RAW mellows out.....a bit

First off for those of you who were wondering, I didn't do a Spoiling the Illusion last week cause I didn't have the mood for it and RAW has really been enjoyable this past few weeks. The only thing I would have to complain about from last week was the dumb "Eddie blacks out" angle on SmackDown, which is just ridiculous. It may have worked once with Shawn Michaels, but I can honestly say Michaels did a better acting job in that one. On to RAW!

Show starts with Triple H and Evolution whining to GM Bisch about how HBK screwed HHH at during last weeks battle royal. Nobody seemed to complain when HHH screwed HBK some weeks back. HHH wants HBK re-instated so he can finish the feud and Bisch allows it. HHH then orders Evolution to show some unity and as they head out for Flair's match with Edge, HHH orders Batista to stay behind with him in case HBK shows up. It was actually funny the way the segment ended with HHH acting all tough and bad-ass 'till he realised he'd be alone while Evolution accompanied Flair for his match.

First match of the night saw Edge beat Ric Flair with a spear. Orton tried to interfere, but Shelton Benjamin ran in to even the score. Edge really needs to go back to the Edge-Cution finisher as I really find his spear to be lame. He doesn't have the size of Rhyno or Goldberg to make it look really dangerous.

HHH & Batista wait at the rear entrance for HBK.

Vince McMahon does a promo sorrounded by girls and announced the RAW Diva Search contest. They were gonna search the country for the ten hottest women they could find and then week by week the WWE fans would vote off the contestants one by one till one girl is left and proclaimed the winner of a WWE contract and $250,000. What? They couldn't have another season of Tough Enough? And do we REALLY need another none-wrestling Diva on RAW? I get the feeling this contest is rigged...

Dumb backstage vignette with Matt Hardy, Lita & Kane. This has been the worst angle on RAW during the high-run the show has had in the past few weeks and this wasn't any better. Again we still don't know what Kane requested of Lita, only that it's been done and it should be over, but Kane continues to stalk Lita.

HHH & Batista see a car pull up and immediately attack the driver thinking it's HBK. It turns out to be Steven Richards, who conviniently has his hair dyed blonde. Realising their mistake, HHH sends Batista to check on Orton & Flair before kicking Richards some more.

La Resistance beat the Hurricane & Rosey when Grenier rolled up Helms after Conway decked him with a hard punch. Hurricane took a very painful looking spill to the outside and seemed to have jammed his knee, which is probably why the ending of the match was a bit sudden.

HHH alone by himself outside gets jumped by HBK. This looked dumb to me as HBK appeared out of thin air and the referees and officials appeared in record time outside the building to break them up.

Chris Jericho's Highlite Reel was next with his guest Randy Orton. Orton tried dodging the question of why he wouldn't put the IC title on the line against Shelton Benjamin which got on Orton's nerves. Orton accused Y2J of having a big mouth like Benjamin and Y2J made fun of his childish remarks. Infuriated, Orton threatens to add the first undisputed champion to his list of legends and Y2J answers with his AWESOME shinning enzuguiri! Mark my words, this is one of the best moves I've seen in a while and is so damn cool that Jericho can hit it out of nowhere like a Stunner! He beats down Orton till Batista runs out, followed by Shelton Benjamin to even the score. Bischoff comes out and announces they foursome will settle their differences in a tag match.

Shelton Benjamin & Chris Jericho beat Randy Orton & Batista in an excellent match when Jericho shoved Orton out of an RKO into Benjamin's almost exploder like powerslam pin finisher. Seems like RAW and Smackdown put out one good tag match every week that makes us true wrestling fans happy!
Trish Stratus had come out during the break and after the tag match, she taunted Jericho who approached her at the announce table. Tyson Tomko then came out and tossed Y2J like a ragdoll into the RAW backdrop before powerbombing Y2J through the announce table. Benjamin was nowhere in sight to make the save.

Kane comes out to hype his match with Benoit for the World Title at Badd Blood and said he always gets what he wants. Based on his past loss record, I don't think so.

HBK was meeting with GM Bisch in his office, wanting to know if he got his stipulation for his match with HHH and Bisch said everything was set. HHH suddenly tackles down HBK and the two are practically brawling on top of Bisch! They get seperated fow a while but go at it again, this time brawling down on top of Johnny Nitro! The GM's office got completely thrashed!

Next match saw Victoria beat Molly Holly with the Widow's Peak. WHAT THE HELL DID THEY DO TO VICTORIA?!? She goes from evil (but hot) psycho to happy (and still hot) psycho, and now she's a happy, smilin' aerobics dancin' fool! This transformation is just too sudden, like the way the Batman movie franchise bombed when George Clooney turned Batman from serious crime fighter to comedic ass-clown. The match was ok, and Victoria got a small measure of revenge as she also hit the Widow's Peak on Gail Kim after the match.

