simmons showed up and gave us our weekly ‘Damn!’.
Vince was with his stylist Jill and asked her about his beautiful head of hair. Coach came in to kiss some butt and Vince told him to get lost because his bald head reminded him too much of Donald Trump.
Melina v. Torrie Wilson is next!
****Commercial****
Melina v. Torrie Wilson
Torrie came right at Melina and slapped on a bow and arrow. Melina fought out of it and Torrie went for a bridged roll up but Melina kicked out. Melina bullied Torrie to the corner and whipped her to the opposite buckles. Melina missed the follow up and nearly got rolled up.
Melina rolled out to the apron and hanged Torrie up on the top rope. Melina hit some kicks to the gut before going for a small package. Melina grabbed Torrie by the hair but had her feet swept out from underneath her and nearly got rolled up again. Melina again bullied Torrie to the corner but missed a hair fling attempt. Torrie came back with two clotheslines but got caught up in a roll up attempt. Melina yanked the tights and got the pin fall.
Winner: Melina via pin fall
After the match, Melina attempted a beat down on Torrie but Mickie James came in to make the save. Victoria showed up to even out the odds. Torrie and Mickie cleaned house before Melina snuck up on Torrie and dumped her to the outside. She and Mickie rolled out to the outside and Melina made a b-line for the back, only to run into Ashley Massarro on the ramp. Ashley brought her into the ring and laid a nasty little beat down on her. Ashley dumped the champion to the floor and gave her a good talking to as the champ fled up the ramp.
Edge was in the back with Vince. He said what Lashley did to him was wrong. He said Rated RKO weren’t going to stand for it. He offered to take care of Lashley personally on behalf of Rated RKO. Edge said it’d be Lashley v. Randy Orton tomorrow night. He said if Orton missed the match due to some sort of jealousy thing, he’d get kicked out of the money in the bank match at Wrestlemania.
****Commercial****
Contract Signing
Vince came out to the ring and slipped on his way into the ring. Vince got on the mic and called everyone in D.C. a jerk. He said Trump was going to sign a deal that would make him out to be the laughing stock of the entire world. He said he created the wrestling world and he’d be damned if he was going to be embarrassed. He introduced Umaga. Vince asked where Trump was. He said he was probably scared and had the ‘heeby jeebies’.
Trump’s music hit and he came out to the ramp. Trump grabbed the mic and said McMahon’s grape fruits were no match for his Trump towers. He told him to hold his man back because he’ll have a hard time on April 1st. He said the last time they were in the ring together, Vince was clearly scared. He said he was also scared of this man, and introduced Lashley.
Vince chimed in and told him to back off. Trump asked the fans if they loved Lashley. The two sat at the table and Vince asked if Trump minded if he signed first. Vince said it would be the last contract Trump would sign with head. Vince ran his mouth some more before Donald chimed in and the two began talking about polls where Hollywood celebs were talking about who they wanted to see get their head shaved.
The two began to wrap business up when the glass shattered and out came Steve Austin. Austin grabbed the mic and said he noticed the disagreement between the two. He said there were two questions to be asked before asking the crowd they thought would get their head shaved.
Austin ran down Donald Trump and said he wasn’t scared of him because Donald wasn’t his boss and told him not to get under his skin. Austin told him not to piss him off because if he did, he’d whip his ass. He said he did his research on him. He said he didn’t care if Donald was worth 8 billion dollars, he’d open up an 8 billion dollar can of whoop ass on him.
Vince laughed before Austin came over to Vince. Vince looked like a 10 year old who was about to get hammered by a bully. Austin asked Vince if he had a problem with bald headed people. Vince looked away from Austin then sheepishly looked at Lashley as well. Austin grabbed him and asked him if he had his attention. He said Vince had screwed him for years. He said Lashley and Umaga would fight at Wrestlemania. He said someone would get their head shaved bald, and that was the bottom line because Stone Cold said so. Austin left the premises.
Vince said when Umaga beats Bobby Lashley, Vince was going to shave Donald’s head bald. His music played and he began to walk up the ramp. Donald cut him off half way up the ramp. He said he had heard Vince running his mouth and showing him with his head shaved bald. Trump said he did a little number on Vince himself. Vince turned around to see his picture on the titan tron without any hair. Trump said he was one ugly bastard. Trump turned to Lashley and told him he wanted to make McMahon suffer. Vince challenged Trump to a fight right now. Trump kicked Lashley out of the ring and said he was going to kick McMahon’s ass right now.
Vince looked scared as Trump taunted him saying ‘you never had it Vince, you’re a fraud’. Vince cleared some furniture and took his coat off. Trump took McMahon and flung him over the table and Vince landed right on his head. Trump calmly walked off as Vince McMahon boiled on the inside of the ring.RAW THOUGHTSShow Thoughts-- This was a decent Raw, above average for what is usually par for the course but this week was a little too segment heavy for me.
