5/3 Twilling's WWE Raw Live Coverage: Randy Orton to appear on The Cutting Edge, game show host Wayne Brady hosts, new Raw draft picks look to make their mark

By Rich Twilling

WWE Raw on the USA Network
Live from Jacksonville, Fla.

[Q1] Highlights of last week's triple threat match between Sheamus, Randy Orton, and Batista was shown. Batista scored the victory after Edge speared Orton to earn a shot at John Cena...

The opening video aired with the new draft picks included in the footage. Fireworks lit up the stage. Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler welcomed us to the show. King hyped "the most controversial show in WWE history," The Cutting Edge. Edge's guest tonight will be Randy Orton...

Batista's music hit and he made his entrance in his ring gear. The number one contender took the mic and said he should be the WWE Champion, not the number one contender again. Batista explained the rules of a Last Man Standing match.

He said based on the way he lost, the rules of a LMS match were not followed. He was not beaten to the point where he could not stand. He showed the footage of the end of the match against Cena at Extreme Rules.

Batista referred to it as the most embarrassing moment of Cena's career and life. He had to stoop that low to hold onto the title. "That's something Hornswoggle would do." Batista said there was a "beat the clock" challenge tonight between Batista and Cena to determine who makes the stipulation...

Batista revealed The Miz as his opponent tonight and called him out. Sheamus came out instead and said Batista was pathetic. He said he was not in the WWE Championship match at Over the Limit because he "took out the son-in-law." He challenged Batista to a match tonight for Batista's spot.

Batista rejected the challenge and said Sheamus blew his chance last week. He told Sheamus to get out of his ring. Sheamus replied, "If you think this is over, you're wrong. I'll be WWE Champion again and sooner than you think." Sheamus eyed Batista as he left...

Twill's Two Cents: Slow at the beginning but Sheamus really boosted the segment nicely. The crowd was confused because a Batista vs. Miz match is two heels, and Sheamus and Batista are both heels. I caught a few cheers for Sheamus in there, so perhaps a babyface turn is in the cards for him.

Batista vs. The Miz in a beat the clock match was hyped for after the break... [C]

[Q2] The Miz came out in a shirt and tie with the United States Championship on his shoulder. He said he would love to face Batista and give him the competition he deserves, but his face injuries would not allow him to compete. He had a envelope that said "DOCTOR'S NOTE." Funny.

Miz named his replacement and brought out Daniel Bryan. Luckily, Bryan was waiting right by the gorilla position in his ring gear and he made his way out. Miz told Bryan not to lose in under thirty seconds. Bryan said he was "sick of this" would make Batista tap out...

1. Batista defeated Daniel Bryan (with The Miz) in a Beat the Clock Challenge match in 5:06. Batista tried the Batista Bomb right away and was nearly rolled up for the upset. Bryan locked in submission after submission but Batista kept powering out.

Cole was impressed with Bryan's work early in the match. If you watch NXT, you would know why that is odd. Bryan fought back and kicked Batista in the head, but Batista followed that with a much better kick. He hit a spear and Batista Bomb for the win...

After the match, Batista hit another Batista Bomb as The Miz looked on disapprovingly. Batista reentered the ring and hit a third Batista Bomb...

Twill's Two Cents: That was the best Bryan has looked since appearing on WWE TV and hopefully they play up on that on NXT. Surprisingly fun opening match even though it was disappointing at first when The Miz opted out of the match.

It was announced that Chris Jericho would be John Cena's opponent tonight. Wayne Brady was hyped... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: Cena better not beat Jericho in five minutes.

[Q3] Did you know? WWE offers free tickets to all military personnel...

Footage was shown of Edge spearing Randy Orton last week and they promoted The Cutting Edge...

Backstage, Eve Torres was being photographed and she was approached by Wayne Brady. Wayne said Eve was his favorite diva. Jillian Hall came in and offered to sing Brady's theme song. He said it was okay and she sang herself out of the shot. Eve went back to the photo shoot and was hit in the head with her belt by Maryse. Maryse posed with the belt...

Edge was walking with a production guy and said he wanted the footage of his sex celebration with Lita used. The guy said no. Edge wanted his TLC match footage used. The said no to that too.

Edge was approached by Josh Matthews. Edge said he was rated R even though everything in WWE is now PG. He said he was going to start a new controversial era in WWE and it was going to begin tonight on The Cutting Edge... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: Good tease for The Cutting Edge talk show tonight. Based on the interview, it's apparent Edge has made his full blown heel turn, and not a moment too soon.

As Ted DiBiase made his entrance, footage was shown of DiBiase recruiting R-Truth to be his "Virgil" last week. Truth slapped DiBiase in the face...

