Event: WWE Monday Night RAW
Airdate: Monday, March 31st, 2008 (USA Network)
Location: The Amway Arena in Orlando, FL
Results by 411Mania.com
CLIPS : Wrestlemania. Shawn superkicks Flair. “I’m sorry”. Flair’s kids cry. Standing ovation.
TONIGHT : Ric Flair’s Farewell Address.
PROMO TIME : John Cena. Or is it? His music kicks in then stops. Then HHH’s music kicks in. JR apologises for this being live and mistakes happen. But H’s isn’t coming out either. Because WWE champion RANDY ORTON is. Perhaps even cockier looking than usual. JR points out 92% of fans thought Orton would lose his title last night on the SMS poll. He also suggests that a 3-way is the hardest match for a champ to retain because he doesn’t have to be involved in the fall. “Boo” : Orlando. “Expecting someone else?” : Orton. HEEEL! He mentions that everyone was debating who was going to beat him at Wrestlemania. Whether it’d be Cena or H’s. No one thought he was going to win (8% actually Randy and Bayani Domingo!) He says he now deserves respect. He’s beaten all challengers and won in the main event of Wrestlemania. He says H’s & Cena don’t deserve a re-match. He tells us to forget Hulkamania & Attitude because this is the Age of Orton. We’re joined by JBL. He agrees with Orton. He says Cena & H’s don’t deserve a title shot but he does. He says Orton has come out here to brag but his match with pathetic because he was lucky. He says his whole reign thus far has been lucky. “LOOK AT ME, BOY”. OOOOHHHH! JBL says his title reign, the longest in Smackdown history, was dominating. He says at Mania he took the toughest guy at Wrestlemania and beat them at their own game. He tells Orton he can’t beat him. He declares himself #1 contender for the WWE title. He passed the torch. “I want my damn torch back”. JBL walks off without letting Orton respond. Orton grabs the mic and says that everyone who’s challenged him has lost. He claims to be the most dominant champion this show has ever seen. MATT HARDY! He runs in from the crowd and lays Orton out. Referees run out to break it up and we get no word from Hardy as to why he’s out here. Ad break!
BACKSTAGE William Regal asks Hardy who the bloody hell he thinks he is. Hardy says Orton took 3 months of his life and nearly took his career when he kicked him in the appendix. He demands a match. Regal says he’ll think about it.
LANCE CADE/TREVOR MURDOCH v CRYME TYME
Look who’s back! Yo, yo, yo! Lawler makes a joke about Cryme Tyme doing 6 months in Rykers Island. “Welcome back” : Orlando. Shad starts out with Cade who calls him a “piece of crap”. Shad clotheslines him and tags JTG in. He rolls Cade up for 2 but then gets slammed. Cade with a big clothesline and Murdoch comes in to work JTG over too. Cade gives Murdoch a boost on a legdrop for 2. JTG gets a cheeky roll up and steals the win!
Winners: Cryme Tyme via pinfall. ½*. Short and cheerful.
FLAIR MEMORIES : Flair beating Harley Race at Starrcade ‘83.
BACKSTAGE Shawn Michaels walks. He’s coming out to talk next.
PROMO TIME : Shawn Michaels. Crowd is positive with a quiet “HBK” chant. He says he’s feeling a lot emotions and none of them are good. He says he was asked to do a job and be the Showstopper. Shawn gets choked up and can’t finish his sentence. He says he doesn’t know how he feels about doing his job last night. Ric Flair asked for his A-game and he had too much respect to have given him anything less. He says he had a chance to pull the trigger and he did. Now the career of the greatest wrestler who ever lived is over. And he’s the man responsible. He calls it a burden that he’ll be carrying with him the rest of his life. “Lucky me”. That’s it from Shawn. He tails off and leaves.
TONIGHT : Jericho v CM Punk & Randy Orton v Matt Hardy!
BACKSTAGE Shawn is moping. William Regal turns up to tell him he did what he had to and it should have been done a long time ago. DAVE BATISTA is also there. He looks less happy. Shawn walks off without saying anything while Dave still stares.
