WWE TV Reports 6/30 Powell's WWE Raw Live Coverage: Kofi Kingston vs. Chris Jericho, Jim Ross delivers his Raw farewell address in front of his hometown fans, McMahon family statement By Jason Powell Jun 30, 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 from Oklahoma City, Okla. [Q1] Highlights aired from last week of Vince McMahon's stage stunt... Shane McMahon stood in a studio and said that his father was a victim of a horrible accident. He said Vince is a very private person and therefore they would not be revealing an update regarding his status. He asked the WWE crew to pull together "in this time of uncertainty." The live crowd booed... Powell's POV: Ugh. That's it? People are going to forget about this angle quickly unless they do something to get them talking. Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler introduced the show. They noted that Kofi Kingston won the Intercontinental Title, and that Chris Jericho would get his rematch during the show... The Oklahoma fight song played and Jim Ross came out to a rousing ovation. He stood at the top of the stage and tipped his hat to the live crowd. He entered the ring and tipped his hat again while the live crowd gave him a standing ovation. "Wow," he said in response. He said it's "damn sure good to be home." He said he's excited about the new journey he's embarking on as the new voice of Smackdown. The live crowd booed. Ross said he hopes the fans will join him on that journey. There were scattered cheers. He vowed to raise some hell on Friday nights and take the show where it's never been before. He also stated that he's excited to work with Mick Foley on Smackdown. Ross said Jerry Lawler was like an older brother and said going into the WWE Hall of Fame with Lawler made it even more special. Ross said Cole will do a great job on Raw. The live crowd booed. The camera showed Cole smiling at the announcers' table. Ross put him over as a hard working individual and asked the live crowd to give him the same respect they've given him over the years. More scattered boos. J.R. brought up his past in Oklahoma City. He mentioned Danny Hodge and Mid-South Wrestling. He mentioned joining the "Kiss My Ass Club" and said he wouldn't kick a man while he's down. "Of course, he's probably a Longhorns fan," Ross said. The crowd booed. "It's been an amazing run," Ross said. He added again that he's excited about his new adventure and thanked the fans for being there. "I'd be remiss if I didn't encourage you all to eat a little more BarBQ." The crowd cheered. Ross was interrupted by Edge's music and the World Hvt. Champion walked to the ring with the Edgeheads. Edge said he wanted to be there for J.R.'s farewell address. He said nobody cares about his relationship with the King or Michael Cole. "Nobody cares about you and they never did," Edge said. "Why don't you put that in your blog, BarBQ Boy," Edge said. Hilarious. [Q2] Edge said it wasn't all bad. He said Ross could now call his future Hall of Fame career. He mocked J.R.'s "Stone Cold" calls and said he would have to replace it with, "Edge wins, Edge wins, Edge wins." Edge asked Ross to try out the line. Ross tossed the mic aside. "Put that one in the record books, J.R. is speechless," Edge said. Edge had Zach Ryder and Curt Hawkins escort Ross to the back. "J.R., your farewell address is officially over," continued Edge. "Hit the bricks." Edge smiled at the crowd while Ross was being led to the backstage area. He pointed out that Raw is missing a general manager, unlike Smackdown, which has Vickie Guerrero. He said Raw is missing Undertaker, but so is the rest of the WWE Universe. Finally, Edge said Raw is also missing a World Champion. He ran through a list of Raw babyfaces and said they will never get a chance to challenge for his title. He said unless it's a draft show, the fans will never see him on Monday night again. Edge walked toward the back and turned back to face the fans when Batista's music played. Batista chased Edge back to ringside and then attacked him. Batista roughed up Edge and chased him into the crowd. Batista caught Edge and threw him back to ringside. He dropped him onto the announcers' table and then whipped him into the ring steps. Batista threw Edge into the ring and gave him the Batista Bomb. Batista walked toward the back and then C.M. Punk's music played. He headed to the ring and indicated that he wanted to cash in his Money in the Bank contract... 