WWE TV Reports 5/12 Twilling's WWE Raw Live Coverage: John Cena returns, Will Jeff Hardy return?, Countdown to Judgment Day By Rich Twilling May 12, 2008 - 10:00 PM Email This Article | Printer Friendly Page Send Us News & Results | Back to Main Listing WWE Raw on the USA Network Live May 12, 2008 from Detroit, MI [Q1] A video aired of Triple H laying out the ECW roster last Monday, followed by Randy Orton laying out Triple H. JR called Orton evil… JR welcomed us to the show as they sat in darkness. The lights went out and William Regal stood in the middle of the ring. Standing next to him was Lillian Garcia, who beautifully sang “God Save the Queen.” Regal responded to the booing crowd by asking them how they would dare disrespect his country. He said he had the power to throw people out of the arena. He said he would make an example. He walked around ringside and threw a young couple out of the arena. Mickie James ran to the ring and begged with Regal to reconsider, because the couple was her brother and his girlfriend. Regal told Mickie to leave the ring or he would strip her of the Women’s Championship. Suddenly, John Cena’s music hit to a pretty loud pop. He led Mickie out of the ring. Cena told Regal he needed to talk to him man to man. He told Regal he was going about things the wrong way, and everyone was pissed at him. Regal said Vince McMahon endorsed him. Cena said Vince was insane, he talks to himself, and he has sexual pastimes you cannot find on the internet. Cena began to read “emails from the fans.” A funny line came from a kid saying Regal in power was “WCW Thunder bad.” Nice. He started a weak “fire Regal” chant. Regal gave his word he would not turn out the lights tonight. Regal said Cena has not been on Raw in two weeks because Randy Orton kicked him in the head. Regal then booked Cena vs. Orton and said anyone who interfered would be suspended. Regal said he may have earned some respect. Cena interrupted him and said he made a good match, but did not earn anything. He told Regal having Lillian sing “God Save the Queen” was a disgrace. He had the fans with him for a little while at least. He had Lillian sing “Respect” by Aretha Franklin… JR and King plugged Chris Jericho apologizing tonight to Shawn Michaels, and a tag team championship match between Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes vs. Santino Marella and Carlito… [C] Twill’s Two Cents: The segment went a little long and Cena was corny at times, but overall, this was a solid segment. Regal was fantastic here. He was a sadistic badass, but still showed some restraint. Cena was good here too. How good Regal has been was evidenced in the fans actually cheering for Cena against him. Once again, they set up a future main event level program with these two. [Q2] Back from commercial, they aired a funny ad for WWEShop.com. The always fantastic audio of the bagpipes could be heard and Rowdy Roddy Piper made his way to the announce booth. Always great to see Roddy… 1. Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes defeated Santino Marella and Carlito in a WWE Tag Team Championship match in 3:00. Santino has a new shirt. JR said Piper’s slap on Santino was like Tony Soprano slapping Paulie Walnuts. Twill’s Two Cents: I don’t think so. Carlito threw an apple at Piper. JR said others were saying the title reign of Holly and Rhodes would end tonight. First nearfall came at :45 when Carlito hit a neckbreaker on Holly as the referee was distracted. As Santino had the advantage on Holly, he mocked Piper. Holly hit a back suplex at 1:45 and was able to make the tag to Rhodes. Rhodes hit a springboard top rope high cross body for a nearfall and hit a powerslam for a second one. Santino went to the second rope but retreated to jaw with Piper. Rhodes waited patiently and hit a huge DDT for the win. Piper came in and raised the hand of the champions… Twill’s Two Cents: They have done a nice job building up this feud and they throw out a three minute, storyline based title match. I realize the feud will continue, but this was disappointing. Great to see Piper though. We are thirty minutes into the show and we have had one three minute match. Ugh. JR asked King if he thought Shawn Michaels had a legitimate knee injury. King said at first he thought so, but now he is not sure. Surprise! They have a text message poll. Do you think Shawn Michaels is telling the truth? JR said the results would be announced tonight. Alright!!!… [C] [Q3] They showed a Judgment Day video featuring Vickie Guerrero banning the illegal chokehold… 2. Mr. Kennedy defeated Snitsky in 3:24. Kennedy received a nice face pop. He stopped at the stage where a microphone fell to him. He said he had a big mouth but no one was going to shut it for him because he is… (enter his catchphrase here). As Snitsky came to the ring, the entire arena, and everyone at home, groaned in unison. Snitsky backed Kennedy into the corner. Kennedy jumped into Snitsky, who threw him into the turnbuckles. Snitsky remained on the offensive for much longer than anyone thought he would. Snitsky had a backbreaker locked in for awhile. King made a hilarious statement saying JR should introduce himself like Kennedy does. Now that would be money. Kennedy gained the advantage by dropkicking Snitsky’s