Monday, August 7th, 2006
FedEx Forum
Memphis, Tennessee
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
WWE Women's Championship MatchTrish Stratus vs. Mickie James
The ladies lock up and Edge's music hits. He and Lita come down and say to stop the match and the show. Edge says that he is sick of taking the back seat and tells Mickie to leave because he is taking over Raw. He starts complaining about the SummerSlam poster and how he isn't on it even though he's the WWE Champion. He then points out that he's not on the cover of the WWE Magazine, Trish is. He did keep her in the ring to point this out. Lita then gets in Trish's face, so she goes after her. Lita hits a Spear on Trish and then holds her up for Edge. Out comes Carlito to make the save, but he eats a Spear from Edge. At the very least, it was refreshing to start the show off with something other than DX/McMahons.
Johnny Nitro and Melina are out to watch the next match.
#1 Contender Match For The Intercontinental Championship
Shelton Benjamin vs. Kane
Ah yes, Intercontinental challenger, Kane. Shelton tries to get off to a quick start, but god forbid he do that against Kane. Kane goes for a chokeslam, but Shelton counters it into a DDT. Shelton goes off the top rope, but Kane catches him by the throat and hits the chokeslam for the victory. Just what the world wanted.
Match Rating: 1/2*
John Cena is out next to tell Edge that his face scares children and that's why he wasn't on the SummerSlam poster. He tells Edge that if he wants respect, he should come out here and earn it. Instead, Jonathan Coachman comes out. He says Edge isn't coming out because he and Lita are facing Trish and Carlito. Instead, he's found Cena an opponent for tonight.
John Cena vs. Viscera
We go to commercial break and when we come back the match is already in progress. Viscera misses with a splash, but comes back with his rolling kick. They show that during the commercial break Viscera hit Cena with a Samoan Drop. Viscera hits a splash in the corner and Cena is on the outside. This is already longer than I was anticipating. Cena starts to make his comeback, but when he goes for the Five Knuckle Shuffle, Vis hits the spinning slam. Viscera misses another splash and Cena bounces up and hits the FU for the victory. Cena got nearly no offense in this one and it was about 7 minutes long. I'm not sure why you would have him put Viscera over like that, but it did make him look a lot better than he normally does.
Match Rating: **
They show the Showdown At Shea highlights, which I feel like they don't talk about much these days.
Vince and Shane McMahon are shown with police.
Carlito and Trish are backstage and Trish is flustered. She ends up kissing Carlito, leaving him feeling pretty good about himself.
Back to Shane out of the locker room and looking for Shawn Michaels. Just as he's about to walk back in, he's attacked by Shawn. The police try to restrain him as they brawl.
Triple H after the break tries to get in, but isn't allowed in.
Edge & Lita vs. Carlito & Trish Stratus
I know all four were out earlier, but they get very quick entrances. The men start off, but the action gets going once Trish is tagged in and goes right after Lita. Trish runs into a reverse elbow, but Edge holds onto Lita when Trish goes for the handstand hurricanrana. Lita slaps on the sleeper hold and when Trish tries to break the hold, she slams her down by her hair. All four come in and Carlito and Trish hit double dropkicks into the commercial break. During the break, Carlito went for a springboard move, but Lita grabbed his ankle and tripped him up. Trish gets a hot tag, but gets hit with a kick to the face. Lita hits the handstand hurricanrana, but Carlito moves out of the way of a Spear and it accidentally hits Trish. Edge and Carlito go outside and Lita rolls on Trish for the victory. This was something a little different, which always makes for better TV rather than the same thing over and over when it comes to the midcard. After the match, Carlito checks on the injured Trish.
Match Rating: **1/2
JR addresses Hulk Hogan's knee injury. Todd Grisham tells us that Hogan has a torn meniscus in his knee and in comes Randy Orton. Orton says that he's trying to get out of the match because he'll get destroyed.
Ric Flair is down to the ring with Mick Foley's book. He takes the book, throws it on the ground, stomps on it and hits some elbow drops. Flair then reads from his book and reads the part that says Foley's favorite match ever was Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk. Foley comes out and says that used to idolize Flair, but he's still not wasting a match on Flair unless he can come up with more than just a match. Flair gets Foley all fired up, so Foley says he'll do an I Quit match at SummerSlam. This was the usual good to borderline great stuff from these two.
Randy Orton vs. Jerry Lawler
Orton hits a back body drop after a slap to the face from Lawler. He goes for another one, but Lawler gets in a slap of his own. Orton give him a rake to the eye and a dropkick. Lawler is 56 here. Lawler tries to fight back with some jabs and a body slam. He goes for the second rope fist, but Orton is able to roll out of the way. He goes for the RKO, but Lawler pushes him away and right into the referee. This allows Orton to hit a low blow and then the RKO for the victory. Not that Lawler should have gotten 10 minutes, but I'm surprised he only got 2. This just felt really rushed given the fact that it was his hometown.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Umaga vs. Triple H
They start brawling right off the bat and Umaga gets the better of the exchange. Triple H is able to duck a charging Umaga and he falls to the floor. Outside the ring, he throws him into the ring post and has him wobbly. Armando Alejandro Estrada, Vince and Shane are all at ringside for Umaga. Umaga hits a spin kick on Triple H and follows it up with a headbutt. Umaga hangs Triple H in the tree of woe and then hits a running headbutt. Triple H tries to hit the Pedigree, but Umaga counters out of it. He is able to hit the spinebuster, but Vince grabs the referee out of the ring. In comes Shane, but he gets hit with a spinebuster. Vince comes in, but Umaga saves him from a Pedigree by hitting the Samoan Spike. The referee is back in the ring and picks up the pinfall. I don't think Umaga at this point needed all of that to get the win. After the match, Vince hits the Pedigree on Triple H and mocks him. The match felt rushed and went overboard on the interference.
Match Rating: **
After weeks and weeks of some really bad episodes of Raw, this one felt a little bit different. It didn't focus as much on the DX/McMahon feud and that worked out in its favor. It went by a lot quicker and we saw some fresh matchups. I would say overall, this one was a success.
Overall Rating: 60%
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