The fourth-annual Monday Night RAW "Tribute to the Troops" from Iraq proved to be a treat for both soldiers and civilians alike. Featuring superstars from each of the three WWE brands (RAW, Smackdown and ECW) and great matches, this episode was one of the best in recent weeks.

The small brigade of WWE wrestlers and production crew traveled 21 hours from the United States to Iraq for the show taped back in early December. Commentators Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler called the action from back in Stamford, CT for the broadcast.

The show began with a small retrospective of the 60 years that the USO has been entertaining the military overseas and giving them a slice of normality in the face of the daily chaos they endure. Then the Creed/Scott Stapp music kicked in. Fortunately, the Stapp-ly serenade was one of the few low points of the show.

The show kicked off with the familiar match up of WWE Champion, John Cena against one half of the RAW Tag Team Champions, Edge. In one of the fashion snafus of the night, Edge came out wearing a camouflaged beanie. In scorching desert heat. In Iraq. Polyester knit doesn’t breathe too well. Fortunately for the hirsute Edge, he lost the beanie before engaging in combat with Cena.

The two men locked up and Cena clamped a chokehold on Edge before Edge began waffling Cena against the ringposts and showboating in the middle of the ring.

Cena slammed Edge to the canvas for an early near-fall. Jim Ross remarked that Cena was favoring a series of right fists to Edge. (And you’re just catching onto this now, J.R.? Cena has ALWAYS (ab)used right hand punches in his matches.)

Edge hit Cena in the back, cockily wiggling his head and showboating some more before hurling the Champ to the canvas. Cena battled back, picking Edge up and dropping him perpendicularly, slamming Edge’s face to the turnbuckle. Whipping Edge to the opposite corner, Cena continued with the right hand trend. Edge cold-cocked Cena right in the jaw, dazing the Champ long enough to capitalize for another near-pin.

Cena kicked out and Edge and Cena began wailing away on one another with Edge in the ring and Cena standing just outside of the ropes on the ring apron. Edge turned the tide with a fast baseball slide, sending Cena flying hard into the barricades.

Back in the ring, Edge wrapped Cena in a body scissors and then moving in for a side headlock on the champ. Cena managed to get up, flinging himself into the ropes and flying over Edge’s head with a flipping bulldog to the Rated R Superstar. Once again, Edge spun things to his favor, booting Cena in the face and nearly scoring a pin… Again.

Edge tried to bring a chair into the ring, possibly echoing the trend of mauling Flair and Triple H on Cena. The referee grabbed the chair before Edge could do anything with it. Cena caught Edge off guard and rolled him backwards for what was probably the fourth near-pinfall of the match. (Okay, this near pinfall thing is getting stale already, guys!)

As Cena went back to his old friend, his right hand, Edge landed a reverse heel kick on the Champ, before hooking Cena in a modified Camel Clutch, with Cena on his knees. Cena’s positioning allowed him to get to his feet, locking his arms behind Edge’s legs and flinging the blonde backwards.

The two men engaged in yet another right-hand fest, culminating in Cena picking Edge up in a tiltawhirl slam. With Edge on the canvas, the usual finisher ensued with first the "You can’t see me," followed by the five-knuckle shuffle. Edge got up with Cena taking him to the corner, going to the top rope and attempting an FU. Edge reversed the FU, taking Cena down in an Electric Chair. With Cena out on the mat, Edge ran to the ropes to splash the Champ. Cena moved out of the way resulting in Edge conking his head on the match. Cena whipped out the FU, pinning Edge. Cena is the winner.

In spite of the abundance of flying right fists, this was a good match and a great way to kick off the show. Both Cena and Edge showed a lot of energy, especially considering that the match went to nearly the 20 minute mark. The right hands being thrown and the abundance of near pinfalls got frustrating. However, both men put on an entertaining match, whipping out a few tricky maneuvers to hold the attention of the crowd.

Following the first match of the night, there was a brief montage set to the tune of John Lennon’s "Happy Christmas" of greetings from the troops to their families back home and the WWE wrestlers interacting with the men and women overseas. One of the coolest images was of the Undertaker mock-choking a soldier. In turn, there was another image of ‘Taker himself being choked by yet another soldier.

