On Monday, April 14, 2008 at 11:47 PM EST WWE RAW
April 14, 2008
London, UK
Commentators: Jim Ross & Jerry “The King” Lawler
Reported By: Hunter Golden of WrestleView.com
William Regal was in the back before JBL showed up. He said he was sick and tired of Great Britain and sick and tired of William Regal trying to screw him. He said he deserved his one on one title shot and that Cena and Triple H were more or less just handed shots and now the Backlash main event would be a four way. Regal said he was very happy the biggest fool in the WWE wouldn’t be in the main event alone. JBL began shouting insults before Regal cut him off and announced that tonight, he’d be facing Triple H.
HBK’s music hit and he came out to the ring. Michaels put over his match with Ric Flair at Wrestlemania and put over how the whole thing brought closure to the whole situation. He said everyone could handle that except for Batista. He said on Smackdown, they got to the heart of the matter and we found out that Batista didn’t have a problem with the Flair situation, but had a problem with HBK, himself.
He said he loved his job and he knew that this was what he was built to do. He said he’s apologized in the past for the things he’s not so proud of, but he was sick and tired of apologizing for his past. He said Batista said the only reason he retired Ric Flair was to boost his ego, but that was clear it wasn’t the case.
He said what would boost his ego though, would be kicking Batista’s teeth down his throat. Ric Flair’s music hit and it played for a good long while.
Eventually, Chris Jericho emerged and said Shawn Michaels was a phony. He said at least that’s what Batista thought. He said Jericho knew Shawn Michaels loved Shawn Michaels the most. Jericho said he bet HBK enjoyed beating Ric Flair and retiring him. He said it was the same way he apologized and everything, but we all knew he loved screwing Bret Hart. We knew he loved kicking Marty Jannetty in the face, too. He said if HBK would just admit it, Batista would accept it.
Jericho said HBK’s eyes told the truth. He said Batista was being irrational with Flair being gone and all but he wasn’t being irrational to think that HBK was probably the guy who suggested the retirement stipulation to Vince to begin with. HBK reared back and planted some sweet chin music on Jericho’s face and admitted that THAT was something he enjoyed. He walked off and we went to commercial.
****Commercial****
#1 Contender’s Match for the World Tag Team Championship
London & Kendrick v. Santino Marella & Carlito
London took Santino down and grabbed a side headlock. Santino fought out of the hold and tried to leap out of the corner but got tripped up on the heel. Santino is frustrated and tags in Carlito.
London tagged in Kendrick who hit some kicks and forearms to the face of Carlito before getting caught in a nasty spine buster for a two count. Santino tagged in and dropped an elbow or two before slapping on a rear chin lock in an attempt to wear Kendrick down.
Carlito tagged back in and hit some kicks and an axe handle before Santino quickly tagged back in for the near fall. Santino slammed Kendrick off the top turnbuckle and then hit a right hand or two to the mid section.
Kendrick began fighting back with some kicks before getting a hot tag to Paul London. London hit a few forearms and a nice hurricanranna before eating a back elbow from Carlito. London connected with a spinning heel kick before Kendrick came running in. All hell broke loose before Carlito hit London with a back cracker. London flipped on the sell which is a little much.
Winners: Carlito & Santino Marella via pin fall
****Commercial****
WWE Women’s Championship
Beth Phoenix v. Mickie James
The two locked it up in the middle of the ring and Beth tossed her aside with ease. Beth slammed Mickie into the corner before Mickie fought back with some kicks to the midsection. Mickie went for a roll up but Beth stomped her off.
We had another running exchange before Beth caught her trying to leap frog her and hit half an Oklahoma stampede for a two count. Beth slapped on a dragon sleeper to wear Mickie down before hitting the old Tully Blanchard sling shot suplex. Beth went right back to the dragon sleeper before Mickie started fighting back but got caught in a nasty double armed chicken wing. Mickie barely survived the hold and was fortunate enough to catch a big opening when Beth ran into the top turnbuckle head first and looked really groggy.
Mickie threw the entire kitchen sink at Phoenix and went for the implant DDT to cap it off but got bull rushed into the corner before she could pull it off. Beth perched Mickie up on the top buckle but James fought her off and hit a flying body press for a two count. Beth slapped on the tiger clutch again and slung Mickie up in the air. Mickie rolled down though and caught a roll up for the win and the title out of nowhere.
Winner and NEW WWE Women’s Champion: Mickie James via pin fall
It’s announced that next week’s main event for Raw will be Barack Obama v. Hillary Clinton. I think it should be a socialism on a pole match where the person who pulls their obnoxiously neo-Bolshevik spouse off the pole can use them in the match.
