7/26 Twilling's WWE Raw Live Coverage: Followup to the announcement of Team Cena vs. The Nexus at SummerSlam, will The Miz cash in? Will Shawn Michaels appear on the show?

WWE Raw on the USA Network
Live from San Antonio, Tex.

[Q1] The saga involving The Nexus and John Cena was chroncicled via video package. Last week, Cena did not join Wade Barrett and instead, introduced his dream team for SummerSlam, including Bret Hart...

Twill's Two Cents: Truthfully, if you were The Nexus, wouldn't you be glad an old, retired wrestler like Bret Hart was one of your opponents? It's great to see Bret, but he didn't exactly break any speed barriers heading to the ring last week.

John Cena's music hit and he made his way out to the ring. He received a nice pop and once in the ring, he was being booed. He started with the lame, "Everything is bigger in Texas" line. Creative, John.

Cena told the tale of The Nexus and said we could see the end of Raw. He said he was not Superman, which is funny, because that is how he is booked. He made some promises and it was time to beg for an interruption. Enter Chris Jericho...

Twill's Two Cents: About eight minutes too late Chris.

Jericho was pissed because John Cena referred to the SummerSlam group as his team. Jericho said he was not on Cena's team to be a hero, he was doing it to get back at The Nexus. He said it should be Jericho's team since he knows Wade Barrett better than anyone.

Cena said it was not a problem. He threw out some corny stuff and Jericho instructed Cena not to patronize him. Jericho got in Cena's face and Cena went from "happy go lucky" to "really pissed." Cena said they needed to stop The Nexus to "save the business." That seems dramatic.

Cena told Jericho they needed to co-exist. Jericho picked up the mic Cena knocked out of his hand and said, "First of all, don't ever knock this microphone out of my hand again." Funny. Jericho said Cena needed him and said Cena was a lot like The Nexus.

[Q2] Jericho warned Cena that at SummerSlam, after the threat of The Nexus was taken care of, he was going to take Cena out, either with the help of their team, or by himself. Cena told Jericho to take his best shot.

The GM chimed in. Michael Cole said the match at SummerSlam was now an elimination match. Nice. The Nexus will face seven other Raw wrestlers in an elimination match tonight. Additionally, Jericho and Cena will team together tonight, and if you aren't down with that, I've got two words for you... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: Flat segment until Jericho said he was going to take Cena out at SummerSlam. I hope they get him re-signed. So, now the GM is channeling DX? I'm telling you, it is Eugene. He mimicked everyone. Not sure how he stops clapping enough to type so fast though.

Footage aired of last week's Sheamus vs. Evan Bourne, which nearly turned into The Miz winning the WWE Championship until R-Truth rudely interrupted...

Sheamus came out and joined the announce booth. Randy Orton made his entrance. His opponent is Jey Uso, who came out to a negative pop. If you didn't think that was possible, well, it is now...

1. Randy Orton defeated Jey Uso (with Jimmy Uso and Tamina) in 2:32. Jey scored the first nearfall after an impressive jumping headbutt. Both King and Cole said Sheamus rose to the top faster than anyone in WWE history...

Twill's Two Cents: King, Cole, meet Brock Lesnar.

Orton came back, hit the RKO, and scored the pinfall...

Twill's Two Cents: Matches like these are good because when was the last time Orton hit the RKO on his first try during a match. Every counters that thing about ten times before Orton actually hits it.

Jimmy Uso attacked Orton but Orton quickly kicked his ass. Sheamus hit the ring and hit Jimmy (on accident) with a bicycle kick. Orton hit the RKO on Sheamus. The Miz came out and cashed in. Orton then hit Miz with the RKO and apparently, that ended everything...

Twill's Two Cents: Wait a minute, last week The Miz cashed in but changed his mind before the bell rang. This week, he didn't get a chance to change his mind, so why couldn't Sheamus have recovered and pinned Miz? They need to sure up these MITB rules. Nice segment to make Orton look strong for SummerSlam.

[Q3] Edge was talking to Ted DiBiase backstage and said he could not wait to get The Nexus back at SummerSlam. Edge said what everyone else is thinking and that was he thought DiBiase should be on the team and not the Great Khali. DiBiase said Cena would change his mind. Edge said he would take out Khali himself if he had to. Ranjin Singh was listening... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: No shit. Big Dick Johnson would be better than Khali; at least he is agile. I suggested John Morrison, R-Truth, and/or Khali would not be on the finished product at SummerSlam and it looks like we'll get a few changes teased.

Sheamus and The Miz were arguing in the ring. The GM stepped in and said Miz and Sheamus would team to face Cena and Jericho tonight. Nice. Works for me...

The SummerSlam recall took us back to 1988, when the Ultimate Warrior beat The Honky Tonk Man in a few seconds to become the Intercontinental Champion...

Edge was on the phone in the dressing room when the Great Khali barged in and although I don't speak his language, he was very pissed. Sideburns McGee challenged Edge to a match for Khali. Edge said if he wins, Khali is off the team... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: Everyone should be interfering on Edge's behalf because a spot on the SummerSlam team is at stake. Also, why put Khali on the team in the first place just to point out a week later how much he sucks? By the way, did the whole Singh heel turn thing just get dropped?

Did you know? Four times as many viewers watched Raw last week than Major League Baseball on ESPN. Bad timing on that one as there is a no-hitter being thrown right now...

[Q4] 2. Edge vs. The Great Khali (with Ranjin Singh) ended in a no contest. Khali was in control early and then missed a legdrop even Hulk Hogan thought was horribly slow developing. The Nexus came out. Edge left. They circled Khali but then let him leave...

