WWE RAW News (Page 16)

Match 1: WWE Champion John Cena vs. World Tag Champion Edge
- Cena defeated Edge

Match 2: CM Punk vs. Shelton Benjamin
- Punk defeated Shelton

Match 3: The Undertaker vs. Johnny Nitro (w/ Melina)
- Taker defeated Nitro

Match 4: ECW Champion Bobby Lashley vs. Hardcore Holly in a Non-Title Match
- Lashley defeated Holly

Match 5: Umaga vs. Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy
- Umaga defeated Hardy

Match 6: Carlito vs. World Tag Champion Randy Orton
- Carlito defeated Orton

Chris Masters faced “Santa Claus” (JBL in disguise) in a Masterlock Challenge. Torrie Wilson, Maria and Kristal played Santa’s helpers and handed out presents.

The following report is courtesy of wrestleview.com ...

30-Man Battle Royal: Winner gets a WWE title shot later tonight
It eventually came down to five heels against DX. Things seemed to go the traditional ‘face makes comeback’ way with Triple H disposing of Chris Masters, but surprisingly enough, Triple H got tossed to the floor in short order. HBK ended up side stepping Johnny Nitro to eliminate him leaving us with a final four of Garrison Cade, HBK, Randy Orton & Edge.

HBK cleaned house and ramped up the crowd but got briefly distracted by Edge just long enough for HBK to get plastered with a Cade lariat. Cade celebrated and Orton tossed him out. Edge was out on the outside while Orton went for an RKO on HBK. Michaels blocked the RKO and caught Orton charging him to eliminate him. HBK thought he had the battle royal won, but Edge came in from nowhere to dump Michaels over the top and win the title shot later tonight.
Winner: Edge

Todd Grisham was in the back with Edge. Edge put over how he was going to foil WWE’s plans for New Year’s Revolution by beating WWE Champion John Cena later tonight. Randy Orton came in to congratulate him. Edge said he was setting his sights higher than the Tag titles tonight and walked off. Orton looked a little upset.

Maria was in the back with Chris Masters. She asked him about the Torrie Wilson stuff last week. Masters said Maria shouldn’t be afraid. He said Carlito was the person who spat in his face first before he got his ‘pay back’. He said this week, Carlito would experience what his girlfriend experienced last week, the Master Lock.

Chris Masters v. Carlito
Carlito jumped Masters during his entrance and beat him down the aisle and the two fought around the ring until Carlito hit a flying forearm that sent both men into the crowd. The two fought through the crowd until Masters took a TV camera and swung it into Carlito’s head, busting him open. Masters high tailed it out of the arena shortly thereafter. Carlito was incredibly pissed off after hitting the ring post with the ring.
Winner: No Contest

The World’s Greatest Tag Team & Johnny Nitro v. The Hardy Boyz
Both Hardy Boyz walked very gingerly to the ring. Eventually,

Matt whipped Haas to the corner and Jeff came in and hit the leap frog senton into the corner. Jeff and Matt tossed out the WGTT before Matt picked up his brother and tossed him to the outside, sending him crashing into their opponents. Matt quickly followed up with a top rope moonsault to the floor. The crowd chanted ‘holy sh_t’ as we went to commercial.

Shelton tagged in and went back to the half crab while yanking away at Jeff’s hair. Jeff eventually fought back and hit a wheel kick before finally tagging in Matt. Matt cleaned house on the World's Greatest Tag Team, hitting the clothesline/bulldog combo. Matt hit the side effect on both Shelton and Haas, before going for a cover on Benjamin, but Haas broke it up. Matt tossed Haas to the outside and went for the twist of fate on Benjamin. Haas recovered quickly while Johnny Nitro assaulted Jeff Hardy on the outside. Haas leapt up on the apron and brained Matt in the head. Shelton rolled up Matt and held the tights to score the pin fall.
Winners: Johnny Nitro & The World’s Greatest Tag Team via pin fall

Todd Grisham was in the back with Umaga and Estrada in the back. Girsham asked him who he’d rather Umaga face next week. Estrada said it didn’t make a difference. He said nobody on earth could stop the Samoan Bulldozer, Umaga. He said if you really had to choose though, they’d choose Cena. Estrada said there were two reasons. He said Umaga could beat Cena easier than he could beat Edge. The second was to get revenge for Cena’s beat down on him last week.Melina was in the back walking around with Johnny Nitro. They walked around and saw Kevin Federline. Nitro said if he does to Cena what he did to Hardy, K-Fed will have no problems ‘bitchifying’ John Cena next week. K-Fed said he was here to address America. Melina said he was brave and gave him a hug.