Seeing the images put a human face to the many men and women who are serving in Iraq. The Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force isn’t simply a faceless body that protects the United States. They’re real people with family and friends at home that they miss. Like the rest of us civilians, they find joy in something as simple as watching a wrestling match and receiving a reprieve from the barren desert violence that has been a part of their lives and livelihoods for the past four years.

Similarly, it’s reassuring seeing a lot of the wrestlers over there doing what they love to do for a receptive audience and occasionally breaking character. I guess that’s what Christmas and the winter holiday season is all about, breaking down the walls and allowing others in in the most honest way possible and sharing what you’ve got.

The next match of the night paired RAW’s Shelton Benjamin against ECW’s up-and-coming CM Punk, arguably, two of the best young wrestlers in the industry right now. Things started off with a dual takeover. Shelton picked Punk up over his head, throwing him down. Punk turned around hammering Benjamin with a series of fists before Shelton slid out of the ring, avoiding a further beatdown.

CM Punk threw Benjamin back into the ring but the wily Shelton sent the young Punk’s shoulder crashing directly into the ring post. Capitalizing, Benjamin whirled Punk into one of his signature backbreaker slams before stretching the heavily-tattooed arms of Punk into a hammerlock.

Having had enough, Shelton hurled Punk backwards to the canvas by his hair. CM Punk got to his feet and elbowed Shelton Benjamin in the stomach. Continuing the streetfighting style, Punk kneed Shelton. Upping the ante with more refined and high-risk maneuvers, CM executed a beautiful flying bulldog headlock to Benjamin.

Not to be outdone, Shelton threw CM Punk off of the top rope in an impressive Snap Superplex before going fro the Sheldon Splash. CM dodged Shelton’s signature move, pinning Benjamin for the win.

A brief yet strong match, this was one of the best bouts of the evening. The crowd was incredibly receptive to both men, with Punk going over as a huge favorite. I guess they understand how hard it is to wrestle with a lip ring.

One more Scott Stapp song later, and the troops and viewers were treated to RAW’s Johnny Nitro squaring off against the legendary Undertaker. While Melina’s boob-bastic entrance was a huge hit with the crowd, the Undertaker drew a response like no other. With the familiar BONG entrance music filling the air, ‘Taker walked out from behind the tented curtain and the crowd erupted. The Undertaker was looking much paler than usual and I was sincerely hoping that he brought some 45+ SPF with him.

Inside the ring, Nitro was dwarfed by the massive Undertaker. Realizing that he may be outmatched, Nitro slipped out under the ring ropes and back in in the span of mere seconds, catching the veteran off guard. Hammering Undertaker into the corner, Nitro found himself soon flung easily across the ring with ‘Taker taking long strides to quickly return the furious fists to Nitro.

Melina let loose with a loud, scrotum-shriveling shriek that in the combat zone could have been mistaken for an air raid siren. Her screams didn’t do much to deter the Undertaker from yanking Nitro’s arm back in an armbar, forcing him down to the canvas.

Going for the old school approach and to the crowd’s delight, Taker walked the top rope as if it were a tightrope before jumping directly down onto Nitro.

Whipping out the insaguri kick from his moveset portfolio, Nitro found his usually devastating maneuver to have little effect on the Dead Man.

At this point, "Uncle Jerry" made a comment about how he had been wanting to "stuff Melina’s stockings all year long." J.R. chided his broadcasting cohort. Speaking of stockings, Melina had some spiffy pink leopard print ones on. I think I want a pair.

Back to the action, however, Undertaker was taking complete control of the match, booting Nitro in the face before snatching him up in a chokeslam. Nitro looked like a toddler in ‘Taker’s grasp. The Dead Man went for a Tombstone piledriver before putting young Mr. Nitro away for good with a pin. Rolling his eyes back in his head, the Dead Man walked to the back before lingering a bit longer to interact with the crowd.

