Vince McMahon has reportedly given up on the gimmick of the known rapper, R-Truth’s Pretty Ricky. There has been no evidence to show a future changing of McMahon’s mind. If that is the case, we will have to look for Pretty Ricky in the music store instead of the athletics section. Unless the WWE’s creative team can find a better way to promote Pretty Rick, we can consider the matter closed, at least for now.

According to a source, the famed Regis Philbin stated on this morning’s episode of Regis & Kelly that he and his wife had dinner with Vince and Linda McMahon on Saturday night in New York. His comment were brief, however, and centered primarily on McMahon being a great and skilled promoter who is constantly labeled as the villain and a bad guy in the midst of all of the WWE drama.

Philbin also added that wrestling is great entertainment, and that one of the first people he interviewed on his old talk show was a masked wrestler named the Destroyer. Philbin added that the Destroyer is now roughly 90 years old, and that the coot still wears a mask when he goes out to watch wrestling anywhere.

In legal news, today (July 20th) is the last day that the WWE has to respond to the lawsuit filed by Joe Hamilton and Deep South Wrestling. The suit is involving the fact that WWE dropped the DSW developmental deal.

Raw opened with Donald Trump announcing that he was giving the audience a refund for their tickets tonight.

After Trump left, John Cena and cut a promo about The Miz. They showed a video of The Miz running his mouth. Miz then came out and talked smack to Cena. The two will face each other at The Bash on June 28. After the announcement, The Miz hit a cheap shot on Cena before running away.

Outside the arena, Vince McMahon is having some limo problems. His driver suggested that they walk but Vince makes the driver carry him going to the arena…

Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio & The Great Khali vs. Edge, Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho & Dolph Ziggler
The first match of the night was a 6-Man Tag Team match with Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio, and The Great Khali against Edge, Chris Jericho, and Dolph Ziggler. This was a short match with all hell breaking loose in the end with Mysterio launching himself onto Jericho with a moonsault while Khali cleared the house down. Ziggler was the victim of a Jeff Hardy Twist of Fate and that’s all she wrote. After the match, World Heavyweight Champion came out to raise Jeff Hardy’s hand but Hardy didn’t take it.
  

Vince is now backstage and goes to Trump’s office. Trump tells him that Vince has a different office. The Donald then sees Santina and out of disgust, fires her.

Cody Rhodes vs. Unified WWE Tag Team Champion Primo
Back in the ring, The Colons are having fun of Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. Primo and DiBiase will go up against each other. Both teams will meet each other at The Bash for the WWE Unified Tag Team Championships. DiBiase gets the win on this one after rolling up Primo and getting some leverage after grabbing Primo’s tights.

Backstage, Vince McMahon is still searching for his new office. As it turns out, his office was a cubicle in the men’s room. Ouch.

WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. Triple H in a Last Man Standing Match
Triple H versus Randy Orton in a Last Man Standing match for the WWE Championship ended up as a draw when both men weren’t able to answer to the 10-count. The action had already spilled outside the ring and onto the ramp. Orton was working on Triple H’s leg and was about to give him an RKO off a ladder but Triple H manages to push him away. Triple H hit the Pedigree on Orton and both men fell down, unable to answer the 10-count.
  

Mr. McMahon buys back Raw
Back in the ring, Trump is now cutting a promo about a free WrestleMania and commercial-free Raw each week. Vince comes out horrified at Trump’s announcement. Fearing he’ll go bankrupt, Vince buys Raw back from Trump double the price from last week’s sale. Ouch.
  

Mickie James & The Bella Twins vs. Divas Champion Maryse, Beth Phoenix & Rosa Mendes
Next, we have a 6-Diva Tag Team match with Maryse, Rosa Mendez, and Beth Phoenix against Mickie James and the Bella Twins. The faces got the win as the Bella Twins hit a double drop kick but Rosa tries to attack Mickie from behind. Mickie dodges the attack and hits a Mick Kick on Rosa instead. Mickie then gets the cover and the pin.
  

