Monday Night Raw Review - May 26, 2008

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

WWE Champion Triple H and Randy Orton Had a Debate

Well, this was an interesting approach for the go-home home to the One Night Stand pay-per-view. And I liked it a lot. Granted, the HHH vs. Orton feud had long overstayed its welcome by this point, but they did an excellent job here of adding more fuel to the feud by bringing up their Evolution past and how HHH kicked Orton to the curb, as well as bringing up how Orton won the previous Last Man Standing match they had together at No Mercy 2007.

Melina def. Jillian Hall

Melina had been firmly established as a face by this stage, but this match pretty much confirmed it. I mean, how could you not cheer someone who interrupts Jillian's horrendous singing? The match was inconsequential, but it gave Melina an easy win. I also liked how we finally had a feud in the women's division on Raw that wasn't over the championship. Beth Phoenix and Melina had history and this was a good final sell on their "I Quit" match that Sunday.

World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly def. Paul London and Brian Kendrick

I wish this match had received the same amount of build-up as the feud Rhodes and Holly had with Santino Marella and Carlito for so many weeks. Because if it did, it would have been a lot better than it was. The bout was brief and fine while it lasted, just nothing special, unfortunately. London and Kendrick were complete afterthoughts at this point. But the focus was on what happened afterward, anyway, with Ted DiBiase Jr. officially making his Raw debut and announcing his intentions to win the World Tag Team Championship in his first match.

JBL and Umaga def. JOhn Cena and Jeff Hardy

Tag team matches are usually the simplest way to further two or more feuds, and that is exactly what this match accomplished. It wasn't a blockbuster bout or anything despite the star power involved, but it was a solid tag team matchup, nevertheless. The important thing was that the heels went over to give them a boost of momentum before their respective One Night Stand matches.

Mr. Kennedy def. Carlito

Not only did William Regal have to suffer from his own suspension, but Mr. Kennedy did, too, because they were a part of an intriguing feud for so long before it got cut short. However, I was glad they didn't waste time in giving Kennedy something meaningful to do by immediately placing him in a program with Paul Burchill, who was also floundering at the time. It made perfect sense for Burchill to pick a fight with Kennedy given his own allegiance to Regal.

Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels Ended in a Double Count-Out (Non-title)

Of course, we would see many more matches between these two in the remainder of the year, but this was before Jericho became a full-fledged heel. And as a television match, it was great. Jericho and Michaels were virtually incapable of producing bad matches together. The non-finish was brilliant in protecting both guys as well as teasing a heel turn for Jericho when he nearly struck Michaels with a chair.

Mr. McMahon Announced "McMahon's Million Dollar Mania"

Ah, yes, "McMahon's Million Dollar Mania." From what I understand, the ratings for Raw at the time were in the toilet (yet still astronomically higher than they are today), so McMahon thought giving away millions of dollars each week would bring in new viewers. I can't honestly say whether it made a definite difference or not, but let's just say it wouldn't last long. I won't discuss every instance where he gave away money in my next few reviews, but if nothing else, it was an absolute embarrassment.

Overall Show

WWE had a really short turnaround time from Judgement Day to One Night Stand, so they deserve props for putting together a pretty compelling card for One Night Stand. With the exception of McMahon's announcement (which was slightly underwhelming truth be told), most of the matches on this show had to do with the upcoming event. And those that didn't started new storylines, so this was another quality edition of Raw in my opinion.

SEE ALSO: "Monday Night Raw Review - May 19, 2008"