Replacing the usual backstage vignettes, this Tribute to the Troops episode took more of a realistic approach to additional, non-match material. Among the segments rounding out the two hour show were Lillian Garcia’s rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" and interviews with the troops themselves, wrestlers and the production crew.

On December 7, 2006 — the day of taping the show itself — Camp Victory had been attacked by mortar in an area that hours prior had been host to the WWE crew eating breakfast with the troops. 14 soldiers were wounded in the attack. Further away, near where the ring was set up, the production crew was rattled by the blast in such close proximity, however, the show went on.

The next match of the night involved ECW’s new champion, Bobby Lashley facing perennial fan non-favorite, Hardcore Holly. Wow. Bobby Lashley had more hair on his head than ol’ Spark Plug — and that’s not saying much at all.

The strapping young Lashley was the sentimental crowd favorite having served as a Sergeant in the United States Army. The crowd gave the ECW Champion a huge response as he jumped directly onto the ring apron. Hardcore Holly was met with boos nearly as loud as Lashley’s positive response.

The two men nearly hooked up for a Festivus-style Feats of Strength which Lashley would have easily won. Very early on in the match, Lashley handily grabbed Holly in a vertical suplex, holding Hardcore Holly in the air for nearly 10 seconds before sending him crashing to the mat.

Picking Holly up, Lashley mashed him into the corner before sliding out of the ring. Holly turned the match more to his favor, sending a back-kick to Lashley’s leg and taking his wheels out from under him. With Lashley at his mercy, Hardcore sent Lashley sailing into the steel steps.

The smaller Hardcore Holly took Lashley to the mat, sending him to the ropes. With Lashley on the mat, Hardcore sat on his back, yanking his arm behind him.

Continuing to work on Lashley’s upper body, Holly wound the Champion’s arm around the ropes. Managing to break free, Lashley suplexed Holly. Adding a new element of punishment, the ECW Champion put Hardcore in a torture rack across his back, a la Lex Luger. Lashley’s twist on the old school maneuver was dropping to his knees for maximum impact before shrugging Holly off of his back.

The match ended with Lashley pinning Hardcore Holly, who still put up a decent fight.

While I’m not a huge Hardcore Holly fan, he and Lashley put forth a good effort with the crowd strongly behind the former Army Sergeant and Lashley interacting greatly with the audience comprised of military folk. The match was a decent length to maintain interest in the action and featured the right amount of power, speed and a few well-placed signature moves from both men, with the favorite emerging victorious. This one was definitely one of the most satisfying matches of the night.

Following the match, some more behind the scenes vignettes showed the Masterpiece Chris Masters with his fiance’s brother who is in the Army. Also shown out-of-character was the announcer/model/Diva, Maria, who sounds nothing like the "dumb brunette" character she portrays on RAW when she uses her real voice and not the giddy schoolgirl put-on she usually works with.

Shooting back to in-ring character personas, Christ Masters was shown in the makeshift backstage area wiggling his prominent pectorals and informing the audience and production crew that he would be challenging a random member of the military audience to break his heretofore unbroken Masterlock. I was wondering if the "random member" would end up being his future brother-in-law. (I was wrong. The challenger to the Masterlock did seem to be a random soldier from the front rows.)

In an act of déjà vu straight out of the "Haven’t I Seen You Destroyed By This Guy Before?" category, RAW’s Intercontinental Champion, Jeff Hardy battled the undefeated Umaga.

Umaga’s handler, Armando Alejandro Estrada was absent from action and ringside last night with Umaga running rampant on his own.

The match began with Hardy using his speed and stealth to evade Umaga’s powerful clotheslines. Eventually, Umaga splattered Hardy to the mat, climbing to the top rope to splash Jeff into oblivion. Hardy deftly moved out of the way at the last minute with Umaga landing flat on his ass.

The Samoan Bulldozer got to his feet again with Jeff Hardy trying to topple him backwards, eventually succeeding with a nice standing dropkick, sending Umaga crashing to the outside of the ring. Attempting one of the high risk maneuvers he’s famous for, Hardy ended up jumping directly into the waiting arms of Umaga. (And I just realized how much like slash fiction that last sentence sounded. I don’t think there are too many sick souls out there who are Googling Umaga slash. However, I’ve been wrong before.)

