Monday, July 24th, 2006
Quicken Loans Arena
Cleveland, Ohio
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
Shawn Michaels is here solo to kick things off. Apparently Triple H is with Stephanie for her pregnancy, which leads to some joking about their relationship. Jonathan Coachman comes out and he says that Vince put him in charge tonight. Coach talks to Vince on the phone and he says that Shawn Michaels will face Coach tonight, which leads to lots of laughing from Shawn.
World Tag Team Championship Match
Spirit Squad vs. Highlanders
Kenny and Mikey are representing the Spirit Squad in the ring tonight. The Highlanders dominate most of the match, which leads Jim Ross to comparing them to the Bushwhackers. The Spirit Squad members outside the ring distract the challengers and it leads to a cheap victory. Their formula is starting to get stale with these guys.
Match Rating: 3/4*
We go to Mick Foley in the WWE studios. He unleashes a rant like only Foley can and honestly, it's hard to not root for Foley over Flair here.
After showing a 24/7 spot on Terry Funk vs. Ric Flair from Great American Bash '89, Flair is out in the ring and he wants Foley. Out comes Edge and Lita to interrupt. Johnny Nitro comes out and they attack Flair. Cena is here to save the day.
Carlito and Trish Stratus are backstage flirting. Carlito asks Trish to hang out after his match.
We go to Coach and he's flustered. Edge and Lita storm in, which leads to him announcing Johnny Nitro and Edge against Ric Flair and John Cena.
Todd Grisham comes out and announces that Stephanie has given birth to Aurora. This seems pretty weird considering the storyline going on.
Intercontinental Championship #1 Contender Match
Shelton Benjamin vs. Carlito
This is match #3,736 in their series. Carlito hits a nice running knee lift and follows it up with a weak looking clothesline. That's pretty much Carlito in a nutshell. Carlito tries to suplex Shelton over the top rope, but he lands on the apron and pulls Carlito's arm on the top rope. Carlito climbs the top rope, but Shelton leaps up to meet him. Carlito shoves him off, but Carlito catches him by the arm when he leaps and puts him a submission hold. Carlito is eventually able to get the bottom rope to break the hold. Shelton goes for a powerbomb, but Carlito counters it for a sunset flip and gets a 2 count. Carltio hits the Back Cracker, but Shelton gets his foot on the bottom rope. Shelton tries to take off the turnbuckle, but Carlito hits a back body drop. Carlito finishes taking it off, but gets caught by the ref. It leads to a little spot of back and forth until Shelton hits him with a low blow and gets the victory. That was a little bit more of a clever finish than you would expect for a random Raw match.
Match Rating: **1/2
Hulk Hogan is here to an extended ovation. He talks about Orton offending his family, so of course Orton is out here. He says that he's not here to confront him, but to talk about Brooke. Hogan has heard enough and he wants Orton right now. Orton gets thrown into the ring by Lawler and Hogan gets in a few punches, but Orton rolls out of the ring before the big boot.
Candice Michelle vs. Mickie James
Mickie attacks her before the bell and Lawler gives us creepy old man commentary. Candice goes up top and hits a top rope crossbody, but Mickie rolls through, grabs the tights and gets the victory. This was over about as quickly as you would expect a women's match would in 2006.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Shawn Michaels vs. Jonathan Coachman
Shawn rolls out of the ring and puts on a swim cap and then pulls down Coach's pants. He hits the forearm and the top rope elbow and now the Spirit Squad comes out. Shawn easily disposes of them and then hits Sweet Chin Music on Coach. Umaga comes from behind Shawn and hits a Samoan Drop on Shawn, causing the DQ. The Spirit Squad comes back in, but Umaga runs them out of the ring and gives Shawn the Samoan Spike. Making Umaga look like a killer was the point of that segment and they accomplished that.
Match Rating: 1/4*
John Cena is with Maria and she can't remember what his match is tonight. Cena is in funny mode but it's not working very well tonight.
Miz is out tonight and lets his future wife know that she is eliminated. I'd say it all worked out pretty well for her. On SmackDown it will be musical chairs. Can't wait.
Johnny Nitro & Edge vs. Ric Flair & John Cena
It turns into a brawl quickly and Cena and Flair stand tall going into the commercial break. When we come back, Nitro and Edge have Cena isolated. Cena avoids a charging Nitro and tags in Flair, who takes out Nitro's knee with a chop block. He slaps on the Figure Four, but Edge breaks it up. Cena comes in, but Edge tosses him over the top rope. Edge hits a Spear on Flair, but Cena comes in to break up the pin attempt. Nitro hits a reverse neckbreaker and then Lita and Melina get a few cheap shots on Flair. Nitro gets in some more cheap shots while Edge and Cena distract the ref. Edge comes off the second rope, but Flair greets him with a chop and he's able to make the tag to Cena. Cena destroys Nitro and goes for the Five Knuckle Shuffle, but when he's running the ropes, Edge hits him with a chair to the back. Nitro goes for a one man version of the Snapshot, but Cena counters and puts on the STFU, Flair keeps Edge from getting in and Nitro taps. That was probably shorter than it should have been, but they made the most of the minutes. I'll take that on your weekly show.
Match Rating: ***
So no Vince, Shane or Triple H and it ends up being one of the better episodes in awhile. It was nice to have the focus off of all of that for the night, even though I know we have at least two more months of it to sit through.
Overall Rating: 63%
No comments:
Post a Comment