WWE TV Reports 8/11 Powell's WWE Raw Live Coverage: John Cena and Batista defend the World Tag Titles against Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes, Mike Adamle wants to examine Kane's sack (not that one) By Jason Powell Aug 11, 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 Richmond, Va. [Q1] The show opened with a video recap of the John Cena and Batista feud, er, buildup, er, whatever it is WWE has been doing with those guys... John Cena's music played and he came to the ring wearing one of the World Tag Titles for a promo. Meanwhile, Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler introduced the show. Cena ran through his recent storyline with Batista. He said Adamle approached him asked what they could do to hype the match with Batista. He said Adamle threw out a bunch of ideas such as a weigh-in or a broken glass arm wrestling match (nice shot) to build up interest. Cena said there's no need for hype beyond putting him in the ring with Batista on the spot. Cena looked to the stage and then Batista's entrance music played and he walked to the ring wearing the other tag title. "You wanted me, here I am," Batista said. Batista stood by and let Cena do the talking. Cena said they would defending their tag titles on Raw, but would be going head-to-head at SummerSlam. Cena said everyone knows that the match has been six years in the making. Cena said he's been watching Batista closely for six years. Cena pointed out that Batista was groomed by Ric Flair and Triple H. He said he never had anything like that, but he worked hard and turned critics into believers. He said every Monday he represents a nation that goes to battle with him. Cena said they would answer the question of which one of them was better when they faced on Sunday. Batista took his turn on the mic. He said he's been watching Cena closely too. Batista pointed out that they've both won a Royal Rumble, and they've both won a main event at WrestleMania. "I've seen you get standing ovations and I've seen you get booed out of the building," Batista said. "Through all that, you never changed who you are and I respect that." "Personally, I wouldn't be caught dead doing some of the things you do," continued Batista. He mocked one of Cena's mannerisms. Batista said he also understands why fans over the age of 15 want to see him beat Cena senseless. Batista implied that he would win on Sunday. They circled one another and had a staredown. Cena offered his hand. Batista accepted with a handshake and they continued the staredown briefly until Cena left the ring... Cole said the WWE Mobile question of the night is whether John Cena or Batista is a bigger star... Powell's POV: I could have lived without the handshake at the end. Whatever tension they built via Batista's snide comment was lost when they shook hands. Isn't Batista the same guy who wouldn't shake hands with C.M. Punk last month? This wasn't a bad segment, but they didn't do or say anything to get me more excited about their match. [Q2] [C] A video recapped a CINE Golden Eagle award that WWE received... 1. Beth Phoenix (w/Santino Marella) pinned Kelly Kelly in 2:10. The announcers pointed out that musician George "Bad to the Bone" Thorogood was sitting in the front row. Santino actually sat in on commentary and said the media is referring to he and Beth as "Glamarella." Funny. Beth dominated the match and scored the clean pin. Afterward, Santino entered the ring and congratulated his new girlfriend. He suggested that Beth perform one more move on Kelly in celebration. Beth was going to oblige, but Kofi Kingston and Mickie James ran out for the save. The heels darted to ringside, where Santino issued a singles match challenge. Kofi accepted, but Santino said he was talking to Mickie. He also pointed out that they were in Mickie's hometown. Kofi tried to reject the challenge on Mickie's behalf, but she took the mic and accepted... [C] Powell's POV: What's up with the unibrow that Santino is growing? [Q3] 2. Santino Marella (w/Beth Phoenix) pinned Mickie James (w/Kofi Kingston) in 2:15. Mickie took control of the match. Santino started bickering with Kofi and the referee had to get between them. Meanwhile, Beth attacked Mickie, which led to Santino rolling up his opponent for the win. He celebrated in typical Santino style after the match... Backstage, a shot aired of a Ronald Reagan portrait. Mike Adamle told Todd Grisham he wants to take the Ronald Reagan approach to being a general manager by letting the superstars do what they want to do and intervene only when necessary. Kane entered the room. Adamle said they have one match too many at SummerSlam, so he booked a "SummerSlam Spectacular" match between Kane and Chris Jericho. Kane said he would take the match as long as that was all Adamle had in mind. Adamle said it was, then stopped Kane with a "By the way..." He said he wanted Kane to hand over the burlap sack after the match. He explained that children will be going back to school soon and he didn't want them scaring their classmates by impersonating Kane with the burlap sack. "You are making a huge mistake," Kane replied... [C] Powell's POV: Was Adamle's explanation for wanting Kane to turn over