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Raw: Hardy pins the champ
By
MATT BISHOP - SLAM! Wrestling
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Tonight on Monday Night RAW: It's all the fallout from Armageddon as
Jeff
Hardy begins his chase toward the WWE Championship while Chris Jericho
and
JBL clash after their confrontation at the pay-per-view. Should be a
good
one!
And we are LIVE! from HSBC Arena in Buffalo where tonight we will
see
Randy Orton and Mr. Kennedy take on Jeff Hardy and Shawn Michaels and
the
Ric Flair Retirement Tour continues as The Nature Boy battles
Umaga.
Match #1 - Santa's Little Helpers Match - Jillian Hall
(Louisville,
KY), Layla (Miami, Fla.), Melina (Los Angles, Calif.) & Victoria (Los
Angeles, Calif.) vs. Mickie James (Richmond, Va.), Michelle McCool
(Jacksonville, Fla.), Maria (Chicago, Ill.) & Kelly Kelly
(Jacksonville,
Fla.)
It seemed the main purpose of this was to continue all the current
Divas
feuds, as Kelly Kelly and Layla fought along with Michelle McCool and
Victoria continuing their hostilities.
Mickie James comes in for the faces and cleans house on Victoria and
hits
a Tornado DDT for the victory.
Winners via pinfall: Mickie James, Michelle McCool, Maria & Kelly
Kelly.
After the match, the heels crash Mickie but are quickly disposed of.
With
the winning team in the ring, Mr. McMahon slowly walks out to the ring
without music and boots the Divas out. He has a mic.
Vince goes over his humiliation from last week, where he was beaten
down
by Mankind, Undertaker and Steve Austin. Vince says he doesn't know how
anyone could celebrate and it seemed like everyone enjoyed his anguish.
He
then meekly says his feeling have been hurt, his heart has been broken
and
that he is a human being.
With Vince looking all emo, Jeff Hardy's music hits and out he
comes.
Hardy rips the microphone away from Vince and compares Vince to
Saddam
Hussein (in relation to WWE being in Iraq next week). Hardy lays a
verbal
beatdown on Vince that leads Vince to go sulk in the corner almost in
tears.
With that, we see some...
(Ads)
We're back and Vince is still in the corner and William Regal is out
trying to console him and get him to leave the ring. But before Regal
can
make any headway, a familiar tune hits and out comes Triple H,
presumably to
continue Vince's misery.
HHH tells Regal to let him handle it since he's the closest thing
he's
got to family. He tells everyone to mark the time as Vince McMahon has
officially flipped. Triple H then sits down and puts his arm around
Vince
and says he's sorry for what he did to him last week and asks Vince,
"for
the love of God, get out of the ring before they cancel the show." But
General Manager Regal says he has a better idea: For HHH to leave the
ring
or he'll get security to throw him out.
Regal then helps McMahon to his feet and he slowly walks over to
Triple H
and snatches the microphone from him. Vince, in his psycho voice from
earlier this year, tells Regal to get Coach and that Regal and Coach
are
going to face Triple H tonight and that he hopes something bad happens
tonight.
The match is next, folks!
(Ads)
Match #2 - Triple H (Greenwich, Ct.) vs. William Regal (Blackpool,
England) & Jonathan Coachman (Wichita, Ka.)
Both Regal and Coach are in their Sunday best while Triple H is in
blue
jeans. I'm sure this'll be a Five-Star Classic.
On the outside, Regal kicks HHH's head into the post but Coach can
only
get two on the cover. The duo double team the former champion but
Triple H
fires up and starts a punch-kick offense on the two.
Regal then grabs his handy brass knuckles but is thwarted with a
spinebuster. But they fall to Coach who picks them up but it caught
red-handed. HHH takes them, hits Coach over the head with them, hits
the
Pedigree and that's all she wrote.
Winner via pinfall: Triple H
We're then thrown to a video package of the WWE Championship match
from
last night to chronicle the dispute between Chris Jericho and John
"Bradshaw" Layfield.
Tonight: Chris Jericho has invited JBL to RAW
(Ads)
Match #3 - World Tag Team Championship - Hardcore Holly
(Birmingham,
Ala.) & Cody Rhodes (Charlotte, NC) (c) vs. Lance Cade (Nashville,
Tenn.) &
Trevor Murdoch (Waxahachie, Tx.)
The challengers have their way with Holly early on, but he hits a
dropkick on Murdoch that allows him enough time to get the tag to
Rhodes.
Rhodes hits a bulldog on Cade but the cover is broken up by Murdoch.
Holly then goes after Murdoch and they battle outside the ring. Back in
the
ring, Rhodes counters a Cade clothesline and hits a DDT for the
win.
Winners via pinfall and STILL World Tag Team Champions: Hardcore
Holly
& Cody Rhodes
(Ads)
Match #4 - Ric Flair (Charlotte, NC) vs. Umaga (The Isle of
Samoa)
Flair has a mic at the top of the stage and says that he will never
retire and that Vince McMahon doesn't want him to get hurt on his
watch. He
says he never gets hurt. He says that he loves the business, the fans
and
being the Nature Boy. He says he's sacrificed a lot and that walking
away
isn't an option. He says he that he's going to bring his best every
night
and that he will not get beat without the fight of his life.
(Ads)
Flair hits Umaga with his signature chops but they are promptly no
sold
and Umaga takes over the match, hitting Flair with everything but the
kitchen sink, including a nasty kick to the back of the head.
Umaga starts working over Flair's neck region. He goes for a running
knee
drop, but Flair gets out of the way and hits a little bit of offense
but is
caught by a Samoan Drop but it only gets two as Flair gets his arm
around
the bottom rope. Umaga hits a belly-to-belly suplex for two and then
hits
two Bonzai Drops from the second rope. He then goes to work on Flair's
neck
again and is just working him over from pillar to post.
