Monday Night RAW Special edition april 21

RAW: ALL HAIL THE NEW KING!!! Good evening ladies and gentleman. I welcome you to a special edition of “The Spotlight” hosted by yours truly, GM American. Tonight is a special edition because I will not bring you the results to any old normal episode of RAW. Tonight I will be bringing you results to the special 3-hour King of the Ring Edition of RAW. However, before we get to that, let’s have a little “Spotlight Rewind” of what went down on RAW last week.  

• Mickie James def. The Glamazon, Beth Phoenix—New WWE Women’s Champion: Beth Phoenix defeated Candice Michelle to become WWE Women’s Champions nearly 6 months ago and has been champion every since…until last week when Mickie James once again faced The Glamazon, and finally came out as the winner after a cheap victory roll.
  ·        Randy Orton def. William Regal: In what I thought to be an interesting Champion vs. GM contest, Randy Orton escaped with a victory over the RAW GM after hitting a desperate RKO, after nearly getting his neck snapped from a devastating suplex. The Legend Killer will surely use this victory as a momentum boost heading into his Fatal Four Away match at Backlash.
  ·        JBL stands tall…with the WWE Championship: In a match that ended up with three of the four WWE Championship participants battling it out, JBL was the one standing tall over The Game and The Legend Killer with the WWE Championship in his hand. Is this is a sign of things to come as Backlash gets even closer? 
   

Well now that we got the “Spotlight Rewind” out of the way, let’s get into the matches that occurred on tonight’s 3-hour edition of RAW! 
1^st Round of KOTR 

•  Chris Jericho vs. MVP: (My Prediction to Win: Y2J)
  It is no surprise that the WWE Intercontinental Champion and WWE United States Championship were chosen to be in this tournament, but it was a bit surprising that they was slated to compete against each other to stage a Champion vs. Champion match at the top of the hour to kick off the tournament. The match started off slow as both Y2J and MVP kept trying to end the match early with quick fast moves and pinning situations. But the match turned into an onslaught as both of them countered out of the other one’s special moves. After a hard fought battle, Y2J ended the match by making MVP tap out of the Walls of Jericho. 
• CM Punk vs. Matt Hardy: (My Prediction to Win: Matt Hardy) Mr. Money in the Bank, CM Punk, was up next as he competed against Matt Hardy. This match was another thriller as there was early pin attempts and great counters in this match as well. In the beginning, CM Punk got Matt Hardy to the top rope and was probably going to go for a super-plex, but the former multi-time Tag Champion found a way to battle out of it and jumped off the rope, hitting CM Punk with an elbow drop to the back. Later on, CM Punk countered his way out of a bulldog from Matt and connected with his own. Gaining some momentum, he capitalized by hitting a Half Full Nelson, but it was not enough as Matt Hardy kicked out and hit Punk with a Side Effect. But here’s where things get better. Matt Hardy went to hit CM Punk with a Twist of Fate, but Punk counters and goes for the GTS. Hardy countered out the GTS, but somehow, Punk found a way to roll up Matt Hardy and steal the victory. Now Mr. Money in the Bank has the opportunity to add King of the Ring to his resume.

SEGMENTS 

•  Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama Segment: WWE showed footage of Sen. Barack Obama competing against Sen. Hillary Clinton on Raw vs. Smackdown 2008. It was a competitive battle with both of them hitting ground-breaking moves, but the match ended up with no winner.
• JBL Segment: After learning that the Fatal Four Away Match for Backlash is now an Elimination Match, JBL gave his two cents saying how at Sunday his coronation as the new WWE Champion will begin and went on to say that “I don’t make news…I am news”

BACK TO 1^ST ROUND 

• Great Khali vs. Finlay (My Prediction to Win: Great Khali): Another matchup that was made that did not really surprise me was this Khali vs. Finlay matchup. The opportunity to re-open the rivalry between these two superstars has the chance to escalade, but it actually disappointed me. To begin with, poor little Hornswoggle try to get in the mix by threatening to hit The Punjambi Warrior with a shillelagh, although that did not go well as The Great Khali tossed the weapon out the ring and continued his assault on Finlay. But instead of fighting like a man and going through the match with the Irishman, Great Khali intentionally got himself disqualified as he continually kept thrashing Finlay’s leg into the ring post. After the match was called, The Big Show came out to confront The Punjambi Warrior, who cowardly walked away from the Big Man.
• William Regal vs. Hornswoggle (My Prediction to Win: obviously it’s going to be William Regal): While William Regal was coming out to the ring, Hornswoggle was still trying to help his father Finlay walk backstage. But the Raw General Manager dragged the leprechaun back into the ring and quickly ended the match by making him tap out. After the match, William Regal stared into the eyes of Finlay and then kicked him in his injured leg. At this moment, it is unknown if Finlay will even make it to facing William Regal later on in the semi-finals match.

