Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoyed last night’s RAW. However, this month’s community blog post here at b5 media is “The Worst” so I’ll be scouring each match and segment on RAW to determine what was “The Worst”. I’ll also balance it with “The Best”.

Segment winners in italics. At the end of the article we’ll crown our definitive Worst and Best of the June 2 WWE Monday Night RAW.

SEGMENT #1
Triple H, John Cena, Jeff Hardy and Vince McMahon discuss who will face HHH at the Night of Champions.

The Worst Nominees: HHH’s theme music (always bad); HHH making fun of Randy Orton’s broken collarbone; Vince McMahon’s kooky and confusing memory loss gimmick.
The Best Nominees: John Cena’s great stage presence (bringing up Nostradamus, Dr. Emmett Brown, Miss Cleo, and John Edward); Jeff Hardy’s inclusion in the title shot contenders; The Jeff Hardy replica armbands that so many audience members are wearing.

SEGMENT #2
Mr. Kennedy def. Umaga
The Worst Nominees: Paul Birchill cowardly ducking Mr. Kennedy; Katie Lea Birchill’s velvet costume; Birchill’s predictable post-match sneak attack.
The Best Nominees: Kennedy calling William Regal a “little British pansy”; The “I Wish Katie Lea Was My Sister” sign; Lawler’s “Katie Lea must be a fast learner” comment.

SEGMENT #3
Vince McMahon announces his $1,000,000 plans
The Worst Nominees: Vince’s bad acting and disingenuous amazement at the look of $1M; Vince’s increasingly growly voice; The incorrect belief that people need free money to watch the WWE.
The Best Nominees: Vince’s saying that the contest winner had to be an American citizen and that that might be difficult here in Bakersfield, Calif.; Vince correctly calling the WWE a cross-section of America; Vince’s call to bring back past wrestling fans; The class warfare angle “those who insult wrestling don’t get it and look down on you”.

SEGMENT #4
Santino Marella and Carilto def. Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes
The Worst Nominees: Non-title matches; Roddy Piper misuse as time keeper; Roddy Piper’s shirtlessness;
The Best Nominees: King to JR: “The last time you opened up your wallet Ric Flair was voted best newcomer.”; Santino insulting Jimmy Kimmel using gimmicks of other late-night hosts; Change: Cody Rhodes possibly breaking up with Holly and joining other next generation wrestler Ted DiBiase, Jr.

SEGMENT #5
Chris Jericho def. JBL
The Worst Nominees: JBL’s boring wrestling style; Jericho’s weird need to show mercy to his competitors angle; More fake JBL blood.
The Best Nominees: Jericho’s promise to defend the InterContinental Title as much as possible; Y2J’s acrobatics; The crowd’s bloodlust and desire to see more pain inflicted on JBL.

SEGMENT #6
Beth Phoenix and Katie Lea Birchill def. Melina and Mickie James
The Worst Nominees: This match’s abrupt end (I was really getting into it); Katie Lea’s gawkiness; The Mr. Kennedy-Birchill feud overshadowing the good women’s match and Melina-Phoenix feud.
The Best Nominees: Melina’s epic yearning desire to attack Beth Phoenix and her subsquent feverish hair-pulling; Mickie James’ perky acrobatic and excitable style;The beatdown Phoenix puts on Melina.

SEGMENT #7 and #8
Lance Cade def. Trevor Murdoch
John Cena and Mickie James talk in the training room while HHH watches TV in the locker room
The Worst Nominees: Cryme Tyme extraneously eying up the $1M; The WWE’s crashed internet server due to overwhelming $1M applicants; Trevor Murdoch’s singing; The crass Mickie James’ panties joke; HHH’s crotch shot
The Best Nominees: The breakup of a successful tag team and the resulting feud; Their apparent disdain for each other (just wish I could get more excited about this one); The commercial for the forthcoming The Rock 3-DVD set; John Cena and Mickie James do look cute together.

SEGMENT #9
John Cena def. Jeff Hardy for the right to face HHH at the Night of Champions PPV.
The Worst Nominees: A dude from the audience actually made it past the security and into the ring and seriously killed the momentum of what could have been a great match; We love Cena but we wanted new blood going for the title; The mid-match commercial shortened an already shortened match.
The Best Nominees: A dude from the audience actually made it past the security and into the ring and the crowd cheered him wildly; Hardy and Cena showed great professionalism when they visibly laugh at the guy and are forced to delay their match until he’s removed from the arena; JR and Lawler do a great job joking about the ring interloper: The King evokes an image of JR streaking and they reckon the $1M promise has driven the crowd crazy.

The WORST of RAW: Has to be the crass Mickie James panties joke from Segment #8. In Segment #3 Vince talked about how he wanted to bring back people who grew up watching wrestling and for some reason stopped. For me that reason was the unnecessary inclusion of sexual gags and a loss of the 1980’s innocence. If I had been tuning in anew for the $1M that joke might have turned me off for good.

The BEST of RAW: We’ll say the breakup of Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes that was hinted at in Segment #4. We want a change from the stagnant matchups more than anyone and a stable/alliance of second (and third) generation wrestlers like Rhodes and DiBiase, Jr. would be great.

Post from: EveryJoe

WWE Monday Night RAW June 2: The Worst

Match One
Melina def. Jillian Hall

Melina enters the ring doing her signature full split under the bottom rope and makes Hall submit with a indescribably flexible reverse camel clutch-type thing. Oh. My. Heavens. Beth Phoenix, who was interviewed in character today in the Miami Herald sits at ringside with JR and contributes little.

After the match Y2J and Vince McMahon agree on another Y2J – Shawn Michaels match tonight which puts a huge smile on our face. Then they engage in assorted non sequiturs while Cryme Tyme steals a cheap portrait of Queen Elizabeth II off the wall. Weird stuff.

Segment Grade: C . All of which earned by Melina.

Match Two
Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes def. Paul London and Brian Kendrick.

London and Kendrick do some impressive acrobatics and London even manages to pin Holly for three seconds. Luckily for the champions, the referee is distracted. Holly quickly reverses and punishes London with a vicious Alabama Slam. Match over.

But who is this? Of course, it’s the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase. Is he going to announce that he’s the new RAW GM like we predicted last week. Is that the announcement? Not at all. He’s announcing that his son Ted DiBiase Jr. is a new RAW roster member. We like second generation stars and are glad to finally see him in the big leagues. Although the “I’m Priceless” catchphrase isn’t our favorite.

Segment Grade: C. Whole lots of yawns tonight.

Picture Source: Wikipedia by mshake3

Post from: EveryJoe

Memorial Day Monday Night Raw: We Want An Announcement!

Image details: Battle Of The Billionaires Announce Details Of Wrestlemania 23 served by picapp.com

Monday Night Raw Match Two:

Beth Phoenix vs. Maria

Diva Melina has already stolen the show. How so. Let us count the ways:
1) She’s done an astounding split in front of JR and Jerry Lawler and then joins them in the announcing booth.
2) Quote: “I will not do Playboy, I’m not that type of girl.”
3) Quote: “I made it through a three way at Judgment Day and I’m still here.”
4) Quote: “Beth Phoenix blows up my phone every time she needs a partner.”
5) Quote: “She knows I’m great at what I do.”

Beth Phoenix puts the lovely Maria into a submission hold but Melina is having none of it. She sprints from her announcing perch to attack Beth. It doesn’t work out. The Glamazon picks her up and slams her proving whose the queen of the Diva world.

Match Rating: B

Post from: EveryJoe

May 19 Monday Night Raw Match Two: We Love Melina

Match Seven:
Randy Orton vs. Triple H
Cage coming down! Both men climb to the top of the cage and pose. The match starts. Stomp stomp choke hold choke hold headlock headlock punch punch.

Result: Triple H pins Orton and keeps the title.

Match Six:
MVP vs. Jeff Hardy
Surprise match. Big Show vs. Mark Henry evidently isn’t happening.

