Three Hour Raw - New WWE Champ & New Owner, Smackdown, & More - June 15, 2009

Welcome to the “how fitting of a line was it for Vince McMahon to say that Donald Trump has lost his marbles when I’m thinking at the same time that Vince has lost his!!!” edition of The Wrestling List.

News for the week. WWE News: Raw will be going commercial free next week on USA Network. WWE is saying that Batista will be out for four months after having surgery on his torn tendon in his left bicep. Umaga’s release is a wellness policy violation deal. WWE posted the following on their website about his release: As reported on WWE.com on Monday, June 8, 2009, WWE Superstar Umaga (Edward Fatu) has been released from his World Wrestling Entertainment contract. However, consistent with the practice of announcing wellness policy violations, it should be noted that Umaga's termination was due to his second violation of the WWE Wellness Program and his subsequent refusal to attend a rehabilitation facility. Vickie Guerrero has asked for her release from WWE to spend more time with her family. That is why she was written off of TV last week.

Smackdown opened up with the new World champion, CM Punk. He talked of the rumblings of how he had robbed Hardy of the title but pointed out how people didn’t see it that way last year when he did the same thing to Edge. He went on to talk about how it doesn’t make him a bad guy for doing what you’re supposed to do with the Money In The Bank cash in. Punk talked of how he had never been someone to do the popular thing and did what was best for him. Punk talked of bringing honor and respect back to the World title. Jeff Hardy arrived and said he wasn’t there to complain because it wasn’t his style. Hardy said that Punk earned the Money In The Bank win but didn’t earn the World title. Punk said that when Hardy made the ladder match that he knew that it was his night to cash it in and it just happened that Hardy was the one that won the match. Hardy talked of how Punk was selfish and wondered if he even cared about his fans. Hardy wanted his rematch but so did another guy as Edge made his way to the ring. Punk and Hardy both agreed that Edge didn’t deserve in the argument cause he lost it to begin with. Lots of back and forth on who should get the rematch with Edge pointing out how Punk wants to be him so badly. Hardy ended up punching Edge and then hit a twist of fate and swanton on to Punk. Teddy Long made his way to the ring announcing a number one contender’s match as the main event with the winner moving on to face Punk for the title on the special three hour Raw. So, Edge and Hardy closed the show and Punk was on commentary for the match. Interesting that JR was on Punk’s side saying that he did what he was supposed to do with having that kind of advantage with Money In The Bank saying it was too bad if fans didn’t understand that. The end of the match had Hardy and Edge battling on the floor. Edge threw Hardy on to Punk. As Edge got in the ring, Punk went after Edge for retaliation. That caused the DQ and Hardy was DQ’d. As Punk was punching Edge, Hardy went after Punk. Hardy hit the twist of fate to Edge but it opened an opportunity for Punk to hit the GTS on Hardy. Controversy over the finish since Hardy didn’t have anything to do with it to get himself DQ’d and Teddy Long arrived again making Monday’s match a triple threat match for the title. Other happenings on the show had CM Punk defeating Chris Jericho with the GTS after Jericho had complained to Long about wanting in the title picture. Before the match, Jericho pointed out how he set Rey free by removing the mask so he wouldn’t have to hide anymore. John Morrison and R Truth defeated Benjamin and Haas when Morrison pinned Haas with the starship pain. Michelle McCool and Layla defeated Melina and Eve when Michelle pinned Melina with the Styles clash. Yeah, I’m still calling it that. Ha ha. Dolph Ziggler defeated The Great Khali by countout. Ziggler was running from Khali on the outside of the ring and then grabbed Singh. He used Singh as a shield and then threw him to Khali. Ziggler was watching the count and jumped in right before the ten count to get the outsmarting win.

