(sing along)

Well you know my name is Dom-I-nick,

And the things I draw come true.

Narrator: Dominick Mysterio was out for a walk,

He looked to cause fun with his magical chalk,

What could he do? Where would he go?

Summerslam, of course! The big August Show!

Dominick went backstage with a smile so bright,

Watching each man prepare for his fight,

Batista was working out strongly, increasing his power,

Bradshaw assaulted nude rookies, who hid in the shower,

Everyone was prepared. The excitement was thick.

All except Edge, who was holding his...

Booking sheet sadly. With a tear in his eye.

Then little Dominick approached him and had to ask...

Dominick: Why?

Why are you crying, Mr. Edge. What is wrong?

Edge: I have to fight Hardy.

But his promos ain't strong.

He shouldn't be back here. His push is all show.

He just got his job back 'cause Lita gave me a...

Dominick: ..Whoa!

Hey, Mr. Edge. Let me help you out here.

Narrator: Then Dom yanked out his crayon and let out a cheer.

Edge: What's the hell's that?

Narrator: Asked Adam, eyeing the chalk.

Edge: You're too young to smoke doobies!

Your dads should give you a talk!

Dominick: That's funny, you jerk face. Do you want help from me?

I don't need to do favors. I could play PSP.

Edge: I'm sorry, young Chalk Boy. Just hook me up. Stat.

I'd rather drink turpentine than fight stupid Matt.

Dominick: Well, Mr. Edge. It's as easy as this.

I just hold this chalk high and shake-shake my fist.

Then Version One vanishes into thin air.

Replaced by a punk ass you can crush without care.

Edge: No way.

Narrator: Said the Edge Man.

Edge: Is this all legit?

Where were you months ago

when he started that internet shit?

Narrator: Dominick got going to prove he's not kidding,

And a pit opened up below where Hardy was sitting.

The air started to swirl and before Matt could run,

He fell into hell, but Dom wasn't done.

With one more chalk wave, the air quick grew still,

He created a new Matt - one Edge could kill.

Edge: Tell me you're joking,

This can't be true.

He looks just like Matty,

(Sniff) Ugh. Smells like him too.

Dominick: Version 2 is before you. The old Matt is done.

This one'll be easier to beat up for fun.

His punches are weaker - and I mean by a lot.

He's also a bleeder and his blood doesn't clot!

Edge: Thank you, young Chalkboy.

Narrator: Edge said with a tear.

Edge: Now I'm off to find head.

Dominick: Oh Al Snow is here?

Narrator: Edge just laughed and walked off,

Leaving Dom all confused.

Then Shawn Michaels came over,

Sad he would lose.

Dominick: Hello HBK. You look sad. What's up?

Shawn Michaels: I have to fight Hogan. I may just throw up.

Dominick: Worried about winning? Worried he'll cheat?

Shawn Michaels: Don't you read the net sites? It'll be my defeat.

Yup - Me against Hobbles with his old gimpy knees.

Thanks to his pets, he's now covered in fleas!

I've carried opponents through all my back pain,

But to carry Brooke's Daddy I'll need a damn crane.

Dominick: I can draw a broom. Would you rather fight that?

Shawn: You damn right I would. Now that would be phat.

How I miss Hunter. He'd know what to do.

Instead of the Game, I'm stuck here with you.

Dominick: I know, Hunter's awesome. That guy is a King.

Edge: A God among men.

Shawn: He rules the ring.

Dominick: I like him better than Dad. But - shhhh - keep that between us...

Shawn: Rumor has it, he has a 30 inch...

Vince: Damnit, Stephanie! That's enough. This is the worst story you've ever written.

Cut to: Titan Tower

Stephanie: But Daddy....

Vince: No buts. Seriously, honey. How many times do we have to go over this? You need boobies to sell stories.

Stephanie: But this is a children's book!

Vince: So? I didn't say they had to be huge boobies. Just boobies. Trust me. I built this empire. Now go back to your office. I have to interview potential vice president choices for my 2008 run and the Ultimate Warrior should be here any minute.

***

See Summerslam? Not bad. You had the murder of Matt Hardy, the defeat of Shawn Michaels, the revenge of Mrs. Guerrero, and some other stuff. A fun time was had by all. In case you didn't see it, fear not. The next night WWE has a free show and you can catch up with everything by watching that. It's called Monday Night Raw. What? You missed that too? Man, oh man. Well, I watched it. You want to know what happened? I'll tell you. Ready? On your mark...get set....read!

