Live from Phoenix, AZ, Monday Night RAW pulled out several heavy-duty surprises, making for an absolutely stellar first hour and a half. The final half hour (with a few exceptions) didn't live up to the previous three quarters, lacking in continuity and with suspect entertainment value. Overall, this was one of the best episodes of RAW in several weeks.

The show opened up with Shawn Michaels stretching in the locker room. Michaels' co-holder of the Tag Team Titles, John Cena wished him good luck in his match against Randy Orton tonight. In turn, Michaels wished Cena nothing but the best in his match against Edge (for the thousandth time). The pleasantries somehow turned into a bit of a lovers spat with HBK telling The Champ that he doesn't need Cena's help tonight. The show cuts to an awkward commercial break that's almost as awkward as the exchange between Michaels and Cena.

RAW comes back with Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton holing it up. Orton doles out a swinging neckbreaker. After being tossed out of the ring, Michaels counters with a hip toss on Orton before being clocked in the face with Orton's boot. Capitalizing, Orton grabs Shawn's head and grates HBK's neck against the middle rope.

Outside the ring, unlike somebody's partner, Edge stands ringside giving some moral support to Orton. Awww.

Knowing he's on his own, Michaels delivers a brutal knee lift to Orton's face. HBK rushes in to seize upon his opportunity and Orton back-bodydrops HBK, sending Michaels sailing directly over his head, over the top rope, and down to the mats outside the ring.

The show goes to yet another commercial break as Orton rolls out of the ring to stalk his prey.

After the break, the action is solidly back in ring. HBK comes running at Orton, looking to attempt a dropkick before Orton catches him legs first and planting him with a modified Walls of Jericho/Boston Crab. Michaels attempts to inch his way towards the ropes when I notice that Shawn is having a terrific hair day. It looks all shiny, fluffy and like he got his split ends cut. Lookin' good, Heartbreaker!

Michaels breaks the hold and Orton picks up HBK trying to suplex him. HBK initially goes with the flow and then reverses the maneuver, tackling Orton to the canvas.

The action looks as if it's going to be taken outside of the ring. Instead, Orton began to drag Michaels back into the ring through the middle ropes and gives him an interestingly modified DDT to the canvas inside the ring. As Michaels reels with pain on the mat, Orton delivers a high knee to the chest and throat area before going for the sleeper hold. Michaels struggles to get out, gets to his feet, and then gut punches Orton. The two trade chops and punches before Shawn suplexes Orton backwards. Both men are on the canvas and struggling to get up. Upon getting to his feet, Michaels lands an upper-cutted chop to Orton and both men go down. HBK famously nips up and groins Orton with an inverted atomic drop. (Listening closely, inside the ring, it sounded like someone said "son of a bitch.")

Michaels climbs up high on the top rope and comes down with the flying elbow to Orton below. He goes back to the corner and begins tuning up the band. Orton blocks the Sweet Chin Music and tries to go for the RKO, accidentally nailing the referee. Orton clips HBK backwards for the pin, but the ref is still out. The referee finally comes to in time for Michaels to roll Orton backwards and get the three.

None too happy with the results, Edge grabs a chair and he and Orton clobber Michaels with it. Seconds later, John Cena comes out and clears the ring, swinging a chair of his own, sending Orton and Edge to the back. Cena tries to get HBK up and Michaels clutches his head.

The first match of the night was excellent featuring great work by both Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton. Michaels is consistently good and Orton has to be one of the best younger wrestlers on the roster, being able to pull off innovative maneuvers that seem very "spur-of-the-moment." This was the type of match you'd expect to find as a main event match, but wisely, RAW aired this one at the top of the show, setting a rapid pace for the rest of the episode and giving the other matches a tough act to follow.

Following the match, Mick Foley pimps his book again in what seems to be the weekly Foley commercial. Jolly Ol' St. Mick pitches that his book talks about a lot of the WWE's backstage politics and that the brass aren't too pleased with it. The book is due due out today, yet strangely enough, I got my copy last week. And it's AWESOME!!!

Following the commercial, Vince McMahon was in his backstage office with his executive assistant Coach and a very disgusted looking Armando Estrada. The ridiculous Trump hairstyles are still pasted across the walls of the office. Mr. McMahon wants to know what sort of mood Umaga is in and what he's going to do to Jeff Hardy tonight. Estrada ensures Vince he has nothing to worry about. As Coach tries to bring McMahon down a notch, Vince goes into full-throttle heel mode (although he's impeccably dressed with a tan suit with a pink tie). McMahon insists that he knows what will make him happy, and that will be his Board of Directors voting in his favor for the suggestion of his son, Shane McMahon to be brought in as the very impartial guest referee for the McMahon/Trump Wrestlemania match.

