Jericho was unharmed in the incident. The man and woman who assaulted Jericho were arrested.

(Source: WWE.Com)

More to come on that as it happens, hopefully on Raw tonight.

Opening Segment

Flair Returns

The show opens with the return of the 16 time World Champion, ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair. Wooo! Instantly the connection between Flair and Mickey (Star of ‘The Wrestler’) Rourke is played up, a picture of the two shown on the titan-tron.

Flair explains that it is good to be back, the circumstances of his retirement and how much he respects HBK. Jericho then interrupts (answering my question of ‘will he be on raw?’) and then plays a video of the two embracing on Flair’s last appearance on Raw. He goes on to say he hugged him out of respect, but had he known how badly Flair would go on to sell out, he would have slapped him in the face instead.

Flair retorts by saying if he had known Jericho would become a condescending little punk…. and then tails off into saying he hasn’t sold out and will never wrestle again, because he respects the fans too much, the business too much and Shawn Michaels too much.
Jericho says Flair always has to be the centre of attention, to which he agrees and says although he has retired from the ring he will never retire from this business.

More comparisons were made between Mickey Rourke’s character and Flair, and after more bad-mouthing he hit Jericho with a right hand, sending the first Undisputed Champion scurrying up the ramp.

A video then plays of the various goings on between the McMahons and Legacy on last week’s show, culminating in the announcement that The Undertaker will be on this week’s Raw.

Match 1

Jillian Hall & Beth Phoenix (w/Rosa Mendes and Santino Marella) Vs. Melina & Kelly Kelly

The ‘big news’ in this match seemed to be that Santino Marella has announced he has a secret admirer and will reveal who it is very soon. As for the match itself, it was pretty good. Kelly Kelly is showing signs of improvement, Melina, Phoenix and Jillian Hall were good as usual.

Phoenix and Hall won very quickly when Rosa Mendes distracted Melina who then got hit with the Glam Slam, putting her down for the 3 count.

Beth Phoenix and Melina will fight it out for the WWE Women’s Championship next week on Raw, suggesting there isn’t enough space for the match at No Way Out.

Beth Phoenix & Jillian Hall win by Pinfall.

Segment 2

JBL Vs. HBK/ Legacy Promo

JBL informs Shawn that as he is still his employer, he has got him a ‘tune up’ match, against the world’s strongest man, Mark Henry later tonight.

Legacy appear at the top of the ramp and Randy talks about how everything recently has concerned his involvement with the McMahons, but what people are forgetting is he won the Rumble and can face the World Champion of his choice (no mention of the ECW Championship though, surprised?). Randy claims he never intended to punt Steph last week, he was just showing Shane what COULD have happened.

Orton finishes by saying Taker couldn’t beat him at the Rumble, he won’t beat him tonight and if The Deadman can’t get the job done, what chance does Shane think he has?

Match 2

Priceless Vs. Cryme Tyme

The tag division is in a terrible state at the minute. Not due to the lack of believable teams, which has been the problem in years past, when rather than bringing teams in and building them up, two fairly high profile superstars have been thrown together in a makeshift team to boost the division (Rey Mysterio partnering with Batista, Edge etc).
The problem recently is that there are around 5-6 really good tag teams, but they are spread across 3 brands.

The best example of how stretched it is at the minute is the fact the Raw tag champs are 2 ECW superstars who spend just as much time competing on Smackdown. If all the tag teams were moved onto one brand (the same as Cruiserweight matches were exclusive to Smackdown) and the titles unified, there could be a tag division to rival the late 90′s/early 2000′s.

Another good match, again a little short and perhaps pointless in the grand scheme of things, both teams are good but without any storyline behind the matches they are becoming a little samey. Rhodes picked up the win for his team with the ‘Cross-rhodes’.

Priceless win by Pinfall.

Match 3

Kane, Mike Knox & Jericho Vs. Rey Mysterio, Kofi Kingston & John Cena

I’m not impressed with the amount of recycling that seems to be going on tonight on Raw. Although this isn’t an exact copy of last week’s match like the Priceless Vs. Cryme Tyme was, it is almost as bad. This one is last week’s main event meshed together with one of the mid-card battles, it wouldn’t be so bad if any of the participants were feuding, but they aren’t really.

Jericho has seemingly moved on to a building feud with either Flair, Rourke or both, Kane and Mysterio has been done to death, as has Mysterio and Knox, Kofi and Kane are kind of at loggerheads although Kane is now in the Chamber match so it doesn’t really matter too much and Cena hasn’t really had a beef with anyone since his less than a month long encounter with JBL.

