On Monday, October 1, 2007 at 11:27 PM EST WWE RAW
October 1, 2007
Cleveland, OH
Commentators: Jim Ross & Jerry “The King” Lawler
Reported By: Hunter Golden of WrestleView.com
The opening pyro hit and here we go!
Three defuses are in the ring and Vince McMahon’s music has hit. Vince comes down to the ring and someone’s going to die. Ironically, that crappy new version of ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ is playing on my wife’s stereo. Vince put over the match between himself and Triple H later tonight before guaranteeing a victory later tonight. Why is he so confident? Because actions speak louder than words.
A promo video showing Vince putting the beat down on Triple H multiple times aired.
Vince said these three physical ‘specimens’ was in the ring and each one of them represented a different fighting style. One man an amateur wrestler the second a kenpo Karate Champion and the third the Ohio state Sumo champion. Pro wrestling rules.
Vince said we’d have ourselves a demonstration of exactly what he’d do to Triple H here tonight in whatever name this town was. He asked the people if they forgot where they come from. He told us the demonstration was coming and began removing his garments.
He said however, rather than demonstrating what he’d do, he’d bring someone out who would demonstrate what he’d do to Triple H at No Mercy this Sunday. That’s Umaga.
Umaga nailed the fat guy with a boot in the grill before killing the other two. Umaga stiff kicked a guy in the ribs before potato-ing him in the face. Umaga hit some running asses to the face before hitting the sumo champ with the big Samoan spike. Vince raised Umaga’s hand as the segment ended.
Umaga hit a Samoan slam on the Kenpo Karate clown just because. I love Umaga.
****Commercial****
Six Man Tag Match
Jeff Hardy, London & Kendrick v. Shelton Benjamin, Cade & Murdoch
London and Murdoch started tings off and locked up. London hit an inverted atomic drop before taking the big man down with a hurricanranna. Kendrick tagged in and hit a drop kick to Trevor’s head before getting bullied to the corner and having Shelton Benjamin tag in and hit a nasty gut buster.
Lance Cade tagged in and hit some forearms to the back and slammed Kendrick off the buckles before tagging Murdoch back into the match.
The crowd quickly rallied behind Kendrick to a brief comeback punctuated with a nice standing drop kick. Jeff Hardy got the hot tag and floored Lance Cade with a bunch of forearms and an inverted atomic drop before hitting the leg drop to the crotch and drop kick to the face.
Hardy hit whisper in the wind before going to the top looking for a swanton but Shelton cut him off. London came sailing out of freaking nowhere and took Shelton to the floor. Kendrick hit sliced bread #2 on Cade before Hardy absolutely CRUSHED him with the swanton bomb for the quick win. Wowzers.
Winners: Jeff Hardy, Paul London & Brian Kendrick via pin fall
William Regal is in the back on the cell phone. Vince came back to welcome him back to Raw. He said Regal was looking good but unfortunately Coach was under the weather this week. Vince applauded him on his match making tonight. He told him he’d do a job on Triple H tonight but before he left he asked him for a personal favor. Vince asked him to look after Hornswaggle tonight. Regal looked less than thrilled. Regal looked down after Vince left only to have no idea where the little guy had run off to.
A replay of the Orton kick to Mr. Cena’s head aired and I guess we’re hearing from Orton next.
****Commercial****
Jim Ross asked Orton why he wasn’t here. Orton said he personally elected not to show up in Cleveland and wasn’t going to show up at Raw with Cena in the state of mind he was. Orton said he loved doing what he did to Cena and in fact, wanted to see the footage again and sure enough, it aired again.
Orton said what he did for a reason. He said Mr. Cena wanted to get involved in his match at Unforgiven and so he involved himself with Mr. Cena. He said Cena’s dad wasn’t left standing just like Cena would be on Sunday. Orton asked Cena how his head was and said he’d do whatever it took to get the championship around his waist. He said the next time we saw him, he’d be the new WWE Champion.
Diva Search stuff aired.
William Regal stumbled across the Highlanders in the back while looking for Hornswaggle. He asked them why they turned down a match for London & Kendrick tonight, and they said the only match they wanted was one for the belts. They said they came here with one goal and they were going to accomplish it whether anyone liked it or not.
****Commercial****
Hardcore Holly v. Cody Rhodes
The two locked up before Holly tossed him off the ropes and lat backed him with a shoulder block. Cody hit an arm drag and got a one count before slapping on an arm bar. Cody hammered away on Holly before eating a standing drop kick and taking a near fall.
Holly bullied him in the corner before lighting him up with a big chop in the corner. Cody fought back before grabbing a quick backslide. Holly went for a back body drop but Cody hit a small package. Holly kicked out and decked Cody before going for a vertical suplex and almost got rolled up again.