****Commercial****
Mickie James is celebrating with the baby face divas and Todd Grisham is asking her how she feels. She said she feels incredible. Then she gives Grisham the first kiss he ever got from a non-male/animal.
William Regal’s warming himself up in the back. He said he wants to prove he can beat the very best tonight. Chris Jericho came back and requested to be put in the match with HBK and Batista. Regal said he would, but as a special guest referee. He said if he wanted to wrestle so bad tonight, he could wrestle Umaga. And the IC title is on the line.
****Commercial****
JTG v. Trevor Murdoch
Trevor comes out looking like Darth Vader with a trucker hat on. Lance Cade looks very un cowboy like… anyways Murdoch gains the early advantage with some clotheslines and red neck stuff-o.
Eventually he slaps on a rear chin lock while the crowd rallies JTG. Murdoch hit a side Russian leg sweep before going to the top rope. Murdoch came off with the cross body, but JTG rolled through and got the pin.
Winner: JTG via pin fall
After the match, Cade stared down Murdoch before patting him on the shoulder and walking off.
****Commercial****
WWE Champion Randy Orton came out to the ring to a massive amount of heat. Orton said at Wrestlemania, everyone thought he got lucky. He said you can call him lucky, but he preferred WWE Champion. He said he became champion by beating Triple H and taking out John Cena. He said he’d beat Cena, Triple H and JBL all in the same night. He said he’s defeated everyone there is to beat. He said tonight though, he got the added bonus of beating the Raw GM in his own home company. He said it didn’t matter which continent we were on, we were all living in the age of Orton.
Randy Orton v. William Regal
The two circled it up a bit and locked horns. There was a great struggle in the middle of the ring as the UK crowd struck up a ‘let’s go Regal’ chant. Regal backed Orton into the corner and began hammering away at the champion in the corner before grabbing a side headlock.
Orton tried to fight out of the hold and was able to force Regal to bridge out and use his legs to take the champion down and put him in a Greco roman knuckle lock. Orton had a nice counter to the hold, but Regal flipped him through and grabbed a body scissors. Orton kept throwing Regal’s head back trying to dislodge the hold and sure enough, the UK crowd is SINGING a chant. Wow, this is awesome atmosphere.
Orton grabbed a side headlock but Regal gouged his eyes and broke the hold. However, Regal failed to capitalize as Orton hit the inverted back breaker before herding Regal to the ropes. Orton laid in some stiff right hands and choked Regal on the mat before dropping a truly sinister knee across the chest.
Orton slapped on the rear chin lock as the crowd again tried to rally Regal. Regal fought out and hit a nasty Regal-Plex for a two count.
Orton went to the outside to regroup and he really got his bell rung. Regal suplexed him back into the ring from the apron for a two count before hitting an exploder and a belly to belly. Regal hit a brutal running knee lift before going for the cover attempt, but Orton got his leg on the ropes.
Trying to insure that didn’t happen again, Regal frantically began to stomp away on the leg up against the ropes. The referee pulled Regal off briefly and as he went back to work over the champion, Orton sprung up out of nowhere and absolutely nailed him with the RKO for the pin fall victory.
Winner: Randy Orton via pin fall
Umaga gave us a glorious promo and it’s Umaga time next.
****Commercial****
WWE Intercontinental Championship
Chris Jericho v. Umaga
Umaga immediately was all over Jericho, bullying him into the corner and smashing him down to the mat with a right hand. Umaga zeroed in on Jericho’s injured jaw, stepping on it for fun.
Jericho kept up the pressure once he got an opening with a senton but Umaga threw him aside relatively quickly. Jericho reigned in right hands but quickly got flat backed by the big Samoan. Umaga hit a nice head butt before repeating it and keeping the champion totally off balance. Jericho fought back only to eat a stiff back elbow.
Umaga hit an Irish Whip but ate a back elbow on the charge. However on the second attempt, he connected and followed it up with a big splash for a two count. Jericho tried to fight back a bit with some punches and a drop kick but quickly found himself picked up and tossed cleanly to the floor.
****Commercial****
Chris Jericho is on the offense as we get back, reigning blows in on Umaga’s head before being slammed to the canvas. Umaga hit a big knee before slapping on the good old shoulder vice. The crowd rallied Jericho who hit some elbows to break the hold before avoiding the charging Umaga and yanking the top rope down to send the challenger crashing to the floor.
Jericho hit a baseball slide drop kick. The two brawled a bit before the action ended up back in the ring. Umaga got crotched on Jericho’s knees however and allowed the Champion another shot. Jericho attempted a body slam but it backfired and Umaga managed a near fall.
Umaga hit a diving head butt and a kick to the back of Jericho before ringing his ears with a left hand. Umaga kept on chasing the jaw injury, clearly smelling blood. The crowd is chanting for Umaga again as the challenger whipped Jericho the buckles hard. Umaga repeated the move before scooping up Jericho and body slamming him to the mat.
