Monday Night Raw Recap

-Live from the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, OH

-Hosted by Michael Cole & Jerry "The King" Lawler

-The same video package that played to open the Rumble opens tonight's show. Words can't describe how truly epic this package is. Interspersing the footage of the main event promo with Orton's theme. This was absolutely beautifully done.

-No intro, we go straight to the ring where Lillian introduces the 2009 Royal Rumble winner Randy Orton. The Legacy accompanies Randy to the ring along with three men in suits who are presumably Randy's legal team. Orton helps the three people in the crowd who don't know who he is by introducing himself. He introduces the three men as being his lawyers and his therapist. Orton goes over his history by saying he is third generation and the WWE is in his blood. Randy says in addition to the WWE being a part of him something else is a part of him. Orton says he suffers from IED. Intermittent Explosive Disorder. Orton reads a prepared statement saying that it effects 16 million Americans. When a person is provoked they suffer outbursts of physical violence. Orton states that after being slapped by Stephanie and having termination threatened he had become sufficiently provoked. Orton states he was not responsible for his actions. Orton states his therapist will confirm that the WWE knew of condition and did nothing about it. Therefore if Stephanie tries to fire him, he will sue WWE. He states there would also be a second lawsuit. Since he won the Royal Rumble he will sue for breach of contract if he is not allowed to compete in the main event at Wrestlemania. He also says Dibiase and Rhodes will walk if he is fired. Orton says with the three of them gone there will be no superstars left. Orton states he has one more piece of business to attend to. Another prepared statement is given to him by his attorney. This one states that he apologizes for the trauma that befell Mr. McMahon. He also apologizes for the trauma that the family is suffering. Orton hopes that they can put this ugly incident behind them and move forward. Orton successfully turns the crowd against him with this statement which is quite the feat for a guy that is getting massive face pops at this point. Orton says he is a man of honor and offers sincerest apologies to Mr. McMahon, his family, and to the fans. Orton thanks the fans. Brilliantly played by Orton all around doing the whole thing with a smug look on his face to convey that he really doesn't mean any of it. This guy on a role like we haven't seen anyone on in many years. He really has put it all together. Phenomenal job all around.

-We see Stephanie watching from her office with an evil glare. She says nothing.

The World Tag Team Title match is up NEXT!

World Tag Team Championship: Cryme Tyme vs. John Morrison & The Miz (c)
Well we're starting out with a bang as the straps are on the line right off the bat. JTG and Miz start off. JTG hits a face plant quickly out of the corner for two. JTG charges to the corner, but gets backdropped onto the apron. Morrison provides the distraction allowing Miz to hit a drop toehold on the outside. Two count results and Morrison is tagged in. Morrison stomps away in the corner and mounts with some forearms. Cover gets two as Morrison grabs a chinlock. JTG counters a suplex and is able to scoot over to tag in Shad. Shad knocks Miz off the apron and biels Morrison out of the corner. Powerslam coming out of the corner for Shad gets a two count. Morrison is able to regain control with a fist and goes for a Moonlight Drive and Shad goes for the STO. It connects and Miz breaks up the count. Miz is on the apron but gets booted off by Shad. Morrison connects from behind with a kick and this time the Moonlight Drive connects and Miz and Morrison retain with that.
Winners: STILL World Tag Team Champions: John Morrison & The Miz (Morrison pins Shad-Moonlight Drive **)

-Lawler introduces a video package for The Elimination Chamber at No Way Out. Another great video package showing highlights from the past Chamber matches. This year both World Titles will be defended in the Elimination Chamber at No Way Out.

-JBL is out to announce a special qualifying match for the Elimination Chamber. His employee Shawn Michaels will compete on his behalf. If Shawn wins JBL is in the Chamber. Shawn's opponent will be the man he defeated two weeks ago, John Cena. A qualifying match with the guy who is already in the match defending the belt? That doesn't make much sense, but hey its Cena-Shawn again so I can't complain.

Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: Kofi Kingston vs. Kane
I'm not sure I like Kofi's chances in this one. Kofi starts with the kicks but is caught on a crossbody attempt and slammed. Dropkick to a seated Kofi allows Kane to take control. Kane pounds away in the corner and drives Kofi into the buckle. A whip to the corner is followed up with a clothesline getting a two count. Kane whips to the corner again, but a charge this time is unsuccessful as Kofi moves. Kofi turns around and runs right into a boot though. Kane comes off the top with a flying clothesline. Kane calls for the chokeslam but Kofi fights it off with a spinning kick. Kane goes for another chokeslam, but Kofi reverses into a sunset flip which picks up the win!?!?! Well I'll be damned. Should be fun to see what Kofi can do in the chamber.
Winner: Kofi Kingston (Pinfall-Sunset Flip *3/4)

-Recap of the punt heard 'round the world is shown AGAIN. It was an awesome moment, but its getting to be overkill at this point.

-Chris Jericho is out to state that everyone is raving about the film The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke. A video package on the movie is shown. Same one from Smackdown. Jericho states one of the people who gave the film a glowing review is Ric Flair. Jericho says even though Flair is retired he has to stay in the spotlight, and him and Rourke have become friends. He says Flair may have given him some bad advice. Jericho brings up the footage of Mickey Rourke last night saying Jericho better get in shape. Jericho says Rourke is out of line. Its one thing to play a wrestler in a movie and its another to be one in real life. He says the last thing Rourke or Flair would want to do is offend Jericho. Oh dear god...they're really gonna do Rourke vs. Jericho at Wrestlemania aren't they?

-JBL is with Shawn in the locker room. Shawn asks if he really has to go through with this stating he did everything he could last night. JBL says superkicking him was part of his plan? Brilliant. Shawn says he had to get Cena to lower his guard. Shawn says he put JBL on top, and got another referee. He states he did everything humanly possible, he assumed that would be enough. JBL says he assumed someone was watching his money and thats why he's working for him. JBL says he would fire him right now, but there's still business to be done. JBL says there's business to be taken care of. JBL says this is Shawn's last chance.

Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena
Not sure how this works if Cena wins since he's in the match regardless. They took my advice (well I'd like to at least think they did) by having Shawn come out to JBL's music. Decidedly pro Cena crowd tonight. No handshake this time as they trade blows in the middle. Shawn gets the better of it and delivers a few chops. Cena goes for a bulldog but its countered by Shawn. Shawn smacks Cena in the face which is answered by a right hand. Cena goes for the move formerly known as the FU, but Shawn bails to the floor. That sends us to commercial.

Back from break and Shawn kicks out of a pin attempt. Shawn locks in a figure four which Cena quickly turns over. Belly to belly by Cena gets a two count. Cena grabs a side headlock. To their feet and Shawn fights out of the hold. Shawn hits the ropes and runs into a backdrop from Cena. Irish whip to the corner by Cena puts down Shawn again. Another backdrop attempt by Cena is blocked by a kick from Shawn. Shawn hits the ropes and comes off with a flying forearm. Inverted atomic drop is followed up by a pair of bodyslams from Shawn. Shawn goes to the outside to go for the elbow, but Cena is back up. Back inside Cena goes for the STF, but Shawn counters out. Pair of shoulderblocks and a protoplex from Cena sets up the five knuckle shuffle. Awesome counter by Shawn as Cena waving the hand in Shawn's face finally backfires as Cena grabs the hand and turns it into a crossface. Cena starts to fade but a second wind allows him tou counter into an FU attempt. Shawn is able to block by reaching the ropes. Shawn charges but runs into a drop toe hold into the STF. Shawn claws towards the ropes and reaches them to break the hold. Back to their feet Cena sets up for an FU attempt, but Shawn counters into a sunset flip for two. Shawn chops Cena and sends him to the buckle. That is followed by another chop from Shawn. Shawn gets whipped to the corner, but comes back out with a clothesline as both men are down. Shawn is to his feet first and gets a bodyslam on Cena. Shawn goes to the outside, but JBL comes over to yell at him. JBL asks Shawn to superkick him, but Shawn says he'll do it his way. JBL climbs onto the apron to stop Shawn from going to the top. That backfires as Cena pushes JBL into Shawn knocking him off the top rope. From there Cena hits the FU to pick up the victory. JBL will not be in the elimination chamber. Another fantastic effort from these two. Not on the level of the match in Sioux City, but still fantastic and the series is tied at two. I'll be damned if I don't want a rubber match. Screwy ending aside, this was fantastic. After the match JBL stands over the fallen Shawn looking down in disgust.
Winner: John Cena (Pinfall-FU ***1/2)

-Yet another recap of the punt is shown, followed by a recap of the opening promo. Okay, seriously, we get it. He kicked Vince.