Luckily there were some good performances in this one that somehow managed to make it more interesting than both of last week’s encounters. Signs that the WWE might be toning things down were evident in this match too, I mentioned last week that the STFU has dropped the U and is now just a plain old STF, and this week Michael Cole called the F-U the ‘Attitude Adjustment’. I can’t remember a time when such a prominently named finisher was just changed without a mention, if anyone has any info on this please let me know, e-mail address is at the bottom.

There were some impressive moments in this match, none more so than the finish, when Jericho caught Kofi in mid-air and hit a Code-Breaker that Kingston sold to perfection.

Kane, Mike Knox and Jericho win by Pinfall.

Segment 3

Pretty Pointless

I almost didn’t even bother putting this in. Steph talked on the phone to (I assume) Shane, who appeared to be telling her to be careful around Orton. The fact that security are protecting her backstage seemed to be the only piece of information in this segment, unless it turns out it wasn’t Shane on the phone but someone completely unexpected, like Triple H.

Match 4

Shawn Michaels Vs. Mark Henry (w/ Tony Atlas)

I didn’t expect much from these two guys and it appears neither did the creative team, as it lasted all of a minute. Shawn attacked Henry before the bell rang, then after some tussling on the outside, super-kicked a steel chair into Henry’s face which cost him the match by D.Q.

JBL jumped in the ring after the match and delivered a speech about how if HBK gets disqualified on Sunday he will put his name and image on every product he can, making him the equivalent of what Mickey Mouse is to Disney. He then said Shawn should bring his wife to stand in his corner at No Way Out, so she can see what a disgrace he is etc etc.

Mark Henry wins by Disqualification.

Match 5

C.M Punk Vs. William Regal for the Intercontinental Championship

This is another match that in my opinion could have been saved for No Way Out or at the very least given a bit more of the card for the two guys to show just how well they can work together.

Regal was as stiff as ever during this one and his offense was even more obscure than usual. The match was short and practically all Regal until the very end when Punk landed a kick against the run of things and then hit the GTS to pick up the win and retain the title.

C.M Punk retains the Intercontinental Championship by Pinfall.

Main Event Match

Randy Orton Vs. The Undertaker

These two guys have had some amazing matches in the past and after Flair’s return being about as predictible as it could possibly be, I was hoping for something big from this match and they didn’t disappoint.

Although The Undertaker isn’t what he used to be, both in terms of the character and the wrestler, his entrance is still one of the best in the business, and still sometimes raises the hairs on the back of my neck in the same way as Austin’s shattering glass or the first chord of Voodoo Chile/Real American. Especially these days, as Austin, Hogan and Undertaker appearances are few and far between.

As usual Taker and Orton pulled a performance straight out of the top drawer, having met so often in the past the two have adapted to each others styles so well and the match flowed perfectly, keeping the crowd interested for the duration.

A reversed Chokeslam led to a reversed RKO which then looked like it was going to lead to a Tombstone, but before it could be delivered Priceless jumped in, got Orton DQ’d and the triple team began. Just when it looked like Orton was going to punt Taker, Shane steamed in for the save, taking out Priceless with help some help from the Deadman.

Orton could only watch from the top of the ramp while Shane delivered the Coast to Coast into a trash can placed infront of Ted DiBiase’s face, delivering a message and letting the Legend Killer’s know what could be in his future at No Way out.

The ECW Digest – 10/02/2009

Opening Segment

Things just got interesting

It’s no secret that I’m not a particularly big fan of ECW. However, the opening segment of this week’s show may just have given me a reason to watch.

Swagger made his way to the ring, not showing his trademark smile as he usually does (and dropped his title, but the slammy award winning covered this perfectly well). He moaned about how Teddy Long had booked him to defend his title against Finlay at No Way Out before deciding to call out Hornswoggle.

Instead of the little leprechaun, he got one of the longest awaited comebacks in WWE history (of this year so far) when Christian finally returned. My first reaction was ‘oh god, why waste him on ECW, why waste his comeback on anything other than a Pay Per View’ but then I thought about the concept of a Christian Vs. Swagger match and decided there were positives in everything.

His comeback promo was pretty good, making fun of Swagger’s speech impediment and then stating his intentions; to win the ECW Championship. Swagger warned him that he wouldn’t make a name for himself by beating him, and that he was no threat, at which point Christian drilled him in the head with the microphone and left.

The way the ECW commentary team handled the comeback was pretty appalling. They didn’t seem particularly shocked or excited, and call me old fashioned if you will, but a comeback needs a screaming commentator like JR emphasising its importance.

