On Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 12:09 AM EST WWE RAW
December 8, 2008
Philadelphia, PA
Commentators: Michael Cole & Jerry “The King” Lawler
Report by: Hunter Golden of WrestleView.com
The opening pyro hit after a mini-highlight package of 2008. We've got a pretty stacked card tonight for sure. HHH v. Batista, Cena v. Edge and Jericho v. Jeff Hardy. Not too bad.
Festus' music hits and he comes out with Maria. Festus brought a lot to this. They're presenting the tag team of the year award. Priceless, the Colon Bros., the Miz & Morrison and Cryme Tyme are the nominees. Miz & Morrison are your winners. Morrison thanked his mom, Admiral Akbar and Mr. T. Yes. We. Can? Now it's Yes. We. Did. Miz proclaimed them the best tag team of the 21st century. Morrison said there were winner. Then pointing to us, said there losers.
IC Championship #1 Contenders Tournament – Semi Finals
John Morrison v. CM Punk
The two locked horns before exchanging some near falls before having a mini-stalemate. After a series of roll up exchanges, Punk went for GTS but Morrison wiggled out. Punk booted Morrison to the corner before the action spilled to the outside. Punk hit a huge running knee on the outside before connecting with a springboard cross body where both men are laid out in the aisle.
****Commercial****
We came back to Morrison holding Punk in a reverse toe hold. Punk tried to fight out and eventually did and even hit a kick with it, but was quickly dragon screwed back to the canvas. Morrison mounted the top rope before Punk crotched him. The fought it out on the top rope before Punk hit a big hurricanranna off the top, sending Morrison crashing to the mat.
Punk eventually hit his running knee in the corner, but Morrison reversed the bulldog and hit a back breaker-Russian leg sweep combo. Punk fought back quickly with some shoulder thrusts before looking for a round house kick to the head. Morrison ducked under and hit a kick of his own for a two count. Morrison moved a springboard move and Punk hit a running powerslam. Punk went to the outside himself and looked for the springboard lariat and connected for a two count.
Punk looked for the go to sleep only for Morrison to counter him up for a fantastic near fall. Punk quickly shot to his feet though and KO'd Morrison with a big round house right kick. One Go 2 Sleep later, this one's over.
Winner: CM Punk via pin fall
A video put over the beat down Orton and Jericho put on John Cena last week.
Cena's with Todd Grisham. He's talking about how he's going to fight Jericho tonight. He said Jericho said that Hustle, Loyalty and Respect no longer exist. Tonight, he'll prove they do. Especially respect.
****Commercial****
Candice and Cryme Tyme are presenting the Slammy for best finisher. The RKO, Hell's Gate, Evan Bourne's SSP, Big Show's KO Punch. Evan Bourne's SSP wins. Mike Knox comes out and intimidates Candice and take the statue for himself.
Randy Orton is on the ramp. He said one would think that being WWE Champion for four months of the year and winning the main event match at Wrestlemania was impressive, but apparently it wasn't good enough to warrant a nomination for superstar of the year, even though he's defeated every one of the nominees. He said tonight was like other nights, him not being shown respect. He said Evolution imploded because of the jealousy of Batista and Triple H. He said tonight, HHH and Batista were going to compete against each other. Orton said he had a better idea. That's why Cody Rhodes, Manu and himself are challenging them to a handicapped match. He said tonight, “The Legacy” is born.
****Commercial****
MVP said his losing streak was in a little bit of a slump, but it took Jimmy Rollins' city 25 years to win something. He's challenging the entire Phillies line up now. He's going to be a one man dynasty. His music played and Charlie Haas is all dressed up. Nasal strip and all.
MVP v. Charlie Haas
Haas grabbed a go behind only for Porter to deck him with a back elbow and hit a neck breaker for a one count. He mounted Haas with some punches and elbows for another near fall before wrapping him up in a stretch plumb.
