Not the most cohesive episodes of RAW, this latest had its finer moments and others where it seemed to flounder, not knowing what to do with the roster or the space allotted.

The show opens up with John Cena, clutching his spinner belt, and firing off his usual spiel of "The Champ Is Here." This time, his ire is directed against his latest Number One Contender, Randy Orton.

As he's winding things up, Carlito makes his entrance and informs Cena that he gets to be the first guest on the "New and Improved Carlito's Cabana." The ring crew comes in and sets up shop rather quickly, rushing in palm trees, lounge chairs, and a hammock as Carlito prepares to ask Cena a "very important question." (And suddenly, my Beavis and Butthead-like brain flashes back to those Massengil commercials that pondered a very important question.) Carlito calls him liar because he said that Cena, in his promo at the top of the hour, actually has not won every match, noting that Carlito had beaten him for the United States title, oh-so-long ago when they were both on Smackdown.

Cena acknowledges this win, but also points out how long ago this was, mentioning that it was when "Lindsey Lohan was doing her first line… Of dialogue! It was Herbie: Fully Loaded! We all saw it!" Cena proclaims his pride in being the first guest and drinks to the cabana, jovially putting Carlito off his game. The son of Carlos Colon mentions how he is tired of the Randy Ortons of the world having everything handed to them, expressing his belief that he should be the number one contender. Enter Mistaaaaaaaaahhhhh Kennedy, who takes issue with Carlito's belief that he should be Number One Contender.

Cena is all about playing fair as Carlito and Kennedy bicker like two old women at a bingo parlor (that doesn’t happen to reside at the corner of Swanson and Rittner), and actually defends Orton's right to stand as the #1 Contender. Cena feels that he's earned it and acknowledges while Orton isn't his favorite person, nothing that "I probably won't send you a Christmas card, Randy," that he hasn't become a #1 Contender by having a microphone come down from the ceiling. He encourages Kennedy to challenge Bobby Lashley and then asks Carlito, "You beat me 3 years ago, Carlito? What have you done since then?" Carlito looks oddly at a loss for words.

Following the commercial break, Jim Ross confirms that to the show's GM, Coach, Lashley will face Kennedy later on in the program.

Prior to a 6-Woman Tag match, clips of last week's interference by Santino Marella on behalf of Maria are shown, resulting in an ill-gotten win by Maria's team against Melina and Beth Phoenix.

This week, Melina, Beth Phoenix, and Jillian Hall with the red carpet entrance, the three of them entering in tandem as a team.

The opposition is announced with each one making her separate entrance. Santino comes out to accompany Maria on her way to the ring. Wow. Santino sucks so bad that he's even a crappy male valet.

Mickie James merrily skips out in pink bellbottoms and Candice Michelle, decked out in all gold with her Championship title enters the arena as Melina suppresses a yawn.

Before the match begins, Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler announce the contest as a Six-Diva Tag Team Match Up. There's a part of me that has to shake my head and laugh whenever I hear the word "Diva" substituted for "woman"

The match begins with Beth Phoenix vs. Maria. Maria is handily getting her clock cleaned by the much larger Beth Phonix. Mickie James intercedes by climbing the top rope and then twisting Phoenix's arm. Mickie is then rammed to the corner by Beth Phoenix and the other two girls work her over before Melina delivers a headscissors takeover by Mickie.

Candice is tagged in and she and Mickie double-team Melina, doing an impressive double roll-through as they each grab a leg. Nice work. Candice gets a knee to the back as she moves too close to the ring ropes by Jillian as Melina scoops and slams the Champ to the canvas

During the match, I think J.R. had Jillian and Beth Phoenix confused. The King valiantly tries to steer him in the right verbal direction as Jillian takes down Candice with a strong suplex. Maria is then tagged in, delivering some WEAK looking clotheslines to Melina as Santino gesticulates wildly outside the ring.

