I haven’t logged a WWE non-PPV in a while and since I’m more interested in this “special” Raw mostly because I expect there to be a lot of history, I figured I might as well pull out the old timely recap.

It should also only take them about 25 months to get to the 1000th episode.

6:03PM – Bret is back! Wait, I thought the General Manager never wanted Bret on WWE TV again?

6:06PM – Hart says that he and the Undertaker were the only two guys who were on the first Raw and who are still with the company. Kane’s music plays and he walks out. Talk about a bait and switch.

6:09PM – Kane brings up Shawn MIchaels and how Bret must’ve loved watching the Undertaker retire him. Jeez, the writers must hate us tonight. Isn’t is supposed to be a celebration?

6:12PM – Kane attacks Bret, the Hart Dynasty come in, and the Undertaker appears and sends Kane walking away. My iPod Touch notification sounds, I mean, the GM e-mails Michael Cole and says that Bret Hart will face Taker. Sigh.

6:13PM – They only thing I remember about the very first raw is Bobby Heenan trying to get inside the building.

6:18PM – Dream nerd tag match – Kaval and Daniel Bryan vs. Michael McGillicuddy and Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz and Alex Riley. Ok, maybe only a dream nerd tag team.

6:22PM – Miz had to skull crush poor Kaval for the finale. Then he had to clip Bryan with his briefcase. I wonder if this was their way of trying to get people to vote for Alex Riley for tomorrow’s NXT season finale?

6:31PM – Melina pinned Layla in a tag match with Melina and Eve vs. LayCool. Eve didn’t even get in the match. Maybe they’re running low on time. LayCool challenged Melina to a title unification match. I’m guessing this is at Night Of Champions. I say they keep the Diva belt over the women’s title. Melina accepted as long as it’s a Lumberjack match. King or Cole made sure to use the term Lumberjills. Melina must’ve messed up.

6:40PM – So far, out of four of the historic packages they’ve shown, two have been from the last two years. What an utter fail. No one wants to see that stuff. We want to see Austin, Rock, Foley, and HBK. Well, it’s better than the HHH hype that I expect to be coming shortly.
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I’ll be posting predictions from folks who are in the house watching the fight. Those of us on the site gave our predictions yesterday, which you can read.

Predictions:

Dave – Diaz by 2nd round submission (guillotine)
Daniel – Diaz by 3rd round submission
Mike L. – Diaz by 2nd round TKO
Mike S. – Diaz by 3rd round submission (triangle)
GG – Diaz by 3rd round submission

1. Marcus Davis vs. Nate Diaz

Diaz looks awful in exchanges, but with his boxing style, he often does. Davis is landing his left hand at will, yet Davis is the one who has the big cut, which came from when he turned Diaz around and had him up against the fence. Davis landed the bigger shots, but Diaz landed more shots. Davis’ face looked heavily swollen at the end of the round. I’d give the round slightly to Diaz. The cut is nasty.

Davis’ eye is messed up. They may stop it after this round. Diaz is just keeping both hands right in Davis’ face. A couple times in the round, he went in for a shot, and once, Davis ended up on top, but Diaz flipped him over quickly. Davis is taking a beating. I’m not sure how he can see the punches coming.

Diaz may have broken Davis’ orbital bone. He has a half golf ball on his eye now. Diaz is punishing him. It went to the ground and Diaz put him to sleep with a guillotine. That was pretty impressive.

Winner: Nate Diaz by way of 3rd round submission

Predictions:

Dave – Maynard by decision
Daniel – Florian by decision
Mike L. – Florian by decision
Mike S. – Florian by decision
GG – Florian by 3rd round TKO

2. Gray Maynard vs. Kenny Florian

It was a nothing round for the most part. Florian caught Maynard with a short right, but Maynard then finally got his takedown and threw some blows from the top. Maynard probably steals the round with the takedown.
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This is the post only for the prelims on Spike. I’ll post the live PPV in a separate post.

There are two scheduled fights for this and if they can fit in another, I’m sure they will.

The first fight is Andre Winner vs. Nik Lentz.

1. Andre Winner vs. Nik Lentz

Lentz spent the entire round trying to take Winner down. Winner’s takedown defense was very good. When they were in the clinch, Winner was able to catch him with short strikes, including a good knee. Winner’s round.