Back in the ring, Jeff Hardy comes out ready to win back his Intercontinental Title belt, gliding to the top rope and striking his usual pose.

Umaga makes his entrance and the barber chair prop to the side of the Titan Tron is highly visible. They're really pushing the hell out of this match for Wrestlemania. Umaga seems to be good and angry, ripping back the mats at ringside and exposing the concrete. King and J.R. compare kidney stone stories and insist that passing a kidney stone is preferable to being in the ring with Umaga. Although I've never had to pass a stone, it's gotta be a lot more fun than watching Umaga main eventing Wrestlemania.

Umaga starts off in the usual manner for his matches, flinging Jeff Hardy first to one corner and then to the opposite. Hardy ducks out of the way of Umaga's gigantic ass as it comes flying at him, sending the large Samoan to the outside of the ring. Umaga tries to get back in and Hardy does several aerial baseball slides to Umaga through the ropes, catching him off guard.

Hardy cannonballs over the top rope and makes contact with Umaga. The action finds itself back inside the ring, with Hardy delivering a low drop kick to Umaga. The Samoan Bulldozer gets up, easily swatting Hardy flat to the canvas.

Umaga picks Hardy up by his hair before Jeff gets in a few punches. The jawbreaker only slightly dazes Umaga, who then viciously clotheslines Hardy. Jeff finds himself propped up in the corner, courtesy of Umaga, into a Tree of Woe. Umaga runs to the ropes and then lands on the upside down Hardy, headbutting him in the chest and chin.

Leaning back against the ropes for momentum, Umaga runs at Hardy again, smooshing his ass into Hardy's face with the Flying Samoan Butt Pliers. Umaga caps the match off with the Samoan Spike and pins Hardy to retain his Intercontinental title.

Although this was an adequate match, the crowd was booing heavily towards the end. Hardy, as always, was awesome and as the storyline seems to have dictated, put up more of a fight than most wrestlers against Umaga and really sold the match. What a shame he's being wasted against Umaga. I'm hoping Hardy gets thanked at Wrestlemania with something good coming out of the Money In the Bank Ladder Match considering that Jeff Hardy and Shelton Benjamin are two of the best mid-carders on RAW. As for Umaga, he put out his usual arsenal of four or five maneuvers. In his defense, he went for a longer match than usual.

Before the commercial break, viewers are treated to a recap of the events leading up to the overly-hyped 'Mania match pitting Trump against Vince. Last week on ECW, Vince slapped Champion Bobby Lashley who couldn't be persuaded to join the McMahon Side.
Keeping with the theme, after the commercial break, clips of a man on the street poll are shown with celebrities (like Erik Estrada! Sweet!) and plebians alike asked who they think would be a better bald billionaire.

Backstage, Todd Grisham is shown interviewing Carlito and Ric Flair who are scheduled for a match on the show to determine the final entrant in Wrestlemania's Money In the Bank Ladder Match. Grisham talks up both men as. While they seem to agree on that, Flair insists that he has more passion than Carlito. While Carlito can appreciate that, Carlito is out to prove everyone wrong, that he can win a world championship. Flair insists that Carlito "bring it!" Flair closes off the interview with a few "Woo!"s.
In another backstage segment, Vince McMahon is in his office trying to get cell phone service, which seems to be cutting out. Vinnie Mack insists that he'ss switching to Cingular next week. Mr. McMahon manages to get through to Shane and inquires about the news from the Board of Directors. Shane is at the airport and arriving soon, assuring his pops that the vote will likely go their way.

Inside the ring, it's time for yet another Masterpiece Moment. Chris Masters is shown setting up his chair in the middle of the ring for another Masterlock Challenge. Masters jiggles his pecs as "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan comes down to the ring in his middle-aged father gym shorts and banging his 2x4 on the stairs leading to the ring. The crowd erupts with a series of USA chants backing "Hacksaw" as he sits in the chair. "Hacksaw" stands up again, gesticulating wildly to both the crowd and Chris Masters before he sits back down again and Masters clamps the hold on the veteran. Duggan attempts to flail his way out of it, shooting the crowd the thumbs up while in the hold. After unsuccessfully trying to fight his way out of the hold and attempting to slip out of it with his arms up, the referee calls for the bell and Master Lock still remains unbroken.

