[derfsucks]

Still no announcement about who's in yet, eh? Well, again, with no recaps going on over at OO yet, let's do the preview/recap here --- I'm assuming discussion will take place over there, though. UPDATED at of 2:20 p.m. MST from WWE.com:

As WWE Superstars return from the rich, royal tradition of the United Kingdom to American shores, the stars of Raw, SmackDown and ECW will compete for their own unique crowning glory.

For the first time in two years, a new King of the Ring will be decided in a one-night tournament that commences in the very first hour of a special three-hour episode of Raw, live from the BI-LO Center in Greenville, S.C.

Eight competitors will have to defeat multiple opponents in a single night to be coronated with the treasured crown and robe that WWE Legends and Hall of Famers such as Harley Race, “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, Bret “Hitman” Hart, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Edge have worn during their illustrious careers.

WWE.com is also proud to break the news on a blockbuster match added to Raw tonight. An Eight-Man Tag Team Match will feature the Backlash main events from Raw, SmackDown and ECW. World Heavyweight Champion Undertaker, ECW Champion Kane, John Cena & Triple H will take on WWE Champion Randy Orton, Edge, JBL & Chavo Guerrero. With just six days until Backlash, will these teams be able to function together, or will Raw see the combustible combinations implode?

Watching the King of the Ring tournament live at BI-LO Center will be Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who have been invited to settle their Democrat differences in Greenville. What will happen as these two titans of the political world face off in the WWE ring? Will their confrontation finally end their stalemate on the road to their party’s presidential nomination? Watch: WWE's invite

With Shawn Michaels and Batista at odds over HBK’s retirement of WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair at WrestleMania XXIV, look for sparks to fly if the two cross paths in the tournament or if they match up with their special guest referee at Backlash, Chris Jericho.

Also, the Divas cheered as Mickie James ended The Glamazon’s dominance, stunning fans worldwide to claim her fourth Women’s Championship. How will Beth Phoenix react to the loss? And will other Divas look to challenge the new champion, making her new reign a short one?

Find out as a king is crowned on Monday Night Raw, airing live at a special start time of 8/7 CT, only on USA Network.

I'm really not pleased at the hint that ANY of the four guys from the Backlash ME could be involved.

EDIT: They've now got a blast going out to the WWE.com email list adding McCain's name as well - TheDemko's got a post about that below here.

[jetskid48]

Obviously I'd be disappointed if it were true that they were going to use main eventers in the King of the Ring tournament, but I think this fear is kinda looney. While some tournaments have had one or two higher level guys in it each year to build the tournament, they've never actually had the top guys in there battling it out. King of the Ring is about making a new star (aside from Bret Hart, which set the importance of the tournament), so I can't imagine they're just going to give JBL or HHH this win as it wouldn't mean much.

That said, while there are one or two other choices, I'll be absolutely shocked if anyone but Ken Kennedy winds up being the King after tonight. I think advertising main eventers that are going to be in there is just to build interest in the show, and really, how are they going to fill out an entire 3 hour show if they use all their big guys in the tournament? They still need to fill time with the big guys doing interviews, preview matches, etc to make the time.

I don't really think they're bringing back the gimmick just for a one night thing. It seems like the point of bringing it back is to attach it to someone for a period of time, so that's why I see this as a mid-card/upper-middle card tourney. That said, I still don't think were getting a tournament filled with guys with only 1 or 2 career wins like DH Smith and Burchill, but maybe one of those guys gets in there to look good.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

Me neither. I am really looking forward to King of the Ring. I'm hoping that they aren't in it. Just do a tag match or an interview segment or something. If they are in it then I hope they all lose first round matches because of interference. It really doesn't help any of them to be crowned King of the Ring.

[Demko]

From a Press Release sent out by the WWE today:

STAMFORD, Conn., April 21, 2008- The night before an important Pennsylvania primary, Presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain will each make a very special appearance on athree-hour edition ofWWE®'s "Monday Night RAW" tonight on the USA Network starting at 8 p.m. ET.