That was Lentz’s round. It was a similar round in that he kept Winner up against the cage, but he was able to close the gap much better. Winner caught him with a couple short shots again, but for the most part Lentz pushed him against the cage and handled him.

If The Korean Zombie vs. Leonard Garcia helped sell some WEC PPVs, this fight is the opposite. Well, unfortunately for the audience, Lentz’s style is going to win this fight. He took Winner down and kept on his back and all Winner did was cover up. This is going to win Worst Fight Of The Year for sure.

Winner: Nik Lentz by unanimous decision

The scores were 30-27, 29-28, and 30-27.

2. Gabe Ruediger vs. Joe Lauzon

That was a tooling. Lauzon immediately took him down, worked for his back and got his back. Rather than work for the choke, he pounded him with uppercuts. Lauzon got an armbar and Ruedigar tapped. It wasn’t even that tight. Gabe wanted to get out of there quickly. Huge difference fighting for the Palace Championships and fighting Joe Lauzon.

Winner: Joe Lauzon by 1st round submission

3. John Salter vs. Dan Miller
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This is the second MMA card of the week, not counting Bellator, and it’s another card that just feels there. The WEC card was poorly promoted and so is this one. The UFC card next week has been well promoted, but it shouldn’t surprise you since they are the number one company in the game.

In all reality, we got a Strikeforce Challengers card last weekend which didn’t feel all that special and then this regular Strikeforce card which should feel special and doesn’t. I wonder if there’s simply too much MMA out there right now. I’ll watch and write about most MMA, but the difference between this show and a UFC show is that I’ll go out of my way to make sure I see the UFC show live and there’s not that sense of urgency with Strikeforce these days.

Gus Johnson, Mauro Ranallo, and Frank Shamrock are the announcers.

Bobby Lashley and Chad Griggs are already in the cage.

1. Chad Griggs vs. Bobby Lashley

Griggs has these huge pork chop sideburns. Lashley is down in weight a bit, but still looks jacked.

Lashley immediately shot in and easily got into side control. Gus and Frank talked about why pro wrestlers were coming into MMA. Frank said it’s the same business, yet wrestlers work harder. They should’ve asked Mauro since he actually worked in the business for a bit. Lashley was trying to pass but Griggs was doing a good job of working from the bottom. Griggs got up, but Lashley got him back down. Griggs is slippery and he was able to get up again and nailed Lashley with a knee from the clinch. Lashley buckled. They were separated and Lashley went for another takedown and got it, but Lashley took an uppercut and is bleeding. I don’t think he ever bled in WWE, but I could be wrong. It’s a nasty cut to the left corner of his left eye.

Lashley’s breathing pretty hard to start the round. Lashley picked Griggs up and slammed him down like a spinebuster slam. Lashley is pumping right hands down on Griggs. He was able to get into full mount and Griggs is trying to cover up. Griggs used his feet and the cage to get away from the corner, but couldn’t buck Lashley. If this was the UFC, Lashley would be able to reign down with elbows. They stopped the fight to check out his eye and he says he wanted to continue. Lashley shot in and didn’t get the takedown. He was holding onto one leg while Griggs was firing down hammer shots at him. The bell rang and he landed at least one after the bell. The ref stopped it and the fight is over. Lashley now has one loss.

Winner: Chad Griggs by way of 2nd round TKO

Well, at least Batista vs. Lashley will be easier to put together now. It’s going to be interesting to hear Lashley’s story on this one. His wrestling was better than anything Griggs had, but he just got tired and sloppy. I wonder if Griggs has a future here at heavyweight.

They’re promoting an October 9th card with Nick Diaz headlining without an opponent yet. You’d wish they had one and also that Diaz would be here to talk about it. And instead, they interview Luke Rockhold who fights Matt Linland on the same card. Rather than promoting the main event and draw, you promote a fight that’s probably third from the top. Head scratcher. And it was not a good promo.

2. Jorge Gurgel vs. KJ Noons

We’ll see if Gurgel uses his wrestling. If not, Noons could eat his lunch.
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This is another mid-week WEC show that has very little exposure, but should make the hardcores very happy. It’s also the first of three upcoming shows (not counting Belator) within a span of a week and a half.

Onto the show…

Alongside Todd Harris tonight is Stephan Bonnar.

