RAW started off with recaps of Jericho & Orton and Ric Flair's match with Orton. Jericho came out to probably the biggest pop since his return. He talked about manipulating Randy Orton and playing him like a puppet. Jericho said that Orton had accepted the match at that it was confirmed by WWE Mobile. Cheap plug. They rolled the footage of the whole thing from last week. Orton came out and ran down his resume of people he's beat and Jericho cut him off, talking about beating The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin to become the first Undisputed Championship. They got in each other's faces and both really came off as heels in this. They were about to beat the hell out of each other before Silly Willy Regal came out. He announced they would have a "Pick Your Poison" between Jericho and Orton for tonight. If you're new, "Pick Your Poison" is where one guy picks who the other guy faces. Orton picked Umaga to face Jericho and Jericho picked The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels for Orton. After this was decided, they announced Snitsky against Jeff Hardy for the IC title. Hmm. I guess he "earned" this title shot by beating who? Nobody? That's right!

Next up was Mickie & Maria against Beth & Melina. They all looked wonderful and a 3-way between myself, Beth, and Mickie would be great. What better way to get your champion over than having them pin the challenger for the PPV on RAW! That was retarded. Have her pin Maria and stare Mickie down or something.

Kennedy came out after the break and I heard some mess about breaking HBK's heart or something. Kennedy said he had invited back 3 of Shawn's friends & rivals. So, I'm guessing Marty Jannetty, X-Pac, and Scott Hall. Sure enough, a guy came out dressed as Marty Jannetty, and everybody got excited over nothing. Next up was a guy dressed as Razor Ramon, aka Scott Hall. So far, I was 2 out of 3. My streak ended their with the arrival of Diesel, also known as Kevin Nash. Kennedy was pretty funny telling them to get in the ring and stuff. Diesel did the pyro, which was only 3 of the ring posts. Next up, Kennedy introduced HBK and some dude holding one of those sparklers that was dressed like HBK came out. Kennedy interviewed each of them and it was funny. HBK came down and laid the impostors out. Kennedy & the fake HBK rolled out of the ring. It was a strong segment to get Kennedy over. I liked it.

The showed Coach and Vince backstage. Vince announced there would be a McMahon family portrait. That will bring in the buys and ratings. He then said it would be a handicap match between Hornswoggle and Coach & Carlito. Horny got the phone and must have called somebody up. Silly Willy was shown with Triple H and he said that the match between him & Hardy would be for a shot at the title at the Royal Rumble. Trips said he would do anything to be WWE Champion again. At this point, I figured Snitsky would get the IC title.

Umaga made his way to the ring for the match against Jericho. The match was pretty good considering who was involved. Before Jericho could get the win, Orton interfered and gave the RKO to Jericho. It was good to get heat on Orton, since he's been avoiding Jericho.

Carlito & Coach made their way down to the ring for the match. Hornswoggle came down and he had a smirk on his face. He made his way over to Lillian and whispered something in her ear. I'm guessing it was about his partner. Lillian said he had hired "protection" and my first thought was APA. A second or two later, the APA made their way down and Ron Simmons and JBL f*cked up Coach & Carlito. They continued their assault with Hornswoggle directing traffic. If I was Vince, I would think this "tough love" stuff wasn't going so hot. Horny won the match and it was good. JBL got on the match and plugged his business show and Smackdown. Each time, he faked Simmons out from saying "damn!" Simmons finally got the mic and said that famous word, "DAMN!"

Backstage, Todd Grisham interviewed Snitsky. Umm, ok. After the break, Jeff Hardy came down to the ring for the IC title match. The match was mainly dominated by Snitsky. Hardy got his offense going at the end and won the match. As he was celebrating, Snitsky jumped him from behind. As Snitsky got the chair and was about to beat the hell out of Jeff, Triple H's music hit and he made his way down to the ring with a sledgehammer. I was thinking of a heel turn here. Snitsky left the ring and Trips stood, waiting for Jeff to get up. He stuck out his hand and waited for Jeff to take it. He helped Jeff up and pulled him in close and told him something, probably like, "hope you enjoyed your push before I destroy you at the PPV." They hyped their encounter some more afterwards. As all of this was going on, I was checking the potential upset that was brewing on ESPN.

After the commercial, they showed the Smackdown Rebound and the return of Teddy Long. After that, Silly Willy told Vince that Stephanie was on her way to the arena. YAY! When they came back on, they said Vince would announce the "Greatest Superstar" award next week. The funny thing is, some of the people pictured don't even work with WWE anymore.

HBK made his way to the ring for his match against Randy Orton. Orton came down and the match was under way. This had an old school feel to it. As I typed that, the Ravens were scoring a go-ahead TD. Just like the match earlier in the evening, Kennedy came out and attacked HBK. Therefore, HBK is your winner by DQ but Orton got on the mic and claimed he was the winner. Jericho ran in and attacked Orton. Pretty damn strong ending. They showed backstage with Stephanie staring Vince down. She talked about the history of RAW and Vince said something about everybody who is going to try and show him up next week can go to hell. Man, that was a great ending.

I give this RAW:
4 out of 4 ring posts

"RAW is Blogged" Match of the Week
RAW from July 1, 2002
WWE Undisputed Championship
Ladder Match
The Undertaker vs. Jeff Hardy

You can e-mail me at lukeparks@hotmail.com. If you send me spam, I will knock your block off. Just kidding, but seriously, I will.

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