The three Presidential candidates intend to tap into the power of the more than five million viewers who each week tune in towatch RAW, making it the number one weekly year round show on cable. In particular, Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama will be appealing for votes from WWE fans in Pennsylvania, where they are locked in a tight primary battle. An invitation from the WWE to have Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama appear on RAW to settle the Democratic nomination process in the wrestling ring was the catalyst fortonight's appearances by the three top Presidential contenders, who each will address the WWE audience in specially taped messages.

Who deserves to win the biggest Championship match in the country? Tune in Monday to hear what the candidates have to say.

It looks like they've taken this from the joke midget realm into the Public Service Announcement area. THANK GOD. I'm really really hoping that Barack does an impression of The Rock, since it's not just us making comparisons between the two. ;-)

[jetskid48]

Watch how I soothe all the fears among the crowds here:

--rajah.com

Source: WWE.com

WWE has announced a huge 8-man tag team match for tonight's special 3-hour RAW. Here's what WWE just added to their official preview for tonight's show:

An Eight-Man Tag Team Match will feature the Backlash main events from Raw, SmackDown and ECW. World Heavyweight Champion Undertaker, ECW Champion Kane, John Cena & Triple H will take on WWE Champion Randy Orton, Edge, JBL & Chavo Guerrero. With just six days until Backlash, will these teams be able to function together, or will Raw see the combustible combinations implode?

With all these top names involved in the main event, tonight's King of the Ring tournament will feature mostly mid-card talent

Chavo Guerrero playing with the big boys. I think we know whose taking the pin tonight.


But what this all means is that no one higher in the card than Jericho/Batista/HBK can be in the tournament, and its probable that it'll be less than all 3 in there. That gives at least 5 open spots to midcard talent, and probably 6-7 spots.

[bdbdbd]

Invasion of the Politicians!

All three taped videos, previews are available right here. Site is way overtaxed, youtube'd.



They...they suck. Though Barack does hit the Smell What Barack is cooking line everyone has been overusing.

[jetskid48]

Thank god Barack went with the Cookin' line.


Although its a shame he couldn't remember a few words and had to read off the script below the camera the whole time.

[snelson66]

Clinton, Obama and McCain on WWE's `Monday Night Raw'

By DERRIK J. LANG, AP Entertainment Writer

A smackdown among presidential candidates?

Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain will appear on World Wrestling Entertainment's live "Monday Night Raw" (8-11 p.m. EST on cable's USA network) but instead of smacking each other down, they separately will deliver some wrestling-themed stumping in taped messages before Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary.

"Tonight, in honor of the WWE, you can call me Hillrod," Clinton says in her message. "This election is starting to feel a lot like `King of the Ring.' The only difference? The last man standing may just be a woman."

Obama borrows The Rock's famous catchphrase during his appearance.

"To the special interests who've been setting the agenda in Washington for too long and to all the forces of division and distraction that has stopped us from making progress, for the American people, I've got one question: Do you smell what Barack is cooking?" Obama says before flashing a smile.

McCain, meanwhile, looked to Hulkamania for inspiration for his message.

"Looks like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to celebrate their differences in the ring," McCain says. "Well, that's fine with me, but let me tell you: If you want to be the man, you have to beat the man. Come November, it'll be game over. And whatcha gonna do when John McCain and all his McCainiacs run wild on you?"

The candidate appearances will be used to promote "Smackdown Your Vote!" — the WWE's voter registration drive.

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[bdbdbd]

Who knew being a reporter these days meant all you had to was transcribe a video. I hope that guy didn't get paid for that.

[Spirit of 76]

I would mark out like crazy if the fans would start chanting "Hillberg" during Clinton's video!

[Riot Act]

Heh. "McCainiacs" is fucking great.

[Mr. Dashbee]

About the actual show...