PAUL LONDON/BRIAN KENDRICK v HARDCORE HOLLY/CODY RHODES
Not for the tag titles. JR says he’s surprised that Londrick are back together after Kendrick walked out a few weeks ago. Kendrick starts with Cody as JR says Londrick reminds him of the Midnight Rockers. Kendrick gets a slam but Cody picks his leg off while he’s celebrating. Bob tags in as does London. “Let’s go Holly” chants Orlando. London avoids strikes and even gets a few forearms in. Bob recovers and chops London over! More vicious chops in the corner. WOOO! The last one chops London CLEAN OUT OF THE RING. He 360 bumps a clothesline for 2. Cody back in. He goes for a high crossbody but London rolls through. He gets backdropped but lands on his feet and tags Kendrick in for babyface basics but Cody bulldogs him. London breaks the fall and low bridges Holly over the top. Cody clotheslines him out but Kendrick rolls up Cody for the win!
Winners: London & Kendrick via pinfall. **1/2. Awesome little match. Great speed from Londrick and great intensity from Holly. Do we have a tag team division again? Holy shit. Did they hire a new booker or something?
FLAIR MEMORIES : Flair-Steamboat from Wrestlewar ’89. Great series of matches. Lots of chops. Flair rolls through a slam for the win for his 6th world title.
CHRIS JERICHO v CM PUNK
Not for Jericho’s IC title. They replay the finish of Money in the Bank and Jericho looks annoyed. Lots of Punk signs in the crowd. They start out by kicking the legs. Jericho wins out and hits a Spinal Tap. “CM Punk” : Orlando. Jericho grabs a headlock. Punk shoots him off but Jericho gets a shoulderblock. Crowd reacts but its hard to tell whether its positive or not. Punk with an armdrag but Jericho blocks another into a backslide for 2. “Y2J” : Orlando. Punk sets too early and gets kicked into a clothesline for 2. Backbreaker from Jericho. Duelling chants now for the two babyfaces. LOUD duelling chants. They trade on forearms before Jericho wins out with a knee to the midsection. Jericho looks happy again as he lands a running senton. Jericho with another leg kick and he dumps Punk on the ropes. Punk ducks the springboard dropkick. Jericho crashes and burns. Punk tries to follow up but Jericho backdrops him out of the ring. Jericho slides out after him and Punk kicks him in the temple. Back inside Punk gets a springboard clothesline to the back of the neck but then he runs into a boot. Jericho holds the ropes to dodge a dropkick but Punk dodges the lionsault and kicks the leg. Shinbreaker! High knee in the corner. Jericho escapes the bulldog but Punk avoids Jericho’s too. GTS is countered into the Walls of Jericho but Punk has too much leg strength. CODEBREAKER! Jericho gets the win.
Winner: Chris Jericho via pinfall.***1/4 for a great fast paced match. Here’s hoping for an extended feud or at least Punk hanging with some other solid midcard guys.
FLAIR MEMORIES : 1992 Royal Rumble. Naitch comes in at #3 and wins for his first WWF title.
PROMO TIME : The Big Show . He’s sporting heavy makeup bruising on the jawline from the brass knucks shot. He’s still smiling though. “Big Show” : Orlando. He congratulates Floyd Mayweather, and his manager, and six bodyguards, and the chair and the brass knuckles…”Floyd Mayweather, greatest fighter on the planet”. Show moves on to the Hall of Fame. He says Flair talked about breaking in the business with Andre the Giant but he looked Show in the eye and said he’s the greatest big man he’s ever been in the ring with. He says he’s going back to what he does best; no one can stop him one on one. This brings GREAT KHALI (sidenote : Show is great fun as a wrestler because he manhandle people and I love watching him throw guys around, so why do they always book him against other big guys?) “You can’t wrestle” chants Orlando. Show tells him to get out of his face. Khali spits abuse at him. “Seriously” : Show. Khali backs up a touch but continues to mouth off. Show is all ‘ok, let’s go’. “Show’s gonna kill ya” : Orlando. Is this an ECW show from 1998? Khali wusses out and walks off having sent a “message” to Show. “You suck” : Orlando.
EARLIER : The Orton-Hardy scrap. I like how Orton sees him coming on the Titantron.
BACKSTAGE Matt Hardy warms up.
