WWE Raw on the USA Network
Live from Moline, Ill.

[Q1] Justin Roberts immediately introduced the new World Heavyweight Champion, Jack Swagger. Swagger came out in a suit and display his more serious and subdued attitude. Swagger has a sweet gold tie on and The Twilling has that exact same tie.

Swagger said, "Roll it" and the footage of him winning the title was shown. Swagger said he had a few opening remarks before delivering the state of the World Heavyweight Championship. He said he was going to cash in against John Cena, but he needed to take on someone superior to Cena, which is why he chose Chris Jericho instead.

Twill's Two Cents: Awesome line and great first promo thus far by Swagger.

Swagger said he was going over to Smackdown because nobody on Raw compared to his abilities. John Cena's music hit and he came out to the ring. Cena received massive pops and was nothing but smiles...

Cena congratulated Swagger and called him the luckiest man in the world. Cena took exception to Swagger's comment and said Swagger was a liar. He said Swagger was not championship material and did not earn his belt. Cena challenged Swagger to a match tonight and put the WWE Championship on the line.

Jack said that did not work for him. Before he could explain, Randy Orton's music hit and he came out to the ring, complete in a new t-shirt. Orton told Cena that Swagger would want to face him, since he defeated him last week. The music of ShowMiz hit and they came out...

Twill's Two Cents: Nice to see Miz involved with the main event guys on Raw during an opening segment.

Miz said the show as not about Cena, Orton, or Swagger, it was about the unified tag team champions. The NXT music hit and David Otunga came out to the stage. At least he did not use R-Truth's music tonight. He introduced himself. He promised an A list show.

Otunga booked Jack Swagger vs. Randy Orton and on top of that, ShowMiz will defend the tag team championships against Batista and John Cena. Orton tried to RKO Cena but Cena pushed him off, and Orton RKOed Swagger instead... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: Very good opening segment. A lot was set up for tonight's show including two big main events. Otunga looked very good and very comfortable on a live Raw microphone. They set the stage for a big show tonight thus far. I hope we don't get new tag champs.

[Q2] 1. Sheamus defeated Kofi Kingston in 2:57. Sheamus hit a swinging backbreaker early on. Sheamus fought back before taking a huge knee to the face. Sheamus followed with a bicycle kick. He followed with "that move" for the win...

Twill's Two Cents: Uh oh for Kofi fans. That was pretty much a squash match and the announcer focus was on how great Sheamus looked at Mania despite losing. I wondering if Kofi is just going to become a jobber to the stars.

Sheamus grabbed his pipe, or diet sledgehammer, and nailed Kofi with it. Triple H was shown backstage walking and apparently, he was on his way to the ring... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: I guess Hunter wasn't too concerned for Kofi as he is taking his sweet ass time to get to the ring.

Footage of Triple H and what he was going to say to Shawn Michaels for the first time ever before being attacked by Sheamus last week was shown...

[Q3] Sheamus stood in the middle of the ring with microphone in hand. He said Shawn Michaels had a great career, but it took him eight years to win the WWE Championship (eight years in WWE), but Sheamus won the title in just six months.

He made of everyone for crying at the departure of Michaels. He said Hunter and Shawn both had one good match left in them at Mania, but Michaels has hung them up before Sheamus could take him out. He said he did not think Hunter had another great match left in him.

Hunter's music hit and he walked slowly to the ring. Hunter teased getting into the ring but elected not to, until he retrieved his sledgehammer. Hunter fought Sheamus to the floor and nearly took his head off (and took out a monitor) with the sledgehammer. Sheamus ran through the crowd.

"Isn't that like a silly Irishman, bring a pipe to a sledgehammer fight." Hunter celebrated in the corner with sledgehammer in hand as the crowd cheered loudly for him...

Twill's Two Cents: Good promo by Sheamus and solid progression in the feud between he and Hunter. I still want to know what Hunter was going to tell Shawn that he had never told him before.

Cole announced that Otunga announced a "Red Carpet Dress to Impress" divas battle royal for tonight's show with the winner earning a championship match next week... [C]

Diva's Champion Maryse joined the announce team for the upcoming match. She bragged about how expensive her dress was. The ladies all wore evening gowns. I am not Joan Rivers. Maryse made fun of every dress. None of the girls outside of Kelly received much of a reaction...

2. Eve Torres won a battle royal that included Gail Kim, Jillian, Kelly Kelly, the Bella Twins, Rosa Mendes, Katie Lea Burchill, and Alicia Fox to earn a Divas Championship match in 2:49. Mass eliminations early. Jillian and Alicia worked together against Eve. Eve eliminated Jillian even after Alicia interfered after she was gone...

Twill's Two Cents: Forgettable, just like the rest of the division. The crowd could not have cared less, even during the entrances. The division is just sad right now.

[Q4] Orton vs. Swagger and ShowMiz vs. John Cena and Batista were hyped... [C]

Did you know? Last week, Raw was the number one show on cable television...

Cole and King introduced a David Otunga video. This video has aired on NXT, but not yet on Raw, so I'm sure many people are seeing this for the first time...

