Just John

More Finlay/Lashley is always good, though I expect a screwy finish. SD only has 2 SS matches, so I see the US title being defended. They'll probably go with the Finlay/Lashley/Regal 3-way that was supposed to happen last month. L/K vs. Idol/Stevens looks like another likely matchup.

Not true. I'm there with ya. And I'll go with the Summer Slam ladder match over the WM one. Watched 'em back to back not too long ago and was shocked at how much better I thought SS was. Haven't seen Savage/Warrior, so I can't answer that one.

Bret/Austin and this one's not even close for me. I think Bret/Davey from Summer Slam is vastly overrated. Bulldog was so blown up it wasn't even funny. There was enough chinlocking in this match to make Orton and Christian shake their heads. That's not to say these guys are bad, though, I think this was just more of an off-performance. I did like their IYH match in 95 quite a bit (one of the more overlooked good matches in my opinion). I just think the large crowd and happy ending tends to cause people to forget how boring most of the SS match was. Another one to think about... Better Angle match: Kurt Angle vs. Steve Austin (Summer Slam 2001) OR Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit (Royal Rumble 2003)

The Havoc match. Of course, putting anything against that match for me will almost certainly lose. The JD match has its merits, but the DQ finish wasn't necessary and it really lives off Eddie's blade job, as shown by your parenthetical description. Take that away and the match becomes very average. Hell, have Eddie do a normal WWE-level blade, and the match is only decent, yet forgettable.

From WWE.com. Having Lita put Mickie over on the way out, it seems. Did they really just refer to the women's championship as (presumably) the second most prestigious title in the company? What a joke... *Thinks about other WWE titles* Well, maybe...

Don't forget: 1 lame DX comedy skit 1 pointless IC division match (some combo of Shelton, Carlito, Nitro, and maybe Kane) 1 random Divas match 1 filler match with whoever else is on the roster Dueling Flair/Foley promos Just to round out your generic Summer 06 Raw.

That can't be good for Umaga.

The problem is SD tends to have very markish crowds who believe whatever the bookers give them. In some ways it's refreshing in this day and age, but you can't count on them to voice their displeasure with a bad angle. At worst they'll stay silent (like Orton/Rey). If Vicki sides with Chavo, Michael Cole will just go on a rant about how she's stupid and that Eddie's rolling over in his grave because his family is persecuting Rey. That flipping power bomb Rey did was the Code Red (popularized by Amazing Red). Rey's done it a couple times since joining WWE.

Jericho's cool, likeable, the heel, and also Canadian. Cena is none of those things and will be booed out of the building.

Certainly a lesser SD this week. Only 2 decent matches (Mysterio vs. Kennedy, L/K vs. Teacher's Pets) and bad finishes for all but one (Terkay's KO backhand was cool). Still better than Raw, but not by a ridiculous margin this week. I'm getting a little tired of the King Bookah gimmick. Booker T was a lot better.

I don't like the Edge/Cena hot potato title runs. The only way to establish Edge as a serious champ is to have him go over Cena in a regular match. Unless they do a DQ title change at Summer Slam (which would still be pretty lame), Edge is only going to be hurt by losing then only winning it a heavily gimmicked match designed to favor him. Why not have Cena get DQ'ed at Summer Slam? He could still look strong without making Edge look like a total loser. Then do the TLC gimmick to solidify Edge instead of using it as the beginning to "Edge desperately tries to re-gain credibility" Part 3. On the bright side, Cena winning at Summer Slam drastically helps Booker's chances of retaining.

Doesn't sound bad. The tag title match, Mysterio/Kennedy, and the ME should all be good. I'm also interested in the result of the Vito/Sylvain match, even if the actual wrestling won't be very good. Which low-carder is getting the real mini push?

Benoit should have been part of the resistance to the Court. Who wouldn't want various combos of Booker, Regal, and Finlay vs. Benoit, Lashley, and Rey (replaced by Gunner Scott when Rey moved to the Chavo program)? When Batista moves in to face Booker, have Kennedy occupy one of the faces to keep things even. That would be good tv right there. I imagine Benoit will get a decent push when he comes back. At least a title shot at a throwaway ppv or something.

I liked one of the treehouse of horror ones, where they go through the normal intro, except Bart, Lisa, and Homer all get injured/killed doing their routine entry to the house.

WWE has definitely tried to assist in erasing everyone's memory of Lesnar. I still think a big factor in giving Orton the title at Summer Slam 04 (a move which ultimately hurt him more than it helped) was to get the "youngest WWE champ ever" label off Lesnar.