-Todd Grisham is with Stephanie McMahon. Stephanie says there will be action, but she will do it publicly and to Randy's face.

Melina & Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix & Jillian Hall (w. Santino Marella)
Santino joins the commentary team, and immediately brings the awesome by telling Cole "you look fantastic, have you been working out? I almost didn't recognize you JR." Beth and Melina start and Beth powers Melina into the corner but runs into a double boot. Off the second rope comes Melina with a seated splash. Beth whips Melina into the corner, but misses a charge. Beth elbows her off and tags in Jillian. Melina grabs control and tags in Kelly who comes in with a sunset flip getting two. Jillian grabs a wrist lock, but Kelly hits a nice springboard takeover counter. Kelly gets whipped into the corner but goes to the apron. A distraction from Beth allows Jillian to shoulder her to the floor. Jillian throws Kelly back in and tags in Beth. Kelly gets her face driven into the mat, but moves out of the way of an elbow. Kelly tries to fight to the corner for the tag, but Jillian provides a distraction. The ref distraction allows Rosa Mendez to run out and slam Melina off the apron. From there Beth hits the Glam Slam which picks up the win. Beth doesn't look too pleased at that turn of events, but seems happy to take the victory.
Winner: Beth Phoenix & Jillian Hall (Phoenix pins Kelly-Glam Slam *3/4)

-Wrestlemania Rewind is a recap of Wrestlemania 21. We get a little bit of everything including some of the movie trailers. The rewind focuses on the first Money in the Bank match.

Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: Rey Mysterio vs. William Regal (w. Layla)
Well this is certainly a clash of styles. Rey grabs a sideheadlock, but gets thrown to the corner. Regal runs into a kick, and then Mysterio comes off the top with a springboard seated splash. Mysterio tries for a hurracanrana, but Regal counters it into a face plant. Regal takes control pounding away in the corner and European upper cut gets a two count. Half nelson crossface is locked in by Regal. Rey punches loose, and hits a kick to the face. Off the ropes Regal counters into a face plant and a series of near fall attempts. A knee to the face gets another two count for Regal. In the corner Regal pounds away with the forearm, and then whips Rey into the buckle. Coming out of the corner another forearm connects picking up two. Rey fires back with some kicks, but runs into a knee to the gut from Regal. Regal tries for a butterfly suplex, but that is countered by Rey into an armdrag. Kick to the head connects by Rey, but Regal quickly hits a throw getting two. Rey again fires back with a monkeyflip into the ropes which sets up a 619. Springboard splash finishes from there as Regal continues his slow slip towards irrelevance and Rey moves on to the chamber. So far we have Cena vs. Rey vs. Kofi. They're not even going for the illusion that Cena might lose are they?
Winner: Rey Mysterio (Pinfall-Springboard Splash **)

-Rosa and Santino are in the back. Rosa says she hopes she did the right thing. She says she had to do something because the way the title was stolen from Beth she had to take a stand for women everywhere. Beth shows up, and stares her down before looking at Santino and saying "we can keep her." Santino and Rosa celebrate. Phenomenal.

-World Premier of the Trailer for "12 Rounds" Starring John Cena. The Marine is back, and this time he's a cop! The villian says "What can I say, I just like to play the game." Sounds to me like they cast the wrong superstar.

Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho
First we get HBK-Cena, and now Jericho-Punk? Color me pleased. Gutwrench suplex gets a one count for Punk right away. He fires Jericho into the buckle. Punk is whipped into the corner, but Jericho runs into a boot. Punk goes to the second rope, but Jericho takes his legs out from underneath him to take control. Jericho delivers a few kicks and locks in a half nelson crossface. Punk comes up and sends Jericho into the ropes hitting a spin kick. Into the corner Punk hits the high knee and follows with a bulldog. Springboard to the top sees Punk hit Jericho with a flying clothesline for two. Punk sets Jericho up on the top rope and hit a top rope hurracanrana for two. Punk calls for the GTS, but Jericho counters out into a sunset flip. They trade a series of near falls all getting two. Jericho goes for the Walls, but Punk counters out. Jacknife cover by Punk gets two. Jericho goes for a backslide which is blocked by Punk. Jericho quickly hits the codebreaker out of that to pick up the win. Well that was underwhelming. While they were going it was awesome, but they just didn't have enough time to do anything substantial.
Winner: Chris Jericho (Pinfall-Codebreaker **)

-Say did you know Orton punted Vince last week? Well if you didn't see it they showed it again for roughly the 712th time tonight.

