Report by: Jeremy Barnoff, rajah.com reader
I attended Raw the other night and found it overall to be a great show. Here
are the results of the matches that took place before Raw went on the air.
Dark Match
Chris Cage and Mike "The Miz" Mizanin def. The Highlanders: The Highlanders
were the first out and have a funny Scottish neanderthal sort of gimmick.
They did stuff like tagging eachother by slapping the other in the face and
stuff of that nature. Miz and Cage come out pumped for the match but that
soon changes when the crowd begins chanting boring before the bell even
sounds. The crowd didn't give this match a chance but it was actually pretty
good. Cage scores the pin after hitting a fall-forward "Edgecution" DDT.
With teams like MNM and The Heart Throbs I don't see why they don't call up
Miz and Cage to either of the main rosters.
Heat
Shelton Benjamin def. Chris Thompson???: Thompson, if that even is his real
name, came out to no entrance music and was in the ring for close to 2
minutes before Benjamin came out. The guy barely did anything and received a
tremendous amount of heat(no pun intended) from the local crowd. This may
have had something to do with his green zebra skin trunks. As for Shelton he
looked like he was upset, perhaps about being on Heat. Shelton actually
wrestled a match that was more exciting than any of the stuff he's done
these past few weeks. Shelton wins following a Stinger Splash, and a new
variation on his hip-toss/exploder suplex.
Victoria def. Stacy Keibler: Stacy came out to a huge pop, dressed in full
Super Stacy attire. Victoria got a decent reaction as well. The match was
actually a lot more even than most would expect. Stacy actually managed to
exchange holds with Victoria and even dominate her at times. It was clear
Victoria was carrying her, but she still did a really good job of making
Stacy look good. The finish came with Victoria hitting a series of moves
culmonating with The Widdow's Peak, for the surprisingly clean victory.
Viscera def. Gene Snitsky: As Snitsky entered a fan beside me got his sign
taken away, from what I could see the sign said "He's on Juice!". The match
was pretty back and forth with Big Vis hitting all his trademark moves
including the dredded Visagra and scoring a somewhat surprising victory over
Snitsky.
Kerwin White def. Rosey: Kerwin entered first in a red golf-cart with the
initials "KW" written on the hood. He wrestled in casual shorts and a
collared yellow golf shirt. He did his usual routine of hanging his sweater
on a hanger in the corner and seemed to be dancing to his Frank
Sinatra-esque entrance music. Rosey controlled most of the match with Kerwin
trying to use his speed and highflying to gain the advantage, while all the
while making sure his shirt stayed tucked in. When all else failed he
attempted to use his hanger to strike Rosey but was stopped by the ref. He
then took off his shirt and began choking the Superhero with it. After a
brief comeback by Rosey, Kerwin gained a pinfall win over him with the aid
of the ropes for leverage.
Raw notes
-The arena was almost completely full, with fans on all levels and very few
empty seats. It was the best crowd I've seen in Montreal since 2001.
-During the commercial break of the Cena vs Jericho/Carlito match, Bischoff
and his boys planned out a strategy for the entirety of the break, there was
no wrestling whatsoever during the break.
-The Chairshot on Cena was incredibly loud and brought even the rowdy
Montreal arena to a dead silence. In all the shows I've ever attended I've
never heard a chairshot that loud. Personally I was stunned because I didn't
see the shot and was under the impression someone had fired a gun. It was
that sickening in person.
-The crowd was DEAD, DEAD, DEAD, for Conway. Quite frankly the Conway is the
boring way. This guy is the 3rd Heart Throb and 3 times less fun to watch.
-Angle cut a promo on the crowd during the commercial break, saying that
Shawn was right and that if he had the chance he'd've "Screwed the Shit out
of the Hitman". He then said that Hogan was probably going to no-show just
like Bret and that it wouldn't matter how much they chanted for him, thus
insighting the crowd to chant "Hogan".
Off air dark match
Hulk Hogan/John Cena/Batista def. John Bradshaw Layfield/Shawn Michaels/Kurt
Angle: The match got underway after Raw went off the air. Angle began
helping Shawn to beat down on Hogan until Cena ran in for the save(many were
expecting Bret for some reason). Cena cleared house until JBL arrived much
to the dismay of the crowd. Then Batista's music hit and he came sprinting
down to the ring. Crowd was really getting on Michaels with fans saying that
they want him to "die on (his) flight back to San Antonio" also saying that
he was "not really a Christian" and that he would "burn in hell" for what he
did to Bret. A fan yelled out to JBL "hey, where's your shape?", which was
amplified by a hilarious sign a fan was holding that said something to the
effect of "JBL, Jelly Breast Layfield". Michaels/JBL/Angle worked over Cena,
who sold most of the match, with Angle doing the fair share of the work for
his team. Hogan only made it back to his feet twards the middle of the match
and then came in to clear house towards the end. I had been reading that
this match has been running all over the country as a comedy match but
tonight the 6 seemed serious. Hogan finally got his hands on HBK who took
the Sanford punches and the big boot, and just when it looked like Hogan
would avenge Montreal for that nonsense in 97, JBL interfered and was met
with the same stuff and pinned for the 1-2-3. To his credit Shawn Michaels
was the MVP of the match and the night, he took so much heat and gave it
right back with the classic DX crotch chops and saying how The Hitman's got
no heart, and that Montreal as well is "all talk and no heart", even after
getting "beaten" in the match he layed down in front of the same fans that
said the insults written above just to make them go home happy and feeling
the guy they hate so much got what he deserved.
After the match the three did a posedown and brought a rather flabby fan,
who had a tatoo of Hogan on his back into the ring to do the routine. They
then put both titles on Hogan an dcelebrated at the top of the ramp. All in
all a fun show from start to finish.
Biggest Heat
1. Shawn Michaels
2. Kurt Angle
3. Eric Bishchoff
4. JBL
5. that jobber that faced Benjamin
Biggest Pop
1. Hulk Hogan
2. Batista
3. Ashley/The Diva Search(we're the only city that actually liked it!)
4. Eugene
5. John Cena
