Welcome to the Raw Semi-Live Blog!

-We start off with a tag team affair, Triple H and Jeff Hardy versus Umaga and Snitsky. This feud has been going for a while now, back before Survivor Series even.

A good well paced match to open the show. After some good spots and a commercial break, Umaga took a Pedigree from the Game and then a Swanton Bomb. Hardy pinned Umaga for the win.

Finish: Hardy over Umaga.

-After the match, RAW GM William Regal came out and announced at the next PPV, we’ll see Hardy versus Trips.

AA’s Analysis: I think that’s an awfully odd decision. Although, with 3 more weeks after tonight to go until Armageddon, something will happen here.

-After seeing a limo with Ric Flair roll up, he comes out to the ring. RAW is in Charlotte, North Carolina, Flair’s hometown. After feigning retirement, he announces he’ll “never retire…I got too much juice left!” Then he does his strut and unleashes a “whoo!”

-Then Vince McMahon comes out. He says it’s great that Flair wants to stay, the fans love him and he’s valuable. Then Vinny Mac informs us that the next time Flair loses, it’s over, his career will be finished. He then says “I hope you don’t die anytime soon.”

-Oooh…The Legend Killer is here! Randy Orton’s music hits and he walks to the ring. Orton says “I’ve come out here to thank you for all the advice.” Note, Orton and Flair were in Evolution together a few years back with Trips and Batista.

Orton thanks Flair for becoming a legend…”I wanna thank you in advance for the pleasure and the honor to end your career.” McMahon then says “Randy Orton vs. Ric Flair tonight!” For some reason, this kind of steals away the heat from Chris Jericho’s return last week.

Analysis: Flair still clearly has the charisma to perform. It was never his ability to keep heat or stay over that kept him away, it was his body breaking down. Jim Ross was correct when he called him the best in-ring performer the industry had ever seen.

-We come back from commercial with an 8 Man Tag Match. Lord…let’s see if I can figure out all who’s in the match. I recognize Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Cody Rhodes, Super Crazy, Hardcore Holly so far. Lance Cade is there, so I’m assuming his tag team partner Trevor Murdoch is too. Rhodes is the son of the American Dream Dusty Rhodes. Nice blood line to go with there.

The Highlanders are there. Lots of jobbers and basic lower card fodder here. An odd booking decision…where the hell has Crazy been for the past month? Or does it matter?

Holly is still stiff as hell.

Finish: Holly pins one of the Highlanders. 0/10.

Analysis: What was the point? None of those guys have any feuds going on. The only one with any potential would be Cody Rhodes, as far as I’m concerned.

-After the commercial, we see Todd Grisham talking to Jeff Hardy. Grisham asked him about facing Triple H at Armageddon. Hardy coughed up an answer. Trips than appeared. Here comes the heel turn.

Hunter said he didn’t become an 11 time Champion by being friends. He said Hardy won’t be stepping into the ring with a friend or a partner…he’ll be stepping into the ring with The Game.

Analysis: Well…that answers my prior question. Looks like Triple H is gearing up for that heel turn…too bad we’ve already seen that about sixty five million times already.

-Ross spoke about Mr. Kennedy starting a feud with HBK. We see some footage. Then Kennedy appears. He holds up the HBK DVD, coincidentally, coming out tomorrow!

Kennedy talks about HBK turning on his tag team partners time and time again. He then mentions Michaels losing matches. He again brings up Michaels losing his smile.

This feels very forced. He says on the DVD we can see HBK politicking his way to the main event, even when younger, hungrier and more talented wrestlers (insinuating himself) were around.

He said HBK would experience a new low when facing Mr. Kennedy.

Analysis: Not the best I’ve seen from Kennedy. Kennedy has the ability to deliver knock out promos, but this wasn’t one of them. It was an easy way to sell some more DVDs.

-We come back to Flair standing with Arn Anderson and Barry Windham, Flair’s old buddies in the Four Horsemen.

-Next up, Y2J’s elaborate entrance starts. Still cool. Jericho comes out on stage in what looks like his ring attire. Good pop for Y2J. He’s wearing a shirt with the Save_Us_Y2J bit on it.

-He’s talking. Jericho says the “second coming of Y2J is here!” He says he’s come back to Raw to save us from Randy Orton, and to become the new WWE Champion. Sporadic boos.

-He says he knows everyone knows that Jericho wants a title shot, but Orton, as “dumb as a kumquat”, didn’t understand. He “ortonized” it and said “me…want…title…match.” He had visual aids. Me=Jericho. Want=Cookie Monster. Title=WWE Championship. Match=Match, like, you know, you strike to light on fire.

-He said he wasn’t leaving the ring because he needed to know, and the Jerichoholics needed to know.

-Santino Marella’s music hit. This should be good.

-He called Jericho “KYJ”. Hilarious. Marella’s fantastic on the microphone. After Marella says things have changed, Jericho asks who “are you?”. They want back and forth pronouncing “Santino”, with Jericho throwing out tons of odd things, like “Santa Maria” and “San Antonio.”

-Marella says I can beat you up right now, his signature phrase. Jericho takes off his shirt and calls for a referee. Marella says I need to stretch, do my squats, get a massage, etc. Then he says “I’ll give you something to think about” and pounds on Jerry Lawler.

-Ross says the match is next, Marella versus Jericho. Marella is shown walking up the ramp.

-We come back to Jericho vs. Marella. Jericho lands some shots and his springboard dropkick sending Marella to the outside.

Jericho can still go, but Marella’s got some work to do. Jericho lands some of his spots, then a sort of Facebuster deal.

Finish: Jericho pins Marella. 5/10.

Analysis: Jericho’s fine, he hasn’t lost any of it, at least not noticeably. Then again, this was a short squash match.

-Jericho, who joined the announce team, called his move the “code breaker.”

-Michaels and Flair meet up back stage. HBK said he had to come see Flair. He said the idea of an industry without Flair was some what scary. HBK put Flair way, way over. Completely deserved. Flair said even if he lost, he’d go out in a blaze of glory.

(Note…I’ll be slowing down a bit here…)

-Kennedy squashes Brian Kendrick. Fun.

-His microphone fell from the rafters and he delivered a great short promo. He said he’s facing HBK at Armageddon. He said he’d win. Intense promo. Good stuff.

Okay guys, sorry about the lack of content for a bit..I’ll wrap it all up tomorrow!