Monday Night RAW
Moline, Ill.
April 5, 2010
Commentators: Michael Cole & Jerry “The King” Lawler
Report by: David Stephens of Wrestleview.com
Are you ready? Then stop questioning your heart and join me, because it is time for Monday Night RAW!
The show kicks off with the NEW World Heavyweight Champion, Jack Swagger, making his way down to the ring. Jack became the fastest person in history to cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase when he won the Title from Jericho this past week on Smackdown.
Video package airs showing Jericho’s Title loss to Swagger
Jack has a mic and is prepared to give the WWE Universe a “state of the World Heavyweight Championship” address. Jack notes that last week he considered cashing in against Cena, but he realized that to be considered legitimate he needed to go after a stronger opponent. This is why he challenged Jericho. The downside, is that he must now consider dedicating himself to appearing on Smackdown, as no one on RAW can compare to his abilities.
Before he can continue, the WWE Champion, John Cena, makes his way out to the ring. He congratulates Swagger… for being the luckiest man in the world. Cena says that the fans don’t care about what he has done, they care about what he is going to do. Cena says that he will be “so sorry” to see Jack leave. He questions Jack’s postulate that no one on RAW can match his caliber. John says that he is calling Swagger out, to prove he is lying. Cena says that Swagger hasn’t earned what he has, and behind everything, Swagger is a loser. As it is Jack’s last night on RAW, Cena challenges him to a match. He goes further, and says that he is so sure he’ll make Swagger tap, that he’ll put the WWE Championship on the line!
Swaggers starts to list his reasons for not agreeing, but Randy Orton’s music hits. Orton says that Jack wants to face the guy that pinned him last week (Randy Orton). The ShoMiz music hits. The Miz grabs a mic and says that it is so typical of Cena and Orton for wanting to steal the spotlight. The Miz says the most important thing on RAW is clearly the Unified Tag Team Champions.
American Bang’s “Wild & Young” hits the audio waves, and David Otunga makes his way out. Tonight’s guest host decides to make some matches for tonight. We’ll see Randy v. Jack Swagger. Also, ShoMiz will defend their Titles against Batista… and John Cena!
As the competitors look to leave the ring, Randy Orton has a couple tricks up his sleeve. Orton looks to go for the RKO on Cena, but pulls away and hits it on Jack Swagger!
****Commercial*****
Sheamus v. Kofi Kingston
Sheamus starts the match off by catching Kofi with a swinging backbreaker. Sheamus then sets Kofi in the corner and kicks him in the gut. Sheamus goes for the cover, but Kofi kicks out. Sheamus then locks on an arm bar. Kofi tries to escape, and eventually succeeds by sneaking out to the apron. He hits a huge boot on Sheamus face, and follows up with a springboard crossbody. Sheamus gets to his feet and tries to throw Kofi out of the ring, but Kofi uses his shoulder to catch the ropes. Kofi leaps on Sheamus in the corner, and lands a series of punches. When Kofi gets down, Sheamus hits him with the Big Boot. He follows with the Celtic Cross, and this match is over.
Winner via Celtic Cross: Sheamus
After the match, Sheamus grabs a steel rod from under the ring that is similar to the one he used to attack HHH last week. He grabs Kofi, and then hits him over the back with the pipe.
In the back we see a shot of HHH making his way to the ring. The crowd is really dead tonight.
****Commercial****
Ok, apparently HHH is not coming to the ring. Sheamus is on the mic and puts over his accomplishments thus far in the WWE. He says that he is dismayed by his loss at Wrestlemania. What should have been the biggest night of his career was taking away from him by HHH. That’s why he attacked Hunter last week. He calls Hunter, and everyone who cried for Shawn leaving, pathetic. He says that HBK left because he didn’t want to have to fight against Sheamus. He says that HHH can either fight him, or leave a disgrace.
HHH finally appears on the ramp, and makes his way down to the ring. HHH climbs to the apron, but Sheamus is still clutching the steel pipe and goading for him to come into the ring. HHH steps down from the apron, reaches under the ring, and grabs his Sledgehammer!
