Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Monday Night Raw 10-23-06 Review

Monday, October 23rd, 2006
Allstate Arena
Rosemont, Illinois

Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2

Kevin Federline will be in Johnny Nitro's corner when he takes on John Cena and Randy Orton is going to take on Triple H in a rematch from last week. 

Out comes Federline and he's back for payback. He takes a shot at the Cubs and then brings out King Booker. Booker praises him for his new CD and calls him a trendsetter. He says that the fans will decide that the WWE Championship will be on the line and then he will be both WWE Champion and World Heavyweight Champion. Out comes Big Show and he agrees it will be the WWE Championship that will be on the line, but it will be him that will win. They argue about it until John Cena is on his way out. He's all in a joking mood tonight and makes some mostly disappointing quips. Out comes Ron Simmons to do his schtick and that's all. This was pretty weak. 

WWE Women's Championship Tournament Semifinal Match
Melina vs. Mickie James

This one starts off quickly with Mickie tossing Melina around. Mickie's ring attire looks like something she'd wear to the bar. Melina is a good heel, but she was pretty inexperienced here. Melina gets in a little bit of offense before Mickie makes a comeback with a lot of fists and then a flapjack. She eventually hits the DDT and that's all. These women's matches are always so rushed and it never gives the crowd any opportunity to care about any of them. 

Match Rating: 3/4*

Shelton Benjamin & Chris Masters vs. Carlito & Jeff Hardy

Jeff Hardy will have to face one of these three men at Cyber Sunday. Hardy gets dumped to the outside and a referee distraction allows Masters to body slam him on the outside. Shelton and Masters work on Hardy before a hot tag to Carlito. He hits a springboard reverse elbow and then a couple more springboard moves on both opponents. Hardy gets shoved from behind into Carlito and that allows Shelton to roll him up and steal the victory even though his feet were hitting the ropes. After the match all four men start to argue and a mini brawl ensues. They care about the Intercontinental Championship about 10% more than the Women's Championship. 

Match Rating: *1/4

Todd Grisham is with Edge and Randy Orton. Orton claims that they are the two biggest stars ever. They let us know they are bringing out some of the referee options to ringside tonight.

Johnny Nitro and Federline are backstage talking about when his album drops like most people do. 

Johnny Nitro vs. John Cena

Nitro has booked like such a goof since moving to Raw and honestly even MNM was at times too. Federline distracts Cena and Nitro is able to attack him from behind. Nitro is able to duck a crossbody and Nitro then dumps him out of the ring. He distracts the referee and Federline slaps him in the face. Cena is furious, but before he can go after him, Nitro hits him with a dive. Back in the ring, Nitro slaps on the sleeper hold and brings him down to the mat. Cena powers himself back up and is able to drop Nitro on his back. Cena fires back with some shoulder tackles and the Five Knuckle Shuffle. Cena hits the FU and that's all. They gave Nitro a good amount of offense, but he was then easy for Cena to put away. The Federline interaction was the only reason this existed. After the match Cena goes after Federline. Federline trips on the ramp, but then out comes Big Show and King Booker to attack him. Booker hits the Book End on Big Show and then hits the Scissor Kick on Cena. 

Match Rating: **

Spirit Squad vs. Cryme Tyme

Speaking of not caring, let's talk about the tag team division. They sure are treating the Chicago crowd tonight. Shad catches Johnny off the top rope and throws him onto the other Squad members outside of the ring. They hit the G9 and pick up the victory. After the match, Kenny is frustrated and hits a top rope leg drop to Mikey. He's sick of losing including people like Ric Flair, who doesn't know when to hang it up and call it quits. He says that tonight he'll get the job done and take on Flair by himself tonight. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

They show highlights of the Chamber Of Horrors match, mostly making fun of it. I reviewed that one back in the archives here: https://workingthenetwork.blogspot.com/2022/10/off-grid-volume-27-halloween-havoc-1991.html

Eugene is out in a Bears jersey and a t-shirt gun. Umaga's music hits before you can even process that. Armando Alejandro Estrada announces that the three choices for Umaga's opponent at Cyber Sunday are Chris Benoit, Sandman and Kane. That's a trio of just really great human beings. He announces he chooses Eugene as his opponent for tonight, but before he finishes his thought, Eugene actually shoots a shirt in the crotch of Estrada. Umaga hits a Samoan drop on Eugene and follows it up with the butt to the face. 

They show WWE stars over in Japan.

After the match, Jim Duggan is telling Eugene that he's too nice out there. So Eugene attacks him. 

Kenny vs. Ric Flair

Kenny is already in the ring and has the Spirit Squad minus Mikey out there. Ric Flair comes out and says he didn't believe him and he's got his back covered. He brings out Sgt. Slaughter, Roddy Piper and Dusty Rhodes. I'll never quite understand why they liked Kenny so much more than the other members of the Spirit Squad. He tries to put on the Figure Four, but Flair kicks him to the second turnbuckle. Flair hits a bunch of chops before Kenny rolls up Flair and holds the tights to win the match. After the match, they attack Flair until his pals come in and make the save.

Match Rating: 1/4*

DX is back with Todd now. They make jokes.

Jerry Lawler is going to WWE.com to make his votes for Cyber Sunday. Big blockbuster announcement here, Ric Flair and one of his buddies will take on the Spirit Squad. 

Vince sends Jonathan Coachman off so that he and Eric Bischoff can have a little chat. Vince wants Bischoff to help him with DX and in return Vince will help him promote his book. Vince gets a call from his broker and says he can't make it out to the ring. 

Triple H vs. Randy Orton

Triple H hits a suplex and a knee drop and has Orton trying to crawl out of the ring. Triple H hits him with a spinebuster and this time Orton is able to get out of the ring. Orton comes back with a dropkick and a 2 count. Orton hits him with a DDT and then it's rest hold city. Triple H battles his way out of the hold and hits a high knee. He hits a facebuster, but then is tripped up by Lita. This allows Orton to hit the inverted backbreaker. We get shenanigans that leads to Edge coming in and hitting a Spear on Triple H. Michaels tosses Edge over the announce table. Coach tries to come in and make the count, but Michaels pulls him out and hits Sweet Chin Music. Edge throws Michaels into the ring post and he's back in the ring. He goes for the Spear, but Triple H sidesteps it. Bischoff hands Orton a steel chair and he hits Triple H in the head with it. The referee is back in the ring and makes the count. This was an okayish main event that at least helped build on the storyline. 

Match Rating: **1/4

Even though the main event told a pretty good story, the rest of the show just really lacked direction. Instead we were given a bunch of things the common fan didn't care about and tried to cram it into small segments, which makes you care even less.

Overall Rating: 41%

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