Result: Jeff Hardy pins MVP.

Match Five:
The Undertaker vs. Edge
Lots of outside the ring action here. Can he legally choke slam Edge if it’s not in technically done “in the ring”? Probably not. Turnbuckle exposed. Can George “The Animal” Steele be far away? Oh no he didn’t! Oh yes he did. Choke slam completed.

Result: The Undertaker defeats Edge but Vicki Guerrero has something to say. She says The Undertaker isn’t a legal champ despite the fact that he has the belt. You can’t win on a count out. This drama has legs.

Match Four:
Mickie James vs. Beth Phoenix vs. Melina
Good choice following up that tremendous match with the Divas.

Result: Mickie James pins Melina and keeps the belt.

Match Three:
Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels
Michaels knee appears to be fine. Lots of submission attempts and back and forth action. Great work done here. Fun all around.

Result: Shawn Michaels pins Y2J after quickly countering a Walls of Jericho.

Match Two:
John Morrison and The Miz vs. CM Punk and Kane

Result: Morrison pins CM Punk while Kane choke slams The Miz outside the ring. Morrison and Miz keep the WWE Tag Team Title Belt. Good match. Good action.

Match One:
John Cena vs. JBL

Result: Cena pins JBL after a painfully boring 15 minute bout. Let’s hope this PPV event improves.

Photo Source: Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

WWE Judgment Day 2008 Results

In the other title change at the event Matt Hardy defeated MVP with a clean twist of fate to pick up the United States Title.

Kane pinned foe Chavo Guerrero with a chokeslam to retain the ECW championship and Undertaker submitted Edge via gogoplata to keep the heavyweight title.

What repercussions will the title changes have? What fallout will we see from the PPV? Only time will tell though we will have a good indication of what is to come following tonight’s edition of Monday night Raw.

RESULTS

• Triple H def. Randy Orton, John Cena and JBL in a Fatal Four Way Elimination Match (new WWE Champion)
• World Heavyweight Champion Undertaker def. Edge
• Matt Hardy def. United States Champion MVP (new champion)
• Big Show def. The Great Khali
• ECW Champion Kane def. Chavo Guerrero
• Shawn Michaels def. Batista
• 12-Diva Tag Team Match: Beth Phoenix, Melina, Jillian Hall, Layla, Victoria and Natalya def. Mickie James, Maria, Ashley, Michelle McCool, Cherry and Kelly Kelly

Post from: EveryJoe

Backlash: Triple H Earns WWE Championship; Matt Hardy Crowned US Champ

In other Backlash match bookings the slow buildup between Shawn Michaels and Batista continued on Raw and their match at Backlash has now been officially announced.

In other Raw matches Santino Marella and Carlito defeated tag champs Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes in a non-title match, Paul London and Brian Kendrick topped Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, Beth Phoenix defeated Maria in singles action, Ashley and Mickie James beat Melina and Jillian, and Umaga decimated Val Venis.

Post from: EveryJoe

Backlash Takes Shape on Raw

Post from: EveryJoe

Wrestlemania 24 Quick Results

Up next: Triple Threat WWE Championship Match

Post from: EveryJoe

Wrestlemania 24: Beth Phoenix and Melina Victorious

Post from: EveryJoe

Wrestlemania 24 Match Lineup

Th main event this week on Raw was definitely above average in my book with Batista attacking Umaga and Finlay assaulting JBL but the hype for Wrestlemania doesn’t feel any bigger now then when the Big Show-Mayweather match storyline began or the triple-threat WWE Championship main event was set up. Right now I am most looking forward to Flair’s career threatening match with HBK (as surprised as I am to say that), the Money in the Bank match (though it would have been much better in my eyes had Jeff Hardy not been suspended), and the Heavyweight Championship match between Undertaker and Edge. I think last year’s Wrestlemania will be hard to top and perhaps that has made me feel slighted on the promotion of this one but I hope the outside feel will make this Wrestlemania one to remember.

Post from: EveryJoe

Raw Recap (March 24, 2008)