WWE Raw is War
Manchester, England
November 13, 2006
Rated-RKO Champions
By Zack Zeigler
November 13, 2006
What a night for more than 15,000 WWE fans at the sold out Manchester News Arena
in Manchester, England. Jeff Hardy became the new Intercontinental Champion and
Rated-RKO – Randy Orton and Edge – became the World Tag Team Champions.
After delivering a con-chair-to to “Rowdy” Roddy Piper before the match began
effectively knocking him out of the competition, Ric Flair was left to defend
the tag team gold on his own. Despite a valiant effort from Flair, Edge and
Orton were simply too much to handle.
“I was the youngest World Heavyweight Champion and one of the longest
Intercontinental Championship holders in history and now I’m a World Tag Team
Champion,” said Orton after the match. Edge added, “What you’re looking at is
the dawning of two new Legends in this industry – the Rated-R Superstar and the
Legend Killer.”
Seeing the two Superstars who vowed to destroy DX hoist their tag team titles to
the booing crowd had to have struck a nerve for DX. Triple H and HBK were forced
to be on guard all night thanks to a $10,000 bounty that Mr. McMahon’s Executive
Assistant Jonathan Coachman offered to any Superstar who could remove DX from
the building.
From the time Coachman issued the bounty, a long night began for DX. After
competing in a Handicap Match against Viscera, Charlie Haas, Lance Cade & Trevor
Murdoch – and feeding off the frenzied crowd’s energy to defeat four of the most
repugnant Superstars in WWE – The Game and HBK also had Mitch, Mikey and Nicky
of the Spirit Squad, Chris Masters and even Eugene attempt to collect. But DX
came up with a clever remedy for their problem: they turned themselves in to
Coachman and claimed the reward money themselves. Later, the quick-tongued Shawn
Michaels was able to score two ringside tickets from Cryme Tyme.
While Edge and Orton walked out of England with tag team gold around their
waist, WWE Champion John Cena’s stay wasn’t nearly as glamorous. The Champ had
the unenviable task of taking on the undefeated Umaga in a singles match. While
Cena looked strong and easily gave the Samoan Bulldozer the toughest challenge
of his WWE career, ECW World Champion Big Show – who will team Umaga to take on
The Champ’s team at Survivor Series – interfered on Umaga’s behalf and the bout
was called a No Contest. The Samoan Bulldozer and the Extreme Giant manhandled
the WWE Champion like nobody has done before, with a deadly Samoan Spike from
Umaga and a thunderous chokeslam by Big Show capping off the beating.
Also, the back and forth battle for the Intercontinental Championship between
Johnny Nitro and Jeff Hardy escalated into a new stratosphere. Last week, Nitro
was able to reclaim the Intercontinental Title after Eric Bischoff ordered the
match restarted. Unfortunately for Nitro, despite his girlfriend Melina’s best
attempts, Hardy walked out of Manchester with the gold. But like a sore loser,
Nitro continued his assault on Hardy and attacked the new champion with a
ladder.
"It was nice to walk out of England with my title back, but the ladder is my
comfort zone and I’m more than ready for a Ladder Match with Nitro next week,”
said Hardy.
That’s not all. Mickie James defeated Women’s Champion Lita in a non-title
match, Johnny & Kenny of the Spirit Squad defeated the Highlanders and Chris
Masters’ Master Lock Challenge was answered by Jerry “The King” Lawler, who was
unable to be the first to break the dreaded Master Lock.
Matches
Mickie James def. Women's Champion Lita (non-title match)
Edge & Randy Orton def. World Tag Team Champions Ric Flair & Roddy Piper
D-Generation X def. Lance Cade, Trevor Murdoch, Viscera & Charlie Haas (Handicap Match)
Johnny & Kenny def. The Highlanders
Chris Masters def. Jerry "The King" Lawler (Master Lock Challenge)
John Cena vs. Umaga (No Contest)
Jeff Hardy def. Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro