Report by: Travis Kriens, rajah.com reader
I went the the WWE RAW show at the Sioux Falls Arena Friday night and it was
awesome. I won front row ticket from a local radio station. I was stunned at how
close I was to the ring. Finkel announced at the begining of the show that Chris
Benoit was not going to the their. That drew major boos. The crowd was really hot
all night long. Instead the main event would be a 17 man over the top battle royal.
Once the show ended, I was glad that they had the battle royal instead of Chris
Benoit. Now on to the matches. The order may be a little off, but not by much.
Match #1 Shelton Benjamin defeats Christian (with Tyson Tomko)
A lot of wasted time at the begining with the two playing towards the crowd, but
they finally got serious once the "boring" chants started. Good match with both
wrestlers going back and forth. Benjamin won with a quick rollup to surprise
Christian.
Match #2 Rodney Mack and Chuck Palumbo defeats Val Venis & Maven
Probably the worst match on the show, but it was still good. Chuck had some red
Coverse shoes on and said that he wore them because they were "Chucks". Forgot who
got the pin, but I think Maven got pinned. After the match, Maven struggled getting
up and once he did he fell right away. A lot of oversell comments.
Match #3 Tajiri defeats Hurricane
Throughout the whole match Hurricane was the heel. Finally he is going to drop the
Hurricane gimmick and get a decent push. Highlights of the match was watching Tajiri
do the Tarachula and his super kicks.
Simon Dean then came out and talked about some crap. The audio the whole night was
horrible and the crowd was so loud that it was hard to tell was anyone was saying.
Finally Rhyno came out and delieved a gore to Simon.
Match #4 Randy Orton defeats Batista
Before the match, Earl Hebner came out and got a nice hand. I thought that this
would be the main event before they annouced the battle royal. A kid about 18-20
years old had bought a Smackdown (WWE) world title and Randy Orton went over to him,
took the belt and posed with it in the ring to major cheers. The guy also got his
belt back. Before the match, Batista got on the mike and told Orton that he's going
to pay him back for braking his nose. So during the match when both were nose to
nose, Orton takes Batista's nose and clamps his fingers on it. Orton wins with a
rollup.
Intermission was next.
Match #5 La Resistance defeats William Regal and Eugene
The biggest pop of the night was for Eugene who had his shoulder rapped up. I got
the slap hands with Eugene as he made his trip around the ring. Lots of USA chants
when Grenier started to sing. When William Regal was on the outside waiting for a
tag, I could see that he had a tatoo on his left calf. Didn't know that he had one.
One of the French pinned Regal and Eugene was too late for the save. Big crowd
reaction when Eugene and Regal left. The people in Sioux Falls love Eugene.
Some Iraqi guy came out with a manager that was also Iraqi. Nobody knew who he was.
His manager said that he was Muhammad something. Again it was hard to hear with the
audio and the crowd. They started talking about oil and got a rug out and started
praying. Then the suprise of the night happened. Sgt. Slaughter came out to a big
pop. He did his usual thing and knocked the Iraqi's out of the right.
Match #6 Kane defeats Snitsky.
The second biggest pop was for Kane. I think that WWE should turn him face and maybe
the fans will decide that he should like they did with Stone Cold. Snitsky got in a
little offense by throwing Kane into the steel steps. Other than that Kane
dominated.
Match # 7 Main Event. 17 Man Battle Royal
Everybody that wrestled before came out except Snitsky. Rhyno and Tomko also came
out. Simon and the Iraqi didn't. At the begining, Eugene go in the ring. Instead, he
sat in the front row and ate some candy. Then he went over and sat by the Fink. Fink
tried to tell Eugene that he was in the match. Christian also didn't get in right
away and hid under the ring about 3 times. After Eugene finally got into the ring
and wrestled a little bit, he and Orton went in the corner and Orton shook hands
with Eugene. Then Orton put his arm around Eugene and started pointing things out.
Very funny. The final 5 were Kane, Randy Orton, Chuck, Eugene, and Christian. Eugene
picked everyone one up except Orton and gave them an airplane spin. Chuck was the
next to get thrown over and then Eugene went over by Kane. Kane was going to choke
slam Christian, but instead told him to go after Orton. Those two double teamed
Orton. Christian finally got out leaving Kane and Orton. They went back and forth
awhile with Orton drop kicking Kane out when Kane was on the aprion. Orton came by
and slapped hands around the ring, including mine.
After the show, Fink when around the ring and shook everyones hand, including mine.
Great show, especially with front row seats. I hope that the WWE comes back here
soon. The last time I went to see them was in 1993 on my 5th birthday. The main
event that night was Shawn Michael vs. Marty Jennety. They were here in 2002, but I
didn't go. The main event that night was Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H. I think that
this is the only time these to have wrestled each other. At the time they were the
champions of Raw and Smackdown. Lesnar ended up winning being the home boy and all.
I hope to go again real soon.
Raw House Show Results
Sioux Falls, SD 9-24-04
Report by: Chris Arnold, rajah.com reader
Well, I just got back. I'm severely disappointed. Benoit was supposed to be there but was unable to be there. So they basically changed the entire card except for one match. So here's how the show went.
Shelton Benjamin beat Christian
Rodney Mack & Chuck Palumbo beat Maven & Val Venis
Simon Dean came out & started talking about how we were the fattest people he had ever seen. Rhyno then came out, hit him a few times & gave him the gore.
Tajiri beat The Hurricane - Hurricane played up the heel role. He basically got booed out of the building.
Randy Orton beat Batista
La Resistance beat William Regal & Eugene to retain the tag titles
Some Arab guy named Mohammed Hassan (sp?) came out with his manager (which was some other arab guy but I couldn't make out what his name was). Anyway the Hassan started running down the USA, telling us that the US should mind their own business & saying that they were gonna charge the US double for oil. Then Sergeant Slaughter came out. Proceeded to beat the guy out of the ring & give his manager the cobra clutch.
Kane beat Gene Snitsky
And in the main event,
Randy Orton won a 17 man battle royal, which was supposedly ordered my Vince McMahon to make up for Benoit not being there.
Overall it was a decent show, but a disappointment since Benoit wasn't there.
Biggest Pops
1) Kane
2) Sgt Slaughter when he beat up Mohammed Hassan
3) Randy Orton
4) Eugene & Regal
Biggest Heat
1) Christian - The guys behind me were giving him hell all night.
2) Mohammed Hassan
3) Hurricane
4) Batista
