411’s WWE Raw Report 04.14.08

Evening gents. We’re not live this week thanks to Raw coming from London. They could have held it live there but it would have taken place at 2am and all the little kiddies would have been falling asleep during the opening match. So we get a rare taped Raw this evening. Which means spoilers are already out there. I took the liberty of dipping in and finding out what happened because the last time Raw was in the UK and I did that they put on Cena-Michaels for like 55 minutes and I loved reviewing a long and interesting match up. Nothing epic today but perhaps next week…but that’ll be coming along shortly. Remember next week is 3 hours. We’ll be starting Raw an hour early.

We’re in London, England. Hosts are Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler.

BACKSTAGE William Regal is sitting (big home country cheer & chant). He’s joined by JBL. He compares Regal to Gordon Brown calling him a spineless puppet for allowing HHH & Cena into JBL’s title match at Backlash. Regal calls JBL & Orton “two of the biggest pillocks in WWE history”. More Regal chants for that. JBL tells Regal to take better care of him as he’s Raw’s most valuable commodity. Regal decides he will show some more authority tonight and books JBL in a match with “Triple Haitch” this evening.

PROMO TIME – Shawn Michaels. Big “HBK” chant. Shawn says the last thing he wanted to do was come out here and address the issue between himself and Batista (BOOO!) but that’s what everyone wants to talk about. So let’s recap. He points out Ric Flair asked him to compete against him at Wrestlemania and Shawn won. Flair hugged and thanked him. That is closure. It’s over. It’s finished. Everyone can accept that but Batista (BOOO!) He says Dave is going to find it hard to accept that Ric Flair is no longer in his life but the real issue, what’s really bugging Dave, is HBK. He accused Shawn of stepping over people and backstabbing people to get to the top. Shawn points out it takes more than that. He was told in 1998 he would never wrestle again but in 2002 he proved them wrong by coming back and exceeding everyone’s expectations. Shawn says he loves this job and was built to do it. He says he apologised for his actions in the past but he’s sick and tired of apologising for his past. Shawn says Batista knows his accusations are false but Shawn will give his ego a boost by kicking Batista’s teeth down his throat at Backlash. RIC FLAIR’s music kicks in…but it’s only CHRIS JERICHO.

Btw – there’s a throne by the side of the entrance with two guards because next week will be King of the Ring on Raw! WOO! Apparently it’s cross-branded and could well feature the entire 8-man tournament in one show. Which is handy because Raw is 3 hours.

Jericho says he’s sorry he mislead people with the music but he was making a point. We’ll never hear that music again because of Shawn Michaels. Jericho says he’s analysed some stuff from last week and he’s come to this conclusion; Batista thinks Shawn’s a phoney. Shawn can talk about loving things but ultimately all he loves is Shawn Michaels and he enjoyed retiring Ric Flair. Jericho reminds Shawn that he screwed Bret Hart and loved doing that too. Or superkicking Marty Jannetty. It’s who he is. Jericho wants Shawn to admit it and win Batista’s respect. Jericho says that Shawn doesn’t need to say anything. Jericho calls Batista irrational but not because he dislikes Shawn. Jericho suggests Shawn pitched the retirement angle to Vince McMahon in the first place. Go on, admit it…SUPERKICK! Pushed one too many buttons there Chris. Shawn admits “that felt pretty darn good”.

JR mentions King of the Ring being the special edition of Raw next week. Cool.

#1 Contenders match – PAUL LONDON/BRIAN KENDRICK v CARLITO/SANTINO MARELLA

Winner gets a shot at Bobcore & Cody. Both teams have beaten them in recent weeks. For me this seems quite obvious despite the slight split angle between Londrick. But I’m not booking. London sweeps Marella’s leg into a headlock. Keeping it basic to start it off. Santino gets tripped again and Carlito decides it’s time to show him how it’s done. London trips him up too and tags Kendrick in. He lays in a load of kicks but gets caught charging into a spinebuster for 2. Santino comes back in with a precision elbow drop. Good job Marella is so good on the stick because his wrestling is a little ‘iffy’. He and Carlito make frequent tags showing good continuity. London gets a hot tag though and flies in at speed. The rana he snaps off is quicker than a hiccup. Carlito comes off top but gets levelled with the spinning heel kick. Kendrick gets thrown out, London dropsaults Santino out of the ring but leaves his back exposed for the Backstabber.

Winners: Carlito & Santino via pinfall. *1/2. Quick but short. Londrick is something different but they clearly want to push Santino because of his great mic work and Carlito because he decided to re-sign. Although a tag team push doesn’t count for squat in this company.

POST MATCH Carlito cuts a promo on Bobcore & Cody in Spanish. Marella follows in Italian. He says they need strength, agility and International Superstars to be tag champs. Which they are all three. Santino says they’ll be the “wieners”. Carlito corrects his bad pronunciation.

JR & Lawler plug the WWE Kids Magazine.