JR was live with Sylvester Stallone. He asked him about his Rocky movie. Stallone said he wanted to have a certain emotional goodbye for his character. Stallone said the character was fairly biographical for him and maybe he was in denial. King asked him about a concept like The Contender in the WWE. Stallone said people didn’t understand their ability to absorb punishment and they are incredibly underrated as athletes. Stallone said he knew because he was in the ring with Hulk Hogan early on in his career. He said he had nothing but respect for it.

King asked him about what he thought about celebrities wrestling like K-Fed. Stallone said K-Fed would struggle to beat Cena’s wardrobe and that it was a death wish. King thanked Stallone and Stallone in return thanked King.

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• In today’s Free Lance-Star out of Fredericksburg, Virginia, the paper is running an article where Johnny Nitro is hyping the big January 1st RAW, which will include WWE Champion John Cena vs. Kevin Federline. The article states that a WWE spokesman said that it is “likely” K-Fed will be at tonight’s RAW.

• It was originally reported that Jim Ross was going to ask for the January 1st edition of RAW off to see the Oklahoma Sooners play in their bowl game. However, his request was denied by WWE.

• Tonight's RAW will run THREE hours and begin at 8 p.m. EST. Enjoy!

The following report is courtesy of lordsofpain.net ...

The show opened with WWE Champion John Cena coming to the ring and delivering a message: sometimes you aren’t the strongest in the fight or the biggest in the fight, but since he accepted Umaga’s challenge last week, people have been calling him crazy. He said that he accepted the challenge of a man who has destroyed everything in his path. When he accepted that challenge, Umaga said something under his breath.

Cena proceeded to mock Umaga’s lack of talk and bad mouth Armando for talking too much. He asked if Umaga was a man or a puppet. Cena said he was ready to fight right now, and if Umaga is truly the Samoan Bulldozer, then he will accept the challenge to fight right now. At that point, Melina showed up w/ a microphone. Cena said that Umaga looked a lot different tonight. Melina gave a sarcastic laugh, and reminded Cena that he would be facing K-Fed on the New Year’s episode of RAW. She said that Nitro was training K-Fed for the big match. Cena said that the K-Fed was the reason to practice safe sex. Melina said that Nitro was teaching Federline how to take all the stress in his life and use it to beat Cena. Cena mocked her statements and insinuated that it was Melina who taught Britney Spears how to prance around the night clubs w/ no panties and act like a slut.

The champ’s comments prompted a slap by Melina. Cena hoisted her up in FU position in retaliation, but Chris Masters showed up before Cena could deliver his finisher. Cena quickly dispersed of Masters. The Coach then showed up and said that he sent Masters out to teach him a lesson. Cena laughed and said that Coach sucked as bad at getting revenge as he did at running RAW. Coach alerted Cena to the fact that he’d face Umaga at New Year’s Revolution. Tonight, though, Coach was putting Cena in the Masterlock Challenge. Cena asked Coach if he could hear the sound of a million people not giving a crap about his un-entertaining television. He said that we were in the same town that the WWE fired Eric Bischoff … and that at least Bischoff was controversial and entertaining. Coach decided to spice things up a bit, and put Cena’s title on the line in the Masterlock challenge.

Backstage, World Tag Champs Rated-RKO welcomed Kenny to their dressing room. Kenny suggested that he join them as a new member of Rated-RKO. He said he has the brightest future of anyone on RAW. Edge and Randy Orton asked what made him worthy of being in their group. Edge said that if Kenny wants to join them, he will need to prove himself.