If Orton could go over Hogan and if WWE hadn't already blown their load and put Orton over Michaels in 03, I'd support that program. It'd be a good follow up to a victory over Hogan, and a better test as Michaels still has more than nostalgia credibility going for him. But since Orton already beat him, there's not much intrigue. As far as Summer Slam goes, I could see why Hogan might fake a knee injury. An excuse if he has to do the job, or more likely, an excuse for when the match absolutely sucks... But knowing his condition, I'm sure it's legit. I was actually hoping it would keep him out of action, but oh well. As it stands, I don't care who goes over. The only way anyone could gain anything from this match is if Orton went over clean, but well, I don't even need to mention the impossibility of that happening. He won't lose any more credibility here than he did with UT the first time around (now the 4th time or so when he was running scared every week, got beat up 2 on 1 with his dad, and got his ass kicked in the blowoff match is another story).

I thought this was odd too. I actually thought something similar would happen, only with the pedigree. When was the last time HHH beat anyone with his spine buster?

I'm starting to think WWE taped about 15 different Raw's back in June at the same time, and just decided to air them in random order with replays edited in. This week's show again was completely interchangeable with any show over the last 2 months. Well, not quite... I guess Foley did finally accept Flair's challenge. That's a development, I suppose. This week's show was also boring. Very boring. And the diva diss? I wish Christy, Amy, and Carmella showed to rip into these new girls. At least the crowd shit all over this one. In two years we've gone from "Cum guzzling gutter slut" to some weird cat promo. Actually, no matter how much I complained about the first diva search, I'd rather watch the whole thing on loop for 10 hours than see just one segment of this 06 incarnation again.

I'm really liking the Batista/Kennedy matches myself. This week's match was definitely the best between them, and played off the last two beautifully. From Batista trying to work a slower, more methodical match, to Kennedy actually wrestling to win rather than survive, I thought it was a good 3rd match. The vertical suplex spot was a nice bit of psych rarely seen in WWE matches. I could see them having a 4th match next week for the #1 contender's spot, and having it end in a draw to set up a 3-way for Summer Slam. Either way, SD needs to do something fast, because there's only two shows left, and they only have one match. I think the final SD card will be: Booker vs. Batista vs. Kennedy (World title) Taker vs. Khali (Last man Standing) Finlay vs. Lashley vs. Regal (US title) L/K vs. One of the new teams (Tag titles)

Not too bad of a SD, though not nearly as good as last week. I personally enjoyed the fact that it was all matches, and only one promo. Minus Vito/Brawler and the untrained women, each match was passable at the very least. And while I would like to see L/K do more, what all can they actually do? There's no one for them to fight. The best you could do is a jobber squash, but you might as welll use that time to build new teams instead. That seems to be the route SD is taking with Stevens/James and Terkay/Burke. Oh, and I think Lashely's "triumphant return" was one of the funniest things I've seen on SD in a while. Hits the ring, people are surprised, big pop, then BAM... Shillealagh to the gut, then to the injured leg. Brilliant.

8 matches... With roughly a 20 person roster? Damn. No wasted wrestlers on SD, that's for damn sure. Sure, only 3 of them will probably go longer than 5 minutes, but when was the last time there were this many matches on a single show?

Kenta Kobashi held the GHC heavyweight and tag titles (with Tamon Honda) at the same time. Marufuji had the Jr. tag belts and Hardcore openweight belt too.

The whole WCW/NWO feud was handled very well for the most part up until Starrcade 97. For WWE, I loved the Austin/Angle feud in 2001, and the Eddie/Lesnar feud in 2004. Sure, that one only lasted 3 weeks, but that was a great 3-week build with Lesnar being the cocky young champ, and Eddie being the old guy looking for a second chance. The match played right off the build and that's a big part of why the match (and Eddie's win) were so great.

Lita leaving a bit surprising. I never expected her to do more than manage again, but leaving completely is interesting. It'll be good for Edge, who is ready to go alone. Lita did actually do a lot for Edge in terms of making him a top heel, just not intentionally. And most of her on-camera work has been neither here nor there for Edge. Edge has more than enough character to stay over on his own. Another interesting thing they could do if they want to keep up the "Rated R Superstar" bit is have him pick up a couple diva search skanks right after he dumps Lita, or have a new girl in each city they visit.

Worst wrestling shirt ever? Right down there with the likes of "Always Pounding Ass" for sure.