Mickie James & Jamie Nobel Vs. Beth Phoenix and Santino Marella: Marella pins Nobel for the win.

Ted Dibiase Jr. Vs. Kofi Kingston: Dibiase wins by pinfall.

Between Matches you see Dolph Ziggler trying to introduce himself to Mark Henry, Tony Atlas and Kane. They ignore him. Now I don’t know about anyone else but isn’t this "Hi, I’m Dolph Ziggler." thing getting a little bit old? Shut up and wrestle already.

They also show video of John Cena and about his neck surgery. The doctors said it all went well and that there was slight paralysis before the surgery. Batista talks about how Cena was a great and difficult opponent and HHH was talking about how John was back on his feet and visiting everyone while he should have been resting, but that’s John Cena. Everyone was very supportive of Cena and said he was a great guy with personality and such. John Cena is a fun and funny character in the ring. Like many others, I’ve seen him come in as a much younger and skinnier, lower card wrestler. Not knowing or ever even thinking that he would be as popular as he is today. I hope he recovers well and soon and hope to see him in the ring in the future.

Matt Hardy & Rey Mysterio Vs. Kane & Mark Henry: This one looked as if Matt Hardy and Mysterio were going to win, but in the end Kane caught Hardy in a choke slam and pinned him for the win.

HBK Vs. Lance Cade: In the end of this Anything Goes match, HBK ended up beating the hell out of Cade with a chair and pinned him for the victory.

Between matches, Jerry The King Lawler says that Santino Marella claims to be the greatest Intercontinental Champion and ion two week he’s get to prove it. King says that the fans get to choose who Santino Faces by texting their votes. You can vote for Gold Dust, The Honkey Tonk Man or Rowdy Roddy Piper. I hope it’s piper, because I love to see piper get back in the ring. I really never cared for Gold Dust and his Pajamas and The Honky Tonk man is like a thousand years old…no wonder those guitars disintegrate when slammed over peoples heads.

Johnny Knoxville interviewed The Great Khali for a segment of Jackassworld.com. One of his questions was that with the size of The Great Khali, is everything in proportion, meaning his "Tally-whacker". Khali took offense to this. Khali is in the ring and says abu-dubu-lala-dubi-whatty, or something like that and sing translates that to Khali wanting Knoxville to show up at raw in two weeks so he can show him real entertainment. Until then he’s going to host the "Kiss-Cam" So the porn music starts to play and the big heart goes up on the screen and it shows a few couples in the crowd kissing and then it goes to the beautiful Lillian Garcia (who was in the ring about to announce the next match when she was interrupted by Sing and Khali’s intrusion)…so Khali wanders over and plants  a kiss on the rather unwilling Lillian Garcia. Khali mumbles something and does the phone hand gesture and Sing says "Khali will call you."

I love the whole Jillian thinking she can sing gimmick. It’s like watching karaoke in crack. Jillian comes out to the ring and starts trying to sing Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. The Miz and John Morrison are guest commentators with King and Cole. Kelly Kelly comes to the ring with Cryme Tyme. Cryme Time join King and Cole on the other side of the commentators table. During the entire match Cryme Tyme and Miz-Morrison are talking trash and throwing some of the corniest insults back and fourth and you can tell they were having fun with it. There was a match going on here too. Kelly Kelly, in all her blonde cuteness won by pinning Jillian. Both ladies looked absolutely exhausted as if they had been going at it for hours. At one point before Kelly Kelly rolled up Jillian for the pin, they were trying to do the whole, "Flip you opponent over your shoulder so she lands on her feet routine." but it almost looked as if they couldn’t do it. Jillian had to try like three times just to get the momentum to get Kelly Kelly up.

More video on Cena

The Main Event- Batista Vs. JBL w/ Y2J as special guest referee. But first, special time keeper William Regal, special guest commentator Randy Orton. Blows are traded during the match and Y2J is constantly telling JBL to get up and this and that. At one point Y2J trips Batista as Batista whips JBL into the corner. But in the end Batista double spears Jericho and JBL. Mike Adamle runs to the ring with another ref who counts the three count as Batista pins JBL for the win.