Umaga slammed Hardy into the ring post, going for the double-whammy with the ever-present set of steel stairs leading to the ring.Umaga continued to stomp Jeff Hardy before nailing him with a headbutt.

At this point, I noticed that the temperature outdoors must have been extremely hot since Umaga’s face paint was running off. Usually, that stuff has been pretty durable.

With Hardy teetering on the brink of defeat, Umaga went for what seems to be the Samoan Vulcan Nerve Pinch, digging into the area where Jeff’s arm, neck and shoulder meet. Attempting to break the hold, Hardy elbowed the big man in the breadbasket.

It did little to deter Umaga from climbing to the top rope and attempting to land a massive splash on Hardy yet again. In keeping with tradition, Hardy moved out of the way.

Scrambling to his feet, Hardy landed an impressive Whisper in the Wind to Umaga, followed by the Twist of Fate. Almost ready to break out the devastator of his High Risk Handbook, Hardy went for the Swanton Bomb. This last move broke the bank with Umaga drawing his knees up and driving them into the landing Hardy’s back.

With the match now favoring the lumbering Samoan, Umaga hammered Hardy into the corner, running at him and flapjacking the Hardy Boy’s face with his own humongous ass. It looked like it hurt worse than one thousand stinkfaces. DAMN!!! (Since Ron Simmons/Farooq wasn’t on the program this week, I’ll say it instead.)

Umaga finished Hardy off with the Samoan Spike before pinning him and chasing the referee out of the ring.

Up next was a battle of the Always Arrogant versus the Formerly Arrogant. Randy Orton strutted out, kissing his Tag Team Championship belt. Orton may be disputed as one of the brightest young talents of the WWE, but he seriously has to have some of the best tattoos of anyone in the WWE. I’m not a huge fan of tribals, but Orton’s are very nicely done, complimentary to his physique and have a cool bit of edging in white.

Yet, I digress! Orton’s opponent for the evening, Carlito came out, slapping hands all the way down to the ring, clad in bright orange to rival even the desert sun itself.

Orton started off the match strong, grappling Carlito into a side headlock before the two men found their way to the corner with Carlito gaining control and landing several punches to Orton’s head from the second work.

Carlito twisted Orton’s upper extremities into an armbar before Orton resorted to his new favorite move, the thumb to the eye. Whipping out one of his other favorite moves, Orton executed a beautiful standing dropkick to the Puerto Rican second-generation superstar.

Dusting off the Ronnie Garvin Stomp — newly rechristened the Randy Orton Stomp — RKO delivered a series of circumferential kicks to Carlito before picking up the side headlock again. Given Carlito’s unruly main, it was hard to see the positioning of Orton’s hands, making it look like Carlito was getting and Atomic Nougie.

Carlito reversed the hold, picking up Orton in a sidewalk slam before the two multi-generation grapplers traded punches. Carlito went for the Carlito Clothesline before jumping off of the ropes backwards and into Orton.

Attempting his Backcracker, Carlito’s attempt was thwarted by Orton holding onto the ropes. A victim to his own momentum, Carlito narrowly succumbed to a pin at the hands of Orton. Randy’s feet were on the ropes and the referee spotted it, breaking up the count of three.

From there, Carlito rolled backwards, grabbing a fistful of Orton…. tights and pinning him for the win. Carlito made the "shhhhh!" sign to the crowd who went wild with Carlito’s underhanded win. I was hoping for a bit of ho-ho-heiney from Randy Orton’s end (pardon the pun), but hey, you can’t have everything. I’ll take it for what it’s worth and chalk it up as a good match.

Rarely do you see many wrestlers with fathers and grandfathers in the business whose talents eclipse that of their elders. While I haven’t seen much of Carlos Colon’s ring work, his son Carlito certainly knows his stuff in the ring. Conversely, Randy Orton surpasses his father Cowboy Bob Orton with his in-ring athletics. I really like the feuding/pairing of these two guys. The match was speedy and fast-paced with both men appearing to think and act quickly on their feet.

