This week Raw was live from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

There was a moment of silence for the late Ernie Ladd as the show began.

Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler welcomed viewers to Raw as John Cena headed to the ring. The fans loved him in the District. Most of them, anyway.

Cena said he could feel the tension in the air. For the past six weeks he'd been asking himself if he could trust Shawn Michaels. He fully expected that Michaels would eventually betray him, but he was sick of thinking about it. If HBK wanted to betray his tag team partner, that was fine with him. But Michaels could just forget about stabbing Cena in the back, because he was not down with that. He told Michaels to come on down.

HBK headed to the ring with a smile on his face which was nice. He's been looking a little glum lately.

Cena said that the only reason HBK had his back was because of the WWE Championship. Michaels acknowledged that Cena was correct; he intended to walk out of WrestleMania as the champion. Michaels said he'd kept his word to Cena, then suggested that someone ask the question "When is Cena going to turn on HBK?"

They dropped their microphones and looked like they were going to throw down, but Coach's music hit (he's such a spoilsport) and he came out to a chorus of "you sucks." He said the McBoss was too busy to deal with their petty squabbles tonight, so it was up to Coach. He decided that tonight there would be a gauntlet series for the Tag Champs, the third match of which would take place in a 15-foot-high steel cage.

A block-long limo pulled into the garage. Out stepped The Donald.

(Commercial break)

Various celebrities were interviewed as to who would be getting his billionaire locks shaved at WrestleMania.

(1) Final Money-in-the-Bank Qualifying Match: Ric Flair vs. Carlito vs. Randy Orton. Carlito and Flair teamed up on Orton to start the match, then Flair served some chops to Orton. More chops from Flair, who seemed to be getting a measure of revenge for all the damage Orton and his buddy Edge had done to him lately. Orton was getting his behind handed to him for most of the match. Flair started to put Orton in the Figure Four, but Carlito objected. When Flair had his back turned, Carlito gave him a Back Cracker. Flair found himself on the receiving end of an RKO and Orton appeared to get the winning pin. Then Carlito pinned Orton. Who will be going to WM?

(Commercial break)

Back from the break, and Orton had Carlito in a Boston Crab. Carlito reached the ropes to break the hold, so Orton put the boots to him. Carlito slugged it out with Orton briefly. Orton was poised to deliver an RKO but Carlito gave him a huricanrana instead. Carlito got a near fall, then a second one. Orton kicked out of yet another pinning attempt. Then out of nowhere Orton gave Carlito an RKO and won himself a ticket to the Money-in-the Bank Match at WrestleMania.

(Commercial break)

(2) Master Lock Challenge. Since no one volunteered from the back, Masters recruited Lillian Garcia. Luckily for Lillian, Super Crazy came out to accept the challenge. He may be super, and he may be crazy, but he was no match for the Master Lock.

Another block-long limo pulled into the garage. Vincent K. McMahon emerged and swaggered his way over to Donald Trump's limo. McMahon told Trump's driver to tell his boss that "mine is bigger than his."

(Commercial break)

A retrospective of the late Ernie Ladd's life and career aired.

In the locker room Orton ran into Edge and boasted that he'd won his way into the ladder match at WM. Edge was not impressed.

A public service announcement aired on the TitanTron. Finally, the Rock had come back to Monday Night Raw, if only on videotape. He predicted that McMahon would be getting his head shaved at 'Mania. The Rock then told McMahon what "Umaga" means in Samoan: shriveled up monkey penis. He went through all his catch phrases and ended with "Can ya smell what the Rock is cooking." The crowd l-o-v-e-d it. Geez, I miss the Rock on Monday nights.

(Commercial break)

In New York last week, Ashley had signed copies of the Playboy magazine which featured her on the cover.

(3) Gauntlet Match #1 for the Tag Team Championship: Shawn Michaels & John Cena vs. Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas. Sorry, Charlie. And Shelton. No Tag Titles for you two tonight. Cena with the STFU on Haas (after HBK was ready to make the winning pin himself).

(4) Gauntlet Match #2 for the Tag Team Championship: Michaels & Cena vs. Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch. No Tag Title for Team Redneck, either. Cena set up Murdoch for his finisher, but Michaels got his foot in the way with some chin music. Cena made the winning pin, but the dissention between Cena and Michaels was growing.

The cage began to lower.

(Commercial break)

(5) Gauntlet Match #3 for the Tag Team Championship: Michaels & Cena vs. Johnny Nitro & Joey Mercury. Back from the break, and MNM were in the cage doing battle with Cena and Michaels. After two matches, Cena and Michaels were not as fresh as Nitro and Mercury. Nonetheless, Michaels was the first in, then made a hot tag to Cena, who cleaned house. He even did the lawn dart move on Mercury and tossed him into the side of the cage. Cena and Michaels had words, but Cena ultimately made the winning pin on Mercury.