Video Package runs down Summerslam. Does WWE repeat that Matt Hardy line of "Edge, you ruined my dream of someday having a family" on purpose because it sounds so dumb? Every time I hear it, it sounds more ridiculous.

Things start off with the man who fell to Hulk Hogan last night. It's the showstopper, the main event, the icon, the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels. He's dressed like Deniro in Casino. He's got a mic and boy, does he have a lot to say.

"Here I am and as much as it hurts me to have to admit this, last night Hulk Hogan was the better man. But ya had to be there to appreciate it. It was amazing. It was incredible. He was... he was cat like. He was agile. He was nimble. He had a catch-as-catch-can style that even yours truly, the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels, quite honestly couldn't figure out. I mean his ring prowess was in so many ways and on so many levels superior to mine that I simply could not compete and when it was over, even I, the evil Shawn Michaels, found myself falling victim like so many before me to the vicious leg drop. One, two, three...Now back to our regularly scheduled programming and back to reality! And the reality is this. Hulk Hogan is now on a jet back to Florida until you, the WWE fan, can give him what he wants. And I, the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels, am here tonight to give you exactly what you want - the Showstopper!"

- Shawn Michaels, 9:05pm

I wasn't a big fan of this. The crowd seemed confused, as they should be. WWE gets into this habit of cutting down heroes after they're gone. In this case, they gave a name to the 800 pound elephant in the room. Hogan is immobile. He's isn't agile. Well, uh... no shit, Sherlock. WWE was saying that way back in 1997 when they put Jim Cornette on Raw to condemn WCW's use of Hogan-Piper on pay-per-view. Hulk's diminished condition is no surprise. It's been a given for years. What makes it bad now is that WWE is pushing Hulk on their own show and then having his opponent mock his conditioning the very next night. It's like saying, "We know he can't wrestle, but we're going to get your money for seeing him anyway." Then after they pay you, you say "Ha. Ha. You paid for that crap!" Ouch. Take that, fans. Sucks, huh? Speaking of which, cue Chris Masters.

You read that right. Narcissist Chris Masters hits the stage and starts to swagger to the ring. For some reason, when Chris speaks, he sounds like he has a concussion. No joke. He sounds as though he's had his head rammed into concrete. Anyway, the Piece Master looks Shawn up and down and tells him how he's watched HBK since he was a wee bitty kid. This, of course, leads to the old jokes at the Heartbreak Kid's expense. He tells Shawnathon that he's no longer the Sexy Boy. He, just like Hulk Hogan, can't pass the Torch when his time is done.

Michaels takes immediate offense to being compared to the Hulkster. Hold up, Christopher. What you're doing ain't new. You're trying to make a name for yourself by stealing HBK's spotlight. Sorry, kid. It's not gonna happen. Michaels explains that kids today "Don't know enough to know you don't know." This leaves Masters dumbfounded, which isn't a huge feat. From there, the Rocker gives the youngin a lesson in pecking order. The Sexy Boy Old Guy tells the Miznasterpizzle that he's on the bottom of the ladder while Kid Heartbreak is on top. However, up at the top, it's hard to breathe 'cause the air is thin.

To this, Chris makes a joke about Shawn's thinning hair. Booyah! He should have called him Ben Franklin. That would have been funny. "Michael Bolton" would have been funny too.

The Boy Man Toy laughs and laughs and says this insult is true. His hairline is making a beeline to his behind. That's cool. Suddenly out of nowhere, Shawn goes on the attack and slaps the rookie. Masters immediately becomes confused and Michaels seems to coach him through the brawl. The most obvious moment is at the start of the exchange when HBK slapped "the Adonis-like" Masters. CM responded by holding him by the collar and pausing before throwing the punch. From there they did the classic hit, it, run formula. Shawn Michaels clears the ring and celebrates while Luger heads back to the dressing room.

Still to come: "Ric Flair's on Carlito's Cabana." In some cultures, that would be slang for "Ric Flair has a crush on Carlito."

Chris Jericho is fuming backstage with Kerwin White Eric Bischoff. What's the deal, GM? Last night was BS, man. That was whacked! Y2J should have won that match! Shenanigans! I declare Shenanigans! Chill out, Manhasset Boy. You want a rematch? You got it. Tonight will be the "first ever" You're Fired Match. The loser gets...cake and ice cream! Just kidding. He gets fired, stupid. What did you think? Come on. Chris and Kerwin Eric hug. John Cena is in trouble with a capital T! Speaking of T, Mr. T pities the fool that changes the channel during commercials.

Commercial Break. Bodog.net is a Poker website, but it's not a gambling website. That's like drinking non-alcoholic Jack Daniels or smoking rolling papers with nothing inside them.

(1) Kurt Angle defeated Shelton Benjamin via Anklelock submission At the start of the match, Kurt spits on the ring canvas. (JG Note: He did it last night too. At one point in the post-Eugene Beatdown celebration, he shot a huge loogie right there in the ring. Come on, dude. People have to roll around on that thing. ) I was impressed over the decision to book this match. Benji and Kurt have a history together. Also, they wrestle similar, but not identical, styles. Together they're capable of doing a lot. That's what they did in this match. At one point, there's a great exchange between Jim Ross and the other two guys. JR went off on Coach for implying that he didn’t respect Kurt Angle. Jerry Lawler then asks "Then why do you think he sucks?" So Ross screams back, "I don't think he sucks!" It was funnier to hear it than it is to read it, if I'm being perfectly honest. I laughed. You had to be there. Bickering aside, the English Announce Team agree that both men have taken their games up a few notches. The crowd reaction to the match actually proved a few points. The audience really got into it. I mean, they really got into it. They weren't a roll over crowd, either. There weren't huge reactions at the start. It was a slow build and by the end, they were counting along with the referee and gasping when someone would kick out. Ross called it "awesome" and everyone was in agreement that we were seeing something great. The point that this proved was that with a good match in the ring, you don't need to obsess about scripting weird storylines. The wrestling can tell the story. Even without a pre-match interview or angle, you saw a story play out in the ring. You became emotionally invested in a contest without having any soap opera to fluff it up. If WWE could try to use their machine to push more people who can actually wrestle, they wouldn't have the story-writing burden on their shoulders day in and day out. If you have a good athletic contest, any storyline will do. You don't need a good dramatic conflict to "save" it. In the end, Kurtis locked in his patented ankle lock on Shelton for a tap out. John Coachman called it the best performance he had ever seen of Benjamin. Great match. After the bell, Kurt stood on a chair and forced the ref to drape the medals around his neck Olympic-style.

Still to come: Justin Guarini interviews Ted Knight. Then from there, Jericho meets Cena. The loser gets shot in the head. Just kidding. Loser gets fired. That would be crazy though, right? Loser gets shot in the head. Maybe Matt Hardy would agree to do it in exchange for one more week of television time.

Commercial Break. Apparently, I have Sludge in my engine. Is that like having junk in the trunk?

Kerwin White drives up in his golf cart. He's playing his new gimmick to the hilt. Tossing away his Mexican heritage, Kerwy now talks like a white bread country club guy. Here's the weird thing, though. The fact that he's Mexican is becoming less and less obvious. He's starting to come off as just a regular old white guy. There's no Mexican babyfaces to take him down and play hero. Rather than using his gimmick to play a heel to the lucha demographic, the gimmick is being used to portray a stereotypical white guy. This could leave them open to a lot of sketchy...

OK, as I was making that point, Kerwin White went up to the camera and said that Shelton Benjamin gets polite applause from us all because we're racist. He says it's because "Shelton Benjamin isn't one of us because Shelton Benjamin isn't White." On that note, he goes back to his golf cart and drives away. I kid you not. My head is spinning.

We go from racist to ridiculous as we catch up with Maria approaching Gene Snitsky backstage. He digs her feet. They're awesome. With that, he takes one and starts to do the little piggy nursery rhyme. After going wee wee wee all the way home, he sniffs the foot deeply and tells Maria that he bets her toes "are very tasty." On that disturbing note, Big Show thrusts his foot into Snitty's face. Gene cowers to Biggie, who chases Gene-o away by calling him a "toe-sucking pervert." Snitz leaves and Maria asks Show what a pervert is. I'm not kidding. Sometimes I can't believe that this is a wrestling show.

Matt Hardy is walking backstage. Who's gonna kick his ass? Find out next!

Commercial Break. If Chicken Fries are made out of Chicken, what the hell are French Fries made out of? Oh my God!

Hey, Matt.

Hey, Rob. Man, I can't believe the stuff they're having me do lately. I got my ass kicked last night and showed up in a promo a few weeks ago. I feel like they have it out for me.

