Monday Night Raw

Raw starts off with the huge fireworks, followed by us being welcomed by Jim Ross and the King, who talk about how tonight’s show is a Raw Night of Champions night, with all of the Raw’s vacant titles being decided, as well as the Women’s Championship. All of a sudden, none other than Shane McMahon comes out to a big ovation from the crowd. The crowd are on the edge of their seats, waiting for his announcement, before he says that he is the new General Manager of Raw, which gets an outstanding pop from the crowd. Shane then says that he is out here to announce tonight’s matches, and that the main event was perhaps the biggest main event in history, as the WWE Championship would be up for grabs in a Triple Threat match, with the three competitors being the Undertaker (almighty pop), Shawn Michaels (another huge pop), and the Thrill Seeker Jeff Hardy!! The announcement gets a huge pop, as he also says that the Intercontinental Title would be decided in a Battle Royal, and the tag team title match would be London and Kendrick facing off against Cantino and the UKonnection, which are William Regal and Paul Burchill! He then left the ring to a wonderful ovation, as JR and the King put over the matches, as we go to the first commercial break.

*Commercial*

We come back from the break with the “Glamazon” Beth Phoenix making her way to the ring, as JR tells us that the first match of the night is the Women’s Championship match, which is now an inter-brand title. The arena goes quiet, as Lillian says that her opponent is from Smackdown, and it is none other than Richmond’s own Mickie James! The crowd go complete apeshit at the hometown hero, as she makes her way out to the ring, hi fiving her loyal hometown fans. The match is a good diva’s match, with Mickie attempting a Hurricanrana from the corner, but Beth reversed into a sit out powerbomb, but it wasn’t enough. Phoenix then signalled for the end, going for the Down in Flames, but Mickie landed on her feet. Phoenix then turned around, only for Mickie to kick her in the gut, but when she attempted a Mickie DDT, Phoenix attempted to give her a back drop, but James floated over in a sunset flip pin, but that only got a two count. The two then got up, and they hit each other with a double clothesline, knocking both of them out in this gruelling contest. They both got up at 7, and then Beth approached James and gave her a slap, which got big heat from the crowd. James touched her cheek, before kicking Beth in the gut and bouncing off the ropes, and nailing a Lou Thesz Press! She waiting for Beth to get up, and she nailed her with a Long Kiss Goodnight, getting the three count and the Women’s Championship. The crowd go wild as Mickie is ecstatic, as King and JR congratulate her.

[color:dbbd="DarkRed"]*Commercial*

We come back with a moments ago moment, with James winning the title. We cut to Mickie backstage, who is being congratulated by all of the face divas. We see Natalya, Victoria and Melina (still heel) in the background, who are tending to Beth who is holding the back of her neck. Beth is staring daggers through Mickie, who is staring straight back. Beth lets out a smirk, before saying that she better watch her back, because someone will strike at the moment when she will least expect it. Mickie looks confused, as Phoenix just looks at her, before getting up and leaving, her colleagues following her.

We cut back to JR and the King, who talk about tonight’s huge night, with all new rosters and such. This also leads to JR talking about ECW’s demise. King then says that he is actually happy at the end of Extremely Crappy Wrestling and that now Raw gets the stars from ECW. JR then talks about superstars that came to Raw such as Chavo Guerrero, John Morrison and Tommy Dreamer, and that all 3 of them are in the Intercontinental Title Battle Royale tonight. King then says that the Hardcore and CW Titles have been re-instated, and that this is a really exciting time for the WWE.

[color:dbbd="Navy"]JR then hypes tonight’s huge Triple Threat main event WWE Championship match, as JR hypes one of the contenders for the title, Jeff Hardy. We cut to a video package looking at all of Hardy’s great moments, including Hardy’s time with his brother, and all of his daredevil antics in TLC matches, as well as the Whisper in the Wind off of the cage to Umaga at the start of the year. The video finishes off with the various Swanton Bombs, with it being topped off with the senton off of the scaffold to Randy Orton.