Match 1: The Highlanders vs. Cade and Murdoch
- Rory tried to get a “Hot Rod” chant going as the opening bell sounded. Cade and Murdoch did a Pearl Harbor job on the Highlanders, but Robby came back with a missile dropkick from the top rope on Murdoch. The Highlanders proceeded to clear the ring. They threw Murdoch back in the ring. Cade distracted the ref and gave Rory a cheap shot. The cowboys went on to connect with an inverted atomic drop-clothesline combination. A double back elbow followed for Cade and Murdoch. Murdoch slammed Rory and went to the second rope. He came flying off with a double axe handle, but Rory got his boot up and clocked him in the jaw. Robby got the tag and eventually got the pin with a roll-up. The Highlanders won at 3:35.

Match 2: Maria vs. Victoria
- Victoria defeated Maria. Mickie James tried to tend to Maria after the match, but Victoria gave her the Widow’s Peak and eyed the title belt.

The WWE recently sent Cryme Tyme to do some PR work at a retirement home. They scared the poor old people with their versions of some of the traditional Christmas Carols. They took some of their jewelry and tried to take one of the old ladies…

Backstage, Todd Grisham, Super Crazy, and Jim Duggan were laughing at the preceding skit, but Shelton Benjamin didn’t think it was so funny to reinforce stereotypes. He said that Cryme Tyme was setting back race-relations 20 years.

Match 3: Shelton Benjamin vs. Super Crazy
- Shelton used a knee lift to gain early control. He continued to build momentum with a hard right hand and a choke hold, but Crazy caught him by surprise with a flying body press off the second rope and a head scissor. Shelton came back with a pressing kick and a stalling back body drop. He taunted the former member of the Mexicools and set him up for the Stinger splash. Shelton missed, though, allowing Crazy to go for a moonsault off the top rope. Crazy missed and Shelton got the win with the T-Bone suplex. Benjamin defeated Crazy at 1:46. After the match, Charlie Haas came to the ring and celebrated with Shelton.

Masterlock Challenge for the WWE Championship: Cena sat down in the chair after a bit of stalling and preparation. The crowd chanted “Cena.” After initially sitting down, Cena got back up as Masters was attempting to apply the hold. The crowd again chanted “Cena.” Cena sat back down and Masters locked on the hold. The Masterpiece picked Cena up and tossed him around like a rag doll. Cena tried to elbow his way out of the submission, but began to fade away. Masters got pumped up as he thought he was going to win the title, but Cena got a second wind and used the crowd chanting his name as motivation to back Masters into the corner. Cena eventually ran into the referee. Masters tried to take Cena down with clubbing blows and reapply the hold, but the champ countered and put the Masterlock on Chris.

Masters tapped out, but Cena didn’t have long to celebrate, as Umaga came to the ring and started a brawl. Cena and Umaga brawled in the ring until a swarm of security came out. Armando got a cheap shot in, allowing Umaga to break free and knock Cena out of the ring. Umaga attacked Cena all around the ringside area, but the champ came back and dove off the announce table into a pile that included Umaga and a bunch of security guys. They brawled back into the ring, but again were separated by security. They again broke free and continued their brawl. Armando urged Umaga to leave and finally got him to go the back. Cena was still being restrained, as the segment ended.

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The following report is courtesy of lordsofpain.net ...

The show opened with JR and King hyping a World Tag Title match b/t The Hardy Boyz and Rated-RKO…

Ric Flair was in the ring, in his wrestling gear, to state that while he was victorious last night, he got his butt kicked post-match by a bunch of male cheerleaders. Footage aired of the ending to the Team Flair vs. Team Squad match from last night, as well as the post-match Squad assault on the Nature Boy. The crowd booed as Flair continued, saying that he wants this whole issue with the Spirit Squad to end tonight. He said he wanted them all to come to the ring and face him and his partners. At that point, the Squad’s music hit and the cheerleaders came out to the ramp. They did a cheer about Flair being a toy, not a Nature Boy, and a very old wrestler that should promptly retire. All of the above led to…

Match 1: The Spirit Squad vs. Ric Flair and Degeneration X
- Eventually, Kenny came in and scored with an elbow drop for a near fall. He then slammed Michaels and tagged Mikey. They went for a Mikey splash off of Kenny’s shoulders, but HBK rolled out of the way and tagged HHH. Trips went wild with his signature offense of facebusters, spinebusters, and running high knees. Flair then tagged in and tried to lock in the Figure Four on Mikey. The Squad tried to run interference, but DX took care of them. Kenny and Johnny came in to even the odds, but HHH and HBK locked them in Figure Fours. Thus, Flair and both members of DX had three Squad members in the Figure Four leg lock. The finish came when Kenny, Johnny, and Mikey tapped out. DX and Flair defeated the Squad at 10:22.