(2) Rob Conway pinned Matt Hardy after an elbow drop Edge and Lita sat in at the announce table for this one. They didn't get involved in the match, but simply watched Matty from a far. Edge talked about how he beat Hardy to a pulp last night and didn’t have to exaggerate to do so. He talked about serving V1 his "punk card," while the broadcasters made reference to Mattitude's glazed expression. In the end, one thing remained true. Matt Hardy sucks. Conwasted Rob Conway nailed Mr. Worked Shoot with an elbow and pinned him. I'd like to tell you that Rob cheated or Copeland interfered, but I can't.

After the bell, Adam attacked Hardy once again. It was another beating for Matt dot Com, who only got a few punches in. This time things ended worse than before when Edgy placed Matthew's head between the ring steps and ring corner and kicked. The Hardy Boy's head bounced and he fell to the ground in a bloody heap. Cue the paramedics. Matt got his ass handed to him again. Hey, you know the difference between Matt Hardy's career decline and Jeff Hardy's career decline? At least Jeff got to party.

Up next: The Pope faces Elvis. What do you want? You'll change the channel if we tell you it's Snitsky versus Big Show.

Commercial Break. Apparently if you use Axe Body Spray, you'll bang a horse.

Carlito Cool is here and the Cabana is back by popular demand. This week could be the biggest show yet! He could be the greatest guest in Cabana history! (JG Note: Take that, Hogan.) Ladies and gentlemen...the Human Sweat Machine...Ric Flair!

Ric arrives and Carlito welcomes him to the Cabana. In turn, Flair welcomes him to "Flair Country." (JG Note: You think all the currency in Flair Country has pictures of Triple H on it?) The two then engage in a Whooo-off and Coolio quickly gets back on track. He talks about the Nature Boy's history against his father Carlos Colon, who I was surprised to hear mentioned. I like the idea of mentioning Cool's family history in the business. From there, Carl delivered a line that showed how good his timing was. He told Naitch that he would sit ringside for his matches against Carlos in the 80s. He then pointed up and said "Not those cheap seats in the back like all those broke people." I laughed out loud and the audience reacted pretty well to it too. Look, RF. You won the World Title 16 times. Big Whoop. By Carlito's reasoning, you lost the World Title 16 times. That sucks. Cool didn't lose no 16 times. He hasn’t even lost the Intercontinental Title once! You know the Intercontinental Title, don'cha Ric? It's the title that you never had. Oh snap. Eat that, Horseboy. You're not cool. Carlito is cool.

Flair concedes this point. He is not cool. He is just simply the Nature Boy! Whooo! He's a limousine riding, jet flying, kiss stealing, wheeling dealing, Ron Popeilin, potato peeling, wonder wheeling, son-of-a-whooo, by God, gun! There's some strutting and sweating as Ric tells us that even Coolio's dad labeled him the "King of the Caribbean." That's why all the ladies like having sex with him. Just as the Evolutionary is finishing up his sentiments, Carlito is spitting up his apple....

...right into Ric Flair's face. The camera zooms in and it's like a train wreck you can't look away from. There's the Nature Boy, the guy known for being a dapper rich Champion, covered in apple spit. Lawler summed up my thoughts with, "Oh my God. Oh - my - God."

Slick Ric went to town on Sideshow Carl starting with an eye poke. He battered him all about the ring before sending him dashing to the comfort of the locker room. There's some more strutting and sweating before taking one last look at the apple covered Nature Boy. Apple on my face, makes me extra happy. I like sham-poo bottles that sit on my lappy...

Commercial Break. Boost Mobile - Where you at?! Uh...what?

-
(3) Big Show defeated Gene Snitsky via countout They should just change Big Show's name to Filler. He's Big Filler. All of his feuds are filler. They mean nothing and are usually based on a half-assed backstage confrontation about a girl. As for Snitsky, he's been misused. For a while he looked like he had a future on Raw. That initial Survivor Series appearance alongside Evolution and Edge seemed like a break out moment. Quirky and nuts, Gene had the character that WWE enjoyed and the genuine doofiness to carry it. That was a while ago, though. His Kane angle meant nothing. Now he's sniffing feet and growing Hugh Morrus facial hair. Hooray. This forgettable mess ended when a frustrated Snitsky took an intentional countout.

In the hallway backstage, Kerwin White Eric Bischoff spies John Cena's spin-n-say belt slung over the shoulder of a man in a black sweatshirt. Guessing it to be Cena, Eric starts to make some big promises about tonight. He's gonna fire John's ass and send him out of Raw. Cherish the moments you're here, Xena. Your time is up. C-Man turns around and removes his hood to reveal...headphones! Ha ha! He couldn't hear you, Eric! Ha ha ha! Get it? You can't see him. He can't hear you. Word Life.