Twill's Two Cents: Yes, the crowd was actually cheering and chanting for Khali. Not really sure what the hell all of that was about with The Nexus letting him go. Mind games? A much anticipated Khali heel turn? Okay, not so much on that last one.

By the way, Cole was on his own because Lawler will be on the team facing The Nexus tonight...

The Raw B Team made their way through the backstage area, led by Mark Henry and Evan Bourne. By the way, Bourne would be great on the SummerSlam team... [C]

3. The Nexus (all of them) defeated Evan Bourne, Mark Henry, Yoshi Tatsu, Goldust, Jerry Lawler, and the Hart Dynasty in 11:42. Tarver pinned Yoshi with his spinning reverse front slam. Justin Gabriel kicked out of King's middle rope punch. The Nexus regrouped... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: What's up with all of the commercials? By the way, if you had your phone stolen (SIM card and all), can you have your old phone number with your new phone? They are telling me no. I think that is BS. Email me.

[Q5] Back from commercial, King was eliminated, so it was now a seven on five situation. I'm going to say we'll get a seven on zero eventually here. David Hart Smith was pinned by Heath Slater. Otunga eliminated Goldust. This is going well for "Team Raw."

Mark Henry got some offense in and beat the crap out of Gabriel. Problem was, Skip Sheffield was the legal man. Skipper hit his super closeline and pinned Henry. Tyson Kidd was thrown the Darren Young. Evan Bourne remained and he had Wade Barrett.

Bourne went after every single member of The Nexus and the distraction allowed Barrett to hit his finisher for the win. A lot easier to hit that move on Bourne than it was Mark Henry last week. Bourne took some more "finishing moves" from The Nexus. It was capped by Gabriel's 450...

Twill's Two Cents: I liked it. That was obviously the Raw B team, so why not make The Nexus look unstoppable by having them sweep? If one or two of them get pinned, they look weaker than the rest of the group. I also like that Wade Barrett comes in to close things up. He is the leader of the group. By the way, Gabriel hitting the 450 on Bourne, who has the other most picturesque move in WWE, was pretty cool.

Barrett cut a promo saying there were cracks in the foundation of Cena's team. Skip Sheffield said they were unbreakable, while Cena's team was just a bunch of individuals. Tarver took his turn on the mic...

Backstage, Miz was contemplating life with the briefcase. Sheamus approached him and Miz would never beat him. Sheamus told Miz to give him the time and place. Miz said tonight. He said after Sheamus takes an Attitude Adjustment and the Walls of Jericho, he would hit the SCF and become WWE Champion. Sheamus said Miz would regret it if he kept pushing him... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: Short, but very effective segment between two of tomorrow's main eventers. I like that there will be tension between these two in addition to everything else going on for both men.

[Q6] 4. Alicia Fox defeated Brie Bella (with Nikki Bella) in a non-title match in 1:02. Jillian Hall came out to prevent the twin switch. That was about it. Thanks for coming...

Afterward, Jillian started singing to the beat of "We are the Champions." Alicia gave her an axe kick for her troubles...

Tonight's main event tag team match was hyped... [C]

Presumably, R-Truth was doing his schtick during the commercial. Good for the viewing audience...

5. Ted DiBiase (with Maryse) defeated John Morrison in 2:16. With Morrison going for Starship Pain, he was distracted by Maryse. Truth then helped Morrison, but DiBiase hit a drop toe hold on Morrison into Truth. He then pinned him...

[Q7] Afterward, Morrison was pissed at Truth for some reason and they had a long ass discussion about it. Cena was watching on a monitor and was concerned that the team was imploding... [C]

Randy Orton was interviewed backstage by Josh Mathews. Orton said he would answer the question of who will be the WWE Champion at SummerSlam with a RKO...

The Miz made his entrance. Awesome... [C]

[Q8] 6. Sheamus and The Miz defeated Chris Jericho and John Cena in 13:16. Both teams argued over who would start the match. It ended up being Miz and Cena because Miz went after Cena, unsuccessfully. Miz tagged Sheamus in.

Sheamus and Jericho traded off being in the offensive driver's seat. Jericho outsmarted Sheamus and used his momentum against him, sending him to the floor. Miz berated Sheamus... [C]

Miz and Sheamus seemed to get on the same page. Jericho and Cena also traded tags. Jericho took out Miz and Sheamus and followed that with a babyface gesture of excitement, but then Miz kicked him in the face. Sheamus and Miz then beat down Jericho for awhile.

[Overrun] Jericho did what he could, but he just could not get to Cena to make the tag. Cole took a shot at JR by saying he has a big ego. Ugh. Cena and Sheamus tagged in and Cena did his usual stuff.

Cena set up Sheamus for the Attitude Adjustment. Jericho snuck up behind Cena and hit him with the Codebreaker. I bet the Member's Forum loved that one. Miz then tagged himself in and pinned Cena. Miz pinned Cena. I wonder if I'll ever type that again...

Jericho entered the ring and put Cena in the Walls of Jericho. Cena reversed it. Khali hit the ring to play peacekeeper. Edge speared him. The rest of the team hit the ring argued as King pleaded with them to stop...

Twill's Two Cents: Well, the idea is to make The Nexus look strong and the WWE team look vulnerable, and they did that tonight. The first hour of the show was forgettable, but I like the idea of Team WWE struggling to keep it together. Making them the underdogs will be difficult, but better for their match at SummerSlam.

Definitely not as good as last week's show but things picked up in the second hour. Thank you for following along with me this week. I'll have more to say in tonight's Member's Exclusive Audio show.