Friday, May 13, 2022

Monday Night Raw 7-31-06 Review

Monday, July 31st, 2006
Continental Airlines Arena
East Rutherford, New Jersey

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Vince and Shane McMahon are out to kick off the show and they are beaming from Stephanie's baby girl being born. They then announce that they will be facing DX in a tag team match at SummerSlam. DX's music keeps hitting until they finally come out. Shawn then talks about a rumor of Triple H being in the same hospital. We then get a picture of Vince as a baby and then Shane. They then show a picture of the new baby and it's Triple H's face. This is horrible. 

Jen from the Diva Search then shares that she would like to see JT eliminated.

Triple Threat Match For The Intercontinental Championship
Carlito vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Johnny Nitro

Carlito attacks Nitro on his way into the ring and then of course we get interrupted by a commercial break. God forbid we don't get more of the DX/McMahon saga. Carlito hits a monkey flip on Shelton, but he lands on his feet and then he hits one on Nitro, who lands face-first. We get a little bit of an awkward spot, but Carlito ends up hitting a hurricanrana on Nitro and then Shelton hits a DDT on Carlito. Melina puts Carlito's foot on the bottom rope and this upsets Shelton. Nitro takes advantage by knocking Carlito into Shelton and then rolls up Carlito to retain his Intercontinental Championship. This was good for what it was. 

Match Rating: **1/4

Layla would vote off Milena. 

Randy Orton is out in the ring to tell us he is going to kill the legend of Hulk Hogan. He then introduces his reality show, Orton Knows Best. He brings out impersonators of the Hogan family and this segment is just as bad as the opener. It ends with Orton hitting the RKO on Hogan. Really bad stuff here. He then shoves over Lawler to set up a match for next week between Orton and Lawler in Memphis.

Armando Alejandro Estrada gives Vince and Shane some cigars.

Erica says she would vote off Rebecca. Erica is not good at this.

Mickie James & Victoria vs. Trish Stratus & Candice Michelle

Torrie Wilson is the guest referee here. The heels dominate Candice here until she hits the hot tag to Trish. She hits a sit down powerbomb and gets a 2 count on Mickie. Trish botches the Stratusfaction but gets the 3 count anyways. The division has been going nowhere for awhile and this just felt pointless. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Johnny Nitro, Melina and Mick Foley are backstage and Foley asks Melina to introduce him. 

Milena says that she would vote off Erica, which is the right choice. 

Melina comes out and introduces Foley. Foley says that is going to give the crowd what they want, which is Foley and Flair in the ring...in their quest for tag team gold. Flair comes out and delivers a passionate promo saying that he wants Cactus Jack or Foley or whatever he wants to be. He then tells Melina that she would be Space Mountain-ized. Foley says that the difference between him and Flair is that he sees a person not a conquest. He then rips on Flair for being an absentee parent and Foley quickly backpedals. Foley talks about how much Flair loves his kids, but then says that he'll never know what it's like to tell his kids he's been arrested. Flair knocks him out and then Coach comes out. He tells us that Vince has authorized that Flair and Foley will wrestle at SummerSlam, which Foley tells him that his contract allows him to pick who he wants to wrestle. He only has a few matches left and he won't waste it on Flair. This was far and away the best thing on the show so far. 

Rebecca says some words. I didn't care to listen. 

They announce that Edge will face John Cena at SummerSlam and if Edge gets disqualified, he will lose the title.

Matt Striker vs. John Cena

Edge and Lita make their way down before the match gets started. They unveil an announce table near the top of the ramp and they have live mics. Meanwhile, Cena destroys Striker, puts him in the STFU and gets the easy victory. They went through a lot of work for the announce table for a 2 minute segment. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Johnny vs. Rory McAllister

The ref quickly throws out all four of the other Spirit Squad members. I don't remember who this referee is. Johnny takes out his frustration on Rory early on. Rory tries to get something going, but Johnny hits a nice kick to the face. Robbie and Johnny get into a war of words and Rory gets an inside cradle for the victory. This was pretty dull.

Match Rating: 1/2*

JT thinks Rebecca should be voted off. I'm kind of surprised she didn't win. 

We get the Divas all out and Miz announces that Rebecca is gone, which is also kind of surprising. 

After showing the WrestleMania 23 fan rally, some detectives and cops come in their locker room to search their bags. They find some Cuban cigars and they take Triple H away. They pass Vince and Shane who then pull out some cigars. 

Shawn Michaels vs. Umaga

It's going to take one heck of a match here to save this show. Michaels is able to slide out of the ring and out come Vince and Shane into the commercial break. When we come back, Umaga hits a big kick to the chin, sending Shawn over the top and to the floor. Umaga continues to dominate until he misses in the corner and Shawn hits a fling forearm. Michael tries to kip up, but Estrada, holds him down. Shawn knocks him off the apron, but Umaga hits the pop up Samoan Drop. Michaels is able to hit a low blow behind the ref's back and follows it up with a top rope elbow drop. He tunes up the band, but Vince grabs his leg. Shane comes in and he gets hit with the forearm. Umaga nails Michaels with a Samoan Spike and that's all for this one. That was an entertaining match, even if it took a lot of interference for Umaga to win. After the match, Vince and Shane attack Michaels. Vince takes off his belt and whips Michaels and then chokes him. They hit him with a chair and tell Michaels that next week it will be Triple H taking on Umaga. 

Match Rating: **3/4

Well, Raw continues to be a total downer of a show. There is so little to enjoy and it's just so full of DX and the McMahons every week. The main event was entertaining, as was the Flair/Foley segment. Everything else was completely skippable.

Overall Rating: 40%

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