Mickie bum-rushes the ring and slams with a powerful Thesz Press as Beth Phoenix and Candice go at it. Candice is tossed out of the ring. Melina and Jillian double-team Maria with an awesome move that looks like a double-bulldog, planting Maria's face to the canvas before she's pinned by Melina. Santino looks horrified because he wasn't able to interfere on his woman's behalf this time. Like I said, he can't even be a decent male valet! Gimmee Stevie Richards any day of the week in that department!

As always, the women (who actually can wrestle) put on a solid display. The amount of action and pacing was just right with Candice continuing to show improvement. Maria, on the other hand, I don't think is cut out for wrestling. Her best bet is to stay behind the microphone.

Rather than showcasing on some of the awesome, young, female talent that the RAW brand currently has on its roster, it seems like this match was set up to further the push and subsequent storyline of a rather lame, young, male wrestler who fans don't seem to be buying into.

Case in point, after the commercial break, that goof Santino Marella is still in the ring, blaming the referee for not noticing that Melina had rolled up Maria. (He didn’t' have a problem last week, however, when the ref wasn't looking as he helped Maria win the match.) The ref tells him to settle down and an irate Marella (damn, I hate referring to him by the same last name as Gorilla Monsoon's surname) tells the referee "I do not have to calm-a down."

As Santino continues to complains about the cheating, likening it to NBA, particularly since the referees have a large part in conveniently looking the other way, the Intercontinental Champion, Umaga's awesome music rings throughout the arena and he trudges down to the ring.

Santino looks scared and wonders aloud why the Samoan Bulldozer is cutting a path to the ring, noting "I have no-a problem with him. Why is he coming to the ring?!" To beat your ass, bitch! That's why! (I actually caught myself screaming that from my couch. My loathing of Santino knows no bounds.)

The referee gleefully says, "Ring the bell" and Umaga wastes no time beating the linguine out of Santino, ass-splashing him into the corner. The crowd hoots their approval before the I.C. champ picks up Santino and delivers a brutal sidewalk slam. Umaga gets a two count but then gets up, wanting to play with him a bit more. Suddenly, I find myself smiling like Ric Flair at a Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Finally, Umaga gouges Santino with a Samoan Spike and pins him.

After the commercial break, Todd Grisham interviews King Booker who was wearing an awesome, new, kingly robe that is somewhere between Richard the Third, Conan the Barbarian, and a pimp made of black velvet with grey fur and gold lionhead clasps. King Booker dishes on his feud with RAW's original King, Jerry Lawler, informing Grisham that "Jerome's reign will soon come to an end and he will be replaced by the benevolent, true ruler." Sharmell's reactions to this and her royal proclamation of "All hail King Book-kah!" all but solidifies Booker T and Sharmell as wrestling's answer to Stiller and Meara as a husband and wife team.

Elsewhere backstage, Coach has a talk with young Cody Rhodes in his office, running through a montage reel of the youngster's feud with Orton and Randy attempting to clean the collective clocks of both father and son, culminating in the beloved American Dream Dusty Rhodes taking a boot to the head for his son.

Coach, who has decreed that Cody is not allowed to lay one finger on Randy Orton mentions Cody's losing record of 0-and-2. If Cody wins his match against an unnamed opponent tonight, he's allowed to stay on RAW. If he loses, he's packing his bags and praying that Randy Orton didn't poop in them.

Speak of the devil, Todd Grisham interviews Orton who runs down the litany of names of those legends he's incapacitated, wondering aloud why no one wants to face him. Sgt. Slaughter pops out of nowhere, calls him a maggot and wants to tussle with the youngin'. It's on like Donkey Kong later in the program!

However, first Cody Rhodes has to face his opponent. And it's….Daivari! And his awesomely recycled Mohammed Hassan theme music and the late Yassar Arafat's checkered headdress! Daivari also seemed to have stolen either M.C. Hammer's or Sabu's sequined genie pants for his ring attire.

Cody Rhodes is the recipient of a nice neckbreaker by Daivari followed by a snapmare takeover. The crowd is solidly behind Rhodes and picks up a chant of "U-S-A!"