Backstage, Vince McMahon is making his way out to the ring and smiles at a backstage worker who smiles back. Aww. Vinnie can't be that bad of a guy. After the break, the guest referee for the Vince/Trump match will be revealed.

But not before some more locker room drama with Cena and Michaels backstage. The first part of their exchange couldn't be heard since the microphones were off or submerged under water. The tag team partners angrily tell one another that they have one another's backs. Meanwhile, Shawn has a hot emo/hesher look kickin' with his new HBK-swag in brown with orange and yellow screen printing. Snazzy!

Speaking of snazzy, Vince McMahon seems to have done his Easter suit shopping early, rocking a very nice tan ensemble with pink accents, cocoa brown pants, and a pale pink tie. McMahon is sharp as a tack, baby! Swaggering down the ramp, Vinnie Mac plays with the barber utensils near the barbershop chair/pole prop.

The crowd lets loose with several anti-Vince chants while Jerry "The King" Lawler mentions "Don't get him riled up." I usually feel the same way about my boyfriend.

Vince addresses his agenda to the crowd and tells them that he will name who the board of directors has independently selected to be the guest referee for the Trump/McMahon sponsored match at 'Mania with the official contract signing next week. He insists that with Trump across the table from him, he will Billionaire Bitch Slap Trump like he did to Lashley on last week's episode of ECW.

Cue the Ghosts of Wrestlemania Past! The familiar "I'm back! / And better than ever!" music rings out and Eric Bischoff comes out looking like a thinner William Shatner. Vince asks him what he's doing in the building and "Bishy say 'Relax'." Bischoff is not the special guest referee, however, he decided to pay the WWE a visit since he lives in Phoenix and doesn't have much to do with his time considering Vince fired him a few years ago. Actually, he hauled Bischoff out of the building in a garbage truck after firing him. Before leaving, Bisch remarked about how much everyone is going to enjoy watching Vince get his head shaved.

Speaking of hair, looks like Bishoff has forsaken his Grecian Formula indefinitely and was sporting some rather silvery locks.

Cue Ghost of Wrestlemania Past Number Two! Vince announces the guest referee and this time, Mick Foley comes out with his homemade referee shirt with the stripes spray-painted on. The crowd (and me on my couch) popped huge for Jolly Ol' St. Mick ashe made his entrance. Right out of the gate, Vinnie Mack began kissing some serious ass, referring to both himself and Foley as business men, urging bygones to be bygones.

Foley insisted that in order for bygones to be bygones, he wanted his old job back. Vince acquiesced. Additionally, Foley plugged the "little book" he has coming out and demanded unlimited access to gratuitously shill said book now and then on WWE programming. (Uh, wait a minute, Mick. Don't you do that already?) Vince once again agrees although apparently, as Foley states, his book says miserable things about him and calls into question McMahon's reputation as creative genius. (Shameless plug right there!)

Finally, in order for everything to be copasetic, Foley instructs Vince that there is just one more thing he must do for him. Mick mentions that he has a very large room service bill, which includes a Christy Canyon movie that he wouldn't like to appear on his bill. Pricelessly, Vince mouths the word "porno" and looks aghast. He grudgingly agrees and the two men shake hands with Vince announcing Mick Foley as the guest referee.

Foley halts McMahon in his tracks and mentions that there has been a misunderstanding. Foley is in Phoenix to be a special guest referee, but not for McMahon's match at Wrestlemania. Foley references Phoenix, AZ for his trademark "cheap pop" and informs Vince that he is there to referee a rib-eating contest between Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns Gorilla mascot. With that, the Suns gorilla mascot comes dancing down the aisle and begins frolicking in the middle of the ring with Foley.

An incensed McMahon orders them both t "Get the hell out of my ring. Take your King Kong friend with you. Both of you stink!"

With Foley and Friend headed to the back, Vince is paid a visit by his son, Shane McMahon, fresh off of his flight. McMahon proudly announces Shane and his "Here Comes the Money" music rings out. Shane comes out from behind the curtain as Vince starts dancing to his son's music. Vince gets ridiculously happy, shakin' what his mama gave him and motions for Shane to come down to the ring, announcing him as the guest referee for the match. Shane looks nervous. And Shane also needs to borrow some of Bish's stash of Grecian Forumula to his stylishly-greyed temples since Bischoff isn't using it.

