Original Airdate: Friday, July 14th, 2006
Target Center
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
King Booker is in the ring and accompanied by Queen Sharmell, William Regal and pyro. They talk about Booker being the new #1 contender and then give us exclusive video from last week of him attacking Rey Mysterio. They are trying to build a main event promo in a very short amount of time here. Out comes Mysterio and attacks Booker, showing a little bit more fire than normal.
Matt Hardy vs. Mr. Kennedy
Hardy attacks Kennedy during his intro and has Kennedy reeling. Kennedy gets some offense in and goes up top. Hardy easily gets there and hits a second rope superplex. Hardy hits the Side Effect, but Kennedy kicks out at 2. He goes for the Twist Of Fate, but Kennedy counters and hits a reverse neckbreaker for a nearfall. The crowd is pretty into this one, which is good to see. Kennedy goes for a Twist Of Fate, but Hardy counters that and hits 10 fists in the corner. Kennedy holds onto the top rope with this Twist Of Fate attempt and Hardy gets his foot on the bottom rope for the pin attempt. Kennedy moves him to the middle of the ring and Hardy rolls him over and steals a victory. This was the first pinfall loss for Kennedy since his debute in 2005. I really enjoyed this match. Both men brought a lot of energy to the match and the crowd was digging it. This has been a strong start to the show tonight.
Match Rating: ***
Michelle McCool and Kristal are talking trash about Ashley. Ashley and Jillian walk in and we have ourselves a brawl.
Great Khali and Daivari are out and call out Undertaker. The lights go out, the bell rings and Undertaker is in the ring. We gets some "lightning" and Khali tries to go towards the ring. They pull off and head to the back.
Paul London vs. Jamie Noble
London gets distracted by Kid Kash and Noble attacks him. Noble dominates until London lands on his feet from a back body drop and hits some clotheslines. He hits a springboard dropkick to the back and gets a 2 count. Kash is able to snap London's neck on the top rope and Noble is able to steal the victory. This was pretty short, but not bad overall.
Match Rating: *3/4
Miz is backstage with the Diva Search contestants.
We get Sylvan again. Quebec is #1.
Teddy Long is in the ring for the contract signing between Mark Henry and Batista. Long says that if either man lays a hand on the other, they will forfeit their opportunity to be the #1 contender. He brings out Batista first and he wants to talk about how Mark Henry ruined the best year of his life. Long now brings out Henry. The contract gets signed and no physicality ensues.
United States Championship Match
Finlay vs. Bobby Lashley
Lashley hits a vertical suplex and we already are going into commercial break. During the break, Lashley was thrown into the steel steps and is now in control. Lashley starts to make a comeback, but Finlay grabs a chair. Finlay misses with the chair and Lashley throws him back in the ring. Lashley grabs one of the chairs, which distracts the referee. Hornswoggle comes out and hands Finlay the shillelagh and hits Lashley with it behind the referee's back. Finlay gets the pinfall victory and we have a new United States Champion. That was really short for a match with a title switch.
Match Rating: **
They show Vito at the Mall Of America.
Out comes the Miz for the Diva Search bootcamp. They bring out Sgt. Slaughter to run the event. Layla dominates and it's pretty easy to see she was the most athletic of the bunch. Otherwise, this was 8 minutes of my life I will never get back.
William Regal vs. Rey Mysterio
King Booker is at ringside to join the announce team. When we come back from commercial, we see Booker get knocked off the apron by Mysterio and Regal attack him from behind. Mysterio goes for a headscissor, but Regal tosses him to the mat. Regal looks great here and it's nice that he's gotten an elevated role with the whole King Booker angle. Meanwhile, Michael Cole and Booker are arguing this entire match. Mysterio is able to hit a monkey flip to slow down Regal. Regal tries to throw him out of the ring, but Mysterio holds on and hits the seated senton. Booker distracts the ref and Mysterio hits a sliding dropkick below the belt and follows it up with a Bronco Buster and a split legged moonsault. Mysterio knocks Booker off the apron again and the 619 on Regal. He hits the springboard splash and gets the victory. This was honestly the strongest I can remember them making Mysterio look in a long time. I would have liked if they would have given this a few more minutes, as both guys looked really good here. After the match, Mysterio hits a 619 around the ring post on Booker.
Match Rating: **3/4
After all of the crap they have been giving us on Raw, this was a breath of fresh air. It still had some garbage on it, but the good stuff here was a lot of fun. I will gladly take episodes like this every week.
Overall Rating: 64%
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