DiBiase said Truth should have jumped at the opportunity to never have to worry about money again. He wondered what Truth would do after he retired. "Sing? He only has one song and it sucks." He said he would hire an associate and they would slap some since into Truth...

2. John Morrison defeated Ted DiBiase by countout in 1:13. Morrison knocked DiBiase to the floor. Ted got himself intentionally counted out at the 1:13 mark. Morrison wanted the match restarted by Ted rejected. Morrison sweetened the pot by saying if he lost, he would be DiBiase's Virgil. Ted accepted... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: Well, that would have been disappointing. Now we get the predictable match because I doubt they'll give DiBiase somebody tonight.

[Q4] 3. John Morrison defeated Ted DiBiase in 3:55. King explained to the audience who Virgil was and why Morrison would not want to become DiBiase's version of Virgil. King said the first match was "erased from the books." I'd like to see a copy of "the books."

Morrison fought back from an early hole with a big kick to Ted's head. Ted came back and tried Dream Street, but Morrison countered it. DiBiase then hit a powerslam for a two count. DiBiase applied the Million Dollar Dream, but Morrison pushed off the top turnbuckle and flipped backward (see Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper at WM8) for the win...

After the match, DiBiase attacked Morrison and R-Truth made the save. The crowd cheered for the babyface duo as DiBiase slowly retreated up the ramp...

Twill's Two Cents: Fun match and an even more fun storyline with DiBiase looking for his Virgil. They have to give him somebody eventually and I'm intrigued to see who that person will end up being.

Footage was shown of Batista defeating Daniel Bryan. John Cena vs. Chris Jericho is up next... [C]

The WWE Rewind showed Chris Jericho being knocked out by Big Show last week. Anyone else think Jericho will throw Wade Barrett into his spot tonight?...

Cena made his entrance. Jericho followed in a suit with a microphone...

[Q5] Jericho said he would not pull himself out of the match because of the same "flimsy" excuse The Miz gave earlier. He decided to pull out because it would be a waste of his time to beat and embarrass Cena again.

Jericho brought out Wade Barrett and introduced him as a "future WWE Superstar." Jericho said Cena would not beat the clock. Barrett said, "You will not beat me, period." Barrett entered the ring with Jericho behind him...

4. John Cena defeated Wade Barrett (with Chris Jericho) to win the Beat the Clock Challenge in 4:38. Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment on Barrett over the top rope and onto Jericho. Barrett gained the advantage in the ring as Jericho sang his praises to the announcers.

Barrett scored a two count with 2:39 left. Barrett pulled Cena's arms back from behind. "I taught him that!" yelled Jericho. Cena saw daylight but took a boot to the face for another two count. Barrett hit a backbreaker for another two count.

With less than one minute remaining on the clock, Barrett continued on the offensive. Out of nowhere, Cena locked in the STF. Barrett fought it for a few seconds but tapped out...

Cena was going to name his stipulation but Barrett attacked him, followed by a more vicious attack by Sheamus. Sheamus knocked Cena out with a bicycle kick and celebrated as he headed to the back...

Twill's Two Cents: Pretty good showing for Barrett and nice attack by Sheamus, because based on what happened earlier in the show, it seemed more likely for him to attack Batista and not Cena tonight. I'm guessing we'll get a triple threat at the pay-per-view.

The Cutting Edge was hyped... [C]

Did you know? Last week's WWE Draft was the number one show on cable TV, beating the NBA by over two million viewers...

[Q6] 5. Maryse defeated Nikki Bella (with Brie Bella) in 1:00. Nikki had some early success, but Maryse countered a top rope move and hit the French Kiss DDT for the win...

Twill's Two Cents: Anyone else surprised to see the Nikki wrestling and not hanging all over Wayne Brady?

After the match, Maryse showed off her new "photo shoot," which featured shots of Maryse and the Divas Championship belt posing over the knocked out Eve Torres from earlier in the show. Eve hit the ring and ran Maryse off... [C]

Alicia Fox and Gail Kim were sitting at ringside. Zack Ryder stood in the middle of the ring and said, "I'm single and ready to mingle." He called out Primo Colon and said "Dont make me be like an Arizona Governor and ask for your papers."

Wayne Brady appeared on the big screen and said if Ryder wanted to look impressive, he could do so by "defeating this man." Mark Henry's music hit and he made his way out to the ring...

6. Mark Henry defeated Zack Ryder in 1:48. Ryder hit a missile dropkick and the Roughryder for two nearfalls. Henry hit the World's Strongest Slam for the win...

After the match, the divas left the ringside area with Henry...

Twill's Two Cents: Well, that was disappointing for anyone wanting to see WWE do something with Ryder.

