Cleveland, Ohio - RAW - July 25th, 2005
Chris Pokorny, rajah.com reader
Hey guys I went to RAW last night in Cleveland; it was my first live WWE
event ever. I didn't realize how much more exciting things seem in person.
Anyway, since I was there live, I figured I'd post some notes that
happened during the show...(BTW, I was in the first row of the second
deck, facing the titantron)
-Before Heat even started, some fan in the front row held up a sign that
said "Cleveland is not Cool" and they had a Baltimore Ravens jersey on. He
got the biggest boos of the night basically, but a lot of people got a
kick out of it.
-A few minutes later, three guys in the second deck started chanting "JBL"
really loud, and they drew their own boos.
-Heat was pretty good, although I'm probably biased being there live. CM
Punk had his first match, although some of fans were chanting "boring"
during the match. He looked ok in the ring, just wasn't too exciting since
he faced some unknown guy.
-Mike Mizannan and Matt Copielli(sp?) beat two Scottish guys in a dark
match, which was pretty good.
-Rosey lost to Rob Conway. Conway cut a promo before the match and got
some early heat. Rosey/Hurricane's entrance looks cooler in person.
-Hurricane lost to Rene Dupree. Dupree gave Hurricane the stiffest kicks
of the night.
-My brother and I were hoping to see Kurt Angle wrestle, and we were
thrilled to see him open RAW. When Christy came out, I knew she'd be
introducing someone, and I was stunned to hear Eugene come out. The crowd
really booed the hell out of Kurt for what he did to the Browns jersey,
hilariously done nonetheless. The crowd went insane after Eugene won.
-Did I miss something from RAW? I don't know where the hell the midget
thing came from, it seemed sort of weird. Only a little bit funny. Viscera
is huge though, and at least he didn't do some long promo about women.
-I was upset last week when they announced the battle of the bands,
feeling that it'd take up too much time. The performance live was nice,
and the pyro/lighting for the event was excellent. Jericho's promo was
good, I was actually happy Fozzy didn't come out.
-Shawn Michaels got some boos, but it was mostly cheers. His promo was
intense, done very well. Everyone was bummed when he announced Hogan
wasn't there, which drew a lot of boos. The promo IMO made up for it
though.
-I was stunned to see Shelton lose to the Masterlock. I was pumped to see
Big Show come out though. I wanted to see a chokeslam, but an appearance
is good enough.
-RAW Diva search especially sucked. A hot dog eating contest? It would've
been funny if Coach said "let's see how many inches they can pack into
their mouths"...everyone chanted "boring" through the whole thing...
-I was hoping there would be a gimmick match, and a stretcher match
pleased me. Seeing the chokeslam on the stretcher and the DDT to Kane on
the steps were fantastic. There were two sets of "Hardy" chants during the
match. No one thought he'd come out after the EMT's came to check on Lita,
but he did. He got one of the biggest cheers of the night, I wish it
would've gone longer though.
-Carlito put on some better moves than I had seen on Smackdown, which
pleased me because I knew he had the talent. Jericho got big-time heat
when he kicked Cena in the nuts. The Lionsault was the best move of the
night.
-After the show, Bischoff stayed on the microphone and said "CENA! You
white trash, you're not done yet!" Then JBL's music hit and he came out
with Kurt Angle. Batista followed for the interpromotional tag match. The
match probably lasted 10-15 minutes, with comedy spots throughout the
match. Cena and Batista won by hitting the FU and Batista Bomb at the same
time on their opponents.
-After that match, Cena and Batista celebrated with fans for about 10 more
minutes. Cena went over and slapped hands with JR and King. When the Coach
stuck his hand out, Cena played him, which the crowd loved.
After this event, I plan on going to the next event, whenever it is. I
also want closer seats after seeing how fun it was. The pyrotechnics live
is unbelievable, I could feel the heat from them hit my face.