Shane-o lets his father know the unhappy news that the Board of Directors had voted 5 to 4. The McMahons lost their bid for Shane as the Special Guest Referee. Who is it? Within seconds, the sound of glass smashing sounds throughout the arena and none other than Stone Cold Steve Austin comes out to a massive pop.

While it seems that Steve hasn't been working out, he does have some new swag, namely a t-shirt with the words "Arrive. Raise Hell. Leave." emblazoned upon it. Vince puts his hand out to shake. Austin just smiles as the beers come flying into the ring with Stone Cold catching them. Austin still has it, exhibiting his preternatural, X-Men mutant power of being able to catch beers launched from miles away. He cracks open a few Steveweisers, sending beer flying everywhere as he tosses them back. Vince offers his hand several times to shake to no avail. More beers fly at the ring and Austin makes like Pokemon and catches them all. Vince stands in the ring, looking like he almost shat himself while Austin splashes beer on McMahon's face and his snappy Easter suit.

Wow. I wonder how much Austin is being paid not only for his Wrestlemania appearance, but for the RAW segment? I could stand being paid a couple thousand smackers for showing up to my job for a few minutes and guzzling some beers. Alas, I'd probably get fired for doing that at my job. You go, Steve-o. You go, boy.

It's time for the Weekly Simmons Second with Ron Simmons popping out of nowhere to yell "DAMN!" as Mick Foley reads excerpts from his latest book to the Phoenix Suns Gorilla.

To this point, RAW seemed to have been firing on all cylinders, churning out great matches and cool segments. Things go swiftly downhill from here with Lillian Garcia announcing the next match's special guest ring announcer, Playboy cover girl, Ashley. While Ashley is undoubtedly very hot and probably makes great Playboy material, her ring announcing skills are below her ring skills. That's not too good.

At the announcer's table, Jerry "The King" Lawler is seen thumbing an advanced copy of Playboy. Why am I not shocked? Lawler enthuses about how hot the issue is to J.R. and gets "in touch" with his inner perv. I'm sure he'll be getting in touch with himself a whole lot more later tonight.

Ashley makes with The Shrill and announces Mickie James. Looks like Mickie made friends with Bishoff's stash of Grecian Formula, or at least some brown hair dye with the former Women's Champion's hair looking noticeably darker.

Melina makes her entrance, ready to defend her Women's Championship title and wearing HUGE fuzzy boots. They look like Nikolai Volkoff hats that were pulled up to her knees and strapped to her feet.

Mickie starts things off with a baseball slides out of the ring and onto Melina. Melina seizes the outside opportunity and Mickie's head is rammed into the barricade. Melina and Mickie run backstage after one another. Backstage, Melina tosses garbage can at Mickie who slams Melina on a craft services table and almost covers her.

Moving further backstage, Mickie rams Melina's head into the door to the "Diva's" locker room before receiving a stiff, fuzzy boot to the stomach. Things further devolve down the Slap n' Tickle Trail as Mickie gets thrown into Torrie Wilson sitting on the couch. Lots of hair pulling ensues with Maria attmepting to intervene. Victoria gets in on the action on behalf of Melina and holds Mickie by her arms, allowing the Champ to nail her.. Torrie then blasts Victoria with hairspray as Candice comes out in a towel. Someone yanks Candice's towel away and the camera goes black. Lots of screaming cam be heard but no picture.

After a commercial break, Mickie and Melina come out and roll their way down the ramp. Literally. On top of one another. This match is a 40-year-old virgin's wet dream.

Once the match finally finds its way back in the ring, Melina grabs a handful of Mickie's hair and clobbers her to the mat. The next few minutes contain lots of backwards and forwards yanking to the mat by the hair. I almost crap my pants as one of these women pulls off an actual move with Mickie picking up Melina in a Fisherman's Suplex and nearly pinning her. Melina kicks out and the two women head to the top rope. Mickie begins punching Melina before attempting a hurracurrana. Mickie botches the move and for a second, things looked scary for Mickie and that she landed the wrong way. Thankfully, that wasn't the case, although Melina pinned her for the win and retained her Women's title.

As Ashley announced Melina as the winner, the camera closed up on the Women's Champion. One of Melina's false eyelashes was hanging off and causing her visible discomfort. Nevertheless, Melina yanked her belt back off of Ashley before asking the Playboy cover girl who the hell she thinks she is. Ashley decks Melina before going to help Mickie James who is staggering around the ring and clutching her neck.

