WWE: RAW
April 30, 2007
Nashville, TN
Gaylord Entertainment Center

The current WWE champions are as follows:
WWE Champion: John Cena (9/17/2006)
WWE Intercontinental Champion: Santino Marella (4/16/2007)
World Tag Team Champions: The Hardy Boyz (4/2/2007)
WWE Women’s Champion: Melina (4/24/2007)

Read along if you have the WWE Network!

Your hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

ECW champ Mr. McMahon steps up to the WWE champ John Cena and gets all ghetto with him wearing a do-rag. Shawn Michaels then appears and demands a rematch for the WWE title because he keeps getting screwed over. Vince says he makes the decisions around here and decides that Shawn has to win another non-title match against Cena tonight in order to get a WWE title match with Cena – NEXT WEEK. Vince really has lost it.

• Randy Orton vs. Edge
  

This has been a long time coming. Edge slaps Orton right in the face and gets him to chase him around the ring. Orton slides in and thumbs Edge in the eye. Here comes the Garvin Stomp followed by the jumping knee drop. Orton pounds Edge on the chest while he’s in the ropes. Somewhere, Sheamus is watching this and taking notes. Orton knocks Edge off into the barricade to take us into commercial. When we return, Edge yanks Orton into the corner and pushes him off the apron into the announce table. Back in, Edge mocks Orton with his own Garvin Stomp and jumping knee drop for two. Edge hits a spin kick and goes up top, but Orton crotches him. Edge fights Orton off, but leaps down into a dropkick. The Inverted Backbreaker gets two for Orton. A powerslam gets two more, but Orton runs right into the Edge-O-Matic for another nearfall. They crossbody each other to start a ten count. Edge recovers and takes off the turnbuckle pad, but Orton rolls him up for two. Edge fights back with a hotshot for two and then schoolboys Orton with his feet on the ropes for another two-count. Busted open, Orton returns the favor only to get caught by the ref. The RKO is countered to the EDGECUTION for 1-2-NO! Huge cheer for Orton there. Orton leapfrogs the SPEAR causing Edge to eat the corner. He sets up for the RKO, but Edge shoves him off and hits the SPEAR anyways for the win. (12:58 shown) Great fiery TV match from these two. RAW is pretty awesome right now as well as Smackdown. ***½

Backstage, Todd Grisham gets the first live interview with the new IC champ Santino Marella. Santino just happened to be training as a wrestler, and Vince just happened to pick him out of a crowd of 10,000. Apparently, Marella has eight brothers and sisters, and they stayed up all night drinking wine in celebration while his father cried.

Over on WWE.com, Rob Van Dam cuts a promo on how pissed he is about Vince McMahon being the ECW world champ.

In the locker room, Vince and Shane bond over what they have done over the last 24 hours. When Shane tells Vince he loves him, Vince lets Shane hold his ECW world title belt.

Elsewhere with Maria, Edge is clearly upset because Shawn Michaels has been granted yet another title match. Wait, I thought he had to earn it. Edge promises to force himself into the title picture whether Maria likes it or not.

• Jeff Hardy vs. Johnny Nitro
  

Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch join Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler for this one. No Melina for Nitro again. They should probably change his music pretty soon. Nitro takes an early advantage, but misses a corner charge. Jeff gives him an X-Factor. They battle on the top rope, which allows Jeff to backdrop Nitro to the mat and hit the SWANTON BOMB for the win. (3:11) After the match, Cade and Murdoch offer a congratulatory handshake, and even the referee isn’t buying that one. Jeff backs away and heads up the ramp instead. *½

• Rob Van Dam vs. Umaga (w/Shane McMahon)
  