Afterwards Mike Adamle comes out as Jericho is walking around outside the ring. Adamle says that it’s ironic that Jericho appointed himself the guest referee. He said during his meeting with Shane and Stephanie McMahon, they told him to shake things up a bit. So at Cyber Sunday Y2J will face Batista for the championship with a special guest referee that could be anyone from Randy Orton to HBK to Stone Cold Steve Austin. Raw goes off-air.

Image ©JabandGrapple.com

Post from: EveryJoe

WWE Raw Recap 10/7

The news tore (like his pectoral) through the wrestling world: “Poor John Cena has suffered another sidelining injury, a herniate disk in his neck, and will need surgery.”

The WWE ran a ticker during it’s ECW alerting fans to this heinous turn of events. In somber voice on RAW GM Mike Adamle told fans that Batista monstrous Batista Bombas at Summer Slam caused the injury. (Adamle’s conclusion was, of course, untrue but it does prop up the Animal’s abilities.)

The wrestling rags even reported that the news spread to the pages of the Wall Street Journal although searches of the wsj.com website brought nothing.

Cena’s surgery should keep him out for the remainder of the year and perhaps shows that he came back too early from his pectoral injury. That setback was caused by the injury-prone WWE Superstar Mr. Kennedy who had his own shoulder dislocated just a few weeks ago against Shelton Benjamin.

Kennedy also recently had surgery and will miss months of action. Maybe Cena will throw him a bone and a part in his next movie. They need something to do over the course of the next few weeks!

Post from: EveryJoe

WWE Superstars Out for the Injury Count

Kane def. Matt Striker

Segment Eight
Mid-match between Kane and Matt Striker Mrs. Jabandgrapple says “I don’t know about this Adamle reign so far. It’s pretty gimmicky. Does RAW really need gimmicks?” Gotta agree.

While Kane grabs Matt Striker in a chokeslam he gives the former wrestler a wedgie and we see enough cheekage to increase the rating above TV-PG. Funny stuff. Post-match Kane grabs the mic and says he’s better now after being in a bad place. He spends a few awkward seconds staring at his burlap bag.

I would rather have seen Striker trying to discretely remove his wedgie.

Segment Nine
Prior to the championship tag team match WWE Diva Kelly Kelly comes to talk to Mike Adamle and tells him “Let’s do it” before sitting down on the couch. My brain just turned to mush.

Kelly Kelly. Let’s do it. Kelly Kelly. Let’s do it. Kelly Kelly. Let’s do it. Kelly Kelly. Let’s do it. Kelly Kelly. Let’s do it.

OK. John Cena’s music comes on and I’m back. Cena opens up the match and puts a hurting on DiBiase. He steps away, tags Batista, and lets him do his thing on Cody Rhodes. This bout is a cruel mismatch but Cena and Batista can’t win the title, can they?

Cena looks to have the match won the the FU but Rhodes makes a sneaky tag, DiBiase lands a drop kick to Cena’s back, Rhodes slams him into the steel stairs and the tag team champs grab the momentum and the edge.

Rhodes is draped on Cena’s back and in a sleeper hold. Cena staggers over to the corner but Batista doesn’t reach out for the tag! Cena is pulled to the center of the ring, DiBiase is tagged in and he hits a sleeper hold too. But Cena counters and lands his own sleeper. Triple sleeper madness. DiBiase breaks it and Cena goes to tag Batista.

Cena makes the tag…by slapping Batista in the face! The hear is on. Batista channels his anger onto DiBiase with a vicious Spinebuster and then a Spear. He then finishes Ted Jr. off with a Batista Bomb. Cena and Batista are now Tag Team Champions. I really like this new twist. Cena and Batista look at each other, raise the belts, and share a Santino and Beth Phoenix-type moment.

