Monday, April 10th, 2006
Bradley Center
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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Edge and Lita are here to kick off the show. He talks about being the favorite in their match at Backlash and out comes John Cena. Cena reminds Edge that he was only the champion for 2 weeks and said that he came here to fight. Edge backpedals and gets on Cena for caring about what the people in the audience think. Lita is doing a nice job with her facial expressions throughout this whole thing. Cena turns this into making fun of Triple H and after 11 minutes, he finally makes his way out. On a side note, the Triple H skull logo has to be one of the worst things WWE creative services has ever come up with, right? Triple H says that all the fans respect him. Cena dares Triple H to Pedigree him again, but Edge feels left out and reminds us about what he accomplished at WrestleMania 22. Triple H says that Vince called him and said that Edge is going to take on both Triple H and Cena tonight in a handicap match. Edge storms away furiously and Triple H extends his hand out to Cena. Cena instead slaps him in the face and heads to the back. This segment accounted for over 20% of the actual show.
Rob Conway vs. Rob Van Dam
Conway is in the ring and selling his jaw. They show that during the commercial, Triple H clocked him with a right hand. I'm not sure I can declare this a fair outing to determine the best Rob in WWE, so that will have to wait for another day. As RVD is in the ring, out comes Shelton Benjamin and it allows Conway to attack him from behind. Conway must be trying to save his job because he is still selling the punch. RVD hits a spin kick and then a helicopter kick onto Conway draped on the barricade. Meanwhile, Shelton challenges RVD at Backlash. RVD hits Rolling Thunder, goes up top and hits the 5 Star Frog Splash for the quick victory. That was barely enough time for Shelton to even get his challenge out. He's interviewed on the ramp by some jabroni announcer and he tells him about Shelton's challenge. RVD says there's no way that he's putting his Money In The Bank briefcase on the line and challenges Shelton for the Intercontinental Championship instead.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Mickie James is backstage with Maria and she tells us how amazing it's been winning the Women's Championship. She thanks Trish Stratus and then says that she can't wait to go back home to Toronto to celebrate. She snaps at Maria for correcting her and challenges Maria to a match tonight.
World Tag Team Championship Match
Spirit Squad vs. Kane & Big Show
Ooooh man, it's the beginning of the May 19th story for Kane. He is haunted by voices in his head that we can magically hear too. Big Show sees him and tells him that they have work to do. Johnny and Nicky are the ones defending tonight. The match last week was horrible, so let's this one is at the very least a slight improvement. Big Show is obviously is not in a good mood and quickly takes it out on Johnny. Johnny has a huge hand print on his chest from Big Show. We see some trademarks of the future bump machine, Dolph Ziggler. Show gorilla presses Nicky over the top and onto his 4 friends. Back from the commercial break, Johnny hits a spin kick on Kane and a lot of cheap shots behind the referee's back. Big Show chases them off, but Kane is in trouble for the time being. I did not expect this match to get as much time as it is here. The champs hit a double vertical suplex on Kane, but he sits up behind their backs. Kane gets clotheslined out of the ring, but he then fights off both opponents and throws them back into the ring. Kane grabs chairs and throws them into the ring. The referee calls for the bell. Kane hits a pair of chokeslams while Big Show just stands there on the apron. Kane then chokeslams the referee. Big Show comes out to try and calm him down, but Kane gets in his face. Kane shoves him and Show shoves back. They both grab each others throats, but Kane is the one who hits the chokeslam. They don't announce how the Spirit Squad won the match. It should have been a countout, but I have a feeling it was a DQ. The match was a huge upgrade over last week, but nothing special.
Match Rating: *1/2
Big Show finally gets up and isn't happy.
They pan to earlier today and show Vince and Shane in a church into the commercial break.
Just in case we didn't get enough of Cena in the opening segment, he's interviewed backstage to remind us that he and Triple H are best friends.
Back to the McMahons at a church. What could go wrong here? He first tries to wash his hands in the holy water and then instead drinks it and spits it out while imitating Triple H. He then cuts a promo there and all of the commandments of his that Shawn Michaels broke. This all just screams of them trying to be controversial rather than creating entertaining storylines.
Armando Alejandro Estrada is in the ring and he is here to introduce Umaga.
Umaga vs. Chris Guy
Umaga has dreadlocks this week. Umaga's opponent is none other than Colt Cabana. Umaga immediately attacks him and hits the butt to the face in the corner. Umaga drags him to the center o fthe ring and hits a second rope headbutt. Umaga shows off the taped up thumb and hits the Smoan Spike submission for the victory. There are some audible boos to the finisher here. It took awhile, but this all got over eventually.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Carlito is in the ring and says that he's on a diet. He lost 275 lbs. of dead weight in Chris Masters. He calls out Masters and he's out immediately. Masters says he's not going to do anything tonight because they have a match at Backlash. Masters brings up their history and honestly, Masters is the babyface in this scenario. Carlito makes fun of Masters for costing them the tag titles at WrestleMania because of what Carlito did to him at Royal Rumble and New Year's Revolution. He then makes fun of the Master Lock and calls down for a ref for an impromptu Master Lock Challenge. Carlito has an apple in his hand and Masters doesn't want any of it. He knocks it out of his hand and so Carlito hits him in the head with the chair.
They show a recap of Chavo Guerrero quitting last week and announce that Jim Ross will have an interview Chavo next week on Raw.
WWE Women's Championship Match
Mickie James vs. Maria
Meanwhile, we get to watch Coach and King eat Subway sandwiches. After a quick roll up from Maria, Mickie goes on the attack. Mickie misses off the second rope, but still snaps Maria back onto her knees. To call this one sloppy would be an understatement. Mickie hits a Mick Chick and that is all. Out comes Trish Stratus and she's dressed as Mickie. Mickie is in shock and Trish cuts a promo. Trish says she wants to be just like her and then kisses her. Kudos to Trish for going all out here.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Handicap Match
Triple H & John Cena vs. Edge
Edge goes all out on Cena, trying to score a quick victory. Cena fights back and hits a belly-to-belly suplex for a 2 count. Edge hides behind Lita on the outside and hits a cheap shot on Cena to turn things back in his favor. It doesn't last long and then Triple H tags himself in. Triple H hits a high knee on Edge. Lita gets on the apron and distracts him enough for Edge to attack him from behind. Edge hits Edgecution and both men are down. Edge sets up for the Spear, but instead Triple H hits the spinebuster. Cena is tagged in and he hits the Five Knuckle Shuffle. Cena has him up for the FU, but Triple H pulls Edge off and hits the Pedigree. Cena hits the FU on Triple H and puts Edge in the STFU for the victory. This was pretty ho hum until the final moments there.
Match Rating: **
This was a passable episode of Raw that focused more on building to Backlash then it did on entertaining segments. Unfortunately, it ended up as being pretty unmemorable, but that happens when you have a show on 52 weeks a year.
Overall Rating: 49%
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