Monday, December 18th, 2006
Verizon Center
Washington, D.C.
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
We have a ton of wrestlers in the ring as the show starts and JR lets us know that we are about to have the biggest battle royal in Raw history.
30 Man Battle Royal To Face John Cena Tonight
Interestingly, Shawn Michaels and Triple H get separate entrances with their individual music. Surprisingly, Carlito is the first one eliminated because we just absolutely need to have his feud with Chris Masters to continue. Edge is hanging outside the ring because he's a heel. Brooklyn Brawler, Jerry Lawler and Sgt. Slaughter are two of the random competitors. I guess I should throw Ron Simmons in that category as well. Well, we're about 5 minutes into this thing and almost nothing has happened. After the commercial break, we finally get some guys eliminated from this stupid thing. We get another commercial break and I've pretty much lost all interest in this one. When we come back, we are down to Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Johnny Nitro, Chris Masters, Randy Orton, Edge and Lance Cade for some reason. Triple H hits a huge clothesline and knocks Masters out of the match. Cade and Nitro then immediately knock Triple H out. Everyone decides to team up against Michaels, but Michaels won't go down without a fight. He eliminates Nitro and remains in control. He hits a top rope elbow on Orton and hits Sweet Chin Music on Edge, sending him to the floor. However, he did not go over the top rope, he wasn't in the ring. Orton gets rid of Cade and then signals for the RKO on Michaels. Michaels shoves him away and then Michaels sends him flying after Orton charges at him. Edge then comes up on the apron and pulls Michaels over the top to pick up the victory. This was your typical battle royal where the last couple of minutes were good and everything else was just a bunch of guys in the ring. This one was just quite a bit longer than usual.
Match Rating: *
Edge is backstage for an interview talking about his plans to be a 3 time WWE Champion. Orton reminds him that they are Tag Team Champions, but Edge says he has his goals set higher than that, leaving Orton a little annoyed.
They show Chris Masters from last week and he is then interviewed by Maria. He's a mega heel apparently now.
We get some footage of Joey Mercury's poor face getting obliterated at Armageddon.
Todd Grisham is in the crowd to interview Vladimir Kozlov and he cuts a really goofy promo before speaking in Russian. I'm not really sure what they were going for there, but I definitely didn't remember him being here in 2006.
Chris Masters vs. Carlito
Carlito attacks Masters right after his pyro. They start brawling through the crowd and then Masters shoves Carlito in to the camera man and Carlito is bleeding. I guess that's it? The bell never rang, so no match here.
Handicap Tag Team Match
Johnny Nitro & The World's Greatest Tag Team vs. The Hardys
This could be a good match, so I'm sure it will be 90 seconds. Jeff, Matt and Nitro are all fresh off their ladder match last night, with Jeff limping. We're into hour 2 of this 3 hour Raw. Jeff hits a Whisper In The Wind, but he's unable to capitalize and in comes Charlie Haas. Jeff is able to take care of him enough to tag in Matt and not before long they hit Poetry In Motion. They start brawling outside the ring and Matt hits a moonsault from the top rope to the floor into the commercial break. When we come back, they are working on the leg of Jeff. We get a fairly lengthy heat segment that is broken up by Jeff hitting a mule kick. He makes the hot tag to Matt and he hits the clothesline/bulldog combo on Shelton and Haas. He hits a couple of Side Effects, but the pin attempt is broken up. Nitro kicks Jeff out of the ring and takes care of him. Haas snaps Matt's neck on the top rope and Benjamin rolls him up, grabs the tights and picks up the victory. After the match, they continue to beat down on Matt and hit a kick into a German suplex. Nitro then continues to hit Jeff with right hands. This was mostly just okay with both Matt and Jeff selling injuries.
Match Rating: **
We go to Umaga and Armando Alejandro Estrada and they don't care if they face John Cena or Edge, but they prefer Cena.
After the match Nitro and Melina run into Kevin Federline. Melina asks if he is sure he wants to go through with this and he does, so Melina gives him a hug and praises him for his bravery.
We now go to an interview with Sylvester Stallone talking about Rocky Balboa. I'm one of the few males who doesn't like Rocky. I never even bothered to watch any more of them. We're still not even halfway through the show. Stallone puts over Hulk Hogan and wrestling and that's about it.