Cody tried to leap frog Holly in the corner, but got caught in the Alabama slam. Young kid bullying occurring in…….. yah. Match over.
Winner: Hardcore Holly via pin fall
****Commercial****
Beth Phoenix came out to the ring and she grabbed the mic from Lillian. She said she was just as beautiful as she was dangerous. She said it was a matter of time before she became champion. She said it was all just a formality that she beat Candice this Sunday and wanted Lillian to announce her as champion. Lillian obliged but said it was all assuming she could beat Candice this Sunday. Beth grabbed her and said there wouldn’t be any assuming. She said she knew she had an album coming out this Sunday, but said it’d be hard to promote with a crushed throat. Candice came running down to make the save and beat off Phoenix.
Triple H is taping up in the back. McMahon-Triple H is on next!
****Commercial****
Mr. McMahon v. Triple H
Vince got on the mic before the match began and reminded us all of a recent incident. He showed the clips of Triple H stomping a mud hole in Umaga’s dome. Vince demanded Triple H stop show boating on his entrance and demanded they get it on. He demanded a referee. Carlito’s music hit and he came out wearing a referee’s shirt.
The bell rang after some pre-match shenanigans and Triple H stalked McMahon and Vince cowered in the corner as Carlito protected him. Vince stalled some more and fled the ring much to the dislike of the crowd. Triple H finally had enough and chased Vince around the ring before getting cut off by Carlito again.
Finally the two began going at it and Triple H bashed Vince’s head off the announce table. Triple H tossed Vince back into the ring before shoving Carlito and going for the pedigree on Vince. Carlito sneaked up on him and hit a back snapper on the Game. Carlito plopped Vince on top of Triple H and attempted a fast count but Triple H kicked out.
Vince choked HHH in the corner before eating a low blow. Triple H decked Carlito causing the DQ before going after Vince.
Winner: Vince McMahon via DQ
Triple H went to deliver a pedigree before Umaga made his way down to the ring. The two went at it in the center of the ring before Umaga mauled him with a head butt. Triple H hit two clotheslines before sneaking out of a Samoan drop and hitting a DDT. Umaga totally no sold it and let the blood letting begin! Triple H caught Umaga with a boot in the corner before eating a crescent kick in the face then a running ass to the face. Carlito dumped Triple H to the outside but Umaga’s disappointed. Carlito left and distracted Umaga briefly allowing Triple H to grab the sledge hammer. Triple H and Umaga stared each other down as Umaga backed off up the ramp frustrated.
****Commercial****
Marella at the Movies
Oh good lord this is likely to rule. He’s with Maria and he’s going to review a movie for us, “The Condemned”. He called the people worse than his uncle Giuseppe. Maria said she thought the movie was fun but Marella said it was only fun if you like smashing your head in with a meat mallet.
Marella said this movie lacked a star. Someone with charisma. Someone the camera loves. Someone like Santino Marella. Marella said violence wasn’t the only solution and when it came to his acting, we were all condemned.
Val Venis came out and said he was the star of movies in his day. Marella said he knew about his acting and said he heard he did an adult movie based on the movie Shrek and he couldn’t believe what he did to the poor donkey. Val talked about what he did with Maria. That made Santino blow his stack. Marella attacked Val and did a pearl harbor job on his knee and left.
Todd Grisham is in the back with WWE Champion John Cena. Cena said despite everyone’s opinions, No Mercy was his time. He said Orton could hit him with anything, he’d still get up. He said when all the cards were down, there was one man who would always deliver and never quit and that was him. He said ‘let ‘em talk’ and that he’d beat Orton so bad, they’d never forget it.
****Commercial****
Mickie James v. Melina
The two locked horns before Melina tossed her to the mat. James came back with a knee to the gut and tossed Melina into the corner. James hammered away on Melina on the mat before hitting a back kick only to eat a gut buster from the former champ.
Melina tossed James by her hair clean across the ring before stepping on her head and yanking away at the hair. Melina kept up the fun before Mickie tripped her up only to get kicked to the buckles.
The two completely killed each other with a strike exchange before james connected wit ha few clotheslines and a step up enzeguiri for a two count. James whipped Melina and ate a stiff knee to the face for a near fall.
Melina whipped Mickie to the corner but got caught with a hurricanranna. James went to follow up but almost ate that Melina finisher but Hornswaggle showed up and distracted her long enough for James to roll her up.