[color:dbbd="DarkRed"]*Commercial*

We come back from the break with many superstars in the ring. The superstars are Cody Rhodes, JTG, Shad, Chavo Guerrero, his body guard Bam Neely, John Morrison, Tommy Dreamer and Elijah Burke in the ring. JR says that this is the 10 man Battle Royal for the IC Title. Chris Jericho then makes his entrance to a big ovation, as he comes down to the ring with a determined look on his face. The 9 superstars are in the ring, waiting for the last man, before Booyaka hits to a massive ovation, as REY MYSTERIO comes bursting out, making his long awaited return.

The match starts with a buzz throughout the arena, everyone excited at the return of Mysterio. It didn’t take long for him to show off his skills, nailing a very impressive head scissor takedown to his former foe Chavo Guerrero, before nailing his bodyguard Neely with a signature Wheelbarrow Bulldog. Rey and Y2J then teamed up to take out Cryme Tyme and they did so, taking them out with a double dropkick to Shad while they hit JTG with a double clothesline. Cody Rhodes was battling it out with Elijah Burke and John Morrison, with the heels dominating the youngster. This left Tommy Dreamer, who had rolled to the outside (not eliminated as he went under the bottom rope), before grabbing a steel chair, which got “E-C-DUB” pops from the crowd. Dreamer annihilated his former ECW counterparts in Morrison and Burke, before out of no-where, a recovered Chavo and Bam Neely went from behind of Dreamer and lifted him over the top rope, eliminating him, although the chair was still in the ring. Chavo sarcastically waved goodbye, but when he turned around, Jericho had the chair! Rhodes and Rey quickly took out Neely with a clothesline, as Jericho hit Chavo with the chair as Dreamer pulled the ropes down, causing the elimination! Dreamer began brawling with Chavo to the back, as Rey, Rhodes and Jericho lift Neely over the top rope! Neely rushed to the back to help Chavo in the back with Dreamer, as Jericho then went over to Rhodes and Rey went over to Burke, but was met with a poke to the eye. Burke and Morrison began to double team Rey Mysterio, but Cryme Tyme then came over, brawling with the two heels. Tyme managed to knock Elijah down, before setting up for a G9 near the ropes, but when JTG went for the flip neck breaker, Burke moved Morrison and Shad, so JTG went flying over the top rope! Shad drops Burke in shock and looks over the ropes with his back turned, before Morrison and Burke hit a double team, with Morrison nailing a springboard Enziguiri and Elijah hit the Elijah Express, which got the elimination! Morrison and Burke hi fived and went to work on Mysterio once again, but the action was on the other side of the ring, where Jericho took control of Cody, before nailing him with a Codebreaker, which sent him flying across the ring, AND OVER THE TOP ROPE! The final 4 men are Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Elijah Burke and John Morrison. Jericho goes to help out his friend Mysterio, attempting to save him from the double team, only to be met with a forearm shot by Morrison, followed by the MOONLIGHT DRIVE! John looks down and smirks, but in this time, his supposed friend Elijah Burke comes charging in and dumps John over the top rope and onto the floor!! Morrison is furious and begins slamming the mats, before making his way to the back, extremely pissed off. Burke smirks and goes back over to Mysterio, and then goes for an Elijah Experience, but Rey manages to hold onto the top rope. Burke seems confused as to why the move wont connect, as he then tries to clothesline Rey over, but Rey lifts hi over the top rope, but Burke holds on. Burke then uses his boxing background to fend off Rey by knocking him out with one punch, and then looks down at Mysterio, before Y2J comes charging in and nails a springboard dropkick to Burke, causing the elimination! Rey and Jericho will now fight it out in a pinfall one on one match, as Y2J wastes no time by leaping off the ropes and hitting a Lionsault, but Rey manages to kick out! The two battle it out for a bit of time, but the end of the match comes when Jericho goes for another springboard dropkick, Rey charged forwards and nailed a dropkick to the back, which caused Jericho to be hung up on the ropes, but he managed to dodge the attempted 619. Rey was on the apron, and when Jericho got up, Rey nailed an astonishing Springboard Tornado DDT!! Rey quickly got up and headed to the top rope, before hitting the Frog Splash! Rey is the new Intercontinental Champion!!

