Monday Night RAW Review - 5/12/08

Sir William Regal, the RAW general manager, opened up the last RAW before the upcoming-Judgment Day by having Lillian Garcia sing "God Save the Queen". Being that RAW was in Detroit, the fans didn't take too kindly to that. Regal responded by saying the crowd needed to respect him, and if need be, he'd throw people out to make an example of them. He walked around the ring, looking for people to throw out, and he settled on one particular couple. Mickie James came running out of the back and begged Regal not to throw them out, as the man from that couple was James' younger brother. James continued to plead with him, and this angered Regal so much that he threatened he'd strip her of her Women's Championship.

Just then, John Cena's music hit, and he came out to put an end to the madness. Before he did that, however, he asked Mickie to leave so that Regal wouldn't take her championship away. Cena then confronted Regal, telling him that, although he could relate to what Regal was going through, he was doing everything the wrong way. Cena explained that he knew what it was like to give everything he had to the fans, only to be booed back. Regal countered by saying Vince (McMahon) was happy with what was going on, but Cena yelled that Vince was insane. Cena then began to read negative fan emails that were sent in to WWE.com in response to what Regal had been doing over the last few weeks. It looked like Regal began to understand how everybody felt, and gave his word that he wouldn't turn the lights out on any matches that night.

Regal then told Cena that, tonight, he'd be put in a match with Randy Orton. Cena asked when he could be expecting his rival, JBL, to interfere, but Regal promised that all people not involved in the match would be banned from ringside.

Regal then started to leave when Cena stopped him. He said that wasn't all he came down for. Cena said that RAW shouldn't have opened up with "God Save the Queen", as they were in Detroit aka Motown... the fans deserved more respect than that. He then asked Lillian Garcia to sing Aretha Franklin's "Respect", and she obliged.

This opening segment looked like it worked REALLY well in Detroit, and the crowd even started to cheer Cena after he confronted Regal. On television it came across just ok, but even I, a Cena-basher, thought Cena did a good job.

In the first match of the night, the tag team champions Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes (son of Dusty Rhodes), were to put their belts on the line against the newest "who-cares-about-this-duo" Carlito and Santino Morella. The match got little attention from the crowd, and I nearly even fast-forwarded through the match using Tivo. The champions retained their titles.

The next match had Mr. Kennedy up against Snitsky. Kennedy first came out and did his thing on the mic. Surprisingly, the crowd ate it up even though he had turned face just three weeks ago.

Snitsky dominated the match to begin, using powerful blows and grapple moves, but Kennedy slowly battled back, attacking Snitsky's legs to get him off his base. The crowd favorite then hit his "Mic Check" (sort of a reverse Rock Bottom) to end the match.

John Cena had a backstage segment where Mickie James asked him to go out for drinks with her brother and her brother's girlfriend (the ones that were thrown out earlier by Regal). After joking around a little, Cena agreed.

The women's tag team match, with Mickie James and Maria going up against Beth Phoenix and Melina, was better than the men's tag-team match, but still boring overall. Melina, once again, accidentally bumped into Beth, and Beth reacted by leaving Melina in the ring to fight for herself. Mickie and Maria won the match shortly after Beth's exit.

In the next segment, Chris Jericho wanted to apologize to Shawn Michaels for thinking that Michaels faked a knee injury during his match with Batista at the last pay-per-view. Michaels came out, and after allowing Jericho to apologize, admitted that he did in fact feign the knee injury. He defended himself by saying that he did say, before that pay-per-view match, that he'd do whatever it took to win. Jericho didn't believe him, even saying that Michaels was insulting his intelligence. Michaels then delivered the Sweet Chin Music to Jericho, and jumped out of the ring over the top rope to further prove his point.

To the surprise of the crowd and television viewers alike, Jeff Hardy's music came on, and he came out to the ring. He got on the mic and apologized for making the mistake he did (he was just suspended for drug use). He then wanted to go on, but his mic went off. After Hardy tapped it a few times, Regal walked out by the titantron, saying that he cut off Hardy's mic because nobody wanted to hear him apologize. Regal then said that Hardy would be fighting tonight, and out came Umaga.


Hardy started the match off strong, doing a baseball slide to Umaga who had yet entered the ring. Umaga then threw Hardy into the dividers between the ring and crowd, then threw him back into the ring. After going back-and-fourth, Umaga stood Hardy up in front of a turnbuckle, and attempted to run into Hardy with all his might. Hardy, though, moved out of the way, and executed a "Whisper in the Wind" to get the pinfall win.

In the next match, Cryme Time came out and faced Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. Murdoch earned a victory within a few minutes, and it looked as though his partner Cade appreciated it. Cade then got a mic and even suggested that Murdoch's singing last week must've been the good luck they needed. He asked Murdoch to sing, and Murdoch began to sing "Know When to Hold 'Em". When he had his back turned, Cade attacked Murdoch, and left him in the ring.

In the main event John Cena was to face Randy Orton (who came out to some pretty good heel-ish music BTW). Cena started off with a few offensive moves, but Orton quickly took over the match with a few of his own moves. Cena began to fight out of a choke hold, and then attempted some moves to only see Orton counter them. Orton then went for his trademark "RKO", but that was countered by Cena. Cena then went to the top rope and hit the flying leg drop. He attempted to follow that up with a "Five-Knuckle Shuffle", but Orton escaped to the outside of the ring.

Just then, William Regal came out with JBL by his side. JBL was dressed in a ref's outfit, and Regal instructed that JBL was the new referee of the match. As soon as JBL entered the ring, Cena began beating the crap out of him. Unfortunately, Orton, like a vulture, joined in on the fight and helped JBL beat down Cena.

This went on for a good few minutes until Triple H came out to help. He started going at it with Orton, while Cena's fight with JBL spilled into the crowd, then backstage. As Triple H and Orton fought, a STEEL CAGE was lowered, certainly a preview of their main even title match on Sunday, and the crowd went nuts. Triple H beat the living crap out of Orton, threw him out the ring, climbed on top of the cage, and stared down at Orton.

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The night was a great preview of the upcoming pay-per-view, as we saw Shawn Michaels admit to faking an injury (surely Batista will get back involved as a result), John Cena finally battle with JBL, and Triple H get his hands on Orton.

I will not be ordering the pay-per-view this Sunday, as I'm a little short on money this month, but I will post the details here as soon as I hear them.

Stay tuned my closet WWE fans.