-Stephanie is shown walking to the ring....

-We return and the General Manager is shown walking to the ring. Stephanie McMahon says she's ready to react to Orton. She said she will not be intimidated by any lawsuit threats. She tells Orton to come to the ring. Orton's music hits and out he comes with the rest of Legacy and his lawyers. Orton takes to the mic and says before Stephanie says another word, he wants her to ask herself a question: do you wanna go through with this? If she fires him here tonight, she'll be subjecting herself to a nightmare. He'll be gone, Cody and Ted will be gone, the star power in the RAW locker room will be crippled. One of Orton's lawyers takes to the mic. He gets in Stephanie's face and says his IED condition is real. He said his client is not going to get on his knees and apologize. If she wants to fire him, there will be extreme consequences. Stephanie quickly asks if that's some kind of threat. She said Orton kicked her father in the head last week and he has the nerve to threaten her and this company. Orton says that's right, he's got a right to a main event at WrestleMania due to winning the Royal Rumble. He said if she fires him he will file an injuction to where there will be no WrestleMania this year. He will shut this company down. He asks Stephanie what she's gonna do about that. Out comes the entire RAW roster up to the top of the stage. Orton tells the entire RAW staff to stop looking at him. He says you think I care if you guys have a WrestleMania this year. He says he'll take all of them down with him. He yells at everyone to fire him and says he is begging them to fire him. He says go ahead and cancel WrestleMania and put these ingrates out of work - "fire me, fire me!" He said go ahead Stephanie and finish saying the words your father was trying to say to me before I kicked him in the skull. Stephanie says firing you would be too easy. We've got bigger plans. Shane McMahon's music hits. The RAW roster splits in half to allow Shane to walk through. Shane stops and takes his jacket off. He continues walking down the ramp as he takes his watch off. He enters the ring as the crowd chants "Shane McMahon, Shane McMahon." He stares down Orton and The Legacy. He then charges at Orton and attacks him. But it's three against one. Shane breaks through and gets to Orton again. The Legacy is slowly stopping Shane and get the better of him. Cody Rhodes restrains Shane as Orton recovers. Shane breaks free and punches out Orton. Rhodes comes back and Shane is giving it to Cody Rhodes now. Orton from the outside pulls out Rhodes and they run up the ramp to escape. Shane doesn't stop there as he charges up the ramp to attack Orton some more. The rest of the RAW roster are splitting the two up at the top of the ramp. The shoe goes off the air with Shane yelling for Orton to come get some more.

HOLY SHIT!( ROYAL RUMBLE 09)

Wow, if the royal rumble proved anything to me, it's that even if you can call the ending, you never know what else is gonna happen. thats the feeling i always get comming into the royal rumble. i guess it's just the bitter realist in me. with that said lemme get down to buisness

ECW Championship
Jack Swagger Defeats Matt Hardy
arguably the best match of the night belong to matt hardy and jack swagger. the fans were all over this, and they threw all the moves they had to ensure victory. say what you want about the ECW championship not meaning a thing, if we are gonna see solid matches like this for the "3rd brand title" then hey, i'll argue the point to some degree. looks like swaggar will be champion till they groom somebody else on the roster for the taking. im not mad, but i am abit peeved that this lost for matt caused the storyline that i'll get to a little bit later on

Womens Championship
melina Defeats Beth phenoix
again, one of the better womens matches i seen in a while. i thought it could have been better though, but you can only hope for so long. beth is extreamly talented and so is melina so one would think we were gonna get more techincality. there was a nice spot where beth used melinas leg and attacked her with it and of course my favorite part was the fact that melinas breast popped out, once again...pleasing me very much lmao
oh, and she won too, so that made me very happy. i was actually rooting for her.
god santino is funny