Rey is extremely happy about winning his first Intercontinental Title, and although they don’t mention it, Rey is now a Triple Crown Champion. Rey gets a wonderful ovation from the hot crowd, as we see that Jericho has gotten up behind Mysterio, and it looks like he is frustrated that he came so close to reclaiming to what he thought was his IC Championship. He goes behind of Mysterio, and turns him around and in a sign of sportsmanship; he sticks out his hand for a handshake, as Mysterio looks out at the crowd, who persuade him to do it. Mysterio accepts the handshake, but is then pulled into a Code Breaker! The crowd give deafening heat for the heel turn of Jericho, as he lifts up the IC Title which Rey dropped. Y2J picked up the title, before throwing it on top of Mysterio, and then spitting on Mysterio! Jericho leaves to big heat, as he looks back at the unconscious Rey and smirks.

*Commercial*

We go to a “Moments Ago” package as Raw goes to the second hour (with the Battle Royal taking up the majority), which shows Rey winning and then the Jericho turn. JR and the King talk about this, but they are cut off by going backstage, where Dreamer is throwing Chavo into some trash cans and such, before we see Bam Neely make his way over, as he throws Tommy away and gets Chavo to safety. Chavo goes skits at Bam, saying that his job was to protect Chavo! Bam said that he got there as quick as he could, but Chavo didn’t take it, saying that he was more worried about the IC Championship than him. Chavo calls Neely a selfish coward, which turns out to be the wrong thing to say. Bam goes apeshit at Chavo, before saying the words that would haunt Chavo. “I have taken his long enough Guerrero. You have done this to me long enough, and I think you can do it yourself. Chavo, I QUIT!!” The crowd give Bam a good reaction as he leaves, as Chavo looks like crying.

JR and King talk about what a night it has been, with the tag team title match and the massive Triple Threat World Title Match still to come as the main event. This leads to the next hype video package of one of the superstars in the match, and this one is for Shawn Michaels. They show all of Shawn Michaels’ highlights in his career, including the Splash off of the ladder, the infamous Montreal Screw Job and various Sweet Chin Music’s since the start of his career all those years ago. The video cuts out with HBK returning to WWE last year in October, hitting the Sweet Chin Music to Randy Orton, followed by a crotch chop.

*Commercial*

We return from the break with yet another promo, making it three promo’s in a row. This time it is a backstage interview, with Chris Jericho, who gets big heat from the crowd. Todd Grisham questions why did he do that to his supposed friend of Rey Mysterio, and Y2J cut him off, saying he was sick and tired of being disrespected, and that a Cruiserweight has his title. Jericho then says that it will only take a matter of time before he gets his title back, and that would be at the next PPV, the Great American Bash!! The crowd give a big pop for the dream match for the Great American Bash, as Jericho tells Mysterio that that was only a taste of what was going to come, and that after the GAB, Rey Mysterio would not only not be the Intercontinental Champion, but he would never, EVEEEEEEEEEEER be the same again!! Jericho walks off the screen to a ton of heat from the crowd, as the announcers hype the match for the GAB.

We go back to the arena, where Santino Marella’s music is playing, and Santino and Carlito are making their ways to the ring. Once they reach the ring, “Born Naughty” plays to heat as the new stable called the UKonnection make their way to the ring, with Katie Lea Burchill waving an English flag, which prompts chants from the hot audience, as they begin screaming “USA” repeatedly, which causes Regal and Burchill to go skits. When they finally make their way to the ring after all of the jeers, London and Kendrick’s music plays, as the masked duo charge to the ring as the big fan favourites in the match. The high flying duo gets actually a pretty big pop from the crowd, considering they are mid carders.

