KELLER'S WWE RAW REPORT - HOUR THREE
APRIL 13, 2009
ATLANTA, GA.
LIVE ON USA NETWORK

[Q9]

-Smackdown earned two draft picks with Edge's win. The first was Kane. Grisham shouting Kane's name was hilarious. It's like someone zapped him with a taser as he said it. Kane walked out onto the stage as his music played. Chris Jericho was the second draft revealed.

[Commercial Break]

-They showed Chilli from T.L.C., four-time Grammy Award Winner, sitting in the crowd.

8 -- CHRISTIAN vs. SHELTON BENJAMIN

Some nicely paced action early. Shelton tossed Christian off the top rope and he tumbled to the floor. He settled into a mat hold driving his knee into Christian's back. They went back into third gear with Christian scoring a near fall after a backbreaker. Shelton came back with an Electric Chair attempt, but Christian escaped and hit a monkey flip. Shelton landed on his feet and caught a charging Christian with an elbow. Shelton charged at Christian, but Christian moved and the hit the Kill Switch (Unprettier) finisher for the win.

WINNER: Christian in 4:00.

STAR RATING: *3/4 -- Really good four minute TV match. Shorter than ideal, of course, but they made the most of it.

-The ECW draft pick turned out to be Vladimir Kozlov. Striker was begging for it to be good as the images of wrestlers shuffled on the screen.

[Q10]

[Commercial Break]

-Lawler and Cole hyped the Backlash line-up. Boy that April cable bill is going to sting. They're going to sting for a while with WWE running PPVs every three weeks for four PPVs in a row. They also hyped the Raw TV main event.

-Backstage, Shane walked up to Triple H. Shane said, "Orton's mine." Triple H didn't say, "That's ridiculous, Shane. You're not a wrestler. Your Vince McMahon's 39 year old son who fights a couple times a year, steals everyone's good moves to get himself over, takes chances to get himself over that nobody who works a full time schedule could possibly work especially if their financial well-being were risked if they were to be out injured, and you wear tennis shoes in the ring, for God's sake. Chill out and get real, I'll take care of this." Instead, he just told Shane he wanted to take Orton, and that he'd tell "Dave" the same thing. Batista walked up and said, "Well, then, why don't you?" Triple H turned around and said if he already heard it, he doesn't have to say it again. Batista said, "Yeah, every man for himself." Triple H said, "I'm cool with that." Then pretend wrestler and ultra-cool Shane-O-Mac told Triple self-assuredly, "See ya' out there." He's intolerable in this role. He's like if Jerry Jones's son suddenly got to play running back for the Cowboys - in his 30s - after never playing organized pro ball or making a team on his own merits.

[Commercial Break]

-An ECW commercial hyped the three-way match again.

-Cole plugged for the second time the ESPN behind the scenes "E:60" show on Vince McMahon and WrestleMania. For WWE to plug it, I strongly suspect they must've had some editorial say-so over the content, subject matter, and who was interviewed.

9 -- C.M. PUNK vs. MATT HARDY

Would this match have happened if they hadn't both switched brands by now? It'd be Raw vs. Raw or SD vs. SD and then how'd they decide the draft pick after it was over? Hardy yanked Punk off the ropes and reverse powerbombed him chest and face-first onto the mat. Nasty looking bump. Hardy put Punk in an abdominal stretch.

[Q11]

Late in the match, Hardy avoided a Go To Sleep and dropped Punk with a Side Effect. Jeff Hardy charged into the ring and tackled Matt. The ref called for the bell.Hardy tore off his shirt and climbed to the top rope. Matt rolled out of the ring and fled to the back doing his funny run. Jeff chased him to the back. Lillian Garcia announced that Matt won via DQ. Punk reacted with understandable disgust.

WINNER: Matt Hardy via DQ in 4:00.

-WWE Raw got another draft pick: Maryse. She walked out onto the stage with her Divas Title belt.

-Grisham plugged the three-on-two main event. Ross plugged the ramifications for Raw next week.

[Commercial Break]

[Q12]

-WWE Fact: Last Monday, WWE.com broke its all-time record for pageviews with an astonishing 105,179,641.

