"WWE RAW" Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

RIP Bob Orton, Sr.
1929-2006 (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=170522)

John Cena was victorious at Saturday Night's Main Event (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=170407), but Edge is still the WWE Champion. Lita's attacks of referee Mike Chioda got the Rate R Superstar DQed and thusly saved his title. Tonight, D-Generation X comes off their domination of the Spirit Squad to kick off the show.


http://www.wwe.com/content/media/touts/feature/29062/3052340Saturday Night's Main Event fallout
July 17, 2006

Tonight in San Antonio, Texas, RAW will be left to sort through the fallout of Saturday Night's Main Event.

DX will kick things off tonight, but there’s no telling what pranks they’ll be this week. If recent history is any indication, it’s fair to say it’ll be at the expense of Mr. McMahon and the Spirit Squad. Mr. McMahon will be out to stop DX with more fervor than ever after being humiliated at Saturday Night’s Main Event when DX locked him in a ringside holding cell after dominating the Spirit Squad.

Just two days after Saturday Night's Main Event battle with WWE Champion Edge, John Cena must go one on one with Umaga. Can Cena recover from the fallout of Saturday Night's Main Event and defeat the Samoan Bulldozer? Tune into the USA Network at 9/8 CT and find out.

Speaking of championships, Shelton Benjamin and Carlito will face off to determine who will be the number one contender for the Intercontinental Championship. Both men’s athleticism should shine tonight since they have both publicly said they should be champion. Nitro won the championship from Benjamin after pulling Carlito off the former champ and getting the pin for himself.

Also, one of the finalists in the 2006 $250,000 Diva Search Contest will be eliminated. The fans have voted, and someone will be sent packing. Who will be the first contestant to depart?

Tune into Monday Night RAW at 9/8 CT on USA Network to find out all the answers.

[SirLemming]

HHH calling Shawn "Miz" after he comedically stumbled over his lines was golden. What was even better was HHH messing up his own line a minute later.

What will be better than that? A main event that doesn't involve the Spirit Squad. It could happen, people, it could happen... Let us join hands in prayer. Because HBK/Shane could conceivably be good.

[sag_2002]

So... where's Lilian tonight?

[VCXZX]

Osama saying "Yon cena" saved the show so far. A great promo indeed.

Todd Grisham will probably never ring-announce again after "cruiser weight championship." This baffles me even more since Lillian Garcia was announcing last week's Heat.

Good to see Torrie and Candice resolve their differencs. That was another confusing face turn. Where was Melina during this Trish crap?

And what's the deal with Unlimited? Why isn't it on this week?

[SirLemming]

John Cena sold Umaga's kick quite badly, but he did sell the Samoan Spike better than usual. I'm glad Umaga beat him. I was almost certain Cena would become the first one to beat Umaga.

It was kind of good to see the new up-and-coming Highlanders put to use in a skit involving the headliners, but that doesn't change how sitcommy the whole thing was.


The RAW commentary is getting worse and worse. I'm constantly shocked by the irrelevant nonsense, cheap plugs, and half-finished thoughts they spew. It tends to be good for a laugh, but not in a good way. I don't know what's happening to them. JR and Jerry Lawler have, in past years, proven to be a great, competent commentating team, but lately they're just being really amateurish. They dont' seem to really have any idea what they're saying. What I don't know is whether this is an effect or a cause of the declining quality of the overall product.

Meanwhile, JBL puts them all to shame, including the ECW commentary, which has similar (but not as blatant) problems.

[VCXZX]

A year ago if I told you JBL and Randy Orton were my 2 favorite WWE personalities, you would've thought I was crazy. Cut to the present and those are my favorites. They are so good lately.

It was great hearing that theme of Orton's 3 times, and how he quickly dispatched that disrespectful Eugene. I bet there'll be more Orton/Mcmahon connections soo based on that throwaway line.

