Raw Thoughts & More - August 3, 2009

Welcome to the “I hope the build to SummerSlam gets better” edition of The Wrestling List. Yeah, not a very exciting night of Raw tonight. I just thought it was rather boring. Obviously, the “one phone call” thing will lead to excitement but the rest of Raw is just really stale right now. I have not gotten to watch Smackdown as of yet so this List will be without a Smackdown recap.

Tonight’s Raw had Jeremy Piven as the “guest host”. He had Dr. Ken with him which is someone that I have no clue who is. They promoted their new movie which then had The Miz interrupting. They all exchanged words with Cena then arriving on the scene. Miz wanted a rematch but Cena said that he had already beaten him in two minutes last week. Then, Piven started adding stipulations on the match happening. If Miz lost, he would be banned from “Summer Fest”. Yeah, Piven messed up on that one. LOL. He would be banned from SummerSlam, never be allowed in Staples Center again, and never be allowed to compete on Raw ever again. Miz wasn’t happy with the stipulations. Well, the main event happens as Cena vs. Miz was a lumberjack match but then Piven and Dr. Ken turned heel. The lumberjacks were all heels including Legacy. Cena was put in the masterlock by Masters at one point on the floor. Legacy put a big beating on him. Dr. Ken handed Miz a cane at one point but Cena picked up Miz for the adjustment to get the win. Afterwards, Piven jumped off the top rope but was caught by Cena. Cena used him as a battering ram (not a barbed wire battering ram to quote Joey Styles about the Sandman years ago LOL) and hit some of the lumberjacks. Dr. Ken then hit Cena with the cane and got caught. He tried to make friends with Cena. Cena then picked him up and threw him over the top in a press slam type throw on to some lumberjacks on the floor as Legacy watched from the stage. Triple H took on Priceless in a handicap match. Well, I was very happy with how this turned out. I get tired of the one guy beating up a tag team kind of matches. Just makes the tag teams look weak. Triple H went for the pedigree on Rhodes but Dibiase hit the dream street from behind. Cody tried to get the pin but Triple H kicked out. Rhodes then hit the crossroads for the win. After the match, Triple H laid on the ropes saying that he just wasn’t as good at these group battles like he used to be. He then talked about making “one phone call” and made a DX reference. Later, he was shown making the phone call making a proposition to someone but the person wasn’t interested. He ended up hanging up on him afterwards after Triple H asked him “are you ready?” This is obviously leading up to the return of Shawn Michaels. Big Show and Kofi Kingston went at it with Show getting DQ’d for not stepping back from Kofi in the corner as he continued the punishment. Jericho was on commentary and got in the ring furious over the DQ. They both taunted Kofi. Jack Swagger defeated Evan Bourne and then continued the assault after the match. MVP made the save and Swagger left. Beth Phoenix and Jillian Hall defeated Mickie James and Gail Kim when Beth made a blind tag into the ring. She then ended up pinning Gail. Carlito pinned Primo following the backstabber. Piven made a match with Chavo against Hornswoggle. However, he said that Hornswoggle wasn’t there and had made a match with his cousin, Mark Swoggle. So, out walks Mark Henry with Hornswoggle’s hat on. Squash match as Chavo quickly gets finished off with the world’s strongest slam. Henry then pulled up the ring apron and Hornswoggle ran out. Henry set up Chavo and then Hornswoggle hit the tadpole splash. Henry and Hornswoggle danced and then Henry did the jumping kick that Hornswoggle always does.

Other thoughts from Raw. Ok, I am very excited to have Shawn Michaels coming back soon. Anyone surprised? If you are surprised, in other news the sun will rise tomorrow as usual. Chris Jericho was great on commentary tonight!! He was ripping on Lawler saying that Jerry’s championship wins at a bowling alley doesn’t count. I loved his line after Show’s spear to Kofi saying that Show was like a subway clearing the track. Funny that WWE showed all of that ESPN footage of the Raw coverage on Shaq last week but conveniently left out the part where ESPN was making fun of them for stealing their Shaq scrabble commercial. Well, we had a lot of nice little comments from Triple H including him talking about putting Evolution back together when talking about bringing back one of his groups of the past. He said that he couldn’t because “Orton’s a jerk, Batista is hurt all the time, and Flair is signing autographs at a VFW somewhere”. Did you also catch the little jab reference when he said to Shawn “I didn’t think you did jobs”? Please WWE, stop with the Hornswoggle/Chavo stuff. It is getting beyond tiring. I have to admit that I laughed out loud when Henry came out with a big grin on his face while having the little hat on it. Cracked me up. I also did laugh at the line of Chavo’s at Dr. Ken saying “I love you in Heroes”. I was begging for Chavo to yell, “I did it!!!!”. Yet another combo theme music deal with Jericho and Big Show. I think that is the first time it has been done since Rated RKO. It works for me. So, what is up with The Miz now? Not sure what that was all about.

Sgt. Slaughter will be next week’s “guest host” on Raw.

Triple H got a surprise birthday bash last week after Raw went off the air with everyone breaking character. It was Triple H’s 40th birthday. Vince McMahon, John Cena, and Big Show were involved to start it off. At first, Triple H was hesitant coming to the ring. Vince sang happy birthday to him along with the rest of the roster. This is when the cake throwing begins. The show was in DC so that brought out Batista to take part in it. Lots of hilarity with the cake throwing. Vince faked a throw at Triple H which had a big smile on Show's face. Vince then turned and blasted Show in the face with the cake and took off running. Really fun moment.

7-Eleven has limited edition WWE cups for their SummerSlam promotion. They include Cena, Triple H, Undertaker, Edge, and Kelly Kelly.

Wishing all of you a great week!! Take care and God bless!!