WWE Women’s title – BETH PHOENIX (C) v MICKIE JAMES

This feud has been going on for some time with Beth continually defeating Mickie at every turn including unimportant tag matches. Lawler brings up an interesting point…has anyone beaten Beth one on one? Mickie gets a nice pop. Beth overpowers to start and chokes Mickie into the corner. Mickie comes back with forearms and kicks. Her striking is a big advantage. She tries a roll up but Beth has too much power to get taken over. She hauls Mickie up and slams her into the buckles. Beth remembers the kicks and boots Mickie in the ribs before strapping on a dragon sleeper. Mickie squirms out and throws knees. Beth blocks and hits a slingshot suplex for 2. Back to the dragon sleeper. She doesn’t have it on tight but she’s strong enough that it’s still a tough hold to deal with. However because it’s a little loose it lets Mickie get out with knees. DOUBLE ARM CHICKENWING! That. Is. Awesome. Beth with incredible strength there. Mickie with some nice flexibility. Mickie squirms out again and runs Beth into the buckles face first. She’s stunned and looks rattled even more so after a few forearms. She’s reeling. Whirl headscissors. Flying forearm. Mickie has hit a series of moves but pauses before the DDT and Beth backs her into the corner. That opening has now gone. Beth boots her down in the corner. Beth taunts too much and leaves herself open for Mickie to throw a few knees. THESZ PRESS OFF THE TOP…for 2. Great kickout. They’ve got some real tension building now. Beth goes for the double chickenwing again. Mickie counters into a roll up…FOR 3!!! MICKIE JAMES WINS THE TITLE!

Winner and NEW champion: Mickie James via pinfall. ***. Superb bit of storytelling. Mickie’s tears after winning shows how much this meant to her. The girls told a nice story of David v Goliath with Beth’s overconfidence leaving her open to defeat and Mickie’s persistence and resilience giving her the win. If the WWE is aiming to build up their smaller titles they certainly made this one feel like it meant something with a long reign and a good dramatic title change.

POST MATCH Maria & Ashley pile out here to celebrate with Mickie. Todd Grisham comes out to interview her and Mickie is so excited she kisses him. She’s just a bundle of joy isn’t she? She jumps around some more. I genuinely feel good about myself watching Mickie. Creating that bond between wrestler and viewer isn’t easy. She’s done it.

BACKSTAGE Mike Adamle gets a word with William Regal who’s warming up. He says he wanted to prove he could beat the best in the world. Jericho turns up to complain about Shawn’s superkick. He wants to be in the Shawn-Batista match. Regal tells him he’s in…as the special guest referee. Regal tells him if he wants to wrestle so much he can defend the IC title against Umaga. Tonight!

SHILL – Mick Foley is on set for Anamorph, a movie starring Willem Dafoe. Foley is in it. He’s an art store owner. Opens Friday.

JTG w/Shad Gaspard v TREVOR MURDOCH w/Lance Cade

JTG gets the mic. He says “yo” a lot. Shad tries to get some support going for “Euros”, which is possibly a mistake and it gets booed. We don’t do Euros, mate. We get some footage from earlier with Cade telling Murdoch he’s talented and good and he knows he’ll win tonight. JTG gets a quick dropkick and dances his way back up. This clearly doesn’t sit well with Murdoch who kicks him square in the grill. Murdoch slows it up with a chinlock. Murdoch goes up top. He takes a little too long and JTG rolls through a high crossbody for the win.

Winner: JTG via pinfall. The tag team division exists as I count FIVE teams but two of them are on the verge of splitting. We’ll see if the WWE still cares about tag teams 3 months from now. But yeah, so far I’m digging this.

POST MATCH Cade seems less than thrilled with Murdoch’s performance and walks.

BACKSTAGE Randy Orton walks. We get another quick plug for next week’s 3 hour Raw featuring the King of the Ring. Not sure why they didn’t get more advertising for this. It can’t have been a last minute thing. Can it?

RANDY ORTON v WILLIAM REGAL

Orton gets a mic. He reminds us again about his success at Wrestlemania. He’s not lucky. He’s WWE champion. He says he’ll beat HHH, Cena & JBL all in the same night. He says he’s beaten everyone but he adds in a bonus tonight by beating the Raw GM. He says the whole world is living in the Age of Orton. Regal has a pimp robe. Crowd is very pro-Regal. Been a long time since the UK cheered it’s own. ‘Bout time! Intense lockup as the crowd continues its Regal support with chanting. Regal unloads with lefts in the corner and the crowd love that. He headlocks Orton who counters into a top wristlock. Regal shows nice bridging skills and then slides out into a heel trip. More loud chants for Regal as he gets a bodyscissors. Orton can’t strike at Regal as he covers up well so resorts to driving his head into the mat. Big “Eng-er-lund” chant. Football-esque. Regal rakes the face but that gets him the round the backbreaker. Orton has Regal in trouble for the first time and pounds him with punches. He’s doing the “AAAAAAARRRRGGH” selling. Orton chinlocks him. Crowd are still chanting loudly for Regal. REGALPLEX!!!! YES! Orton gets dumped on his head for 2. The ropes save him. The replay looks even worse for Randy who landed badly. Regal catches him with a pair of EXPLOIDAAAAAA suplexes and the running knee gets 2. Rope saves. Regal has been explosive here. RKO! Out of nowhere. Orton gets the win.