Big Show vs. John Cena
Our main event saw John Cena go up against The Big Show. John Cena had Big Show on his shoulders ready for a finisher but The Miz interfered and pushed Cena. This allowed Big Show to roll Cena and get a pin.
  

At the back, Randy Orton was on his way to his car when Triple H sneaked up from behind him and smashed him into the trunk. Triple H then told him that come Sunday, they were both going to hell.

Result:
Big Show def. John Cena after interference by The Miz
Mickie James & The Bella Twins defeat Divas Champion Maryse, Beth Phoenix & Rosa Mendes
Mr. McMahon buys back Raw
WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. Triple H in a Last Man Standing Match ended in a draw
Cody Rhodes def. Unified WWE Tag Team Champion Primo
Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio & The Great Khali def. Edge, Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho & Dolph Ziggler

At this week’s Monday Night Raw, 15 stars were traded to either Raw, SmackDown, or ECW as part of the “orders set by Donald Trump” before he sold it back to Vince McMahon. Gail Kim, Alicia Fox, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne and Mark Henry are all going to Raw. SmackDown will be getting Matt Hardy, Finlay, David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd and Natalya. Finally, ECW will get Shelton Benjamin, Goldust, William Regal and The Bella Twins.

Swagger, Bourne, and Henry have already appeared at Raw this week, all competing against Randy Orton in a 3-1 gauntlet match.

WD Opinion:
No doubt that the WWE would want to shake things up once more. I absolutely like Swagger going to Raw and it will be interesting how he mixes with the Raw roster. Evan Bourne is more suited for SmackDown while Henry could be in for a face turn. He defeated Randy Orton at Raw this week and the audience was actually cheering for him. Strange days indeed.

Looks like Finlay and Hardy are going back to SmackDown. No doubt Finlay will immediately make an impact there. I don’t know about Matt Hardy going back to Jeff’s show but The Hart Dynasty could make a play for the Unified Tag Titles, but I want to see them wrestle The Colons more.

I think ECW got the short end of the stick here but what they really missed out on is transferring Christian to SmackDown. Christian is hugely popular and with the proper push, he could become SmackDown’s top guy. Where’s the love, Vince?

STAMFORD, CT, June 23, 2009– After yesterday’s monumental announcement by Monday Night Raw® “owner” Donald Trump that all ticketholders attending last night’s show in Green Bay would receive a ticket refund, the tables were turned and he was unceremoniously “fired” by Chairman Mr. McMahon.

Fortunately, prior to being “fired,” Donald Trump doubled his money by selling Monday Night Raw back to Mr. McMahon.

Although Trump is no longer the “owner” of Monday Night Raw, this may not be the end of the feud between these two world class promoters.

WD Opinion:
Reports say that the WWE wanted the Trump angle to last more than just a week or two. The ultimate goal of the storyline was to get as much good press as possible, with Vince feeling that the Trump name has a solid following. Instead, what the WWE got was confusion due to the statements released concerning the “sale” of Monday Night Raw. The SEC is now also hot on their heels for violating securities law because of those official press releases. To remedy the situation, the company ran an angle where Trump would give everyone a refund for their money hoping the press would again pick it up. Instead, only local press in Green Bay, Wisconsin took it and the WWE ended up buying themselves $235,000 worth of publicity. Apparently, the company felt like the publicity they received wasn’t well worth the money and they just pulled the plug on the angle. I was hoping Trump would stick around for a few more weeks and make Vince do some chores while gloating on his triumph. Vince cleaning the toilets…hmmm…who wouldn’t want to pay to see that happening?

On last week’s Monday Night Raw episode, the WWE did an angle where Vince McMahon buys Raw back from Donald Trump for “double” the asking price of Raw. This could signal the end of the Trump ownership angle. Before Vince “purchased” Raw back from Trump, The Donald had already announced that the audience would get a refund for their tickets after the episode. The reported total ticket revenue for the event was $235,000 and the WWE posted signs everywhere regarding how the fans could avail of the refunds.

