Another one bites the dust on WWE Monday Night RAW. And once again it is a member of the main event RAW roster who goes down with an injury. Poor Candice Michelle. After raving about her abilities last week in my RAW reflections, the sexy women’s division main eventer went down mid-match with an injury. Even so, she still had one of the best matches on this week’s RAW. In my opinion, the Candice Michelle vs. Beth Phoenix best two out of three falls match for the WWE Women’s Championship was the best match of the night. The crowd seemed to be way into it, it was faced pace and the wrestling was solid - it was one of the best women’s match-ups I’ve seen in a long time. And then it happened. Candice climbed to the top turnbuckle and Phoenix hit the ropes, obviously trying to “crotch” Candice in the corner. Instead, it seemed Candice blew the spot, slipping on the ropes, twisting slightly and landing face and shoulder first into the canvas.

Read more about Candice’s injury, the next SAVE_US.222 teaser and Shawn Michaels after the jump.

As soon as Candice hit the mat she sort of bounced onto her back. It was obvious that she was out, she stared eerily into space and her leg lay limp across the bottom rope. The ref grabbed Candice’s hand but she clearly did not squeeze back. Immediately, Phoenix went in for the pin. What I found to be awfully inconsiderate was the fact that Phoenix grabbed Candice by the hair and arm and dragged her to the center of the ring. What if Candice had a neck injury?? Very careless on Phoenix’s part. The vacant stare on Candice’ face as Phoenix dragged her to the center of the ring for the second pin (and the win) was just sick.

As the ref grabbed the belt he did the tell-tale “x” with his arms - signaling, of course, that there was an injury, and the medics rushed to ringside. I was sort of touched at the way the refs so gently handled Candice as she laid on the mat. They sat her up and grabbed a bottle of water before they made her lay back down again. I even caught referee Mike Chioda brushing her hair back. And I think this injury couldn’t have come at a worse time. If she was knocked out with a concussion there is a good chance she’ll return in a couple week. If her shoulder is seriously injured she could be out for longer. And it sucks that in the middle of one of the most well-received and enjoyable women’s matches in recent memory, the star of the division goes down.

Remember, Candice Michelle is a model. A model who cared enough about performing in the ring that she dedicated herself to bettering her skills and can now wrestle one hell of match. We are talking about a dainty model who should really have the respect of wrestling fans because of the way she worked hard to learn how to work a match (how about the hurricarana off the top rope?) as well as she has. If she hasn’t already, I think she earned that respect tonight.

Speaking of guys who need to work their way up. We saw the debut of D.H. Smith - the son of The British Bulldog. I’m not sure, but does the “H” stand for “Hart”? It’s not important. What is important is that the WWE dropped the ball big time by not debuting this guy live on RAW from the U.K. Screw the fact that you could watch it online - it wasn’t on TV. It only makes sense to debut him in front of the crowd that will give him the strongest reaction - It looks good on TV and I think if fans at home see him get cheered by a live audience, there is a psychological affect on the home viewer. By debuting Smith in front of a Nebraska (yeah, really) crowd to very little reaction maybe be the end of this guy’s heat before he even got any. His match was solid, but I’ve grown tired of seeing Carlito job - when I saw that he was Smith’s opponent, I knew which way this was going and mentally tuned out.

I’m glad Umaga changed his hair. I don’t know what it is, but something about the braids made him less intimidating. I like that he has some hair that can get a little crazy. The braids made him look like he had less of a head. I’m really not feeling the Triple H/Umaga feud, but it was nice to see the all-star cast of road agents who came out to break up their ringside brawl: Ricky Steamboat, Michael Hayes and I.R.S to name a few. I could have swore one kid at ringside was Ric Flair’s son Reed. I’m probably wrong, but the resemblance was uncanny.

