Friday, Jan. 11, 2008
Veterans Memorial Arena
Jacksonville, FL
by Doodle, rajah.com reader
Tony Chimmel welcomes us to the show, and introduces RAW General Manager, William
Regal. Regal comes to the ring to a chorus of boos wearing a black wrestling robe,
so he's obviously going to be in action tonight. Which is cool... I've liked
Regal's in-ring work since he became GM and stopped wrestling full-time. Weird,
huh?
He does his ring entrance, gets on the mic and (intentionally) forgets the name of
the town. He reminds us that the Royal Rumble is in two weeks. Cody Rhodes' music
hits and he comes down to the ring with his tag team belt on. The crowd goes nuts.
Cody gets on the stick and says that the Rhodes family knows something about
wrestling in Florida (mass cheers for Dusty reference), and by the way, the name of
the city is Jacksonville (cheap pop). Rhodes says he wants to be in the Rumble.
Regal agrees to give him a Royal Rumble qualifying match tonight (another pop).
They acted like Cody didn't know who his opponent would be, but of course it was
Regal.
Good introductory match. Regal has a deliberately slow pace, playing the cowardly
heel to the crowd. Cody gets some nice moves in, mostly high drop kicks and back
drops. Cody picks up the win (I forget the finish, probably a roll-up), and
qualifies for the Royal Rumble.
1. Cody Rhodes d. William Regal
Next out is Charlie Haas in a shiny blue outfit. Mild heat, but not much reaction.
Then they introduced his opponent as Ted Dibiase.... (pause)... Jr.! Some confused
cheering. Clearly, not everyone knows that WWE has sons and daughters of 80's
wrestlers training in Tampa. So, we have our first rookie of the night.
Okay match, but the crowd was a little dead for this one. Charlie rolls out and
crawls under the ring. He comes out the other side wearing a mask that matched his
ring gear. I don't know where this is headed, but all the 6-year olds in the crowd
thought he was impersonating Rey Mysterio. All-in-all, nothing special here, just a
way to introduce Dibiase to the masses. But, I am surprised that they put him over.
2. Ted Dibiase Jr. d. Charlie Haas
Third match is announced... Super Crazy comes out to a pretty big pop. He was full
of energy, running all over the place greeting fans before jumping into the ring.
(His entrance was more exciting that the entire last match!) He's facing another
student of Florida Championship Wrestling, Afa Jr. Afa Jr. is dressed just like his
old man; tradional Samoan garb wrapped around the waist, bare feet taped in the
arches, and wild-ass hair. I don't remember much of the match, except that Afa was
drawing little heat, while Super Crazy got a lot of love when he won with a missle
drop kick from the top.
3. Super Crazy d. Afa Jr.
Another super-son, D.H. Smith is announced for a tag match (at least he's been on
RAW). Next, Tony wants to welcome back WWE Diva, Ashley, who gets one of the
biggest pops of the night! Men and women alike were screaming for her. At this
point, I thought it was going to be some sort of mixed-tag match, then finally they
brought out Smith's partner, Atlas Da Bone. Mild reaction to another stranger, but
he got the crowd into it with his enthusiasm and his cool look. He even had good
entrance music, which not all of the FCW guys had.
Their opponents are The Highlanders, who come to the ring to a totally mixed
reaction. The fans couldn't decide on whether to boo or cheer. The Highlanders
lose to a fairly mild match. The crowd only really woke up when Ashley got involved
briefly. (It's both sad and cool when, out of the five people involved in a tag
match, the biggest star is the valet... it's the Sunny Syndrome!)
4. D.H. Smith & Atlas Da Bone d. The Highlanders
Trevor Murdoch is out next, which is cool. Gives the old timers in the crowd some
memories of the NWA guys like Dick Murdoch, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race and Ole
Anderson. (did I just give away my age??)
He's facing Drew McIntyre, who's introduced as being from Scotland. Now, the
Highlanders were just out, and all the kids in my section are going "Another
Scottish guy?" hehe. The face wins again... hmmm... I see a trend forming here.
5. Drew McIntyre d. Trevor Murdoch
Santino Marella is introduced. He comes to the ring and gets the mic. Does some
heel schtick and apologizes for the bad travel arrangements that prevented Maria
from joining him. (bummer) He wants us to know that he has issued an open challenge
to anyone from the locker room to come out and show how tough they are. As a matter
of fact, he doesn't think ANYONE in the back is tough enough to beat him. Cue
music, and here comes Hardcore Holly to a great crowd response. Holly's also got on
his tag team belt, and the crowd loves him. Santino rolls out of the ring with the
mic, and says "Hardcore Holly, I wasn't talking about you"... funny stuff.
Santino's great on the mic, but he loses to the Alabama Slam in a pretty hot match.
6. Hardcore Holly d. Santino Marella
~Intermission (short intermission, though... I missed the first half of the next
bout standing in the consession line.)
I come back to my seat for a Divas match for the Women's title. Mickie James and
Beth Phoenix. Both women brought out their most colorful outfits to wrestle in.
This was a fast-paced bout that equals anything they've done on T.V. lately.
