*** Official RAW Thread - 1st May 2006 ****

[Kam 243]

Preview:

 

Who's The Champ?

May 1, 2006

 

There are so many questions swirling around heading into Backlash, but by the time RAW hits the air Monday night, they will all be answered. Perhaps the biggest question heading into the pay-per-view is who will emerge from Backlash as the WWE Champion. John Cena is no stranger to being the underdog, but he’ll have to defend the WWE Championship against both Triple H and Edge in a Triple Threat Match. It’s possible that The Champ can lose the gold without even being involved in the decision of the match. Will Cena be able to overcome the odds once again and emerge victorious?

 

Plus, one of the most dominating tag teams in WWE history will be doing battle against each other. As of late, Kane hasn’t been himself, and has been experiencing psychotic fits of rage any time someone mentions the release date of his new movie See No Evil – May 19. Big Show has mentioned the date a couple of times, causing Kane to lose it, and attack his former partner. Will Kane continue his path of destruction at Backlash?

 

And the new Mr. Money in the Bank, Rob Van Dam, will be looking to add the Intercontinental Championship to his trophy case. In order to get an opportunity at Shelton Benjamin’s Championship, though, RVD has to put up his Money in the Bank Championship opportunity as well. Someone will emerge from Backlash as both the Intercontinental Champion and Mr. Money in the Bank, but who will it be?

 

The Women’s Championship will also be on the line at Backlash as Mickie James defends her gold against Trish Stratus. Mickie defeated Trish at WrestleMania 22, but can she pick up another win, this time as the champion?

[Guest Smacketh Down]

This RAW is going to suck.

[Guest The Great Ahmar]

Raw is going to be very intertesting. Cena still champ what will happen with him? D-X to finally reform? Vince calls out god again? Kane crazy again?

 

RVD has to drop the IC belt if he is going to win the World title, maybe he will lose it tonight. but can't see that happening.

 

Will be watching Raw, WHo will announce the show is what i want to know.

[Guest SuperKick Kid]

I'm seeing possible triple threat rematch. HBK and HHH have to reform DX at some point, maybe not tonight, but sometime between now and the next Raw PPV or at the next Raw PPV. Benjamin and RVD rematch? Ladder match for the I-C title? Maybe. Possible start of ECW storyline. I'm really expecting something BIG to happen tonight.

[Ryan 188]

I always love RAW's the night after PPV's because thats when WWE sets the bar for the weeks & months too come, although Trish has a shoulder injuury, judging by the ending of the match last night the Trish/Mickie fued isnt over, which is abit strange because that fued has been going for 6 months already, its an awesome fued, but it needs to end, i;d like to see WWE bring in Molly Holly to fued with Mikie, as i said WWE normally set the bar the night after PPV's so bringing Molly back to fued with Mickie would be awesome.

[Nightfox 11]

I agree with Perfect, I aint a fan of womens matches really, but Molly Holly is great IMO.

 

They need to get Lita back on the scene with the title, and also maybe Victoria.

 

I feel a possible Re-Match with HHH,Cena,Edge happening, with HHH Taking the title, but this is wishful thinking, I understand why Vince is milking the Cena Reign though, full of controversy I bet Vince loves every minute of it (and every Dollar).

[Murph 93]

RVD doesn't HAVE to drop the IC Title, they may put two titles on him at once.

[Guest Down In Albion]

I'm not looking forward to RAW this week.

 

The champ will be there, unfortunetly.

Edited May 1, 2006 by Down In Albion

[Guest CoTT]

RAW will probably just be a filler episode this week seeing as they don't have another PPV now for a good few weeks. Isn't ECW ONS2 next? I suppose they could get started on incorporating that into storylines. I'm not crazy about it to be honest. The PPV itself should be good but the build-up hype on RAW will probably be more lame rubbish.

[Guest TOO COOL]

foley is going to be on the cuting edge

 

from wwe.com

[Guest CoTT]

Foley? New book out probably. I wouldn't mind seeing him resurrect the feud with Edge though.

[Guest Dan]

Updated Preview :

 

The Champ is still here as Monday Night RAW heads into Columbus, Ohio tonight.

 

As first reported on WWE's new Mobile Alert system, The Cutting Edge will return tonight on RAW, and Edge's guest will be none other than Mick Foley. At WrestleMania 22, Edge and Foley had one of the most brutal Hardcore Matches ever, ending when the Rated R Superstar speared the Hardcore Legend through a flaming table. With their bloody war at WrestleMania 22 still fresh on both men's minds, what will Foley have to say and what will happen?

 

Last night at Backlash, Edge had a chance to become WWE Champion, but John Cena pinned Triple H to win the Triple Threat Match and retain the gold. However, when the match was over, The Game grabbed his sledgehammer, attacking Cena, Edge and even referee Mickie Hensen. A bloodied Cerebral Assassin stood tall as Cena and Edge lay in the ring; will The Champ have anything to say about the attack tonight?

