WWE Raw Results
June 14, 2010
Live from Charlotte, N.C.
Aired on USA Network
Report by James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

The WWE Raw following last week's big NXT Invasion angle started with a video package highlighting the end of Raw with the big beat down on John Cena and WWE personnel ringside. They included Barrett's backstage promo on Raw before the attack vowing to make an impact never before seen in WWE.

In-ring: Wade Barrett was alone in the ring with no sound other than the crowd booing. The graphic read "NXT Season One Winner." Barrett took his time before opening his promo introducing himself to "You suck" chants. Barrett said the reason why he's in the ring right now is because the General Manager of Raw demanded he come here and apologize for what happened last week. Barrett said he wants to invite the rest of the NXT athletes to the ring so they can do this properly. Jerry Lawler whispered that he wants to see their faces. Michael Cole said it's uncomfortable. The Rookies then showed up in the stands walking through the crowd to the ring. Everyone but Bryan Danielson assembled in the ring and Lawler said he doesn't want to be around for this. Lawler, Cole, Justin Roberts, and the timekeeper bailed from ringside and walked through the stands.

Barrett then asked Heath Slater to apologize. "Absolutely not," Slater said. "I would do it again in a heartbeat." Justin Gabriel was asked to apologize. "Never. I still have goosebumps from what we did last night," he said. Skip Sheffield said no regrets. Michael Tarver said no one in WWE can make him apologize. Darren Young said he had the time of his life. David Otunga said after the way they were treated on NXT, "they" need to apologize to them.

Barrett said the problem is NXT. He said they were treated like dirt and treated like animals, so sooner or later, when you're treated like animals, you start to act like animals. Barrett said they were put in ridiculous challenges and treated like crap by the Pros. Barrett said WWE management tried to make an international joke out of all them. He said no one was laughing after Raw last week because they destroyed the ring, beat the living daylights out of the WWE champion, and impressed everyone who watched them.

Suddenly, Bret Hart's music interrupted to bring out said Raw GM on stage. Hart, without a sense of irony to the following statement, said eight guys on one doesn't make you too tough. WrestleMania flashback, anyone? Hart recapped what went down and said they need to show remorse. Barrett then referenced Daniel Bryan and said he actually had some remorse about what happened and now he will never, ever be seen here again. Hart said they might have taken out John Cena, but he will still be on the Fatal Four-Way PPV. Barrett said they could stay out here all night arguing, but they need to get down to business. He said he has a WWE contract, he has a WWE Title opportunity of his chosing, and with this group behind him, they have some demands of their own.

Otunga said they all want guaranteed WWE contracts. He said they want private dressing rooms and first-class travel. Otunga said if they fail to comply, then last week was just the beginning. Barrett then reminded Hart of what Mr. McMahon told him two weeks ago on Raw. Barrett said this isn't a difficult decision because what he has is a group of men who are highly-polished athletes who could be the future of WWE. He said they're all ready to fight and they just want contracts. Hart said it is his job to find fresh, new talent, but his answer is, "No."

Barrett didn't appreciate that. Hart said he's not signing any of them. Barrett said he's making a very big mistake. Hart said Barrett and his NXT Rookies made the biggest mistakes of their lives. Hart stumbled over his next line and included a WWF reference. He threatened to strip Barrett of his championship match before telling him that he's fired. Hart told the other Rookies to leave the ring right now or he'll call the police to have them physically thrown out. The Rookies stood their ground in the ring saying it's their time and their chance. The crowd chanted "Na na na goodbye" and they faded to commercial with the Rookies still in the ring. PYB (3) talk time: 11:50. On a scale of 0-10, a 6.5 start to the follow-up with potential to increase depending on how they follow this up after the break.

[Q2]

[Commercial Break]

Back from break: Michael Cole was back at the announce table introducing a video package recapping the opening segment with Bret Hart "firing" the Rookies. Jerry Lawler chuckled at the firing after being back on commentary. Apparently the Rookies just left the ring. Cole then went into a hard sell for the Fatal Four-Way PPV on Sunday. He said the best way to showcase Fatal Four-Way is to have a four-way match now.