- During a commercial break, Triple H got his sledgehammer out from under the ring, prompting the cheerleaders to hightail it…The camera then cut backstage, where Trips and HBK placed the Squad members in a large metal case and locked them inside it. They placed a “Destination OVW” sticker on it. An “OPS” mailing service guy showed up and asked when it needed to be delivered. HBK said “by Christmas.” They said they didn’t need it insured, as HHH said it wasn’t worth crap. HBK signed it “Mr. McMahon.”- JR and King hyped the Extreme Elimination Chamber for ECW’s December to Dismember this Sunday. They hyped the Hardy Boyz open challenge for the PPV, and said that Johnny Nitro had something to say about that…

- Backstage, Nitro and Melina introduced Joey Mercury, who said they accepted the challenge and would reform their three-time WWE tag team title winning team, MNM, for one night only.

Match 2: Battle Royal- Melina vs. Candice vs. Torrie vs. Victoria vs. Maria
- Candice and Torrie double-teamed Victoria, as Melina immediately went after Maria and tried to throw her over the top rope. Victoria took control of her attackers and singled out Torrie. Melina then joined the fray and ran at Torrie, but Victoria blasted her with a clothesline. Victoria eliminated her. Maria tried to eliminate Victoria, but Victoria reversed it and knocked Maria over the top rope. Maria held on for dear life and eventually got knocked off the apron and to the floor. Torrie was eliminated, too. Candice nearly had Victoria out of the ring, but the former women’s champ recovered and got the win. Victoria became #1 contender at 2:52. After the match, Victoria taunted Mickie James with a Widow’s Peak on Candice.

Match 3: Eugene vs. Jim Duggan
- Duggan yelled in Eugene’s ear before the match. Eugene offered a handshake. Duggan shrugged it off, so Eugene slapped him in the face. Hacksaw then took early control with repeated bodyslams. The crowd chanted “USA,” as Duggan got in his three-point stance. Eugene rolled out of the ring, though. Duggan grabbed him by the hair and tried to pull him back in the ring, but Eugene dropped his neck across the top rope. The finish came when Eugene pinned Hacksaw at 1:59. After the match, Eugene got a mic and screamed for the crowd not to laugh and make fun of him. He said he was special, damn it!

- The Rated-R Superstar came to the ring for a special edition of the Cutting Edge, which was hyped to have a special guest. Before the segment began, Edge congratulated DX for beating up the Squad for the millionth time. He said that failed in comparison to the number of times he had beaten the Hardys in his career. He said he and Orton would do it again tonight and dedicate their victory to the greatest Women’s Champion of all-time, Lita.

Edge tried to introduce his guest, but no one showed up. Orton showed up and said that his guest was backstage, but he needed Edge to come back there and confirm it. Edge headed to the back to check it out. The World Tag Champs proceeded to drag Ric Flair’s bloody and beaten body out to the ring. Edge asked if this wasn’t the part where DX came down and made the save. Orton said that they were cowards. Edge said DX only thought about themselves. He told the crowd that DX didn’t care about them either. Edge then drilled Flair with a one man conchairto. Orton gave him one, too.
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The following results are courtesy of wrestleview.com ...

The music of John Cena hits and he came out to the ring with his Survivor Series team. He began talking, but Edge and Orton came out and interrupted him. Edge said if anyone wanted to run their mouth it should be the people who didn’t get their asses kicked last week. He put over hospitalizing a hall of famer and winning the tag team championship. Orton said that after Nitro won his ladder match tonight, there would be four champions on their team. By the way, Gregory Helms, Mike Knox and Johnny Nitro were with them. Orton blabbered on a little more before getting interrupted by a big ‘woooo!’