Sheamus tries to hit him with the pipe, but HHH blocks with the handle, and then jabs Sheamus in the stomach. Sheamus bails to the outside, and then HHH chases him until Sheamus leaves through the crowd. HHH grabs the mic and says that Sheamus made the mistake of bringing a pipe to a sledgehammer fight.
****Commercial****
Divas Red Carpet Dress To Impress Battle Royal
Maryse is on commentary for this match. This match was designed by tonight’s guest host. The winner becomes #1 Contender and gets a shot against Maryse next week. All of the Divas are wearing far too much clothing, uh I mean they are in dresses. Maryse provides dress descriptions as they make their way down to the ring. I have no idea what she was even talking about with the fashion critiques. Even Cole and King were baffled. They all just got thrown out of the ring really quickly. With Eve making the final elimination on Jillian.
Winner: Eve Torres
****Commercial****
Video promo airs of David Otunga
David Otunga is in his office, with a bunch of people that I don’t recognize. His friends? I guess. He shows the bowl of exactly 427 green M&Ms that he had on his rider. Santino comes in looking for the A-Team. Otunga tells him that his moniker is A-List, not the A-Team. Santino says he “pities the fool that tells him Mr. T isn’t here”. Meanwhile, Hornswoggle has reduced the number of M&Ms by 100! The wily little rascal runs off as Otunga’s friends try and chase him down.
****Commercial****
Unified Tag Team Championship Match
The Miz & Big Show v. John Cena & Batista
The match starts with Miz and Cena in the ring. Cena lifts Miz up on his shoulders, and Miz gets the tag to his partner. Big Show comes in to lay out Cena, and then tags Miz in again. Miz looks for Cena. John is going over for the tag, but Batista heads to the back. Cena is not going to have any of it, and heads right out after him. This leads to count out victory for the champs.
Winners via Count Out: ShoMiz
David Otunga comes out, and tells ShoMiz that they aren’t getting off that easy. They will be defending their belts later tonight once again. Since Batista and Cena aren’t working out, he’s giving Cena a new partner. It’s going to be… himself! David Otunga is granting himself a shot at the Tag Titles later tonight!
****Commercial****
Ted Dibiase makes his way down to the ring… and he has the Million Dollar Championship Battle slung over his shoulder! He grabs the mic and puts over the fact that his dad was inducted into the WWE hall of Fame this year. Ted says that it must have had an effect on him because last week, his dad actually acted like a father for once. Ted says that one good act of kindness cannot replace all of the missed baseball games, football games, and other childhood experiences. However, he says that his father knows how to win his heart over, and it is by opening up the bank account. He thanks his dad for the trust found, and in giving him the Million Dollar Championship.
Ted Dibiase Jr. vs. Christian
Christian whips Ted into the corner, and then hits him with a back body drop. Christian stands on Ted’s shoulders and applies pressure against the ropes. Christian throws Ted to the outside, and then follows up with a baseball slide. Christian then springboards with a crossbody to the outside. Christian rolls Dibiase back into the ring. Dibiase hits a quick neckbreaker, and then hits a series of punches and kicks on Christian.
Ted goes for a cover, but Christian kicks out. Dibiase locks on a rear headlock. The crowd if finally starting to show some life as Ted hits Christian with a clothesline and goes for the cover. Christian kicks out. Christian attempts to connect with a couple of punches, but gets thrown to the turnbuckle. Dibiase gets caught with Christian’s see saw kick in the corner. Christian heads to the top rope and hits a huge missile dropkick. Christian goes for the cover, but Dibiase kicks out.
Christian looks to be going for the finish, but Ted counters. They each counter a series back and forth, with Dibiase eventually throwing Captain Charisma shoulder first into the steel post. He follows up with Dream Street, and this match is over.
Winner via Dream Street: Ted Dibiase Jr.
****Commercial****
April 26th 2010 Announced as a 3 Hour RAW and the WWE Draft!!!
Video package airs of Shawn Michaels’ farewell last week.
****Commercial****
Randy Orton v. Jack Swagger
The match starts with the competitors exchanging blows back and forth. Orton tries for a quick cover, but Swagger kicks out. Jack gets to his feet and lifts Orton into the air for a slam. He throws Orton out of the ring as we head to commercial.