 

Mr. McMahon is also coming off a huge victory at Backlash, as The Spirit Squad helped the WWE Chairman and his son Shane defeat Shawn Michaels and "God" in a No-Disqualification Match. As also first reported on WWE's new Mobile Alert system, Mr. McMahon will make a huge announcement tonight on RAW. What will it be?

Also last night, Rob Van Dam defeated Shelton Benjamin to become the Intercontinental Champion. With both Intercontinental gold and the Money in the Bank briefcase in his possession, what’s next on the agenda for Mr. Monday Night?

 

 

Plus, Trish Stratus defeated Mickie James by disqualification, but suffered a dislocated shoulder during the match. Will there be any further update on her injury?

 

Find out all this and more on RAW tonight at 9/8 CT on USA Network.

[Guest Dave7g]

Theres a good chance that the ECW seeds will be sown tonight, so it's probably worth watching, hopefully Big Show and Kane have been suspended and arent on the show, they are both bags of cement.

[Guest rawiswar]

I wonder what will happen tonight then. Are they going to continue advancing the storylines from Backlash? I would think so and it's going to be interesting to see what Cena, HHH and Edge have to say after last night’s bout. I can imagine the opening segment will be McMahon bragging about his win... I could be wrong there though.

[Guest FreeSpirit]

I love Raw's 24 hours after a Joint PPV or a Raw Only PPV as you get the immediate fallout from the PPV. Should be interesting to hear what all three men in the triple threat match have to say.

[Guest Brad]

Isn't there also rumours of a Sabu Debut?

[Guest SuperKick Kid]

Yeah, I heard some rumors.

[Guest Slim Jim]

I don't think Sabu will appear on WWE TV until the ECW storyline starts. That could be tonight, but they might wait a week or two. If we get TV as good as we got last time ECW made an appearance, I can't wait.

[Guest yoyo]

There will be a STEEL CAGE match tonight. I can promise you that.

 

Edit-Well I was half right. The steel cage was a dark match.

Edited May 2, 2006 by yoyo

[Guest SuperKick Kid]

Well, more DX teasing. Nothing yet. Triple H is the best ref ever. HBK is second best. I was kinda hoping we would see HBK superkick Cena at the end.

 

Conway was on Raw. May 19th. Spirit Squad need to replace Vince as Co-GMs.

 

Joey's speech was good stuff.

 

 

Plus, it was good to see the old HBK and HHH on Raw.

 

 

And as for Foley vs Edge. I was kinda expecting Hell in a Cell. But a hardcore match with sharp objects is still just as good.

Edited May 2, 2006 by SuperKick Kid

[Guest rawiswar]

Expected it to be a filler show, was I in for a shock

 

What a RAW, one of the best in a long time. No ridiculous segments like previous weeks and everything seemed to flow well.

 

There were plenty of backstage segments which fitted nicely and they weren’t actually useless or boring for once. You had Matt Striker attacking Eugene with a book in the interview area due to Eugene's actions at Backlash, you had the Spirit Squad try to make their presence as GM’s felt, calling Joey backstage and then of course the Joey speech/promo at the end.

 

I thought Spirit Squad were great as there roll as General Managers and the seeds were sewn for the ECW verses WWE event.

 

The King and Joey argument was classic.

 

Surely a new beginning after the Joey promo, I mean, what he was saying there was all real stuff. If Vince was comfortable with all that truth being poured out from Joey then I guess this confirms even Vince wants to make some changes to the product. This weeks RAW was actually cleverly written as apposed to some of the poor RAWS we've had on numerous occasions. I know it's the start of the ECW angle but Joey did have an actual point on the negatives of the WWE.

 

Basically, if you haven’t already seen this, Joey was basically making a speech that criticised the WWE and the state the product was in. It was so truthful and what he said mirrors a lot of what others in the business think of the WWE. He slated McMahon saying it’s all their to feed his giant ego, he said it’s ridiculous the way all wrestlers are known as Superstars and he said he was sick of changing his style to tell a story and not call an actual match. It was all real stuff and I’m surprised they let Joey go that far, you should see it if you haven’t done so already.

 

A lot of it looked un-scripted but I doubt it was, Joey did go into complete detail on the actual bad parts of the WWE right, a lot more was said than what I described above. It was really truthful and fans that have seen this product deteriorate over the years couldn’t agree more to what Joey said.

 

An all round entertaining RAW for once with some interesting twists and turns.

 

Good stuff indeed.

 

Edited @ 9:50 - PWInsider have the full transcript of Joey's promo, so here it is:

 

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT OF JOEY STYLES' RESIGNATION RANT ON RAW

by Paul LaPorte @ 2:12:00 AM on 5/2/2006

 

Here is the Joey Styles shoot promo, word for word:

 

Events leading up to the promo:

 

The GMs for the evening, the Spirit Squad, called Joey into their office(?) to tell him that if he didn't do a good job of commentary on the title match they would make him wear a cheerleader outfit. Joey then came back out to King mocking Joey and the fact that he may be a cheerleader next week. Telling Joey to have spirit. Saying that if this was ECW he';d have spirit, to which Joey replied "If this was ECW, I wouldn't be working with a hack, like you." This led to Joey shoving Lawler a few times, to which Lawler liked (he was showing "spirit") then Joey slapped him in the face. Which led to King shoving him to the floor and Joey running off to the back.