Sadly, the crack announcers failed to mention Bob orton Sr's death. Randy gestured to the sky twice tonight, a reference to his grandfather.

God, I love when Foley mentions Melina. A great running gag. Also you can add Foley to my favorites list. What a great guy. His promos are genius.

[SirLemming]

I could've sworn I heard some piped in crowd noise once or twice... I don't know. Overall, the crowd seems pretty dead.

Oh, and it seems they have a plant dX fan. The guy in the red hat with the elaborate dX props was at SNME as well.


Sadly, the crack announcers failed to mention Bob orton Sr's death. Randy gestured to the sky twice tonight, a reference to his grandfather. I'm not sure about that. I think he was doing that last week. As for the announcers, I assume they didn't mention that (nor was there an introductory tribute) because it'd make it awkward to boo Randy Orton.

[VCXZX]

Glad that the Melina running gag paid off. I also liked the scream running gagf paying off. Looks like Foley will come back to defend the honor of Melina.

I was hoping the Squad and the McMahons finally got their revenge on DX but alas that wasn't the case and another week goes by without revenge.http://67.18.37.14/html/emoticons/dry.gif http://67.18.37.14/html/emoticons/angry.gif http://67.18.37.14/html/emoticons/dry.gif http://67.18.37.14/html/emoticons/angry.gif

[SirLemming]

:eek:

Do the writers have a brain disease or something? ENOUGH OF THE FREAKING SPIRIT SQUAD MCMAHON DX MAIN EVENTS. I thought maybe it'd be different this week, but nope, it turned into the same exact thing yet again. "Have the McMahons and the Spirit Squad finally outwitted dX? Maybe, maybe-- NO! DX TURNED THE TABLES AT THE LAST SECOND!" There is simply no progression going on here. I almost thought they'd finally given the Spirit Squad something else to do, alluding to a feud with the Highlanders, but I guess not. Well, I guess next week they'll start that, Lord willing.
What's even worse is that they didn't have enough time to show the beginning of the match. That shows that they've really got their priorities screwed up. With so few matches, you figure they'd at least show them in full. Commercial breaks in the middle of a match are one thing, but come on.


*sigh* I guess the rest of the show was pretty disappointing too. There's just not a whole lot of exciting stuff going on.

[and2]

Cena/Umaga and Foley where good.

The rest was horrible. Shawn Michaels is really really bad right now, even worse than in his extremely overrated 2005.

[Condiment King]

HBK and HHH opened the night terribly with a lame skit and plenty of cheap pops and references. Opening monologue I should say.

Carlito and Shelton put on the match of the night, but honestly, who couldn't predict that? I dislike #1 contenders matches, except when they are absolutely necessary (and are they when you have only 3 contenders for a title?) Regardless, Carlito predictably won and will meet Johnny Nitro on down the line.

The women's match was bleh. Also, I don't see where Trish Stratus/Carlito could go that would be any different from Trish's other romantic angles. Besides, neither of them need each other particularly.

Matt Striker's skit with Cena was fantastic. EDGE > CENA. A mathematical proof from Saturday Night's Main Event. Matt Striker is a fair man, even though John Cena isn't. I'm so glad Umaga beat Cena, and Cena wasn't the one to break Umaga's streak. As much as I don't particularly care for Umaga (though Osama is great), I didn't want Cena to be the one to break it.

I found that I hated Foley's first promo, and didn't mind his second one. I don't know, it just seems like he's trying too hard, and its painfully obvious that some of his promos are either strange or a mystery to the average fan. I loved that Johnny Nitro and Melina were affiliated with Mick Foley to take out Ric Flair. Expecting a Foley/Nitro vs Flair/Carlito match down the road. This is a nice way to go, integrating the younger wrestlers with the older ones. Melina is still smoking.

Randy Orton is great. I loved that they played his theme three times and replayed the great RKO of Hogan in its entirety. It disappointed me that they didnt' reference Bob Orton Sr.'s passing, but I guess I understand why.