Commercial Break. 7-11's new green Slurpees are called "Frawg." Drink a frog. Yeah, that sounds appetizing.

We cut to a backstage vignette for Lance (finally) Cade and Trevor Murdoch. Lance is the glitzy and arrogant rhinestone cowboy. Trevor is the rapist from Deliverance. Normally I'd be against more gay rapists on Raw, but at least this one is based on something real. He's not just a rapist-for-the-sake-of-raping. He's the Deliverance rapist. Anyway, Trevor promises to make men squeal like pigs. This was a good package and with Raw's dilapidated tag division, pushing new duos is a good sign.

Torrie Wilson and Candice Michelle are here. No one cares. Coach and Lawler drool all over themselves and don't even acknowledge the fact that these two women are Smackdown divas. It takes the ignored Jim Ross to reach them. When Mrs. Kidman and the brunette finally do get the mics, they explain the predicament.

Apparently they've been traded to Raw. (JG Note: I wasn't aware that was an option.) Teddy Long says that Candy's GoDaddy dance was too hot for network TV. (JG Note: You know, the dance she does in commercials...that air on network TV. It's too hot for Smackdown but not too hot for the Superbowl ad time?) Al Wilson's kid enunciates her promo as she promises to give some big surprises. In fact, let's bring out the Raw Diva Search Winner. Not Christy Hemme. You know, the other one. What's her name? Ladies and gentlemen...uh, Not Christy Hemme!

Actually, her name is Ashley. I'm just being a jerk. Ash comes from the back and she has her trademark cap on, which is one of the things that made her stand out to me from the others. I remembered the backwards hat girl, the nipslip plant, and the girl who fell on her ass while trying to kick her leg in the air. Once the Diva Winner arrives, she says that it's an honor to share the ring with Torrie and Candace. (JG Note: That was just surreal. Someone just told Candace Michelle that it was an honor to stand in a wrestling ring with her. I can't even imagine how many people just rolled over in their graves.) Then the mood gets catty as the older girls tell the younger one that they didn't get any "oversized novelty checks." The new girl changed the subject back to the fans and thanked them for their support. Michelle then suggested that she return the favor right now, if you know what she means. We assume she means a strip tease. In fact, she means a Torrie Wilson kick to the belly. TW knocks her down and Candace runs in with a slap. The Smackdown ladies laugh and slap each other five while the chick who gave out her phone number lays on the ground in "pain." I may have torn this segment apart, but I want to note that it's good to see Wilson turned heel. She's needed to do that for a while.
-

Commercial Break. There's a new movie called the Exorcism of Emily Rose. Man. It's girls like Emily Rose who make me relived to be married.

Next week, Chris Masters baits Shawn Michaels into taking his Masterlock Challenge.

Dennis the Menace's dad, Todd Grisham, is standing by with Chris Jericho. This is it, Fozzyface. You against Cena for all the tacos. You either become WWE Champion or you go home. What's it gonna be, Y2Cheap? CJ says that he will emerge victorious. Eric Bischoff will be at ringside to watch it all. After it's said and done, Chris'll be Champion and Johnny will be on the soup line, jerky!

(4) WWE Champion John Cena pinned Chris Jericho after an F-U in a "You're Fired" match This match was surprisingly good. In some ways, it was better than last night's match. Then again, this one had more riding on it. Cena has definitely found his groove but just needs to be focused on more in order to truly get it through to fans. He seems more comfortable than he has in the past. His gimmick, while shaky at times, still has enough to it that they can market him to death. John's real money is going to be made in marketing, not on ring work. As for Chris, it'll be good to see him get some time off. Jericho has always been a favorite of fans and one of the things he can take from all this is that he always got a great reaction no matter how he was scripted. However, Jericho was always a true casualty of the WCW buyout. He was the perfect example of someone who should have jumped companies by now in order to freshen up his character. He became stagnant and stale. The only way to freshen him up is to keep him away for a while. If he can get repackaged somewhat, perhaps his next run can be his best one. Besides all that, I have to say that I found this match concept to be just a bit illogical. Bischoff assisted Chris throughout the contest and even handed him brass knuckles at one point. Let me ask this:

If you're the GM, why do you have to help someone cheat? Can't you just declare one man the winner? I'll do you one better. How come he can book a You're Fired Match, but can't just fire someone? Getting back to the cheating, why does Eric have to hide the brass knux from the referee? Why is he afraid of the ref? Can't he fire the ref? No? Well can't he put the ref in a You're Fired Match against Big Show or something? Don't think too long about all this, you're head will start to hurt real bad.