ELSEWHERE Santino warms up. Maria turns up as he cheats his way up from 5 to 88 reps. He asks Maria is she got her shots after kissing Snoopy Dogg? Did he take you to dinner? Kibbles and Bits? Maria has been to Regal to stop tonight’s match but only Santino can. She wants the match called off. Santino says he should have been in the Royal Battle but he got stuck with the divas. He says the divas should be at home making pasta and babies. He needs to release his frustration unless Maria has any better ideas to release it? Maria belts him one. “Fine!” Match is on. No DQ.
f*ckING. GREAT. PROMO.
RANDY ORTON v MATT HARDY
Orton gets caught coming in and Matt gets a few rights in and a backdrop. Matt punts Orton out of the ring and follows running him into the rail. TWICE. The second time was intense. Matt wails away with rights and Orton goes back inside to avoid him. Hardy hangs him on the ropes and drops an elbow for 2. Hardy with a left arm lariat for 2. Orton bails, again trying to distance himself from Hardy’s aggression. Hardy follows again not giving him space and punches him back into the ring again. Swinging neckbreaker gets 2. Hardy makes the mistake of going up top and Orton pulls him off by the leg but he’s taken a beating so far and it’s a double down as we go into an ad break. We come back with Orton cranking on a chinlock. Seems he took over with the round the backbreaker. Matt punches his way out. Duelling chants again. Garvin Stomp from Orton. Orton tries for a back superplex but Matt elbows out into a moonsault press for 2. Matt gets a bulldog for 2. SIDE EFFECT for 2! He wants the Twist of Fate. Orton turns into it but blocks into a forearm uppercut. He goes for another but Matt counters into a backslide for 2. Neckbreaker from Matt and that’s been his focus to set up the Twist of Fate. Yodeling but no legdrop because Orton bails and Matt has to dive off the apron instead into a flurry of punches. TWIST OF FATE ON THE FLOOR~~~!!!! Orton with the twitching unconscious sell. Orton has to be rolled back in as dead weight. All that effort gives Orton recovery time though : RKO! It’s over!
Winner: Randy Orton via pinfall. ***. Intense brawl. Matt got the majority of the match too making him look like he could hang at the top end of the card. He even got his finisher off just in the wrong place. The suddeness of the RKO allowed Orton to get the duke regardless.
BACKSTAGE Dusty Rhodes says he’s wined and dined with Kings and Queens and he’s wrestled Ric Flair. He still thinks about wrestling Flair. 60 minutes. “Chilled up inside”. He says every time they wrestled it was monumental. He says the word legend or icon is thrown around a lot but Flair is a national treasure.
ELSEWHERE a tired Randy Orton is joined by JBL. He borrows the WWE title, looks at it then gives it back and walks off.
Intergender match : SANTINO MARELLA v MARIA KANELLIS
The divas heard what Santino had to say about them earlier and they ALL turn up to kick his ass. I think they have all of them in the there. Maria takes advantage of the opening to heatbutt him in the groin and SEX PIN HIM for 3.
Winner: Maria via pinfall. HAHAHA. The divas leave to make pasta and babies together.
– Up next; Ric Flair’s Farewell Speech.
– We are again shown the footage from Flair’s final match last night. Ric comes to the ring to a standing ovation. Ric declares he lost and he will never wrestle in this ring again. He says he isn’t sad and the fans shouldn’t be sad because he has had the greatest career in the history of pro-wrestling. He says he lost to a great man last night, he thanks the fans for the memories, all the support “and for making me who I am today”. Flair gives us a few Wooo’s and his music plays. Triple H’s music plays and he makes his way to the ring, he says he wants to thank Ric. Ric is crying. He gets on his knees and bows down to Flair. Triple H then introduces a few more people who want to say thank you. He brings out the other 4 members of the 4 Horsemen, they embrace. They are followed by Batista who picks Flair up to hug him! Next up is Ricky Steamboat followed by 7-time World Champion Harley Race. Next out is Greg “The Hammer” Valentine followed by Dean Malenko. Trips then brings out Chris Jericho who is followed by John Cena. Ric’s family then come to the ring, Flair is crying his eyes out. He embraces and kisses them all. Shawn Michaels then makes his way to the ring, Flair and Shawn hug. Triple H then brings out the entire WWE roster, superstars, referees, officials, everyone! They all applaud Ric and chant “Thank You Ric”, Flair embraces his friends and family as Raw comes to a close…
The greatest Raw ending in history, an amazing career and an amazing tribute. Thank You “Nature Boy” Ric Flair!!
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