Ric Flair called Edge and Orton pathetic, backed up by his Survivor Series squad. The Spirit Squad’s music hit and Kenny cut a decent promo calling Flair’s team “National History Museum Rejects”. Kenny said they were going to cheer for us. The Squad prepared before DX’s music hit. Out came DX, CM Punk and the Hardy Boyz. Michaels said he wanted the Royal Rumble to happen right now. Triple H whispered in his ear and reminded him that the Rumble wasn’t now, it was Survivor Series. Triple H told Flair they could beat the Spirit Squad on Sunday because that was easy. He said due to an open box of twinkees in the back, no one was going to show up from Big Show’s team. He called Rated RKO “the Village People”. They went to do the ‘suck it’ thing, and Edge went off. He said everyone was sick of their two words. He said Smackdown, Raw and ECW was sick of it. Big Show’s music finally hit and his team came out to the ramp with his squad.

Show babbled for a little bit before Cena cut him off and invited every one of the wrestlers in the area to come into the ring to prove who the best was. As the ring began to fill up, Vince McMahon’s music hit and he came out to the ring. He said they’d have to hold off until Sunday. He said the main event would be a captain’s match. It’ll be John Cena, Ric Flair, Triple H and Shawn Michaels v. Big Show, Kenny, Edge and Randy Orton.

Umaga v. Sabu
- Umaga came out and laid Sabu out in quick order. He landed a head-butt followed by a chop to the chest. He bullied Sabu into the corner and did a demo job on him there. Sabu fought back a bit but was quickly cut off and dumped out to the floor. Umaga whipped Sabu into the security wall before tossing his opponent back into the ring.

Umaga hit a diving head-butt and a right hand to Sabu’s noggin’. Umaga went for a body slam, but Sabu fought back with some punches before getting planted in the face with a big boot. Umaga whipped Sabu into the buckles and missed the follow up while Sabu hit a springboard back elbow followed by a tornado DDT. Sabu came off the ropes with another springboard move only to get completely crushed with the Samoan Spike.
Winner: Umaga

Torrie Wilson was shooting T-Shirts into the crowd and King got up to get a T-Shirt before Chris Masters came out to the ring. He put over his guns and harassed Torrie a bit before Carlito’s music hit. He said Masters had big guns, but downstairs had a little pistol. He said if the two wanted to do something physical, they could do ‘this’ and opened up a barrage of offense on Masters sending him to the outside.

Torrie went to leave the ringside area before Masters recovered and slapped the master lock on Carlito. King made the save though and Masters ran off up the ramp.

The Spirit Squad picked Nicky to face Dusty Rhodes later tonight. Flair was ogling Candice Michelle when Kenny ran off to tell Flair the legend he picked wasn’t going to make any difference this Sunday. Flair said he wasn’t worrying and he had two words for Nitro. He gave a woo before Ron Simmons popped up and gave us our weekly ‘damn.’

WWE Intercontinental Championship — Ladder Match: Jeff Hardy v. Johnny Nitro
- Hardy hit a right hand and floored the challenger who spit to the floor. Nitro got back into the ring and hit a nice looking European uppercut and followed it up two more. Nitro punched away at Hardy in the corner but the Champion fought back with some rights of his own. Hardy hit his whisper in the wind and went to go retrieve the ladder from the outside, but Nitro cut him off with a blow to the back.

There was more back and forth when Nitro went under the ring and pulled out a monster ladder and tossed it in the ring. Nitro hit a nice hangman’s neck breaker before driving the ladder into Hardy’s midsection. Nitro hit some forearms into Hardy’s face before having an Irish whip countered and was tossed into the monster ladder, breaking the braces in the middle.

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• This week’s edition of ECW on Sci-Fi did a 1.5 cable rating with a 2.0 share. This is the exact same as last week.

• Monday’s RAW did a 3.8 cable rating with a 5.7 share. This is higher than last week’s 3.7 rating. The show did hours of 3.6 and 3.9.

• Edge broke the WWE record of most tag team title runs with his 11th win with Randy Orton last night. He had previously shared the mark with Billy Gunn at 10.

