Another hit-or-miss Raw

By and large, WWE kept Cedric the Entertainer out of the way of the main event angles on Monday Night Raw and kept him mostly to what he is good at: Comedy.

In the end though, it was a somewhat underwhelming edition of Raw, but there was some storyline build for the key angles.

• The show started with Triple H and Shawn Michaels —DGeneration X being a little bit jokey and a little bit serious in cutting a promo on Legacy. That was good, especially since the two teams had a heated brawl on last week's show.

I feel like they have been trying very hard to establish Legacy at least as legitimate threats to DX and that is a good thing as Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase are wresters they should want to build around. Cody showed a lot of fire early and got a good amount of offense in on Triple H.

The end ended up being a schmozz with DiBiase running in with a chair and nailing Hunter. One would assume that Legacy will get battered a bit next week heading into Hell in a Cell.

• What was a little frustrating was Jerry Lawler's commentary during the opening match. Shawn and Hunter's promo referenced their past Hell in a Cell matches, including the one they had against the McMahons and the Big Show at Unforgiven 2006.

So during the match, Lawler says, "If never seen a tag team Hell in a Cell. As a matter of fact, I think it's the first time we've ever had one." (It's the third, and the guy in his headset — Vince McMahon has been in one, as have two of the wrestlers in the ring.)

Cole: "It's going to be a unique one. There have been very few tag team Hell in a Cell matches in history." (A nice save by the vintage one).

Later on...

Lawler: "Can you imagine what DX can do inside that cell? I mean, DX has NEVER been in a Hell in a Cell match."

Cole: "No. Legacy's never been in a Hell in a Cell match."

Lawler: "No. I'm correct now. DX together have never been in a Hell in a Cell match. Sure, they've been in as Shawn Michaels and Triple H."

Awkward silence.

Listen, I have no problem with WWE touting first-time ever matches. But when stuff has happened recent enough that the announcers actually called the match, that's bad. Jamie chimed in on in a comment over the weekend on this blog about WWE selectively forgetting that The Undertaker had ever tapped out in his career, for the sake of his storyline in the Breaking Point match against CM Punk.

There's plenty of firsts that you can do. When you have one, tout it. But do your homework. Next thing you know, they'll do Triple H vs. Randy Orton in a "Judy Bagwell on a Pole" match and say that it's the first time Triple H is going to face Orton...in that kind of match.

That was a bit of a tangent, but it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine when I can drive a truck through the announcers' version of history.

• Cedric the Entertainer was OK in his segment with Santino, but the segment was pretty lame. Yeah he said "Cowboy" Bob Thornton, but he recovered fairly quickly from that. Good to see King Kong Bundy's visage on Raw. Cedric criticizing Santino's comedy was funny. If he criticized some of the lame material he gets from time to time, that would be funny. Santino is legitimately probably completely capable of being a good stand-up comic, judging by his timing and his improvisation skills.

I thought we'd get Santino vs. Chavo out of that, but instead we got Chavo vs. Cedric with Santino as a ref, Hornswoggle with a run-in and some other big dude with a run-in. At first, it looked like Cedric was wearing some vintage Jerry Lawler duds . (It is a cardinal rule in wrestling that you should bring your gear all the time — even if you're not booked.) Apparently not, if everyone had them on.

Cedric was OK, but he, himself, was never really in the way.

• I liked that Kofi Kingston stood up for himself and took back the US title belt from The Miz.

I did not like that during a US title match that he was winning, that Jack Swagger stopped, clotheslined The Miz, took the title belt and left.

I also didn't like that somehow out of THAT segment, Swagger gets a triple-threat title match against Kofi and The Miz at Hell in a Cell. Great logic!

• The Miz and Evan Bourne, though, had a fast, exciting match that made both guys look good.

• Contract signings are usually terrible and this one was no different. At first, I wondered what official would preside over this: Cedric the Entertainer? Instead, we got Lawler.

Orton talked. Cena made lame jokes and was goofy. He was goofy some more. Then Jericho and Show came out to take out Cena. Henry and MVP ran out for the save (Mark Henry running is almost as terrifying as Big Show running). So we got a six-man tag.

The funny thing about this angle was that they said Orton would get no rematch if he lost at HIAC. Who's Cena going to fight then? Triple H? Worse yet, if Orton wins, does that mean he fights Cena? Again?

In the six-man, if the heels won, Cena would face all three next week in a gauntlet. If the faces won, then vice versa. The match was fairly exciting and the crowd was into it. A chop block by Jericho and an RKO from Orton finished Henry. So next week is John Cena vs. Orton, Jericho & Big Show in a gauntlet at the Times Union Center in Albany.

As I mentioned on Twitter, Mike Chioda got his name back during Monday's main event. Perhaps, with Scott Armstrong now involved in an angle on SmackDown, Vince McMahon has relaxed his edict that you can't say referee names.

• I was pleasantly surprised Beth Phoenix defeat Divas champion Mickie James in dominant fashion on Raw with minimal help from No. 1 contender Alicia Fox. I like that they are making an attempt to build Beth back up. She might be the best wrestler they have amongst the women and I feel like Mickie has gotten a little stale as a face.

• I have a major problem with WWE saying that Al Sharpton tells it like it is. There's lots of people who would dispute that and I doubt highly that Sharpton will get a good reaction in Albany.

• And finally, all the best to Lilian Garcia, who got to have a tearful and classy exit speech from Monday Night Raw. Garcia debuted in WWE in August 1999 and is leaving to pursue musical interests and get married. A very nice gesture by WWE to give Lilian a chance to say goodbye.

Dave Meltzer reported recently that there was a chance the company could go with Howard Finkel in the short-term on Raw. Let's hope they do! Howard is the best ring announcer, probably in wrestling history. It would be a pleasure to hear him once again.

Main events on TV for this week: ECW — Christian defending the ECW title against Zack Ryder. SmackDown — Batista vs. Big Show.