WD Opinion:
Wow, that sure was quick. We still don’t have reports if this was part of the original plans or changes were made due to some complications but the WWE pulled back quite easily. Earlier this week, it was reported that the SEC is reportedly looking at some violations by the USA Network and Donald Trump’s camp due to press releases indicating that the sale of Monday Night Raw was legitimate. Whether the issue played a part in the change of plans remains to be known but one thing’s for sure: the WWE got the media publicity that they wanted and it played out well for them. For the WWE, there is no such thing as good or bad publicity, it seems.

If you think that the row between the WWE and Denver Nuggets owner E. Stanley Kroenke is over, then you are badly mistaken. This issue it seems is far from over, not by a longshot.

While the WWE already announced that the Raw taping will now be held in the Staples Center and not in Denver, Vince McMahon’s publicity machine is trying to generate as much buzz as possible out of the situation. Now the company’s next step is quite predictable: film a parody of the situation in the next episode of Raw.

The reports say that the Kroenke Sports negotiated with the WWE and proposed that Raw can be taped on Sunday, May 24, 2009 at the Pepsi Center but the talks broke down and the WWE bolted to the Staples Center instead. While it was a viable solution given that tickets of the event have already been sold, the WWE still felt that they had the right hold their event on the day it was booked. We all know that wasn’t going to happen and Vince McMahon doesn’t like being given the short end of the stick.

I must say that Kroenke’s organization is at fault here. At first, they didn’t have faith on their team, at least not enough for them to make it this deep in the NBA Playoffs. Second, they could have offered McMahon more to avoid embarrassment. Even if the Kroenke Sports won’t add more fuel to the fire, they don’t have to worry about that department: McMahon’s got all the publicity firepower to make this interesting to the fans. What the Nuggets didn’t probably realize is how McMahon’s publicity machinery works. What they don’t understand is that McMahon won’t budge easily and even if he does, he can turn things around and make it look like the WWE was screwed by a bigger sports entity.

It’s easy to predict what McMahon will do on the next episode of Raw. He’ll probably hire a E. Stanley Kroenke lookalike and beat him up in the ring, or at least make it look convincing. McMahon will play the victim first, telling the fans how the WWE was cheated out and how it was really the WWE fans in Denver were the people who got screwed by the owner of their hometown team. McMahon will thank the city of Los Angeles and wish they win the playoff series against Denver. You can just picture it out, can’t you? McMahon will have the people eating at the palm of his hand this coming Monday.

Kroenke Sports just doesn’t have the experience in this type of situation. The best they can do was release a statement that “Vince is sensationalist.” Quick to point out the obvious, aren’t they? Vince has had decades of experience under his belt promoting ideas like this. If that’s the best they can do then they should just tune in to Raw on Monday where some guy dressed as E. Stanley Kroenke gets beat up by Vince McMahon. You can bet on it.

In an ESPN interview this week by his former employee Jonathan Coachman, Vince McMahon made a mistake and referred to the WWE as “World Wrestling Federation”. It looks like somebody is still pining for his company’s old name.

The WWF was forced to change its name to World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002 after the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) sued them for violating a 1994 agreement between the two organizations. And that is the tale of how the panda laid the smackdown on the WWE.

In an interview on ESPN, Vince McMahon said “World Wrestling Federation” instead of WWE by mistake. Checkout the video.

Even though the WWE still plans to go to Denver next week for their Raw taping, there’s very little chance that it can be held at the Pepsi Center. The Denver Nuggets are deep into the playoffs and it’s the first time they’re in the Western Conference Finals in 24 years. True, the Nuggets schedule officials didn’t anticipate that they would be in this position several months ago, Vince McMahon doesn’t really stand a chance barring a court order that would allow them to use the Pepsi Center. But then again, who’s going to sign that order when Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony could bring the city to playoff glory?

To counter this issue, the WWE released a statement in WWE.com stating that several arenas including the Madison Square Garden and Staples Center have offered the company to hold the Raw tapings. They also stated that there are other arenas in the Denver area that would have the capacity to hold an event like it. There have been reports that the tentative plan is to hold the event at World Arena in Colorado Springs. The WWE reportedly tried to book more than 100 hotel rooms for Sunday night. The current plans are always subject to change. We will have more on the issue as the story progresses.