After the commercials Swagger confronted Teddy Long to ask him if he knew Christian was coming back tonight. Long informed him that as he was the one who signed him, it is obvious that he knew and that Swagger would face him 1 on 1 in tonight’s main event.

Match 1

Tommy Dreamer Vs. The Miz (w/John Morrison)

A fairly standard match by all accounts. Dreamer is still turning in the performances although he can’t be happy at the current ‘washed up has been’ gimmick he’s been landed with, and hopefully for him the resolution of this mini-feud with The Miz & Morrison will be that he proves he isn’t past it.

Predictably the end of the match saw John Morrison distracting Dreamer, before The Miz hit some sort of reverse stunner/jawbreaker to pick up the win.

The Miz wins by Pinfall.

Segment 2

More new talent

After clips of the Boogeyman Vs. Jamie Noble match from last week were shown, Noble once again decided to inform Mr. Long that he’s somewhat of a big fish in a small ECW pond and as such he shouldn’t be treated the way he was. Their conversation was cut short when new talent Tyson Kidd (who trained under Bret Hart) and Natalya were introduced as ECW’s newest acquisitions.

Segment 3

Christian welcomed to ECW

Christian is shown preparing for his match, before being interrupted by a visit from Hornswoggle and Finlay. Finlay welcomes him to ECW and wishes him luck in his match tonight, saying he will be watching. Before he leaves he tells him that if he expects to win the ECW title he’ll have to go through the fighting Irishman after No Way Out.

Match 2

Tyson Kidd Vs. Bao Nouyen

Given the promo Kidd was involved in earlier, coupled with the facts that:

a)Nouyen didn’t have an entrance

and

b)He is refered to on WWE.com as simply ‘Local Talent’

it seemed pretty obvious which way this match was going to go. It was a showmatch for Kidd and to be fair to him he put on a great performance, squashing ‘local talent’ from start to finish. He used some pretty impressive offence while the commentary team built him up as one of the few people to emerge from the Hart family dungeon.

He picked up the win with a big springboard elbow, it looked like he slipped slightly but still managed to pull off an impressive finish. He reminded me of a young Rob Van Dam and if he can keep delivering perfomances like this one, he should move up the card pretty fast.

Tyson Kidd wins by Pinfall.

Main Event Match

Jack Swagger Vs. Christian

I’m sad to report firstly that Christian seems to have ditched his gold hooded jacket, hopefully it might be saved for special occasions.

Christian looked impressive and doesn’t seem to have missed a beat since departing from TNA early in January. Half way through the match Finlay and Hornswoggle came to ringside and joined in on the commentary, Finlay praising both competitors but standing firm that he could still beat both of them and Hornswoggle grunting inanely as usual.

Towards the end of the bout Swagger threw Christian over the announce table into Finlay and his son, angering the Irish duo. While Hornswoggle distracted the referee Finlay hit Swagger with the shillelagh, costing him the match and giving Christian a pinfall victory on his return to the WWE.

Christian wins by Pinfall.

The Smackdown Summary - 13/02/2009

Opening Segment

The deck is stacked in Edge’s favour

Before the show begins a promo outlines the current situation between the Hardy’s and confirms that Jeff will appear on tonight’s show.

After the opening pyro’s Edge and Vikki make their way to the ring. Edge delivered the generic ‘elimination chamber’ speech (2 miles of steel chain etc) then claims he suffered a neck injury at the hands of The Undertaker last week, mainly due to the fact his partner (The Big Show) walked out on him.

Vikki then explains that while Edge’s doctors have cleared him to compete at No Way Out, as a precaution he won’t be involved in any matches tonight. Before Edge could begin any more ego-boosting a grinning Big Show made his way to the ring and, to cut a long story short declared he would take Edge’s title at No Way Out.

Vikki decided to step in and put Show in a fatal 4 way match with Triple H, Vladimir Kozlov and The Undertaker; effectively stacking the deck in Edge’s favour for the upcoming WWE Championship Match.

Match 1

Chavo Guerrero Vs. MVP

MVP seems to be a fully fledged face now, the commentators even making reference to positive chants directed towards him in this match. He also played to the crowd, which is the first time I can recall him doing that, to this extent at least.

This match looked pretty good and MVP seemed close to picking up the win until United States champion Shelton Benjamin jumped in and hit him with ‘Paydirt’. Chavo didn’t seem too upset that he had lost by DQ, and decided to ‘pick the bones’ as JR and Tazz put it, by hitting a frogsplash on his fallen opponent then signalling he might want Shelton’s US championship himself. Looks like the US title picture is picking up, possibly a triple threat at No Way Out?