****Commercial****
As we come back, Swagger is kicking out of a pin attempt from Orton. Swagger kicks out. Orton is looking for the RKO, but Swagger counters with a kick to the face. He goes for the cover, but Orton kicks out. Swagger runs to the corner and hits his second rope splash. Once again, Orton kicks out.
Swagger looks to going for the splash a second time, and he hits it! Swagger doesn’t go for the cover this time, instead he is setting up for his finisher. He goes for the Gut Wrench Power Bomb, but Orton counters into the RKO!
Winner via RKO: Randy Orton
****Commercial****
Unified Tag Team Championship Match
The Miz & Big Show v. John Cena & David Otunga
The match starts with Cena and The Miz. Cena grabs Miz and quickly tags in Otunga. David hits three consecutive shoulder blocks, and goes for the cover. Miz kicks out. He tags Cena back into the match. Cena throws Miz to the corner and then connects with a running bulldog as Miz bounces out. The Miz distracts the referee as Big Show hits a cheap shot on Cena. Miz jumps right on Cena and unloads a slew of punches. Miz goes for the cover, but Cena kicks out. Miz tags in Big Show. He repeatedly picks Cena up and hits clubbing blows to the gut of Cena.
Cena bounces off the ropes and leaps into the air for a shoulder block. Big Show doesn’t budge as Cena is thrown down to the mat. Show puts Cena in the corner and steps on his chest. The Miz works on Cena while the referee is distracted. Miz gets the tag, and Big Show throws him shoulder first into Cena’s gut. John is set up against the corner as Miz connects with an explosive splash. Cena kicks out of the cover attempt.
Miz locks on an arm bar, and doesn’t look to be letting up. The crowd shows a little sign of life, which is the first emergence they have made all match. Cena makes his way to his feet as Otunga is hoping for the hot tag. Cena uses his power to finally escape. Both men bounce off the ropes and hit stereo clotheslines! The referee begins the count.
Otunga is reaching for dear life as Cena struggles to make the tag. Cena finally jumps… but Otunga jumps off the apron! Big Show hits the Knockout punch and retains the belts for his team for the second time tonight!
Winners via Knockout Punch: ShoMiz
After the match, Batista runs into the ring and hits Cena with the Batista Bomb. He grabs a mic and calls for the spotlight. Otunga announces that Batista has something to say. Batista announces that he is invoking his rematch clause… at Extreme Rules. It is going to be a Last Man Standing match. The crowd continues their apparent vow of silence as we go off the air.
RAW Thoughts
That had to be one of the deadest crowds for the opening of RAW in quite some time. By the end of the segment there was literally no sound coming from them. Cena, Orton, and Miz got some reactions, but that’s about it. I actually felt kind of bad, because Swagger looked really uncomfortable. Tonight’s guest host didn’t do much to ramp up the charisma of the evening. I was getting kind of excited to see a possible unification of the Title belts tonight, but it was just a tease. Also, Otunga should have put himself in a match against Swagger for the belt. I mean, that’s what I would do!
The Kofi/Sheamus match was pretty straightforward. Nothing all that special. The crowd is really dead tonight and gave almost no reaction during the match. Afterwards, there was a cool dynamic between Sheamus and HHH. I’m really liking the motif of having Sheamus idolize HHH, and following in his footsteps. In this case, he is emulating HHH’s sledgehammer with by using a steel pipe as a weapon (Scott Steiner is rolling his eyes at this one).
The Divas match was bizarre. That’s all I need to say on that.
I love Hornswoggle. The little critter always cracks me up. He and Carlito should form a tag team together. Seriously, I’d root for them to win the Titles! (Yeah, I’d be the only one). I’m still wondering the identities of the random people in Otunga’s office. I suppose since he is A-List, that they are his entourage.
I do my thoughts of the show as kind of a running dialogue whilst I am watching. This is why I’ll sometimes question something, and then understand later on. In this case, the role of David Otunga. I was a bit disappointed that he did not challenge Swagger for the Title, but I read the character correctly and he made a challenge with arguably the strongest possible partner in John Cena. Touch? David Otunga, touch?. Can’t say I was all that surprised by Batista bailing on the match.