Vince has put RVD into this match as payback for his anti-Vince comments concerning ECW. The match starts during the break. We JIP to RVD hitting a series of kicks, but gets pushed off the top to the barricade. Back in, RVD runs right into a Samoan Drop. Van Dam comes back and tries to slam Umaga, but collapses under the weight. He tries a different tactic as he slaps on a sleeper with a bodyscissors. Umaga fades, but dumps Van Dam to the floor. Van Dam goes right back to the hold on the outside. Umaga has the bright idea to jump right into the ringsteps causing RVD’s back to crash into the steel. Van Dam makes it in just before the ten-count and avoids the Buttalanche. Umaga blocks a sunset flip but misses a butt splash. Van Dam kicks him down and hits Rolling Thunder, but it only gets a one count. Van Dam kicks him back down for the FIVE STAR FROG SPLASH, but Umaga catches him by the throat and picks him up for the SAMOAN SPIKE~! Good night, Rob. (9:04) Vince comes down and poses with Shane and Umaga. Another good match! ***

Cowboy Troy is in the house! He’s wearing a cowboy hat! That’s how you know he’s country!

Elsewhere, Carlito apologizes to Ric Flair for yelling at him last week. He asks for one last chance to prove himself. He also barks at Torrie Wilson when she questions his wisdom.

In the back, SOMEONE has attacked Shawn Michaels, thus pre-empting our main event. Is Triple H back?!

After a break, we see Shawn getting his head wrapped up by medical professionals. I’m not totally sure what Mike Rotunda is doing here. Jonathan Coachman accuses John Cena for what happened to HBK and gets pushed up against a wall. Mr. McMahon comes over and orders Coach to go find out who did this.

• Ric Flair & Carlito (w/Torrie Wilson) vs. The World’s Greatest Tag Team
  

Carlito starts out aggressively with a hurracanrana on Shelton and takes a swipe at Charlie Haas. Shelton and Carlito botch a press to a dropkick. It almost looked like Shelton wanted to do a Lungblower there. Carlito plays face-in-peril. Fans get bored and want Flair. HOT TAG TO FLAIR! Flair cleans house, but Carlito is hanging around a little too much for my liking. Indeed, Carlito waits for him to turn around and then clotheslines him to wrap up this match. (6:25) This could have been so much better. Look to the Barry Windham heel turn in 1988 if you want to see it done right. Besides, Carlito gets his ass kicked by Flair anyway once Flair gets his bearings. Ugh. ¾*

Elsewhere, Edge is found laying unconscious. Coachman now blames Randy Orton.

Mr. Kennedy comes out to deny he did anything and makes some OJ Simpson references. He announces he will be cashing in his world title shot at WrestleMania 24. Well, that’s one way to ensure yourself of a big payday.

Now Randy Orton has been found unconscious. Well, we’ve run out of suspects.

In the back, Coachman runs in and tells Vince someone is attacking all the top WWE superstars. McMahon says he has it figured out and tells Coach to get John Cena to the ring.

• Melina & Victoria vs. Mickie James & Candice Michelle
  

Mickie and Melina have a bit of a catfight to start. Victoria drags her to the floor and rams her back into the apron. Hot tag to Candice and she cleans house, but she stops to run around the ring for some reason. She gets jumped by the heels, but Mickie makes the save. Soon after, Candice manages to roll up Victoria for the win. (4:02) It does appear Candice has gotten better. While fantastic to look at, she was awful in the ring there for a while. *

We get more comments from WWE.com made by the ECW Originals about how horrible it is that VKM is their champion.

WWE champ John Cena heads to the ring and calls out whoever it is that is beating up his top challengers. Turns out it’s THE GREAT KHALI. Well, this show just went down the crapper. He destroys Cena to close out the show.

What a downer this is. You just destroyed three of Cena’s challengers where he could have had great match after great match to put this lumbering goof over. I get what they are going for, but Cena isn’t Hulk Hogan. You don’t have to feed him giants – just other good workers, and he’ll put on a good show for you.

No weekly Great Khali main event push for me. This is where I’ll be dropping off from RAW and sticking with the PPVs permanently and Smackdown at least until the end of June.

Until next time, so long for now.