Jericho looks like a corpse as Umaga drags him to the corner and sets up the running bump butt. Umaga hit his right hands and backed off and we all know what’s coming next. Jericho more or less fell out of he way to avoid the shot and hit a desperation forearm to the back of Umaga’s head for a near fall.
Jericho kept on hitting and moving but was eventually caught and slammed hard to the mat. He avoided the diving head butt though and hit a drop kick before loading up the Walls of Jericho. Umaga hit a thrust to the throat and ate a boot to the grill, but was able to catch the champion coming out with a nasty Samoan drop for a really great near fall.
Jericho caught Umaga with a boot but he no sold it and went for the spike. Jericho avoided him only to get DRILLED with a boot in the face that sent him careening into the corner. Umaga charged and jumped, but Jericho ducked and Umaga’s head smashed into the ring post. Jericho caught a roll up and put the feet on the ropes to steal a win. Fantastic match.
Winner: Chris Jericho via pin fall
****Commercial****
Manny Ramirez just hit a two run homer to put the Sox ahead of the Tribe in the top of the ninth. Oh wait. This is wrestling.
Hacksaw Jim Duggan v. Paul Birchall
Thank god for Birchall. Love this guy.
Also, thank god for Duggan, who’ll be the only guy on the roster to give this guy a great squash.
So Birchall’s all surly and Duggan’s punching and flailing. Birchall hit’s a lariat in the corner before just stomping on Duggan’s head like it’s a European filterless cigerette butt. Katie Lee can come to my country any day.
Winner: Paul Birchall via pin fall
****Commercial****
Todd Grisham is with Triple H. Grisham asked him about his strategy. Triple H asked Grisham how cerebral he’d be if he just told us all his game plan. He said this would be a good match and just like at Backlash, there’d be no luck this time. Triple H said JBL had better be ready, because it’s the time to play the game.
Travis Hafner flies out to center field and the Red Sox win, showing everyone why they’re who they are.
Speaking of which….
Triple H v. JBL
Great opening exchange between the two trading forced break ups and a little gamesmanship as JR called it. They locked horns again and backed it into the corner before it was broken up again. TONS of trash talking here before JBL hauls off and cuffs Triple H.
A few hard rights and a whip from JBL, but he gets flat backed on a Triple H lariat and the Game bullies him to the corner and hits some shoulder thrusts. Triple H hit’s a neck breaker for a one count, but JBL kicks out. Triple H slapped on a key lock but JBL ROLLED (yes I’m serious) through and hit a hard, wild right hook before almost getting caught in a quick pedigree.
JBL countered out of the pedigree and back dropped the Game to the mat before smashing his face with right hands. The former champion reeled into the corner where JBL booted and punched him before bringing him out of the corner and hitting his own version of a swinging neck breaker.
JBL slapped on a full nelson and cinched it in pretty darn tight. Triple H eventually fought out of it and caught JBL with the high knee for a two count. Triple H kept up the pressure with he face buster before connecting with a clothesline that sent JBL up and over the top rope and to the floor.
JBL kept laying in the big rights before Triple H slammed him into the steel railing. Out of nowhere though, came WWE Champion Randy Orton who began hammering away at Triple H. Triple H hit the AA Spine buster before JBL showed up and uncorked a nasty big boot to the Grill of the Game.
JBL and Orton laid ‘em in before Orton finally put him down with an RKO. JBL called for a punt and Orton looks excited. Orton backed up and ran in for the kick as JBL MURDERED him with the clothesline from hell and held up the WWE title. Triple H is still twitching though, so he trampled him with a clothesline from hell just for fun.RAW THOUGHTSShow Thoughts-- Well wrestling wise, this was a colossal step up from last week’s show almost all the way down the line. The promo work was what it was, but it was a lot of the matches that particularly caught my eye.
The women’s match, while not GOOD per sae, certainly looked pretty clean, although I almost wonder if there’d have been more of a pay off for Mickie to win the belt on a pay per view. That being said, I couldn’t help but feel like this is just a temporary thing to try and keep interest in Phoenix’s reign. Booking aside though, this was a cleanly worked, fun match for the most part and the most enjoyable women’s offering on Television I can remember since at least the early fall.
Orton-Regal was another fantastic seven-eight minute match and as expected, Regal delivered in spades. I don’t think anyone works a better short, tight match than Regal who really laid in some potatoes there and absolutely turned Orton inside out with some pretty wild suplex combinations. Orton on the other hand sold REALLY well and looked even better on offense. The ending was totally appropriate and I think the right way to cap it off and keep both guys looking pretty strong.
