Monday, January 29th, 2007
American Airlines Arena
Dallas, Texas
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Shawn Michaels is out to talk about the Royal Rumble. He says that he will somehow still face the WWE Champion at WrestleMania. When he mentions the chance of Undertaker selecting to face Bobby Lashley for the ECW Champion, the crowd boos. Out comes John Cena, who is kind of selling his injuries from his match with Umaga. Cena agrees that the sound of him him and the Showstopper at WrestleMania, but it is up to Undertaker. Now it's time for Edge to interrupt and talk about how he has Cena's number. That of course leads to Randy Orton interrupting him. They argue which leads to Cena saying instead of bickering, why not come down there and fight. Vince McMahon gets on the Titan Tron and tells them to stop and that he tells the fans what they want. He says that tonight is fan appreciation night and that Rated RKO will defend their titles against John Cena and Shawn Michaels.
Cryme Tyme is backstage and giving shoutouts on the way to the ring.
Cryme Tyme vs. The World's Greatest Tag Team
Jim Ross hypes up Cryme Tyme as undefeated. Charlie Haas has dreadlocks now and Cryme Tyme isn't digging it. Shelton gets a cheap shot in on Shad's leg to give them control. They work on the leg until he gets the tag to JTG. He hits a series of dropkicks and a reverse elbow. Shad throws Shelton over the top, but Shelton skins the cat and uses a headscissors to take Shad out to the floor. JTG then rolls up Shelton, but Haas comes out behind the referee's back and gives JTG a DDT and Shelton gets the pin for Cryme Tyme's first loss. This was short and the crowd doesn't truly care.
Match Rating: *
Melina is talking with Vince and it ends with her hugging him. In walks Jonathan Coachman and Vince talks about Mr. McMahon Fan Appreciation Night and how he will be thought of a humanitarian after tonight.
On This Week In Wrestling History, they show highlights of the first ever Royal Rumble. One Man Gang eliminated a quarter of the entrants until Jim Duggan won the match.
WWE Women's Championship #1 Contender Match
Melina vs. Maria
Melina announces that this will be a "First contenders match". Maria runs in and gives Melina a wedgie and then a Bronco Buster. We get some very sloppy offense after that with no flow to it at all. Melina hits a flapjack and then a unique submission that she calls the California Dream. That was the only part of the match that worked.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Todd Grisham interviews Shawn Michaels backstage and he says that he's walking out a champion. He then says that John Cena is no Triple H and walks away.
Super Crazy approaches Mickie James and asks if she remembers when everyone called her crazy. He then does the "I am super, I am crazy, I am Super Crazy". Then Melina tells Mickie that the title is hers. Super Crazy grabs Mickie's hand and uses it to slap Melina and then they start brawling. This was very random.
Edge is with Trevor Murdoch and Lance Cade. They call Orton overrated, but Edge stops them there. He says there is no better partner than Orton.
Val Venis vs. Umaga
If you would have given me 100 guesses for a match on this episode of Raw, this wouldn't have been one of them. Venis tries to charge and Umaga, but gets knocked down. Umaga hits the Samoan drop and then puts him in the tree of woe. He hits the diving headbutt in that position and then hits the butt to the face. The Samoan Spike puts Val down for the count. This was all about rebuilding him after losing the feud to Cena.
Match Rating: 1/2*
As Umaga is heading to the back, Vince's music hits and he's out wearing a cowboy hat. He and Umaga make eye contact and then he starts strutting to the ring as we go to commercial break. When we come back, Vince mocks some cowboy talk and then says how ridiculous it is to wear a cowboy hat. He then throws it on the ground and starts stomping on it. He then moves onto fan appreciation and how he wants to give back to all the little people, which is all of us. He says that he can't give back to everyone, but one lucky person tonight will be rewarded and brings in a 20 something female from the crowd. He then gives her a giant blow up photo of him on Muscle & Fitness magazine. He has her leave and then he talks about giving and starts rambling until an even bigger moron shows up on the Titan Tron, Donald Trump. He says that no one would ever want that cheesy photo and the fans want value for the tickets they bought. He then says he will give everyone what they really want, money. He starts dropping money from the ceiling and Vince claims it is Monopoly money. They show fans with it and it's real money. Vince is irrate and to be honest, I'm shocked there weren't any fights in the crowd. Vince throws a fit and then storms out to the back.
62 days until WrestleMania 23.
Coach apologizes to Vince and gives him some money he gathered and gives him $10 of his own and Vince grabs it from him and drives off in his limo.
Carlito & Super Crazy vs. Chris Masters & Kenny Dykstra
Talk about a heel team that no one cares about. It's all Crazy and Carlito to start and they hit double dives to the outside. Masters is able to trip up Crazy as he's running the ropes behind the referee's back and shifts the momentum in their favor. We get a boring heat segment until Carlito gets the hot tag and hits the springboard reverse elbow. Masters avoids a moonsault, but Carlito lands on his feet and hits him with a dropkick. Crazy takes Kenny out of the ring and then Carlito hits a Back Cracker for the victory. The two minutes or so with Carlito and Crazy in control were good. The rest, not so much.
Match Rating: *1/4
Todd Grisham is now with Randy Orton and he says that they will retain their titles tonight.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Jeff Hardy vs. Great Khali
Khali grabs the title out of the hands of the referee, so Hardy attacks him. Khali throws him right out of the ring and then pulls him back up to hit some clubbing blows to the chest. Khali beats down Hardy with some more boring offense until Hardy is able to hit a Whisper In The Wind. Khali props Hardy on the top rope and hits a chop to the head. Hardy falls to the floor and is counted out. I can't believe they kept going with this push.
Match Rating: 1/4*
For the WrestleMania Recall, they show the Money In The Bank match from WrestleMania 21.
They show Vladimir Kozlov in the crowd again. He says that he wasn't impressed by the Royal Rumble.
They show highlights of the John Cena/Umaga match at Royal Rumble. It's a match that any wrestling fan should see.
They show Cena talking with Ric Flair about possibly being a tag team champion. Flair puts the idea in Cena's head that Michaels may want to make an impact and hit him with a superkick.
World Tag Team Championship Match
Rated RKO vs. Shawn Michaels & John Cena
One thing that injuries forces you to do is to create some fresh matchups and even though 3/4ths of this match is the same, it feels different with Cena in here. After some pretty standard action, Cena pushes Orton into Edge and he falls to the ground. Orton gets revenge, but Edge starts heading to the back as we go into a commercial break. When we come back, Edge is getting hit with a shoulder tackle from Cena. Obviously he didn't leave. They flip the momentum and have Cena reeling. Cena is able to power his way out of a rest hold, but is bleeding and both men are down. He makes the hot tag to Michaels, but when he's tuning up the band, Orton illegally hits a dropkick. Orton goes for the RKO, but Michaels kind of blocks it. He tags in Cena and he hits the FU on Orton and we have new champions. The celebration is short, as Michaels teases Sweet Chin Music on Cena. Before their argument can really get started, Undertaker's music hits and he rises up on the stage with flames. As good as Michaels/Cena and Batista/Undertaker would go on to be, they really probably should have gone with Cena/Undertaker in retrospect. Either that or they should have found a way to have it happen shortly after this. The match was solid and a little surprising in that they won the titles.
Match Rating: ***
There wasn't a lot to love on this show, but it was fairly entertaining overall. This wasn't one of those episodes that dragged, it just would have been nice to have a few more memorable moments other than the ones that involved Cena and Michaels.
Overall Rating: 51%
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