Tonight’s three hour edition of Raw was called the 3 For All. For the most part, I liked the show. Lots of good action tonight. Now, the one storyline idea really got on my nerves and left me thinking that Vince had lost his mind but I’ll get to that in a minute. The fatal four way match was set up to decide the WWE championship. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H vs. Big Show. Really good match. Triple H hit the pedigree on Big Show. Cena jumped in and hit the attitude adjustment on Triple H. Cena went to pin Big Show but he kicked out. Orton then jumped in and threw Cena into the post. Orton hit a RKO on to Big Show and got the pin to win back the WWE championship. His fifth title win. The other big story of the show was Vince McMahon’s announcement. Before the WWE title match, Vince said he had made a big decision and that was selling Raw to a new owner. He mentioned that he had a history with the person but that it was an offer that he couldn’t pass up. He made his way to the ring to announce the new owner of Raw. Who would it be? My obvious thought was that it would be Ric Flair especially with them in Charlotte. I wasn’t really into that though cause we’ve been there and done that with Flair in charge. Then, Vince announced the new owner of Raw and it was really making me want Flair instead. Donald Trump. Yes, you heard me right. Donald Trump is the new owner of Raw. Trump appeared on the big screen with a big speech about what he was going to do for Raw that Vince never had. Trump said that his first act for Raw was to go commercial free next week. Yeah, no surprise there as that news was out last week. Vince said that Trump had lost his marbles with wanting to do that. Trump said that he would be on Raw next week with Vince saying that he would give his farewell speech next week as well due to him being so emotional tonight. Vince did say that he was in charge tonight and named the ten man battle royal to decide who would face Orton at The Bash. The ten man battle royal took place at the ending of the show which included Priceless, MVP, Matt Hardy, William Regal, Big Show, Miz, Kofi Kingston, Triple H, and John Cena. Show started doing some damage but then had everyone gang up on him to throw him out. Miz hid under the ring for a lot of the match. The final four, in the ring anyway, was Priceless, Cena, and Triple H. Cena dumped out Dibiase but then thought he dumped out Rhodes as well. Triple H took out Rhodes. Miz then reappeared in the ring and ran at both Cena and Triple H. They ducked him and Miz went to the floor eliminated. Triple H then dumped out Cena and won the match. He will go on to face Orton at The Bash. Orton had watched the match from the stage. Trump then appeared on the screen saying that The Bash would happen early as Triple H would face Orton in a last man standing match on Raw next week. CM Punk defended the World title against Jeff Hardy and Edge in the triple threat match. Very fun match. Punk had earlier continued his talk of how everyone loved what he did last year when he did it to Edge but that suddenly fans are mad at him cause he did it to Hardy. I liked the story of the finish. Edge dumped Punk over the turnbuckle sending Punk’s knee crashing into the steps. Officials checked on Punk with his knee. Hardy hit the whisper in the wind on Edge but Punk dove in desperately to break the count up. Hardy jumped out and pounded on Punk’s knee trying to keep him from getting involved again. Hardy then hit a twist of fate and swanton on Edge. Punk then pulled Hardy out of the ring on the pin attempt and put Hardy into the steps. Punk then dove in the ring and pinned Edge to retain the title. I really liked that finish. Teddy Long showed up and announced that Punk would defend the World title against Hardy at The Bash. Punk and Hardy both had agreeable faces on their faces and approved. Tommy Dreamer retained the ECW title against Christian. The story of the match was Christian landing awkwardly on his ankle. Tommy took advantage of it winning with a small package while Christian was battling the ankle. Chris Jericho retained the Intercontinental title against Rey Mysterio in a very fun match that opened the show. Rey went for the springboard and Jericho caught him and messed with his mask. As Rey was trying to keep it on, Jericho hit the codebreaker to win the match. Mickie James defeated Rosa Mendes as Maryse watched from ringside. Mickie won with a DDT and gave a big stare at Maryse. She called for Maryse to get in the ring. Maryse got up on the apron and did her pose. Mickie went after her and Maryse bailed while laughing. The Colons defeated The Hart Dynasty by DQ after Priceless interfered. They were on commentary and attacked Carlito after he hit the backstabber on Smith which was about to result in the pin. Priceless then cleared the ring of The Colons.

Other notes from Raw. What are you thinking Vince? I had to get online and get some immediate feedback from fans when Trump was announced as the owner. The feedback was mostly negative with some saying to give it a chance. I don’t know. I’m not feeling this at all and the live crowd just seemed really disinterested too. I am not into this at all. It just seemed like a major buzzkill to me especially after how good the first hour had been. The rest of the show was mostly solid too. This one segment was what was the big buzzkill. Wow, was it ever obvious that the Trump segment was pre taped or what??!! Interesting that they actually started the WWE title match during the end of the first hour which usually does a bad rating. One thing I wondered while watching Raw tonight was wondering if Vince had his hands on any of the Smackdown stuff or not or if Hayes had full control? Well, does anyone really have full control but you know what I mean. I really liked the finish to the World title match because it made logical sense. Welcome to the world of Smackdown where logic seems to happen. First time that I’ve seen the Hart Dynasty in action which I’ve looked forward to but just would have liked to have seen more out of them. Priceless already has another new theme. I wasn’t a fan of their second theme which was the rockier version from their original. It is always impressive to watch Cena pick up Big Show. Just amazing. I like Punk’s reasoning for Money In The Bank cause…..it makes sense!! What is great is that it isn’t really a heel line. He’s right. Everyone loved it last year when he did it to Edge but boo him now that he did it to Hardy. Good crowd tonight. I thought they were hot about all night. Well, except for the one segment where no one was into and you know what that was.

Ring Of Honor will not be doing PPV’s in the future. The PPV that is currently airing will be the last which is Take No Prisoners.

Mick Foley said on his recent My Space blog that he is writing his fourth autobiography. It will be entitled “Crossing The Line”.

Victoria has commented on why she left WWE and joined TNA. Interesting read which makes it sound like that she just wasn’t happy in WWE.
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=117278735&blogId=494150451

Announced for this Friday on Smackdown is CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio. Jeff Hardy vs. Chris Jericho. Again, if you aren’t watching Smackdown, you really need to be!!

WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand will be airing the NWA Great American Bash 1989 next month. If you’ve never seen this show, you really need to see it. It is often argued as the greatest PPV of all time. I know I’d rank it top five EASILY!! Flair’s comeback match against Terry Funk after Funk had injured Flair with the attack on him at Wrestle War 1989. Sting vs. The Great Muta for the TV title. Ricky Steamboat vs. Lex Luger. Wargames. Just an awesome show!!

Have a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!