The match starts off with one man for each team in the ring, with Burchill representing the UKonnection, Carlito representing Cantino and London is starting off for Londrick. The crowd is highly anticipated for this match, considering the amount of talent that is in the ring. The action begins from the get go, and Carlito takes advantage after London took out Burchill, before he miscued a crossbody, causing him to eat the canvas. Carlito manipulates both men, before tagging in Santino, as the two nailed London and Burchill with simultaneous suplexes. After an action packed fifteen minutes with each team having their fair share of the advantage, all 6 men spilled into the ring, and one by one each man was taken out by a finisher. Santino nailed Kendrick with a TKO, but Burchill went behind him and nailed him with a Curb Stomp. Carlito then hit his Back Cracker onto Burchill, as London then nailed Carlito with a perfectly placed and manufactured Drop Sault, causing Regal and London to be the last two men standing. Regal charged at a momentarily distracted London (as he had just put away Carlito), but Paul saw the former Raw General Manager and nailed him with a flapjack onto the ropes, causing Regal to be hung up on the ropes and he suffered whiplash. London then dragged the prone Regal over towards the turnbuckle, before climbing it, looking for a signature Shooting Star Press to finish off the match, but all of a sudden, a man comes out of the crowd and Katie Lea gives him the English flag which she was holding. It was DH SMITH! The crowd doesn’t know what to think, as Smith smashes the flag across London’s back, but the match is No Disqualifications, so the referee can’t do anything. Regal gets up, smirks as he sees DH Smith on the outside, before locking London in the Regal Stretch! London’s eyes are in the back of his head, as the referee has no choice but to call for the bell! The UKonnection are now the new tag team champions, and have now got a new member in the stable!

The crowd are pissed off at the result, but they can do nothing about it, as Burchill gets up, still feeling the effects of the awesome match and the effects of the Backstabber. DH Smith and Katie Lea Burchill get in to the ring, as Katie Lea consoles her brother and DH Smith hands them the tag team titles. All 4 people of the new found stable celebrate, as Regal and Burchill have the titles around their waists. All 4 have smirks across their faces, but DH Smith turns around, and sees Kendrick helping his partner. He looks around at his colleagues who laugh, as Smith lifts up Kendrick, and drops him with a massive Running Powerslam! The connection leaves the duo lying there, as they leave to a big amount of heat. JR and the King put over the stable, saying they are the biggest stable on Raw since perhaps Evolution, and that they will definitely be a force to be reckoned with in the future, which they just showed after they just won the World Tag Team Championships, which they may hold for a very long time.

*Commercial*

We return from the break with another “Moments Ago”, with DH Smith helping the UKonnection win the World Tag Team Championships, as well as effectively joining them in the process. We go backstage to see the UKonnection celebrating, but they are joined by none other Natalya Neidhart. Regal laughs as he sees the camera, and he says that yes, they do have another member, the beautiful Natalya Neidhart. They talk about how this team will rule all of the WWE, Regal and Burchill as the Tag Team Champions, DH Smith to be a future WWE Champion, and anyone of the two beautiful women as the Women’s Champ. All of the members laugh rather loudly at this non- humorous comment, as we cut back to JR and the King once again.

The two talk about what a night it had been so far with the return of Rey Mysterio and him winning the Intercontinental Title, both Chris Jericho and DH Smith betraying the fans, the announcement of the Great American Bash IC Title match, Mickie James winning the Women’s Championship and the stunning formation of the UKonnection (which they put over once again!). They say that there is still one more match to come and that is after the break, which is the Triple Threat WWE Title Match.

We go to the last hype video package, which is now of perhaps the best professional wrestler in history and certainly the most frightening, The Undertaker. The package on the Deadman mainly focuses on his Wrestlemania wins; especially the last two Wrestlemania’s where he won the World Heavyweight Title. It also shows the Undertaker’s mind game techniques, and to close the video off, it shows the Undertaker with his urn at Armageddon 2005, after the Hell in a Cell match with Randy Orton.