In-ring: R-Truth came out to the ring to randomly defend the U.S. Title in an unhyped four-way match. (The question remains whether the Rookies will return to the show unannounced later on and try to wreak havoc. That's an optimistic viewpoint on the follow-up.) After Truth rapped his way to the ring and gave a shout-out to Charlotte, John Morrison's music hit to bring out the first challenger. Zack Ryder was out next, giving him a spotlight in a title match. After a quick into for Ryder, The Miz came out as the next challenger.

1 -- U.S. champion R-TRUTH vs. JOHN MORRISON vs. ZACK RYDER vs. THE MIZ -- U.S. Title match

The action spilled all over the ring and ringside area early on. Morrison then hit a sunset flip powerbomb on Miz, sending him crashing into Ryder on the floor. Morrison stood tall going into break.

[Commercial Break. They plugged Big Show appearing on Royal Pains this week.]

Morrison was still in control back from break. He took Ryder up top for a superplex attempt, but Truth got involved to set up a pyramid suplex. All four men were knocked down, then Truth made a cover on all three opponents for nearfalls only. Truth then dropped Ryder with an enziguiri kick, but Miz broke up a subsequent pin attempt. Miz proceeded to dump Truth to the outside before dropkicking Morrison to the outside. Miz was alone with Ryder in the ring and hit his corner clothesline before Morrison yanked him to the floor and clotheslined him.

[Q3] Back in the ring, Truth hit the Lie Detector on Ryder. Cole was in the middle of resetting things, so you knew someone was breaking up the pin with Truth trying to score the pin. The action broke down before Truth hit a suplex into a jawbreaker on Morrison for a two count. Folks started hitting finishers before Morrison had Truth in position for the Starship Pain. Morrison took his time thinking things over with his "friend" in a prone position. He hit his finisher, but Miz threw Morrison to the outside and pinned Truth to regain the U.S. Title. Miz celebrated with his title belt as Cole suggested it could be John Cena's fate Sunday at the PPV.

WINNER: Miz at 9:03 to capture the U.S. Title. The classic house show finish with Miz regaining the title. Nice athleticism and energy throughout the match to continue momentum from the opening angle. The finish looked bad, though, with Morrison barely hitting Starship on Truth before the finish. Still no word on whether any of them will be on the Fatal Four-Way PPV line-up. (**)

Main event tonight: Randy Orton vs. Sheamus in a Fatal Four-Way preview.

Backstage: Josh Mathews brought in Randy Orton in his locker room. Orton said anything can happen, as evidenced by what happened moments ago. Orton addressed his shoulder situation by predicting something interesting in the main event to come. Mathews asked a follow-up on Orton's thoughts on the NXT angle. (Nice touch having the angle be part of the narrative of tonight's show throughout the broadcast.) Orton said part of him respects what they did since he did some sick and twisted things to get noticed during his career. He said another part of him thinks they're a bunch of punks. Orton said they deserve to be fired or have their brains beaten in. He said he thinks they got off easy only being fired.

[Commercial Break]

Royal Pains plug: Cole introduced a video highlighting tonight's Raw guest host, Mark Feuerstein, interacting with Big Show on the set of their episode that airs on Thursday. Too much talk of Big Show as an "actor."

Backstage: The Bella Twins, of course, walked up to Feuerstein in the guest host "office." He tried to woo them with talk of a role on the show. Ted DiBiase then walked in with Virgil behind him. DiBiase said there could be a brand new car of Feuerstein's choice waiting for him if he makes him co-guest host tonight. Feuerstein said he has integrity, so the answer is no. Big Show then walked in behind Virgil as Feuerstein talked tough to DiBiase with Show as his back-up. Feuerstein threatened to show DiBiase why he was "main event" Mark Feuerstein in high school. Show suggested they book a match of him and Feuerstein vs. DiBiase and Virgil tonight. DiBiase quietly said it's a deal. Feuerstein over-acted some more, then hugged Show. Feuerstein said he was actually a figure skater, not a wrestler. He jumped into Show's arms, then the Bellas walked in to sell an "awkward moment." Feuerstein way over-acted here, but it wasn't too terrible on the Charles Barkley scale.

