RAW 4.3.2006 - News & Notes

Raw started out with Cena cutting a promo to a flurry of boos and chants of 'Cena Sucks!'. He cut a promo and was then interrupted by Triple H who blamed himself for underestimating Cena last night and talked about how he wants another title shot. Edge then came down and he said that Triple H tapped out at WM22 so he (Edge) should get a title shot since he beat Foley at WM22. They both jawed back and forth until Cena proposed that they both should have a match to determine the new number 1 contender. Both Triple H and Edge rejected the idea and instead challenged Cena to a handicap match. Cena eventually accepted.

Big Show and Kane faced Mikey and Kenny of the Spirit Squad for the tag titles. After a ref bump, the S.Squad quintuple-teamed Big Show and Kenny gave him a leg drop from the top rope and pinned him. Mikey and Kenny are now the new Tag Champs. After the match Coach was saying that this was the biggest upset in WWE history. That's a bit of an overstatement in my opinion. What about Lightning Kid's win over Razor Ramon or how about when Barry Horowitz beating Skip/Chris Candido? All 5 members were posing with the belts so I get the feeling that they are going to share the titles similar to when the 3 members of Demolition held the tag belts a while back. It's just a guess though. Afterwards they did a celebratory cheer backstage. I was happy to see the S. Squad get the belts. By the way, Big Show really needs to work on doing headbutts. It's painfully obvious that he's headbutting his own hand and not his opponent's head.

RVD cut a promo saying that he will be cashing in his MiTB title shot sooner than later and that when he does it would be 'EXTREME'.

Chris Masters defeated some jobber in a squash match with the Masterlock. Carlito came out after the match and teased that he was going to spit an apple in Master's face, but instead spit it onto the jobber. After Masters turned his back Carlito gave him a backcracker and spit in his face. I'm not sure who the face is and who's the heel in the feud. I think Masters might be the face, but I'm probably wrong.

Shawn Michaels cut a promo about his match last night talking about how he has done what Vince should have done a while ago - moved on. Shawn also said that the popular thing nowadays is beating up John Cena so maybe he should get a shot at Cena's belt. Shane the interrupted him and introduced Vince. Vince came out with bandages on his head and wearing a neck brace. He talked about how Shane is scarred for life after Shawn rammed his head up Vince's ass last night. Vince also said that Shawn won't get a title shot and that the only reason that he won at WM22 was because of divine intervention from God. Vince then made a match for Backlash - a tag team match between the team of Vince & Shane (who Vince referred to as the 'product of his semen') versus Shawn and God. Yes, you read right. God almighty is Shawn's partner. I suppose that HBK's planned time off will start after Backlash instead of now, after WM22.

Trish and Torrie lost to Candice and Mickie James after a Chick Kick, which Mickie now calls a 'Mick Kick'. Mickie was dressed exactly like Trish. She even dyed her hair blonde and had the same hairstyle.

They showed some highlights of the Hall Of Fame ceremony. Rey's suit looked like it was 5 sizes too big. Bret looks like he has really aged. He didn't looked a lot older than he did on his DVD.

Chavo cut a promo thanking the fans for supporting and remembering Eddie. He also hyped up Rey's title win too. Chavo said that Raw was going to be his personal Wrestlemania because he was going to win the IC title from Shelton and that he was dedicating it to Eddie. Right then I knew that Chavo would win the belt. I was wrong though. Shelton retained. After the match Chavo walked up the aisle looking up to the sky and apologizing to Eddie for losing. After the break they showed a clip from during the commercial where Chavo said that he was a big disgrace to his uncle and whole family. He also publicly quit wrestling (it's a work).

A new feature debuted on Raw. It is called 'This Week In Wrestling History'. They showed highlights from a 2 out of 3 falls match between Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat from a Clash of the Champions in 1989 (I think).

Ric Flair came out and talked about how even though he didn't win the MiTB Ladder match at WM22, he believes that he will one day become World Champion again. He was then interrupted by a man dressed like the Cuban Ric Flair calling himself Armando Alejandro Estrada (Kazem Ali from Ohio Valley Wrestling where he played an Arab character named Osama). Estrada insulted Flair and then introduced a new wrestler named 'Umanka' or 'Umanga' who came out and beat up Flair. He was wearing some sort of tribal cloth around his waist and had face paint and crazy hair. Most people will recognize this new guy as Jamal from Three Minute Warning (Eddie Fatu / Rikishi's brother). They really shouldn't have fired Rosey. That way they could reform 3MW. This 'Umanka' or 'Umanga' gimmick looks really stupid, but I said the same thing about Boogeyman and look at him now.

The main event was next. The match was a lot shorter than I would have expected. It started at just before 11:00 so they probably had to cut it short. Triple H just sat on the turnbuckle as Edge beat up Cena. Once Cena got the upper hand Triple H started hitting him. Edge the tried to spear Cena, but got Triple H instead. Triple H then spinebustered Edge and as Cena tried a 5-knuckle shuffle Triple H pedigreed him for the win. Officially Triple H and Edge won. Triple H just posed as Raw went off the air with the announcers hyping up the fact that Triple H had just pinned the WWE Champion.

Over the weekend it was reported that Hulk Hogan had stated in an interview that he would be back in Chicago for RAW where he would shoot an angle with Stone Cold Steve Austin. That didn't happen though. Maybe they decided to hold the angle off until next week, but probably Hogan or Austin backed out at the last minute. It's been done before. We'll have to wait and see.

Only 363 days until Wrestlemania 23!

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