Ric Flair vs. Kenny Dykstra
I still can't believe that they allowed him to name himself Kenny Dykstra. Flair hits Kenny with some chops, but then gets hit with a leaping reverse elbow. Kenny then hits a vertical suplex outside the ring. There was just never any depth or psychology with Dykstra. I never saw him after he left WWE, but since they basically never brought him back, I'm guessing there was a reason for that. They also really didn't know what to do with any new stars other than to put them in meaningless feuds that no one cared about. Flair goes up top and it ends how you would expect it to with Kenny throwing him off. Kenny goes for the top rope leg drop and Flair is able to move out of the way. Flair tries working on the knee and Kenny counters it into a pinfall and picks up the victory. Lawler even points out that he didn't even use the tights. After the match, Flair offers him a handshake, but Kenny declines.
Match Rating: 1/2*
WWE Championship Match
Edge vs. John Cena
Edge gets off to the hot start as we get the 50/50 chant from the crowd. Meanwhile, a "I'm on TV and your not" sign is on TV. Sigh. They hit a double crossbody in the middle of the ring and both men are down as we go into a commercial break. When we come back, Edge has Cena in a sleeper hold on the mat. On the plus side, I no longer have any commercials on Peacock for the rest of this show. Cena battles out of it and hits a blockbuster. Cena comes back and goes for the 5 Knuckle Shuffle and misses. Edge hits him with the Spear, but Cena grabs the bottom rope to break the count. JR had to see the replay to believe it. Edge goes for a superplex, but Cena blocks it and then hits a leg drop for a 2 count. Cena hits his modified powerbomb and this time gets all of the 5 Knuckle Shuffle. He gets Edge up for the FU, but Edge counters and then Cena hits a reverse suplex. Cena catches Edge up on his shoulders, but Edge grabs the rope and during the struggle, his legs knock out the referee. Orton comes out and hits the RKO on Cena. Triple H then comes out and hits a Pedigree on Edge. Cena covers Edge, the referee wakes up and Cena picks up the victory. These two are in capable of having a bad match, even with endings like that.
Match Rating: ***
Cena shakes hands with DX after the victory.
After the commercial, they announce that John Cena and DX will face Rated RKO and Umaga tonight.
Cryme Tyme is out and they announce George Bush to some boos. I know this will surprise you, but it's not really him. Another surprise I'm sure is that this isn't funny, nor has it aged well. It ends with Bush getting his wallet taken and Bush dancing to the entrance music. Oh, and Bush almost says the n word. Thank god they made this episode 3 hours. Bush flips everyone off on his way out.
Victoria vs. Mickie James
Victoria is still out carrying that list of all 4 women that are on Raw. These two will square off at New Year's Revolution for the title. This is a non-title match. Victoria hits a superplex early on, but Mickie kicks out at 2. I'm not really sure why Victoria is wearing tights that say "Hot!" on it. Mickie gets in a few pin attempts, but none of them end up being successful. Victoria trips her up and her face drops right into the bottom turnbuckle. Mickie battles back and goes for her DDT, but Victoria drapes her on the top rope and kicks her in the face. Victoria hits the Widow's Peak and that is all. They weren't given a ton of time, but had an effective match in the time allotted. Victoria crosses Mickie off the list and then adds the Women's Championship.
Match Rating: *1/2
After talking about WrestleMania 23, we go to JR in the middle of the ring. He introduces Kevin Federline and he tells us that none of us know the real Federline. He basically says he's going to shock the world on New Year's against Cena.
They run down the New Year's Revolution card.
Umaga & Rated RKO vs. John Cena & DX
The faces start things off in control until Umaga is tagged in. Triple H of course is the one who is able to slow down Umaga's momentum. It doesn't last long and he hits him with a Samoan Spike and Shawn Michaels with a Samoan drop. Cena comes in and drives Umaga through the ropes. They start battling up the ramp and are essentially gone from the match. Edge then hits Triple H with a chair and that's enough for the DQ. Orton and Edge hit a double RKO on Michaels onto a chair. Triple H is bleeding and Edge hits him with a One Man Con-chair-to on the table. Orton then hits one of his own. They go back to Michaels in the ring, but a group of officials stop them. They do the long and dramatic ending here, showing both members of DX bloodied and getting medical attention. The match wasn't much, but the angle gave Rated RKO some heat.
Match Rating: *1/2
Whoever made the decision to eventually turn Raw into a weekly 3 hour show must have never gone back and watch some of the specials from the past. There was nothing added to this show that would have been missed had it only been 2 hours. There were a few bright spots on here, but not enough to make me ever want to see this one again.
Overall Rating: 42%
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