Rhodes backs him into the corner and takes him down with a running clothesline.

What struck me most about this match as it played out was how similar Cody's mannerisms are to those of his father from his stance, posture, and even the precise way in which they both execute some maneuvers. Just as I was thinking this, Good Ol' J.R. made it a point to mention it. Sure, Dusty's got a good 200 lbs. and fine bleach job over on his kid, but Cody's got all of the makings of any of the Rhodes boys, Dustin included.

Cody then nails a beautiful bulldog on Daivari who counters with a hard elbow. Slightly dazed, Cody regains his composure and WOW! Rhodes nails Davari with a wickedly fast powerslam that whirls so quickly and powerfully that it almost looked like a two-man cartwheel in midair. Rhodes pins Daivari and thereby wins himself the right to remain on RAW.

I've long been a fan of light- to middle-weight wrestlers and their more fast-paced styles. Neither Rhodes nor Daivari are high-flyers, but they're both very quick and can work in some surprising power maneuvers with speed, strength, and agility. Daivari is fairly underrated, but it was good to see him getting air time. I'm just hoping that they figure out what more to do with him. Nevertheless, Rhodes is coming along really well. Like any mark, it's hard not to love Dusty Rhodes. Seeing how similar Cody's style is (haven't seen him cut a classic American Dream or Goldust-esque promo yet, but hey, stranger things can happen!) to Dusty's himself, it's pretty cool for a new generation to have a lighter, leaner Rhodes to follow in ring-action.

Following the commercial break, it's time for Kennedy vs. Bobby Lashley. Dude, I'm so over Kennedy. I want to like him. I used to really like him. A lot. Now the whole overly-angsty Kennedy is no longer as fun as the cocksure Kennedy who had a repore with the fans back in his Smackdown days. If I wanted borderline pissy emo, I'd log onto MySpace. Bring back the old Kennedy who offered something different from the usual bit of mealy-mouthed complaining without pizzazz.

It seems that Bobby Lashley is up for the challenge at hand tonight, jumping up and down excitedly. Kennedy circles Lashley and tries to get him in a waistlock. Lashley does the same and successfully takes Kennedy over. The two men grapple on the mat giving Lashley some time to show off his mat-wrestling skills before Kennedy hooks the ring ropes with his legs and the ref breaks the hold. Kennedy goes for a combination of slyly underhanded maneuvers and sheer power, landing a fist to Lashley's face and a low, thrusting shin kick.

Kennedy fights out of Lashley's strength holds only to be picked up like a small child, knees bent and fully in the air high above Lashley's head. Kennedy comes down hard from a vertical suplex.

Kennedy battles back and the action moves outside the ring, with Kennedy delivering a running sidekick to the gut. He rams Lashley's shoulder to the steel steps outside the ring with a vicious kick.

Lashley tries to get back into the ring and is met with non-stop kicks by Kennedy who gets him in an armbar that effectively works away at Lashley's shoulder. Kennedy kicks repeatedly at Lashley's shoulder, further weakening it. Kennedy then climbs to the top rope and attempts a splash but Lashley gets up and knocks him backwards off the top rope. Kennedy falls out of the ring and yanks Lashley's arm nearly out of the socket on his way out, grasping his arm. Kennedy immediately follows up with another armbar on the affected shoulder before pinning him. Misssttttaaaaahhh Kennedy wins!

Another pretty good match, although I was expecting Lashley to win. Both men are consistently good although not very flashy in their styles. Lashley seems to favor his amateur background with a dash of the power-style of a larger man while Kennedy has the air of a classic, old-school wrestler's feel to him. It's part of what sets him apart, style-wise from the rest of the roster in that he's something of a throwback to more of a rough-and-tumble, character-driven style. Now if he could get back to being the less angsty version of Kennedy, then I'd be all back on his wagon in no time.