I enjoyed the tournament for what it was, a mix of sports entertainment and great in-ring action. The top half of the bracket featured 4 of my favorites, and the bottom half was booked to give Regal a path to the finals. I wonder how long ago they pegged Regal for a push? Part of me thinks that they came up with it last week after his match with Orton.

Cody Rhodes is gonna make it in this business. I loved his portion of the promo. He's a natural heel, but natural heels can get over as faces these days.

For some reason, Batista's best promos come when he hardly says a thing. I really liked this week's installment, and look forward to the match.

Mickie James seemed to be channeling...Rachael Ray. Listen to her voice. And anyone who remembers from OO how I feel about Rachael Ray, plus how I feel about Mickie, can imagine that this RAW will stay on the DVR for a while. The women's segment could have been worse, and was better than the standard random multiwoman tag match would have been. Except for Michelle talking. (Now, say Michelle feuds with Beth Phoenix, does someone else step up & challenge Mickie? Two Diva programs at once? I guess the Knockouts division is having an impact --pun intended-- on the WWE. And notice that it's now the Divas "Division" as LAwler referred to it as?).

Overall good RAW. Had Punk won, it would have been even better, but I'm excited to see where the Regal push leads. If they feel the need to get Cena out of the WWE title picture, Regal sure would make a great foil for him.

Possible Top 6 candidates from RAW:
- Cody Rhodes's promo
- Regal winning KOTR
- Punk's ring work, Jericho's as well
- Barack Obama, solely thanks to "If you smell what Barack is cookin'! " Sure, I've heard it before, but I was amazed HE actually said it.

[creepy]

I call horseshit. Y2J beats MVP. Punk beats M Hardy. No reason to have them as sacrificial lambs in the first round unless we know there's a chance they could meet in the second round. We don't know who's where in the brackets, so a 7 minute match isn't time enough for us to care of the second round. Especially when by the time we found out Hards was entered, MVP was ousted. Shoulda gave Burchill/Kingston/Burke/Miz/Benjamin/YouGetTheIdea a rub. The U.S. and U.S. Challenger is a wasted spot.

When Khali was DQ'ed, I thought "What an Idiot!" Then when Regal came out, I groaned. Lame. Regal eases to Round 2, than beats a hobbled Finlay, then battles Y2J/Punk and loses on unexpected shenanagans. Saw it coming, but I didn't think the E would be fucktarded enough to put Horny in there and sell the "Regal didn't know" bullshit. So, a midcard tourney has the fast falling "Savior" and the guy that just got the rub with the MITB? Fuck. Ing. Lame.

King Burchill? King Elijah? King Chavito? King Kennedy? King fucking PunkAss? Shoot me now. Coulda made someone, for cryin' out loud.

HillRod? Uhhhh.... How many retarded fucking doucheturds heard the phrase "Do you smell what Barack is cooking?" and decided to change their vote to Obama? Wanting to have a Cool, Friendly Guy You'd Want To Have A Beer With President didn't work out 8 years ago, nor 4 years ago.

Everything else RAW related sucked ass. Bring me Impact. Fuck Holly and Rhodes. Fuck Cargayto. Fuck Has-Been Santino. His shtick has lamed out considerably for awhile. Fuck Batista and his "It's not about Flair anymore!" bullshit. Fuck HBK's "These Y2J rumors true!?!" Fuck this Candidate Stupidity... Wait a sec, the Bill Impersonater is kinda funny. Ah fuck, it's Umanga.

Was that a Slaughter song during the Kennedy tease?

I was wrong about Regal losing. What a fucking waste. Makes Punk look like CM Pussy and does what for a basically retired GM? Ohh, nothing?



I'm done.

[creepy]

Oh, fuck the Undertaker. And fuck the WWE. I'm so close to being done with this horse shit.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

Wow. Am I the only one who was happy as hell that Regal won? I don't think Punk needed MITB and King of the Ring. Personally I'd have gone Jericho vs Regal in the finals. I think Jericho vs Regal can be a real good feud and a way to take the IC Belt off Jericho who doesn't need it. As far as the comments about Hardy & MVP being wasted spots, are you kidding me? Khali and Hornswoggle are the obvious wasted spots. Now it will all make sense if Regal can reveal that he put the bracket together because it looks genius if it is true. But Both Jericho/MVP and Punk/Hardy were good matches. Don't knock it, somebody had to lose and I'm glad we got a few clean finishes.