[color:86e3="DarkRed"]*Commercial*

We come back from the break with arena in silence, before “No More Words” blasts out to an awesome, rock star ovation, as “The Thrill Seeker” Jeff Hardy makes his way out to the ring, doing his little dance and slapping hands with the fans. The announcers put over his opportunity for Hardy to become the champ for the first ever time. When Hardy stops playing to the crowd and his music stops, “Sexy Boy” rings out to an equal amount of cheers, as The Icon Shawn Michaels makes his way out to the ring, doing his signature kneel on the stage before going into the ring. Once he makes it there, he gives Hardy a little nod of respect, which Hardy gives back. The arena goes quiet and the two competitors in the ring stay still, ready for what happens next. A ‘Gong’ rings out through the arena to another huge reaction, just a smidgeon bigger than the other two. The Undertaker’s entrance takes about 3 minutes, as the announcers put over that the Undertaker hasn’t been a part of the Raw Roster since the brand split. When Taker finally makes it, Lillian Garcia does the “big match” introductions, and the match begins!

The match kicks off with a buzz throughout the crowd, as the match that they have been waiting for all night has finally come, and the match turned out to be worth the wait, with a showcase of moves being displayed in the early going, as HBK and Jeff try to wear out Taker with their high flying acrobatics, as the “Phenom” tries to fend them off with his power, but the numbers game proves to be too much for the Deadman, as a double dropkick sends Taker out of the ring. Hardy and Michaels then have a battle of one up man ship, and Hardy manages to get the advantage, as HBK took a bump the outside after Hardy nailed him with a Hurricanrana over the top rope. Hardy then approached the ropes and looked over the top rope where HBK was, and once he had gotten up, Hardy leapt over the top rope and nailed Shawn with a crossbody!! Both men were down and the spot got a big pop from the crowd, but it got an even bigger pop when Undertaker had gotten into the ring, and once the two on the outside had gotten up, Undertaker ran towards the ropes and leapt over the top, nailing his suicide dive over the top rope onto the other two! It took a while for the three to get up, and Undertaker was the first up and he then picked up Michaels and brought him into the ring, but he didn’t get the pin. After another 10 minutes of solid action, Hardy got momentum after being dominated for most of the time (after HBK and Undertaker teamed up against him), nailing Michaels square in the chest with a signature Mule Kick, but his momentum looked to be short lived, as the Undertaker lifted him up into a Tombstone Piledriver position, ready to finish it off and become the champion. When Taker looked to drive Hardy down, Hardy countered into a beautiful head scissors take down, before nailing Undertaker with a standing senton. Jeff then went back to Shawn, and lifted up the veteran. Hardy whipped Michaels across the ropes, but unfortunately for Jeff, Michaels nailed his flying forearm, followed by a signature kip up. Michaels then nailed his standard sequence leading up to the Sweet Chin Music, but when he was going to hit it. Hardy ducked and Shawn nailed the Undertaker, who he had been forming a partnership with throughout the match! Shawn looks shocked at what he has done, but Hardy capitalizes, by turning Shawn around, kicking him in the gut and nailing the TWIST OF FATE! Jeff then heads up top, looking for the Swanton Bomb, but out of absolutely no-where, Randy Orton gave Jeff an RKO off of the top rope, seemingly recovered from his One Night Stand injury, but more importantly, costing Jeff Hardy what was a certain victory and his first ever WWE Championship!! The referee has no choice but to call for the bell as Randy assaulted Jeff, naming a No Contest.

The crowd goes ballistic at the announcement, as Jeff Hardy would have certainly been the victor and the new WWE Champion. Randy still had the demonic look in his eye when he attacked Jeff Hardy, although he seemed a little happier that he had cost Hardy the victory. Randy nailed Hardy with another RKO, but when he went for his punt kick, officials came charging from the back, preventing him from doing so. JR and the King are questioning why Randy would do this and that Jeff Hardy had been screwed. Randy doesn’t answer these questions, as Raw comes to a close, still a question up in the air with the WWE Championship situation...

END OF SHOW