WWE 2006 - A New Attitude

It's the first Raw of the year, the last Raw before New Year's Revolution, and we're starting the show with Kurt Angle! Angle says that his entire athletic career, he's always been the best. He earned nearly every singles accolade a WWE Superstar can in their rookie year and won an Olympic medal with "a broken freakin' neck," so this Sunday, the Elimination Chamber will be a cakewalk. This brings out Shawn Michaels, who takes the opportunity to remind Angle that HBK was the first ever WWE Grand Slam Champion and has a reputation for winning the Big One. Before they can further argue, Carlito and Chris Masters join the fray. Carlito reminds everyone that he not only beat John Cena on his first night in the company, but he took him out for a month. He also takes the opportunity to remind everyone of the path of destruction that Chris Masters and his Masterlock has brought to WWE. At the mention of destruction, hellfire arises throughout the arena, heralding the arrival of Kane. Kane tells the other competitors that nobody in WWE has wrought more destruction than he has and while the rest are having nightmares about the Chamber, Kane i having day dreams because his only dream is to hurt and destroy. Before the five men in the ring can come to blows as tension rises, familiar horns sound throughout the arena and the Champ is Here! John Cena comes out to the stage and wastes no time tearing into the other men, telling Angle there won't be any judges scoring to help him out in this fight, asking HBK if he packed his smile for the weekend, reminding Kane that he's only ever been champion for 24 hours, and going after Masters and Carlito for biting off more than
they can chew by taking on people who aren't "local talent." All six men look ready to start this WWE Title match early until Johnathan Coachman, Special Liaison to the Chairman, stands up at the announce table to announce that by special order of Vince McMahon, tonight's main event will be a six man tag team preview of New Year's Revolution as Masters, Carlito, and Angle take on Cena, Michaels, and Kane. No one looks happy but at least they don't have to wait six days to fight.

Before the match, we got a preview of both men warming up. The match itself was the best of the night. Rey Mysterio threw everything he could at the much larger Henry, pulling out all the tricks to try to score the victory. It would not be enough, however, as Henry would ultimately be the victor. After the match, Randy Orton came down to the ring, where it became clear that he and Mark Henry but Batista was able to save the Man of Mystery before more harm could come to him.

Wasting absolutely no time, we started off hot with the WWE Intercontinental Title match as Ric Flair defended against Edge. The Rated R Superstar pulled out a bunch of tricks but the Dirtiest Player in the game had more than enough to match, ultimately frustrating the younger challenger to the point of purposefully getting himself disqualified.

Goldust was out next to call out Shelton Benjamin. He said that Shelton didn't have proper respect for those that game before him in this business and that showed with the way he talked about Ric Flair on Monday. Shelton came out to respond, saying he has nothing but respect for the past but he's the future and he's tired of waiting for what he's earned paying his dues. Benjamin added, "I won't wait to kick your ass either if you want a fight." This gave us our next match where, despite there being a solid back and forth, Goldust game up short against Shelton Benjamin.

"No Chance, that's what ya got..."

Vince McMahon: Ladies and Gentlemen, give it up for your WWE Champion, John Cena!

Jim Ross: What the hell is Vince McMahon doing here?!

Jerry Lawler: He's just here to congratulate the Champ, JR! That's his right as Chairman, ya know.

Vince McMahon: That might be a bit premature, actually. John, your night isn't over yet. Get that Chamber out of here, we have one more match to get to. You might remember John, last year at Wrestlemania, there was a match where the victor earned a WWE Title match at the time and place of their choosing. Well, moments ago, I was informed that that man, Edge, intended to receive that title match here tonight in Cleveland and that match starts now.Calling this a match would be generous as Edge attacked Cena with the same ferocity of a frenzied shark. Cena's instinct allowed him to kick out of one pin Spear but the second one sealed the deal and we now have a new WWE Champion!

We start Raw tonight with a very fired up John Cena. He says he knows that if he wants a title shot, he has to earn it but since he’s never been patient and it’s Royal Rumble season, he wants to compete against twenty-nine other men to earn that shot. The crowd loves it but one man doesn’t, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. He tells Cena that what Cena, and these people, wants doesn’t matter quite frankly and the WWE isn’t a place where opportunities are given freely. If Cena wants to be in the Royal Rumble, he must beat Triple H tonight. 

A couple of nearly forgotten faces make their presence known on Raw next with Doug and Danny Basham, wearing new gear and generally looking like they’ve been refreshed and recharged. They say that they’ve been sidelined for too long and they’re sick of waiting for chances so they call out Cade and Murdoch, who always accept a fight. The Bashams looked great, consistently one step ahead of the good ol’ boys and taking advantage of the sibling connection to get the win. 

Up next, we have the re-debut of Sylan Granier and Rene Dupree, now calling themselves the French Connection. They say that they have been disrespected long enough and won’t stand for it any longer. They challenge any team in the locker room to take them on tonight, a challenge that’s answered by Road Warrior Animal and Heidenreich. The reunited team scooped up the win tonight, sending the more recent tag team champions packing.