Winner: Randy Orton via pinfall. ***. Regal turned back the clock with the vintage performance and the crowd loved him for it. That Regalplex was sick. Orton hitting the RKO out of nowhere once again shows how quickly he can hit someone with it. Point achieved. Hot crowd. Everything worked here.

BACKSTAGE Umaga shouts his promo at the screen in Samoan. No John Cena to translate this week.

IC title – CHRIS JERICHO (C) v UMAGA

The appreciation for Umaga hasn’t made it over the Atlantic yet. The reaction for Jericho is mixed after him acting like a jerk earlier tonight. Still a “Y2J” chant though but more subdued than it would have been. Umaga pounds Jericho from the off with rights. He’s aiming for the jaw that Shawn superkicked earlier, which is pretty smart psychology. Crowd has died here. Jericho gets a low dropkick and a senton for 1. Umaga shoves him off and jabs him in the neck. Jericho can’t get going here. Umaga splashes him for 2. Jericho tries to get fired up again but Umaga just pitches him clean out of the ring. Ad break. We return with Jericho laying in punches but Umaga throws him off. Umaga starts working the nervehold. Jericho comes back with forearms and low bridges Umaga to the floor. Jericho follows out but gets clotheslined on the floor. These guys really aren’t clicking. Jericho goes low to turn the tide. He goes for a slam though and naturally that goes badly. He gets him up but Umaga falls on top for 2. Umaga lays a few kicks into that jaw area. Umaga beats Jericho down until he’s immobile in the corner. ASSALANCHE misses. Jericho rolls out of the way and goes up top for a flying forearm to the back of the head. Double down. A few forearms don’t move Umaga and he throws Jericho off on the bulldog attempt. Jericho dropkicks him in the face instead and looks for the Walls of Jericho. Umaga gets out and hits the Samoan Drop. He wants the Spike but Jericho ducks it so he boots him instead. He charges into the ringpost and Jericho gets the ropes for the pin!

Winner: Chris Jericho via pinfall. Shenanigans! **1/2. Started badly and had some rather slow points where the crowd seemed bored and I know I was. After Umaga stopped using rest holds it picked up although there’s a feeling he can’t have great matches with just anyone. Jericho however brings an established repertoire and moveset along with a fine work ethic. A minor clash of styles but credit to them they didn’t let that stop them working into having a good match eventually.

JIM DUGGAN v PAUL BURCHILL w/Katie Lea

What was wrong “Nikita” as a name anyway? Burchill hails “from England”. Any particular part? Katie’s little skirt rides up as she enters the ring. Lawler complains about Burchill blindsiding Duggan but if he’d been paying attention that wouldn’t have happened. Burchill beats Duggan up. We get some punching both ways. Duggan’s punches don’t have much on them. Curb Stomp finishes.

Winner: Paul Burchill. Squash. Ugly one too. They should hire Super Dragon to fuck Burchill up. If you’re going to steal the Curb Stomp then do a good job of it.

BACKSTAGE Grisham gets an interview with H’s. He reminds H’s he’s never wrestled JBL. H’s says he’s cerebral so he’s not going to tell Grisham his tactics. He says this might make the next Triple H DVD as will Backlash when he wins the title. He tells JBL he should have kept his cushy announcing job.

SHILL – Backlash. HBK v Batista (Jericho referee), Undertaker v Edge, Big Show v Great Khali, Orton v HHH v Cena v JBL.

TRIPLE H v JBL

JIP. You’d think with this being taped they could avoid missing action. H’s controls on the mat with a headlock. JBL gets out but H’s flattens him with a shoulderblock. CROTCH CHOP! JBL orders some respect. He gets a clothesline. Neckbreaker from H’s gets 2. He goes to a wristlock. JBL punches him off. JBL sets low but JBL backdrops out of the Pedigree. Could have been over quick there. Rookie mistake. JBL with a receipt neckbreaker. Full nelson. I guess they forgot about the Masterlock pretty quick. H’s powers out and hits a high knee. They brawl outside. Randy Orton runs in for the DQ.

Winner: Triple H via DQ. *. Bland and uninspiring main event.

POST MATCH H’s hits Orton with a spinebuster. He goes for the Pedigree but JBL boots him in the face. The heels team up to beat H’s down. RKO on H’s. JBL wants to see the concussion kick. Crowd is chanting for Regal, which is cute. What does happen is JBL turns on Orton with the Clothesline from Heck. He poses with the title belt having gotten one up on both guys. H’s gets the Clothesline from Heck as well just for good measure.

End show. Good stuff, mostly, this week. Some fine wrestling and genuine attempts to push the women’s and tag divisions as an alternative to the somewhat stagnant main event scene. I approve. Thumbs up for this show. Join me in 7 days for a special 3 hour Raw event; King of the Ring 2008.