Sort of LIVE Raw Coverage (4/23/07)

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Evening ladies and gents. I’m here for the Live Raw coverage which tonight isn’t, you know, live. Raw is from England tonight. Main event is Shawn/Cena not for the title. I’m Tom Pandich and I’ll be here all night for better or worse.

Here comes Shane-o-Mac to start out the show. He’s happy Bobby Lashley isn’t here tonight. He runs down what happened between the McMahons, Lashley, and Umaga over the past few weeks. Shane O’Mac puts out an open challenge to any British wrestler. Shane makes it no DQ. He runs down the crowd. He points out Jose Mourinko who gets booed as he’s a soccer coach of Chelsea. Shane says he’s got the greatest British wrestler he could find. Sadly it’s not the reanimated corpse of Davey Boy Smith.

No DQ: Robby Brookside vs Shane McMahon

Bell rings and Shane dances a bit. Headlock to arm bar to headlock to take down by Shane which is countered by a head scissor. More wrestling by Shane as he gets behind Brookside and drops a few elbows after a slapfest. Shane kicks and chokes out Brookside. Shane heads outside for a garbage can! Van Terminator time? Why yes it is! Robbie is dead.

Shane gets a microphone and says it’s a handicap match. Here comes Umaga. Umaga further pounds Robbie with his standard offense. Shane gets the microphone and pounds it on the unconscious Robbie. It’s a 3 on 1 handicap match. Here comes Vince. Vince pins.

Winner: Umaga, Shane McMahon, and Vince McMahon

Nice to see Shane bury someone for once. A recap of the match we just saw is followed by the announcement that Umaga/Bobby Lashley is tomorrow on ECW.

A Wrestlemania 23 recap of Cena/Michaels is followed by commercials.

WWE Rewind: Jeff Hardy lose to Lance Cade.

Matt Hardy vs Trevor Murdoch

We all know how this going to end, don’t we? Lock up and Hardy gets forced into the corner. Hardy tosses Murdoch into the corner and tries to bulldog him from the top, but Murdoch tosses him off. Punches followed by a sleeper on Hardy. Hardy fights his way out of it only to be dropped by a spining back elbow. Murdoch misses the elbow off the 2nd rope and Hardy runs over Trevor.

Hardy tosses Murdoch into the corner and follows it up with a clothesline and a bulldog. Hardy hits a side effect followed by a second rope axe kick. Cade hits the apron and gets dropped by Hardy. Murdoch uses this opportunity to toss Hardy into the ringpost. Trevor hits a f*cked up looking Canadian Destroyer for the win.

Winner: Trevor Murdoch

Maria is heading to the ring. Stone Cold’s movie is heading to video.

Maria vs Melina

Holy shit. Maria isn’t in a horrible outfit for once! Melina runs over Maria. Um, okay?

Winner: Melina

Carlito vs Great Khali is next…. ugh.

Gotta love Florida weather. The power was out for the last 20-ish minutes. I missed Carlito being squashed with Flair drama, more Austin movie shit, Foley promoing, and Shawn confronting Cena in the back….. and here’s the match.

Non Title Match: John Cena vs Shawn Michaels

Wow, this is getting a lot of time. The ref checks Shawn and Cena for bionic elbows or steel plates in their forearms. Bell rings and they size each other up. The two go back and forth “wrestling” each other. Lots of standing around and Shawn works Cena’s arm for a bit. A takedown gets two. Both men up to a vertical base and Cena gets headlocked. Shawn gets flipped over and Cena goes for the STFU to no avail. Shawn tries more holds on Cena which he powers out of. The two have a face to face jabberjawing confrontation followed by a Michaels slap and a strong right from Cena. Michaels scrambles to the corner as we go to commercial.

We’re back and Cena locks on a headlock and the match grinds to a halt. Cena gets a one count from the headlock. Shawn fights up to a vertical base, but Cena flips over Shawn and gets a two count. Michaels finally powers out of the headlock only to be shoulderblocked down. Cena slaps the headlock on…. again as the match stays at a halt. This will inevitably be another match the Internet marks out over, but so far it’s been slow and boring. I guess it’s a thin line between ring psychology and boring filler.

Michaels powers out of the headlock again and tries for a hip toss. Cena blocks it and squishes Shawn with a clothesline for two. Here comes the headlock again. Michaels finally fights out of it and nails a reverse elbow. Michaels hits Cena with a few chops before tossing him into the corner. Michaels charges into a boot followed by another clothesline for two. Michaels tosses Cena into the ropes and Cena nearly gets superkicked, but he holds on. Michaels charges and almost gets dumped to the outside, but he lands on the apron and hops off. Cena says “this close” before we go to commercial.

We’re back and Cena still has that headlock on, which Shawn chops his way out of in the corner. More chops. Cena goes down only to be brought up into the corner by Michaels. The two trade blows, and Cena fights his way out of the corner. Michaels hits the ropes and tries to jump over Cena, but gets caught up and scoop slamed.

Cena hits the throwback for two. They get up and Shawn gets back dropped by Cena. The two trade blows again and Shawn hits the flying forearm. Both men are down and Shawn kips up at 7. Big elbow by Shawn. Tunes up the band! He fakes the superkick and goes for a backslide!!!! Cena kicks out and hits the ropes. He completely misses the flying shoulderblock and wrecks himself on the outside. Shawn tries for the a crossbody over the top only to be caught by Cena. Cena tries to ram him into the steel post, but Shawn pops out and rams him into the steps. Commercials.

Back again with Shawn in control. Shawn’s been working over the shoulder and continues the assault on it by tossing it over the ropes. Shawn slaps on a Hammerlock which Cena breaks by good old fashion hair pulling. Shawn gets frusterated with this and tries a couple of near falls and follows it up with knees to the arm. Cena fights his way up and slams Shawn but follows it up with a missed elbow. Shawn kicks Cena a few times but he pops right back up. Clotheslines! Shoulderblocks! Protobomb! You Can’t See Him! Five Knuckle Shuffle! Cena goes for the FU but Shawn slips out of it. He misses the superkick and FU!!! 1, 2, no. Cena none to happy about that as we enter into commercials.

Power slips out again, but I’ve got the rest of the match on torrent. I’ll post the rest of the recap some time Monday afternoon. Thanks for reading the coverage guys.