Wow. That was a steaming pile of a match. It could have been good, but instead of letting Melina throw out some interesting new moves and Mickey powering through the match, someone thought it would be a good idea to get the women's locker room involved in the most girlie ways possible. Maria sitting around in her underwear? Check. Candice Michelle getting the towel yanked off of her? Check. When a girl getting sprayed in the eyes with hairspray is the most wrestling-related maneuver in the match, you know it's hit rock bottom. I really fear for the Women's Division.

Up next was the final Money In The Bank qualifying match with the winner advancing to Wrestlemania. Ric Flair made his entrance first, strutting down to the ring wearing a fabulous gold satin and sequined robe. The crowd seems to be really behind Flair and gives him a huge ovation.

Carlito comes out with Torrie Wilson who looks really pretty in green. JR and "The King" talk up the mentor relationship between Flair and Carlito before both men lock up. Flair puts his dukes up as Carlito begins to hammer him with alternating fists and kicks Carlito flings Flair to corner, nailing him with a sharply executed missile dropkick and a near pinfall on Flair.

Carlito stomps Flair again before suplexing him to the mat for another near fall. The Dirtiest Player in the Game is slumped in the corner as Carlito delivers some chops to flair and a few more boots to the chest. There is surprisingly little offense from Flair in the match to this point.

The Nature Boy gets back into the game with an Inverted Atomic Drop and sends Carlito to the mat with a chop. Woo! And a knee drop. Flair scores a near fall before clamping Carlito in a neck vice. Carlito managed to break the hold only to have Flair whip him to the ropes. Seizing upon an opportunity to deliver a signature maneuver, Carlito jumps backwards off the ropes, barely connecting first time, although Flair sold the move. Mr. Caribbean Cool went to the ropes again and this time, hit a better Carlito Springboard again.

Just when the match was getting good, The Great Khali comes out, invades the ring and proceeds to beat the snot out of both Carlito and Ric Flair. What the hell is this garbage? I guess this shows exactly what The Powers That Be think of the final qualifying match for Wrestlemania 23's MITB match. So far, it hasn't been determined who will get that last spot.

Instead, viewers were treated to Khali rolling some marbles around in his mouth and wondering what in the blue hell did Khali just say. I think he said: "I. Want. Kane." Although, it sounded more like "I. Want. Can." Or "I. Want. Crap." Well, my friend. If crap was what you wanted, you certainly got it. Tsk. Tsk. And RAW was going so well. The last two segments are in danger of dragging this episode's grade waaaaay down.

Next, the latest addition to the WWE Hall of Fame, Class of 2007 was announced. Joining Dusty Rhodes, Jerry Lawler and Mr. Perfect is…. Nick Bockwinkle! Holy crap! I can't believe he hasn't been inducted already! Footage of Bockwinkle in his AWA Champion phase is shown and a nice package with career highlights, including "Intestinal fortitude!". Baron Von Raschke gives a few comments and still looks exactly the same. Bockwinkle 2007 is shown and the man can still dress exceptionally stylish. As the package winds to a close, Lawler mentions that he believes that Nick Bockwinkle was the greatest AWA Champion of all time.

Backstage, the lover's quarrel motif continues once again with Orton getting testy with Edge. Randy tells him that "I don't have your back. I. Don't. Have your back." Damn. He must really mean that.

With six minutes left in the show until 11:00, The Champ John Cena's music comes up. This should be a stellar match with less than 5 minutes left in the program and only one of the combatants having made his entrance. Oh, the drama!

As Cena hoists both his belts in the air and tosses his hat out to the crowd, I'm quite relieved that there isn't as much heat on Cena this year as there was for the last Wrestlemania. The crowd seems to have warmed up to him.

Just when you think Edge is going to come out… No! Instead, Johnny Nitro (and his fabulous abs!) comes out with Melina and Joey Mercury (who stole Mick Foley's Mankind mask and is wearing it in public). Uh, could someone page the continuity department? As of last week, I thought Melina and Nitro weren't on great terms with him snapping at her. And isn't Nitro still on the Smackdown roster? I still have a faint glimmer of hope that they'll dissolve the "brand extensions" and go back to a unified WWE.

Edge finally makes his entrance wearing blue tights and a brownish-grey "Rated-R Superstar" shirt that don't look too hot together. Too bad Nick Bockwinkle isn't here to show Edge how to coordinate an outfit.

