I found last night's Monday Night Raw telecast to be quite frankly a mixed bag for my liking. And as we go into Night of Champions this Sunday, my interest is definitely high for the matches on this card from the City of Brotherly Love.

First off, I want to tip my hat to Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill of ZZ Top for doing the chores of hosting the show last night. I would suggest that ZZ Top's involvement on Raw was not everyone's cup of tea, but for me, I thought that they did quite nicely, thank you very much for asking. These guys are huge WWE aficionados, and I'm sure they had a blast! You know, the cool thing about the guest hosting position is that to me, the more divergent it gets, the more unique it's going to be. Heck, Raw has a wide ranging demographic of fans of young and old alike. So from Seth Green to ZZ Top to Shaq next week, the standpoint of guest hosting really adds a new dimension to Raw that I feel will continue to pique the interest of our WWE Universe. But once again, I just hope we can get WWE Legends and /or Hall of Famers in the cat bird seat as well. I mentioned last week that the WWE and celebrity host designee should work on alternate weeks, thus not getting into something of a continual celebrity nature. We shall see what we shall see.

WWE Champion John Cena, Triple H, and Randy Orton: This Sunday at Night of Champions they collide for the WWE Championship. Now I ask the question: Did Cena scoring the pin over Orton in their Handicap Match last night enhance his chances of gaining victory this Sunday? Not in the slightest! Whatever happened last night happened last night; it is this Sunday that all of the marbles are on the line. And I truly believe that The Game has got both Cena's and Orton's numbers lined up on his radar, and the man from Greenwich will be the one to walk out of Philadelphia this Sunday wearing the WWE Championship gold. And the other thing that could be the X Factor here is remaining Legacy members Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. Not withstanding their match this Sunday night, somehow, some way that should not be allowed at....no, they should be BARRED  from ringside. There have been way too many plots of interference executed here by Legacy on behalf of their "boss" that WWE officials must come down on not letting these two be instrumental in the potential outcome of this match.

That being said, is there any further word as to who Chris Jericho is going to select as his tag team partner to defend the Unified Tag Team Championship this Sunday? From my vantage point, I have heard conflicting stories. 1) He has his partner signed, sealed, and soon to be delivered, and is playing things really cool along the way keeping everyone guessing....2) He is bluffing, still is searching, and is actively soliciting WWE Superstars on Raw, SmackDown, and ECW to join his bandwagon. Whatever the case, I look forward to seeing the "wrapping come off the present" this Sunday night. And quite frankly, based on Jericho's match with Strongman Mark Henry, I would not be surprised if Jericho presented Mark with a very lucrative offer for him to join up with Chris. I know that a few weeks ago Mark declined being his partner; perhaps a sweetening of the pot will change the mind of the Worl's Strongest Man.

There is going to have to be a referee who can double as a cop who can direct traffic in the 6 Pack Challenge match for the US Championship this Sunday. With a pinfall or submission the only way to win, will this benefit the Big Show's chances? He definitely left his calling card last night after the six man tag, and perhaps the time will be right this Sunday for the largest athlete to catapult himself into the Philadelphia ring, only to leave the arena as the new United States Champion.

Flashback City: Did you like the way that the Mickie James-Miz-Maryse interview was conducted? I sure as heck gave it a "hell yeah". Back in the day, we used to have my pal Gene Okerlund conduct interviews at the end of the arena, up on an interview platform. The portrayal looked awesome, with the backdrop of the capacity crowd adding to the ambiance / allure of the interview. And last night when Josh Matthews conducted the interview with the aforementioned individuals, man that whole setting looked so good!!! But Mickie could not look or see good after Maryse sprayed something into Mickie's eyes. Mickie, who is one sweet lady, can turn into a fireball on a moment's notice. And I would not be surprised in the slightest at Night of Champions to see a combustible situation ensue. And I actually think that Mickie can dethrone Maryse easier than some people would think.

Odds and Ends: You know, the job of a ring announcer can be as smooth as silk, but when given a lot of information to remember and then present to the audience, things can take a turn for the worse really quickly; I've experienced it! Now if you regularly read this blog, whenever Raw ring announcer Lilian Garcia would "fumpher" (a word invented by Capt. Lou Albano that has no meaning, but it sounds good to apply here) an announcement, I would be the first one to criticize, and take my friend to task, for all the right reasons. But last night when she got all flustered in trying to announce the type of match between Chavo Guerrero and Hornswoggle ("Sharp Dressed Man Tuxedo Match"), and then further tried to explain the rules, I really did feel bad for my friend. But it felt as if she cooked up a batch of "chop suey" for our eating enjoyment; problem was that I wasn't hungry!! Folks, for us ring announcers it ain't easy at times.....but it should be!!..... And now off one soapbox and onto another one. Now this one comes from my eyes, and perhaps yours as well. In the Diva's tag team match between Gail Kim and Kelly Kelly -vs- Alicia Fox and Rosa Mendes, who did the officiating? Yes, that mystery referee who debuted last week. And the TV audience still does not know his name. Well, I got it...Justin King.  And in this match it looked to me like Mr. King did not thoroughly do his job when Alicia scored the pin fall on Kelly. There could be an argument made that Kelly Kelly did have her foot on the ropes during the pin, albeit for a split second. But it was what it was, and the decision stood. Oh, and as a side note: I was extremely impressed that these four Divas were in wrestling gear and ready to do battle about ten minutes after they were in different outfits and showed ZZ Top and Santino Marella that they've got "legs"!!! Talk about quick change artists!!!... Finally, I have a busy August coming up, whereby I am going to get the opportunity to meet and say hello to a lot of you good folks in a few locations. In next week's Raw Ramblings I'll give you an idea of what's going on, and I'm really looking forward to it.

As always, feel free to leave a comment and chime in on last night's Raw. This is your forum as much as it is mine!!!

Thanks for reading!