Haas rallied and broke the hold but ate a throat thrust and a knee to the face. Porter did his ballin' elbow for a two count. MVP tossed Haas to the outside of the ring before dropping him on the guard rail and tossing him back into the ring. MVP jaw jacked with Jimmy Rollins some and it cost him, as Haas hit Porter with a standing drop kick and a series of punches.
Haas went for his own ballin' elbow, except way worse and ate some knees on his decent. MVP missed the big boot in the corner and Haas rolled him up for the three count. MVP is in shock.
Winner: Charlie Haas via pin fall
****Commercial****
Matt's presenting the most extreme moment of the year slammy. His brother Jeff is nominated for his swanton on Randy Orton. Taker's fall through the tables at One Night Stand is mentioned. The Cena-JBL Parking lot brawl is nominated as is Jericho's TV shot to HBK. Jeff won the award. He said he didn't care what he had to do, he'd be leaving as WWE champion.
****Commercial****
Chris Jericho v. Jeff Hardy
The two started things off fast before Jericho dumped Hardy to the floor. Hardy hung on on the apron, only for Jericho to hit the springboard drop kick and send him to the floor. Once Hardy got back int the ring, Jericho slapped on a half nelson and leaned in on Hardy.
Hardy fought out of the hold and hit a series of right hands to Jericho's face before eating a flying forearm. Hardy hit his double leg drop and a lariat which earned him a two count. Hardy hit a reverse suplex before heading to the top rope. Jericho caught up to Hardy and crotched him on the top buckle. Hardy pushed him off and went for the Swanton Bomb but no one was home. Jericho hit the lion-sault for a two count.
Jericho looked for the Walls of Jericho, but Hardy pushed him off. Jericho went for the move again before Hardy yanked him down and almost hit the roll up. Jeff hit the mule kick and sent Jericho to the corner where he hit his catapult drop kick. Jericho missed a lariat and Hardy hit whisper in the wind for a two count. Hardy went for the twist of fate, but Jericho countered into the code breaker for the three count.
Winner: Chris Jericho via pin fall
****Commercial****
Kane and Kelly Kelly are presenting the couple of the year award. Awkward moments. Kane says the last time he was involved in a relationship, he tombstoned a priest. Vickie and Edge win the award and she gets so much that it's scary. Santino and Beth come out to protest. Santino said they deserved the award. They challenge any couple to a match tonight. Although last week he unfortunately strained his scor-tisherish region, they'd still win.
****Commercial****
Santino Marella & Beth Phoenix v. Finlay and Hornswaggle
Finlay put a sick beat down on Santino, clubbering him around the ring and hitting a big atomic leg drop to cap off the flurry. He tagged in Hornswaggle who hit an implant DDT before a tad pole splash for the win.
Winners: Finlay & Hornswaggle via pin fall
Melina and Teddy Long presented the award for Diva of the year. Beth Phoenix won the award. After a tense stare down with Melina, the two began brawling around the stage before Beth's head smacked into Santino's scrotisherous region. She said she was sorry as Santino tried not to throw up.
****Commercial****
Alicia and Joey Styles are presenting the “Oh My God” moment of the year award. CM Punk wins the award for his World Heavyweight Championship title win over Edge earlier this summer.
IC Championship #1 Contenders Tournament – Semi Final
Kofi Kingston v. Rey Mysterio
The two feigned arm drags before having some fun take down attempts before Kofi managed to hit a flap jack. Kofi grabbed an arm bar but Rey fought out. Rey hit a drop kick and went for a 619 only for Kofi to pop up and connect with a standing drop kick to halt Rey's momentum. Rey hit a hurricanranna for a two count
Kofi went for a high cross body but whiffed on the move. Rey went for something that involved charging only for Rey to duck under and grab a roll up for the pin.
Winner: Rey Mysterio via pin fall
****Commercial****
Kennedy and Eve came out to give out the award for Match of the Year. Ric Flair v. Shawn Michaels won the award.
Michaels came out and started giving his speech before JBL showed up. He took the award and said the award would look great in his penthouse apartment in New York City. HBK didn't even hesitate to let him have the award.
