Raw & Smackdown Thoughts, Divas Trade, WWE 24/7, & More - October 12, 2009

Welcome to the “what a strangely booked episode of Raw that was” edition of The Wrestling List.

That was one strange edition of Raw. The booking was all over the place. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Strange night of booking around the teams. Teams not getting along. Nancy O’Dell and Maria Menounos of Access Hollywood were the guest hosts. I thought they did a solid job. I’ve always liked Maria and think she’s cute. Triple H opened the show but there was no Shawn Michaels there. So, the joke was that they had Shawn on the phone all night. Jericho announced that he would be captaining Team Smackdown at Bragging Rights in the big 7 man tag team match against Raw. Triple H would be the captain for Raw. Jericho and Show made their way to the ring. Show was a Raw roster member so Jericho said that he wanted him on his team. Triple H started a riff between the two when he asked Show if Jericho was the boss of him. The two traded little verbal jabs at each other. Show ended up saying that he’d rather be on the Raw team. Triple H then said that there was no room for Show on the team. LOL. Triple H said that he had gotten a match between Show and Jericho and if Show won, he earned a spot on Team Raw. The two did go at it after Jericho continued to make Show mad. Show nailed a shot on Jericho out of the ring. Jericho held his knee like he was hurt. Show went to check on him and then Jericho ran in trying to beat the count. Show pulled him out and then Show beat the count in to win the match by countout. Show joins Team Raw. A qualifying match was set with John Cena vs. Ted Dibiase vs. Cody Rhodes. If Cena won, neither of Priceless was on Team Raw. The others could earn a spot by getting the win in the match. It was a doubleteam most of the way on Cena. As Cena hooked a STF on Dibiase, Orton slid in and out of the ring getting Cena’s attention. As Cena and Dibiase looked at Orton, Cody rolled up Dibiase to get the win and earn the spot on Team Raw. Dibiase and Orton were furious over what occurred while Cena laughed on the ramp. Nancy then made a match with Cena teaming with Orton against Rhodes and Dibiase. That match finished the show. Cena got a tag to Orton while he wasn’t looking and Orton did go at it with his teammates. Cena went for the adjustment on Dibiase but Orton attacked Cena. As he was pounding on Cena in the corner, Dibiase rolled up Orton to get the pinfall. Orton was furious after the match while Priceless went up the ramp. Orton then turned to get hit by an adjustment from Cena to end the show. Orton mentioned earlier about getting Cena a big opponent for possibly his last match on Raw. His opponent next week will be Triple H. In other qualifiers for Team Raw, Swagger defeated MVP. Kofi Kingston defeated Evan Bourne with the trouble in paradise kick as he caught it on Bourne as he jumped off the turnbuckle. Surprise segment with the divas. Mickie James defended the Divas title against Jillian Hall. Mickie was hit with a powerbomb in the corner and then Jillian made the pin while she had her feet on the ropes. The ref didn’t see it and Jillian won the title. However, Nancy arrived to say that she had made a trade over the weekend involving the divas. Melina was brought out as the newest member of Raw and the title was on the line at that moment. Melina won the match quickly. The finish was messed up as she was going to win with the legdrop into the splits. I’m glad that they decided to go with something else as Melina then hit the sunset flip slam for the pinfall to win the Divas title. Later, Beth Phoenix confronted Nancy and Maria about how she had heard that she was being traded to Smackdown. Maria made a joke about it and Beth slammed her head against the wall challenging her. Santino egged it on and Maria was put into a match later. So, it was Maria Menonous teaming with Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim against Beth, Rosa Mendes, and Alicia Fox. Maria looked solid in the ring and did get a kick and slap in on Beth before tagging out. The finish had Maria dropping and clotheslining Rosa on the rope. Kelly then landed a legdrop on the back of the head of Rosa to get the win for the team. The Miz did a promo where he announced that he would be facing John Morrison at the PPV. Triple H had some funny backstage segments with Shawn on the phone. He did have a cardboard standup of Shawn in the room. It was usual DX comedy.

