You know what I like about being a part of WWE? No two days are alike! And you know what I liked about Raw last night?  There is never a dull moment through the two hours. Now be it good, bad, or indifferent, there is always something to either praise or criticize, with nothing in between.

Before I go any further, I wanted to let you know that I am going to work on another blog that concerns the blockbuster trade that was engineered by Donald Trump. 15, count 'em, 15 Superstars moved between Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. On the surface, all I will say for now is that with ECW's moves, Interim General Manager Tiffany needs to understand what the art of the deal is all about. That blog will be up later today here in WWE Universe.

As for last night's Raw: In lieu of having a General Manager at the helm on the Raw ship, I will give the special guest host concept a chance. And a good launch it was last night, with Batista assuming the position. He didn't take any guff from anyone, and to a point put Randy Orton and his fellow Legacy members Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase in their places, and on notice. Ah, revenge works in many different ways, yes? And so Orton ran the gauntlet last night against three of the new Raw acquisitions from the trade, all three formerly ECW based. Evan Bourne, came, saw, but did not conquer. Jack Swagger came, saw, and didn't want to conquer, at least out of respect to Orton. But then, Mark Henry entered the arena, and the World's Strongest Man came, saw, and conquered, which to me made an impression in the process.

Let me zero in on Mark Henry for a moment. You might not agree with me, but I think that this powerhouse of a man is going to continue to make a great impression on Raw, and he can thank ECW for it. Mark has been around WWE for thirteen years now, and has had his share of ups and downs. The injury bug has also beset him ass well, giving him prolonged periods of inactivity. But time after time he came back, and set on bettering himself. with his in-ring persona. His recent tenure in ECW was for all the right reasons. He gained more experience and confidence about his abilities (and yes, even a grizzled ring veteran like Henry continues to learn each and every day), and became the ECW Champion. Now, he moves to Raw. I just have this feeling that Mark Henry is going to be turning heads in Raw going forward, and for all the right reasons. And by the way, that smile that he flashed last night will also become a big part of his persona as well, trust me on that!

So now we have Triple H -vs- John Cena next week in the tournament finals to see who will face the aforementioned Mr. Orton for the WWE Championship at Night of Champions on July 26. We've seen this encounter take place before, but next week on Raw when they meet, the stakes are extremely high. Good wins for both finalists last night over MVP and The Miz, respectively. Of course these two are no strangers to each other. Of note: John Cena successfully defended the WWE Championship against Triple H at WrestleMania 22, while The Game emerged victorious against Cena, in a WWE Championship match at last year's Night of Champions. Now, they will lock up to see who goes on to meet Orton at N of C. It's Triple H's "m. o." to have that gold around his waist, while Cena just goes about his business, and whatever comes his way from a championship scenario works for him. This match should be a good one.

If you've read my writings on a somewhat regular basis, you know that I have not been a fan of the Colons, along the lines that when they were the WWE Unified Tag Team Champions they never went to SmackDown or ECW to defend the titles. Well, with the surprise combo and new champions of Edge and Chris Jericho, the two SmackDown based superstars blew right into Raw last night and repelled the Colons' rematch challenge. Both Edge and Jericho certainly crave the spotlight on an individual basis, and I am keenly interested in seeing how these two egotistical individuals will be able to exist as a team. As long as they're wearing some gold, that should work for them, and keep them on an even keel. But yes, coming to Raw last night was cool, even though it was a rematch. That is what being Unified Tag Champions means, going from brand to brand to defend, something that the Colons did not do at all.

Finally, F-I-N-A-L-L-Y!!! Mickie James gets her Diva's Championship opportunity against Maryse at Night of Champions on July 26, thanks to her win last night in the Fatal Four Way Match. Seemed to me that Ms. James had to go through the Maryse obstacle course through the weeks to get there, though. I still maintain that the current Diva's Champion did everything in her power to avoid defending her championship against Mickie, but that's all over with now. Now to a point, it's kind of sad that Mickie has to wait about 3 ½ weeks to capitalize on this opportunity. Put those two in the ring tomorrow, and boom, Mickie wins the championship, I'm sure. But now Maryse has more time to employ some more psychological warfare into the mix. Oh, and as a sidebar: Ladies and Gentlemen, riddle me this: How in the world did Rosa Mendes qualify to be in that Fatal Four Way Match???Please explain that to me. I have absolutely nothing against the lady personally, but from a competitive standpoint, if losing two weeks in a row to Ms. James on Raw in a single and a tag team match was Rosa's ticket to ride last night, then let's change the paper in the ticket machine please..... Whoops...... Now make it three weeks in a row that she's been on the losing end to Mickie. Right place, right time? Doesn't work here, folks!

This and that: I for one hope that Kofi Kingston and Big Show get another opportunity to match-up again in the near future. I like what's at the finish line for both men: If Show wins, he garners the United States Championship, nothing bad about that. Should Kofi emerge victorious, for what the Jamaican has achieved in such a short period of time, a win over Show would be a tremendous feather in Kofi's cap. ......I read where my friend and fellow ring announcing colleague Lilian Garcia is apparently going to be leaving WWE in the near future, to move onto another chapter in her life. Nearly ten years of being in an important position as Raw ring announcer is quite admirable to me. I will comment further on this news at the appropriate time. But when I hear an announcement of the decision made in the aforementioned Kofi-Big Show match last night as "the referee has made this a double count out", I have every right in the world to wince! No, Kofi and Big Show made it a double count out by not getting back into the ring before the count of ten!!....... I am looking forward to the re-launch of Where Are They Now tomorrow on wwe.com. And it all kicks off with a look at former WWE Champion Bob Backlund, chronicling his past, and checking out how successful a businessman Mr. Backlund has become here in our home state of Connecticut. This should be a good read!. And as a reminder, I am up in that proverbial spinning wheel known as Twitter, at www.twitter.com/howardfinkel. As I type this, it's now over 4200 followers and growing; thank you!

Don't forget, I will have my thoughts up on the blockbuster 15 Superstar trade between Raw, SmackDown, and ECW later  today here in WWE Universe. But for now, thanks for reading Raw Ramblings, and please leave a comment; I'd like to know what you thought about last night's Raw.

Later.......