Backstage: They showed WWE champ John Cena quietly walking down the hallway. Cole said it's the first time they've seen him since the Rookie attack last week. Cole posed the question on how he will react, apparently on the other side of the break.

[Q4]

[Commercial Break]

In-ring: Chris Jericho came out after a video package on his rough night with Big Show last week. Cole plugged the Viewer's Choice gimmick last week, which everyone would like to forget about. Jericho stood in the ring for a singles match. Evan Bourne's music then hit to bring out Bourne with an un-hyped match-up with Jericho that should have been a big deal. Cole went back to two weeks ago when Bourne's star was made.

2 -- EVAN BOURNE vs. CHRIS JERICHO

The bell sounded and the announcers noted Jericho's recent losing streak. Cole plugged some website numbers during Viewer's Choice and suggested a ton of people saw Jericho lose to Big Show on Raw last week because WWE's website outdrew NBA, MLB, and ABC's website. Since when does Raw air on WWE's website? Anyways, Jericho pounded Bourne early on before Bourne came back with rapid-fire offense. Bourne then ducked a clothesline and rolled up Jericho for a two count. Jericho suddenly hit the codebreaker near the ropes, but Bourne kicked out at two. Jericho sold shock that Bourne kicked out, then he snapped on Bourne with punches and kicks. The ref threatened to DQ Jericho, who teased a punch to the ref. The ref then DQ'ed Jericho as Jericho continued the assault. Jericho taunted Bourne, who then smashed Jericho with an enziguiri kick. Bourne then went up top and nailed the Air Bourne press for the big moment of the match and angle. Bourne left the ring, leaving Jericho with another loss and sad moment on Raw.

WINNER: Bourne via DQ at 2:45. It's sad that match meant nothing when it could have been a bigger deal with pre-match hype, a visual recap of Bourne's big night on Raw two weeks ago, and a pre-match promo from Jericho. (*)

Raw up next: They showed a photo of the NXT Rookies tearing apart Cena last week and Cena will come out to the ring after the break to address what happened.

[Commercial Break]

NXT plug: They plugged tomorrow night's show with a recap of the Pros "initiating" them at the end of the show last week.

In-ring: Three minutes before the top of the hour, John Cena's music hit to a typically very strong reaction. Cena slowly walked out on stage holding his title belt and waiting out the crowd reaction. Lawler said they weren't too sure if he would be here this week after the beating he suffered last week. Cena half-limped to the ring selling the NXT beating before entering the ring. After a video recap of Barrett being fired and the other Rookies being sent packing in the opening segment, Cena's music stopped and the lights were dimmed for the promo.

Cena quietly said he was given the night off tonight and he thanks Bret Hart for that. Cena said he would like to thank Hart for not caving into the demands from the "radicals" from NXT. He said a part of him admires what they did and he recalls a saying that a desperate time calls for desperate measures. Cena said he understands he wears the biggest target in WWE, so they went after him. He said their plan was almost genius, but their short-coming was taking out a beef with WWE management on the WWE audience. Cena said they destroyed the "sacred ground" WWE ring, which means every WWE star wants their heads on a plate. Cena said Barrett was fired, but that won't be enough. He said this group isn't concerned about law or regulations.

[Q5 -- second hour] Cena said they've been thrown out of the arena and aren't here anymore tonight, but he hopes they're watching right now. Cena vowed to successfully defend the WWE Title PPV, then he demanded they come out here again next week and finish this. He said his word is that he will not press charges, no matter what happens. Suddenly, the Rookies came out through the stands. Cena told them to come bring it.