Other notes from Raw. When Jericho and Show started not getting along at the beginning of the show, my immediate thought was Vince Russo just entered the building and that Jericho and Show would hate each other only to team up at the end of the night faking out everyone. Ok, the segment with Hornswoggle and Triple H was completely silly but I laughed hard at him superkicking the cardboard standup. It was funny too with the next segment later on and a bandage was on the standup’s head along with a bandaid. I laughed at that too. I said it already but I thought Maria did a solid job in the ring. She’s as good as several of the other divas for sure. Good job Maria!! I thought her and Nancy were really good tonight and one of the better co-hosts so far. They seemed to be having a good time and did a solid performance. Did you see Lawler’s “Lawler for Mayor” shirt that he was wearing? I still laugh at Jericho saying that he’ll fight Bob Barker anytime and any place. Good job by Melina and Jillian to call an audible and do a different finish to the match. I’ve seen many mess up a finish and just go ahead and do the pinfall. Glad that they did the kickout and then go with a different finish.

Snoop Dogg will be the guest host next week on Raw.

WWE promoted the divas trade that was going to be posted on WWE.com and here is what it is. On Raw, it was announced that Melina had been moved to Raw. Beth Phoenix had been moved to Smackdown. Now, the rest of the trades have been revealed. Mickie James is going to Smackdown. Rosa Mendes is going to ECW. The Bells are going to Raw. Eve is going to Raw. I’m curious to know what the deal is with all the switching. It did seem like we needed some fresh matches with the divas. Yeah, I’m not happy with Mickie going to Smackdown. They sure did just take that belt off of her quickly tonight on Raw. It almost felt like a squash of sorts cause it happened so fast. I guess Mickie will be able to feud with Michelle now for the Women’s title. Umm, weren’t the Bellas already on Raw?? They are on Raw all the time anyway. Actually, Smackdown looks like it will have a stronger women’s division than Raw with Beth and Mickie going over to Smackdown. There could be a nice battle between Mickie, Beth, and Michelle for that Women’s title. Now that I think about it, I think I might like the move of Mickie to Smackdown. Actually, I am more optimistic about it cause the divas stuff on Raw has went away from wrestling. Smackdown will maybe have more wrestling with the division. I expect the Divas title to revolve around Melina on Raw.

The Smackdown side of the title match at Bragging Rights was set up on Friday night with Teddy Long opening the show. However, he was interrupted by CM Punk who had his own idea for a rematch. Vince McMahon made his way to the ring and announced what Long’s main event for Bragging Rights would be which was Undertaker defending against CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, and Batista in a fatal four way. Undertaker did make an apperance on the show where he did some trash talking about his opponents for Bragging Rights. The main event of the show was CM Punk taking on Batista. The finish had Punk trying to get away from Batista including crawling under the ring. Batista pulled Punk back and then picked him up for a Batista bomb on the floor. Punk grabbed the ropes to counter it and then kicked Batista away. Punk then got back in the ring beating the ten count and won by countout. Rey Mysterio defeated Chris Jericho after hitting the 619 and the springboard splash for the win. John Morrison defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the Intercontinental title. I liked the finish of this match. Maria came to ringside to support Dolph. He had set up a chair to use in the match by sitting it next to the ring. She took the chair to sit in at ringside to support him. So, when he went to grab the chair, it was gone. He realized that Maria had it and then turned to take Punk’s flying kick. Morrison got the win. Backstage, Maria apologized while Dolph was upset over the loss. He said that his professional life was looking great but not his personal life. He then dumped Maria. Michelle McCool defeated Eve with a boot to the jaw to get the win. Drew McIntyre and Kane defeated Matt Hardy and R Truth. The finish had McIntyre sending Hardy into a Kane uppercut on the apron. McIntyre then hit his finisher on Hardy to win the match. There was a backstage segment with Vickie Guererro and her new man with her saying how she was disappointed that he wasn’t booked on the show while also criticizing Long’s decision on the Bragging Rights main event. Her point was that it stacked the odds against the original combatants but he did start to say that it was Vince’s idea.