10 -- CHRIS JERICHO vs. TOMMY DREAMER

During Jericho's ring entrance, Grisham and Ross were shown on camera re-setting the show, talking about the draft format. Ross plugged that Raw would be in London, England next week. Ross noted that Dreamer has said if he's not ECW Champion by early June when his contract expires, he out of WWE. Matthews noted that Dreamer will be part of the Elimination Chase and earn an ECW Title shot at Backlash. Ross said Dreamer was a prodigy of Terry Funk. Apparently that was over the quota of Dreamer talk as Grisham (perhaps with prompting on the headsets from Vince McMahon) literally jumped in and said, "Enough about Tommy Dreamer. How about Chris Jericho?" Grisham said, "I'm sorry to say, if Tommy Dreamer is a legend, then so too is Brooklyn Brawler." Striker said, "Wow!" The little mean-spirited digs at ECW's legacy continue (and again I assume that came via headsets from McMahon to Grisham). This match has disaster potential. Weird mix of styles. Dreamer hit Jericho with a running low dropkick in the corner as Jericho hung upside down. A minute later Jericho went for a Walls of Jericho. Dreamer blocked it and went for a small package. Jericho kicked out. Dreamer scored another near fall with a powerbomb type move seonds later. When Dreamer climbed to the top rope. Jericho went for a suplex, but Dreamer blocked it. When Dreamer flew at Jericho, Jericho caught him with a jaw-jacker for the win.

WINNER: Jericho in 4:00.

STAR RATING: 3/4* -- That was fine.

-Smackdown won a draft pick there. It turned out to be Rey Mysterio, who walked out onto the stage briefly and stared down Jericho.

-Rhodes and DiBiase made their ring entrance.

[Commercial Break]

11 -- SHANE MCMAHON & TRIPLE H & BATISTA vs. CODY RHODES & TED DIBIASE

As Triple H and Batista discussed who'd start the match, Shane charged at Cody at the bell. He attacked Cody with a barrage of punches, then he danced around him. Batista tagged himself in from behind, displeasing Shane who shot him a look. Meanwhile, Rhodes tagged in DiBiase. Batista kicked DiBiase in the head. Triple H tagged himself into the match a minute later. He attacked DiBiase in the corner with punches and kicks. Triple H clotheslined DiBiase and then hit a spinebuster. Batista yanked Triple H off of DiBiase. As Triple H and Batista argued, DiBiase clipped Triple H from behind, then tagged in a fresh Rhodes. Rhodes and Triple H battled on the mat. The heel duo went into rapid tags.

[Q13]

At 5:00 Triple H showed signs of life, but when he reached for a tag, DiBiase yanked him back to his corner and tagged in a fresh Rhodes. At 6:00 Triple H finally hot-tagged Batista in. Batista knocked Rhodes off the ring apron and powerslammed DiBiase in center ring for a near fall. DiBiase broke it. Shane dove at DiBiase, overshot him, and both tumbled to the floor in a mess. Batista gave DiBiase a spinebuster and played to the crowd. He gave DiBiase a Batista Bomb for a near fall. Shane broke it up with a forearm to the back of his head. Batista shoved Shane hard into the corner. Triple H tagged himself in. Batista stared him down. Shane tackled Batista. They rolled to the mat. Triple H then gave DiBiase a Pedigree for the win.

WINNERS: Triple H & Shane & Batista in 8:00.

STAR RATING: ** -- Shane's role lacked credibility, but the structure of the tag match and execution by the other four was fine. Shane isn't getting the pops he got ten years ago when he first played a wrestler on TV, so there's less justification now as he nears 40 to be in this mix like this.

-The show ended with Orton stepping out onto the stage and staring down Triple H from afar as Cole plugged the one-on-one match next week.

FINAL THOUGHTS (7.0): It delivered what it needed to. The matches were all short, but everyone seemed rejuvenated after the WrestleMania hangover. The draft included some solid drama and the expected major names shifting. It'd be nice if they explained a little more how it worked - such as saying that only top names are included in the draft or something like that. It seems a little suspicious that so many top names were moved, while nobody on the bottom half of the card came up in the random draft. Not a huge deal, but it'd be nice if they tied up that loose end.

The main event hype was good. I won't further belabor the point I made a couple times in the Raw report regarding Shane McMahon other than saying he's really embarrassing himself by either pushing for or allowing himself to be portrayed as somehow even a smidgen credible enough to fight actual top level wrestlers in the ring. The concept of Shane, Batista, and Triple H all having issues with Orton and wanting him one-on-one made sense and was set up nicely. The interplay between them was also strong during the match. Rhodes and DiBiase continue to play their roles as Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson well, taking bumps and doing jobs.

Nothing about the show was great, but it came together as feeling like a major show. At least there felt like there was enough content and news to justify three hours.

Let us know what you thought of this year's three-hour Raw Draft Special. Send your name, hometown, 0-10 score, picks for best and worst segments, and then a brief paragraph of thoughts to pwtorch@gmail.com. Be read in wrestling offices and wrestler laptops tonight and tomorrow!

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