Randy Orton returned to Raw tonight in his home town of St. Louis to vent his frustrations of how the show has fallen apart since his absence. He went out of his way to insult every champion on the roster as lacking the true essence of real champions. This included CM Punk who he referred to as a nobody. Of course you knew his attacks would not go unchallenged as Punk would have a verbal exchange over how they both got to the top, with Punk working hard and Orton ridding the coattails of his famous parenting. Orton’s challenges no doubt will set up his program once he is healthy and by the looks of it his first rival will be Punk. The two also exchanged words and Orton had water throw in his face after Punk lost in the Scramble Battle Royal tonight.
We also will see Orton join up with DiBiase and Rhodes forming a faction of former legends sons. Back stage Orton insulted tag champs for having their belts stolen by Cryme Tyme. This would prompt the champs to attack the belt thieves before a tag match against Miz and Morrison. After beating down Cryme Tyme they were able to recover their belts and get the approval of Randy back stage. This is a strong angle to pursue as Orton can help raise the profiles of Rhodes and DiBiase while establishing a nice stable of heels for the show.
After Punk and Orton shared words we had all the Scramble participants come out and say their peace, minus Mysterio, who according to Kane is still in hell. When it was Batista’s turn he showed actions speak louder than words and speared each man in the ring, including Punk. This is starting to develop the heel angle for Batista as we fist saw a bit of ugliness when he beat Cena at Summer Slam and now he takes out fellow face in Punk. This will be used to set up a possible Mania match for the title if Cena is ready to go. If not these two will carry us through summer next year.
HBK and Jericho also had their press confernce and contract signing for their unscationed match at Unforgiven. More barbs were exchanged and threats issued as both men claim they will break the other individual. They are really turning up the heat for this match and it has to be a blood fest in order to live up to the hype. The confernce ended with a failed sneack attack by Lance Cade, but HBK reacted quickly and was able to stave off the ambush.
All four of these men would meet in the unmentioned Battle Royal with Kane getting the big won by eliminating Punk for the win. A nice push to keep Kane fresh in people minds as the Mysterio angle really hasn’t taken . It did culminate in Rey’s return tonight as he came to the ring and preceded to take out his revenge for what ever Kane did to him. I really liked the little action we saw and if they follow through with this program after Unforgiven it should make for some interesting matches and keep both guys in the peoples minds.
ECW would also get in the act with the Scramble Battle Royal as Mark Henry showed his physical dominance by winning the whole kit and caboodle. Not much really happened during the match, but you have to figure they wanted to save these guys energy for the ECW taping since that will be the last time we see them before Unforgiven.
Candice Michelle made a triumphant return tonight tagging with Kelly Kelly and Mickie James. They would face Jillian, Katie Lea and Beth Phoenix. You knew something was up as Jillian and Katie Lea were in the ring followed by James and Kelly. Then then introduced Phoenix who proceeded to talk about how great she is only to be interrupted by Candice. Despite this odd beginning the action was solid all around except for Jillian, who if it wasn’t for her terrible singing shtick, most likely would be off the roster. Candice only strengthens a fantastic Women’s division on Raw and it should be interesting how they juggle the two major faces in James and Candice.
Other action saw John Cena impersonator Charlie Haas lose to Kofi Kingston. Not surprise here as Haas continues his tumble down the roster as he now just provides comic relief impersonating the major stars. Santino would beat D-Lo Brown in yet another meeting of these two.
At least now the crowd is reacting to D-Lo, but I really don’t see D-Lo coming close to what he once was in the company. Which by the way really wasn’t much anyway. By the way only 62 weeks to go on the Honky Meter till Marella passes the Honky Tonk Man as the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time. Jamie Nobel would impress Layla tonight with a win over William Regal. Could love be in the air? Will we have another power couple to join Glamorella? Stay tuned wrestling fans because“just like sands in the hour glass these are the days of our lives”.
