Grand Forks, North Dakota 1/15/05
By: Ryan Haskell, rajah.com reader
Matches:
1. La Resistance vs Rosey and The Hurricane: A decent tag team opener where the heels dominated. They got huge heel heat by interrupting the national anthem and then trying to sing the French Canadian anthem. Rosey and the Hurricane eventually pull it out with a tag team Samoan Neckbreaker.
2. Christian w/ Tomko vs William Regal: Regal was very over as a face and even had a few people chanting his name. The match was really more of a comedy fest than a wrestling match, but it was really entertaining. Regal eventually lost to a Tomko boot while Christian had the ref distracted.
3. IC Title Match: Benjamin vs Maven: Maven showed very little offense but worked the crowd very well. He was constantly getting in the faces of all of the front row and making sure that they knew he was no longer the "really smiley Tough Enough" guy. Shelton got the cheap pop by wearing the colors of the local high school wrestling team. Benjy pulled it out with a T-Bone Suplex.
4. Hassan w/Daivari vs Y2J: Excellent match and mic work by all. Hassan and Daivari did their anti-discrimination schtick and Jericho promptly told them to shut the hell up. Jericho looked to have things well in hand after a Lionsault, but Daivari interfered and got himself a Walls of Jericho, which led to a school boy pin and win for Hassan. Best wrestling of the night in my opinion.
Next there was a skit where the Coach came out and called out Christy, called her fat, and then brought Simon Dean in to give her some pointers. Needless to say Christy took offense and threw the powder in Dean's eyes and gave Coach a nutshot for good measure. By the way, Christy is definitely not fat.
5. Benoit vs Edge: Benoit trounced Edge in the shortest match of the night. It went for like 5 minutes and then the Crossface and it was over. Nothing special and a big disappointment considering the recent history of the two and the calibre of match they could have had if allowed to go for 20 minutes or more.
6. Royal Rumble Qualifier Hardcore Match: Snitsky vs Kane: Mercifully short match with a multitude of tinfoil weapons and very little actual wrestling. Nobody in the crowd knew who to cheer for and Kane was hardly over as a face. Kane won with the Chokeslam.
Intermission
7. Divas Match with Special Guest Ref Val Venis: Victoria vs Molly: Short and predictable. Val counted real slow on Molly's pin attempts and favored Vic for the entire thing. Vic reversed a top rope attempt into the Widow's Peak for the win. She then kissed Venis and stole some poor fan's viking hat.
8. Legends Match: Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels: One of the greatest moments I have ever witnessed live! The place was on its feet Wooing and chanting HBK. It was great. The match was short due to Batista interference which brought out Orton which led to the main event of. . . . . . .
9. RKO/HBK vs Batista/Flair: Real good match with back and forth action and the Superstars having all sorts of fun with the crowd. Batista attempted a Flair strut and both RKO and HBK mocked him unmercifully for it. End came when HBK hit the Sweet Chin Music on Flair for the win. A great main event that tied together the legends and the new blood.
Other Notes:
-Grand Forks has the most inbred idiot racist fans ever. They should stop going there and start coming to Fargo where they would get twice the fans and hopefully less of the kind that give North Dakota such a bad name.
-The arena looked to be about 1/3 to 1/2 full with lots of blacked out sections. I am really glad they didn't cancel though because this was probably one of my last chances to see HBK before he retires (the WWE doesn't come here all that often).
-Biggest Heat went to La Resistance and Hassan and Daivari (imagine that) and the Biggest Pops went to HBK, Flair, and Orton in that order. The crowd didn't know how to respond to Batista because of his on-camera pending turn but he was playing the clear heel live.
Report by: Micah Distel, rajah.com reader
Hurricane and Rosey v. La Resistance
Hurricane pinned Grenier after he and Rosey hit a kind
of Samoan Drop into neckbreaker like move.
Christian(w/Tyson Tomko) v. William Regal(w/Tag Belt)
Christian got the pin after Tomko came in and kicked
Regal in the head.
Maven v. Shelton Benjamin(IC Title)
Benjamin got the pin with the Exploder.
Chris Jericho v. Muhhamed Hassan(w/Daivari)
Jericho goes for pin after lionsault, Daviari
distracts the ref. Jericho brings him into the ring.
Locks him in the Walls. Hassan rolls up Jericho with a
hook of the tights for the pin.
Edge v. Chris Benoit
Benoit won with the Crippler Crossface
Coach, Christy, and Simon Dean waste about ten minutes
with Christy throwing powder in Dean's eyes then low
blowing Coach.
Gene Snitsky v. Kane(Hardcore Rules)(Royal Rumble
Qualifier)
Kane got the pin with a chokeslam.
Molly Holly v. Victoria(Val Venis the special guest
referee)
Victoria got the pin after the Widow's Peak.
Ric Flair v. Shawn Michaels
When Flair got in the ring, I threw up the four
fingers. He looked right at me and winked.
Shawn locks Flair in the figure four. Batista runs in.
Orton runs in. The match gets thrown out.
Orton challenges Flair and Batista to a tag match.
They accept.
Randy Orton and Shawn Michaels v. Ric Flair and
Batista
Shawn pinned Flair with the Sweet Chin Music.
