1wrestling.com- The Good, The Bad, The In-The-Middle: WWE Monday Night RAW 09.01.08

Back on its normal station, the USA Network, the WWE presented the last edition of Monday Night RAW before Unforgiven on Sunday. Among the highlights were two battle royals involving Championship Scramble participants, an appearance from a currently injured former WWE Champion, and a contract signing between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels for their Unsanctioned Match scheduled for this Sunday.

THE GOOD

• Randy Orton shows his face: I can’t say I really respect Randy Orton and his actions outside of the ring very much. But, I will happily admit that his appearance on RAW definitely lifted the level of the show several notches. He’s been out of action since suffering a broken collarbone in his match against Triple H at One Night Stand in June. And while he had been working toward his comeback, Orton re-injured himself courtesy of a motorcycle accident that added three months to his time on the disabled list, according to WWE.com. So, a special appearance by the former champion was not only a surprise, but it gave the company an ability to showcase one of its top guys and best heels.

Orton opened up the program with a rant against the brand’s current crop of champions. He claimed that a brand’s status is defined by its champions, and that the group of title holders on RAW was giving a bad representation. He was especially hard on C.M. Punk not only for the manner in which he obtained the World Heavyweight Championship, but also for his “no-name” status before entering the WWE.

This didn’t sit well with Punk, who came to the ring to respond face-to-face with “The Legend Killer.” He knocked Orton’s road to the WWE being paved by his family lineage and mocked Orton re-injuring himself. He also considered Orton jealous of his title reign, as Punk made no bones about the fact that he was champion regardless of how the title was won. They both agreed that the conversation needed to continue at a later time, since Punk had a battle royal to prepare for and Orton was still unable to go after the World Heavyweight Title because of his injury.

Though it was just talk, Orton’s opening to RAW gave the fans a little update on one the WWE’s top guys (i.e., star power) and allowed Punk an opportunity for a verbal push, which helps to somewhat counter the disappointing losses he suffers in the ring.

Orton was also used backstage to help make Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase more aggressive against Cryme Tyme. Additionally, he made an appearance during RAW’s battle royal, which led to another confrontation with Punk.

If Orton’s injury is accurate, I doubt the WWE will bring him back consistently until he’s fully healed, which is slated for early-to-mid November. For a one-time shot, though, RAW was definitely elevated with Orton on the program.

• Rey Mysterio beats down Kane: The RAW battle royal was not all that impressive. It did give Punk a bit of a momentum as he was able to consecutively eliminate Batista and JBL. But the aftermath following Kane eliminating Punk for the win was even more important. After Punk and Orton had their spat, Rey Mysterio’s music hit the arena and the former World Heavyweight Championship made his first appearance on RAW in almost two months.

Mysterio headed right toward the ring for Kane. Mysterio attacked “The Big Red Machine.” He attacked the legs, took the fight to the outside and got the last word of the night when he delivered a hurricurana to Kane that sent him over the barricade and into the crowd.

Although I still question the need for this angle and the repetition of themes from previous feuds involving Mysterio, I think what went down on Monday was actually pretty exciting. Mysterio appeared to be void of rust as he took the fight to Kane. And he not only gave himself some momentum going into Sunday, but he also laid the groundwork for the beginning of the battle between himself and Kane following Unforgiven.

• Chris Jericho/Shawn Michaels get their last words in: The Championship Scramble matches at Unforgiven will be the most hyped. However, the fight between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels stands a real shot at being the match of the night. On Monday, the final verbal shots were taken and the war of words is over. In just six short days, the two will battle it out one more time in the most personal battle they’ve had thus far – and it will be unsanctioned.

On RAW, they weren’t allowed to actually brawl. Otherwise, general manager Mike Adamle would cancel their match for Unforgiven. But they did enter the same ring at the end of RAW to sign a contract for their unsanctioned contest this Sunday. After signing, the surrounding security guards, the combatant’s lawyers and Jerry “The King” Lawler were demanded to leave the vicinity by Jericho. Then Jericho and Michaels did their final bit of talking.

Similar to their talk from previous weeks, both wrestlers talked about how brutal they were going to be against each other and made things personal by dragging family into the discussion. Continuing on with his “eye for an eye” decree, Michaels closed out the segment by saying that he hopes GOD will someday forgive him for his actions against Jericho on Sunday.

There has been a decent gap of about a month and a half since these two last fought at The Great American Bash. And in some cases, that could really be a bad thing. But Jericho and Michaels are veterans who have done a great job through promos of keeping this feud going. It will be interesting to see just how violent things get at the PPV.

