The Raw Review - 31st August 2009
31/08/2009
Hello and welcome the this edition of the Live Raw Review.
As you’ve probably noticed if you are a regular visitor, a few things have changed this week.
We’ve done away with the old ‘all 4 shows on 1 post’ format (for now at least) and decided to go with a standalone page for each one.
At first it might seem a bit complicated, bouncing between pages and all, but we promise it’ll make things way easier in terms of finding specific matches etc.
We’d love to know what you think about the changes so please feel free to get in touch via the Contact Us page, or any of the usual email addresses.
(By the way, the banners are purely temporary. We kind of rushed this idea through at the last minute and didn’t have time to get anything a bit better made.)
On with the show!
Quick Links
Opening Segment: The Dream is Running Raw
Match 1: Six Diva American Dream Battle Royal
Match 2: Chris Jericho Vs. M.V.P
Match 3: Hornswoggle Vs. Chavo Guerrero in a Texas Bullrope Match
Match 4: The Big Show Vs. Mark Henry
Segment 3: Rhodes Plans on Making an Impact
Segment 4: More DX and the Dream
Match 5: United States Championship Fatal 4 Way
Match 6: Mickey James Vs. Beth Phoenix for the Divas Championship
Segment 5: Even More DX and the Dream
Main Event: Cody Rhodes Vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship
The Raw Review
Opening Segment
The Dream is Running Raw
Lillian Garcia introduces ‘The American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes as the guest host of Raw tonight and he dances his way down the ramp to the ring.
Dusty played up to the ‘blue collar’ working class Detroit crowd, then began to talk about his son Cody Rhodes.
He said despite making some bad decisions, for instance joining Legacy, he’s very proud of his boy for all he has achieved.
Dusty then talked about the I Quit match at Breaking Point, saying it would pit John Cena against… his son, as Cody has a WWE Championship match tonight against Randy Orton, with Dusty in his corner and none other than John Cena as the special guest referee.
Randy Orton clearly isn’t impressed with the announcement and joins The Dream in the ring.
He accuses Dusty of being jealous of how his son respects his Legacy mentor more than he does his father, then questions why he thinks Cody would even face him tonight.
Dusty says Cody is hungrier and more gifted than Orton, prompting the Legend Killer aspect of Orton’s persona to emerge and ask The Dream for one good reason why he shouldn’t kick him in the skull just like he did 2 years ago.
Cody’s music breaks the tension and he also enters the ring.
He tells Orton that while he respects him and considers them friends, he would be stupid to pass up an opportunity to become the youngest WWE Champion in history and hopes he realises that it’s purely business.
Match 1
Six Diva American Dream Battle Royal
Kelly Kelly
Vs.
Beth Phoenix
Vs.
Rosa Mendes
Vs.
Gail Kim
Vs.
Jillian Hall
Vs.
Alicia Fox
Fast and furious start to Raw tonight with a Diva battle royal.
The winner of this match apparently gets a Diva’s championship match against Mickey James later tonight.
Elimination #1: Rosa Mendes Eliminated by Beth Phoenix
Elimination #2: Alicia Fox Eliminated byGail Kim
Elimination #3: Kelly Kelly Eliminated by Beth Phoenix
Elimination #4: Jillian Hall Eliminated by Gail Kim
Elimination #5: Gail Kim Eliminated by Beth Phoenix
Beth played possum for a long period of the match after eliminating Kelly Kelly, waiting for Jillian and Gail to wear each other out before striking and picking up the win and the title shot.
Beth Phoenix wins and becomes #1 Contender for the Divas Championship.
Match 2
Singles Match
Chris Jericho
Vs.
M.V.P
So it seems that the tag champs will face the #1 contenders tonight in a pair of singles matches, this is the first and it’s worth noting that Show isn’t accompanying his tag team partner for this match.
Jericho and M.V.P actually put on a really good, fairly wrestled match which could have gone either way a number of times throughout the bout.
M.V.P was able to reverse the Walls of Jericho into a very long 2 count, but was unable to hit the Playmaker to finish the match off and instead got caught with a Codebreaker seconds later.
Jericho picked up a win for his team, it’ll be interesting to see if The Big Show can make it 2 later on.
Chris Jericho wins by Pinfall.
Segment 2
DX and The Dream
Backstage Triple H and Shawn Michaels find Dusty Rhodes looking at the Rise and Fall of the WCW DVD.
Triple H says that as much as he knows he’s proud of Cody, both he and Ted DiBiase are disgraces to their family name.
The Dream says that as a matter of fact after Cody wins the WWE Championship tonight he is likely to give a title shot to one of them.
The Game and HBK squabble over who would get the shot, then say they’ll argue about it later.
The Dream asks them to stay and watch the DVD with him, leading to plugs for that as well as Dusty’s DVD and DX’s DVD.
Match 3
Texas Bullrope Match
Hornswoggle
Vs.
Chavo Guerrero
More ritual humiliation for Chavo by the looks of it.
Hornswoggle is dressed as a cowboy tonight, Chavo is dressed as a cow, big plastic mascot head; the works.
I rest my case.
The rules of this match are simple, I think. To win you must tie your opponent up in the Bullrope, which is attached to both competitor’s wrists.
Long story short is that Hornswoggle won the match after Evan Bourne came to ringside and distracted Chavo.
After the match Bourne helped Hornswoggle hit the Tadpole Splash while wearing the cows head.
If I was Chavo I’d be giving someone at TNA a call.
Hornswoggle wins by Pinfall.
Match 4
Singles Match
The Big Show
Vs.