Umaga goes for the flying headbutt but Flair is able to move and now
both
men are down. They get up and Flair lights Umaga up with chops before
going
to work with some chop blocks. He goes for the Figure Four but is
pushed
away and sent to the outside.
Umaga follows and rams Flair into the ring post. With Flair against
the
guardrail, Umaga goes for the Running Butt Slam but Flair moves and
Umaga
goes flying through the rail and into the crowd.
The referee's count is at six and Flair climbs in at eight while
Umaga is
nowhere to be found.
Winner via countout: Ric Flair
Chris Jericho is on his way to the ring.
(Ads)
We're back and Chris Jericho hits the ring wearing his new shirt
that
looks like the makers of Guitar Hero made it.
Jericho once again runs us through what happened last night and
tells the
Monkeys to run the video package that we've already seen twice
tonight.
Jericho says all he has now is questions and he has invited JBL to
RAW
tonight, but his invitation was declined. He says because of that,
he'll
have to go to Smackdown!.
But we hear the familiar voice and it's JBL on the TitanTron via
satellite. He tells Jericho that he is very low on his list of
priorities.
They go back-and-forth for a while and Jericho reiterates that since
he's
not getting answers, he'll be going to Smackdown! this week. JBL says
that
he's spoken to Mr. McMahon and Jericho will not be getting a rematch
with
Orton. If he comes to Smackdown!, he won't be in the Royal Rumble. If
he
touches JBL, he won't be champion ever again.
Jericho says he thinks JBL is a fat cat and is no longer a Wrestling
God.
Instead, he is a Wrestling Afterthought.
JBL says it's not enough that he has to put over matches with guys
that
couldn't lace his boots but JBL will be coming to RAW and will prove
why he
is a Wrestling God.
(Ads)
Match #5 - Santino Marella (Patterson, NJ) & Carlito (The
Caribbean)
vs. Paul London (San Antonio, TX) & Brian Kendrick (Olympia,
Wash.)
London and Kendrick take turns beating on Santino before he gets the
tag
to Carlito. He gets hit with a few moves that leads to Kendrick getting
a
two count that Santino breaks up. London charges in to even it, but
Santino
bails to the outside where the two brawl.
Distracted by this, Kendrick leaves his back open and Carlito hits
the
Back Stabber for the win.
Winners via pinfall: Santino Marella & Carlito
After the match, Marella grabs a mic and spews on about how good a
tag
team the two will be. It's an Italian and a Colombian together! Carlito
reminds him that he is Puerto Rican and then goes on to say something
about
how it'll be Santino and Carlito who "swaps spit with men who don't
want to
be cool."
HA!
That pretty much wraps it up as Marella hugs Carlito and Maria.
(Ads)
Tomorrow night on ECW: It's Champion vs. Champion as ECW Champion CM
Punk
takes on United States Champion MVP! I can't wait!
Backstage, Todd Grisham brings in WWE Champion Randy Orton who says
that
last night, he killed the virus. He then moves onto babble about Jeff
Hardy
and says that becoming No. 1 Contender is the worst thing to ever
happen to
him.
We then go backstage to Ric Flair who is with a production assistant
and
in comes Triple H who gives him a pep talk but the duo is interrupted
by
Vince McMahon who puts his arm around Flair and tells him that on New
Year's
Eve, two weeks from tonight, his career is on the line again as he will
have
to face Triple H. (Ruh-roh!) Happy New Year!
(Ads)
Match #6 - Jeff Hardy (Cameron, N.C.) & Shawn Michaels (San
Antonio,
TX) vs. Mr. Kennedy (Green Bay, Wisc.) & Randy Orton (St. Louis,
MO)
Kennedy is selling a broken hand from his match with Michaels last
night.
Hardy and Orton start but that doesn't last long as Kennedy gets the
tag.
Hardy and Kennedy do a lot of the leg work early. Hardy goes for a
cover but
sees Orton coming in and attacks him and throws him outside. Michaels
does
the same to Kennedy. Then Hardy and HBK each hit slingshot planchas on
the
heels.
(Ads)
We're back and Orton and Kennedy are taking over the match, using
good
teamwork to work over Michaels. Orton continues the beatdown and tags
Kennedy in who continues the whoopin', including a kick to HBK's prone
head
that was propped up by the bottom turnbuckle.
Kennedy works Michaels over with a Camel Clutch, but works out of it
and
hits Kennedy with a series of chops and, after having the Superkick
blocked,
hits an Enziguri. Both men are down and both get the tag and Hardy
comes in
and is running all over Orton.
Orton goes for the RKO, but it's blcoked into the Twist of Fate and
then
into the Swanton for the pin!
Winners via pinfall: Jeff Hardy & Shawn Michaels
And that's all she wrote!
This was another strong showing from RAW. I think this was the type
of
show they needed, especially coming off a strong pay-per-view and
bringing
in a lot of old viewers for last week's show. The McMahon going crazy
thing
has potential, but we did sort of see it earlier this year. I laughed
then
and I'll probably laugh again. Crazy Vince voice is hilarious. The
matches
ranged in unoffensive to good and the chatter set up a lot of what's to
coming in the following months, including a strong promo between
Jericho and
JBL. It's just too bad we have to wait two weeks for the follow-up
show.
Matt Bishop is proud to have filled in to report on a show that
people
actually watch. Send Matt e-mail at bishop20@msu.edu. Please include
your
name and hometown. And if you're interested in mixed martial arts,
check out
Matt's weekly podcast ‹ Lights Out Radio.
Should
be a good one!.