 

After the break King apologized to Joey and asked him to come back out and finish out the show. Joey came back out and said the following:

 

"You want to apologize? Like nothing happened. Like you didn't knock me on my ass in front of millions of people worldwide, and I'm gonna come down there and work with you. I'm not coming back, and now thanks to the magic of live television I'm gonna show the whole world, why for seven years in ECW I was the unscripted, uncensored, loose cannon of commentary. Six months ago, WWE called me, I didn't call this company because I was looking for a job. I didn't need a job. WWE called me because they had humiliated and fired...again, Jim Ross. So I get JR's spot, and from week one, week after week I've got an ongoing lecture about the differences in professional wrestling and sports entertainment. I'm not allowed to say 'pro wrestling', I'm not allowed to say 'wrestler'. I have to say 'sports entertainment' and refer to the wrestlers as 'superstars'. I'm told to deliberant ignore the moves and the holds during the matches so I can tell stories. Well ignoring the moves and the holds is damn insulting to the athletes, the 'wrestlers', not the entertainers who leave their families three hundred days a year to ply their craft in that ring. Here's the best part, because I'm not a sports entertainment storyteller I get pulled from Wrestlemania, and the reason I'm given is, is because I don't sound like Jim Ross who's the guy they fired in the first place. That makes sense, right? So I swallow the bitter pill, I'm a company guy. I get bumped from Wrestlemania. Then I get bumped from Backlash? I'm not good enough to call Backlash!? In ECW, I called live pay-per-views on my own, solo, no color commentators dragging me down. Wasn't done before me, hasn't been done since. But I'm not good enough to call Backlash because I'm not a sports entertainment storyteller. Well you know what? I am sick of sports entertainment. I am sick of male cheerleaders. I am sick of boogers and bathroom humor and semen and I am sick of our chairman. Who likes to talk about his own semen, he mocks God... he mocks God!!!!! And makes out with the divas all to feed his own insatiable ego. I am sick of sports entertainment, and most of all I am sick of you fans who actually buy into that crap! This sports entertainment circus! I never

needed this job, and I don't want this job anymore."

 

[At this point Joey pulls the WWE collar off the microphone and tosses it away.]

 

"I quit!"

Edited May 2, 2006 by rawiswar

[DC 536]

This RAW is going to suck.

Did you book it? Did you write it? Do you have a time machine, so you went forward, saw the show, then came back and felt you needed to advise us of the show's suckage?

 

Every single post I have read of yours has been a negative one....lighten up buddy....or at least expand on your reasons for why the show, in your opinion, is going to suck.

 

I mean, you have a WWE avatar, yet you seem to detest everything about McMahonland.

[Guest horsemansmiler]

Foley? New book out probably. I wouldn't mind seeing him resurrect the feud with Edge though.

 

 

rite on the money. Cant wait for the match next week, hope it is as good as their mania contest.

 

Raw really confused me this week, They do a great angle with Joey but when he took a swipe at the fans and the king burried him i dont think that was right. it was obvious King got heat for pushing him over and Joy got pop, Why burry the guy?

 

Triple H Heel/Face?? man im confused.

 

The make up job they did on triple threat people was lousy. Cena looked like he had a birth mark on his forhead, he looked like gillian hall the 2nd

 

Liked the spirit squad for some reason they make me laugh!!!

 

Nice to see them starting up a real Haas and benjamin fued and great to see carlito get some great pop.

[Guest SuperKick Kid]

I know how people are saying that if DX comes back it will tarnish the old DX's memories. It willl be stale and such. Well, after thinking about it, these teasings about DX coming back have been SO suttle, yet SO great. Started at Wrestlemania and now what we had last night was great. HHH and HBK staring each other down with a DX chant in the background. And plus HBK during the Kane/Conway match, saying "May 19th" and puting the mic on Conway. And holding the trashcan out for Kane. Plus Triple H when he was the ref acting like "aw man, I have to count again." Everytime Kenny went for a pin.

 

Plus now Triple H has crossed Vince. This sets up HBK and HHH as DX taking on Vince, Shane, and the Spirit Squad.

 

Another possiblity I saw was that if DX is reformed is Cena joining it.

 

By the way, is anyone thinking next: HBK and HHH vs Spirit Squad. Perhaps either in a handicap match or for the Tag Team Championships.

Edited May 2, 2006 by SuperKick Kid

[Dead Crow 370]

THAT, my friends, is how WWE should use Joey Styles. That is also how you book ECW. Anti-establishment, anti-Vince, anti-sports entertainment. A war between the two fans could be amazing.