Closing out the evening, "Santa Claus" (JBL sporting the familiar red and white duds of Jolly Old St.Nick.) made an appearance with his "Ho Ho Hoes," (Torrie Wilson, Krystal, and Maria). The three Divas claimed that they had been "naughty" all year. Bradshaw Claus approved, telling the pneumatic trio that they would have to sit on his lap later. Surprisingly, I think this was the least inappropriate comment that JBL had made all year.

Bless his little heart. He’s fast moving up into my own hallowed halls of commentators, possibly next to the great King of Snark, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.

After "Santa Claus" and his scantily clad elves handed out gifts of t-shirts and X-Box games to the troops in the audience, Jolly Old Bradshaw Layfield was about to depart on his merry way before being accosted by The Masterpice, Chris Masters.

Masters grabbed the mike from Bradshaw Claus, claiming that he "hates Christmas" and "doesn’t believe in Santa." Looks like someone didn’t get any Creatine in his stocking this year, eh?

The Masterpiece forced "Santa Claus" into taking him up on his Masterlock Challenge, flinging poor Kris Kringle around like a rag doll before throwing him aside. Santa lay there like a slug. It was his only defense.

As Santa lay on the ring apron, Masters took the mike calling for "the biggest strongest troop out here." (Even though he didn’t get Creatine for Christmas, it does look like the Masterpiece was given "The Pat Patterson Big Book of Plural and Singular Nouns" and dug right in on reading it.)

Pulling a scrawny looking soldier out of the front rows, Masters interviewed the man in the middle of the ring. Young Jose Avilar, a Staff Sergeant, seemed to be the next victim of Masters’ dread hold.

As Avilar sat down in the chair and Masters locked the Full Nelson on him, Santa Claus threw his red and white garb aside, revealing his true identity as John Bradshaw Layfield, more affectionately known as JBL. JBL kicked Masters in the back of the leg and broke the hold before laying him out with a Christmas Clothesline From Hell. And the record books will read that Jose Avilar broke the Masterlock.

JBL (who JR and Lawler mentioned as having come up with the original concept of the "Tribute to the Troops" four years ago) closed out the show thanking everyone as the credits rolled.

WWE’s "Tribute to the Troops" was one of the best episodes of RAW in recent weeks. The focus, beyond entertaining the servicemen and women overseas, was purely on wrestling and not beating dead horse feuds. Nearly every match on the card ended with a clean finish and no outside interference from other wrestlers or factions.

Another positive of this episode stemmed from the involvement of several top superstars from the different brand extensions (Smackdown and ECW) alongside those relegated to RAW. More and more, there seems to be a leaning towards a détente of the brand extensions. As one of the many fans who has long favored recombining the brands, it was a nice change of pace seeing the Undertaker and CM Punk on a Monday night. Lately, the WWE has seemed to have become a lot less stringent and allows for more of a crossover between the different shows. This is a smart move that allows for greater possibilities and excitement to building up inter-branded matches.

However, the highlight of the show was the no-frills, lack of filler in this episode.

As a longtime fan of wrestling (or "sports entertainment"), I find myself torn between enjoying the storyline aspect of the programming as a soap opera populated with beefy, brawny men and enjoying the athleticism and choreographed combat of the genre. With the storylines having moved away from fantastical characters like Razor Ramon and Goldust (and Mantaur, but we’d all like to forget about him) and more towards the "real," what the creative team has termed as "real" has seemed a lot more forced.

Plus, with certain feuds being beaten to death for the sake of selling PPVs, it seems as if more matches had been crafted with a storyline in mind that purely enjoyable matches.

Without the long-winded hyping of matches and 20-minute promos, the athleticism factor became the main focus of the matches. Several unorthodox and unexpected pairings really worked and made for enjoyable bouts. The "Tribute to the Troops" was a refreshing and welcome change that made this jaded fan quite pleased to have tuned in last night.