Jerry Lawler then stormed the ring and stood in the ring with Cena, followed by Santino and some wrestlers from the locker room. And the brawl was on with everyone getting a piece of everyone. Another wild scene ensued with the crowd eating it up. Mark Henry entered the picture as Wade Barrett did for the Rookies. Randy Orton then hit the ring and tried to fight off the Rookies. Edge suddenly appeared out of nowhere to land a spear on the outside. Sheamus entered with a pipe and helped clear the ring of the Rookies, who retreated through the stands.

The Rookies bailed to the backstage area with the mid-carders giving chase. A camera followed them to the backstage area where Mark Henry, of all people, led the Pros on the run chasing down the Rookies. The Rookies bolted to the parking lot with Santino giving the final chase. The Rookies then disappeared into the night and they cut to a break.

[Commercial Break]

Recap: Lawler, back on commentary, joined Cole to recap the WWE stars setting aside their rivalries for one night to chase the NXT "radicals" out of the building. Lawler said that felt good.

Backstage: Sheamus was walking down the hallway with a pipe in his hand. Mathews asked him why he helped Cena. Sheamus said he's not going to let a bunch of rookies ruin his WWE Title match opportunity at the PPV. He said if anyone is going to take out Cena, it's going to be him.

In-ring: Divas champion Eve came to the ring for a Divas tag match for the next match on the show. Gail Kim came out as her tag partner and they announced a four-way Divas Title match at the PPV. It will be Eve vs. Gail vs. Alicia Fox vs. Maryse. Alicia Fox, then Maryse came out for the Divas tag match.

3 -- Divas champion EVE TORRES & GAIL KIM vs. MARYSE & ALICIA FOX

Eve and Maryse quickly picked up their feud that's been going on for a few months to start the tag match. Maryse landed a knock-down clothesline to take control before the heels started working over Eve. Alicia and Maryse then had a miscommunication, sending Maryse flying to the outside. Eve followed up with a spinning facebuster on Alicia for the pin and the win. Gail, who had a mere cameo, celebrated with Eve to wrap the segment.

WINNERS: Eve & Gail at 2:38. Fine tag match to continue tension between Maryse and Eve, plus now Maryse and Alicia, heading into the PPV. Gail, meanwhile, is apparently in the match because they have no one else. (*)

[Q6]

Announcers: Cole said a U.S. Title match has been added to the Fatal Four-Way PPV. It will be Miz vs. Truth, who is invoking his re-match clause. The announcers then announced the main event on Raw tonight has been changed to Cena & Orton vs. Edge & Sheamus.

Backstage: They showed the Mark backstage wearing a bright red Raw t-shirt. Cole plugged Big Show and Mark Feuerstein in the tag match next.

[Commercial Break]

This Week in WWE history: Philadelphia Spectrum. They went to Pedro Morales vs. Magnificent Muraco on June 20, 1981 in an IC Title. Vince McMahon was on commentary for this. They showed Muraco cheating to win, the crowd highly upset with the turn of events, and more plugs for Philadelphia's wrestling history.

Announcers: Cole said, "And from one great sports entertainment city to another, we're live in Charlotte." Philadelphia: the home of sports entertainment. From that laughable element on the show to another, Big Show walked out first for the gimmick tag match on the show. Cole plugged Show a part of the Smackdown brand's four-way match for the World Title at the PPV. Show then introduced his "best friend," Mark. Feuerstein hit the ring chest-bumping Show before trying to get a reaction from the crowd. Cue up Ted "enhancement talent to the guest host C-level stars" DiBiase with Virgil for the tag match. When was the last time Virgil was in a WWE match? That's quite the trivia question.

4 -- BIG SHOW & MARK FEUERSTEIN vs. TED DIBIASE & VIRGIL

Show knocked DiBiase to the corner early on before giving him the Rikishi butt face squash in the corner. Show followed with the sound of a gunshot slapping DiBiase across the chest. Show landed another one, then DiBiase bailed to the corner and tagged in Virgil. Virgil wanted no part of Show and dropped to the floor to complain to DiBiase. Show palmed him into the ring, then Virgil tried to bail, but Mark rolled Virgil back into the ring. Show landed a scoop slam and Virgil sold a severely broken back. Show proceeded to give Virgil the frying pan-like chops in the corner before landing a chokeslam. Show stared down DiBiase, who shouted at Virgil to get up. Show then tagged in Mark, who did a dance move into the Worm. "We haven't seen this in a while," Lawler said. Mark then hit a sort of elbow drop on Virgil for the win. DiBiase simply looked dejected ringside before Show and Mark triumphantly left the ring.

