WWE RAW Report for June 23, 2003
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Submitted by Sawan on July 01, 2003 at 02:34:25

Test and Christian beat Scott Steiner and Booker T in a very brief but solid
enough opener. Steiner got a huge reaction coming out, one of the biggest of
the night. He has the star look. Too bad he lost the star ability. Stacy
looked exquisite, but she still doesn’t fit with Steiner. Stacy was knocked
to the floor at the finish, and Test pinned Steiner with the big boot. They
aired highlights of Kane’s career throughout the night to put over the
importance of the main event. It would have been much more effective had not
almost all the clips been really recent, showing just how little they have
been paying attention to their product over time.



Maven beat Christopher Nowinski in less than a minute and a half with a
rollup. Evolution came out of a limousine, well dressed and mobbed by
attractive women. Perfect stuff to get this group over, and particularly
Orton.



Lance Storm was Chris Jericho’s guest on the Highlight Reel. Lawler joked
the segment would hurt Jericho’s ratings. The fans loudly chanted boring.
Storm read a prepared statement, saying no one enjoys a joke as much as him,
but what Austin did was wrong. He said he is an athlete and can entertain
fans with wrestling. Nice to see that idea ridiculed. He concluded, “If you
want bells and whistles, I suggest you go to the circus.” At this point,
workers came out to take down the set. Austin explained on the screen that
they were boring MSG to death. He booked a match that saw the Dudleys beat
the Thrill Seekers. They hit 3D and D-Von pinned Storm. Longer match than
the others, and a good match. Crowd chanted boring on and off from the time
Storm entered to the time he left, and it seemed to deflate the crowd for
later in the show. They need to kill this gimmick now. It is so
counterproductive.



La Resistance sung the French national anthem. It was that “so bad it’s
good” style of singing. They then beat the team of Hurricane and Sgt.
Slaughter when Dupre hit Slaughter with one of the tag belts. Slaughter
looked in worse shape than ever, but the crowd reacted well to him. At this
point, the show was really mediocre.



Austin came out and they mentioned WrestleMania XX will be at MSG. He
brought Foley out to a good pop, but nothing special. The crowd seemed
deflated by a mediocre first half of the show. Austin put over Foley big
time, calling him a genius. RVD, Dudleyz, Al Snow and Tommy Dreamer brought
out a mounted WWF Hardcore Title for Foley. They then ran a video of Foley
highlights, which was a classy tribute. It would have been nice if they
included WCW and ECW clips now that they own those libraries, but it was
exclusively WWF/WWE and childhood videos. Vince McMahon came out and teased
ruining the ceremony. However, he said “thank you” to Foley, and they shook
hands and hugged. Foley gave a speech, talking about wanting to provide the
same thrills as Jimmy Snuka. He plugged his book, and concluded by quoting
Frosty the Snowman: “I’ll say goodbye, but don’t you cry, I’ll be back again
someday.” For all its faults, WWE has done right by its historical figures
the past few years. This was a great segment, and I wish they did this sort
of thing more often.



Kevin Nash and Shawn Michaels beat Ric Flair and Randy Orton when Michaels
pinned Flair with sweet chin music. Nash came out to silence, made a frigid
“hot tag,” and was not in a selling mood. I don’t see what he offers at this
stage, and I’ve always liked Nash better than most. Michaels sold big for
Randy Orton. Will this past year finally eliminate that asinine
unprofessional argument against Michaels for the Hall of Fame? Backstage,
Foley and McMahon were talking when Flair and Orton arrived. Orton and Foley
got into a brawl that saw Orton hit Foley with a chair, a bottle, and
brutally kick him down the stairs. I can’t wait for their feud, and they are
finally giving the huge push to someone new. McMahon acted pleased with
Orton afterwards.



Rodney Mack extended his 5 minute white boy challenge to anyone. Goldberg
came out to an AMAZING pop. It was the biggest of the night, and there were
a lot of opportunities for big babyface pops. Goldberg won with the
jackhammer in 26 seconds. He showed fire, and the segment was electric. He
ain’t dead yet. This is how you get Goldberg over.



Triple H beat Kane to retain the title. After a ref bump, Kane hit Triple H
with the belt, but Triple H kicked out when a second referee came out. Kane
threw the second ref out of the ring. Triple H gave him a low blow, and a
pedigree, but Kane kicked out to a big reaction. Kane reversed a second
pedigree twice, and threw HHH into Flair. He went for the choke slam when
Orton ran out of the crowd to give Kane a low blow. Triple H hit the
pedigree for the pin. Kane was going to unmask after the match when
Evolution attacked him from the behind. RVD made the save. Why didn’t he
come out earlier? Kane and RVD fought off Evolution. After a long tease,
Kane took off his mask, which included some “fake hair.” They had his makeup
done to look Kane look really scary, with burn marks on his face and massive
hair loss. He looked more like a cross between Undertaker and the Missing
Link than Isaac Yankem. He choke slammed RVD to conclude the show.

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