Live from Veterans Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.
Your Announcers are Jim Ross and Jerry 'The King' Lawler.
We open with footage from last week's Taboo Tuesday PPV. In a stipulation match, Eugene Dinsmore defeated his uncle Eric Bischoff-our beloved Raw GM was then given a rather severe haircut, as ordered by Mr. McMahon. Also, Eric's crony Jonathan Coachman was forced to wear a dress for the remainder of the show.
Cold opening-Eric, wearing what looks like one of HHH's old leather hats, hits the ring. He whines about being grossly mistreated, and announces he's taking the evening off. Tonight, 'the inmates run the asylum'.\par
As Eric bails, J.R. announces that later on Living Legend Chris Jericho will get a shot at re-gaining his Intercontinental Championship-he'll face the cat he lost the strap to at TabTues, Shelton Benjamin. Break.\par
Back, World Champion HHH makes his way down, flanked by his Evolution faction pals Ric Flair and Batista. Hunter tells the fans that for the remainder of the show, he and his crew are in charge. He asks Ric what he feels like doing tonight-he wants to face the man he lost to at TabTues, that 'lucky punk' Randy Orton. Not a problem, says Hunter. Randy appears atop the stage. He tells Hunter that he and the boys in the back have no interest in following his orders. Hunter offers a deal-if Randy can defeat Ric later on, he'll be first in line for a World title shot at next month's Survivor Series PPV. However, if he loses, he'll be out of the World title picture for the duration of his own reign. Randy accepts.
J.R. and the King recap the voting for the IC title shot at TabTues. Shelton B. was the landslide winner, Batista was a distant second. Break.
Slam of the Week: From TabTues, Edge & Chris Benoit challenged Rob Conway & Sylvan Grenier for the World Tag Team Championships. Edge peevishly walked out on the match early on-Crippler gutted it out to win the straps on his own.
First match: Chris Jericho challenges Shelton Benjamin for the IC title. Clean and crisp exchange of the basics to start, we move from technical wrestling to brawling, Shelton gets tossed to the outside, Y2J hits a flying cross body at ringside, both men are down. Break.
Back, action has returned to the ring, neither man can establish control. Chris scores with a springboard dropkick that knocks Shelton off the apron. We get a tremendous display of suplexes and 2 counts. Chris looks for the Walls, Shelton counters with a body scissors rollup-and gets all 3. Real good match, anticlimactic ending. Post-match Chris offers a handshake-accepted. Y2J bails, Shelton celebrates-until Christian charges in and lays him out with the Unprettier.
As Christian poses with the IC title belt, we see Bischoff and Coach chilling backstage. Break.
Back, the Evo crew attempt to put the moves on Divas Search winner Christy. Sorry, she has plans. Exit Christy, enter Y2J. HHH gets in his face as Raw's self-proclaimed head honcho-until the majority of the roster enters to back Chris up. Evo boys beat a hasty retreat.
We're reminded that at TabTues HHH defeated Shawn Michaels to retain his title after Edge (AKA Bitter Billy Bitchcakes 2004) interfered. After the match HBK underwent knee surgery-we'll be hearing from him and Edge soon. Break.
(Commentary: 1 hour, 1 match.)
Back, J.R. is in the ring. Edge appears on the Titantron via satellite. He bitches at the fans for not giving him the title shot after numerous injuries. As for why he's not at the show-the fans don't deserve him. He'll return to Raw when he's good and ready. Edge fades out, and J.R. invites Shawn Michaels to the ring. HBK makes his way down the ramp on crutches. J.R. leaves to let Shawn address the fans. He describes Edge as 'clumsy and fragile'. Shawn puts over the TabTues concept and thanks the fans for voting him into the title match. He states he WILL be returning to the ring after recovering from his recent bout with surgery-for the fans. HBK hobbles up the ramp, we go to break.
Back, Todd Grisham chats with Maven-until Batista interrupts. Maven gets pissed and proposes they get it on, here and now. Batista ignores him, Maven issues a slap and runs to the ring. Batsta's all 'OK, whatever...' as he follows him.
Batista vs. Maven. Squash until Maven rolls through the Batistabomb and gets all 3 with a rollup. Post-match Batista looks for retribution on the ramp, Benoit and Jericho bar his way. Break.
Footage rolls from a 'Rock the Vote' tour. Christopher Nowinski sighting!
More TabTues recap. Kane was 'seriously injured' during a no-DQ match with Gene Snitsky.
William Regal makes his way down the ramp, where he's attacked by his opponent for the evening, Gene Snitsky. Bell rings, TOTAL squash, Gene gets 3 after a pumphandle slam. Post-match Eugene checks on Regal and Gene issues an open invitation to any and all members of the Raw roster-they can get in the ring with him, get murdalized and it WILL be 'his fault'.
In the back, Eric and Coach are getting hammered. Break.
Monster Job of the Week: From TabTues, Trish Stratus wins a Battle Royal to retain her Women's Championship.
In the back, Trish gleefully rags on Lita for destroying Kane and Matt Hardy's careers and for getting fat. Brawl follows.
Smackdown Rebound: Last Thursday Booker T, Rob Van Dam & Rey Mysterio defeated John Bradshaw Layfield, Kenzo Suzuki & Rene Dupree. Tough Enough returned (this year all the contestants are males).
In the back, Flair tells HHH and Batista he'll salvage a poor night for the faction by defeating Orton. Break.
Main Event: Nature Boy Ric Flair (flying solo) vs. Legend Killer Randy Orton. Both mens heads are bandaged. Bell rings, Randy controls easily until Ric breaks out the ol' thumb to the eye. Randy quickly recovers, we move to ringside brawling, Randy scores with a vertical suplex, Ric gets rolled in and stays down for 2. We get the Flair Flop, Ric sidesteps a corner charge, Randy goes shoulder first into a ring post and falls to ringside. Final break.
Back, Randy is back inside, Ric gets tossed off a top turnbuckle, Randy goes for a flying cross body, Ric rolls clear, Randy appears to have hurt his knee. Ric goes to work on it with chop blocks to set up the Figure-4, Randy manages to reverse, Ric quickly escapes. Chops and punches are exchanged, Ric takes a huge back body drop, Randy gets 2 after a standing dropkick. Randy scores with a powerslam and the RKO, before he can go for the cover he's distracted by Batista, who's appeared on the apron. He gets dragged to the back by Maven, Benoit and Jericho. As the ref is distacted, HHH appears on the other side of the ring, steel chair in hand. Randy gets dropped by a shot to the back of the head, Hunter rolls Ric in, he drapes an arm over Randy, 1-2-3. Winner: Nature Boy Ric Flair. Out of the World title picture: Randy Orton.
As Hunter and Flair back up the ramp they're met by Maven, Y2J and Benoit. They head back to ringside to attempt an escape into the crowd-wherever they turn they're met by smirking members of the Raw roster. With nowhere else to go they enter the ring-Ric's expression is PRICELESS as he turns to go face to face with Randy. Flair goes down to a massive RKO, HHH is left alone and surrounded. He attempts to beg off before going after Maven-don't think so pal, let the fun begin! Benoit treats HHH to the trio of Germans (delivered with EXTREME authority)! Y2J with the Lionsault! Randy with the RKO! HHH is left lying, crowd (and I'm guessing the majority of the Raw roster) are left very happy as the show ends.
Short form match results (all victories by pinfall):
1. Shelton Benjamin defeated Chris Jericho to retain his Intercontinental Championship.
2. Maven defeated Batista
3. Gene 'IT WASN'T MY FAULT' Snitsky defeated William Regal.
4. Ric Flair defeated Randy Orton.
