RAW (04.05.08)
Posted on May 5th, 2008 by Matt B
NEWS: |WWE| The following report is from WWE with full credit going to Lennie DiFino…
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Former WWE Champion Randy Orton’s pursuit of the title has the Superstar crazed with nothing but revenge on his mind. His opponent Monday Night, the reigning Mr. Money in the Bank, CM Punk, also has his sights on gold.
While Orton knows he will fight Triple H at Judgment Day, Punk continues to bide his time until he sees the opportunity to challenge for a World Title, with the deadline for cashing in WrestleMania XXV in Houston. But both men had their plans of gaining momentum dashed when General Manager William Regal ended their one-on-one encounter, once again wielding his power by turning out the lights.
Neither Punk nor Orton’s nights were over, however, as the Straightedge Superstar competed in the main event match that saw the entire ECW roster take on Triple H & Mr. Kennedy. When that match turned into a 16-man melee, Punk found himself the victim of a Triple H chair shot to the head, while Orton capitalized when the lights went out, emerging to deliver a thunderous RKO to his Judgment Day opponent. Read the full story…
Beth Phoenix invoked her rematch clause on Raw, but Women’s Champion Mickie James successfully defended her title against the former champion in a Lumberjack Match. Over the past few weeks, the Divas of WWE have been involved in 12-Diva Tag Matches, but this night belonged to the Women’s Champion.
The Glamazon’s fellow Diva, Melina, cost her the chance to reclaim gold when she accidentally nailed the dominant Diva with her boot, giving James the opening she needed to earn another victory and keep her title.
Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho & Shawn Michaels teamed together on Raw to defeat WWE Tag Team Champions John Morrison & The Miz in a non-title match. With HBK seemingly less than 100 percent, Y2J fought the champions with all he had, and Michaels delivered Sweet Chin Music to John Morrison, followed by a Lionsault by Jericho to get the win.
After Raw finished, WWE Mobile on AT&T subscribers were the first of our fans to know that at Judgment Day, the growing tension between Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho will see the two square off one-on-one. Preview the match
Carlito hosted a special edition of his Cabana with a very special guest – WWE Hall of Famer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. Carlito told Piper that it wasn’t cool when he slapped Santino Marella last week, which brought Marella and a microphone to the arena.
Insulting Piper, Marella berated “Hot Rod” for his actions, and the No. 1 contenders to the World Tag Team Championship were poised to attack – until Cody Rhodes came to Piper’s defense. Rhodes told Carlito & Santino that even though his fellow champion Hardcore Holly wasn’t in the arena tonight, another duo was anxious to meet Roddy Piper. Rhodes introduced Cryme Tyme, and JTG & Shad joined Rhodes and Piper in ridding Toronto of “Can-tino.”
JBL’s anger over losing the Fatal Four Way at Backlash continued for a second straight week, as the self-proclaimed “Wrestling god” took on Canada’s own DH Smith. Offering a warning before the match to Smith, JBL pummeled the young Raw Superstar and solidified his threats to John Cena – the man who eliminated him at Backlash. JBL is more focused with his newfound attitude, and he is looking to make Cena – whom he will face at Judgment Day – and anyone else who stands in his way pay for his misery.
GM William Regal continued to lend a hand to his fellow Britons, Paul & Katie Lea Burchill, when he placed the siblings into a Handicap Match for the second straight week. Before the match, Regal removed Jim Ross from commentary and replaced him with Mike Adamle, much to the chagrin of everyone but the General Manager. The Burchill’s made the most of the opportunity afforded to them, destroying their competition once again. Paul delivered a devastating curb stomp to John Cutler, again allowing Katie Lea to get the pin for the victory.
Last week, Trevor Murdoch expressed his frustration over mounting losses with his rendition of “Friends in Low Places” – much to the chagrin of his tag team partner, Lance Cade. Murdoch continued his serenading ways this week, belting out “Stand by Your Man.” Toronto’s own Trish Stratus made a surprising return to the Air Canada Centre, and then she was joined by Ron Simmons, who had his own critique of Trevor’s tune: “Damn!”
The 2008 King of the Ring and Raw General Manager, William Regal, began his night by receiving a ringing endorsement from Mr. McMahon. With that in hand, he continued his iron-fisted rule over the Superstars of Raw.
Regal came face-to-face with Mr. Kennedy, whom he brawled with last week, and on Raw warned not to draw his ire. But the loudmouth would not listen, and Regal then ordered Kennedy into a Handicap Match against the entire ECW roster – a favor for ECW General Manager Armando Estrada to help promote Tuesday’s 100th episode of ECW on Sci Fi.
WWE Champion Triple H then came to the ring to voice his displeasure over Regal’s decision to turn the lights out on his match with Randy Orton last week. The Game’s mouth landed him in the Handicap Match alongside Kennedy, and when the smoke cleared, ECW’s best and brightest stood tall with the odds stacked in their favor.