the sack supposed to be funny? Seriously, what the hell was that? The WWE Classics video featured footage of Tito Santana and Ivan Putski defeating The Valiant Brothers to win the tag titles... Backstage, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase discussed the Santana and Putski video footage. Rhodes pointed out they weren't even born yet. DiBiase said Santana and Putski were in their mid-50s when they were inducted into the Hall of Fame, while noting that they are still in their mid-20s. He added that next year could be a DiBiase vs. Rhodes in the SummerSlam main event. They said they wanted to win respect by regaining their tag titles... The announcers hyped the Kane vs. Jericho match as a SummerSlam match that was taking place on Raw. they also hyped that JBL had a challenge for C.M. Punk that Punk couldn't win... Powell's POV: Not the best material for Rhodes and DiBiase this week. They spoke well enough, but there wasn't much substance. They hype for Kane vs. Jericho would have felt more legit had they actually hyped it as a SummerSlam match previously. I think most viewers see it for what it is. JBL challenging Punk to a contest he can't win? A beer drinking contest would make sense. [Q4] [C] 3. Cryme Tyme defeated The Highlanders in 2:00. Squash match. After the match, Cole referred to Cryme Tyme as "New York's illest." Good lord... [C] Powell's POV: Let me get this straight. This is the go-home edition of Raw heading into SummerSlam, and they decide this is the time to bring back The Highlanders for a meaningless match with a team that won't be on the show? Anyone else surprised The Highlanders survived the cuts last week? A commercial for Tuesday's ECW on Sci-Fi noted that the main event will be Mark Henry and Matt Hardy vs. The Miz and John Morrison... Cole broke the news regarding Randy Orton being injured in a motorcycle accident. He said Orton was thrown 300 feet off his bike... JBL made his way to the ring for the special challenge he has for Punk. There was already a table and chairs set up. Punk made his entrance. [Q5] JBL started to cut a promo, but Punk cut him off by telling him to shut up. He said he's been listening to the same arguments ever since he won the title. "I'm going to say it one more time and I'm going to say it clear, the World Championship is around my waist because I earned it," Punk said. He said the crowning achievement of his career will be beating JBL and walking out of SummerSlam with the title. "With all due respect to John Cena and Batista, I will prove that I'm the man," Punk said. JBL rolled his eyes at the Cena and Batista remark. He noted that he held the World Hvt. Championship longer than both of them. JBL said the fairy tale ends at SummerSlam. "You've got talent," JBL said. "You also have six days left as the World Hvt. Champion because I can beat you at anything I choose to do." JBL removed his jacket and placed it on the table. Sure enough, he unveiled a bottle of Jack Daniels and challenged him to sit down and have a drink. JBL poured Punk a shot. "Because if you will drink that one drink, I will concede to you that you won this contest," JBL said. Punk looked at the shot glass and picked it up. "You want me to drink this?" Punk asked. JBL said he wants Punk to show that he'll do anything to win. JBL said that if Punk isn't willing to check his morals at the door, then he knows won't do whatever it takes to win the title at SummerSlam. Punk said he's not like JBL. He said he's willing to do whatever it takes at SummerSlam, but he's not willing to check his beliefs at the door. "I won't let some bully shoehorn me into his ideals of a championship persona. So thanks, but no thanks." Punk put the shot glass down." JBL said he didn't realize Punk brought his soapbox. JBL said he'd toast to Punk and to the end that is the footnote that his title reign will be. Punk took the shot glass back and said the champ should be doing the toasting, "Here's to you, JBL. Sometimes it's what you don't do that makes you who you are." Punk threw the shot in JBL's eyes and then delivered a high knee in the corner. Punk left the ring as JBL rolled around trying to get the whiskey out of his eyes... [C] Powell's POV: That was awkward. I like that they're trying to get over Punk as an individual, but there was no real set up for that and it seemed really out of place and awkward. This segment did nothing to increase my interest in their pay-per-view match. Maybe there's more to come from these two. A video recapped Shawn Michaels' promo from last week and his feud with Chris Jericho... [Q6] 4. Chris Jericho (w/Lance Cade) pinned Kane in 4:35. Yes, Kane brought his sack to the ring with him. Four minutes into the match, Adamle and a group of security guards walked to the ring just as Kane was setting up for the chokeslam. Kane picked up the sack and clutched it to his chest. Jericho hit the codebeaker and scored the clean pin. After the match, Kane continued to clutch his sack (again, no, not that one). Adamle entered the ring and said, "I know this is very difficult for you, but we need to resolve this and I'm here to help," Adamle said. He continued by saying that he knows what's inside the bag and he knows