Up next, good Ol' J.R. runs down the feud between King Booker and Jerry "The King" Lawler with Booker taking offense to Lawler calling himself "King."

King Booker and Queen Sharmell make their entrance with Booker looking more subdued than usual before going into his swirling pose. The show goes to a commercial break and then comes back with a "The Return of Triple H" video casting Mr. McMahon-Helmsley in the role of the Bionic Man being built stronger, better, and faster as Lemmy orders everyone to "bow down to the king." Apparently, Triple H will be making his return at Summer Slam, although I have a feeling he'll be making an appearance sooner.

Back in the ring, King Booker gets all ghetto regarding his match against Jerry Lawler and it's awesome.

Jerry "The King" Lawler makes his entrance and J.R. lists some of his co-commentator's accomplishment, mentioning that Lawler has has won over 125 championships.

The match gets underway as Booker T comes at Lawler, skipping around and waving his hand in Lawler's general vicinity. Lawler gets in a small crack at Booker. The two men eventually tie up with Lawler in the corner and Booker sends an assault of elbows and kicks before King battles out and takes out Booker with several hard right hands. Darkness! The tide has turned!!

The crowd chants "Jerry! Jerry!" and you'd swear you were at a taping of Springer.

It's Booker's turn to take control with a thumb to the eye, slapping Lawler to the canvas. Booker executes a nice twisting armbar and nearly lands a guillotine kick to Lawler's outstretched arm.

Booker tries to go for his patented scissors kick and misses. Now, Lawler means business, pulling down his strap and unleashing a fury only matched by Yngvie Malmsteen on Booker, dropping an elbow on him and pinning him with a count of three. The referee just notices Booker's leg on the rope and it's back to the drawing board before any bells rang.

Booker delivers a springboard side kick to Lawler's head before stomping him into the mat. He rams Lawler to the corner and lands several hard shots to the stomach, raining down blows to Lawler's back and traps. Unwilling to stop his assault, the referee puts a stop the match and awards it to Jerry "The King" Lawler via disqualification.

Booker T and Sharmell celebrate his victory, making their way back up the ramp before an incensed Lawler runs at Booker and clobbers him, knocking him to the ground before the commercial break.

Before the next match, there's a promo clip for this week's ECW, highlighting past weeks' events with Big Vis (now going by the name of "Big Daddy V") pummeling Boogeyman. Ugh. Now I know why Viscera has worn a shirt all these years. I remarked out loud that "Ew. His tits are bigger than mine." To which my boyfriend replied, "Yeah. A lot bigger." Even worse, Vis has a series of sun, moon, and stars tattoos that look like a Spencer's display gone wrong. Viscera without upper-body clothing is a million times scarier than the Boogeyman even on his most nightcrawler-riffic day. Get this man a shirt STAT!!

In tag team action, Shad and JTG, Cryme Tyme come out, ready to do battle with …. Two jobbers whose names I didn’t quite catch. This is the first time I have seen a tag team of unknown jobbers on Monday Night RAW. Wiping a tear from my eye, it reminds me of the days of watching Saturday Morning Superstars when the then-WWF would have their top-notch stars facing random jobbers who you knew would lose, it was just a matter of how quickly.

Things start off with JTG briefly getting in the ring against Jobber #1 before his partner is tagged in. Now it's Shad vs. the slightly cuter of the jobbers, Jobber #2. Shad clotheslines the Jobber and picks him up for a powerful scoop slam. He tags in JTG and there's a nice display of lightning quick teamwork.

JTG goes for the pin on Jobber #2, smiling broadly and counting down with his fingers "1,2,3" in the pin before winking and mugging the camera. Awesome! The crowd seems to really be eating up Cryme Tyme as the duo asks "What's really 'hood?" At that moment, I could have sworn I saw Li'l Jon in the crowd.

Cryme Tyme informs the audience what's really 'hood with a boot to the jobber's head as they steal his boots. Not just any boots, "white boots with black SOUL!" Cryme Tyme starts a bidding war for the jobber's boots, asking $10,000. They eventually dropped it down to $20 plus an autograph after about five minutes of time were swallowed up with Cryme Tyme hijinx.