[Q7] Post-match: DiBiase stood over Virgil's fallen body before grabbing his Million Dollar Title belt. DiBiase then pulled out a dollar bill and stuffed it in Virgil's throat ala Million Dollar Man. DiBiase started to leave again, but decided to grab the bill and leave the ring with Virgil KO'ed.

WINNERS: Mark Show at 3:55. It wasn't terrible, but the guest hosts continue to be a distraction on the show. Big Show wasn't exactly positioned as a threat to the World Title for the PPV on Sunday being in a comedy match on the show.

[Commercial Break]

In-ring: William Regal and Santino were randomly in the ring following their attempt to run off the NXT rebels. Justin Roberts introduced Kozlov as the special referee for this. Out came Kozlov with his red robe over a ref t-shirt.

5 -- SANTINO MARELLA vs. WILLIAM REGAL -- Kozlov special referee

The announcers plugged the NXT Rookie deal to keep them in the conversation on the show. Santino playfully teased karate moves, then Regal dropped him with a kick and began punishing Santino while Kozlov looked on intently. Santino suddenly rolled up Regal and scored a quick three count with Kozlov making a fast count while Santino had a handful of trunks.

WINNER: Santino at 1:38. (n/a)

Post-match: Bret Hart's music hit to bring out Hart on stage. Was he out to reverse the decision on the handful of trunks? No. Hart said he wants all three of them to come stand on the stage with him. He said he's asking every WWE star to come stand on the stage because he's refusing to let history repeat itself. Regal slowly joined Santino and Kozlov on the stage, then most of the Raw locker room came out on stage. Lawler plugged it's Cena & Orton vs. Edge & Sheamus up next. And the locker room is there to fight off the insurgents. For what it's worth, Chris Jericho was not in the locker room line-up.

[Commercial Break]

[Q8]

NXT plug: It's a brand new season after the Rookies were initiated by the Pros last week.

In-ring: Before the main event, they panned the line-up of Raw wrestlers, sans Jericho, standing on the stage watching the proceedings. Edge came out first for the main event tag match as the announcers plugged the four-way WWE Title match with a stacked deck against Cena. Lawler was produced to repeat the fallacy that the champ has a 25 percent chance of losing the title. Apparently he can lose to himself. Sheamus came out to join Edge, then Randy Orton walked out past the King of the Ring gatekeepers of Great Khali and Mark Henry to the ring. Khali and Henry then watched Cena come out last to round out the field. Khali tried an awkward military salute and Cena just looked past him looking out for the guerrilla infidels. Cena hit the ring and surveyed the scene before the main event started.

5 -- WWE champion JOHN CENA & RANDY ORTON vs. EDGE & SHEAMUS

Cena and Sheamus started things off as Lawler put over the talent and stars in the ring trying to sell the PPV on Sunday. Cena pushed Sheamus into the ropes as Cole recapped Sheamus "possibly costing Triple H his career." Lawler said he gets asked on a daily basis about Hunter's future. Have to make sure Hunter's name stays fresh on the broadcast. After a tug of war between Cena and Sheamus, Orton tagged in and Sheamus began targeting the shoulder. Edge then tagged in and continued the work on Orton as the announcers talked about Orton's potential shoulder issues. Orton then regained control and teased the RKO. He didn't do the full fist-pound on the mat and tried to protect his shoulder merely hinting at the RKO, which drew a pop anyways. Edge then bailed to the outside to avoid the RKO, leading to a break.

