|
WWE Raw – July 26, 2010
WWE champion Edge started off the night by complaining about last week. He accused Raw GM Shawn Michaels of being biased towards his best friend by arbitrarily awarding Triple H a title shot. Shawn Michaels decides to prove that he’s fair by booking Triple H in a match against Randy Orton – tonight! Edge nods in approval and poses to the crowd, when he turns around, Randy Orton is standing behind him in position to RKO him. Edge reacts quickly and jumps out of the ring. Orton holds the Raw MITB briefcase aloft to once against signify that he can get a title match whenever he wants.
Into the 5th week of Group Matches in the WWE World Cup as Wade Barrett and Yoshi Tatsu meet in a Group A match. The announcers remind everybody that Barrett also has to nteam with Chris Jericho tonight as The Hart Dynasty are exercising their rematch clause. Despite being mathematically eliminated from competition, Tatsu refuses to go down lightly, punishing Barrett with kicks and strikes. Still, Barrett eventually overpowers him and gets the win with The Wasteland. Barrett moves to 2-0-1, which is enough to guarantee him a spot in the Round of 16. Tatsu ends his World Cup at 0-3.
Primo and Justin Gabriel meet in a singles match next as Primo continues to look for that elusive win to end his losing streak. Fast-paced match happens as Primo eventually finds himself on his back. Gabriel heads to the top rope but an unknown man leaps onto the apron and shoves Gabriel groin-first into the rope. Primo and the unidentified man beat down Gabriel until Evan Bourne runs out for the save. Primo and the stranger flee with huge smirks on their faces.
Even Bourne stays out there for a Group B match against John Morrison. This picks right up where the previous match left off in terms of its high-flying nature. Bourne moves out of the way of the Starship Pain and then heads up top and grabs a huge win with a Shooting Star Press. They shake hands after the contest. Both guys finish up the Group Stage at 2-1 and they can do no worse than tie for the group lead.
Group C up next as Santino Marella takes on The Miz. In the grand scheme of things, this match was just a formality with nothing more than pride on the line. Still, The Miz wins in a squash, finishing up with a Skull Crushing Finale. Miz ends the Group Stage at 3-0 and a guaranteed Round of 16 berth, Santino ends at 0-3. Aaaaaweeeesooooomeeee.
We see a video message from John Cena. Although he couldn’t be there tonight, but when he returns he plans on making good on his promise from last week. Soon enough, the champ will be here, even if he has to run through the whole roster to make it.
The Hart Dynasty get their Unified Tag Team Title rematch next against Chris Jericho and Wade Barrett. Pretty similar match to Money in the Bank, but with an alternate ending. Barrett and Smith fight on the outside as the ref is accidentally taken out in the ring. The crafty Barrett sees this and grabs one of the titles and blasts Smith with it and also threatens Divas champion Natalya with it, sending her running away. Barrett then gets in the ring and also nails Kidd with it. Jericho then revives the ref and dusts off the old Lionsault for the cheap title retention.
Group D next as there was another match with pride on the line as United States champion Ted DiBiase had the unenviable task of facing The Great Khali. Attempts to bribe Khali failed, and Ted was thrown around like a rag doll for a bit. Michael Tarver eventually has to distract the ref as Mark Henry picks Khali up (barely) and slams him to the mat. DiBiase gets the cheap win and ends the Group Stage with a 3-0 record. Khali shockingly went 0-3.
Main event time as Triple H and Randy Orton fought in a match that the crowd was extremely hot for. EWR says it was 4 stars, which made it far better than their shitty WM 25 match. As you’d probably expect though, this one ended in a no contest. Orton and Triple H went through a series of near falls and then got into a staredown as the crowd marked out. Both guys turned and received a double spear from Edge for the double DQ ending. Edge attacked both men and posed over them both with the WWE Title as the show went off the air. Edge got the last laugh tonight, but will he at SummerSlam?
---
Figure 4 Online is reporting that the identity of the man who interefered on Primo's behalf on Raw and assisted in beating down Justin Gabriel was Primo's cousin, Orlando Colon. He had been competing in FCW under the name Tito Colon. Presumably the angle on Monday signified the beginning of a new tag team. Plans a couple months ago called for Orlando Colon to be called up and placed into a stable with Primo and Carlito but Carlito's release temporarily delayed those plans.
With Colon's call up, Percy Watson's recent call up and subsequent rekindling of his FCW tag team with Darren Young, the numerous other alliances formed on the shows (Evan Bourne and Justin Gabriel, Shad Gaspard and David Otunga, etc.), and the signing of the Briscoe Brothers about a month ago, it seems pretty obvious that WWE is making a long-overdue attempt at rejuvenating the tag team division throughout the company.
|