Hello there, I'm a big fan of Rajah.com. Thought I'd send along results of the WWE
WrestleMania Revenge house show I attended this evening in Peoria, Illinois.
WWE WrestleMania Revenge Tour - House Show Results
Peoria Civic Center's Carver Arena - April 11, 2004 - 7pm
by Chuck Picton, rajah.com reader
I went to a meet-and-greet at 3pm in downtown Peoria at a place called InPlay (where
they have all sorts of entertainment, mostly video games) and got to meet Shelton
Benjamin. He arrived a little later than was expected due to some vehicle problems.
He was very cordial and answered all our questions. He was very happy to take
photographs and sign autographs as well.
A little later in the afternoon we got to go backstage at the Civic Center and play
SmackDown: Here Comes The Pain on PS2 with Shelton. He fairly quickly dispatched the
two people who played the game against him. He's pretty good at it. Big ups to
Shelton for taking time out of his day to make some fans happy.
Now, onto the results, because that's what you really want, isn't it!
The lower bowl and floor areas in the Civic Center's Carver Arena were fairly full,
and the crowd was very live all night. Hey, we appreciate our wrestling in P-Town!
We had pretty killer seats, 2nd row on the floor. Your announcer for the evening is
Howard "The Fink" Finkel. He introduces the lovely Stacy Keibler, "Legs" hits and...
Stacy Keibler comes out, to much appreciation from the (male portion of) crowd. She
gets the crowd fired up until the old WCW Nitro music hits and out comes... Johnny
Whatever-His-Name-Is-This-Week. He tries (and fails miserably) to mack on Stacy.
Stacy has nothing to do with him and leaves. Johnny says Eric Bischoff has given him
the power to make sure the show goes smoothly tonight. Great. Grand. Wonderful.
Onto...
Match 1 - La Resistance (Rob Conway & Sylvan Grenier) vs. The Hurricane and
Rosey, Super Hero In Training
Decent match. Big "USA" chant from the crowd gets La Resistance riled up. Conway on
the outside talking trash. At one point Hurricane socked Conway in the face and the
spit goes flying. Fit Finley, seated outside the ring next to The Fink, manages to
dodge the spit nicely. We yell "Fit Finley Rules!" to which Finley acknowledges with
a wink and a smile. La Resistance double-team Hurricane and work him over for the
better part of the match. Hurricane manages to tag in Rosey, who cleans house with
clotheslines, knockdowns, and bodyslams. End comes when Rosey picks up Conway in a
Fireman's Carry and Samoan Drops him at the same time that Hurricane gives him a
neckbreaker. Sweet tag team move for the 1-2-3.
Winners: The Hurricane and Rosey by pinfall
Match 2 - Garrison Cade vs. Tajiri. Cade is wearing some goofy-looking cowboy boots,
which I point out by saying, "Nice cowboy boots!" to which Cade replies, "These
boots cost more than your house!" Ha! I don't OWN a house! Shows how much he knows.
Cade stays in control for most of this match. Tajiri scores some wicked kicks
though. Tajiri wraps Cade up in the Tarantula. Tajiri goes for that nasty roundhouse
kick while Cade is on his knees, however, Cade ducks, rolls up Tajiri, and holds on
to the ropes to score the (cheap) pinfall victory.
Winner: Garrison Cade by pinfall
Match 3 - Four Way Elimination Match - Women's Championship
Jazz vs. Molly Holly vs. Lita vs. Victoria(C)
Great match. Molly Holly and Jazz team up for a while and this strategy works well
until Molly attempts to cover Victoria. Jazz will have none of this and pulls Molly
off. Molly and Jazz get into it, and while they're arguing, Lita and Victoria
simultaneously roll them up and the referee counts the double-pinfall! Now we are
down to Lita vs. Victoria. Crowd seems to be split here. Lita and Victoria go move
for move here, until Lita scores a nice looking hurancanrana. Lita seems to have the
edge here but Victoria comes right back. I don't remember how it exactly went down
but Victoria ended up getting the pinfall. Victoria and Lita hug after the match.
Winner and STILL Women's Champion: Victoria
Oh no, here comes Eugene, Bischoff's nephew! He is carrying a giant pink stuffed
rabbit. He gives a small pink stuffed bunny to a little girl in the front row. He
also has some marshmallow peeps, which he hands out to Victoria and Lita, as well as
some of the people in the row in front of me. Regal comes out to try and rein in
Eugene, and here comes A-Train, leading to...
Match 4 - Eugene w/ William Regal vs. A-Train
Poor Eugene seems outclassed in this one. Lots of "Shave Your Back" chants. My God,
A-Train is a large hairy ape. A-Train pummels him for the duration of the match,
which thankfully, is short. A-Train grabs Eugene's bunny and rips its head off,
sending fluff flying everywhere. Somehow during this match one of the turnbuckle
pads was removed. A-Train attempts to splash Eugene in the corner but at the last
second, Eugene bends over to pick up some fluff, sending A-Train squarely into the
unprotected turnbuckle. Eugene covers A-Train and gets the "W" much to his, and the
crowd's, delight. Regal seems pleased as well. Absolutley hilarious segment.
Winner: Eugene by pinfall
Match 5 - Rhyno vs. Kane
AH! If you ask me, this match could break the "Beef-O-Meter". Rhyno gets in more
offense than I would have thought, however, none of it seems to faze Kane. Kane
wears Rhyno down with sleeper holds. Kane scores the big flying clothesline off the
top rope. That looks quite impressive in person. Rhyno attempts the gore, only to
run into Kane's rather large boot. Kane with the Chokeslam, and the pin.
