"WWE RAW" Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

With the Royal Rumble (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=182824) over, it's full steam ahead for RAW on the Road to WrestleMania! Last night John Cena retained the WWE Championship over Umaga and Shawn Michaels came up just short of winning the Rumble, losing to The Undertaker of SmackDown! Rated RKO rounded out the final four. With Undertaker likely staying on SmackDown!, the RAW WrestleMania main event is wide open!


http://library.toonzone.net/talkbacks/wwe.jpghttp://library.toonzone.net/talkbacks/raw.jpgRoad to WrestleMania Begins
January 29, 2007

One night after history was made at the Royal Rumble, Raw sifts through the Superstar debris in Dallas’ American Airlines Center.

The Heartbroke Kid
One night after falling one man short from winning his third Royal Rumble Match, Shawn Michaels will kick off tonight's Raw. With Undertaker now headed to the main event of WrestleMania 23, what’s next for Shawn Michaels? He remains a target in many Superstars’ sights, including Rated-RKO’s Edge & Randy Orton, and one can never count out Mr. McMahon. Then again, one should never overlook HBK, either. Will Dallas become privy to a “Plan B” from the DX member?

Cena stands tall
Who’d have thunk it? Despite severe abdominal injuries at the hands of Umaga last week, plus being turned into a bloody mess at last night’s Royal Rumble, a crazed WWE Champion John Cena defied the odds and choked out the Samoan Bulldozer! By emerging as the Last Man Standing, The Champ has certainly converted even some of his harshest critics into loyal Chain-Gang Soldiers. But there are still plenty of others lying in wait to challenge Cena for his title…including his WrestleMania 23 opponent, whoever that is. Will tonight’s Raw reveal his identity?

Mr. McMahon Fan appreciation day
As Mr. McMahon announced last week, he’s planning a big surprise for WWE fans on Raw tonight. What exactly has the Chairman trumped up for them? Will the fans—or any of the Raw Superstars—truly value it?

Jeff vs. the Behemoth
Tonight on Raw, high-flying Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy will face the enormous Great Khali with gold on the line. Will Hardy’s combination of high-risk aerial maneuvers and lightning-fast speed be enough to topple all 420-pounds of the Punjabi Warrior?

The Royal Rumble-ings have subsided. Now Raw jumpstarts the Road to WrestleMania tonight at 9/8 CT on the USA Network.

[VCXZX]

Hmmm, I like the whole "what title will Taker go after" deal. Even though its obvious what title he'll challenge at Mania. Of course ECW got boos when it got mentioned.

[Ahiru-kun]

If Taker challenges Cena, he has an even slimer chance of keeping his streak.

Hass has cornrows now. This is sadly reminding me of Owen Hart.

[The Penguin]

"Anyone over the age of five wearing a cowboy hat is stupid." We await your response, JBL.

[VCXZX]

That was actually a decent cameo by the Donald. If he has small-sized cameos like that, i won't mind this angle.

http://209.85.12.231/html/emoticons/laugh.gif http://209.85.12.231/html/emoticons/laugh.gif http://209.85.12.231/html/emoticons/laugh.gif http://209.85.12.231/html/emoticons/laugh.gifhttp://209.85.12.231/html/emoticons/laugh.gif http://209.85.12.231/html/emoticons/laugh.gifhttp://209.85.12.231/html/emoticons/laugh.gif http://209.85.12.231/html/emoticons/laugh.gif at Vince strutting angrily after the stunt Donald pulled.

[Ahiru-kun]

"Anyone over the age of five wearing a cowboy hat is stupid." We await your response, JBL.

You beat me to it.

[VCXZX]

I like how Great Kahli didn't care about not winning the i-c title after his count-out win over Jeff Hardy.

[Ahiru-kun]

Another great Raw.

I didn't expect to see Cena and HBK win the titles. This is a way to keep Cena in the spotlight while still having him drop his WWE title to Taker. If they hadn't won I would've expected Cena to turn on Michaels. Now John is a Triple Crown Champ.

But Rated-RKO is over.:crying:

[VCXZX]

I wonder who the new announcer was that interviewed Borat Kozlov.

I'm a little bummed that Rated RKO lost. At least their crappy music is gone.

I wonder if Taker really is headed to RAW. Hopefully that means no Batista/Taker match.

Overall, a so-so raw.

[RedNinja84]

I like that RKO is no longer champions but I'd rather have the tag titles back in the tag division. I thought Cryme Tyme were the number one contenders. Anyway I'd like to see Undertaker back on Raw and taking on HBK and Cena. If Taker does come over, it may set up a triple threat match at Wrestlemania. By the way I think Cena doesn't coun't as triple crown champion. He did win the US title but I think you have to win the IC title to be a triple crown champion, since the three original belts ate on Raw.