1. C.M. Punk pinned Edge to win the World Hvt. Title in 0:11. Punk immediately hit GTS and scored the pin. The live crowd went nuts. Punk celebrated with the title as the show finally cut to commercial... Powell's POV: Wow, that was hot. Ross delivered a nice farewell address and Edge was awesome with his party crashing promo. Batista's attack on Edge was also cool. Oh, and Punk won the World Title! You could tell they were heading toward Punk cashing in when Edge bragged that he wouldn't face a Raw performer, but who knew he would actually win? It's a long night, though. I'm leery of general manager shenanigans. The announcers recapped Punk winning the World Hvt. Title and noted that it was the first that Money in the Bank had been cashed in on Raw... [Q3] 2. Mickie James pinned Jillian Hall in 2:15. Jillian sang her way to the ring. Awesome. Lawler said she speaks five languages, but can't speak in any of them. In the end, Mickie hit the Mick Kick for the win... A shot aired of Rey Mysterio walking backstage. The announcers hyped that he would make his first official appearance on Raw after the break... [C] The announcers hyped Kofi vs. Jericho for later in the show and recapped Mysterio being drafted to Raw. "I'll tell you one thing," Lawler said, "Raw won the draft." Sure, Jerry... Mysterio came to the ring for a promo. He said he was shocked when he was drafted to Raw. He said now he's excited. Santino Marella's music interrupted Rey. Santino pointed out that Shane McMahon to pull together. Therefore, he was there to welcome Rey to Raw. They shook hands. Santino said anyone who hides behind a mask is either incredibly ugly, stupid, or Batman. "And you're not the Batman," Santino said. Santino aired a shot of Mysterio on the cover of the new WWE Magazine. He showed a second photo of himself. It was a shot of a shirtless Santino lying on bed holding a rose. Even Lawler cracked up. [Q4] Santino finally turned it over to Rey, who responded by striking him with the microphone. Mysterio hit the 619 and the crowd was into his brief flurry of offense... Lawler hyped that they would hear from C.M. Punk after the break... [C] Powell's POV: I want to see a big backstage celebration with Punk putting over his title win. I'm just worried that if we see him in the ring, he's going to lose his title somehow. The announcers recapped footage of Punk winning the World Hvt. Title... Backstage, Todd Grisham interviewed Punk. "I don't know if I have the words," Punk said. He said he had so many people he had to thank, including Batista for the assist. He said he had to get Edge's name off the belt. "I feel awesome," Punk said. JBL walked onto the set and asked Punk if he was proud of beating a defenseless man. He said Punk could go to bed a paper champion or he could "step up and find out what it's like to be in the ring with greatness." JBL challenged Punk to defend the title against him later in the show. "You want to be the first one?" Punk asked. "My answer is yes"... Powell's POV: Well, I guess this means Edge won't be getting his title back unless Vickie Guerrero has some authority on Raw. If nothing else, WWE did a nice job of foreshadowing by having JBL guarantee during his promo last night that he'd be a champion soon. He'll either make good on his promise or it was a well planned line to make us viewers think he's going to win tonight. [Q5] An ad for the July 4 edition of Smackdown focussed on Triple H appearing on the show... John Cena came out for a promo. More cheers than usual, at least to start. He said he didn't win the title, but he and Hunter proved that they are the best in the business and their match will go down in history. He said everyone in the building was part of history because they could say they were there when Punk cashed in and won the World Hvt. Title. Cena said he didn't like the way JBL bullied his way into a title shot. He said he doesn't know much about Punk, but he knows he used his brains to win the belt and he's already proven that he'll use his guts to keep it. Cena says the kid is a fighter, who would say yes to anybody. Cena teased that he could have challenged Punk. He said VInce McMahon isn't there tonight and Raw doesn't have a general manager, so Punk should probably be the person to choose who he faces. Cena asked the crowd whether JBL should get a shot at the belt. The crowd booed. He asked if Punk should face Cena. The crowd cheered. Not a massive pop, but a good ovation. JBL's music played and he walked onto the stage. He said Cena would not be facing Punk for the strap. "That match is mine," JBL said. He said he was declaring martial law in WWE. JBL said he couldn't have Cena in the building. Six security guards walked onto the stage. JBL said he paid for the security and said he was running things on Raw while Vince McMahon was out. JBL asked security to show Cena the door. The security guards walked to the ring and JBL followed. Cena took his shirt off. Security charged the ring on JBL's command. Cena tried to fight them off, but they grabbed his arms and held him while JBL took some shots at Cena's head. Security dragged Cena out of the ring and toward the back. He tried to fight them off again, but they eventually escorted him into the backstage area and out he back door... Powell's POV: Really good heat for the security dragging Cena out of the building. JBL was very good on the mic even if his line about running Raw while Vince is away didn't much much storyline sense. Is he just delusional or did someone give him the authority? Either way, that was a good angle even if it did have a tough of Stone Cold repeat to it. [Q6] [C] A video recapped Cody Rhodes turning on Hardcore Holly and revealing himself as Ted DiBiase's tag partner... 3. Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes pinned Darren Wayne and Steve Anthony in 1:15. Early in the match, Ted made my night by doing the fist drop punch that his old man made famous. In the end, Cody DDT'd one of the jobbers and scored the pin. After the match, Cody took the mic and addressed his turn. He said he took his father's advice to be patient and do things the wrong way. "Where did it get me?" Cody asked. He said he was stuck carrying baby boomer Bob Holly. Cody said he sought out DiBiase because he reminded him of himself. "When you're this talented, you don't pay dues," Rhodes said. Ted took the mic and said the people in the country under the age of 30 are "spoiled, obedient, sheep"... [C] Powell's POV: Decent promos by both men. The live crowd wasn't hanging on every word, but they can't be happy about seeing fewer than four minutes of wrestling in the first 90 minutes of the show. Backstage, Paul Burchill promised Katie Lea that he would do everything he could to make sure she becomes WWE Women's Champion. He started to walk away and told her not to get into any trouble. Jamie Noble arrived and made a play for her by saying that he was going by prison rules. He said he was going to seek out the biggest guy and draw a line. Katie pointed out Kane in the background. Jamie walked over to Kane and reluctantly told him not to go into his bags and listen to his Larry the Cable Guy tapes without his permission. Jamie grew confidence with each word as Kane stood motionless. Kane grabbed him by the throat, but Noble kicked his knee and ran away. The camera picked up Noble as he ran into the arena and hit behind the ring. Kane's pyro exploded and he walked to the ring. Noble entered the ring and dove onto Kane at ringside. Kane quickly recovered got the better of Noble. He tried to chokeslam him through the announcers' table, but it didn't budge. Kane stood over Noble and laughed... Powell's POV: I guess that almost qualifies as a match. A shot aired of Chris Jericho walking backstage... [Q7] [C] Jericho made his ring entrance and cut a pre-match promo. He challenged Shawn Michaels to a match at the Great American Bash. "Shawn Michaels took something very important away from me," he said. "I'm going to take something very important away from him." Kofi made his ring entrance... [C] 4. Kofi Kingston beat Chris Jericho (w/Lance Cade) by DQ in 2:26. The match started during the break because we've clearly been given way too much in-ring action on this show. After some back and forth action, Jericho rolled up Kofi and held the trunks blatantly in front of the referee, who disqualified him. [Q8] After the match, Kofi celebrated the win until Jericho walked up behind him and dug his fingers into Kingston's eyes. Jericho left the ring while Kofi writhed in pain... The announcers hyped C.M. Punk vs. JBL for the World Hvt. Title... [C] The announcers recapped the Punk title win... Highlights aired from earlier in the night of Edge flipping out on Ryder and Hawkins in the parking lot. He slapped them both and blamed them for not being there when he lost to Punk... JBL made his entrance... [C] Powell's POV: The opening segment went roughly 25 minutes without a break, so they're catching up late in the show. By the way, the finish of the Kofi vs. Jericho match was really lame. Jericho has to be the first wrestler in the Raw Era to be DQ'd for grabbing another wrestler's trunks. 5. C.M. Punk pinned JBL to retain the World Hvt. Title in 5:33. As the bell rang, JBL's private security walked to ringside. The security guards stood at ringside expressionless during the opening minutes of the match. [Overrun] JBL took control of the offense. Suddenly, Cena and Cryme Tyme walked onto the stage without any music. Cena and Cryme Tyme darted to ringside and brawled with JBL's security force. JBL turned his attention to the fighting. When he turned around, Punk hoisted him onto his shoulders and hit GTS. Punk covered JBL and got the pin. Afterward, Punk dove over the top rope onto the brawl at ringside. The show went off the air with Cena, Cryme Tyme, and Punk brawling with the security guards while JBL continued to sell the GTS in the ring... Powell's POV: Punk survived the show with the title. I'm pleasantly surprised. I'm not crazy about the way they gave him the title, but it could be fun to let him earn respect as a fighting champion if that's the plan. I just hope it's not a short title run and they give him a chance to get over as the champion. I'll have a lot more to say about this show in the WWE Raw Hitlist. 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