• Candice Michelle returns to Women’s Division: It seemed like Monday was a night of returns. Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio showed up, which impacted the heavyweight picture greatly. But the Divas weren’t left out, as Candice Michelle made her triumphant return since injuring her left clavicle a couple of weeks before WrestleMania 24. She joined Mickie James and Kelly Kelly in a six-woman tag team match against Women’s Champion Beth Phoenix, Jillian Hall and Katie Lea Burchill.

The match was decent and I think Michelle did an okay job despite some obvious rust. But what really comes out of this is another legitimate contender for Phoenix and the Women’s Title. Not only did Michelle score the pinfall victory over Phoenix, but it was definitely established that she was going after the Glamazon for the gold.

With Candice back, there’s another quality opponent to take on Phoenix for title. And that can only be a good thing on what is a somewhat thin women’s division at the top on RAW.

THE BAD

• Misuse of Charlie Haas: Charlie Haas is by no means an A-level talent in the WWE. The chances of him ever making a main event were always pretty slim, even in his best days. But Charlie Haas is a more than serviceable talent that could be a great asset in the mid-to-lower midcard on RAW. Instead, the WWE has chosen to give him a ridiculous routine of dressing up in the gimmicks of other WWE stars and then job to whatever opponent he’s taking on.

Last week, Haas became Charlito, which was a mock on Carlito. He faced Primo Colon, Carlito’s brother, in the youngster’s debut and suffered the loss to give Primo a win in his first WWE match. This week, Haas played the role of John Cena and took a pinfall loss to Kofi Kingston following a “Trouble in Paradise.” I’m a bit worried to even imagine what the WWE is going to throw on Haas next week.

Again, I’m not saying Haas should be taking on the likes of Batista or Punk and grabbing wins against them in the process. But to be used in such a demoralizing and un-important capacity gives me little hope that the WWE will actually do something useful with a talent that could do good things in some low key feuds.

THE IN-THE-MIDDLE

• Santino’s Honk-A-Meter: Following Randy Orton’s diss of Santino Marella’s Intercontinental Championship run, Santino made a point on RAW. He acknowledged the Honky Tonk Man’s record 64 weeks with the IC Title. Santino is two weeks strong and only 62 away from tying the Honky Tonk Man for the streak and becoming the best IC Champion of all time.

This was just another very funny moment for Santino, who then went on to score a win over D’Lo Brown after Brown missed a frog splash and Santino laid back for the pin. The match wasn’t that great, though. It was the pre-match antics that continued Santino’s on-screen hilarity which is much needed on RAW.

• Henry dominates ECW battle royal: The ECW battle royal match itself was actually more entertaining than RAW’s. It wasn’t entirely thrilling, but it did give some good build going into the Championship Scramble at Unforgiven. Mark Henry came out the man on top after eliminating his four opponents. But, the order in which the opposition was tossed over the top rope lends some insight into who might have the best shot at taking the strap off Henry at the PPV.

Both Chavo Guerrero and The Miz were hurled out of the ring in one swoop, which makes sense considering they at least initially appear to be the two competitors going into Sunday with the least likely shot of coming out as champion. Finlay and Matt Hardy were eliminated by “The World’s Strongest Man” one-by-one in that respective order to close out the match, and I think those two stand the strongest chance of holding the belt at the end of the 20-minute time limit if Henry does lose the belt.

Unfortunately, I think the WWE will keep the ECW World Title on Henry for the foreseeable future. But it would be nice to see Hardy get his crack at a brand’s leading title.

• Simply Priceless take back titles: Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes were part of Randy Orton’s tirade against RAW’s champions to open the night, and they were none too pleased with Orton’s assessment. Orton ended up slapping Cody Rhodes when confronted by the young tag team backstage and presented it as some sort of motivation for the champs to get aggressive and get their titles back.

It worked. DiBiase and Rhodes attacked Cryme Tyme before JTG and Shad’s match against John Morrison and The Miz. After laying them out, DiBiase and Rhodes took their titles back and head into Unforgiven with the upperhand.

I’ve been on board with this tag feud since before it even got started. I can’t wait to see what DiBiase and Rhodes vs. Cryme Tyme offers this Sunday.

• Jamie Noble impressive Layla: Jamie Noble is getting some respect now thanks to his win over William Regal on RAW. Not willing to be called a loser by Layla, Noble landed an impressive victory via small package pinfall over Regal. The win appeared to impress Layla and potentially set Noble up for a string of victories over the coming weeks with a new lady on his arm.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

The WWE had a great final RAW before Unforgiven. It was an entertaining show that saw some great returns and further build toward the PPV. Randy Orton probably won’t be a mainstay on the brand until he’s healthy, but a one-time appearance to liven things up a bit helped the show a lot. The battle royals weren’t action packed, but gave some good insight into the Championship Scrambles at Unforgiven. And the show concluded with continued tension as Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho head into their Unsanctioned Match this Sunday. A very good showing from the RAW brand.

 

From 1wrestling.com