World Heavyweight Championship
John Cena Defeats John Bradshaw Layfeild with shawn michaels
can't say i was to excited about this match. but i will say that it is so far the best match that these two men put on with each other since there "I Quite" match at judgement day 'O5 4 years agos. michaels didn't really do much in this match, and it kinda took away from the whole storyline of him being torn to do what was right for him or what was right for his family. this also threw a damper on the JBL winning the title, and HBK being allowed to win the rumble and challenge his boss at Wrestlemania 25 in thier hometown. i take it WWE is tryna throw curve balls all night since we were aware of this plan. to the fact they mentioned it and didn't go threw further this point. at one point HBK superkicked JBL to cenas delight, only for cena to have his lights Knocked out as well. who knows where this goes. but since batista just had to get injured, were gonna be treated to Cena vs orton pretty soon
god kill me now..

WWE Championship
Edge Defeats Jeff Hardy in a no DQ match
i knew it wouldn't last long..
i knew hardy as champion was gonna go the way of benoit and gurrero.
Of goldberg and Mysterio
why couldn't they let him hold it untill Wrestlemania atleast
the fans were going crazy for jeff, he was so over.
but WWE just had to ruin there biggest star on smackdowns run.
and so foolishly, they strip hardy of the belt, after winning it 5 weeks earlier.
the big payoff wasn't even what most fans expected, although i called this months earlier. christan didn't even make his return last night. Again, WWE knew fans knew about him comming back, and wanted to throw another curve ball our way, so we get the logical and long over due Brother/Brother match up. Matt Hardy attacked Jeff with a steal chair shot at the end and cost him the title, much to Edge and vickie's Shock, along with everybody else and even me. I honestly didn't think they would go this route ever. while i hope it leads to an epic showdown between the two, i am still mad that it was at the cost of hardys reign as champion.
another good thing about this is that edge is now a 7 time champion i believe.. he did in three years what took taker and triple h more then 5 years to do i believe

The Royal Rumble Match
01. Rey Mysterio
02. John Morrison
03. Carlito
04. MVP
05. Great Khali
06. Vladamir Kozlov
07. Triple H
08. Randy Orton(winner)
09. JTG
10. Ted DiBiase
11. Chris Jericho
12. Mike Knox
13. The Miz
14. Finlay
15. Cody Rhodes
16. Undertaker
17. Goldust
18. CM Punk
19. Mark Henry
20. Shelton Benjamin
21. William Regal
22. Kofi Kingston
23. Kane
24. R-Truth
25. RVD
26. Brian Kendrick
27. Dolph Zigler
28. Santino
29. Hacksaw Jim Duggan
30. Big Show

Ok, this was by far the most entertaing Part of the show. As it should have been considering the PPV is called ROYAL RUMBLE
first off, i can't begin to break down the rumble play by play, cause it would take way to long. so imma give you as much as possible about what i enjoyed
honestly, the first 4 delivered the most to the crowd that night. morrison, mysterio, carlito and mvp could have been the only 4 in that match, and it would have been the best thing ever. morrion and mysterio blend well together, they certinly had fans thinking one of em was gonna win. carlito is dubbed the king of counters for one reason and one reason only: he can hit a counter out of no where. also check out the springboard moonsault..that was awesome
MVP came out and owned everyone, he even got to do his balling elbow drop! and the fans were all over him! great to finally here mvp chants! kahli came out then vladamir came and got rid of mvp, kahli and carlito i believe.
triple h and orton came around the same time as each other...thats how you knew who was gonna win. one of the two.
cryme time are funny ass cats man lol who saw the coin flip? lol i figured cause of what morrison did on ECW on tuesday that he would throw him out, but i guess the miz isn't ready to be tested in sigles matches yet
RVD comming back was awesome as well, i marked the fuck out when i heard his music and saw it was actually him and not charlie hass. santino........lmao you beat the warlords record, you were elimiated in 1 1/2 secs..lol im mas people had santion signs in the front row lol. jim duggen whupping ass brought tears to my eye, i was both happy for the guy but at the same time....21 years later he is still in them gym shorts lmao undertaker and bigshow comming into the rumble with eveybody scared out of there minds was so funny too. but the night belonged to one man. orton. i called this for the longest. either him or triple H. not to say i wanted this, but they only built these two stars to make it to the finals. im sure batista would have one if he had not got injured again. And for all the cena haters everywhere, they are delivered to the greatest match of there life. Cena vs orton is almost garunteed, granted if cena doens't loes at NO Way Out