Smackdown Rebound and we see the really bad angle where Guerrero 'blacks out' during the main event.

Bischoff is furious about his office being thrashed and orders Nitro to go gather all the RAW wrestlers and crew as he plans to get control of the HBK-HHH situation.

The RAW locker (including World Champion, Chris Benoit) is backstage and Bischoff threatens to fire ALL of them, Benoit included, if they don't help him to subdue HHH & HBK. Palumbo & A-Train make their RAW debut here. They really should have left Benoit out of this segment as it shows they still don't take him seriously as a champion.

Backstage interview with William Regal and Eugene as they prepare for their match against Garrison Cade and Jonathan Coachman. Nitro then interupts and says Regal has been cleared to wrestle yet. Regal protests that Eugene can't go out on his against two men. Nitro lays it down that unless Eugene can find another partner, he has no choice but to go it alone. Eugene looks very worried and all Regal can do is encourage him to be a man and fight the battle alone if he has to.

Cade and Coach come out, followed by Eugene. Just as it seems Eugene has to go at it alone, who should come out to volunteer as Eugene's partner? CHRIS BENOIT!!! Everyone is in shock at the world champion makes his way to the ring! Benoit doesn't even mind Eugene playing with his title belts! Coah attacks Eugene to start the match, but Eugene manages a to fight them off to tag in the Rabid Wolverine who goes right to work on Cade. Cade gets a short offensive flurry and tags in Coach! Benoit no sells Coach's offense and chops his shirt to shreds! Cade comes in, but is intercepted by Eugene who hits an airplane spin and ejects him from the ring. Benoit hits the triple-German on Coach (!), then hits the swandive headbutt! The crowd goes nuts for Eugene and Benoit tags him in and orders him to do the swandive! Benoit has to help steady Eugene on the top, but he hits the move and gets the win as Benoit ejects Cade from the ring! Eugene, still dazzed from doing the diving headbutt, celebrates hugging Benoit, then running around with Benoit's title belts! Great stuff!

HHH is backstage with Evolution, still pissed at HBK when suddenly HBK jumps him in the locker and a huge pull apart brawl starts up again.

HHH heads to the ring and calls out HBK to finish their business. HBK runs out and the fight is on! Flair runs in but eats Sweet Chin Music instead! Orton and Batista run in but get taken out Chris Benoit and Shelton Benjamin! The rest of the RAW locker run out to seperate the two. As it takes everyone to hold back the former D-X co-founders, GM Bischoff announces that HBK and HHH will settle the score once and for all at Badd Blood, in HELL IN A CELL!!! HHH seems less than thrilled, and HBK launches another attack! Show ends with a big pull apart brawl!!!

This was indeed a good show, though probably not as good as it's been in previous weeks. But you had to expect it to tone down sooner or later. The Badd Blood buildup continues and even though this was a good show, Spoiling the Illusion will be back this weekend!

Puroresu News and Thoughts
Misawa VS Mutoh?
NOAH is currently in negotiations with All Japan Pro Wrestling to have Keiji Mutoh wrestle against Mitsuharu Misawa at NOAH's Tokyo Dome show in July. This is obviously one of the few dream matches left in Japan, but the question is, can the two still put out a good match?
In other NOAH news, Jun Akiyama made a successful V1-2/3 defence of the Global Hardcore Crown against Jun Izumuda on 5/22 with an Exploder in 13:37.

All Japan 6/12/04 Card change
Toshiaki Kawada will make his V6 defence of the Triple Crown on 6/12 at the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium against Jamal, instead of Keiji Mutoh as originally planned. Why switch Jamal for Mutoh is beyond me, as following the Champion Carnival hierarchy, Kensuke Sasaki would be a more suitable replacement since Jamal finished the tourney no where near the top. Kawada is also aiming to break Misawa's V8 record number of Triple Crown defenses. Not really a hard task when you consider Misawa made his eight defenses in a time span of two YEARS, and in this day and age, title matches are becoming more frequent than it used to be.
Also on the 6/12/04 show, Genichiro Tenryu & Masanobu Fuchi put their newly won All Asian Tag Titles on the line against Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima, and Satoshi Kojima & Kaz Hayashi put the All Japan Tag Titles on the line against Kendo KaShin and New Japan ace, Yuji Nagata! should be an interesting show.
Osaka Pro's Kings of Comedy, Kuishinbo Kamen & Ebessan, will be working two shows on the tour. First, the show opener on 5/30 will see Kuishinbo Kamen team up with Masanobu Fuchi to take on Ebessan & Kendo Kashin, then on 6/9, Ebessan & KaShin face off against Kamen & Osaka Pro ace Takehiro Murahama! Both bouts are intruiging to say the least.