Official RAW Thread (2/19/2007): Friend or Foes?/Money In The Bank 3.
 

http://www.wwe.com/content/media/images/Headers/4144570
http://www.wwe.com/content/media/tou.../29062/4153618

One night after No Way Out, wild twists and turns abound on the Road to WrestleMania as Raw returns to Bakersfield, Calif., and its regular Monday night time slot.

Will HBK still have Cena's back when the Champ battles Orton?

John Cena and Shawn Michaels were true to their word at No Way Out—Cena battled alongside HBK as hard as he will against him when they meet at WrestleMania 23, while The Showstopper had the WWE Champ’s back during their unbelievable victory against World Champion Batista and Undertaker Sunday night. So what’s next for the World Tag Team Champions? Will they remain allies going into Bakersfield tonight, or will their mutual respect for one another begin to crumble under the weight of championship gold? We won't have to wait long to find out, as Cena will be in action tonight when he takes on Randy Orton.

“Bank” qualifiers apply

With WrestleMania 23 looming, it’s time to get a championship contract in place—specifically, inside a briefcase latched over the ring within Detroit’s Ford Field. The first round of “Money in the Bank” Qualifying Matches begins in Bakersfield tonight, with Edge squaring off against ECW’s Rob Van Dam. Since the Rated-R Superstar and the ECW Original were the respective “Bank” winners of the past two WrestleManias, this encounter ensures that one will not earn a bid into the match at the granddaddy of them all. Who will be the first to cash out?

Girls’ Fight Out

As announced last week, Melina meets Mickie James for the Women’s Championship tonight on Raw. The primal-screaming Diva’s first attempt two weeks ago proved unsuccessful, but she may have earned an A-list advantage after scoring a pinfall over the Women’s Champion in last week’s Mixed Tag Team Match. Will Melina’s success carry over from the red carpet to the ring, or can Mickie keep the gold around her waist?

Be sure to watch Raw live this Monday night when it seriously turns up the California heat at 9/8 CT on USA Network.

Yeah.

WOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Wow...I haven't posting in one of these since Spring last year.

So, anyone else watching Heroes tonight?

McMahon/Trump being pushed as the focal point once again.

THE BARBERSHOP

Ah come on, how much would it have cost to bring in Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake to host this segment? Damn it.

no bells for awesome i am suprised

Missed opportunity.

They should bring in Beefcake to cut the losers hair, ala Wrestlemania III in Detroit.

Britney's obviously gone sparko. That's a little low.

McMahon should give Trump a Shannon Moore.

Heh heh... sowing the seeds for Hogan to be Trump's representative?

KHALI

Don't be Khali....

Ohhhhh SWERVE

Hmm.... so is Foley gonna represent Trump then?

Is this the seeds for Foley???

Well, better than Khali I suppose.

Umaga's only indestructable if he's not facing Cena.

A million times.

Unawesome

Bye Bye Jeff, hope you took plenty of drugs.

Brutus the Barber is back!?

Is that Sinnead O'Connor?

I was guessing Khali.

Good evening everyone. Sorry I'm late.

Yeah, I jumped in the party late. This is obviously how they figured out the old Foley vs. McMahon deal.

In a rare-double whamey post, I deem the near-fact that Jeff is about to lose his title to Umaga to be very shitty.

Trump will pick Kahli?

:( Umaga. Whatever. Jeff Hardy looks so ridiculous doing that thing at the top of the ramp. Kinda funny actually.

So they're gonna leave the IC title off the card again? Nice.

Better be Foley. Pissed Umaga came out, what a let down. I was looking forward to Shane.

One good thing, is either Umaga loses or Trump gets his head shaved. Now wouldn't it have made much more sense to keep him undefeated so that it would be hard to believe that he would lose.

Instead they had him drop it to Cena, should have just had him lose both times in a no contest and move onto this.

Jeff better not lose. I want to see the IC title defended at Wrestlemania.

If Umaga wins the IC championship thats a joke

Hardy's going to get ran over.

Way to fuck up a push and a possible future main-eventer. . .either direction this goes really.

So who's looking forward to the day AFTER Mania now?

Maybe Umaga will win this here then Trump will pick Jeff Hardy. . .I would mark out so fucking hard.

God I hate Umaga

I'm sure Jeff will either be in the MITB match or in a tag match with Matt.
But yea, I'd like to see the IC title defended. I'd rather see someone like Carlito take it off Jeff.

Maybe if Umaga wins it here, they have Carlito take flairs advice to step it up. Challenge Umaga next week. Trump announces Foley and Foley costs Umaga the IC title.

Carlito wins the title and rubs it in Ric Flairs face, turns on him. Build that match.

Like that booking?

Nah, Umaga is the goods.

On a slightly related note, Jeff should sign an advertising deal with skittles.



FRUITY FRUITY FRUITY SKITTLES











FRUITY

the whisper in the wind is super impressive

Whichever way you look at it, this year's WrestleMania is already more appealing on paper than last year's was when the full card had been announced. Okay, last years show was a pleasant surprise when all was said and done, but it was hardly an inspiring card.

