WWE Raw TV taping report
July 26, 2010
San Antonio, Tex.
Report by Chris Reed, PWTorch contributor and Joshua Flores, PWTorch reader

-- ALSO SEE: SUPERSTARS SPOILERS for 7/29 & 8/5.

From Chris Reed: For those of you who thought the last episode of Raw left viewers up in the air for Summerslam, be forewarned, this week's episode only made things worse.

Raw TV taping for August 2 episode of Raw

The hot open starts this week's show, and after the pyro ends, a graphic shows the main event "tonight" will be Randy Orton taking on The Miz in a follow-up to last week's events.

Edge comes out to the ring for a promo. He states that he remembered that he should only trust one person, and that's himself. He wants to do things his way when it comes to Nexus, and tonight, he's getting started by challenging Wade Barrett to a one-on-one contest, and he doesn't want any help from anyone. Cue up R-Truth's music. Truth comes out and puts Edge in his place, reminding Edge that it needs to be all about the team come Summerslam, and that Edge needs to put his pride behind him. The GM sound hits, and Michael Cole announces that Edge will get his wish, and that the match between Edge and Barrett will be next. Truth wishes Edge a sarcastic good luck, and tells him that he will be on his own.

(1) Edge vs. Wade Barrett ended in No Contest in 7:00 when Nexus hit the ring and Edge escaped through crowd. Wade Barrett comes out to the ring solo. Some decent action for a while, climaxing when Edge hits the Impaler DDT and appeared to be setting up for the Spear. Barrett saw it coming, though, and bailed out of the ring. Barrett then smiles and makes a motion, leading to all of the Nexus members rushing the ring. However, Edge saw them coming and bailed out through the crowd. No official announcement was made for a finish.

(2) Divas champion Alicia Fox & Tamina & Jillian beat Natalya & Gail Kim & Eve in 3:00. Melina made her return, taking out Alicia. Typical throw-all-the-Divas-in-a-match that ended when Tamina distracted Natalya long enough for Alicia to hit her axe kick and get the pin on Natalya. Alicia then grabbed the mic and gloated about how, no matter if it was in singles, tags, six-person, or even fatal four-way, that she had beaten all the Divas that the Raw locker room had to offer. You knew where this was going real quick. Cue the return of Melina. The crowd pops huge as Melina makes her triumphant return to the ring. Alicia tries to scatter out, but gets tossed back in the ring to take a beat down from Melina ending with her primal scream split-leg drop finisher. Nothing was officially announced, but it seemed to plant the seeds for these two to have a match at Summerslam.

Edge finds John Cena backstage. After a brief argument, Edge concludes that Cena doesn't really have his back, so Edge quits the team for Summerslam. Chris Jericho then comes up behind Cena and tells Cena that Cena should be the one to quit the team so there can be some cohesiveness under his lead. Jericho offers to face Cena in a match where the loser must quit the SummerSlam team. Cena hesitates, but eventually accepts.

John Morrison is backstage talking with Great Khali and Runjin Singh, apparently trying to mend ways after their fight last week. When Morrison leaves, a few Nexus members stop Khali. They tell Khali that the reason they didn't attack him last week was because they respect himi, and they say the doors are open if Khali's ever interested.

(3) WWE champion Sheamus beat Goldust in 2:00. A video package highlights the feud that Sheamus and Goldust had about a year ago on ECW that climaxed with Sheamus defeating Goldust in a No DQ match. Tonight's contest would be nothing of the same. Sheamus absolutely squashed Goldust with all his trademark moves, hitting the Celtic Cross for the pinfall. To quote Sheamus in a post-match interview, "What a difference a year makes." Sheamus goes on to promise that he will take out Orton at Summerslam, just like he took out Triple H in the past.

(4) John Cena beat Chris Jericho in 12:00. Jericho was forced to quit Team Cena at Summerslam. A good match between these two, as they have had many times before. Cena appeared to legitimately tweak his knee about two-thirds of the way through the match. The finish came with Jericho going for the Walls Of Jericho, but Cena rolls through and goes for the STF, with Jericho tapping out before Cena even really had a chance to lock in the hold. Cena grabs the mic and asks Jericho to stay on the team, but leaves the choice to Jericho - he can either walk back to the ring and let bygones be bygones, or he can walk away from the whole thing. Jericho teases a return to the ring before walking out on Cena, apparently leaving the team for Summerslam as well.

A long promo for Alberto Del Rio airs.

Backstage, Edge and Chris Jericho agree that Cena needed them more than they needed Cena. They talk about maybe it's time they put their differences aside and be the two dominant forces on Raw once again. As Edge and Jericho give a bro-hug, the GM queue sounds. Cole announces that next week on Raw, Edge and Jericho will take on John Cena and his partner, Bret Hart, but with the seven Nexus members as ringside lumberjacks.

Randy Orton cuts a backstage promo. He reminds Sheamus that he's also put Triple H on the shelf for some time, so that feat doesn't mean much to him. Orton invites Sheamus to watch his match against Miz tonight so he can see what he'll be up against at Summerslam.

(5) Great Khali (w/Runjin Singh) beat Ted DiDiase (w/Maryse) in 3:00 when Nexus distracted DiBiase. There was an interesting plot twist when Wade Barrett and Skip Sheffield came down to ringside to grab the Million Dollar Belt. This allowed DiBiase to be distracted long enough for Khali to chop him down and then follow with the vice grip for the win.

(6) Randy Orton beat U.S. champion The Miz in 12:00 in a non-title main event. Miz cuts a promo before the match saying that Orton will pay for giving him the RKO last week. The match starts off, and about four minutes into it, Sheamus comes to the top of the ramp to observe. After about seven minutes more of good solid action, Orton drops Miz with the RKO to pick up the win. Post-match, Sheamus attempts to run down to ringside, but Orton sees him coming and stares him down. Orton and Sheamus staring at each other is the close of the show.

Post-Raw happenings

After the cameras were off, John Cena came down to the ring for no apparent reason, followed shortly by all the members of Nexus. Nexus allowed Sheamus to leave, then threatened to take out Orton and Cena. A bunch of Raw wrestlers came out and collectively took apart Nexus, ending with an Attitude Adjustment by Cena followed by a Air Bourne by Evan Bourne to send the crowd home happy.

Summerslam Notes

-- Team Cena is down to five members with John Cena, John Morrison, R-Truth, Great Khali, and Bret Hart in the "seven-on-seven" elimination match vs. Team Nexus at Summerslam.

-- WWE appears to be setting up Divas champion Alicia Fox vs. Melina for as early as Summerslam.

-- The main event of the PPV lead-in episode of Raw on August 9 will be John Cena & Bret Hart vs. Chris Jericho & Edge.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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