****Commercial****
Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes & Manu v. Triple H & Batista
Triple H immediately began to hammer in on Rhodes before tagging Batista in who did some right hand smashing of his own. Batista took care of Rhodes with some shoulder thrusts before hitting a back elbow on Rhodes and booting him n the forehead. Triple H tagged in and the two double teamed him and hit a big double shoulder block. Manu ran in the ring only to eat a bunch of right hands. Both were chucked to the outside before Orton creeped up from behind. Once the two turned, Orton slithered out under the ropes.
****Commercial****
We came back to Orton stomping away on Triple H on the mat. Orton went for a cover but only got a two count. Orton went back to the stomps and went for another cover and again, got a two count. He slapped on the rear chin lock before hitting his back breaker.
Manu tagged in and hit a diving head butt before letting Rhodes into the match. Rhodes slammed Triple H's face off the buckles before slapping on a cravat. Orton tagged in and then cranked on a SICK head lock. Cody tagged in and was tossed aside but Cody cut him off and went for a bulldog, but Triple H tossed him off.
Manu got a tag as Batista hot tagged. Batista wiggled out of a power slam attempt and hit a spine buster before he loaded Manu up for the Batista bomb. Cody came leaping in off the top rope only for Manu to be tossed into the oncoming Rhodes. While Batista murdered the two youngsters, Orton blind tagged into the match. He snuck up on Batista and went for the RKO, but Batista pushed him into a big Triple H lariat.
Triple H cleared Manu out of the ring after pummeling Cody. Batista loaded up Orton in the Batista bomb but Cody was able to interfere enough to knock Batista's grip on Orton loose. Orton landed on his feet and hit the RKO for the win as Cody held off Triple H.
Winners: Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes & Manu via pin fall
****Commercial****
Ron Simmons and Mickie James are giving us the 'damn' moments. Khali's kiss cam won. What followed was surreal. Mickie's making out with Khali, Funaki's there while Slaughter and Duggan wear US flags and Jillian sings Celine Dion. W. T. F.
R-Truth v. Dolph Ziggler
R-Truth came right at Ziggler with a flurry of shots before Ziggler hung him up on the top rope for a one count. Dolph hit some punches and then dropped a couple of elbows before capping it off with one big one for a two count. Ziggler slapped on the rear chin lock of doom and wrenched Truth's head around before throwing him on his back.
Ziggler stomped away his head before cinching in the chin lock again and leaning on on R-Truth. Truth eventually was able to slam Ziggler into the corner buckle and clothesline him over the top rope and to the floor. He gave a what's up to the crowd before hitting a splash on the outside, sling shotting himself over the top rope.
The two fought it out on the arena floor before Ziggler hit his step up enzeguiri on the apron and sneaked back into the ring just in the nick of time to win the match with a count out.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler via count out
****Commercial****
Stephanie McMahon is out to present superstar of the year. Chris Jericho is the winner. He goes to give his speech at the podium before heading down to the ring where he can better see everyone. He said he was glad people couldn't vote because they're idiots. He was going to make them sit and listen to his accomplishments this year. He was an 8-time IC champion, Two time World champion and lord of the ladder match.
He said when he shed the image he had created for all of us, it was the best day of his life. He kept on lambasting the fans for being cheaters and sycophants. He said he couldn't think of a better way to end 2008 than to once again win his title back.
Cena's music hit and he came out to the ramp. Jericho took off from the ring just in the nick of time. Edge's music hit and it's main event time.
John Cena v. Edge
Cena opened up with a series of lariats before dumping Edge over the top rope and to the floor. He was chasing Edge on the outside as we went to commercial.
****Commercial****
We came back to Cena locked up in a chin lock. Edge bullied him to the corner and began hammering away on him in the corner before Cena fired back only to eat a flap jack for a two count on the cover attempt. Edge slapped on another front neck vice, trying to squeeze Cena's injured neck. Cena slugged it out with the WWE champion in the middle of the ring and hit his snap mare before Edge cut him off with a big boot.