FUCK FUCK FUCK

LOL Fans = Ownd.

How very Anticlimactic thank you

Hmm... so Umaga is dropping the belt at Mania then? Unless it's non-title.

There was nothing good about that match except for some of the actual wrestling.

Has anyone noticed how credibly booked Jeff has been since winning that IC belt? Its refreshing.

He's handed Johnny Nitros ass to him, and all the other compettitors.
He's beaten Flair and Dykstra from even qualifying for title matches.
Hell, even when facing Umaga and Khali he's put up legitimate fights when they squash most guys.


and forget everything I just said cuz he lost the belt

Lillian got the night off?

AAAAAAAHHHHHH SAMOA

That's terrible.

YUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Umaga rules.

By the way, I called Umaga winning the Intercontinental title a month ago. Okay, just a few weeks late, but still...

Dude no one cares about Umaga

like at all

lmao edge looks like such a queer in that pic

Shadow's crying himself to sleep.

My plan is still to have Trump hire Jeff and go over Umaga. . .

See my above post.

Hogan vs Umaga

This Mania sucks on Ice. Only possible good to come of it is a possibly clean job by Cena. Other than that, Detroit got fucked.

my beloved IC title belt is currently being held by the worst holder of it I can think of

No one important :p

From a storyline stand point, why would Trump hire a man who just got beat cleanly, by his would be opponent?

I like how the WWE works. Push Umaga straight to the title without even challenging for any other title after less than a year, have him get beat twice, then dominate the well-built mid-card champion.

Foley!

Umagas just not an IC champion. He's just not

Foleeeey

The Mountie? Dean Douglas? Greg Valentine? Albert? Godfather?

Surely not?

I love Mick so very much

I'm totally getting that book

FOLEY next week

Khali.

Pwned.

Woooooooooo

Even worse than Snitsky?

Ah ha. So Foley is gonna pull a Hogan.

Carlito heel turn

Hairless Snitsky >>>>>> Umaga

Did they announce Foley for next week or something? Because there has been no mention/sign of Foley here on the UK broadcast, but everyone suddenly started talking about him.

So now Carlito is gonna win by cheating.

I want a Carlito heel turn.

Albert sucked. Dean Douglas and Greg Valentine were easily better. Godfather 99 is better than Umaga anyday. They suck too, but Umaga is just...no.

At the very least, the worst IC champion in years, and one of the worst of all time.

I'm kinda hoping they book something like Carlito vs. Flair in a Cage

Valentine and Jacques Rogeau???

Are you nuts?

Snitsky was never IC champion.

whoa. wtf. are u kidding me. its a tag match? fuck.

FOLEY!

Two points come to mind, WWE doesn't really care that much if things make sense, especially when it can be justified that Jeff would be picked by a man who knows little to nothing about wrestling.

Secondly, the match could easily change in the coming weeks, maybe Trump confidently asks to make it a No DQ match or some other sort of gimmick match that would make it much more plausible for Hardy to win at.

I don't get the Umaga hate.

He plays his role fantastic, and has a more interesting moveset than most bigger sized wrestlers. Yeah his finisher is kinda lame, but it has kinda grown on me, and the people he uses it on usually do a good enogh job selling it that it actually does look fairly brutal.

Exactly.

Valentine was a miserable bore. All that "it takes him fifteen minutes just to warm up" bullshit was just an excuse as to why his matches sucked. I liked Rougeau as a worker, and the Mountie character was a scream, but the character was a whipping boy, and a 2 day reign (or whatever it was)? Not a glorious period for the IC title. Good job he was sandwiched between two of the best, Hart and Piper.

LOL I love how little development they have EVER. They tag teaming right now, they'd have to work pretty fucking hard to make it Cage-worthy by WM.

Not that that wouldn't be awesome, but I doubt it'll be worked out.

Godfather may have been better on the mic, but he IN NO WAY is better than umaga in the ring.

Get Carlito some matching trunks, and hook these two up as a tag team. "The Nature Boys". Keeps Flair out of singles competition, gives Carlito a rub and stops him being buried in the midcard... everyone's happy.

Valentine was one of the most underrated workers in the 80's. Have you even watched any of his old NWA or WWF work from the 80's?

Well. . .besides the booking for Umaga which I've pointed out already, there's how stupid the gimmick itself is, including how non-sensical it's become, the fact that Jamal can obviously do better. There's other things, but I hate Umaga too much to explain it now.

that backcracker looks painful.

Was David Flair fucking Torrie? Or just Stacey?

Fair enough, you like him and thats okay. I made a thread about wrestlers people like and nobody else gets why.
But even if he was good, he's still not an IC champion. It just pisses me off. Jeff was starting to have a credible reign. And of all the choices of midcarders to take the title off of Jeff (carlito,dykstra,nitro) they throw it on Umaga just because they want him to look good for that match.

HO Train > Running ass to the face

Yes. Boring.

And he had the absolute worst haircut I have ever seen in the early 90s.