Highlanders vs the Squad should be a good feud. I liked that they used the Highlanders in the skit, but all the skits were still pretty dumb tonight, per the norm. I like the Highlanders' use of more team moves. You can really tell when a team has experience being a team and when they are just thrown together.

Speaking of thrown together, Charlie Haas and Viscera. What a bizarre promo. I don't want to see where this goes.

Diva search wastes our time some more. I really wish this didn't exist.

Typical DX/McMahons/Squad finish. I was just about ready to score an ambush victory for the Squad when DX battled back, and it was just like every other time. I'm sick of this feud.

[The Penguin]

Not sure what was up with Unlimited tonight. I’ve always wondered about it, because the entire concept would mean that hardcore WWE fans with a fast internet connection would not be paying the list bit of attention to the commercials. Methinks USA said something about it. We’ll see.

Little disappointed to see Todd Grisham acting as the ring announcer. I figure Lilian won’t be around for a few weeks, but I thought we’d at least get the Fink back out there. :sad:

Triple H and Shawn Michaels are a lot of fun when they are laying on the sarcasm and they were great in the opening segment. I like The Miz, but the raz on him was funny. Mike knows he wasn’t perfect and I hope we’ll hear from him about in his blog this week.

Somebody call Ernest Miller to call Shelton Benjamin’s momma! It doesn’t seem the Golden Gopher can get a win once again. I kind of like the concept of Benjamin failed at cheating and then Carlito succeeded, but after all we’ve seen of Carlito-Nitro the last several weeks the winner was no surprise. I liked the little meeting between Trish and Carlito after the match. :)

I liked the Diva tag match. It wasn’t too long and Torrie looks like she is really improving in the ring. Candice got a little more involved than she was perhaps supposed to, but it might not hurt Mike Chioda and Nick Patrick to do that every now again.

So Charlie Haas and Viscera aren’t going to tell us why they did what they did? I’m intrigued, but not really. I’d rather see Vis and Val as a team.

The crowd didn’t seem to get in to the Highlanders match, but Rory and Robbie seemed to get a decent reaction after the final bell. I was hoping Rory would tell a story about visiting Texas, but instead we got a challenge. That would have been the perfect time for Cade & Murdoch show up and object, but WWE didn’t go for it. I want to see a feud to get to the Tag Title feud. The cowboys vs. the Scotts wouldn’t be a wrestling classic, but it’s be fun to watch if nothing else.

Nice to see Striker’s Classroom on USA even in a shorter version. The transition to the Umaga-Cena match to feature the chalkboard spot was well-done. I didn’t figure Cena would defeat Umaga, but I don’t know that I expected Edge either. This was Umaga’s biggest win since beating Ric Flair.

I liked see the Highlanders try to warm up to Vince McMahon. He didn’t know what to think! :p

Randy Orton’s push sure isn’t to the stars is it? A match against Eugene is not a place I expect to see Orton, but it’s perhaps better that he overall starts off slow despite his big PPV feuds. Beating Eugene did play nicely into the McMahons wanting to punish him without making a huge deal over it. Nice seeing Randy point to the heavens in a silent dedication to his grandfather.

‘I may be old, but you’re fat’?! “You tell Foley the Nature Boy said ‘whoo’”?! After two awesome Mick Foley promos (the first being awesomer) is that really the best Ric Flair can do?! The Nature Boy has lost his touch.

Johnny Nitro made a pretty good emissary for Mick and also played nicely into Mick jokingly mentioning Melina in his promos. Though really, I find it much easier to see Nitro and Melina not wanting anything to do with a guy wearing flannel.

Amy looked crushed, but looking back, she didn’t make much of an impression at all. The blondes, save for Maryse, all kind of blend together at this point for me anyway. It is now clear that SmackDown! is getting saddled by the big long contests and RAW will just have the vote off.

