Friday, January 29, 2021

Monday Night Raw 1-30-06 Review

Monday, January 30th, 2006
TD Waterhouse Centre
Orlando, Florida

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Edge is backstage to let us know that what happened at the Royal Rumble last night was a fluke. He's not waiting for WrestleMania or Saturday Night's Main Event, he is using his rematch clause tonight. 

Vince McMahon is now out to the ring to gloat about Shawn Michaels not winning the Royal Rumble. Vince admits he abused his power last night and out comes a very serious Shawn Michaels. Michaels wants to kick Vince's teeth down his throat, but he knows that he'll be fired. Michaels says that he could quit or he could go back to his partying ways, but that is never going to happen. So Michaels instead challenges Vince to a match and then mocks him for hesitating to answer him. Vince fires back and says there's no chance in hell. Vince says instead that he's inviting Shawn to commit career suicide instead and tells him to hit him in the face so that he can fire him and sue him for everything he's worth. Vince gets on his knees to beg him for it and out comes Shane McMahon and hits Shawn from behind with a chair. 

They show us an interview from during the commercial. Shane says he attacked him due to lack of respect. The McMahons then head out of the building in a limo. 

Rob Van Dam vs. Snitsky

It's kind of fun to have Joey Styles on the announce team for RVD being back. RVD hits a springboard crossbody off the second turnbuckle for a 2 count. RVD slips a little bit on his next leap to the second turnbuckle and then gets hit with a clothesline. This is already going longer than I expected, as Snitsky has pretty much been a jobber the past 6 months. Not to mention, he didn't even get a televised entrance. RVD finally hits a spinning heel kick to slow down Snitsky. Van Dam hits Rolling Thunder for a nearfall. Van Dam definitely looks pretty rusty here. He hits a Five Star Frog Splash and gets the victory. He definitely has some rust to shake off, but it's good to have him back. 

Match Rating: 1/2* (out of 5)

Shelton Benjamin and his mama are backstage and she's telling him that he almost won last night, but that's not good enough. Goldust sneaks up and starts massaging her back. She of course is freaked out by him.

Maria interviews Triple H and reminds him that he almost won last night. He said he's not buying the divine intervention of Eddie Guerrero and I guess he's going to take it out on Chavo tonight. 

Triple H vs. Chavo Guerrero

Chavo's entrance gets bumped to the commercial break. Chavo gets a fair amount of offense to start and hits a plancha to the floor. Back in the ring, Chavo charges at Triple H and a back body drop sends Chavo over the top rope and to the floor. Back from the commercial break, Chavo skins the cat, but gets nailed with a spinebuster. Triple H locks in a sleeper, but Chavo almost immediately counters out of it. Chavo hits a dropkick and both men are down. Chavo hits he Three Amigos and goes up for the Frog Splash, but Triple H crotches him. Triple H hits the Pedigree and that is all. This actually was a good little TV match. It wasn't the squash you would have expected. 

Match Rating: **1/2

Carlito is rambling on to Chris Masters, who is giving him the cold shoulder. Masters slaps him and tells him that they're cool now. 

World Tag Team Championship Match
Carlito & Chris Masters vs. Kane & Big Show

The big men come out swinging and Carlito gets the giant Big Show skillet chop. Carlito ends up hitting a Backstabber on Kane and Masters tags in to continue the attack. Masters applies the Master Lock on Kane, but Big Show breaks it with a right fist. Everything breaks loose, but it all leads to Masters once again getting the Master Lock on Kane when he leaps off the top rope. Big Show causes Masters to release the hold, but then he tries it on Show. Kane breaks up the attempt and they hit a double chokeslam for the victory. That was a lot better than I was anticipating. It had no right to be that good, but I guess I see why they felt they had something with this combination for WrestleMania. 

Match Rating: **1/4

RVD gets a backstage promo to say that he wants Carlito for going after his injured knee last night. 

Mickie James says that she is going to be celebrating Trish Stratus tonight. 

Shelton Benjamin vs. Goldust

Benjamin wheels out his mama, who also is using an oxygen tank. Shelton misses a dropkick and Goldust sends him out of the ring with a slingshot. Goldust hits an uppercut and inverted atomic drop before setting Benjamin in the corner. His mom gets up and that allows Goldust to shatter Shelton's dreams. Goldust goes out to greet his mama and when he gets back in the ring, he gets hit with a huge kick to the head. Benjamin hits the T-Bone suplex and gets the victory. That was kind of just there, but I'm always good with Benjamin on my TV.

Match Rating: *3/4

Shelton is shown wheeling his mama to the restroom and he walks up to Ric Flair, who is with the ladies. Flair calls him a mama's boy and wooooo's his way out of there. 

Mickie James is out now for Trish's celebration. She says not only did she get to tell Trish that she loves her, Trish proved that she loves her back. Trish comes down to try to tell her the truth, but Mickie interrupts and has the Spirit Squad come out. Now Ashley is coming down to join the party. Ashley says she'll set Mickie straight since Trish won't. She tells her that Trish doesn't love her and that Mickie is a psycho. Mickie breaks down and cries. Trish and Ashley start to argue a little bit, allowing Mickie to attack Ashley from behind. Mickie says she knew Trish loved her and heads to the back as Trish checks in on Ashley. 

WWE Championship Match
Edge vs. John Cena

Cena hits the first big move, which is a fisherman suplex, but Cena is quick to be back on offense. During the commercial break, Edge hit a Spear to knock Cena off the apron and threw him into the steel steps. These guys feel like they are sleepwalking compared to last night. Cena catches Edge off the top rope and hits a slam. Cena hits the Five Knuckle Shuffle and gets up Edge for the FU, but Edge escapes and pushes him to the ref. Edge hits a low blow on Cena from behind and Edge hits a Spear. Lita comes in and accidentally hits Edge with the belt and the ref rings for the bell. They DQ Cena since she hit Edge, so yeah. This was not nearly as enjoyable as their match at the Royal Rumble.

Match Rating: **1/4

This was a very spirited event (no pun intended) and the crowd was into it. There were no match of the year candidates, overall this was a fairly strong episode. Raw is officially on the road to WrestleMania, so I expect things to heat up a little bit here in February. 

Overall Rating: 68%

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