Post from: EveryJoe

8/4/08 RAW Part Three: New Tag Team Champs!

JBL pins CM Punk and will fight for the Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam.
Shawn Michaels might quit wrestling to be with his family.

Segment Five
After Layla inexplicably writhes around seductively for a few minutes William Regal rudely interrupts her. Before he can tell us how he’s King Jamie Noble rushes into the ring to attack him and win Layla’s love. Regal is about twice his size. What was the point of that?

Segment Six
The next match is the CM Punk – JBL - Y2J handicap match “(Mike) Adamle Original.” Shouldn’t the World Heavyweight champ be headlining Monday Night RAW? Adamle adds a nice twist to the match by limiting the match to ten minutes. If there’s no pin in ten then the three will fight a Triple Threat at SummerSlam. Anything to make JBL less boring and harder working is fine by me.

After JBL beats Punk up for two minutes Y2J tosses JBL into the stairs and has his own few minutes to thrash the champ. The match has currently gone four minutes without Punk landing one successful attacking move. Y2J hits a flying elbow. Match is half-way through. Punk still hasn’t done anything.

He finally hits two offensive moves but at that point JBL stops his short period of success. Punk has no capitalized on his opponents’ in-fighting. He’s now doing pretty well and is using the two against each other. He catches JBL with a Got To Sleep but can’t get the pin. One minute left and Y2J lands a Walls of Jericho in the middle of the ring.

JBL breaks the move up with 20 seconds left. We’re counting down 10-9-8-7-6-5-4 and JBL flops onto the prone Punk pins him 1-2-3 or is it 3-2-1. This was a great entertaining match but CM Punk has proven to be a pathetic excuse for a champ. He got beat up badly for nine of the ten minutes and was pin by someone who had no idea of where he was.

Segment Seven
It’s a Shawn Michaels interview. He says he’s got severe eye damage, broken ribs, and countless other horrifically lingering injuries. This time he’s going to listen to the doctors and quit if they say quit. We will all know his decision (or the docs’ decision) at SummerSlam. He says he loves his family and might stop wrestling to be with them. Didn’t Brett Favre say something like that a few months ago?

Post from: EveryJoe

8/4/08 RAW Part Two: Shawn Michaels = Brett Favre?

Kofi Kingston def. Paul Birchill
Mickie James def. Katie Lea Birchill

Segment One
New GM Mike Adamle is getting some major heat! A lot more than I ever imagined…then he compares himself to Ronald Reagan and equates the Gipper’s work with Bonzo the chimp to announcing with Tazz. OK, he really compared Bonzo to calling Jeff Hardy Jeff Harvey. I like the Tazz comparison better.

It seems the inept one might be turning the crowd after announcing three title matches on tonight’s show. OK, this isn’t is bad. The first is Batista and John Cena vs. Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, Jr. I guess that’s interesting.

Before he can announce another match JBL and Y2J join him in suits claiming they deserve title matches. Yap, yap, yap, yap. Debate, debate, debate, debate.

C’mon Adamle, take some control! This is getting out of hand. He gives a lame compromise: JBL and Y2J vs. CM Punk in a handicap match. If they win they get Punk at SummerSlam, lose then no title match at the Slam. The Adamle era is off to a blah start.

Segment Two
Kofi Kingston is facing Paul Birchill in a defense of the Intercontinental Title, the first of tonight’s championship bouts. Kofi’s impressive athleticism is on display from the get go with some great defensive leaps. Katie Lea Birchill goes ringside to taunt Kofi and Kingston aims a boot to her face which misses.

Kingston gains control of the match with a great series of power moves before he finishes Birchill off with his familiar series of closing moves which culminates with a Trouble in Paradise. Kofi has really stepped his game up and has grown into a good champion.

Segment Three
It’s now Katie Lea’s turn to lose a title match as Mickie James rushes into the ring to destroy the deliciously trashy Briton. James looks good with a Neckbreaker and finally earns the pin after hitting a nice Mickie-DT.