Winner: Mickie James via pin fall
Melina chased Hornswaggle under the ring but that’s just dumb. Hornswaggle emerged with Melina’s top before going back under the ring and stealing her bottoms. He popped back up and Melina’s head popped out from underneath the apron screaming at Hornswaggle to give her back her clothes. Hornswaggle of course ran up the ramp waving her garments over his head.
****Commercial****
William Regal ran in on Hornswaggle and yelled at him about kicking himself in the head. Steve-O from Jackass was in and said he was looking for a wussy tonight. He was going to go find one.
JR and King ran down the No Mercy card for us.
Steve-O ran across Ron Simmons in the back. He said he thought Simmons was pretty tough and he had a new show where he was toughening up wussies. He asked Simmons if he wanted to be on the show. Simmons tossed him through the fire door before giving us all the obligatory ‘damn’ for the night.
****Commercial****
John Cena v. Mr. Kennedy
Kennedy has nothing to lose.
Kennedy grabbed a headlock on the champ and leaned in. Cena sent him off the ropes only to eat a shoulder tackle. Kennedy found himself quickly taken off his feat though with two deep Cena arm drags.
Kennedy dragged Cena off the mat and was taken to the corner where we get a clean break. Kennedy hit a kick to Cena’s guts and started laying boots to the champ before choking him out on the mat. Kennedy went for an Irish whip but it was reversed and Cena hit a bulldog on the rebound.
Kennedy grabbed a headlock before giving up on it and just decking Cena in the face a couple of times. Kennedy tossed Cena to the outside and slammed his head off the steel ring steps. Kennedy went to work on Cena on the outside as we broke for commercial.
****Commercial****
We returned to Kennedy giving Cena a huge DDT for a two count. Kennedy grabbed a rear chin lock but Cena used the crowd to rally him to his feet. Cena countered the hold with a back suplex and eventually slapped on the STFU. Kennedy tapped super quick.
Winner: John Cena via submission
After the match, Randy Orton popped up and leveled Cena with an RKO. Orton dragged Cena to the outside and took the ring steps in hand and murdered him with the steel ring steps. Orton isn’t done yet though. He began stripping the announce table at the ringside area. He clocked Cena with the video monitor before mounting the table and absolutely murdering Cena with an RKO on the table. Orton stood over Cena and counted to ten. Orton walked off glaring at Cena as JR said Orton may have already won the title. RAW THOUGHTSShow Thoughts-- This was a pretty bleh show. The major feuds were hit on well and the segments were great but man, there wasn’t much to get excited about on in terms of in ring stuff.
First the bad stuff I guess. The Kennedy-Cena match was a real crapper. Very thrown together and the pacing was pretty terrible for the ending they went with. I’m all for a short match with Cena going over decisively and whatnot, but Kennedy phoned it in pretty bad tonight and was working like they were going 20 minutes. The thing I’ve noticed about Kennedy for as good as he is on the stick, he’s pretty marginal in the ring and really struggles with pacing. That’s GOT to change if he wants a prayer of seeing the main event.
My next complaint would be that this just had too much ‘stuff’ in there that was there for the sake of it and this was a really segment-heavy show. Not that the segments were bad. In fact they were all mostly great, but they just seemed to be ‘there’ for the hell of it.
In terms of the good, the McMahon-Triple H-Umaga stuff clicked for the first time. WOW, did the Game and Umaga bring a lot of energy to that five minutes of brawlin’. Of all the matches on the card Sunday, I’m most fearful for this one being the one with the most potential to be good but also incredibly disappointing. I’m HOPING they go with a nice fast and furious brawl with Umaga going over. Triple H needs something to ‘shoot for’ so to speak and I think them having Umaga go over clean or dirty would give Triple H something to gun for heading into Cyber Sunday.
The Beth-Candice segment was short, but pretty sweet. I’m thinking Beth will win the belt here and they’ll go the route of Trish-Victoria from a few years ago and we’ll hopefully get a nice hardcore like match at Survivor Series. They haven’t had a good gimmick match in a long time in the women’s division, and this is a feud where it’d work. Hell, Candice would just basically use weapons and get tossed around for 10 minutes and it’d work. Here’s to hoping.
The six man tag was a fun spot fest, but again, nothing really went anywhere with Shelton-Jeff or the tag feud.
The Orton-Cena build has been well paced. I think I include myself with a host of others that have lacked patience with this. I’m calling a draw this Sunday. They’re billing it as Cena getting up at ten and Orton getting the belt. Neither guy accomplishing that sets up nicely for a Cyber Sunday blow off in Hell in a Cell.
No Mercy is shaping up to be REALLY good. It’s easily the most stacked card of the year. Batista-Khali will be fun for what it’ll be, Mysterio-Finlay could tear down the house and the two Raw main events should be really good. Even the women’s match looks like it’ll hold it’s own. It’ll inevitably disappoint, but It’s pretty much suck-proof and I think we’ll at least get something ‘good’.