[Ultimatejobber]

Wow creepy, sorry you hated the show. I didn't think it was all that terrible.

I love a good tournament every now and then, and like many I loved the top half of the bracket. Two very solid matches to kick the tournament off. As for the bottom half, I think its pretty reasonable to predict that Regal will be behind his easy advancement.

As the participants continued to be revealed I really felt that Regal was the only way to go as the winner. Punk, Y2J, MVP, and Hardy all have plenty of momentum and didn't need the rub. Regal can totally run with the King of the WWE gimmick for a bit and is such a good heel that it will serve him well. That all said, I totally thought Kennedy would be a participant and win the thing.

Shawn and Batista didn't do anything big to advance their feud, but whatever they are doing has worked for the majority of fans, the crowd was going nuts over the most recent face off. I have enjoyed this little story, but I hope things move in a different direction between the two after Backlash. I still want them to feud, just not over Flair or Shawn Michaels legacy.

The candidate statements all three were pretty lame. I actually thought Obama's was the least lame of the three, and we shouldn't vilify the guy for using the phrase we all wanted to hear him use. I fast forwarded McCain's statement after about the fourth or fifth catch phrase he used. It just got old.

The Undertaker should stand tall after every RAW. The image never gets old for me, and with all seven of the other guys laid out it was even cooler.

I would also love to give some love to Michele McCool for bitch smacking Beth Phoenix. She is one of my top reasons to watch Smackdown lately, so I was pleased to see her step in.

Finally, I was happy to see Cody Rhodes show some personality with that little bit with the mic.

[Demko]

Okay, with regards to the Y2J/Punk semi-final match last night... is it just me, or was Jericho quite sloppy in some spots? Like, his Lionsault, which seemed to drop a knee across Punk's face. Maybe it was just good match psychology, but it seemed a bit sloppy to me at times. Anyone else?

[Deadly]

While I won't go as far as creepy did, I do have to say that Raw was pretty fucking lame.

So, having Punk tap to Regal does what for each one of them, exactly? To me it kind of kills Punk's momentum (even more), and unless Regal is going to be wrestling every week from now on what good does it do him? Regal could play the asshole GM role without the "King" title just as easily as with it. I thought KotR was supposed to be used to push someone deserving, but in this instance it looks like it'll be used as a cheap gimmick for a few weeks and then discarded. Genius.

I also don't understand all this love for the HBK/Batista stuff. Haven't they been over this multiple times by now? It's fucking boring.

So, yeah, for the first time in a few weeks I decide to watch Raw more intently, and this is what I get. Fuck.

[Fire-Babe]

Apr 22, 2008 9:59:10 GMT -5 Demko said:

Okay, with regards to the Y2J/Punk semi-final match last night... is it just me, or was Jericho quite sloppy in some spots? Like, his Lionsault, which seemed to drop a knee across Punk's face. Maybe it was just good match psychology, but it seemed a bit sloppy to me at times. Anyone else?

Yes, I thought the match was sloppy. Not sure who was at fault. The screw up where Jericho needed to get Punk on the ropes I think was Punk...he didn't seem to get his feet up high enough so Jericho could do it.

The Lionsault, though, I couldn't tell if Punk was laying too far out in the ring or if Jericho didn't get the distance he needed, but that made him land quite wrong on Punk's legs, which then let Jericho's foot to Punk's face.

[Ultimatejobber]

I don't see Punk losing in the finals as killing his momentum. He was in two tougher matches than Regal and fought his way out of a Liontamer in his semi-final match. To me, his momentum is fine as he had to earn his spot in the final and overcome tough odds to win the whole thing. I didn't want a superhuman comeback victory for the guy. Punk has money in the bank and is winning regularly. He doesn't benefit much from winning the tournament. Winning two out of three matches is not a momentum killing night, especially when loss number 3 comes from facing essentially a fresh opponent.