8 Days away from the royal rumble

well over the next 8 days i plan to go back in time and look at some of the previous royal rumble matches to get myself hyped for the upcoming ppv next sunday. right now, i can't tell how anything is gonna go right now. i don't have a clue who could possibly win the royal rumble, i dunno if i should expect JBL to beat cena for the belt and face michaels at 'mania, and i don't know whats to come from hardy and edges match this week. with all the suspense i should be in for a suprise if they deliver properly but....knowing WWE..i won't hold my breath

with that being said, im going back to the 2007 royal rumble, which had a solid card filled with action and great wrestling, the last before the WWE's product started to get watered down by the pg ratings and the Flashy HD gimmicks.

you saw the hardys in an awesome tag match with MNM(if you don't know kids, thats john morrison, melina and joey mercury) filled with only the excitement the hardy boyz can give you. And MNM did a great job too mind you.

next was the ECW title match between test(for what reasons, only god knows why) and bobby lashely. pretty solid match. nothing to special. everytime i watch this ppv i always seem to fast foward it. Glad to see they were treating the ECW title like a real title at that point...though it would all dissapere soon

then was the World Heavyweight Title match between batista and mr.kenndy. I would love to say this was a great match..but to be honest, i see the both of these men do better, much better at diffrent points in there career. it was kinda sloppy due to kennedys sparadic movements and batista limited in ring coordination. who knows why this wasn't good thing. im sure if they were to do this program again in the future, we can expect much better from the two.

Then, which i believe could have just ended the whold damn PPV was the amazing Last man Standing match between John Cena Vs Umaga. This was also the start of the amazing year cena would later have. the match had it all, weapons being thrown everywhere, cena bleeding like a mad man and somehow finding a way to beat the "undefeated" umaga. pretend like there match at new years revolution never happened, this coulda headlined Mania. armondo estrada also was good in his role as manager. that FU and the STFU with the ring rope was also a good touch. truly perfect.

then, was the actuall rumble match which had i believe the most former world champions and promising stars the WWE had to offer. all were good in there roles, and set up future rivaleries and the awesome finish with HBK and Undertaker remaining the final two and duking it out, made the crowd go nuts. considering there both from texas, the hometown heros gave everything they had, and to think the last time both men wrestled was back in 97 i believe, or 98..in the hell in a cell match. i was hoping it would wind up these two at that years mania, but alas, you can't always get what you want

anyways, enjoy the video, it's always good to me lol

Wrestling for monday, january 5th, 2009

whats up bloggers? damion here with your daily dose of wrestling for today!

to start things off, i'll discuss what happend on the latest monday night raw. Seeing how i got home late after an eventfull day of watching "the curious case of benjamin button" , i got in about half way through raw but then again, thats what i love youtube for. the power to watch footage of episodes that shoudn't be on the net.
gotta love the internet..

anyways. apprently orton and jericho came out and delivered the type of promo only jericho and orton could. complaing that JBL and Shawn michaels teamed up to earn bradshaw the chance to face john cena at the rumble, it basicly ended with stephanie McMahon comming out and creating the main event of the night show a tag team match(As always!!)consisting of orton and jericho vs cena and hbk. Anytime i can hear JBL, jericho, hbk create an awesome promo showdown, as well as see stephanie's knockers im all for it. orton...not so much. he's such a bland overrated character to me now..not even as cool or talented as he was in the last few years

next was golddust(............) and melina(HOTNESS!!) vs Santino(comedy go to man) and beth phoenix(Semi hot, but still hot) in a mix tag match. Why this match went down, im not sure. all i know is that rosa mendaze came out and once again tried to attack melina, only to be kept apart by security....
dunno what all this was for but all i can say is anytime i can see three hot women and the anticts of goldust and Santino on tv...it gotta be worth something.