Overall, this was a good show for what it was, but there just seemed like there was a lot of stuff tossed on there for the hell of it.
Overall Grade: C+
Quick Results
Jeff Hardy, London & Kendrick def. Shelton Benjamin, Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch
Hardcore Holly def. Cody Rhodes
Mr. McMahon def. Triple H
Mickie James def. Melina
John Cena def. Mr. Kennedy
Who’s Hot, Who’s Not?
Biggest Pops
1. Triple H
2. Jeff Hardy
3. John Cena
4. Hornswoggle
Most Heat
1. Randy Orton
2. Mr. McMahon
3. Umaga
4. Carlito
Match of the Night: Six Man Tag *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 (28-9-1, 72 points) (Last Week: WWE Champion)— Cena gets the win tonight, but he’ll fall short Sunday. He’ll keep the belt though and that’s what’s important for the sake of the feud.
Intercontinental Champion: Jeff Hardy 28-13, 55 points (Last Week: IC Champion)— Hardy was a ton of fun tonight, flippin’ and floppin’ all over the place. I’d like to see them give him a feud though as I think the heat behind him is too much to waste on cute flip-fests with Shelton Benjamin.
1. Randy Orton 14-18-2 33pts. (Last Week: 1) -- Orton’s promo wasn’t as strong as last week, but it was still solid and the final beat down on Cena did it’s trick. Overall, a solid enough night for him.
2. Carlito 13-16-4, 23 pts. (Last Week: 2) -- I could SO care less about this guy it’s not even funny. When he starts to show signs of doing something interesting, he regresses into the land of suck again, and that’s no good.
3. Triple H 7-2, 15pts (Last Week: 3) — Finally, I got some energy from this guy that didn’t involve the same old face-ish Triple H stuff. Here’s to hoping he puts on a great match with Umaga at No Mercy. It’s got loads of potential.
4. Umaga 20-13-1, 43 Points (Last Week: 8) — They did a lot of work with Umaga tonight in terms of building him back up. Having him hesitate at the sledge hammer shot is a-ok. He looked strong and every bit the threat to Triple H he should have, so WWE gets kudos for doing good stuff with him tonight.
5. Paul London 7-3, 9pts. (Last Week: 9) -- London and Kendrick are becoming to the tag division what Hardy is to the single’s ranks and that’s the crowd popping workers. They’re pretty one dimensional, but it’s working for now. If they get a more substantiated push, they’ll have to improve but for what they do, they’re fine.
6. Brian Kendrick, 6-3, 7 pts (Last Week: NR)-- See London
7. Trevor Murdoch 8-14, 15pts. (Last Week: 5)-- They looked good again tonight, but still don’t have the wins they should. After beating the Hardy’s, I was hoping they’d book these guys stronger then they have.
8. Lance Cade 8-14, 12pts. (Last Week: 6)-- See Murdoch.
9. King Booker 3-6, 6 pts. (Last Week: 4) -- Keeping him here for right now.
10. Ken Kennedy 3-6-1, 6 pts (Last Week: 7) — Totally phoned it in tonight. This guy has a lot of support from the general populace and smarks alike, but he’s got a ways to go. A long ways.
OTHERS :
Cody Rhodes 5-4 8pts. (Last Week: 10)
William Regal 3-1, 5pts (Last Week: NR)
Ron Simmons 1-0, 2pts. (Last Week: NR)
Hardcore Holly 2-0, 4 pts. (Last Week: NR)
Snitsky 4-1, 8pts. (Last Week: NR)
Shawn Michaels 10-7-1, 19 points (Last Week: INJURED)
Bobby Lashley 3-4 5pts. (Last Week: INJURED)
Super Crazy 4-7-1, 7 points (Last Week: NR)
JTG 5-6, 6pts. (Last Week: NR)
Big Shad 4-6, 4pts. (Last Week: NR)
The Sandman 2-5, 4pts. (Last Week: NR)
Shelton Benjamin 3-16-1, 3pts. (Last Week: NR)
Charlie Haas 2-11-1, 1pts. (Last Week: NR)
Rory 0-5, 0pts. (Last Week: NR)
Robbie 0-7 0pts. (Last Week: NR)
Jim Duggan 1-4, 2pts. (Last Week: NR)
Val Venis 0-3 0pts. (Last Week: NR)
Daivari 0-5, 0pts. (Last Week: NR)
Mick Foley 0-1-1, 0 pts. (Last Week: NR)
Sgt. Slaughter 0-2. 0 pts. (Last Week: NR)