I thought the Spirit Squad was finally going to take a step back this week, but then they showed up as part of what was obviously a McMahon-executed plan. I think it’s great that the guys in green are in the main event scene (I didn’t mean to, I swear), but I’d rather see them in the ring than serving as goons for Vince and Shane McMahon.



Sadly, the crack announcers failed to mention Bob orton Sr's death. Randy gestured to the sky twice tonight, a reference to his grandfather.I don't think being a "crack" announce team had anything to do with it. Orton is the bad guy, you can't bring something like that up. How could JR fufill his role and be disgusted with Orton and then mention that he's acknowledging his departed grandfather. And let's be honest, who knew Bob Orton, Sr. was a wrestler before all the talk about the Orton lineage a year or two ago? I respect the man's legacy and that he gave us his son who in turn gave us his son, but I don't know him from Adam.

[JabarR]

Possibly the only person that I know that can stop Umaga is Kane. Speaking of Kane, rumor has it that he might reunite with The Undertaker for SummerSlam to take on The Great Khali and (whose now out on injury) Mark Henry. Can you imagine it: The Undertaker & Kane vs The Great Khali & (hopefully Mark Henry's replacement) Umaga?


As for the Cena/Edge/Lita angle, I'll betcha Cena will put finally put some friction between *Rated R* couple, by saying (like he said earlier) that if it wasn't for Lita, he wouldn't be WWE champion. You just watch.

[bigddan11]

Todd Grisham will probably never ring-announce again after "cruiser weight championship." This baffles me even more since Lillian Garcia was announcing last week's Heat.

Typically Heat is taped before the live RAW broadcast, so the story involving Jillian hadn't occurred yet. I see this as the yearly Jillian vacation. Last year the had Viscera kidnap her, and she disappeared for a month. This year they have Vis squash her, and if she's gone a month, then it'll defintley be that the have to have some sort of storyline to allow her time off.

The only bit of RAW I liked this week was the Umaga/ John Cena match, but it was dragged on a bit to long. Carlito and Shelton had the potential to be a great match, but instead they made the match way to short. DX vs. McMahons & Spirit Squad was predictable, as usual. I would have liked to have seen The Highlanders run out and make the save instead of having HHH go to the usual sledgehammer move, because The Highlanders had made the challenge earlier, and it would have made abit more sense that way.

I guess they had to get Candice on RAW somehow, so they made her the guest referee. This shows how sad RAW is becoming. Vince, wake up and realize the potential RAW could have. Remove yourself from the picture and let the show improve again.

As far as the announce teams go, I find the decline in RAW's announce team to solely be Vince force feeding them lines.

[Hyper Shadow X]

Some what ok tonight.

[SirLemming]

As far as the announce teams go, I find the decline in RAW's announce team to solely be Vince force feeding them lines.
Well sure, if you can prove it.

[email2003]

DX didn't do so good tonight. Quite lame.
HBK was lying about the new DX shirt being sold at the merchandise stands in the arena. My friend yesterday went to a WWE house show and said the only DX shirt they had was the one HHH was wearing.
I like The HighLanders! They give me a laugh everytime they introduce themselves.:lol:
I enjoyed Cena being thrown through the chalkboard!:D Thank god Umaga won the match.
Rick "The Sign Guy" was there too! I tell you, does he have a life!?:lol:
Diva Search, once again >>>>>>>>:yawn: or fast forward if you taped RAW.
:lol: , Todd calling the #1 Contenders Match for the Cruiserweight Championship. Moron!

[hobbyfan]

I could go out on a limb and say that DX are the new Hope & Crosby, except that neither one of them can carry a note too far (notwithstanding HBK re-recording "Sexy Boy" more than a decade ago after dumping Sherri). Only problem is, HBK is playing the dopey Bob Hope characters whilst HHH, who has the Hope nose, is Bing Crosby. It's way past time Vince changed the record and had DX feud with someone else, but no. He can't give up the spotlight. He doesn't know when to quit.