These two guys have charisma out the ass and a definite vibe with the crowd, however, their matches have been rather short. They show some really good moves and have a strong teamwork ethic, however, sometimes their segments go on too long. The fans are undoubtedly receptive to Cryme Tyme, however, the point should be to leave 'em wanting more, not looking at their watches.

As much as I love Sgt. Slaughter, I pretty much knew he didn't have much of a chance against Randy Orton. Orton was kicked into full-on vicious assault, stomping the Hall of Famer into the canvas and clamping a chokehold on the only wrestler to ever have his own G.I. Joe figure. (Although, come to think of it, Zartan's makeup looked curiously like the Ultimate Warrior's face paint.)

Slaughter battles out of it with elbows to the stomach, eventally clamping the Cobra Clutch on Orton who is flailing away in desperation to try and get to the ropes.

With a well-placed thumb to the eye, Orton breaks the hold and capitalizes, pinning Slaughter. The Legend Killer then nails a walloping kick to Slaughter's temple and Sarge is taken out on a gurney with a neckbrace.

This wasn't so much of a match as it was a walloping. Once again, Orton continues his reputation as a decimator of legends. As much as I enjoy Orton's matches, these stompings are a little much. I'm looking forward to a more legitimate feud with John Cena. That could prove to be a great match up with two of the top young guys in the company going at it. If anything, though, Orton dabbling in several feuds and taking on several beloved legends has worked towards building his reputation as a top heel, the man on the brand that nobody really likes, which is kind of a cool gimmick when you think about it.

After the commercial break, Randy Orton has put on a shirt on and sits smirking at ringside as Carlito comes out, ready to do battle with Cena.

Carlito and Cena circle one another and The Champ takes Carlito over in an FU, messing up Carlito's hair in the process. Cena seemed to be having a great deal of fun during this match and for the first time in a long while, it seemed that Carlito was really interacting with his opponent instead of slightly phoning it in.

He backs Cena into the corner and John Cena bulrushes him back, grabbing a handful of hair and slamming Carlito face first from an aerial position and down to the canvas.

There's some good back-and-forth between Cena and Carlito, Cena taking him down in a Fisherman's Suplex and later on, Carlito catches Cena with a neckbreaker. Carlito continues to work on Cena's neck, wrenching back on it but Cena manages to bust out and nail Carlito with a Boston Blockbuster. It looks like Cena's going to add another win to his resume, however Randy Orton catches Cena's attention and distracts him, allowing Carlito to capitalize by hitting him with the Back-Cracker/Back-Stabber and pinning Cena for the win. Adding insult to injury, Carlito spits a wad of apple at the Champ as Orton glared on from ringside.

Not a bad episode of RAW in the slightest. I liked the fact that they're mixing things up and not overabusing the feud card, repeating the same match over and over again over the span of several months. It's given the fans an opportunity to see some of the top guys in the company wrestle one another and see how well they play off one another's styles. Instead of sticking Cena in a stagnant feud, he's been facing several different contenders, all hungry for a shot at the belt. It's made things much more interesting, however, I'm really looking forward to the Cena/Orton match up.

Oddly enough, however, it seems that the more talented mid-carders appear to be without a direction as to where they will be headed and just whom they'll be paired up with for a feud. On the flipside, the fair-to-middling mid-carders have been getting a lot of air time in an effort to try and figure out some sort of character direction as opposed to setting them up in feuds. On one hand, this trial-and-error approach is a good thing, showing that WWE is willing to give everyone a chance to shine, more evenly distributing the spotlight. However, there are some people who just won't get over, no matter how hard they are pushed.

The build to Summer Slam seems to be slow with just one thing for certain, Cena will likely face Orton and Triple H will be returning. Other than that, it appears that we will have to wait and see what some of the other matches on the card will be as it pertains to the RAW brand.