Welcome to WWI's ongoing coverage of Monday Night Raw. This week Raw is live from the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for the first time in almost three years.

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Cue the crowd to make some noise. It's Batista.

The Honk-a-Meter was up to 6 victims. This week, Santino also had a Brain Barometer. The Brain Barometer determined that Batista had 12 brain cells to Santino's 12 trillion. The more Santino talked, the bolder he grew.

Batista was not impressed. Batista Bomb, 1-2-3, and Batista won, 12 brain cells notwithstanding. The Bethazon got into the ring to give Batista some lip. JBL suddenly blindsided Batista with a Clothesline From Hell.

Todd Grisham started to interview Shawn Michaels. Grish never gets through an entire interview uninterrupted, and true to form, HBK asked and answered his own questions. Bottom line, at "No Mercy" he will leave as champion. Who would HBK pick as his tag partner tonight? After teasing Steve Austin and Bret Hart, HBK still wouldn't tell.

(Commercial break)

Yo yo yo…Cryme Tyme was headed to the ring where JTG would be in singles action.

The Miz and Morrison pretended to be Cryme Tyme's parents. It was lame and lacked the humor whoever wrote it thought it had.

Miz got the pin and the win with the Reality Check. Well, a win is a win, I guess, even if there was some hanky panky attached to it.

Backstage, Jaime Noble told Gillian that whenever she opens her mouth to sing, it nearly causes him to swallow his chaw. Then he asked her for a favor, which she repaid by singing.

Dolph Ziggler stopped by and introduced himself. Gillian was impressed. Jamie was not.

(Commercial break)

Tomorrow night ECW will start at its new time -- 9:00/8:00 Central on SciFi.

King William Regal and his current lady love (and Jamie Noble's ex), Leyla, came out to watch the match. Regal brought along his King of the Ring throne.

Who would Jamie's partner be? Just when it looked like he'd be all by his lonesome, Mickie James' music it. With Leyla looking on, Jamie was fired up. He'd show her. Jamie nearly pinned Burchill; when that failed, he put Birchill in an arm bar and made him tap.

(Commercial break)

This Thursday, "WrestleMania, the World Premiere" will air on My Network TV, followed the next night by Smackdown.

Somewhere backstage the second generation stars were searching for something. They finally found a red room occupied by, who else, Kane. Cody Rhodes reminded Kane that his father was Paul Bearer, so that made him second generation, too. Teddy asked if they could all manage to be on the same page as well as the same team. I think they were sorry they'd invited Kane to join them when he said he'd be happy to leave a pile of second generation carcasses in the ring.

Lance Cade came out boasting that last week he'd been "the man" when he'd beaten his former mentor, HBK. He contended that Jericho was better than HBK.

(Commercial break)

Lots of storylines in this match, not the least of which was Kane's creepy quest to dispose of Rey Mysterio. That being said, this match also featured some of the most entertaining members of the Raw roster. Lots of "CM Punk" chants as Cody attempted to pick him apart. Kane pinned Kofi for the win. Kane also made it clear that Rey could expect that kind of treatment at "No Mercy." Kane headed up the ramp laughing evilly.

(Commercial break)

General Manager Mike Adamle was in the ring. He said Kane had made a request earlier. What? He was a man of his word. What? So this Sunday, if Kane beats Rey Mysterio…What?…Rey will have to remove his mask? WHAT?

Randy Orton sauntered out in his annoying fashion, which the GM did not appreciate. Orton said he wanted to know if Adamle had his cell phone so that he could call Shane McMahon. Orton demanded that Adamle suspend CM Punk, just as he'd started to do last week.

JBL came down to add his two cents. He had a funny rant about the economy, then told Orton he was living in the past.

The subject of title shots came up, which brought out Batista. After a spear to JBL, Batista said JBL's bad week was going to get a lot worse.

Backstage, Santino was on his cell phone. When the Bethazon walked up, Santino's tone changed and he pretended to be talking to his friend, "Frank." One thing led to another, and Phoenix told Santino not to come to the ring with her, because he always screws things up. Santino told her she was lucky she didn't have a Fabulous Moolah Meter, because she'd have 20 years to catch up.

(Commercial break)

Lots of hair pulling, but Kelly Kelly launched into a remarkable, almost indescribable spinning head scissors maneuver. Beth and Gillian took the win after Kelly Kelly found herself on the business end of a surprise face-buster. Good match, though.

(Commercial break)

The Great Charli was every bit as zombie-like in his movements as the real thing. He also did a good job mimicking Khali's verbal skills. Charlie won the match (thanks for stopping by, Deuce), only to come face-to-face with the real Khali after the match. Khali was obviously amused, but when Charli extended his hand, Khali chopped him upside the head.

(Commercial break)

A sneak peek aired of the WrestleMania special set to air on Thursday night.

Someone had wished Jericho luck in his match Sunday and that had offended Jericho. He said he didn't need luck and had Cade demonstrate all the dastardly things he was going to do to HBK with the ladder on Sunday night. Then Jericho walked under the ladder, tempting fate.

(Commercial break)

As the clocked ticked into the 11:00 hour, HBK finally made his entrance. He suddenly dashed back behind the curtain, to bring out his mystery partner--Triple H, meaning a reunion of Degeneration X. Jericho and Cade weren't quite as bold now.

But despite the firepower on his team, HBK found himself isolated from his tag partner and getting pounded. Hot tag to Triple H who cleaned house. But things turned chaotic in the ring and the ref called for the bell and a DQ. Cade got a ladder out from under the ring, but as Jericho scooted to safety, Cade got a Pedigree. Then HBK went up to the top of the ladder and leapt off the top and onto Cade. Jericho looked on in disbelief.