And so we get HBK v. Shane, but this time, Shane-O gets DQd for interference, and Spirit Squad, who haven't even answered the challenge of the Highlanders, get laid out again! Lazy booking rears its ugly head again!:mad:

As usual, the best match on the show is the opener. We'll forgive Grish for his faux pas. Vince must've been impressed with him doing his Fink impersonation last week to let him do the entire show. I half-expected Nyquil & Skunklina to show up during this match, but then they turned up later to hassle Ric Flair. Looks like Flair may yet be a player for the IC title again after he gets done with Mick Foley, and you know that's coming up at Summerslam.

Foley's promos from the studio were short, intense, and to the point, but no one is buying that he's done with Flair. C'mon, Mick, don't insult our intelligence. I think they put him in the studio to appease the on-site monkeys who write the rest of the crap. They're jealous of Mick!:D :p ;)

Highlanders over 2 rent-a-jobbers, and now, after going 3-0 on TV, they're challenging the Spirit Squad. DX used them to play another joke on Crazy Vinnie, which was cute.

If it wasn't for the fact she had a match, I'd have sworn Trish was going to make out with Carlito. Talk about getting lucky.:D Candice gave Mickie a receipt from the bra & panties tag a few weeks back. Amazing how they actually remembered that far back!:D I guess they need a new face if Trish is indeed leaving and they're insistent on Mickie being a heel. I'd rather just have them do shades of grey with the ladies and let the fans decide who they want to root for.

Cena-Umaga was fine except for the predictable finish. Edge stuck his nose in where it didn't belong. All the ref has to see is that there's a couple of extra people out there who weren't there at the start, and do the math. Umaga should've been DQd. I am so sick of these finishes. Edge loses cred points again for the 2nd straight show. Striker's Classroom was the warmup act, but watch. Next week, Striker will be squashed by Cena.

Eugene gets 0 offense v. Randy Orton, who'd rather moon over Brooke. I wondered why he was pointing upward, and then I read of his grandfather's passing a few moments ago. So when does Hulk show up on Raw to sign the contract?

As for Lillian doing Heat last weekend: Continuity error by the uncreative monkeys. If they knew there was going to be an injury angle for Lil on Raw, they shouldn't have had her do Heat, too. If Todd is doing ring announcing on Heat, then they'll probably have JR & Coach calling the action this weekend. Where's Da Fink when ya need him?

For those of you in NY, did you see the debut of WWE Classics from MSG? I caught the 6-man main event, and that's it. What did I miss?

[SirLemming]

For those of you in NY, did you see the debut of WWE Classics from MSG? I caught the 6-man main event, and that's it. What did I miss?
I missed it, and I don't see when it's on again.

[VCXZX]

WWE Classics airs most Wedsendays at 8-10 PM on the MSG Network. It's not on this week though. It returns next week. Me thinks there should be a talkback for this fine program.

The 1st week of shows was very good. I liked the 1989 show more with the great Rockers/Brainbusters match, and Hogan/Bossman with a great promo by SLICK!!

The 1982ish show was a little boring. With the exception of the 6-man match, not much excitement.

The next set of shows feature in one hour, Randy Savage's MSG debut, and A Hogan/Don Muraco steel cage match. While the 2nd hour is a 1997 RAW with Cactus Jack's match against HHH.

[JabarR]

Who here agrees with me about Kane stepping in the ring with Umaga?

[SirLemming]

WWE Classics airs most Wedsendays at 8-10 PM on the MSG Network. It's not on this week though. It returns next week. Me thinks there should be a talkback for this fine program.

The 1st week of shows was very good. I liked the 1989 show more with the great Rockers/Brainbusters match, and Hogan/Bossman with a great promo by SLICK!!

The 1982ish show was a little boring. With the exception of the 6-man match, not much excitement.