Edge looked for the spear before Cena cut him off with a flying shoulder block or two. Cena slammed Edge to the mat and went for the big five knuckle shuffle before zeroing in for the FU. Edge wiggled out and went for the impaler, but Cena countered into another FU and Edge wiggled out. Edge went for a clothesline, but Cena again tried an FU but Edge grabbed a roll up only for Cena to grab his leg and slap on an STFU. Cena broke the hold when he noticed Chris Jericho heading to the ring.
Winner: NO CONTEST
As Edge lay in the ring, Triple H ran down and tackled him. Jeff Hardy soon followed. Triple H dumped both to the outside of the ring. Jeff chased Edge down and did his walk up clothesline off the guardrail before Edge scampered up the ring. The three all looked at each other as we went off the air.RAW THOUGHTSShow Thoughts-- For a three hour show, I felt this delivered for the most part tonight, even though the ending didn't come out so hot.
First and foremost, the handicapped tag match was easily the best match tonight and probably one of the best matches of the year. They really built to the hot tag well and teased the finishes just about as well as you could've hoped. In a way, this was sort of a blow off match as Batista has worked against both Cody Rhodes and Manu in recent weeks in singles matches as sort of a side trail to the Orton program. Using Triple H just by presence alone to help get the “Evolution passing the torch to the Legacy” thing was a good choice to boot. His look after the match like someone dumped in his birthday cake was pretty good stuff too, without making him or Batista look a shred bad. Rhodes did the lion's share of the bumping and Manu, while not working much, was used effectively enough. Randy Orton though.... wow. He's just working on a different plane than everyone /* right now. But again, a fantastic southern style tag with great teased hot tag with a quick but really well executed end segment really made this match click. Easily one of the best efforts of the year by anyone in an angle that built up with out you ever really feeling like anything was being built at all. Solid stuff.
The Slammys were fun as expected. The Morrison-Miz self masturbatory speech was great in the beginning and hopefully, they keep the things and talk about them endlessly. The HBK-JBL thing was REALLY fantastic and Khali's win for the 'damn' moment of the year was the weirdest thing I've seen all year. Every award led to something and was used effectively as a launching pad for each subsequent angle. It's great to see them worked back into the thick of things.
Speaking of good and slammy's, Vickie Guererro is getting an insane level of heat these days. She's more or less the central heel on Smackdown, much like Jimmy Hart was in Memphis for about two years, but holy smokes is that woman over. And any night's a good night when we get to see Edge and Vickie on a See Saw.
The Cena-Jericho stuff though, didn't really click. The opening Cena promo was really set back because of the injection of humor into the promo, which aside from that was strong. But the humor set the wrong tone for what Cena's promise was, which was that he was 'going to get Jericho tonight'. They built and built in two separate segments to Jericho 'getting it' and then he never really did so they could push them off to the side to make room for and even more awkward set up for the Edge-Hardy-Triple H WWE title match this Sunday where Hardy laid on the outside confused as to what it was he was supposed to do.
On the 'ok' front, the IC title tournament match we fun. The Punk-Morrison match really lacked direction and some super selective selling of Punk's leg injury, but was rescued with a good finish. The Kingston-Mysterio match was a sprint, which felt a little too quick, but then again, I wonder why I would think they'd do anything OTHER than what they did with it. Kofi looked competent and Rey got a win he should get, so everything was accomplished I suppose.
All in all though, tonight was pretty good despite a really strange and un-fulfilling ending.
Overall Grade: B+
Quick Results
CM Punk def. John Morrison
Charlie Haas def. MVP
Chris Jericho def. Jeff Hardy
Finlay & Hornswaggle def. Beth Phoenix & Santino Marella
Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes & Manu def. Batista & Triple H
Rey Mysterio def. Kofi Kingston
Dolph Ziggler def. R-Truth
John Cena v. Edge went to a no contest
Who’s Hot, Who’s Not?