[hobbyfan]

Cryme Tyme, the #1 contenders for the tag titles, get passed over and lose via screwjob to WGTT. This will mean more when WGTT become the next tag champs (I'm predicting it right now--Cena/HBK are transitional champs anyway).

Melina and Maria have 0 chemistry. Maria's not the one you want to test new finishers on, but Melina's done that twice in the last three weeks. Now, it's Melina-Mickie for the title. I don't see the poser princess as champ. Just not happening.

Umaga squashes Val Venis. Again. Meh.

I see Carlito & Crazy over Masters/Dykstra as a transition for Carlito. Now he can feud with Dykstra.

If Khali won the IC title, it'd be very hard to get it off him, so we're lucky he didn't get it. Jeff Hardy's reaching for the Excedrin right about now.

Good thing Ric Flair warned Cena, else we'd have had HBK-Hogan from July '05 all over again. Didn't expect Undertaker to show up, but they telegraphed it when they said he had the choice of which title to challenge for at Mania. They're teasing Cena-UT, but everyone knows it'll be UT-Batista. Hopefully Big Dave will bring his working shoes.

Donald Trump finally appears and owned Crazy Vinnie. I wonder how many people in Dallas got the equivalent of allowance money from that?:D

Sign in the crowd: "Sign (Lance) Hoyt". I don't think so. They already have Test in ECW. Do they need his clone?

[Hyper Shadow X]

If the Undertaker does face Cena at maina that will be good since Cena will get his ass kicked.

[The Penguin]

With the way the RAW title picture was left following the Rumble, I fully expected the final three RAW guys in the match to stake their claim to the WWE Championship. It was a good talking segment, marred by the fact that some idiot thinks “puss-bags” is a good insult for Cena to use on a regular basis.

With Rated RKO at the top of the card, I don’t feel like the rest of the tag division is really going anywhere. WGTT and Cryme Tyme put on a good match, but what did it really mean?

After the History segment showing him winning the first Royal Rumble, I would have liked to have seen Hacksaw compete or at least do a little interview. I guess that was too much to hope for (even though it doesn’t seem like much).

Melina got a chance to showcase against Maria. I like the ‘California Dream.’ Lawler saying the move almost sounded like analysis immediately following a Divas match. I about fell off the couch.

Just in case anyone wasn’t sure, that Mexican wandering around backstage is both super and crazy. As a matter of fact, he’s Super Crazy! :rolleyes: SmackDown! and ECW are starting to look pretty good about now.

CATFIGHT!

Well Val Venis drew the short straw to give Umaga an opponent to burn his anger off on. I figured the Samoan Bulldozer will wander RAW for the next couple of weeks looking for a feud now that Cena has beaten him back two PPVs in a row.

And The Donald has appeared. Vince didn’t seem too shocked to see his fellow billonaire, just upset. At first the money thing kind of freaked me out, but even with the Franklin, the Grant and the Jackson we saw, there were plenty of Washingtons and Lincolns too.

I guess it’s promotion, but I hate how Jim Ross or whoever sounds like they’re having a stroke or something when they read the Skittles copy.

I really liked the tag match with Kenny & Masters against Carlito & Super Crazy. There was a little bit of backstory there, but it was just a pretty enjoyable tag match. The finish was Carlito still trying to be bad while being cheered by the people and followed around by a blonde. It just doesn’t work for him.

Man, Khali just destroyed Jeff Hardy! Not sure if the big man just didn’t care about the championship or if he just doesn’t know any better. I feel like if Daivari had been there we’d have a new Intercontinental Champion.

So RAW has a new interviewer, huh? And that Russian guy was on again. :sad:

The main event tag match (wow, lots of tag matches this week) was pretty good too. There was a lot of good action and the conflict/potential conflict within both teams really added to the environment. I’m not happy to have another main event team with two guys that may or may not like each other. It makes the Tag belts more of a prop and just hurts the division. What they should have done was have RKO retain and then have Michaels Cena or both cost them the following week to say the Highlanders. Belts back in the tag division and the main event feud continues almost unaffected.

I hope The Undertaker isn’t moving to RAW, it could have just been a tease. SmackDown! has started to build the feud with Batista and I’ve liked that after all this time, Taker has remained loyal to SmackDown! (after he was initially drafted by Ric Flair and RAW). The Dead Man didn’t say anything so I remain hopeful.



You beat me to it.It needed to be said. ;)

[TheScarecrow]

Pretty average and boring RAW up until the main event. HBK seems motivated again, and it was nice how they teased a possible UT/Cena match (although JR is going to look like a moron if UT faces Batista at WrestleMania instead of Cena).

[VCXZX]

Hey, the WWE got some publicity for last night's Trump/Vince bit.

http://www.tmz.com/2007/01/30/trump-says-mcmahon-is-the-new-rosie/

[Fifi Fanatic]

Crud, I actually missed last night's Raw. So, the Donald himself finally appeared, eh?