Edge stands with MNM, grabs the microphone and claims that he is a huge civil rights activist. Since he is Canadian and therefore colorblind (you ain't kiddin', Edge. I've seen your outfit tonight. Woof!), he cannot wrestle for the bigots of Arizona, since they were one of the last states to recognize Martin Luther King Day as an official holiday.

Instead, he wants to let Johnny Nitro wrestle in tonight's main event since Johnny Nitro's great-great grandmother happened to be black. After telling the crowd to "Shut up!" (which could have been a nice nod to Little Richard), Edge demanded that Johnny Nitro demanded beat Cena down tonight.

Nitro rushes the ring, kicking Cena into the corner, uppercutting him, and then delivering a low blow to the Champ's stomach. Cena reversed another whip and sent Nitro to corner. As Cena runs at Nitro, Johnny elbows The Champ in the stomach. Nitro tosses Cena out of the ring. While he's on the outside, Joe Mercury throws Cena headfirst into the ring post as Melina lets loose with another ovary shriveling shriek.

Cena finds himself thrown to the ring post once again before Nitro kicks at him and sends him back into the ring. As a side note, Melina is really into the match and her eyes and mannerisms are awesomely bordering on psychotic.

Cena gets to his feet and whips Nitro to the ropes, clotheslining him several times. Nitro swings and misses before being given a chokeslam, followed by the Five Knuckle Shuffle.
Cena picks up Nitro for the FU and Joey Mercury comes in and clips Cena in the back of the leg. Cena releases Nitro and the MNM teammates perform the Snapshot on Cena.

HBK's music comes up as he runs down to the ring to help his partner. Michaels pauses at the ramp before entering the ring. Edge high-tails it to the back as Mercury and Nitro work over Cena as Michaels starts walking away. Michaels pauses again, looks over his shoulder and then rushes the ring. HBK begins cleaning house, throwing both Nitro and Mercury over the top ropes. As Cena clutches his ribs, Michaels walks to the back, leaving his partner in the now-cleared ring. Cena appears puzzled by the confusing situation with his partner leaving for the backstage area after helping him out. As The Champ looks slightly hurt, the credits fade up and out.

With the exception of a few incredibly crappy moments, overall, this was a good episode of RAW. It kept me awake and entertained. Usually, by around the second hour of the show, I'm struggling to stay coherent. This episode scattered enough surprises for the die-hard fans (Stone Cold; Mick Foley; a great match between Michaels and Orton; Bockwinkle for Hall of Fame; and a few nicely-place swerves) throughout the show to keep the pace up. Granted, there were a few clunkers, namely the women's "match," Khali busting up the Flair/Carlito match; and the undue amount of emphasis being placed on the Trump/McMahon confrontation.

Examining each one of these negative aspects of the show, they all seem to be placing emphasis on the wrong thing, particularly as it pertains to Wrestlemania. The Money In The Bank Ladder Match is a great concept that traditionally has given undercard wrestlers to step into the spotlight as a dark horse contender for the WWE Championship belt. Either Carlito or Flair (going for what would be his 17th Championship Title) would be a great addition to the match, each one lending something unique in terms of storyline to the match, not withstanding considerable wrestling ability. By having Khali come out and squash the match, bellowing for Kane -- Or worse, a spot in the MITB match -- it cheated the fans.

The Women's Title match was a joke. Pure and simple. There were two women in the ring who are solid wrestlers, yet their match took a backseat to Playboy pimping and Slap n' Tickle maneuvers which are so beneath them.

And for however many weeks, more hype has been placed on the Trump/McMahon match for Wrestlemania. It's spilled over onto all three WWE brands and has sucked up television time for at least three nights a week for the past several weeks. It's not even like Trump and McMahon are duking it out with one another. Instead, this heavily hyped match has been pushing the uber-pushed Umaga and Lashley. There's two title belts (the Intercontinental Championship and the ECW Championship, respectively) that won't be competed for on the 'Mania card, which is another total waste. The fans have no real investment in it, besides seeing either Vince or Trump ending up bald by the end of the match. With Britney Spears shearing hers off herself, somehow, this match seems all the more passé. The only granule of interest for this one lies within Stone Cold Steve Austin as guest referee.

But enough of the negative. This was a very good episode of RAW. I'm hoping that the WWE learns from the mistakes of this one and instead focuses on the wealth of good aspects of this show to help make Wrestlemania 23 a great PPV.