After the match Beth Phoenix blindsides the women’s champ indicating a thankful end to the James-Birchill feud and a restart to the rivalry between the WWE’s best two female grapplers. Good news.

Segment Four
Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix’s love affair is heating up with some TV-PG butt touching and in a post-match segment they discuss SummerSlam with Adamle and beg for title matches. Mike obliges them both: a tag team winner-take-all match between James and Kingston and Phoenix and Marella. Not great, but not bad.

Post from: EveryJoe

8/4/08 RAW Part One: Mike Adamle = Ronald Reagan?

Actor Freddie Prinze, Jr. has joined the WWE’s “creative team” in what must surely be considered a continuation of the WWE’s TV-PG rating all the time initiative.

What this means is anybody’s guess. Here are some things we would like to see:

1. Prinze wrests RAW GM controls away from Mike Adamle.

2. Prinze brings in pale-skinned Scooby Doo, She’s All That, and Wing Commander co-star Matthew Lillard who then starts ECW feud with pale-skinned Colin Delaney.

3. Sarah Michelle Gellar becomes a WWE Diva.

4. Sarah Michelle Gellar becomes a WWE Diva.

5. Sarah Michelle Gellar becomes a WWE Diva. Sorry, got caught up in the imagery.

6. Prinze insists that WWE humor be on par with Scooby Doo humor: a fart joke every ten minutes.

7. Prinze’s Summer Catch co-star Jessica Biel becomes a WWE Diva.

8. Prinze becomes WWE champ as fellow actor David Arquette did before him in the WCW. Er, scratch that.

9. Glasses wearing artsy WWE Diva brought in. Edge makes bet with La Familia that he can turn her into the swan and take her to WWE Prom. Diva unexpectedly transforms into the most beautiful of all Divas, Edge falls in love, tension ensues, but they end up together.

10. WWE Superstar hits Kane with car and thinks he’s killed him. Year later Kane returns terrorizing entire RAW staff.

OK Freddie now you have my wish list…Please make it happen!

Post from: EveryJoe

Freddie Prinze, Jr. Joins the WWE

Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix def. D-Lo Brown and Kelly Kelly
Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, Jr. def. Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole
Kofi Kingston def. Jamie Noble
CM Punk def. William Regal
Mickie James def. Jillian
Batista and John Cena def. JBL and Kane

Last night RAW crowned a new General Manager. Someone to stop the anarchy and the lawlessness. The expectation was a Gary Cooper, a Governator, a John Wayne, or even (gasp) a Gipper. But we all should have seen the writing of the wall. Chaos has been good for business. RAW’s ratings are up and fans are interested again. Too bad the show’s quickly taken a post-Draft second fiddle to SmackDown.

The night started with the unbelievable promise of a John Cena vs. Batista main event. The two Grade A Superstars wanted to get it on. The were ripe — Cena in a new red V-neck Cenation T-shirt and Batista in a fresh Wes Unseld Washington Bullets throwback — and ready for action. It’s the match everyone has been waiting for and desperate to see.

But the new GM, in his infinite wisdom, thought differently and matched the boiling feuders in a tag team contest against JBL and Kane. Great match turned into boring match in the blink of the new GM’s eye. 0 for 1 already.

After the next match’s Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix steaming too-hot-for TV-PG love fest (OK maybe not) Hacksaw Jim Duggan ran to the ring to face Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, Jr.. Barf-o-rama. Then his tag team partner was announced: Jerry “The King” Lawler. My interest perked up. As Pavement would say “Fight this generation!”

Alas, even that somewhat, kind of OK matchup wasn’t to be. The new GM stepped in and replaced Duggan with announcer Michael Cole. At this point I turned to Mrs. Jabandgrapple and said “I bet Jim Ross is the new GM. He’s the only one who has beef with Michael Cole!” But I should have thought harder. The person making these matchups clearly doesn’t have much wrestling knowledge. (BTW, I think the picture to the left tells us what happened to Carlito. He’s now in the NBA!)

The King did well against the young whippersnappers but at one point he accidentally brushed against his announcing/wrestling partner and Cole was then forced into the ring. Bad news man. Bad news. And we’re not just talking about the fact that the whole match was grappled without an announcer accompanied only by ambient sounds.

King returned to ringside after the match to find Mike Adamle at his side. The former NFL-er was even more mistake prone than usual which provoked Jim Ross himself to rejoin Lawler. The glorious two were reunited, for at least one night. Throughout the night they teased Adamle relentlessly about his wrestling knowledge. Which was fun.

The JR-Lawler re-teaming wasn’t the best part of the night. That was the unexpectedly fun and roughhouse return of William Regal who gave WWE Heavyweight Champ CM Punk everything he could handle (and a real-life bloody nose as well). Regal looked great despite eventually getting pinned in what is Punk’s first non-DQ-related TV win since gaining the title ages ago. Battered and bloody does not a champion make. But we did like the post-match Minor Threat in deference to the bout’s DC environs.

The rest of the night was pretty blah. Kofi Kington looked good and dominant (take note Punk) in a Jamie Noble beat-down. Mickie James hugged her dad at ringside and was as perky as ever in defeating Jillian and the Batista-Cena-JBL-Kane tag team was as horrible and uninteresting as imagined.

But it did lead into the most anticipated news of the night…Who is the new GM?

Mike Adamle. Which explains the bad matches and the Michael Cole vendetta. Have they finally found a way to keep him off the ECW air? Making said liability an even more prominent member of your staff doesn’t strike me as the best way to get rid of him. I’ll give it a chance but I think I liked anarchy better.

Post from: EveryJoe

7/29 WWE RAW Results: A New General Manager

Chavo Guerrero def. CM Punk
Tazz and Mike Adamle bring up CM Punk’s Money in the Bank and wonder why he hasn’t cashed it in yet. We’re wondering the same thing but then realize that it took Edge nearly nine months to cash in the first Money in the Bank briefcase.

We’re not getting into this match as much as we should. First we’re distracted by a Shamokin-Mount Carmel sign and wonder how a shout out to those two Pennsylvania coal towns could happen in a Colorado Springs arena. Then we focus on CM Punk’s tongue ring and wonder if that ever cause him problems or pain in the ring. It must, right?

The match returns from commercial and we’re quickly snapped back to attention when CM Punk flips Chavo high over the top rope and then falls a long way down before crashing outside the ring. As Chavo crawls back in Bam Neely pulls the rope down and Punk flies out headlong into the announcers’ desk. This match got good quick. Punk looks to be near submission after Chavo hits a neat single-leg Boston crab but bravely grabs a hold of the rope.

Chavo finally pins CM Punk after a terrific exchange of acrobatic reversals and suplexes. See below.

Match Grade: B+. Tonight’s ECW is proving to be a lot more fun than Monday’s RAW and, if the early spoiler reports are to be believed, Friday’s SmackDown.

Kane vs. The Miz and John Morrison
The last match pits the WWE Tag Team Champions against the ECW Champion in a handicap match. A lady in the front row wearing a Roddy Piper “Hot Rod” T-shirt is holding up a “Marry Me Kane” sign. Hasn’t she seen See No Evil?

This disappointing match ends quickly when the tag team champs gang up on Kane and are DQ’d for not tagging. CM Punk, Tommy Dreamer, Chavo Guerrero, and (finally) Big Show all enter the ring giving us a free-for-all preview of this Sunday’s PPV only without the Singapore cane. We want Big Show and Kane to attack each other but they don’t instead preferring to beat up on the little guys. We’ll have to buy One Night Stand to see the real fun.

Match Rating: D
Post-Match Rating: B It actually has us excited about the PPV.

Overall, this has been a terrific night of wrestling. One with no drama and no side shows. Just great grappling. Good stuff.

Post from: EveryJoe

ECW: The Singapore Cane Match Preview