next was the intercontinetal championship match between one C.M Punk and one William Regal. OK, i get it. Im all for the idea of bringing life back to the I.C title scene, but this just ain't the way to do it. i mean, C.M punk was our World Champion only a few months ago...shouldn't he go face cena or be in the upper mid card, low main event playing feild? the world title scene definitly needs new players. i will kill myself if orton, jericho or JBL faces Cena at 'mania 25, and with batista out and hbk long out of the picture, who else is there? have some of the guys like jamie noble or manu or paul burchill fight for the I.C title. punk is so much more then that. granted he's not the great hope everyone claims him to be but they already brought him into the spot light with the ECW and the WHC belts...that sink him lower as they did benoit. regardless of my rant the match seemed pretty good untill regal got D.Q, putting all the build up for this I.C tournament to shame. but a rematch is promised for next week, i would have had it at the rumble but thats just me

orton talks to Cody Rhodes, and Sim Snuka about joining the legacy...Again...
this is dragging on worse then a drag queen..i don't think it took evolution or any other faction this long to form. manu comes by to ask for another shoot, and orton grills him and tells him his father wasn't even in the same league as his. cowboy bob orton was a good wrestler granted...but Afa was part of the legendary samoan family..who has brought us the rock, rakisi, umanga, and all the way at the edge of the tree branch samoa joe..i think orton needs to check up on history..or check into a mental clinic to deal with his narcist mindstate.

kofi kingston and rey mysterio vs the miz and john morrison
this was one hell of a tag match, all the players here were on point and everything. john morrison and the miz delivered a promo as only these two could, and kofi and rey gave the crowd what they wanted, fast paced, high flying action. that being said, i still believe kofi and rey would be better as single wrestlers. Rey was the world champion, and kofi didn't get much time to shine as I.C champion before dropping the belt to Santino at summerslam. WWE needs to jump start there tag team divsion..or merge the world tag team and the WWE tag team titles together and have all the tag teams fight under that divison. long as we don't have to see anymore forced tag team tag matches, i'll be happier again. for now though i'll accept john morrison/miz, Carlito/Primo, Curt hawkins/Zack ryder, Jesse/festus, and the underdogs cryme time as the only true tag teams in the WWE. after the match, that went to miz and morrison, girzzly adams, i mean mike knox, came out and attacked rey mysterio. mike knox scares me..i know wrestling is staged but that mans beard instills nightmears in my heart. thats not the type of thing that should be shown on tv

John Cena backstage with hbk, moments like these are a good thing. simple, straight to the point, no over the top anticts from either. cena asking hbk if he's gonna play the pupet today and hbk retorting "look at what history tells you to expect" and then we are off the segment. good shit

jillian hall vs kelly kelly in a standard divas match

man i can't get enough of kelly kelly. true, i know she's still not that good of a wrestler but she's trying Damn it! thats what i like about the sport. hardwork will go notice sooner or later. besides, she wears nice little outfits and is beautiful. that makes me a jolly camper. jillian is also a good wrestler who gets overshadowed by her horrible gimick. not to mention the fact that she just looks like she spends her money on pastic surgey..but it's all good cause im in to that type of shit. solid match, nothing special but not completly bad. after the match kane came out....
dunno why, nor did i ask any questions afterwards..

Cody Rhodes & Sim Snuka vs cryme time

man whats going on. cryme time is so over right now with the fans. they put on good matches, they have the fan support, there an actuall tag team but yet they haven't one the gold nor have they been winning many matches lately. im gonna dig into that some more later. i don't wanna believe it's a race issue, but then again, wwe is know for not having many black champions on the show. regardless, it was still a good match. and in the end sim snuka gets bitched by orton who annouced now that only cody rhodes was in the group, since he was the one who got the pin. sad shit. what went from a group of cody rhodes and ted dibiase, to manu, to sim snuka gets watered down to orton and rhodes..figures..fucking geration wrestling dynastys.

Santino and Beth are in Stephanie's office and awesomness ensues thanks to mr.marella. jericho soon comes in and tells steph that here fater vince McManhon will be back in 2 weeks..just before the rumble. can't wait, the old bastard ain't been on tv in how long? everytime he's on i just get the feeling shit is going down. Also it will see where this Steph/shane angle is going.

the main event for tonight show is john cena and shawn michaels Vs Chirs Jericho and Randy Orton

the match was solid with everything you can expect from each player. not to much but not to little seeing how they didn't need to pull out alot for an episode of raw. cena and hbk kept doubting who was gonna do what in that match, with orton and jericho controlling the match untill sweet chin music came packing.

solid show, not the best but a solid show. i would have expected a little bit of interaction between cena and jbl but meh, shit happens

3 out of 5