Biggest Pops
1. John Cena
2. Batista
3. Rey Mysterio
4. Shawn Michaels
Most Heat
1. Vickie Guererro
2. Chris Jericho
3. Randy Orton
4. Edge
Match of the Night: Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes & Manu v. Triple H & Batista ***3/4
Power RankingsPoints
5= 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
World Heavyweight Champion: John Cena 21-13-1, 41 points. (Last Week: World Heavyweight Champion) -- Cena usually cuts ok babyface promos but he really needs to drop the humor stuff. Just really didn't fit with the tone of what he was going for tonight. Overall though, a pretty decent night for the Champ.
Intercontinental Champion:William Regal, 7-7-1, 19 points (Last Week: Intercontinental Champion)-- Not in action.
1. Chris Jericho 23-20-1, 56 pts. (Last Week: 1)-- Another really strong promo tonight from Jericho, who really gets a rub with the superstar of the year thing. The way they ended things tonight, I'd think they might be trying to hold a card or too close to the chest as this might have another pay per view match at the Rumble left in it.
2. Shawn Michaels 23-8-2, 41pts. (Last Week: 2) -- Man he does the kicked dog shtick well. Good character stuff from HBK tonight.
3. CM Punk 15-8-2, 38 Points (Last Week: 4) -- Even though they didn't really get anywhere with the match, the finish tonight was pretty good for it and Punk takes a step towards his third big title win of the year.
4. Batista 15-10-3, 35 Points (Last Week: 3) -- Takes the fall in a killer match tonight. It hurts him a bit, but not too much. He looked great in the match. Real good.
5. Randy Orton 13-11-2, 25 pts. (Last Week: 6)-- Orton wasn't the best guy in the ring tonight, he was BY FAR the best guy in the ring tonight. Totally sensational in his match tonight. He's moving up fast. It'll be interesting to see what's on 'The Legacy's' chopping block next.
6. Rey Mysterio 11-7, 22 Points (Last Week: 5) -- I was a little surprised they worked the match with Kingston as quickly as they did tonight, but not a surprise the two were effective with the time they got.
7. JBL 19-27, 33 points (Last Week: 8)- - I like the direction they're headed with this HBK feud. Should resonate with the audience.
8. Kane 9-13, 13 Points (Last Week: 7) -- Decent comedy spot with Kelly, but otherwise, it was a quiet night for Kane.
9. Cody Rhodes 15-13, 23 points (Last Week: 10) -- Was good as the big bumper in the tag match. The alliance with Orton should definitely pay dividends for the youngster.
10. Kofi Kingston 11-10, 25 points (Last Week: 9) -- The match was a sprint, but Kofi stuck with Rey long enough to make it look good. A loss drops him, but not enough to fall out of the top 10.
OTHERS:
Santino Marella 12-15-1, 19 points (Last Week:8)
Ted Dibiase, Jr. 9-5, 19 Points (Last Week: NR)
Mike Knox 1-0-0. 2 points (Last Week: NR)
Paul Burchill 5-5, 7 points (Last Week: NR)
JTG 8-8, 9 points (Last Week: NR)
Big Shaad 7-7, 8 points (Last Week: NR)
Paul London 3-6, 3 points(Last Week: RELEASED)
Lance Cade 3-7, 5 points (Last Week: NR)
Jamie Noble 2-5, 4 Points (Last Week: NR)
Primo Colon 1-0, 2 Points (Last Week: NR)
D-Lo Brown 2-3, 4 points (Last Week: NR)
Snitsky 2-7, 3 points (Last Week: NR)
Manu 3-2, 3 Points (Last Week: NR)
Charlie Haas 3-5-1, 6 points (Last Week: NR)
Deuce 0-2, 0 Points (Last Week: NR)
Dolph Ziggler 1-1, 2 Points (Last Week: NR)
Chuck Palumbo 0-0, 0 Points (Last Week: NR)
Matt Striker 0-1, 0 Points (Last Week: NR)
Jerry Lawler 0-2, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Jim Duggan 0-2, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Rory 0-2, 0 points (Last Week: NR)
Robbie 0-3, 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