1. Zach Micklewright vs. Bart Palaszewski

Palaszewski has the single worst hair-do I’ve ever seen. He’s wearing a pink mohawk with the sides torn to pieces. I’m not sure what the significance is, though hopefully there is none and it’s a mistake.

Palaszewski was landing leg kicks early on to the southpaw’s front leg. Micklewright didn’t check them, but instead let the leg move with the kick. Palaszewski was trying to get inside, but it was Micklewright who was landing a lot of the thunder with the hands. Both guys kicked each other in the balls accidentally. Near the end of the round, Palaszewski started landing the bigger and more accurate shots. Good round for both, but Bart wins a close one.

Well, Bart woke up. He landed a huge kick, got inside, Micklewright missed a haymaker and Palaszeweski dropped him with a right hand and it was over.

Winner: Bart Palaszewski by way of 2nd round TKO

2. Brad Pickett vs. Scott Jorgensen

Wow, what a round. And a hard one to score too. Pickett throws the much stronger and stiffer shots, but Jorgensen is scrappy. He landed a lot of shots too. In a crazy scenario, Jorgensen knocked Pickett’s mouth piece out and Pickett took some shots picking it up and putting it back in his mouth. Then against the cage, he smiled. Jorgensen got a takedown and Pickett tried for a guillotine. Hard round to score.

It was another close round until Pickett went for a takedown, didn’t get it and actually ended up on the bottom. They were both landing big shots and stopping each other in their tracks. Pickett throws hard combinations while Jorgensen is looking to land a big shot after throwing some jabs out there. Jorgensen probably wins the round based on the last part of the round where he got the takedown and was going for submissions.
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This is WWE’s most important PPV since WrestleMania. The Nexus angle has been one of the better things in WWE in a while and it feels kind of edgy. Since when has WWE felt edgy?

Along with Nexus, The Miz is over like hot cakes, Sheamus has done a great job as champion, and even Randy Orton seems like he has a little fire in his belly. Many people can be made tonight. We’ll see what WWE thinks is hot after this show is over. Let’s only hope they can continue to give the newer guys the rub. It’s sorely needed.

1. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston

Vicki is all dolled up tonight.

Hmmm. The match was ok, with both guys doing their normal spots. Nothing special, but nothing was wrong either. Kofi missed the Trouble In Paradise and Dolph locked in the sleeper hold. Then the Nexus came in and jumped both guys. Dolph was dumped out on the floor and Kofi was jumped Nexus style. Darren Young hit his full nelson-like slam and then Wade Barrett hit his fireman’s carry slam.

Winner: Who knows?

I think it was fine to do it this time, and it did give them heat. But if they do it continuously throughout the show, it could get old quickly.

Jericho and Edge tried to get Miz to join the team. Jericho promised him it’d be bigger than both Avatar and the Titanic.

2. Alicia Fox vs. Melina

They should’ve worked together more before this match. I think they had some good ideas, but the timing was off. There was a delay on the Matrix move that Melina stole from Trish and it stopped the match dead. Then, she hit a one legged drop kick, or maybe it wasn’t supposed to be a one legged drop kick. She beat Fox with a face buster. It wasn’t very competitive.

Winner: Melina

Melina started to cry and Josh Matthews came into the ring to interview her. Michelle McCool and Layla came out to chastise her and she tried to beat them both. Of course, that didn’t work. Alicia tried to get her kicks in on Melina and LayCool beat up Alicia too.

3. The Straight Edge Society vs. The Big Show

Fun match for what it was. They did all the big man and strong man spots. It wasn’t much of a match as it was tornado style, so it was more of a brawl. The best part was early on when Show cleaned house on Joey Mercury and Luke Gallows and then he looked at CM Punk and Punk grabbed the tag rope. Show choke slammed Mercury onto Gallows for the win. Punk ran off.

Winner: The Big Show

Kane and Sheamus had a romantic talk backstage. Not quite Heidenreich and Snitsky, thankfully. They teased something down the line.

The Miz came out and cut a great promo about how all of Team Raw came out and tried to butter him up. His best line was that John Cena told him that he was the only one who could see him. He said he would join Team WWE and he will lead them to victory. It was fantastic stuff. He’s got “it”.

4. Sheamus vs. Randy Orton
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