The next set of shows feature in one hour, Randy Savage's MSG debut, and A Hogan/Don Muraco steel cage match. While the 2nd hour is a 1997 RAW with Cactus Jack's match against HHH.
Sounds great. It's funny, you barely ever see old WWF stuff on TV except for the little recaps. It'll be interesting to see one of the old shows again and see how it measures up to the new shows, rather than comparing the new shows to my memories of how it used to be.

Speaking of "WWF", did they still blur everything out?

[Fifi Fanatic]

Not much to say about this week's Raw. Spirit Squad gets "pwned" by DX in the main event for about the umpteen thousandth time.:p More wasted airtime with the Diva Search. Ho-hum.

My heart does go out to the Orton family, however. :(

And I got to give props to Cena for selling that Samoan Spike..... not to mention going through a chalkboard!

Can't wait to see how Flair/Foley goes. I like it whenever we have a feud between two guys who really do hate each other in real life. :D

The Highlanders: Your next tag team champions. :cool:

[VCXZX]

Speaking of "WWF", did they still blur everything out?

No nothing was blurred. They haven't done scratch-logo shows yet. I don't think I heard "wwf" on commentary as well.

[New Noise]

The mistakes are getting worse, and worse. I taped Saturday Night's Main Event and watched the whole thing over. There was so many mistakes. When Edge hit that superplex on John Cena, he tripped because the refferee's hand was by the turnbuckle. Then, Sabu's table broke... That wasn't all that happened, and I refuse to mention the rest.

WWE's gotta' stop with the mistakes, because they're being noticed by fans very easily. Otherwise, best match of the night went to Carlito/Benjamin.

RAW was an easy 7/10 for me this week. I hope SmackDown! polishes up this week.

[VCXZX]

:SIREN:

From dave Meltzer:


The Spirit Squad was told last night that they are breaking up the group.
One of the highlights of the past few months of RAW is no more. They improved leaps and bounds from their debut. And now they're going to be no more.

Personally I blame to quote Vince McMahon: "That Damn DX."

Hopefully that means some singles pushes for Ken Doane, Johnny Jeter and Mikey.

[SirLemming]

I never liked the Spirit Squad, but I have to wonder what WWE's logic is. They haven't even given them a chance to be in their own feud yet.

[PTurkey]

They could probably get away with breaking off and singlesing Kenny and uhh.. the other good one (Johnny?) (I don't know the difference between the rest), keep 2 or 3 of them as cheerleaders. The Squad doesn't need 5 guys. It just needs the guy that does the funny dancing.

And ooh, RAW. The only good parts were the Foley promos. He's turned into an Edge & Christian-esque goofy heel, a much more appropriate direction for his post-goofy commish/goofy author character than regressing back into the psychotic Cactus Jack stuff.

[BigLouMan20]

I was at the event for Raw and it wasn't bad for my first time. I arrived just in time for Heat then Raw. In case you was wondering, the security at AT&T were real jerks. They threw signs in the trash that had "offensive language" told the onlookers to return to their seats or get booted out. If you wondering why the crowd was dead maybe because 1) most were buying expensive WWE stuff 2) During the first hour while yall were watching commericals we were staring a an empty ring. From the calls I recieved I was on tv:D . Yes, people I used the Diva Search moment to go to the bathroom and buy an overpriced hot dog & soda.

Onward to what happen after Raw went off: Edge came out and demand DX to leave and they did, not before Triple H mooned him and Lita. Then he talks about being the champ and the REAL main event is a San Antonio street fight against Cena (non-title). Cena ran to the ring and match started. The crowd was loud for Cena (though there were some Cena haters, but they got drained by the Cena lovers, which is mainly kids and females) dispite near falls, refs getting knocked out 20 mins later Cena won via STFU.

If you have any other questions of the Raw live event let me know.

[bigddan11]

WWE.com now has an article saying that Hulk Hogan will be appearing on RAW this upcoming Monday night. Hulkamaniacs can be pleased. http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/articles/2867204/hoganonraw