As far as Regal is concerned, I think we will be seeing Regal in the ring more because it doesn't make sense for him to win KotR otherwise. The reality though is we don't know what the plan is yet, and so I'm going to let it play out and see where it goes before declaring the tournament a waste.

[eliasvict]

I turned it on, saw a fake Obama with big ears and I don't know what happened after that because my soul dissipated.

[salmonjunkie]

Regal as King of the Ring is a good thing. Raw was worth watching just for that.

And it's good to see the Regal Stretch again. That is one bad ass submission finisher. And he gets to keep the devestating knee, too! I was always worried that after Orton copped it that Regal would lose it.

[Stu]

ALL HAIL KING REGAL~!
Looking forward to seeing where he takes the gimmick. An english guy is probably going to be able to pull off going as ridiculous with it as possible, and Regal's never really been hurt by his character being humiliated in the past, because he embraces it so well.

[Riot Act]

Apr 22, 2008 10:21:19 GMT -5 Fire-Babe said:

Apr 22, 2008 9:59:10 GMT -5 Demko said:

Okay, with regards to the Y2J/Punk semi-final match last night... is it just me, or was Jericho quite sloppy in some spots? Like, his Lionsault, which seemed to drop a knee across Punk's face. Maybe it was just good match psychology, but it seemed a bit sloppy to me at times. Anyone else?

The Lionsault, though, I couldn't tell if Punk was laying too far out in the ring or if Jericho didn't get the distance he needed, but that made him land quite wrong on Punk's legs, which then let Jericho's foot to Punk's face.

Ummm...I hate to break it to you guys, but that was actually a really nice spot. Jericho went for the Lionsault, but Punk got his knees up, so Jericho changed his landing, grabbed Punk's legs and put him the Walls. I though it was pretty damn good.

[jetskid48]

I don't really get the angry feelings towards the tournament, although I didn't expect different from the people that felt that way. I was a little disappointed more midcarders didn't get put in the tournament, nor that Kennedy wasn't involved, but it was still good. The tournament is usually about the winner, and then only a little about the loser that had a long struggle to get there through tough matches, if he is a face. CM Punk had two hard opening matches and won them, and Regal played the heel who set up an easy journey for himself to the final. The real matches were all good and the Regal/Finlay match, while short, was hard hitting and a nice change of pace. Raw wound up being tons better than the last 3-hour special and a pretty good show all around. If you just want to see the bad, that's what your going to get, and if your gonna miss the first 6 matches of the tournament to tune into the stupid pop culture grab shit, your not going to enjoy the show obviously.


Rest of the show-wise...I liked that they allowed Cody Rhodes to actually do something for once. He always looks like he has a scawl on his face, getting Holly's always angry side isn't the worst thing he can do. He is known to be a bit of a talker, so let him get the team over a bit before they drop the belts to Cantino.

Womens stuff was...eh. Why is Michelle McCool suddenly the mouthpiece of the face women? I doubt were getting two feuds in the diva division. More than likely, Beth is going to Smackdown to kick the shit out of McCool, then going back after Mickie.

8 man was good for what it was. Nice touch with Edge getting the win but Undertaker coming out on top of the brawl afterwards.

Michaels/Batista probably gave us the last chapter of talking in their feud. I have a hard time figuring this is over after Backlash and the insertation of Jericho makes me wonder where this is going? I really have no idea where they are going with this or how this might explode further, but I sure am interested.

That's all the important stuff I can really remember. Back to Regal. I wonder how they're going to handle his win. Is he back to GM next week or is he returning to the ring again? For a person that rarely wrestled the past year, he looked quite good in two straight matches and damn, the Regal Stretch was played up well. He looked quick and his abilities could really be used by the WWE lacking many great mat technicians that they've had in the past.