[Commercial Break]

Back from break, Cena fired off a fisherman suplex on Edge, who kicked out of a pin attempt. They showed the Raw locker room on the stage watching the proceedings as Cena grounded Edge in the babyface corner. Cena started landing body shots, then Edge rolled to the outside. The heel was in peril here before Edge caught Cena with a slingshot neck snap across the top rope. Edge then put Cena in the heel corner and tagged in Sheamus, who began working over Cena. Sheamus landed a closed fist and Cena slumped to the mat for Sheamus to make a cover for a two count. Sheamus followed with a running knee smash, then Edge choked Cena from behind in the corner.

[Q9 -- over-run] The heels continued to work over Cena three minutes into the over-run. They had the big tease spot where Cena powered to his feet in a submission hold by Sheamus and came within fingertips of a tag to Orton before Sheamus pulled him back to the heel corner. Edge tagged in and Cena teased an Attitude Adjustment out of nowhere, but Edge dropped him to the mat. Edge then teased the Spear, but Cena rolled out of the way. Big heat for this as Cena pulled himself to the corner to bring in Orton, who came in hot on the heels. Orton then hung Sheamus on the middle rope and delivered his trademark spike DDT. Orton proceeded to enter RKO mode and teased the RKO, but Edge snuck in behind. Orton dropped him with the RKO anyways. Sheamus then blasted Orton with a sledgehammer to blindside him and cut off the rally.

Sheamus followed with a backbreaker across his knee, but Orton kicked out at two. Sheamus settled into a submission attack on Orton, who fought back with elbow smashes. They're really going into the over-run with the match continuing into another round of isolating a babyface. The crowd chanted "Randy, Randy" leading to a teased comeback only to have Edge cut him off again. They slowly set up Orton fighting off Edge to tease his hot tag to Cena, who came in hot on Edge with his usual comeback.

Suddenly, the lights flickered in the arena. They cut backstage where the NXT Rookies were destroying the backstage area. They had Bret Hart hostage. The Rookies then put Hart in a limo and the limo took off going backwards down the ramp. It crashed into a car, then smashed into another car in the parking garage. The limo took off again in full reverse smashing into another car. The Rookies opened the passenger door and shouted instructions before the limo took off, then threw it into reverse again smashing hard into another car. The Rookies dragged Bret Hart out of the car and demanded an answer on their futures by Sunday. Barrett placed Hart on the ground and the Rookies took off running. Hart was shown slumped over on the ground with his head down before the show faded out to end the show 11 minutes past the top of the hour.

WINNERS: No Decision at 20:18 when the show ended. They seemed to be dragging out the finish of the match before the sudden cut-out to the backstage area for the attack on Hart. The storyline had a decent "swerve" by the Rookies with the locker room on stage and no one backstage to save Hart. Of course, what was really missing was Bryan Danielson spitting in Bret Hart's face to sell the angle even more. The rapid-fire car crashes were a bit much, but now the question is who was "hired" or who is sympathetic to the Rookie plight to drive the limo. It wasn't quite as good as the show-ending angle on last week's Raw, but the follow-up was overall good to continue the angle, perhaps sell some PPVs on the idea that the Rookies could hi-jack the event and create more chaos without the PG restrictions, and advance the storyline. As for the main event TV match, WWE tried to "save some for Sunday" without a finish, but they gave away a lot of the visual of all four wrestlers in the ring. It wasn't as bad as Sting and RVD's brawl on the Impact to lead into the PPV, but WWE gave away a lot of their PPV main event here. (**1/2)

FINAL THOUGHTS: Good, but not great follow-up on the NXT Invasion angle. They kept the "radicals" part of the show throughout the broadcast and delivered some intriguing follow-up to keep viewers tuned in to see where it's going. WWE tried to save the PPV hype with a plug for the Rookies "invading" on Sunday, so we'll see how well this angle translates at the box office.

FINAL NOTE: They did not announce a guest host for next week's show on June 21. Last time they were guest host-less after an episode of Raw for the following week, they gave an NXT Rookie (David Otunga) the gig the next night on NXT. Stay tuned.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on this show for a "Raw Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. To contribute your thoughts on Raw, email to pwtorch@gmail.com using our Feedback form.

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