• Last night’s DX/Cryme Tyme segment on RAW was filmed after the taping was over. The production crew attempted to shoot during the show; however Shawn Michaels couldn’t keep a straight face and kept cracking up in the middle of the segment.

The following report is courtesy of lordsofpain.net ...

The show opened with DX coming to the ring to a very nice reaction from the English crowd. JR and King hyped Team DX vs. Team Rated-RKO for Survivor Series. The Coach came out and said to forget about Edge and Orton tonight. HBK interrupted him and stopped him from “banning DX from the building.” HHH remarked how well that plan had worked in the past. Coach said that he wasn’t going to say that, but rather he was issuing a bounty of 5,200 English pounds ($10,000) for someone to take them out. HHH thought he should offer more money. Coach made a match between DX and four guys who all wanted to collect the bounty…

Match 1: DX vs. Charlie Haas, Viscera, Cade, and Murdoch
- After a bit, Murdoch tried to catch Triple H with a clothesline, but Trips back dropped him over the top rope. HBK went on to nail Viscera with Sweet Chin Music, knocking the 500-pounder off the apron and allowing HHH to hit the Pedigree on Haas for the win. DX won the handicap match at an estimated 7:23.

Backstage, Johnny and Kenny told the other three members of the Squad to go get the bounty on DX while they wrestled the Highlanders. They saw DX and went after them. Mikey, Mitch, and Nicky tried, but all failed in amusing fashion. DX went on with their conversation while the three members of the Squad managed to either dive right by DX, run into a nonchalant HBK trash can lid shot, or fall flat on their face.

Match 2: The Spirit Squad vs. The Highlanders
- The Highlanders proceeded to score with a double dropkick on each Squad member and go for a slingshot double suplex. However, Johnny caught Kenny and prevented the move from making an impact. Johnny ended up on the outside, as Kenny got the win for them with a roll-up. The Squad defeated the Highlanders at 3:14.

Jerry “The King” Lawler headed to the ring for the Masterlock Challenge. Chris Masters came out and locked it on after some hesitating. Lawler tried to power out of the hold. That didn’t work. King tried to elbow his way out of the hold. That didn’t work, either. Jerry gave it one more big effort, but couldn’t escape the almighty Masterlock.

Backstage, DX were hanging out when Eugene knocked on their door and asked for the bounty. They gave him a roll of paper towels, but he persisted. He tried to attack, but they closed the door in his face. He tried to attack again, but they moved out of the way, sending Eugene crashing into the wall.

Backstage, Todd Grisham interviewed Women’s Champion, Lita. He asked her how she felt about facing Mickie tonight and at Survivor Series. Lita said she already beat her twice. She called herself the greatest women’s champ ever.

Further backstage, DX were talking about food. HHH said he needed to go to the bathroom. As he went into a stall, Chris Masters tried to attack him. The door closed and we heard a commotion behind the closed door. When the door re-opened, Trips had made quick work of the Masterpiece and knocked him out against the toilet.

Match 3: WWE Champion John Cena vs. Umaga (w/ Armando Alejandro Estrada)
- The Samoan Bulldozer grabbed Cena’s trapezius muscle to wear down the champ. Cena broke the hold and hit the Throwback, as the crowd were split b/t chanting “Let’s Go Cena” and “Cena Sucks.” The champ eventually knocked the undefeated Samoan into the ropes with a diving shoulder tackle. Umaga ended up trapped between the middle and top ropes, but Cena was unable to capitalize thanks to ECW Champion Big Show. Show and Umaga proceeded to double team the WWE champ with their powerful offenses. Cena defeated Umaga via DQ at 3:29.

Backstage, Coach talked on the phone. DX walked into his “office” and rolled a recap video of all the heels that had, thus far, attempted to take them out tonight. Trips said he couldn’t take it anymore. Coach said if they left, they couldn’t come back. Meanwhile, HBK took the money, w/ the reasoning behind it being (according to Trips) that they took themselves out.

