RAW 8.7.2006 - News & Notes

• Shane & Vince were dressed as Elvis and kept singing Elvis songs.
  
• Trish was scheduled to take on Mickie James, but as soon as the match started Edge and Lita came out. Edge cut a promo and he and Lita attacked Trish. Carlito made the save. Later in the night Edge and Lita defeated Carlito and Trish in a tag match.
  
• For the third time in 4 weeks there was a match to determine the #1 contender for Nitro's IC Title. Kane defeated Shelton. Nitro and Melina sat ringside.
  
• John Cena defeated Viscera. Cena F'ed Viscera....Oops, I mean he F-U'd Viscera. My mistake.
  
• This Week In Wrestling History showed the Showdown @ Shea from 1980.
  
• Mick Foley finally accepted Flair's challenge. At Summerslam it will be an 'I Quit' match.
  
• Orton defeated Lawler.
  
• A short video package was played featuring Jeff Hardy who has been re-signed. Eventhough it was on RAW, Hardy is expected to join Smackdown since a Hardy Boyz reunion is planned.
  
• Erica was eliminated from the Diva Search. The remaining 4 Divas played 'Dis the Diva' where they had to rip on the other contestants. I was hoping for it to be like during the first Diva search where half of the women's comments had to be bleeped out, but this time it was very, very tame. A huge disappointment. Horrible microphone work. On a semi-related note - the woman who was eliminated last week, Rachel, has been signed by the WWE to join OVW to train. The woman eliminated two weeks ago (Maryse) along with another woman who didn't make the final 8 were also invited to Deep South Wrestling to be evaluated with the chance of being offered a contract.
  
• Umaga defeated HHH. Shawn wasn't @ ringside because he was arrested after he attacked Shane earlier in the night. As the cops were breaking it up Shawn hit a cop by accident leading to the arrest. After the match Shane shoved HHH into Vince's crotch face first. It looked really strange. It turns out that it was so Vince could give HHH a pedigree.
  

Although he was scheduled to appear, Hulk Hogan did not appear on RAW. Late last week is was revealed via WWE.com that Hogan had suffered a torn meniscus in what was his only good knee. At that point it was unknown whether or not he would appear on RAW as advertised and whether he would be able to still wrestle Randy Orton @ Summerslam in 2 weeks. Within the past 24 hours WWE.com has announced that his scheduled appearance would not be taking place @ RAW. It is also being reported that after visiting his physician Hogan's knee would require surgery and that Hogan had decided to have the surgery done after his match @ Summerslam (assuming he can make it until then). Speculation (much like Hulkamania) is running wild. Some people are saying that perhaps Hogan is faking the injury to boost his own image even more when he defeats Orton. Others are suggesting that Hogan is having second thoughts regarding the Summerslam match; Either he was booked to lose and now wants to back out of the match or that perhaps he just doesn't want to wrestle altogether. There are people suggesting that maybe the whole injury is a work by Hogan along with the WWE to add more to the whole buildup to Summerslam. It should be noted that Hogan has once before suffered a sudden knee injury leading up to a big match. During the early stages of TNA Hogan was scheduled to take on Jeff Jarrett and in the weeks leading up to the match he informed TNA management that he was going to pull out of the match due to a sudden knee injury. In that situation Hogan came out looking a little foolish. A worked press conference was done with Hogan where Jarrett busted in and nailed Hogan busting him wide open. The final moments of the press conference consisted of Hogan laying on the floor covered in blood. That was the last memory people had of Hogan in TNA. I'm not saying that Hogan was faking an injury then or is even faking one now. I'm just saying that I wouldn't be at all surprised if the injury is a fake. Perhaps he realized that him being in the spotlight doesn't really do much for Brooke's career and that seems to be his primary focus these days. Finally, a little while back Hogan and Brooke were doing a radio show promoting her new single and when the host asked him about the WWE Hogan responded with something to the effect of "You mean that fake crap I used to do!?'. Take that for what it's worth. Hogan is schedule to be on Live with Regis & Kelly on Tuesday so it should be interesting to see what he has to say.

On an unrelated note, RVD returned to action this past weekend which means that his suspension is over. I expect him to be one of Heyman's security guards tommorrow on ECW on SciFi. I also expect him to interfere in the Angle v. Sabu match to determine the #1 contender to Big Show's ECW Title.

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