The crowd really built up in their reaction to this and by the time Uncle Eric handed Cena the brass knuckles, they were really into it. JC took a punch with the brass and fell to the mat. Y2J covered, but only got two. Sleazy E went buck, but it made no difference. The Doctor of Thuganomics ended up slingshot ting Chris ...right into the title belt held by Bisch. Eric fell, Lionheart stumbled, Dr. Thuggy gets the win. Thankfully, the crowd doesn't sing the played-out "na na na na" song.

After the official word, General Manager Eric took the microphone and called Jericho a "son-of-a-bitch" before firing him. Chris grovels for a second chance. Kerwin Bischoff tells him it's all for nothing. EB doesn't care about your wife or baby! You're fired! With CJ continuing his begging and pleading, security showed up to escort him away. It's all about misdirection, though. You're focusing on Chris and his exit from the arena. You're looking over there. You're looking. You're looking. Then...

Bam! I'm over here now. Kurt Angle is in the ring and he's attacking Cena with ruthless aggression. He slams Vanilla to the mat with an Angle Slam. After the pummeling, Bischoff stood above the WWE Champion and informed him that Mr. Angle is more than just an Olympian who loves animals too much. He's the number one contender, beech! Kurtis tosses Cena's spin and say on the mat and we watch replays before fading to black.

All in all.... Tonight's Raw was solid. It wasn't a run away success story like last night's Summerslam, but it still had it's good moments. Sadly, those good moments seemed to be bookends to a so-so show.

The Kurt Angle-Shelton Benjamin match was terrific and showed that a wrestler could look good in defeat. Despite dropping the decision, Shelton still came off as a strong competitor that could hang with the best of them. The praise heaped on him by the announce crew did a world of good for his future. It was sure better than being beaten by Chris Masters with no one seeming to care. The match itself also advanced the storyline with Kurt becoming more aggressive and violent. That's a difficult gimmick to portray, but one that Angle has done before. The night he "broke" Scotty 2 Hotty's ankle is one I still remember. No one can play intensity like the Olympian.

That's why his appearance at the end of the night did so much good. Having him channel that energy into taking out the WWE Champion helps elevate the title. Having a wrestler turn up the intensity is one thing. Having him do it to take the World Title is another. John Cena desperately needs a feud against someone like Kurt right now. Good to see that happening.

That whole final match had more going on than most Raws do lately. You had Cena taking out Jericho. Chris leaving in a way that implied he would return as a possible Babyface. You had the advancement of John's anti-Eric crusade. You had Kurt Angle focusing in the World Title. It all came together in one match and wasn't done in a way that made you feel as though you were getting beaten over the head.

Now here's the bad stuff. There's Matt Hardy's further decent into Bitchville, Population: Him. Unless this thing ends with him jumping off a building on pay-per-view, I have no idea what to think. At one point, isn't he going to turn to the writing team and say, "Look, I like wrestling. I want to be a big superhero WWE wrestler and all that, but I'm not gonna do this!" There's only so long the whole "I want to be on TV" thing can last, right? Right? Where's the line, Matt?

Congrats to Rob Conway, by the way. When Matt first signed and we had to predict a random wrestler that WWE would put over him within a month, Conway is one of the top ones we would have picked.

Shelton Benjamin isn't White. That's what Kerwin said. He said that. Wouldn't want to lose all the racist fans that WWE brought in during the Hassan/Daivari thing, right? Tasteless, as usual. Not really shocking, though. I guess I've been desensitized. After a while, it all becomes white noise.

I also wasn't as big a fan of the HBK promo as I would have expected to be. I have an issue with WWE pushing a wrestler and encouraging fans to cheer him, then mocking them for doing so after the wrestler is gone. They did it with Bret Hart. They did it with the Warrior. The only difference is that Hulk Hogan wrestled last night, not a few years ago. To point out his physical flaws while still hoping to score money from people ordering the encore is a strange business move.

The rest of the show never really got out of first gear. Luckily the Angle-Benjamin match and the Cena-Y2J one were good enough to carry the broadcast. I was happy with both and the statement they made about the future of Raw.

See you all next week. Thanks for reading.