Raw 8-17

Summerslam is only 6 days away. So far the card is looking quite intriguing. DX is reuniting for the 20th time, but at least they are exciting together. The WWE champion Randy Orton will face John Cena. Raw has been fairly decent the last 2 weeks. Tonight, Freddie Prince Jr., a former writer for the WWE, is the guest GM. The WWE has to put entertain in the ring and out tonight. I need to see DX on the show tonight as well. The main event of Randy Orton and Cena vs Y2J and Show is a great idea. I hope WWE can deliver.

Raw is live from Randy Orton's hometown St. Louis, MO. I wonder if he will get some face pops tonight, or maybe that will just be at my house. Lilian announces the guest GM, Freddie Prinze Jr. He says he is here because he has been a lifelong wrestling fan. He continues that tonight is about the fans. He is going to start Summerslam here tonight. The Diva championship and the US title will be on the line. I love title matches for free. Some weird ass music starts and some dude dressed as the guy from I Know What You Did Last Summer comes to the ring. He speaks in some dark voice. He rips off the cap and its Santino. He starts auditioning for movies. Santino actually isn't to bad. Freddie starts to announce the main event but is interrupted by the Legend Killer Randy Orton. The crowd is cheering him somewhat on his way to the ring. The music stops and the cheers get a little louder. Randy says he doesn't feel like competing at all tonight. Freddie says this is your hometown and you don't wanna work? Orton says he doesn't care and is not there to please these people. I guess this is to make sure the fans don't cheer for him. A big "You Suck" chant starts. Orton demands to be taken out of the main event. Freddie tells Orton he will compete and team up with Cena to face Y2J and The Big Show. Freddie starts to walk away and Orton grabs him and does his twisting neckbreaker on Freddie. Refrees come down to have a look at Freddie as Raw goes to break. A great first segment. It was funny with Santino and serious when Orton came down. I am wondering about where Raw will go from here. As it looked like Freddie would not be able to continue as the acting GM after what Orton did to him.

Cole announces that Freddie has been taken to a local hospital. I guess Raw will continue with no GM. To get Raw back on track, here comes the United States Champion Kofi defends his title vs Carlito. Carlito comes out with Rosa. The first WWE match Carlito ever had, he won the US title. A couple of tie ups, quick pins, and then Kofi is tossed outside. Carlito has the advantage after the break. Kofi tries to gain it back but is met by a huge big boot. Its high time to give Carlito some tv time. He is a solid wrestler and is actually decent on the mic. Kofi finally gets a Russian Leg sweep in and starts to follow it up with a series of his crazy offense. The boom boom boom double leg drop gets a 2 count and so does a huge crossbody. Kofi back to the top with another crossbody but Carlito rolls through with a 2 count. An awesome neckbreaker gets a very close 2 count for Carlito. Kofi reverses the backstabber and hits trouble in paradise for the 1,2,3. A very good match for Raw. You give 2 young men time, 2 segments, to work with in the ring and they come up with a solid match. Now this is the wrestling I can handle. Good job to both men.

Raw comes back with a DX history video. "You know the Crock just came from the bathroom." "You make the rules and we will break them." They show the video of Tyson joining DX, the war on WCW, and even some stuff with Chyna in the original DX. I even saw Rick Rude in part of that video. The Miz makes his way down to the ring. The Miz was wearing full pants for quite sometime but now is wearing a Jericho type look. The Miz grabs the mic and says he is embarking on a huge comeback to win the US title. He takes on Evan Bourne when Raw comes back. Evan seems to be getting bigger pops everywhere he goes. Of course, when it is your hometown your pop is always bigger. Orton isn't the only hometown boy tonight, so is Evan. Miz goes to work early on. Evan hits a nice dropkick but Miz comes back with a huge clothesline. Miz puts on a cool looking camel clutch. I wonder because Evan is a smaller wrestler, he won't get a big push from the WWE. They seem to like bigger wrestlers, but give Evan some time he can prove himself. Evan hits a double knee leap over the top to the outside. He followed it up with a few kicks. He gets to the top rope for the Shooting Star Press but Miz counters. Evan gets on Miz shoulders, but Miz counters into his finisher and picks up the win. Miz might start to get a big push on Raw. DX reunite next!