Want to own the NWA title once held by Ric Flair? The much talked about Highspots auction for the belt is going up. Highspots has asked for a $75,000 minimum bid on it. Will the bidding go up? We’ll see. This isn’t an Ebay auction but you instead have to contact them directly to be a legitimate bidder. http://www.highspots.com/nwabelt.asp

WWE continues to change names of their PPV’s. The No Way Out name for the February PPV is now gone and is now just going to be called The Elimination Chamber. Not sure if I’m crazy about the name change but that is the focus of that show every year anyway. I liked the No Way Out name but oh well.

Stone Cold Steve Austin did an audio interview with the UK Sun which you can check out at this link: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/2672063/Stone-Cold-Steve-Austin-on-The-Suns-WrestleCast-Download-exclusive-interview-with-Damage-star.html
In the interview, he talks of how he is going to be very picky about future WWE appearances after seeing the great tribute music video of his career that was made for him at the Hall Of Fame. He mentioned the creative side of WWE and said that he would make sure that it was going to be something big time good for him to come back for if he did. He did say that he has recently turned down invitiations to appear as a Raw guest host and also to appear on the ten year anniversary of Smackdown.

Three hours of TNA Impact this Thursday night on Spike TV with there being a Kurt Angle/AJ Styles match that is said to be very good. So, if you don’t tune into anything else on the show, it sounds like that match may be worthwhile.

Say some prayers for Dr. Death Steve Williams. He is once again battling cancer which has unfortunately returned. He has had such an awful battle against it over the years. He was able to defeat it after a tough battle five years ago. Praying for him to be able to do it again.

It looks like the Nashville Fairgrounds which has run wrestling for many, many years now will be shut down in the near future. You may remember that TNA ran their weekly PPV shows from that venue when the company first started before moving to Orlando.

I was watching some Kane stuff on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand over the weekend. I’ve thought about this for a while now but don’t you think it is time to go retro with Kane? Put the mask back on him and go full out with the gimmick again. This Kane has long run its course long ago so why not go retro and put the mask back on? It worked big time for Undertaker and I think fans would be into Kane’s return as well.

Jim Ross mentioned in his latest blog about the newest set of roundtable shows set for WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand. They taped a show on managers which included JR, Michael Hayes, Jimmy Garvin, and JJ Dillon. Cowboy Bill Watts was unable to make it so JR moved over to the guest chair and Joey Styles was picked as a replacement host for the program. JR said that Bobby Heenan was talked about a lot. Yep, I’d say best manager of all time if I had my pick. He was able to get heat not only himself but more importantly on his wrestler. http://www.jrsbarbq.com/blog/roundtable-updatejblvickies-backhiac-intriging

WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand will have their five month anniversary next month. I’m happy to say that I’ve been a subscriber for three of those five years. Believe me, I wanted it from day one but ordered it literally from the first day uit was made available here locally which was October of 2006. To celebrate five years, WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand will be doing Pick Your Big One month, which based on the preview, means that the fans will be voting for programming including Big Ones, TV Classics, Shorties, and more. No news on what the voting will be between or anything like that.

And last but not least. After hearing all this talk from people that Murray was going to get some professional wrestling for over ten years now, they are finally getting a show. No, it isn’t WWE but TNA is coming to Murray. A TNA house show will be held at the RSEC on Friday, November 6. I am curious to see what the attendance will be for the show. The TNA show in Cape didn’t draw a big crowd from what I remember and I don’t really expect a big crowd in Murray. The only thing that is an unknown factor here is that this is the first wrestling in Murray so that in itself could draw more people. I will say that the promotion for this event has been bad so far. No one knows it is happening. The way that I found out was that there was a thing in the newspaper months back where all the local venues were promoting their lineups of stuff for months ahead. The way that I found out about when tickets were going on sale was on TNA’s website. There has been nothing in the newspaper about it. I don’t know what the advertising is like up in Murray but here locally, there has been NOTHING about it since that original one little mention. Advertised on the show are AJ Styles and Samoa Joe and I’m hoping that will be the main event.

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