Actually, this was in the top three matches of the night. Both women gave it their
all, and the crowd was totally into it, even though a lot of people were still
trying to find their seats from intermission. Beth retains her title using her
finishing move... I don't know the name of it, but it reminds me of a Perfect Plex.
7. Beth Phoenix d. Mickie James
Tony Chimmel says this next match is for the WWE Championship, and the crowd goes
nuts, since it's one of the few matches that was announced ahead of time.
Randy Orton comes to the ring first, carrying the WWE Championship belt. He's slow
and methodical in his walk, looking like a total bad-ass. He actually takes forever
just to get to the ring, but the crowd is eating it up, giving him grief the whole
way.
When Jeff Hardy's music hits, the audience pisses itself. Jeff comes out with the
IC title and greets as many fans as he can, even going to the sides of the arena
floor. He gets in the ring and the Royal Rumble preview match begins. I hope they
do some of the things I saw tonight on the PPV, because this was a great fight.
Jeff did several high spots, in and out of the ring. Randy was also impressive,
hitting a MASSIVE drop kick from the middle of the ring... just as Hardy was
springing into the ring from the apron. It caught him in mid-air, and he flew
backwards and landed on (or near) the steps on the floor. Amazing timing. Jeff
comes back to hit Whisper In The Wind, but only for two. Orton hits a devastating
power slam, ala Bobby Lashley, but only for two. Randy got in his stance for the
RKO, but Jeff blocks, spins around for the Twist of Fate, but Randy blocks that, and
finally hits the RKO for the victory. No screw-job, no disqualification, just a
clean pin in the middle of the ring.
Excellent chemistry between these two, with Jeff's high-flying action and Randy's
old-school pace complimenting each other. I can't wait to see what it looks like at
the Rumble.
8. Randy Orton d. Jeff Hardy
The main event was the "one-night" reunion of Degeneration X. Hunter and Shawn come
to the ring first to an insane reaction. They play to the crowd for what seemed
like 20 minutes, doing a cheering contest between the two halves of the arena. HHH
finally gets on the mic, and says "Are You Ready?". He continues his normal
routine, "For the thousands in attendance, and millions watching at home"... Shawn
taps him on the shoulder and whispers in his ear. "Oh, sorry... for the millions
NOT watching at home"... laughter from the crowd. He said he forgot that he wasn't
on T.V., but he felt like he was judging from the size of the audience (see notes
below).
Hunter apologizes for not having anything funny to say for their introduction. He
said there's nothing really going on here, just a fat Samoan and a guy with yellow
teeth. They finally finish the "Suck It" routine and Chimmel introduces Gene
Snitsky first and then Umaga.
After everyone gets into the ring, there's a long "skit" when Snitsky decides he's
going to start for his team, and no one in DX wants to be the first one to face him.
HHH and HBK do rock-paper-scissors and Shawn loses... lol. (this went on for a
good 10 minutes). Shawn finally locks up with him and Snitsky just tosses him down
like a rag doll. Shawn gets up and runs over to Hunter, begging him to come in.
HHH finally gets tagged in and locks with Snitsky, but neither man can budge the
other. Hunter lets go and rolls out the ring to get the mic. He asks if anyone in
the audience has a toothbrush, or some gum, or some mints... something... anything
to help with the halitosis. Then he says to Snitsky, for those who might not
understand big words, halitosis is the technical term for bad breath. Snitsky, of
course, is acting pissed off throughout this whole routine, especially when the
crowd start to chant "Brush Your Teeth"... at one point, he gets out of the ring and
acts like he's leaving the arena with his hands over his ears... hilarious. And the
little kids in my section wouldn't let it go... they chanted "Brush Your Teeth"
throughout the entire match. Shawn jumps down and gets some gum from a fan in the
front row. He takes it into the ring and offers it to Snitsky, who slaps it out of
his hand... lmao.
The match now starts for real, and it's a fun one to watch. All four are great
together, even Gene, who isn't a technical master, but is a decent powerhouse. DX
picks up the inevitable victory with one Superkick for each heel and a Pedigree to
Snitsky for the pin.
9. DX d. Umaga / Snitsky
Afterwards, DX goes around the ring, shaking hands and signing autographs... then
they shake hands all up and down the center aisle and along the sides of the arena
floor for a long time before posing together one last time, leaving the crowd happy.
I have been to several WWF, WCW and WWE shows in my day, televised and
non-televised. This was the largest house show audience I've ever seen... not a
true sell out, because the upper region wasn't used... but, other than that, the
arena was packed... my rough estimate would be about 6,000-8,000 people. I remember
going to some shows four and five years ago, where WWE was selling about 1/3 of that
number in Florida arenas.
So, it was very good show. We got to see some future talent from FCW, which I
liked. The two main events were worth the trip. Missing in action, but not
forgotton... Maria, Carlito, Mr. Kennedy, Chris Jericho and Ric Flair (people were
woooing all freakin' night).
Biggest Pops:
1. Jeff Hardy
2. DX (very close 2nd)
3. Mickie James
4. Hardcore Holly
5. Cody Rhodes
6. Ashley
Biggest Heat:
1. Randy Orton
2. Snitsky
3. William Regal
4. Santino
5. Umaga
6. Trevor Murdoch