who he is referring to when he asks if "he" is alive or dead. "He is you and the monster is you," he said. Adamle explained that Kane has tried to live as a normal person. He said Kane proved he could lead a normal life when he declared last week that "he" is dead. "You could lead a normal life by giving me that bag," Adamle said. "I know what's inside and I think the people here deserve to know as well... We need to get to the bottom of this and we need to get to the bottom of this right now." Adamle assured Kane that his life would be much better if he turned over the bag. He recalled Regan telling Mikael Gorbachev to take down that wall. "I'm telling you Kane to hand me that bag." Kane took the mic and said there is a mask in the bag. He said the man who wore it has been scarred and tortured and damaged beyond all human recognition. "The problem is that it's not my mask." Kane opened the bag and pulled out a mask. The live crowd gasped. "It's Rey Mysterio's." Kane handed the mask to Adamle, laughed, and then left the ring... [C] Powell's POV: WTF? Does this mean Kane has been torturing Rey Mysterio? I'm confused. Damn, Raw sure is falling apart while best writer nominee Stephanie McMahon is out on maternity leave. I'm sure that's it. Honestly, though, I feel like I missed an episode of Raw because the storylines are so disjointed. I guess it will be interesting to see where this goes. [Q7] 5. William Regal pinned Jamie Noble in 1:20. Regal wore his new shirt again. Regal finished off Noble with a knee to the head. Not much to this one... The Smackdown Rebound recapped Edge wiping out the rest of La Familia... The announcers ran through the pay-per-view lineup... The poll revealed that 73 percent of text voters feel that Cena is a bigger star than Batista... Cena and Batista made separate entrances for the main event... [Q8] [C] 6. Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes beat John Cena and Batista to regain the World Tag Titles in 8:15. Cena and Batista bickered over who would start the match. Cena backed down, but then tagged himself in the moment the bell rang. Cena took control of the match and walked to his own corner where he did the "You can't see me" hand gesture. He went back to the match briefly, then walked back to the corner and saluted Batista. [C] Powell's POV: I just realized why I'm not excited about this match. These guys are both acting like unlikable morons. Last week they held a contest to see who could get the biggest crowd pop, and this week Cena is taunting Batista with his silly hand gestures. Perhaps the second half of the match will do something to lure me in. Late in the match, Batista walked to his corner and slapped Cena across the face for the tag, just as Cena did to him last week. Cena entered the ring. He got upset and turned around to jaw with Batista. Rhodes rolled up Cena and scored the pin. Afterward, Cena and Batista beat up the new tag champs by whipping them into the ring steps. Cena started to leave, but Batista called him back (no mic). Cena returned to the ring, but Adamle and a group of security guards walked out and stood between them. Cena broke free and engaged in a pull apart brawl. They continued to pull away from security and took shots at one another to close the show. No overrun this week... Powell's POV: Nope, they're so self absorbed that they just lost the tag titles because they were obsessed with their petty game of oneupsmanship. Seriously, what was there to like about either one of these thin-skinned characters tonight? This was a lousy show and several storylines were choppier than usual. Are we to believe that Kane has been torturing Rey since we last saw him and no one has bothered to report Rey as a missing person? What's up with Adamle's obsession with Ronald Reagan? Isn't this show geared toward kids who have no clue about Reagan? I'm confused, but I'll do my best to sort it all out for the WWE Raw Hitlist tomorrow. Dot Net members are already listening to my 33-minute Raw audio recap. To gain instant access to this and all the other membership perks for only $5 per month, visit the Dot Net Members' Signup Page. BOOKMARK DOT NET AND ADD US TO YOUR RSS • HELP DOT NET: TAKE OUR ADVERTISER DEMO SURVEY CLICK TO RETURN TO MAIN LISTING OR SELECT A LINK BELOW FROM THIS CATEGORY WWE TV Reports Latest Twelve Articles 12/2 Twilling's ECW Live Coverage: Matt Hardy vs. MVP, Jack Swagger vs. Ricky Ortiz, DJ Gabriel will wrestle while everyone watches Alicia Fox dance 12/1 Twilling's WWE Raw Live Coverage: John Cena makes his Raw in ring return vs. Kane; The IC Title tournament continues with The Miz vs. Rey Mysterio and Finlay vs. John Morrison 12/1 Powell's WWE Raw Live Coverage: John Cena faces Kane, two more Intercontinental Title contender tournament matches, Melina vs. Jillian Hall 11/28 Shore's WWE Smackdown Live Coverage: New WWE Champion Edge, Beat the Clock Matches, Gobble Gobble 11/25 Twilling's ECW Live Coverage: Jack Swagger vs. Tommy Dreamer in an Extreme Rules match, Mark Henry vs. Finlay 11/24 Twilling's WWE Raw Live Coverage: John Cena returns, Shawn Michaels and Rey Mysterio vs. John Morrison and The Miz, Intercontinental Championship number one contender tournament