By: Matt Humphrey, rajah.com reader
Hi Rajah,
Just go back from Raw tapings in London at the Wembley Arena. Excuse me if i miss
anything, there's just something about english crowds that spurrs me to get wasted
to ignore them. Might be the impending loom of holliganism... i think in WWE terms
they're know as John Cena fans.
Was a packed arena aside from one section non camera side for all the little kids
and people who could argue their way into a seat where they could actually see the
action - A lot of people were constantly being told to sit down to allow people
behind to see - a particularly badly designed arena.... regardless of all this the
crowd was pretty hot throughout the night. Loads of Cena Sucks chants pre show along
with the common place wooing.
Lillian comes out and sings God Save the Queen which is ruined by most the the tone
deaf crowd harping along to the words.
Heat
Big Show def. 2 jobbers in an utter squash. Belive the 2 jobbers were american but
because 70% of the crowd were marking out for anyone famous i think they thought
they might be english, so they did get a few british chants (see any england
football match for examples) but that soon wore off once they realised how
mis-matched this team were - one guy had a beautiful mullet with what looked like
blonde extensions on it and the other had a standardised army like short bakc and
sides. Surfice to say this match didn't last long, probably as long as these 2
jobbers enure in WWE will. One of them may have been called somebody "Simmons" not
sure... Rolling on...
Lance Cade def. Eugene
I cant believe the Eugene character still garners any heat what so ever. No
re-itterace of possible cade-murdoch reformation that was hinted during last weeks
heat...
Goldust/Snitsky def 2 British Jobbers
Brit guys got absolutely no response whatsoever. Even the coach saying "London" got
over more... Goldust and Snitsky still ran with the freak angle with Goldust still
getting alarmed at Snitsky's foot fetish, so much so they ran the chase goldust's
foot up the ramp angle after the match...
Kane def. Trevor Murdoch
Kane hit all his high spots, loads of "May 19th" chants. Kane wins with the chokeslam.
Commentators come out for Raw andthey tape a quick pre show crowd reaction shot. at
this point the guy next to me has already been ejected for standing on his chair too
much. The security guards were ridiculous, the guy was only waving to his mate
across the arena and these assholes chucked him out... The security guards continued
to get a lot of heat throughout the night.
Edge comes out and says he'll win the triple threat at backlash, not before long
Triple H comes out to a massive pop and argues against it, they go back and forth
before cena comes out to a load of heat and attacks HHH off the bat for a while
before we get possibly the most nausiating interuption known to wwe fans - the
spirit squad comes out and informs the 3 backlash main eventers via a cheer that it
will be Cena, HHH and Edge vs. all 5 members of the Spirit Squad in the main event.
After the break we find out thhere will be a Raw Diva bikini contest. We see Vince
in the back who announces that it'll be Shane vs. Shawn Michaels one on one, and
unfortunately "God" will not be making an appearance.
Charlie Haas, Carlito & RVD def Matt Striker, Chris Masters & Shelton Bejamin
Pretty decent match, a ton of heat for RVD and Carlito... oddly enough a decent
amount of chants for Charlie Hass as well - mainly due to him over working the crowd
while waiting for a tag - Good to see him back but think he needs to be less over
excited. He's like a human sized version of Kurt Angle's Neck muscles - bubbling
with rage and about to pop. If hulking up was a way of life Charlie Hass would be
the messiah.
Kane hurts big shows eye somehow after a backstage scuffle after show mentions may
19th setting up the snoozefest thet will happen at backlash.
Candice Michelle "wins" Diva Bikini Contest
Coach comes out as master of ceremonies and we're treated to Torrie, Victoria, Maria
and Candice in their sunday best, In order of popularity i'd say Maria edged it over
Torrie follwed by Candice and Victoria. Howevber Coach announces Candice as the
winner and her prize is apparently making out with him. Just as she reluctantly
accepts this prize out comes Big Vis who basically (if this wasn't inside a WWE
ring) rapes the coach and makes out with Candice, who appears to like it somewhat...
Coach gets up and declares he's leaving london due to this embarrassment to an
excessive pop.
Shane vs. HBK to a no contest.
Fairly deceny match with Shawn giving shane credit for some failry lackluster
offence. Vince comes down to announce shane and interferes at ringside throughout.
End of the match see shane dropping his elbow onto HBK through the announce table.
Vince grabs the stick and claims there will be no chance in hell for HBK and God to
be victorious at backlash. The camera angle is comically dramatic for this little
segment so look forward to it's hamminess - pure mcmahonism (in a production sense
rather than spiritual!)
Mickie James comes out and has reverted to her normal look dropping the stratus
look. She claims she's dropped "being trish" and is now the women's champion Mickie
James... some of the crowd were still in mickie's corner (like at WM) even after
Trish came out (still in mickie gear) copied all of micke's actions and words and
beat her up a little setting up there re-match at Backlash. To be honest this is
probably the best writing angle the wwe has going right now and hope they can meet
the standard of the WM environment and the quality of the NYR match.
Umaga def. Britsh guy in broing squash. Was enjoying a brief break to the toilet
during the match and rather less enjoying the hassle the security gave me for having
a cap on my bottle of diet coke... seriously these security guards were on some
massive ego trip... probably mcmahonism followers. Apparently Flair came out and
broke up Jamal's celebration setting up a match between the two at Backlash.
Announcers run through backlash matches.
Time for the main event. Although we're forced to sit through a spirirt squad pep
talk, think they tried a spin on a spice girls song as a cheer which was met with
utter silence. It's quite embarrassing if the WWE thinks of the spice girls as
quintessentially british and therefore as a commentable subject even though they
haven't existed for the best part of 10 years! Think i saw a post on rajah.com that
the WWE were hiring writers.......
HHH, Cena & Edge vs. Spirit Squad ends in no contest.
As much as i find the spirit squad nausiating it doesn't compare to how much worse
Cena is. I think he got an approximate minute of ring time and while he was in he
reverted the match to a punch, kick, spot debacle. He seriously needs to either turn
heel and embrace the boo's (like the Rock in late 97) and drop the strap at backlash
along the way. I dont think Vince can ignore the "mixed" reactions for much longer,
i think the line needs to be drawn one way or the other so people (no matter how
active they are in their cheering or booing) will not have to sit through another
Cena match waiting for the FU to finish what would have been a good match if the
opponent had won.
Incidentally, Cena ends the match by giving Edge the FU after Edge had speared HHH.
The 3 backlash opponents teased a lot of angst about teaming up, there were some
pretty stiff tags, a lot of DX/HHH chants and a lot of heat on Edge. After the match
Cena spouts some crap about people voicing thier opinion whether it be good or bad
and thanks us all. As much as this guy cant wrestle, he gets a ton of credit for
going that extra mile, staying and thanking people and doing what is theoretically
PR.. I think that kind of a spokesperson for WWE is why Vince has faith in cena and
why a growing amount of people are beginning to jump on the Cena bandwagon again. By
the end of it the crowd was 75% Pro Cena, the guy has an incedible work ethic and at
the very least he gets credit for entertaining the marks.
Overall it was a pretty decent show, setting up IMO a fairl indifferent backlash card.
Biggest Pop:
HHH
HBK
RVD
Carlito
Charlie Haas
(noteable mention to Maria who got an inordinate amount of reaction amongst the red
blooded males in attendance)
Most Heat:
Cena
Spirit Squad
Edge
Vince & Shane
Coach
Will be attending Smackdown taping tomorrow night so will throw some spoilers for
that your way as well.
Keep up the great work on the site.
Matt Humphrey