Christian/Ted Dibiase Jr. was a really solid match. This is what I came to expect from Christian during his tenure on ECW. He works a solid caliber match against nearly every competitor. He is a great asset to have in a company as he really knows how to work with the younger guys and get them over. I’m intrigued with the Million Dollar Championship storyline. I’m sure many will attack it for being corny, but I think it is a cool throwback. Besides, it certainly makes sense from a storyline standpoint. Let’s see what they do with it.
Swagger has seem real glimmers of potential. During his match with Orton tonight, there were multiple times when his athletic prowess shined. In particular, his slam where he grabbed a running Randy and used his momentum to send him to the mat was quite good. The match itself was pretty solid, though I question the mentality between having it. Swagger almost got the chance to unify the belts, but instead was relegated to facing the man who pinned him in a tag match last week. Not exactly a great trade off.
The night ended with David Otunga betraying Cena, ShoMiz retaining, and Batista announcing his rematch against Cena. Alright first of all, Otunga is an idiot. Whose ass did he hope to kiss by costing himself a real chance at the Tag Titles? This could very well be the closest he ever gets, and he threw it away just to be a heel. I know his is a “rookie”, but this wasn’t a rookie mistake, it was stupidity. I guess you could make the argument that he wanted to earn The Miz’s vote… but if he possessed a Championship belt, NXT wouldn’t matter for him anymore. I’m amazed by his decision to walk away.
I actually got really excited when Batista was hovering over Cena and Otunga said there was an announcement to be made. I thought that Batista was going to cash in his rematch on the spot, under the authority of Otunga. That would have been huge! Nope, just announcing a match. The crowd was dead anyway so I guess it didn’t really matter.
Seriously, did the WWE turn down the crowd’s volume tonight? If not, then they should NEVER go to Moline, Ill ever again. Overall a good RAW, which was hurt by the audience. Wrestling is an act heavily influenced by interaction with the crowd, especially on the WWE stage. Most things were rather lackluster, and certainly more questions than answers remain on the table. Where was The Hart Dynasty? Why hasn’t McMahon addressed the crowd since his humiliating loss? And so on. A rather formulaic night that teased greatness, but only teased.
Match of the Night
Randy Orton v. Jack Swagger
Power Rankings
3 Month Rolling Rankings (We’ll get there!); WWE Title Win 7, WWE Title Loss 6, Undercard Title Win 5, Undercard Title Loss 4, RAW Win 3, RAW Loss 2, RAW Appearance 1, PPV WWE Title Win 14, PPV WWE Title Loss 12, PPV Undercard Title Win 10, PPV Undercard Title Loss 8, PPV Win 6, PPV Loss 4, PPV Appearance 2.
February 22nd ? April 5th 2010
Male
1. Big Show ? 33 pts. [lw 1]2. The Miz ? 31 pts. [lw 2]3. John Cena ? 30 pts. [lw 2]4. Randy Orton ? 23 pts. [lw 4]5. Ted Dibiase ? 20 pts. [lw 5]6. Shawn Michaels ? 17 pts. [lw 5]
6. HHH ? 17 pts. [lw 7]6. Jack Swagger ? 17 pts. [lw 8]6. Kofi Kingston ? 15 pts. [lw 10]10. Sheamus ? 15 pts. [lw NA]
Diva
1. Maryse ? 24 pts. [lw 1]2.Gail Kim ? 22 pts. [lw 2]3. Eve Torres ? 20 pts. [lw 4]4. Kelly Kelly ? 19 pts. [lw 3]5. Alicia Fox ? 16 pts. [lw 5]6. Jillian ? 6 pts. [lw 6]6. Brie Bella ? 6 pts. [lw 7]6. Nikki Bella ? 6 pts. [lw 7]9. Katie Lea ? 5 pts. [lw 9]
So that’s RAW…. Love it? Hate it? Disagree with everything I said? Just want to chat wrestling? I’m always up for reading your thoughts and do my absolute best to reply to every message I get. Send them over to me at david@wrestleview.com.
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