Conversations about Mr. McMahon’s “son” have fizzled recently in favor of other stories but it is worth mentioning how hopelessly committed they are to still making something out of this dumb crap. What is it going to take for the creative team to realize, “Hey, we F’ed up [again] - we let down our fans, let’s kill this bit.” But no, this hideous angle lives on. We are poisoned week after week with segments of stupid Coach or Regal chasing after this little person all over the arena. Is it kind of funny? Yeah, it has its moments. But when you write a storyline that belly-flops as atrociously as this one did - just put it out of its misery. Don’t prolong the pain. It’s as if they are dedicated to trying to turn the fans. Good luck.

Once again, I marked out for Santino Marella tonight. The guy just has a personality that is fun to watch. Like Mr. Kennedy, Santino has a charisma and mic ability that is unmatched by many of the younger guys. Hell, did you see how bad Jeff Hardy still is on a microphone. For Christ’s sake Jeff, how long have you been in wrestling now? Is it really that difficult to sound like a human, rather than a robot, when you pick up a microphone? It must be genetic, because Matt Hardy is only baby steps ahead of Jeff. Anyway, Santino continued his rant on “Stone Cold” Steve Austin tonight which I surmise will come to some sort of head at Cyber Sunday. We’ll get a couple of stunners out of him and he’ll disappear for another 6 months. Who cares.

We did see the latest supposed Chris Jericho teaser during Santino’s rant, however. The now famous SAVE_US.222 video appeared again tonight showing more of the same, although I believe another number in the “222” has been changed. The video has yet to be posted for more viewings. I’ve been reading that USA Network is pressuring WWE into debuting Jericho on RAW rather than a pay-per-view to boost ratings. I find it highly unlikely seeing as how nothing short of announcing the return will have viewers turning into see him, and that will kill the surprise. If you debut him at a PPV, word will spread and the viewers will come to RAW. It’s not brain surgery.

This just in. As I write this, it has been announced that Candice Michelle suffered a cracked clavicle in her match vs. Beth Phoenix. The injury will sideline her for 4-6 weeks. More tests are pending. This just sucks even more considering the much talked about talent shortage on all the rosters. Case in point - Ron Simmons wrestled Santino tonight. Yeah, really. When you have to pull a guy who won’t even take his shirt off to wrestle from the shelf to fill your show spots, you need to start doing some hiring. That’s almost as bad as having to sit through more un-inspiring Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly drivel. The whole mid-card roster needs an enema.

What the freak is going on with the WWE diva search?? Is one of these two broads that some idiot fans voted for really going to be a WWE diva? You have Brooke, who just looks like straight-up skank, and you have the thick brunette who is just god awful to listen to. Watching these two disasters on the stage was like watching interpretive dance depicting the inner workings of ADD. I was actually getting anxious and panicky because these pigs would not stop moving on stage. Stand still! Stop freaking moving! Why do you continuously rock back and forth or, for seemingly no reason, dip down to the ground? Your randomly skanky stripper moves are not going to entice me to put the effort into voting for you. This is the problem with this “internet only” version of the search. The fans are not checking this out, they are not watching the videos and seeing what the girls are like and they are not voting based on who would make a good diva. Then again, are they voting on looks? Brooke is just horrendous. I can’t wait to see them bury the beast that wins this thing.

As for the main event stuff. It looks like the WWE is doing a good job at equally promoting all three WWE championship contenders. Kennedy, Hardy and Michaels all got their time. It seems to me though that Hardy (besides his awful mic skills) is getting the push. He did score the pinfall on Kennedy tonight and got a nice spot during the opening segment. I can’t really guess how this one will go, although I am still thinking that there is no way Shawn will lose this vote. RAW’s main event was alright. I had fun watching HBK get pissed when Kennedy blew an early neck breaker spot. I think Michaels is easily frustrated by those types of things anymore. Anyway, not much more to say other than we will have to see what comes out of Cyber Sunday this Sunday night.

Will we see a new WWE champion? Will we see the return of Chris Jericho? Only time will tell. Stay tuned.