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May 6th, 2008: Reason Big Daddy V & Boogeyman were not in Main Event
The opening segment to RAW was pretty good. Regal is really starting to grow on me and I like his subdued arrogance. His comment last week of “the most powerful entity in WWE” was a nice line and he’s really playing it up this week as well. I like it a lot. The only thing I didn’t like was how long the opening segment was. Including Vince’s endorsement and the commercial, the first match did not start until 9:20 EST which was a long time in my opinion. Regardless, I liked the way RAW started.
Is Katie Lea the long lost sister of Beth Phoenix?
I was really disappointed with the Divas match. The timing was off between Mickie/Beth and they completely botched a move at one point. The match was not exciting and I didn’t get into it. Not really sure what was going on, but these two can do much better.
Nice to see Stratus & Simmons backstage. I guess the Damn! segments will return now (unless Simmons returned last week and I missed it).
Katie & Paul are not getting much crowd reaction. But that double foot stomp by Katie and the Curb Stomp was a nice finishing combination.
Looks like WWE has found the right angle for Adamle and it’s based on real life. I like the idea a lot. Good idea by WWE to play off Adamle’s inexperience.
The tag match was pretty tame, but it was still good. Of course WWE is going to push the HBK/Jericho/Batista storyline and I think they did a good job tonight. They’re not pushing it fast and taking it slow by giving bits and pieces at a time. And the storyline is pretty interesting too and I’m glad Jericho is finally involved in something interesting.
I guess I really shouldn’t comment on Punk/Orton, but I was legitimately upset when Regal came out because the match was good. And this was the perfect time for Regal to come out and ruin it all for the fans.
The Carlito/Piper/Cryme Tyme segment was fun to watch and Piper’s lines were all good (including his one about Santino’s driving). But it really wasn’t need for RAW. However, if WWE turns this into a tag team angle next week like Cryme Tyme vs Carlito & Santino then I guess it’s OK. I’m on the fence about whether this segment really brought anything to RAW.
Is JBL still trying to establish himself as a heel on RAW? He beat up DH Smith, made reference to the Hart Foundation, God himself and did the usual heel move of the post-match beat down. And still this guy can’t get a decent crowd reaction? Pathetic. I respect everything he did and how long he’s been doing it, but his reign on Smackdown was something I enjoyed. Now that he’s on RAW I feel sorry for him and do not want to see him on TV. His current run is bombing and he hasn’t brought anything to RAW since his return. His feud with Jericho, Finlay and now Cena all suck horribly. He’s almost a waste of time now. Please do not mistake this for a fan hating JBL because it’s not. If it were then JBL would be doing a good job of making me hate him. Instead, this opinion is based on the fact that JBL is not the same one from Smackdown a few years ago. His return has not been productive at all and he should return to the commentating booth.
I was really relieved that ECW won the main event. I was worried that WWE would once again put the RAW brand over everyone else, but thankfully they did not and Chavo got the pinfall of all people. It was weird for HHH to hit Punk with the chair so cheering for the fan favorite got confusing when they were all mixed up. I really like how Orton came in at the end. The last time we saw Orton was when he was going to confront Regal and now he comes back at the very end. Nice tough and nice ending.
Overall, RAW was decent. All the matches were subpar and none were all too exciting or even worth watching. And then the talking segments weren’t too brilliant either. The show was up and down and I would have rather read the results online. The show had its highlights, but even then it did not make the show worth watching in my opinon.
What about you?
6 Comments to “RAW (04.05.08)”
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I didn’t like the main event at all. What is point of putting so many men in one team when everyone gets 5 seconds of action and the match is finished by… ahem…. Chavo. And lately I have come to realise that HHH is no better than Cena in repeating 4 moves again and again.
Anybody knows when Punk cashes in MITB and if he is going to become a champ?
HHH has been boring for a while now.
I like Regal actually, it is making RAW very interesting for me.
@Xtreeeme Just a bad RAW. When I woke this morning I realized how bad it really was. Nothing got me excited. With the exception of Regal, RAW was not interesting including, like you said, the main event.
@Xtreeeme It feels like Punk will be cashing it soon because he’s been talking about it a lot lately. I think Punk may break the mold and blow the title shot when he cashes it in. But every MITB winner have gone on to win the title. How cool would it be for HHH to do the job to Punk?
@Matt B
Yeah… we can only dream this would happen. I don’t think HHH will job to Punk when he didn’t do it for RVD and Booker. Unless Punk starts selling stuff like Cena, there is no scope for him on Raw. After HHH/Orton in cage, I guess they’ll go to one more PPV before this feud ends. What I would like is Orton defeats HHH because of a surprise attack by some old HHH nemesis (can’t think of one though) and then Punk cashes in a clean MITB title match for once (although I liked both of Edge’s victories a lot… the first one was quite shocking after the Elimination Chamber)
@Xtreeeme Yea Edge had some really good ones. And that’s what makes MITB great…it’s how the wrestler ends up using it and Edge has shown us that. I would hope HHH would do the job considering he did a clean job to Hardy earlier this year. I think Punk should hold on to the briefcase for a while.