Jericho-Umaga was definitely the match of the night in a night of really good TV matches. Jericho sold like a trooper and Umaga’s just got to be the best guy week to week this company has. Every week it seems he’s got a new way to keep a lot of his signature stuff interesting and over which you just don’t get out of big men all that much. Jericho is Jericho and really, with the exception of Matt Hardy, there aren’t two guys on the entire WWE roster who’re better on television week in and week out.
Triple H-JBL was a really good heavyweight match. The WWE is known for it’s heavyweights, but they don’t really work like BIG heavyweights all the time with big looping punches and slams and shoulder tackling and… you get it. A good heavyweight match should have two guys that are like two bricks smashing together and these two just made each other look like a million bucks tonight. Some teeth smashing from JBL and some rib cracking from Triple H. Just a really fun heavyweight match and sure, the ending prevented this from being really fantastic, but it was still pretty good for what we got. I’d LOVE to see these two on pay per view together.
Overall, a really good ‘wrestling’ Raw, which the UK shows almost always seem to be. Again, a huge step up from last week in every regard.
Overall Grade: B
Quick Results
Santino Marella & Carlito def. London & Kendrick
Mickie James def. Beth Phoenix to WIN the Women’s Championship
JTG def. Trevor Murdoch
Randy Orton def. William Regal
Chris Jericho def. Umaga
Paul Birchall def. Jim Duggan
Triple H def. JBL
Who’s Hot, Who’s Not?
Biggest Pops
1. William Regal
2. Shawn Michaels
3. Triple H
4. Chris Jericho
Most Heat
1. Randy Orton
2. JBL
3. Umaga
4. Santino Marella & Carlito
Match of the Night: Chris Jericho v. Umaga ***
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: Randy Orton 7-6, 15pts. (Last Week: WWE Champion) -- Good match with Regal. Good promo. Good segment at the end there. Just solid stuff from Orton all the way down the line.
Intercontinental Champion: Chris Jericho 7-7, 16pts. (Last Week: IC Champion)-- Really filling Jeff Hardy’s boots as being the ‘working baby face’ on the brand. As far as TV goes, he and Umaga are almost guaranteed good segments pretty much every week.
1. Shawn Michaels 10-2, 16pts. (Last Week: 1) -- We haven’t even had a match of any kind or even a serious angle, and this whole Batista program is over almost based on Michaels’ mic work alone. Hats off to him.
2. Triple H 9-4, 15pts.(Last Week: 2) -- Worked a really good baby face bad-a$$ tonight against JBL. Good stuff from the Game tonight.
3. John Cena 8-3, 11 points. (Last Week: 3) -- Surprisingly not anywhere to be seen tonight.
4. JBL 4-8, 9 points (Last Week: 4)-- Good work getting JBL back on track this week. It was REALLY necessary to get him over as a central threat in this. Still the best heavyweight brawler this company’s got right now.
5. Umaga 5-7, 10 points (Last Week: 6) -- I’ll tell ya, I haven’t seen a guy lose as much as he has been lately and still look like a million bucks. The match with Jericho was something /*.
6. Carlito 7-4, 10 pts. (Last Week: 7) -- A win’s a win and Carlito will have his first opportunity to win some gold in forever.
7. Santino Marella 4-2, 4 points (Last Week: 8) -- See Carlito.
8. Ken Kennedy 5-5, 11pts. (Last Week: 7)-- Hasn’t even been seen since Wrestlemania. I’d expect to see him pop up in the KOTR tournament next week.
9. Jeff Hardy 5-5, 9pts. (Last Week: 9)-- Suspended
10. Paul Birchall 3-0, 6 points (Last Week: NR)-- Another good squash match for Birchall tonight, but it’s probably time for something a little more extensive.
OTHERS :
Paul London 2-3, 2 points(Last Week: 10)--
Cody Rhodes 2-3, 2 points (Last Week: NR)
Jerry Lawler 0-1, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Lance Cade 0-4, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Hardcore Holly 3-3, 3pts. (Last Week: NR)
Brian Kendrick, 2-7, 2 points (Last Week: NR)
Trevor Murdoch 0-6, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Super Crazy 0-3, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
William Regal 0-2 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Harry Smith 0-1, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Jim Duggan 0-1, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Rory 0-2, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Charlie Haas 0-1, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Robbie 0-2, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Mick Foley 1-0, 1 point (Last Week: NR)
Sgt. Slaughter 0-0. 0 pts. (Last Week: NR)
Val Venis 0-1 0pts. (Last Week: NR)
Snitsky 1-4, 2 points (Last Week: NR)
JTG 1-0, 3 points (Last Week: NR)
Big Shaad 0-0, 0 points (Last Week: NR)