The cage began to rise, and all the previous opponents jumped into the ring. Even after three matches, Cena and Michaels prevailed. Cena had a steel chair and an opportunity to paste HBK with it, but for whatever reason, he didn't.

(Commercial break)

Nice video about Bobby Lashley and his background.

(6) Jeff Hardy vs. Edge. Hardy looked puzzled as Edge came out. Edge got booed. It got especially loud when he dissed the Washington Redskins. That's a no-no. Edge was upset about the racial slur of the name and said he had an Indian friend who would take his place. Uh oh. This Indian wasn't a Native American. It was Khali, an Indian from India. This was a squash. And not very entertaining. Until…

Kane's music hit and he came out with a hook and a chain. Everyone ran away…including the Great Khali, who seemed less than great. Kane tossed the hook at the announcer table and pulled it over. Yikes.

The Donald was in hair and makeup backstage and asked the hairdresser whether Vince's hair was real or not. Wanting to keep her job, she declined to answer.

(Commercial break)

The next inductee into the 2007 Hall of Fame is Mr. Fugi.

Todd Grisham introduced Mick Foley who wanted to peddle his bestselling book. He would be on ECW tomorrow night to share some more of his feelings about ECW. Ashley walked up with a copy of her centerfold. Mick hadn't wanted to look, but she held the magazine open so he couldn't miss seeing it. Ron Simmons had the only comment needed: DAMN.

Backstage, the hairdresser started to spray McMahon's hair, but he wanted to go au naturale. He asked her--even though she was his employee--who she thought would be shaved bald at WM. Lucky for her, Coach butted in at that particular moment.

(Commercial break)

(7) Non-Title Match: Torrie Wilson vs. Melina. Melina seems to be on a quest to destroy all Playboy cover girls. Torrie looked better than usual in the ring tonight, but Melina won the match. Even though she won, Melina wasn't finished with Torrie. Suddenly, Mickie James and Victoria ran out and started pulling hair. Ashley was the last to head down the ramp, which set up her match with Melina at WM.

McMahon was in full swagger backstage when Edge approached and bad-mouthed Bobby Lashley. He suggested that Lashley go one-on-one with Randy Orton tomorrow night. And if Orton should happen to not show up for the match, he should be thrown out of the Money-in-the-Bank Match. McMahon agreed, then continued on to the ring.

(Commercial break)

Next week is "Reversal Night," sort of a blast from the past situation.

Mister McMahon strutted down the ramp with more zeal than usual (if that's possible). The crowd laughed at him. He started his speech, and the crowd started chanting "what." McMahon told them "not to start that what crap," which only encouraged them. Umaga was introduced (and I'm sure everyone was thinking of the Rock's translation of the Samoan name).

A conference table was set up in the ring for the contract signing, but Trump still hadn't come out. Vince thought he might have chickened out, that he might be afraid of McMahon's grapefruits and patented Billionaire Bitch Slap.

Trump was merely waiting for his grand entrance. He came out accompanied by Maria and Candice Michelle. The crowd started a "Donald" chant which infuriated McMahon.

Trump informed McMahon that his grapefruits were no match for his Trump Towers. Trump put over Bobby Lashley, who headed out to the ring. Trump simply called him Bobby this time, rather than trying to remember his last name.

The millionaire (that would be Vince, who didn't make the Forbes billionaire list this year) and the billionaire sat down at the table and signed the contract. What, with no lawyers present to flyspeck the legal document???

Trump and McMahon talked smack and haircuts. And then the glass broke.

As J.R. said, business picked up. Stone Cold came out and saluted the fans from each corner. Then he took a mic and tried to settle the disagreement. What? He took an unscientific poll and the Hell Ya's for Trump to win the match were the loudest. Austin then introduced himself to Trump and carried on a one-sided conversation with The Donald. "Long story short," he told Trump not to piss him off or he'd have to open up a million-dollar can of Whoop Ass on him.

Austin noticed that McMahon was snickering, and went over and chewed him out, too. Stone Cold grabbed McMahon by the necktie and said that there would be a head shaving at WM, and that's the bottom line because Stone Cold says so. With that, Austin headed up the ramp.

McMahon wanted to have the last word, which was that he would be giving Trump the haircut at WM.

Trump had a last word of his own, however. He had a PhotoShop picture of a bald Vince.

Trump invited McMahon back to the ring and sent Lashley and Umaga away, leaving only himself and McMahon in the ring. McMahon took off his jacket and Trump (still wearing his topcoat) shoved McMahon backwards into the table and onto to "Billionaire Butt."

* * *

Another good show, but I could have done without the 16-minute overrun. Surely there were 16 minutes of filler that could have been eliminated from the main show. The appearances by The Rock and Stone Cold made it seem like old times.