Backstage, Chris Jericho and The Miz discussed what a bad partner Big Show was and that he should not have knocked either of them out. Miz said there was nothing they could do about it now with Show on Smackdown. Jericho said he was wrong and they went to discuss it...

Twill's Two Cents: Based on what they've said about each other, a partnership doesn't make much sense, but why not put the two most entertaining guys on the show together? This could be good.

The announcers hyped Randy Orton on The Cutting Edge... [C]

[Q7] A video hyping John Morrison was shown...

Backstage, Vladimir Kozlov was staring at Wayne Brady. He said he was glad Brady was not foolish like MacGruber. Santino Marella, dressed a member of the Brady Bunch, said he wanted to team with Kozlov tonight.

William Regal told Kozlov not to listen and they had a match to get ready for. Santino said they had problems over on ECW. Regal said they put their problems behind them. Everyone left, but Goldust was left, dressed as Alice. He said he was Goldust and did his "catchphrase." ...

The announcers ran down who came over to Raw in the supplemental draft...

The Hart Dynasty was shown walking through the backstage area. David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd each wore a belt and Natalya carried the other two... [C]

The WWE Rewind showed the Hart Dynasty defeating ShowMiz to become the Unified Tag Team Champions last week...

Chris Jericho and The Miz joined the announce team. They made it known they were the strong links in both of their tag teams. They bickered a bit but teased starting a team of their own...

7. The Hart Dynasty (with Natalya) defeated William Regal and Vladimir Kozlov in a non-title match in 2:45. Kozlov and Regal got the best of Kidd but David Hart Smith made the hot tag. He applied the Sharpshooter to Regal for the win...

[Q8] After the match, with Kidd on the floor from a running Regal knee, Miz and Jericho attacked Smith in the ring. Jericho hit the Codebreaker and Miz the Skull Crushing Finale on Smith...

Twill's Two Cents: A Jericho and Miz tag team feuding with the Harts could be a very entertaining program. The "one up" dynamic between Jericho and Miz should be very fun to watch. I still like that both members of the Dynasty uses the Sharpshooter.

Footage was shown of Edge spearing Randy Orton last week... [C]

Flavor Flav was announced as the guest host of Raw next week...

Justin Roberts introduced the "nine time World Champion, the Rated R Superstar," Edge. King wondered out loud if someone rated R could flourish in the PG WWE Universe. "Like it or not, the most controversial star in WWE history is back on Raw." The crowd cheered.

Edge reminded everyone he turned heel. He said the people don't deserve an explanation as to why he speared Randy Orton last week. Edge said he was primed and ready to beat Jack Swagger and become the "White Knight" on Smackdown.

He was frustrated that he was drafted to Raw and had to start over. He did what he did and was the most talked about star on "this or any brand." Edge was going to introduced Orton, but Wayne Brady came out instead.

Edge said Orton could wait and asked Wayne to have a seat. Wayne said he was a lifelong WWE fan and came to host the show to watch Edge "do his thing." He asked if he could walk in Edge's shadow for a moment.

Brady said he wasn't here to challenge anyone, but then called out every previous guest host. "Bob Barker? I'm Bob Darker." He continued on his mini rant and was interrupted by Randy Orton's music just as it looked like Edge was going to attack Brady.

Orton stared at Edge and out of nowhere, hit a RKO on Wayne Brady. Edge retreated and tried to stay away from Orton. Edge said he had two reasons why Orton would not RKO him tonight. Last week, Orton was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Overrun] Secondly, the last time Orton was on the show, they became a dominate tag team. Edge said he knew it could happen again and they would be better than ever. They would pick the bones of Cena and Batista and become "the real two man power trip."

Orton didn't look like he was on board. Edge said he was glad he speared Orton. He said he did everything he was supposed to do coming back from injury and the fans never accepted him. He didn't get it and it was not fair that Orton, who only cares about himself, gets cheered.

Edge blew a gasket and said nothing that has happened was fair to him. He told Orton, "You will join me." He said he would spear him week after week after week until he is an afterthought on the show. Orton stood there. "Say something! Say something!" screamed Edge.

Orton attempted a RKO but Edge kicked him to the mat. He set up for the spear as Orton slowly rose to his feet, playing possum. He turned around and countered the spear with a RKO. Orton stood triumphantly in the ring as Brady was checked on...

Twill's Two Cents: Hot finish to the show. Edge acknowledging the fans not accepting him as a babyface was a nice touch. Edge nearly going nuts was an effective way to deliver his message and Orton was equally as effective by not saying a word. Orton's character is fascinating right now and Edge could use a program with him to get back on top.

What did you think of the show? Feel free to let me know by shooting an email to dotnetrich@gmail.com.