legs, but surprisingly, Snitsky came back. He went for the Pump Handle Slam, but Kennedy countered it into a Mic-Check for the pinfall victory… Twill’s Two Cents: That was hardly impressive. Snitsky dominated 90% of that match. I guess they wanted him to sell a lot of offense and come back in his first singles match as a babyface. JR plugged tonight’s main event of John Cena vs. Randy Orton… [C] An outside shot of the Joe Louis Arena aired as we returned from commercial… Backstage, Todd Grisham interviewed Santino Marella. Marella said Rowdy the Piper cost him the championship gold. He said it was not the 80s, Hulk Hogan is not champion, Ronald Reagan is not President, and Michael J. Fox is not going back in time to become a werewolf. He said he would find Piper and hurt him… Mickie James approached John Cena and asked him to go on a double date with her, her brother, and his girlfriend. Cena pretended to be “serious about his job,” and he declined. Of course he was joking, and he said he would love to go for two reasons, because her brother was a big fan and her brother was a huge fan… [C] Twill’s Two Cents: Powell, let me add Mickie to that list I was telling you about. By the way, two backstage scenes made up an entire segment? [Q4] 3. Mickie James and Maria defeated Melina and Beth Phoenix in 1:24. Mickie has been on the show three times already. Fine by me. JR briefly plugged the “Night of Champions” PPV. Maria and Mickie hit a double-team splits leg sweep. Melina accidentally knocked Beth off the apron and she did not look happy. Melina pulled Mickie into her corner, but Beth took off. Mickie hit a neckbreaker for the victory. Mickie and Maria celebrated… They plugged the text message poll… [C] Twill’s Two Cents: The women’s match actually accomplished a lot. Mickie continues to look good, Maria is relevant again, and they have created a non-championship women’s feud (plus give Beth something to do). By the way, if this part of my report goes onto the website late, it is because I am texting multiple times. Back from commercial, 72% of the voters believed Shawn Michaels was telling the truth. I have a feeling 28% of the people will be correct… Chris Jericho came to the ring. He looked a lot like David Cook. Jericho had the monkeys in the truck play the footage of Shawn Michaels vs. Batista from Backlash. [Q5] Jericho paid attention to the poll results because he reiterated the results. Jericho said he was in the minority. Jericho, in a humble tone, said he changed his mind after last week. He ran footage of the tag match with Jericho and Michaels vs. Miz and Morrison. Jericho came to a new conclusion and now believes Michaels is hurt. He apologized to Michaels. He suggested they call of their match for Judgment Day because he did not want to face Shawn with one bad wheel. Michaels’ music cut Jericho off and HBK limped to the ring. Michaels attempted to speak a few times but Jericho kept interrupting him. Michaels told Jericho it was not him that needed to apologize. Michaels told Jericho he feigned the injury, that he was not really hurt. Jericho laughed it off. He said Michaels could not fool him twice. That kind of “mental trickery” could fool Batista, but it would not fool the 17 year veteran Jericho. Michaels said he told the world he would do whatever he needed to do to win, and he faked an injury. Jericho became humorously upset and frustrated. He said Michaels would not fool him. It did not matter what he did. Immediately, Shawn hit Sweet Chin Music on Jericho. He did the old “Rockers” ring exit and retreated up the ramp as Jericho grabbed his jaw… Twill’s Two Cents: Okay, now that was a kick ass segment. This is what I have been hoping for. They did not completely turn Michaels heel here, but now you have two tweeners in Michaels and Jericho. Do not forget Batista, who said he would hurt Michaels if he was lying. This feud between all three men has a lot of rejuvenated life. Great, great segment. They plugged the main event once again… [C] Back from commercial, Jeff Hardy’s music hit. Unfortunately, it is his new music and not a lot of people remembered it. Plus, his new music sucks. Lillian Garcia “welcomed back” Jeff Hardy. Hmmm, why was he gone? Hardy posed in the corners and the fans seemed thrilled to see him. A loud “Hardy” chant could be heard. Hardy looks healthy. Good for him. Hardy said he made a mistake and he paid for it. He said he had a lot of things to do, including becoming the Intercon…. his microphone went out. Regal came out and said Hardy must pay for his sins. He sent out Umaga (remember him?) to face Hardy. [Q6] 4. Jeff Hardy defeated Umaga in 1:23. The match took awhile to officially begin because Hardy met Umaga with a dropkick before he could enter the ring. However, once he did, Umaga dominated, including hitting a top rope headbutt. JR sold the beating by saying Jeff came to explain himself, not compete. Umaga missed the corner butt splash. Almost immediately, Hardy hit the Whisper in the Wind and scored the surprising three count, although it looked like Umaga kicked out. Weird sequence. Hardy celebrated up the ramp as Umaga went nuts in the ring… Twill’s Two Cents: I have never been the biggest Jeff Hardy fan, but it is great to see him back and I hope he has his shit together. As for Umaga, I think he is the most underutilized piece of talent in the company. I figured Hardy was going to be punished, but I guess not. I do not understand jobbing out Umaga so quickly though. Remember when these two gave us a match of the year candidate in the cage? A commercial plugged John Cena vs. JBL at Judgment Day… [C] Does anyone notice there are a lot of commercial breaks and they are all very short? 5. Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch defeated Cryme Tyme in 2:25. Give JR credit for saying, “Jim Ross, and my dogg, Jerry Lawler.” King asked, “do you notice since Murdoch has been singing, they have been winning?” Have I missed some show results? When did they last win a match? Cryme Tyme worked over Murdoch. Shad took out Cade when he tried to intervene. Murdoch hit JTG with a big boot and tagged Cade. JR put over Cade twice, which is a good sign he is becoming a star. JTG tried a sunset flip on Murdoch, but Murdoch sat forward and scored the victory… [Q7] After the match, Cade grabbed the microphone and told Murdoch that maybe his singing had something to do with this victory. Cade said he wanted to hear Murdoch sing. I do not know the name of the song, but I think it is “When the Dealins’ Done.” Cade then turned on his partner and knocked him out with a right hand. Cade, without emotion, walked away… Twill’s Two Cents: I mentioned before I was happy they were not going to give us the usual former tag team partner feud. I guess we have to see it, but I think there is money in Murdoch as a mid-card act. Cade is a potential star, so the breakup makes sense, but Murdoch has a future too. By the way, they make all of the crappy American Idol finalists into country stars, and Murdoch can hang with all of them. They played the Smackdown rebound and hyped tonight’s main event… [C] Backstage, Melina was backstage with Jillian. Beth approached her. Melina went off about Beth leaving her during their match. Beth said she got off easy because last week, Melina cost Beth the Women’s Championship by hitting her with her boot. Beth said Melina did it on purpose because Melina knew she could beat Mickie easier than she could beat Beth. Melina attacked Beth, but Beth beat the crap out of her… JR and King ran down the Judgment Day card. Grisham conducted his seemingly weekly interview with Randy Orton. Orton said Triple H had a lucky night at Backlash. He said he has beaten more quality opponents and The Age of Orton would continue at Judgment Day. Orton called himself not only the most athletically gifted man in WWE, but also the smartest. He walked away… [C] Twill’s Two Cents: I said I loved what the earlier women’s match accomplished; well, I loved the follow up. That was well done. As for Orton, he sounded scripted and robotic, but this was a good promo from him. 6. Randy Orton defeated John Cena in 9:28. Orton has new theme music. I will have to hear it again before I can make an opinion, but it sounds cool, and nothing could be much worse than his old theme. When Cena came out, some young broad must have been sitting by a microphone because you could hear her screaming. [Q8] A huge “Cena” chant broke out. Cena hit an irish whip to the corner and bulldog combination. He hit a fisherman’s suplex at 1:30 for the first nearfall of the match. Orton hit a huge elbow to turn the tide. Orton hit the chinlock neckbreaker for his first nearfall. A “let’s go Cena, let’s go Orton” chant broke out. The crowd was definitely hot for this. Orton tried to stomp Cena, but Cena caught his boot, stood up, and threw Orton over the top rope. That young girl is still screaming… [C] Orton had Cena in a reverse chin lock as the show returned from the commercial. The crowd was still smoking hot. Orton hit a powerslam and scored a nearfall an 7:00. Orton reapplied the headlock. Orton irishwhipped Cena and fell to the ground as Cena flew by. That looked a little rehearsed. Orton went for the RKO, but Cena hit a blockbuster. Cena hit the middle rope leg drop to a standing Orton. Regal and JBL came out to the stage. JBL said Regal was removing the referee. JBL, wearing a referee shirt, took over. Once he hit the ring, Cena attacked him. Cena went for the FU, but Orton kicked Cena. He went for the cover and JBL counted very quickly to three. After the match, Cena and JBL cleared the ring rather quickly. Orton mounted Triple H and beat him down. All of a sudden, a steel cage lowered onto the ring. Triple H hit a spinebuster. He then threw Orton into the cage, but since it was not tied down, Orton fell through the ropes to the floor. Triple H carefully climbed the cage and two stared each other down to end the show… Twill’s Two Cents: They obviously did not think that one through as Orton could have been injured in that spot. The main event was above average. I enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed JR tonight. He, and the crowd, turned a decent main event into a good one. I like what they did with the show tonight. They are slowly turning six or seven guys into WWE Championship material. Did you enjoy the show? Let me know. Rich Twilling can be reached at dotnetrich@gmail.com. Do not forget to check out Jason Powell’s Raw Hitlist on the site tomorrow. 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