Mark Henry
They’ve been pushing this match since the start of the show, but I’m failing to see the big interest in it.
When it comes down to it these are two big, lumbering guys and I’d be very surprised if this is anything other than a run-of-the-mill filler match.
The match kicked off with a test of strength, which Mark Henry looked like winning until Show hit him with a knee and a pair of Headbutts.
Unfortunately for the 7ft giant they seemed to do more damage to him than his rival, and Henry took control of the match.
Show was able to turn the tables with probably the biggest Spear anyone is ever likely to see, but Henry was able to avoid the pin and from there the match began to go back and forth.
The match ended rather abruptly as Big Show removed the turnbuckle cover and slammed Henry into it face first.
As the bell rang for the disqualification Show hit Henry with a big Right Hand to leave him on his back in the corner of the ring.
Mark Henry wins by Disqualification.
Segment 3
Rhodes Plans on Making an Impact
Cody prepares for his match backstage when Ted DiBiase enters and asks him in a rather sceptical manner if he’s ready for the match tonight.
Rhodes told his tag partner that he had his turn in the spotlight when The Million Dollar Man was in charge of the show, now it’s his turn.
Orton entered and told Rhodes that if he still plans on going through with the match tonight he has to heed his own words; What happens in the ring tonight is purely business.
Segment 4
More DX and the Dream
Backstage DX and Dusty are watching footage of the nWo and Dusty claims that was the start of the ‘fall’.
HBK asks The Dream how he let it happen and he says it wasn’t to do with him, it was one of their friends who was in charge at the time; Big Sexy.
They then began arguing about who won the Monday Night Wars and Dusty pointed out that Shawn was champion during WCW’s most successful period and out injured during WWE’s most successful times.
Shawn storms out, then back in again screaming about how The Attitude Era was mostly his idea.
Match 5
United States Championship Fatal 4 Way
Jack Swagger
Vs.
Carlito
Vs.
Kofi Kingston (c)
Vs.
The Miz
The Miz started this match by loitering on the outside and hoping the other competitors would beat themselves enough for him to sneak in and ‘pick the bones’.
However, it wasn’t long before he was involved in the match which was a near-fall filled, high flying affair.
The match ended in a classic ‘finisher-fest’ with The Miz hitting The Skull Crushing Finale on Swagger, Carlito hitting the Backstabber on The Miz and Kofi hitting Trouble in Paradise on Carlito to pick up the 3 count and retain his title.
A very good 4 way match that sees Kofi defend his title against the odds once again.
Kofi Kingston retains the United States Championship by Pinfall.
Match 6
Divas Championship Match
Beth Phoenix
Vs.
Mickey James (c)
Before the match The King said Beth had told him she was ready to get back to being The Glamazon, putting the distraction of Santino Marella behind her, and it was clear to see she has done that effectively.
Phoenix controlled this bout from start to finish, brutally beating the champion down and focusing on her injured arm and shoulder.
However, taking a page out of Rey Mysterio’s playbook Mickey was able to grab a win by hitting a huge Jump-Swinging DDT completely against the run of the match.
Mickey James retains the Divas Championship by Pinfall.
Segment 5
Even More DX and The Dream
In the back the three guys continue to plug the WCW DVD, although Triple H disputes that the single greatest WCW moment isn’t on the DVD: The Shockmaster.
Triple H explains what The Shockmaster is, before he bursts through a wall.
DX notice that it is actually Arn Anderson delivering The Shockmaster’s voice, then after they leave Santino emerges from under the costume, continuing his form of being involved with the guest hosts more than he’s in the ring.
Good nostalgia I suppose, but a bit ‘meh’ otherwise.
Segment 6
Cena Interviewed
Josh Mathews asked if there was going to be any more controversy tonight following the somewhat controversial end to his last WWE Championship match at SummerSlam.
Cena says it’s no secret that he doesn’t like Orton.
He then described a scenario where Rhodes won the title, saying it could easily give him the motivation to break free from Legacy. That in turn could break up Legacy and even shame Orton into leaving the WWE.
However, the headlines tomorrow would then just read ‘Cena gives Rhodes the WWE Title’ and he wouldn’t want that to happen, so if Cody wants the title tonight he’s going to have to earn it.
Cena then said it didn’t matter who won because he’s going to win the WWE Championship at Breaking Point, due to the fact he simply won’t quit.
Main Event Match
WWE Championship Match
Randy Orton
Vs.
Cody Rhodes (w/Dusty Rhodes)
Special Referee: John Cena
As Orton made his entrance Dusty and Cody were shown on the Titan-Tron. The Dream seemed to be giving his son a pep talk for his upcoming title match.
Good news for all you ‘Price is Right’ fans, Bob Barker is guest hosting next week.
Just as the match is about to begin Dream made his way up the steps and told everyone to hold it. He explained that as he said before there is nothing a father wouldn’t do for his son.
Orton and Rhodes then began to beat the hell out of Cena, who initially fought back until DiBiase also hit the ring and the numbers game became too much.
DX were next to show up and even the odds, beating Legacy down until Dusty struck Triple H with his cowboy boot and the dissection of DX/Cena continued.
Once all 3 men had been sufficiently beaten down Legacy and The Dream celebrated before Orton hit him with a RKO.
Cody looked furious and began fighting an inner battle, fighting his instincts to attack Orton.
As the show went off the air Cody stood in the corner looking down at the mat, while the crowd tried their best to will him into battle.
A very good ending to Raw this week. While the turn on Cena might have been pretty obvious, I certainly didn’t expect Orton to take out The Dream after he helped Legacy.
Match ends in a No Contest.
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