Match 4: Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro (w/ Melina) vs. Jeff Hardy
- Back from commercial break, Hardy hit an inverted atomic drop and followed with a double leg drop to the groin area for a near fall. Nitro gained some much needed momentum when he grabbed Hardy and threw him face-first into the middle turnbuckle. The champ connected on a springboard leg lariat to gain even more momentum. Johnny then locked on a rear chinlock, as the crowd got behind Jeff. Hardy got to his feet, but Nitro yanked him down by the hair. He missed his attempt at a twirling elbow drop, though. Nitro ran at Hardy looking for a clothesline, but Hardy hopped over him and into a pinning combo for a near fall. Nitro stayed on him, going back to the rear chinlock. Hardy again got to his feet. Nitro looked for a splash in the corner, but the gritty former champion vaulted him into the air, sending him into a split on the top rope.

Hardy proceeded to score with a reverse mulekick and back drop. He followed with a unique pinning combo and then went for the Whisper in the Wind, but Nitro dodged the high risk. Nitro connected on a split legged facebuster and went to the middle rope for a dropkick. However, Hardy countered into a sit-out powerbomb into a pin attempt. 1…2…No! Nitro kicked out! Hardy then hit the Swanton Bomb, but Melina had the ref distracted so that he couldn’t count the pin. Jeff went for the Twist of Fate, but Nitro countered. Melina eventually grabbed Hardy’s foot and tripped him up, allowing Nitro to score with a moonsault from the top rope. The finish came when Nitro covered Jeff for a two-count, but his cover was too casual. Thus, Hardy reversed into a pinning combo of his own to pick up the win. Hardy became the IC champ at 12:00. After the match, Nitro drilled Hardy with a DDT and assaulted him with a ladder. Nitro drove the ladder into Hardy’s mid-section and taunted him.

Outside the arena, DX tried to decide what to do with Coach’s money. They approached Cryme Tyme looking for tickets so that they could get back into the arena and mess with everyone. Trips didn’t understand what they were saying, so HBK spoke some cracker Ebonics to score them a good deal on the seats. HHH wanted to know what they were talking about.

Backstage, Carlito was reading an English newspaper when Torrie Wilson showed up with two attractive ladies. Torrie asked him if he wanted to go out with them later and crash at her hotel since his was across town. “That’s cool…”

Match 5: Women’s Champion Lita vs. Mickie James (non-title)
- Before the match, Lita said that Mickie James had to wrestle with her legs tied together. The ref proceeded to shackle Mickie’s legs together. DX didn’t like that decision. Mickie took the mic and said that she’d give Lita the shackles after the match because everyone knew it was Lita who needed her legs tied together. Lita blasted her after that comment and dominated the match. The women’s champ taunted DX. Mickie fought back with a few forearm shots, but Lita took her down with a drop toehold. DX started a “Lita’s a HOE” chant. Lita got out of the ring and yelled at HBK and HHH. Trips squirted mustard in her face. Back in the ring, Mickie hit her with a big piece of sausage and the Mickie DDT. 1…2…3!!! Mickie defeated Lita.

Match 6: World Tag Team Champions Ric Flair and Roddy Piper vs. Randy Orton and Edge
- After being beaten for awhile, Flair fought out of the submission, but got a back elbow to the face for his troubles. Randy Orton came back in and stomped Flair’s forehead. Edge distracted the ref, but it ended up working in Flair’s favor, allowing the 16-time champ to hit Orton with a low blow. Edge tagged back in, but Flair made a courageous comeback nonetheless. Orton tried to thwart the comeback with a dropkick, but Flair dodged it. Ric went on to lock Orton in the Figure Four, but Edge caught him with a Spear. Rated-RKO became World Tag champs at 5:03.

** Click here for more WWE photos from this week's RAW

Monday’s RAW rating increased slightly this week, coming in with a 3.7 cable rating and a 6.0 share. The show did quarter hours: 3.8, 3.4, 3.7, 3.7, 4.1, 3.8, 3.5, and 3.7, with a 4.0 overrun.

Last week’s edition did a 3.6 cable rating. It's a tiny increase, of course, but may show that fans are glad to see DX involved with Eric Bischoff, Edge and Randy Orton - instead of the stale Vince McMahon feud.