 Well this ends the 1^st Round of the tournament and the 1^st hour of RAW, so on to the second hour and the 2^nd Round of the Tournament. Shawn Michael’s talks about Backlash match: HBK starts off by saying he never thought he would have to talk about facing one of Ric Flair’s closest friends in a match after retiring Ric Flair, but that’s where the situation has brought him. He then calls out The Animal to ask him if it was true about what Chris Jericho said when he claimed The Animal wanted to be one to face Ric Flair at Wrestlemania. Batista went on to say that he wouldn’t give HBK the satisfaction of feeling less responsible and that at Backlash he would finish the deal. HBK then went on to say that he is everything Batista called him last week and that he will stop at nothing to win at the PPV. The two then had a firm handshake and a momentary stare-off before Batista finally walked out the ring, leaving HBK in the ring to look ahead. 
Hillary Clinton speaks: Hillrod goes on to say that she will help keep college affordable and that she will be ready to do anything to help stand up for the country.  

•  Hardcore Holly vs Carlito: The match starts off with the two of them wearing each other out with basic moves. Hardcore Holly then started gaining some momentum, but then Carlito shut it down and hit him with a few punches and followed it up with a side slam, collecting a near 2-fall afterwards. Carlito then hit a drop kick, although he did not get the pinfall. Later on in the match, Hardcore Holly tried to end things with an Alabama Slam, but Carlito countered it into a Backstabber and pinned him for the victory. After the match, Santino tried to trash-talk the champs, but Cody Rhodes knocked him in the head silly with a microphone and then tossed him out of the ring. Hardcore Holly then followed behind as he hit Carlito a few times and tossed him out of the ring. The champs then stood tall in the ring as Carlito and Santino stared at them in anger as they walked up the ramp.  

TRIPLE H SPEAKS: HHH says that at Backlash, all four participants of the WWE Championship match will have the chance to prove that they are the best in the world…with three falling and one emerging to prove that he is the best of the best and will be WWE Champion. He then says it’s up to Cena, Orton or JBL to prove him wrong as he claimed that he would emerge as the champ. 

Semi-Finals Match: 
 

• Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk (My Pick to Win: Chris Jericho): Oh great! Now we have the WWE Intercontinental Champion going against the reigning Mr. Money in the Bank. Chris Jericho starts things off with a headlock to CM Punk. The two then start going after quick pin falls. After a momentary standoff, CM Punk started getting some cheap kicks off of Y2J, but again Y2J starts to battle his way out of trouble as he bounced him off the top rope and started kicking him all over his body. Later on, the two started counter-wrestling each other again until CM Punk hit Y2J with a hammer lock. This started a series of reversing pin falls. A few minutes later,CM Punk went for the GTS, but Y2J reversed and hit CM Punk with a bulldog. Y2J then went for a lionsault which CM Punk tried to get him in the ribs with a knee shot, but Y2J blocked it and reversed into a Walls of Jericho, which CM Punk surprisingly got himself out of. Later on, CM Punk then lifted Chris Jericho off the top rope and connected with his GTS finisher to successfully pick up a shocking victory off the Intercontinental Champ. 
   

BARACK OBAMA SPEAKS:  Senator Obama says he is entering the race to simply make progress in the country and asked the fans “If they smell what Barack Obama is cookin!” 

• William Regal vs. Finlay (My Pick to Win: William Regal): Surprisingly, Finlay was still able to come out to face William Regal in the semi-finals match. William Regal had the upper hand throughout the entire match as he went after Finlay’s injured leg every chance he had. Finlay eventually started countering with a few hard right punches and then whipped the Raw GM into the ring post. The Irishman then continued his assault by hitting Regal with a harsh leg crush. This then woke the demon out of William Regal as he eventually locked in the Regal Stretch on Finlay until he became incapacitated, which the ref then had no choice but to end the match as his eye’s started to roll in the back of his head.

• Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama: Hillary Clinton came out with Bill Clinton and the former First Lady said “Wacha Gonna Do When Hillary runs wild on you!”. After Bill kept trying to steal the spotlight, Barack Obama came out (with the hugest ears I’ve ever seen…haha) and said “Finally…Barack has come back to South Carolina”. Then, when Bill Clinton tried to give his thoughts on the situation, Barack shouted “IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK!” and ended by saying “IF YOU SMEEELELELELEL…WHAT BARACK IS COOKIN!”.

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