The most noteworthy development coming out of Monday night's three-hour Raw draft special involved Edge. Not only was he one of the two biggest names to get drafted (Chris Jericho was the other), but it appears that he is a heel again after spearing Randy Orton during a triple threat match to determine the No. 1 contender for John Cena's WWE title.
Although I think Edge has been doing a good job as a babyface and he was getting a decent reaction from the fans, for some reason Edge as a good guy just didn't work as well as expected. It seems as if WWE recognized that, and rather than continuing to try to get him over to a greater degree, it decided to turn him heel. The Edge character is better-suited to be a heel anyway.
Orton, who does seem to be getting over more and more as a babyface who has a mean streak and no friends, was poised to win the triple threat match against Batista and Sheamus when Edge did a run-in and speared him. That allowed Batista to make the cover for the win. Edge did his heel facial expression and was booed as he made his way back up the ramp while staring at Orton.
So that means Batista will face Cena for the title again at the Over the Limit pay-per-view on May 23. Reportedly, that will be Batista's last match in WWE, at least for a while. There had been speculation that Batista was done after his match with Cena at Sunday's Extreme Rules pay-per-view, but the fact that Cena won by out-smarting Batista rather than scoring a convincing victory seemed to indicate that wasn't the case. A decisive Cena win is almost certain to happen at Over the Limit, which means that Batista will have done jobs to Cena on three consecutive pay-per-views on his way out the door.
Other thoughts on Monday's show:
Raw got the better of the draft on this show. It got Edge, Jericho, John Morrison and R-Truth, while Smackdown got The Big Show, Kofi Kingston, Christian and Kelly Kelly. I'll post the result of this afternoon's supplemental draft this afternoon. …
The show got off to a great start with The Hart Dynasty (accompanied by Bret Hart) winning the WWE unified tag team title from The Miz and The Big Show. There was a big crowd pop for the title change. It's good to see THD with the belts. …
The Miz cut another awesome promo before the match. He is as smooth as anyone on the stick right now. …
The deal in which Hart had to acknowledge that ShowMiz was the greatest tag team of all time was handled well. After honoring the stipulation, Hart then sarcastically said that he also thinks The Mountie is the greatest Intercontinental champion of all time and David Arquette is the greatest world champion. "What a disgrace that was," Jerry Lawler said with a laugh. …
Big Show legitimately nailed Miz with the punch to the face after the match. I wonder if that was an accident if or if Miz has some heat backstage. ShowMiz dropping the belts and breaking up afterward pretty much gave away that one of them was getting drafted. It looks as if Big Show might be a babyface now since he punched out Miz and then hugged Smackdown general manager Teddy Long after being drafted. …
There was no foreshadowing in regard to Edge's turn. He confronted Jack Swagger backstage and also shook hands with Morrison and R-Truth after all three were drafted to Raw. …
The triple threat main event was OK but there wasn't a lot of crowd heat. After putting Triple H out of action "indefinitely" at Extreme Rules and then holding his own with Orton and Batista both on the mic and in the ring, Sheamus looked more like a star than he ever has. …
How stupid is it that Cena gets to book matches and determine his top contenders because there is no Raw guest host? The lack of an authority figure on Raw throws logic out the window at times. It would have been better for WWE to do what it does at the pay-per-views and have Long in charge of both brands. ...
Cena had the line of the night when he said that Sheamus looked like "a jar of mayonnaise with eyeballs and a ketchup haircut." …
The Jericho-Christian match was good. The Codebreaker on Christian as he was coming off the top was a cool spot. Before the match, Jericho said that he'll "never lose to an incompetent nobody again." Promise? …
When Edge was drafted to Raw, one of my first thoughts was that we can now get either an Edge-Christian feud or a reunion – perhaps both. But then Christian was drafted to Smackdown. I really don't understand why WWE doesn't want to put these guys in a program together. …
Kingston hit Trouble in Paradise on Jericho after Jericho's match against Christian. Perhaps that means that Kingston's push will be re-started on Smackdown. …
The Swagger-Morrison match was fine, but not as good as their Smackdown matches. Now that Swagger has avenged losses to Orton and Morrison, is The Undertaker next? I'm going to go out on a limb and say no. …
I liked the CM Punk-Evan Bourne match, which saw the hooded mystery man from Extreme Rules help Punk win again. There is speculation on the Internet that it's developmental wrestler Alex Riley under the hood, but I am hearing it's Joey Mercury – at least it was Mercury at the pay-per-view. …
There was a loud "We Want Mickie!" chant during the tag team match that pitted Eve and Maryse against Michelle McCool and Layla, but it sounded like WWE muted it after several seconds. The recently-released Mickie James is a local favorite in Richmond, Va. …
Why did Eve just stand there like a statue when McCool was pinning Maryse for the victory right in front of her? …
The final moments of the 10-man battle royal with Ted DiBiase Jr. and Rey Mysterio were good. What was up with Drew McIntyre being the first one out? …
DiBiase and R-Truth both delivered their lines well during their backstage segment. Truth's timing when he slapped DiBiase after sarcastically saying he would consider DiBiase's offer of employment was perfect. …
DiBiase was trying to recruit R-Truth to be his "Virgil." Ezekiel Jackson, who is out with a quadriceps injury and went to Raw in today's supplemental draft, would be a good choice when he has recovered from his injury. He has the body and does the silent-but-deadly thing well. Hey, maybe DiBiase can get the real Virgil – unless TNA has already signed him, that is. …
R-Truth said a bad word on TV: belt. …
I knew Dolph Ziggler was going to lose to Hornswoggle, but I just didn't know how. At least it was a fluke count-out instead of a pinfall. Ziggler put the little guy to sleep afterward, which got him some heat from the crowd.