The opening segment was absolutely sensational with HBK and Cena staring each other down and raising suspicion about the other. Having them defend the tag belts in a gauntlet added to the tension but I almost felt as if WWE missed out tonight. I thought they really set things up well and maybe should have gone for a turn from one of them tonight. God knows the crowd seemingly really wanted it.
The Trump-McMahon stuff was fun for what it was and the nice little short snippets were better than the five minute monologues we’ve had in the past few weeks. The kinks were worked out of the way they were pushing the angle and now it’s turning out to be a lot of fun.
The Edge-Hardy stuff was a little too much. Edge’s promo was more or less a repeat of what he did last week. However, there’s no real reason for him to hate Jeff Hardy as much as he does, never mind be in cahoots with Khali. Then Kane showed up with the chain for no reason other than to look scary. It was just a little too much packed into one segment. Hardy’s been monster food the past few weeks.
The Melina-Ashley stuff was actually pretty effective for the most part and adds some heat to their match, so I can’t really poop on it. It’s also nice to see Chris Masters still looking strong and consistently being featured on TV.
And who doesn’t love seeing the Rock on TV? Nice to see Rock and Vince have mended their fences.
Overall- C+-- This was a lot like last week. It wasn’t a horrible Raw by any means, but still felt like it was lacking the kind of action that made the majority of the January-February Raws so good. It was a little overly segment heavy, although all the segments did bring something to the table. Can’t say I hated this at all.
Quick Results
Randy Orton def. Ric Flair & Carlito
John Cena & HBK def. The World’s Greatest Tag Team, Cade & Murdoch & MNM in a Gauntlet match to RETAIN the World Tag Team Championships
Jeff Hardy v. The Great Khali went to a NO CONTEST
Melina def. Torrie Wilson
Who’s Hot, Who’s Not?
Biggest Pops
1. Steve Austin
2. The Rock
3. Shawn Michaels
4. Jeff Hardy
Most Heat
1. Mr. McMahon
2. Umaga
3. Edge
4. The Great Khali
Match of the night: Randy Orton v. Ric Flair v. Carlito **
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 (10-3, 23 points) (Last Week: WWE Champion)—They really went out of their way to make it look like Cena could be every bit as likely to turn on HBK as HBK was to turn on him. That, I feel, is a mistake. I thought they missed the opportunity to turn Cena without warning and really getting good shock value out of it. Now it’s looking a little too deliberate.
Intercontinental Champion: Umaga 5-2, 13 Points (Last Week: IC Champion) — Quiet week for the IC champ.
1. HBK 8-2, 15 points (Last Week: 1)— Again, the same thing as Cena. I thought they missed the opportunity to pull the trigger tonight. It looks like they’re definitely going to turn someone now, as they played off the ‘what were Cena’s intentions’ thing tonight. Sure, the question is who, but the turn, regardless of who it was coming from, should have been out of the blue. This feud has been great though, so maybe I’m splitting hairs here.
2. The Great Khali, 5-0-1, 9pts. (Last Week: 2 )— No real reason to move Khali down the totem poll.
3. Jeff Hardy (9-3-1, 21 points.) (Last Week: 3 )— Was I the only one who thought Jeff Hardy’s reaction was pretty darn big tonight? He’s always been over but tonight it seemed noticeably bigger for some reason. Jeff’s been in a bit of a slide lately, but seems to be doing enough to tread water towards the top of the roster.
4. Edge 3-5, 8pts. (Last Week: 4) — Edge doesn’t really move anywhere as this is the second week in a row he’s more or less been out of action, but provided strong mic work. Edge can stay put here.
5. Randy Orton 2-7 , 6 pts. (Last Week: 7)-- Stop the presses. Randy Orton won a match against TWO guys no less. Seeing as it also came against two guys directly in front of him in the rankings, he leap frogs both.
6. Carlito 4-6-1, 7pts. (Last Week: 6)— Carlito doesn’t qualify for the Money in the Bank Match, but certainly looks strong in taking another loss to Randy Orton. He was primarily responsible for Flair being eliminated though, so we’ll see if he and Flair lock em up at Mania and get themselves on the card. I can’t not see Flair not on the card.
7. Ric Flair, 3-4-1, 5pts. (Last Week: 5) —Flair drops the furthest, after clearly looking weaker than Orton and Carlito in tonight’s MITB qualifier.
8. Chris Masters, 3-4, 6 pts. (Last Week: 8) — Masters more or less solidifies his position at the top of the lower mid card with a strong showing in his own Master Lock Challenge. No win means he doesn’t get to skip up the rankings.
9. Super Crazy 3-3-1, 5 points (Last Week: 9) )— Crazy got his sombrero handed to him in the Master Lock Challenge tonight, but Johnny Nitro didn’t fair much better in his match tonight, either, so he stays put.
10. Johnny Nitro, (2-6-1, 2pts ) (last week: 10) — Of all the guys in mid card land, it’s safe to say Nitro’s been the one who’s slid the furthest so far this year. In fact, he’s looking more like a tag team competitor these days.
OTHERS : Kenny Dykstra 3-5, 6pts. (Last Week: NR)