Winner: Kane by pinfall
Match 6 - Intercontinental Championship
"Legend Killer" Randy Orton(C) vs. Shelton Benjamin
Great match here. However, before the match can even get underway, here comes that
damn Johnny Whats-His-Face again. Johnny announces that Shelton has only 10 minutes
in which to beat Orton. Ok, 10-minute time limit on this match. I can live with
that. Orton and Benjamin lock up and muscle each other around the ring, out of the
ring, and into the railing. They go back and forth, neither man can seem to get the
upper hand. Benjamin scores a sweet-looking flying roundhouse kick and pins Orton
with a funky-looking roll up move. 1-2-3 and YOUR NEW INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPION,
SHELTON BENJAMIN!!! Crowd is going nuts!! But wait, here comes that rotten Johnny
Nitro. Johnny announces that this is now a 2 out of 3 falls match. Orton quickly
takes advantage of a distracted Benjamin and drills him with the RKO. Nasty! 1-2-3
and now each man has scored a pinfall. Orton immediately attempts to pin Benjamin
again but cannot. Once again, they go back and forth, move-for-move, but neither man
can get the advantage. Benjamin nails Orton with a Stinger Splash but cannot cover
Orton in time and the 10-minute time limit is up. The Fink announces that the match
is a draw, and that Orton retains his title, which draws the ire of the crowd.
Winner: DRAW
At this point we have a 10 minute intermission, before which The Fink hawks WWE
T-shirts. There is a T-shirt cannon guy who has HORRIBLE aim. He launches several of
the t-shirts into the empty upper deck areas where virtually nobody is sitting.
Match 7 - Christian vs. Chris "Y2J" Jericho
There had been rumors running rampant this week that Jericho's band, Fozzy, was
going to put on a concert after the show ended. This did not happen, unfortunately.
This match was excellent. Lots of Jericho fans here in Peoria. Lots of "CLB" and
"Y2J" chants too. Yet again, here comes that damn Johnny Nitro! Man this guy is
annoying!! He states that Christian does not have to abide by the rules but that
Jericho does, making it half a NO-DQ match. OOOOOOk. Jericho says that Johnny Blaze,
Johnny Nitro, your name should be Johnny Assclown! The crowd roars at that. Great
back-and-forth matchup here. Jericho goes for the Walls early but Christian gets to
the ropes. Christian nails his front-facelock DDT but gets only a 2-count. Christian
then hits the Unprettier but still only gets 2. Jericho hangs up Christian in the
ropes and knees him in the back hard. Y2J locks Christian up with the Walls, and
Christian has no choice but to tap out.
Winner: Chris "Y2J" Jericho by submission
After this the crowd mercilessly taunts Christian, chanting "You Tapped Out" at him
till he runs away. Ha-ha!
Match 8 - Matt Hardy V.1 vs. Chuck Palumbo
Crowd is mostly pro-Hardy here. Only drawback of a house show: NO Matt Facts! Damn!
Hardy seems to be the wiley veteran here, staying away from most of Palumbo's power
moves. Palumbo does get in a nice looking fallaway slam a la Scott Hall. Hardy hits
the Side Effect but only gets a two-count. Hardy goes for the Twist Of Fate but
Palumbo picks him up and rams him into the corner. However Hardy manages to get out
of it and nails the Twist Of Fate out of nowhere. Hardy covers Palumbo for the
1-2-3.
Winner: Matt Hardy V.1 by pinfall
Match 9 - World Heavyweight Championship
Batista vs. "Crippler" Chris Benoit(C)
Another excellent match. You were expecting less from the master of the Crippler
Crossface? Puh-leaze. HUGE pop for the Champ. Ah geez, here comes that irritating
Johnny Nitro yet AGAIN! This time he's in a referee's shirt and apparently is going
to ref this match. Benoit gets on the mic and tells Nitro that if he doesn't call
the match right down the middle, he's going to knock Nitro's ass out. Crowd loves
that. Great matchup here, despite Batista only having about 4 or 5 moves in his
repertoire. Batista can't get the edge on Benoit early, causing Batista to bail out
of the ring. He appears headed to the back when Benoit gets on the mic and tells
Batista to get his ass back in the ring. He's going to make Batista tap out, just
like he did on TV, and then the crowd will tell him... "YOU TAPPED OUT!" This gets
Batista riled up and he gets back in the ring. Batista is much more aggressive now
and ends up busting Benoit's mouth open. Batista keeps putting the wear-down holds
on Benoit, but Benoit always manages to find a way out of them. Benoit lays into
Batista with super-mega-stiff backhands. SMACK! WOO! SMACK! WOO! Oh yeah, I'm lovin
that! No matter what Batista does, Benoit just keeps coming, and he is relentless
until he gets Batista into the Crippler Crossface. However, referee Johnny Nitro
helps Batista to the ropes, and that pissed Benoit off. He did just what he said he
was going to do, he decks Johnny Nitro, sending him flying out of the ring.
Crossface applied to Batista again, and here comes Earl Hebner! Hebner gets in the
ring just in time to make the call as Batista taps out!!
Winner and STILL World Heavyweight Champion: "Crippler" Chris Benoit
Orton comes out to help out Batista and they double-team Benoit till Shelton
Benjamin hits the ring. He takes out Orton, but here comes Garrison Cade! Cade takes
out Benjamin and starts to put the boots to Benoit until Tajiri comes in for the
save. Tajiri and Benoit take care of Cade, and they celebrate in the ring to end the
show. All in all, very enjoyable. The WWE always puts on a good show whenever they
come to Peoria, and you can tell the crowd loves it.
Biggest Pops:
1. Benoit
2. Jericho
3. Benjamin
4. Hurricane / Rosey
Biggest Heat:
1. Johnny Nitro (Definitely!)
2. La Resistance
3. Evolution