Otunga and a bunch of goons were singing his praises backstage. He pointed out his crappy haircut with "Raw" cut into it and his 427 green M&Ms. Santino Marella came in and asked where the "A-Team" was. "I pity the foo that tells me Mr. T is not going to be here tonight."

He told Otunga Mr. T would not allow "that" to happen to his green M&Ms. They turned around and Hornswoggle (remember him?) was stealing a few of them. One of Otunga's guys jumped the table toward Horny, who slid underneath and ran away. Otunga was not pleased...

Big Show and The Miz were shown walking through the backstage area... [C]

[Q5] 3. The Miz and Big Show defeated John Cena and Batista by countout to retain the Unified Tag Team Championships in approximately 2:00. Cena and Miz started the match as Batista slowly made his way to his corner. Show tagged in and the champs worked over Cena in their corner, although Show look displeased at tagging out.

Cena went to his corner to tag, but Batista walked away. Cena ran up the ramp and started brawling with his tag team partner. Before Cena could get back to the ring, the referee counted him out...

The NXT music hit and Otunga came out to the stage. He said the champs were not getting off that easily. He said they would defend the titles again tonight against John Cena and his new tag team partner, David Otunga... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: Nice. I purposely held off on commenting on whether Otunga would put himself in a match because I thought it might be coming. Otunga, like The Rock, has the ability to play a great face or heel. He's been great tonight.

Ted DiBiase made his way to the ring and had the Million Dollar Belt with him. Footage was shown of last week's legends' lumberjack match. Ted Jr. got some major heat by pushing his dad away...

DiBiase reminded us of his father being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Ted said his dad tried to act like a father for the first time in his life last week and it was too late. He said his dad could win him over with money and thanked him for his million dollar title...

[Q6] 4. Ted DiBiase defeated Christian in 4:14. Ted showcased a very aggressive and heel like style. Christian fought back with impressive closelines and punches. They both tried and countered their finishers. Ted was able to hit Dream Street for the win...

Twill's Two Cents: Good four minute match. I like these two working together and I especially like what they seem to be doing with Ted here. Putting him with the Million Dollar Belt and giving him a bit of an attitude is exactly what he needed.

Orton vs. Swagger was hyped for tonight... [C]

Rightfully so, footage was shown of the Shawn Michaels farewell speech from last week's Raw. It's still amazing to me that Michaels, in Vince McMahon's WWE, where big guys rule, became the greatest of all time. Shawn thanked us. Shawn, we thank you right back...

Orton was shown walking through the back. The Orton vs. Swagger graphic was shown. Orton has hair in the graphic, which looks funny given that he is bald... [C]

[Q7] Swagger wore a boxing robe to the ring over his singlet. He is really channeling Kurt Angle's look. I know Angle just wears a hooded coat, but it's similar. Swagger wears his belt around his waist, so he gets points for that. Orton received a mild pop for his entrance...

5. Randy Orton defeated Jack Swagger in a non-title match in 10:39. Back and forth action very early on. Swagger hit a nice amateur style suplex before closelining Orton to the floor... [C]

Back from commercial, Orton knocked Swagger to the mat with a European uppercut. With Orton on the apron, Swagger ran at him and knocked him into the barricade. Swagger wore down Orton in the ring and scored a few nearfalls.

He locked in an old school abdominal stretch and much to the delight of Gorilla Monsoon, both feet were on the ground. He tried it again but Orton threw Swagger to the floor. Orton hit the second rope DDT for a two count. It would have been three, but Swagger put his foot on the rope.

[Q8] Orton hit a powerslam and his reverse headlock backbreaker. He was primed and ready for the RKO. Swagger countered and hit a big boot for a two. He hit two corner splashes. He attempted the gutwrench powerbomb, but Orton flipped out of it and hit the RKO for the win...

Twill's Two Cents: Well, it was a very entertaining match. I wasn't sure if their styles would mesh but they did pretty well. I know a lot of people will say this, and I will too. The new World Champion on Smackdown should not lose cleanly to a Raw guy. If Orton moves to Smackdown and they feud with Swagger getting the best of Orton, that could work, but Swagger did not need this loss.

Footage of Otunga making tonight's tag team championship main event was shown... [C]

6. The Miz and Big Show defeated John Cena and David Otunga to retain the Unified Tag Team Championships in 5:57. Otunga passes the looks test. Cena started but tagged in Otunga right away. He hit a series of shoulder blocks before tagging Cena back into the match. Cena took punishment from both Miz and Show.

[Overrun] Cena and Miz hit a double closeline. Both men struggled to their corners. Cena lunged at Otunga, who played Lucy to Cena's Charlie Brown by jumping off of the apron. Show tagged in and hit the knockout punch on Cena for the win...

Otunga received huge heat for what he did. Batista hit the ring and hit the Batista Bomb. In the ring, Batista requested, "Spotlight, please." Otunga reminded everyone he was the guest host and said Batista had an announcement. He said he was invoking his rematch clause at Extreme Rules in a Last Man Standing match...

Twill's Two Cents: Did anyone else think Batista was invoking his rematch clause right now? A blind person could have seen what Otunga was going to do, but it was intriguing to think he could become one half of the tag team champions. Entertaining finish to an entertaining show.

What did you think of the show? Feel free to let me know by shooting an email to dotnetrich@gmail.com.

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