A recap on how the DX reunion got started. A DX spray painted Limo arrives as the vid ends. HHH and HBK are heading to the ring. They come across Jillian who starts to sing the DX song and HHH puts a trash can over her head. Then Santino jumps out from behind them and gets Sweet Chin Music. The arena is completely dark and the lights go up with "Are You Ready?" DX hits the stage with Shawn jumping around like a moron as always. The crowd is going wild for the return of HBK. They do the crotch chop with pyro behind them. A nostalgic feeling happens when DX hits the ring. HHH asks Shawn if its good to be back. Shawn says god help him he loves this stuff. They go on to start the "Are you Ready" when out of no where Legacy hits the ring and starts to beat the whole crap out of DX. I must say I am suprised Legacy came out. I love it. Every wrestling fan knows that DX will win on Sunday. So what does the WWE need to do the Raw before the ppv? Make the audience at least think, even a little doubt, that DX will not win at the pay per view. Did it work? Probably not. At least Legacy looks strong going into Summerslam. It gives the match some credibility.

NBC is showing Wrestlemania 25 on the 29th of August. Good exposure for the WWE. The biggest pay per view of the year on national television. A Diva Championship match with Mickie defending against Gail Kim. I hope they give these two woman sometime to develop a quality contest. Both women try for the same moves to start to the match. The timing seems to be a bit off with these two. Gail hits a dropkick off the top for 2. The crowd is dead during the match. Both go for their finisher but fail. Mickie tries again for the ddt again, but Gail seemed to block it even though she fell. Then another blotched kick followed by a huge forearm to the chin of Gail for the victory. Mickie looked completely pissed after the match. It was a disaster.

Cena has a nice backstage promo. He makes fun of Randy whining about not wanting to wrestle tonight. Jericho shows up behind Cena and tells him he has a few more problems. Chris says he is pissed about what happened last week. Show then tells Cena he may not make it to Summerslam. Cena and Orton will win for sure now.

Raw returns with MVP and Swagger already in the ring. Swagger starts with some of his amateur wrestling. MVP takes the fight to the outside. Swagger with a bunch of boots in the corner and the ref calls for the bell. Swagger just got dq'd. MVP takes down Swagger with huge right hands. Swagger retreats after losing the match. Way to short and a preview to a possible longer match at Summerslam. Freddie shows up in the backstage area. I guess he is on his way out to the ring.

Chavo is in the ring getting ready for a falls count anywhere match vs Hornswaggle. This has to be the last freaking time we see these two wrestle. One could only hope. They both go under the ring and Hornswaggle runs to the back. Camera catches up to Chavo searching for the little man. The crowd sees the St. Louis Blues stuff hanging on the wall and chants "Lets Go Blues". Thats how excited they were during the match. Chavo gets hit by a paint can after opening the door and hornswaggle wins the match. Chavo gets up to figure out what happened and Henry shows up and Chavo tries to blame him but Henry says it wasnt him. Out of the blue Macaulay Culkin shows up. WTF? I have no idea but it was kind of cool and a big suprise.

Next week on Raw Floyd Money Mayweather is hosting Raw from Las Vegas. He isn't a newbie to wrestling. If you recall, he fought the Big Show at Wrestlemania 24. Show and Jericho come out to the ring and its main event time. Orton stalks to the ring with the title on his shoulder. I figured they would leave Cena last. Cena receives a great big pop from the live crowd. Freddie comes out and announces this is now a Lumberjack match. The lumberjacks are all faces who hate Orton. During the break Jericho got beat up by some of the wrestlers on the outside. Meanwhile in the ring Show is dominating Cena. Cena gets close to a tag and Orton retracts his hand. Cena bitch slaps Orton on the back for a tag and then tosses his partner over the ropes into the ring. Show spears the crap out of Orton. The heels are dominating the heel champion Randy Orton. Orton counters Jericho's sleeper with a back suplex. Orton crawls towards Cena but is caught by Y2J. Tag to Show and he hits a huge legdrop on Orton. Jericho gets tagged in and gets powerslamed. Finally a hot tag to Cena. Jericho hits an FU on Jericho and Cena wins. RKO to Cena right after the match. Jericho starts pounding Cena and the lumberjacks get dumped by the heels. Cena has enough time to recover and knocks Jericho and Show out of the ring. Cena will never look bad on Raw! I get so pissed that every week Cena has to look like Superman, oh wait he had a weakness. I get it WWE, you want to cater to the kids that watch Raw. I understand. I am just so freaking tired Cena has to be unbeatable. He gets an RKO and 2 mins later he is on his feet and beating up The Big Show.

Raw proved to gain a lot of momentum for Summerslam. I look forward to Smackdown this Friday. I will have a prediction blog up Friday morning. If you are not getting enough WWE talk, listen to Showstoppers on Tuesday with my boys, Larry and John. I know they have cooked up something special for this week.

J Call