Monday, September 4th, 2006
Philips Arena
Atlanta, Georgia
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Edge is in the ring on a ladder, letting us know that the John Cena is out of his life countdown is on. It was nice of Edge to plus the CW. He makes fun of Cena before showing us a hype video of his match at Unforgiven. Out comes Cena and he attacks him, putting him through a table. All in all, this was an effective start to the show.
Jeff Hardy is backstage painting a wall and Maria comes and I'm really not sure what the point of this was.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Jeff Hardy vs. Johnny Nitro
Things start off a little bit slower than I anticipated and we get a quick commercial break. When we come back, Nitro is in control of the match. The crowd is definitely into Hardy though. Nitro props Hardy on the top rope, but Hardy counters the superplex attempt and hits an electric chair. Hardy looks a step slow here, which I know he eventually snaps out of. Hardy rolls through a crossbody and gets a 2 count to some boos. He misses with a dropkick, but he is able to hit a Whisper In The Wind. He goes up top, but Nitro knocks him off the top. Hardy still hits a Twist Of Fate, but Melina comes in and jumps on the referee, causing the disqualification. Hardy hits a Swanton, but Melina grabs the title and checks on her man. Hardy looks to be still getting back into ring shape here, so it wasn't quite up to what you would expect from these two.
Match Rating: **
Trish Stratus is on her way to the ring, but Lita interrupts her. Trish is happy because she was going to call her out to the ring. She challenges Lita to a championship match at Unforgiven for her last match. Lita accepts and slaps Trish. They start brawling and then Randy Orton and Carlito get involved as well. They show Lita at Shane McMahon's office and he makes a mixed tag team match between Edge, Lita and Randy Orton against Trish, Carlito and John Cena.
Chris Masters is out and issues an open challenge and Super Crazy accepts, who apparently came over from SmackDown as a free agent.
Chris Masters vs. Super Crazy
They again reference the leaner and meaner Masters. The once hot crowd, doesn't care about this one. That's kind of a shame because Crazy is a lot of fun. He gets a 2 count off a top rope sunset flip, but misses with a reverse crossbody. Masters signals for the Master Lock, but Crazy is able to get out of it before he locks it in. Masters nails him with a clothesline, but Crazy comes back with a low dropkick. He hits a moonsault and picks up the victory. The Masters burial continues. This was decent enough, but it didn't really do either guy much with the booking.
Match Rating: *1/2
Maria is still backstage watching the paint dry.
They show highlights of DX/McMahons.
The McMahons are out with security around the ring. The Big Show is out after them. He talks about teaching them a lesson tomorrow night on ECW when he faces DX in a handicap match. Vince then talks about the Hell In A Cell match and of course DX comes out with a chair and a sledgehammer. Triple H thanks them for reminding them who they are. They march to the ring and hit a security guy with a chair. We have a big brawl in the ring, but Big Show and the McMahons are able to get out of there and let security take the beating. This was better than most DX/McMahon segments, so I'll take it.
Triple Threat #1 Contender Match
Highlanders vs. Cade & Murdoch vs. Viscera & Charlie Haas
What a tag team division they've built themselves here in 2006. The Spirit Squad's music hits before the match starts and they're here to be spectators. Cade and Murdoch dominate with some double teams on one of the Highlanders. They have 3 men in the ring at a time for this one. Viscera and Haas hit their drop toe hold/leg drop combo and get a 2 count. Viscera hits a splash on both Cade and Murdoch in the corner. A clothesline sends Viscera and Cade over the top. The Highlanders take advantage and win with a sunset flip. They tried to make it meaningful, but no one cared.
Match Rating: 3/4*
Carlito is backstage with Trish and he's sick of Randy Orton.
Ric Flair interrupts the Kiss Cam with Maria. JR reminds us that we normally only get this on WWE.com. Ric then wants a kiss from Maria and they make out. Flair then sells it with a faceplant. Flair tries to start talking about Mick Foley, but out comes Armando Alejandro Estrada. He asks that Flair declares Umaga the man, but Flair refuses. Umaga comes out, but we are in for a treat because Kane is here to attack him. Kane sucks the life out of the show like he normally does and Umaga retreats.
We get our first Cryme Tyme vignette. They show them attacking a cashier at a smoothie shop and steal money out of the cash register.
Teddy Long is shown walking into a suite. Maria is back to watching paint dry. JR and Lawler run down the Unforgiven card including the just added Umaga/Kane and Nitro/Hardy matches.
We go backstage to the McMahons and Big Show, where Vince announces he will take on Triple H next week.
Edge, Lita & Randy Orton vs. Carlito, Trish Stratus & John Cena
This is a fun main event and it looks like they are going to get some time. Carlito hits a big dropkick on Edge and tags in Cena. Edge retreats and tags in Lita, so Trish is in now. Trish attacks Lita and then slaps Orton. We get a quick brawl with the faces standing tall into the commercial break. Carlito hits a springboard back elbow to the face of Orton. The thing with Carlito is that he never really had a good flow in the ring. He could do every move, but it always felt a little bit like it was his first time doing some of them. I guess that I should reference that the reason Teddy Long is there is that if Cena loses at Unforgiven, he will move to SmackDown. The heels work on Carlito until he makes the tag. We get a brawl and it eventually turns into Trish and Lita. Trish hits the handstand hurricanrana from the corner. Carlito saves Trish from Edge, but then Orton hits the RKO on Trish, allowing Lita to pick up the victory. This was exactly what you want out of a TV main event. It wasn't an all time classic, but it was entertaining with a hot crowd and the heels leave the faces chasing until next week. Well done.
Match Rating: ***1/4
This is the type of energy that Raw needs more often. Not everything worked, but everything meant something in some fashion. I get it. You have 5 hours of TV to fill every week and a pay-per-view every month. Not everything is going to be great. But you could tell the roster was into the storylines and the crowd reacted accordingly.
Overall Rating: 66%
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