Welcome to WWI's ongoing coverage of Monday Night Raw. This week Raw is live from the FedEx Forum in the Kingdom of Lawler (or Elvis, depending on your preference)--Memphis, Tennessee.

This will be the first Monday Night Raw from Memphis in two years, and for some reason, the official WWE.com preview was heavy on the Elvis theme. And then there are Santino's continual references to the Honky Tonk Man. Does it mean something? All things considered, it probably means nothing at all.

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As the show started, Michael Cole announced that Raw would begin with World Championship Steel Cage Match.

As CM Punk and Chris Jericho made their way to the cage, scenes from "Unforgiven" showed what had led up to this moment. Why was Punk attacked by Orton? Did Jericho steal the title from Batista?

The crowd was clearly behind CM Punk as the match got underway. It was very hard to see through the walls of the cage. Maybe WWE should consult UFC as to camera placement in a cage.

(Commercial break)

Jericho had Punk in a submission hold, but Punk managed to crawl over to the cage door. He was almost out, but Jericho pulled him back inside. Punk lit into Jericho with a series of kicks, then Jericho dropkicked Punk into the side of the cage, which didn't do his concussion any good. Jericho was in the process of crawling over the top, but both ended up falling back into the cage. Back up to the top and they came down in an Electric Chair. That couldn't have done Punk's head any good, either. Punk started to crawl out the door, but Jericho tried to pull Punk back inside so that he could crawl out instead. Jericho ended up falling out the cage door and taking the win. When Punk realized what happened, he seemed to have an even bigger headache.

Batista had been in the locker room watching the match on a monitor.

(Commercial break)

Photos of the Hurricane Ike disaster in Texas were shown as Shawn Michaels told how to contribute to the Red Cross.

GM ran into Kelly Kelly (K-2, he called her) but Chris Jericho had something important to discuss with the boss.

Creepy close-up of the back of Kane's head. He was wearing his old mask, but then he took it off. Bottom line, he doesn't like being pointed at or ridiculed since he took the mask off. He went on a rant about everybody wearing masks of some sort.

A crazy brave Evan Bourne came up and told Kane how he couldn't wait til Rey beat the crap out of him later tonight. Bourne was lucky he lived to walk away from that encounter.

Gillian came out singing "You Ain't Nothing But a Hound Dog," which must have caused dogs to howl all over Memphis.

(Commercial break)

Gillian was STILL singing.

Candace Michelle came out, followed by Beth Phoenix, who took a seat with the announcers.

After a couple of weeks of good women's matches, this one reverted back to the hair-pulling matches of old.

The Bethazon seemed to be watching intently.

Candice won it with a Candy Wrapper, then taunted the Bethazon, challenging her to get in the ring. Beth started to climb into the ring, but Candice dropped kicked her to the floor. That led to a lot of trash talking.

(Commercial break)

JBL's limo arrived, which signaled the next match.

It's always good to see Tommy Dreamer, but given JBL's bad mood, Dreamer may be getting the worst of it tonight. After a valiant try to pin JBL, Tommy found himself on the business end of a Clotheline from Hell and a JBL pin.

Although JBL had won the match, he couldn't let well enough alone. He set up a folding chair in the ring and insisted that GM Adamle make him the Number One Contender.

(Commercial break)

JBL was still sitting in the ring and still boasting about his wealth,

Although he'd asked for Adamle, he got Randy Orton. Orton would be champion once again. Blah, blah, blah.

Santino and Beth -- Glamorella -- came out and climbed into the ring. Santino insisted that Orton apologize to him. And he was staying in the ring until he got a match.

Whoohoo. Out next was Batista, the snail-eating Animal. (Shameless self-promotion -- check out my column this week for Batista and the Tale of the Snail.)

Bastista called them all pitiful. He used the "lipstick on a pig" line and directed it at Beth.

Batista said that tonight he'd be willing to beat JBL and then he'd keep on beating people until Randy got his doctor's note and came back. He said he'd even give Beth a title shot.

Mike Adamle appeared on the TitanTron. Adamle said he had taken Jericho's recommendations under consideration, and would announce who would be number one contender later in the show.

Batista was not pleased. He slammed Santino. Then Beth slapped him. Twice. So he picked her up and slammed her, too. Randy Orton was nowhere to be seen by that time, since he'd gotten out of Dodge at the first sign of trouble.

Backstage, Randy ran into his Second Generation homeboys, who seemed disappointed in him.

(Commercial break)

Well, you knew at some point Lawler would be in the ring. It's Memphis, after all. One thing led to another and DiBiase pinned Good Old J.H.

(Commercial break)

In the locker room, Jericho and JBL had words. JBL was less verbose than usual.

(Commercial break)

Last week Leyla had left Jamie broken hearted by slinking off with William Regal. He still looked like a hurt puppy dog, but tonight won his match.

Leyla came out and mocked Jamie for wanting to take her to the Waffle House in his pickup truck. She said she'd found a man who was worthy of her. William Regal.

Backstage, Batista burst into Adamle's office and insisted on being named Number One Contender. When Lance Cade mouthed off, he felt Batista's wrath.

(Commercial break)

Don't touch that dial. After this match the Number One Contender will be named. If not for that, I'd change the channel right now.

I don't particularly care for this storyline--too dark and too disturbing.

(Commercial break)

In spite of the size difference, Rey held is own pretty well. Then Kane got angry and began to stomp on Rey. The ref called for an end to the match. But Kane wouldn't stop. Then Evan Bourne came out to even the odds for Rey.

A dressed-up Chris Jericho and Lance Cade were headed to the ring.

(Commercial break)

Jericho and Cade headed down the ramp and climbed into the ring. Jericho thanked Adamle for respecting his opinion and suggested that JBL and Batista beat the hell out of each other at No Mercy, then Jericho would come down to the ring and take on the winner of that match. So what if they'd have to fight two matches in one evening. Jericho had done it at "Unforgiven."

Adamle came out and concurred with Jericho. He said it would, indeed, be JBL vs. Batista. However, the winner would face the champion, but not on that night. Jericho would be defending his title at No Mercy, also. Jericho's opponent at No Mercy would be … But instead of saying who it would be, Adamle disappeared backstage and the silence was deafening for a few long moments. At long last the opponent was named -- Shawn Michaels. In a ladder match.

Jericho looked like he was going to cry.