MVP wins by Pinfall.

Segment 2

Tag Champs Vs. Tag Champs for the Bella’s

Carlito and Primo are shown with the Bella twins backstage. After it becomes apparent that the flowers the twins received didn’t come from the Smackdown Tag Champs, the Raw Tag Champs aka The Miz and John Morrison show up and explain that they sent them. While the Bella twin closest to Primo began to tell them they were already spoken for, the twin closest to Carlito (I don’t know or care which one is which) said as both teams are set to meet tonight, they would go out with the winners on valentine’s day. That match is coincidentally up next.

Match 2

Carlito & Primo Vs. The Miz & Morrison

As good as Miz and Morrison may be (I appreciate they have good wrestling ability and chemistry when working together, but their promo’s are often cringe-worthy and feel forced) I’m getting kind of sick of seeing them now, in-fact I personally think they are on the verge of overkill.

That being said this match was alright, nothing spectacular but it didn’t suck either. The Bella’s seemed to be cheering on Carlito and Primo and seemed shocked when John Morrison won the match with a Moonlight Drive, after The Miz pushed Primo from the top rope. I hope to god this is leading to a tag title unification match.

Afterwards Jeff Hardy is seen arriving in a Ferrari, everyone is pleased to see him and he hugs/shakes hands with the bizarre combination of Jimmy Wang-Yang, R-Truth, The Great Khali, Eve and Maria.

The Miz & John Morrison win by Pinfall.

Segment 3

Jeff’s Big Comeback

After yet another running of the Hardy betrayal video, Jeff comes to the ring and delivers a strangely coherent promo about how he and Matt came to the WWE together (while pictures and video’s of their past run on the titan-tron), that he isn’t the type of person to pursue grudges and he has moved on to focusing on becoming the 2 time WWE Champion this Sunday at No Way Out. Bit of an anti-climax considering how much hype has surrounded it, surely there will be more to come before the end of the show.

Match 3

Ezekiel Jackson (w/Brian Kendrick) Vs. R-Truth

R-Truth started this match positively, using his clear speed advantage to get the better of ‘Big Zeke’ but it wasn’t long before Kendrick’s personal bodyguard slowed things down and displayed his raw power.

R-Truth pulled off what has to be described as an upset, when he reversed Jackson’s finisher into a roll-up for the 3 count.

After the match Eve interviewed Maria about her upcoming match with Michelle McCool. Nothing remotely interesting happened.

R-Truth wins by Pinfall.

Match 4

Michelle McCool Vs. Maria

McCool worked on Maria’s knee for the majority of the match. Maria almost won the match with a similar roll-up to R-Truth in the match previous, and then eventually picked up the victory in the same way, when Eve made her way to ringside and distracted Michelle.

Segment 4

Triple H states his intention

Todd Grisham interviewed Triple H backstage. He made it clear that he was the favourite going in to No Way Out as he has been in 5 Elimination Chamber matches and rather than fearing them, has grown to love them and the damage he is able to do. Personally, as long as Kozlov doesn’t win I won’t be too disappointed.

Main Event Match

Triple H Vs. Vladimir Kozlov Vs. The Big Show Vs. The Undertaker

Once again the Smackdown main event looks like it will be Pay Per View quality, provided it can live up to expectations. Fatal four-way’s usually result in a good finish, as 3 men have to be taken out of the equation completely for the 4th to get a pinfall.

Almost immediately The Big Show and Kozlov were thrown to the outside, leaving Triple H and The Undertaker to battle and play to the crowd. Before long Show made his way back into the ring and displayed why he has as much chance as anyone on Sunday, taking out Taker and Triple H.

At one point Kozlov whipped The Undertaker into the steel steps and he took it on both knees, now I’m not a doctor but if your knees are the main reason retirement looms on the horizon, surely the last thing you’d want to do is slam them straight into some ring steps.

The end of the match came when Kozlov hit The Big Show with a headbutt, then Triple H pedigree’d Kozlov, then The Undertaker Tombstoned Triple H, then The Big Show Chokeslammed The Undertaker (phew). Just when Show looked like taking the match, Edge slid into the ring and hit him with a Spear, ending the match in a DQ and wrapping up the last action before No Way Out.

No Contest due to Interference.

Live Results

Live results have now ended. Click the link above to find out what happened at No Way Out reported as it happened!

Previews and Predictions

Preview articles and predictions for all the matches at No Way Out can be found at the link above.