FOOTAGE! of last week's appearance of Mick and the ensuing "reign of terror", culminating with the Mandible Claw.
Fighting evil by moonlight, winning love by daylight, never running from a real fight, because it is time to WAKE UP! It's Raw, LIVE from Anaheim, CA...and a Fashion Report, too!
Jericho, in sparkly purple/pink "Jericho" shirt and black/pink silhoutte tights, and Christian!, in navy blue tights with yellow "C"s on purple crests, with roses, out to try to patch things up with the ladies. Trish, in white/red babydoll and jeans, and Lita, in pink/black tanktop and black jeans, are out, upset. The women get violent, and then out come the Dudleys, DVon in sleeveless black "Dudley Boyz" jersey, green/yellow camo pants, wearing the Tag Team Title, and Bubba, in black "Dudley Boyz" jersey, green/yellow camo shorts, carrying the Tag Team Title
Dudleys vs. Jericho and Christian!. Joined in progress. Charles Robinson is the referee, in the stripes. Trish and Lita are at ringside. Jericho quickly gets a mouthful of blood. Stupid crowd, this is NOT a tables match. 3D for the pin. A nice match.
Stop Funk Master Flex-zor from terrorizing our streets - buy his damned shoes.
In Evolution's lockerroom, Flair talks to Randy and Batista. Flair promises HHH is in the building, but isn't going anywhere near the ring tonight. Randy and Batista pimp for their matches at the PPV.
In Bischoff's Room of Fun, Jericho and Christian! complain. Bisch books them vs. Trish and Lita at the PPV.
Batista, in black undies with red wrapped flame, with Flair, in grey suit with black tshirt (longsleeved), vs. Rob, in blue "RVD" singlet with ying-yangs. The crowd is majorly behind Rob. A ref bump, a fucked-up powerbomb attempt, Flair interferes, THEN Batista gets the powerbomb for the pin. An average match.
Bod is back! Start spraying your bodies, guys.
Jindrak, in black "Jindrak" undies, and Cade, in red undies, already in the ring, vs. Val, in a towell, black undies with turquoise "V"s thereunder, and Lance, in red undies, with two hos. Um, shouldn't the hos be in their mens' corner and not the opponents'? Jindrak with the rollup and pulling the tights for the pin. An average match.
Kane, in the back, talks. Kane went to school as a child? Oh, and he killed dogs.
Foley, in black suit with white shirt and black tie, is out to talk, with a clipboard. Mick makes himself special guest referee for the Rob vs. Randy match at the PPV. Fortunatley, La Resistance, both in black "La Resistance" undies with French Flags, is out to stop the Austin schtick. La Res is about to attack when "If ya smellll" kicks in and out strides The Rock, in sleeveless black "How's your lips?" tshirt and black warmups with vertical white stripes! It's sing along time, folks. Eventually La Res attacks, but Rocky fights 'em off; both he and Mick hit Peoples' Elbows.
In Bisch's Room of Fun, Coach kisses Bisch's ass. Bisch makes Goldberg vs. Kane into a Lumberjack Match.
Booker, in white hot-crotch flamin' "BookeT" undies, and Rosie, in grey "SHIT" tshirt, orange bodysuit, green/purple trunks, and purple mask, and Hurricane, in black cape and green/black "H" suit, vs. Steiner, in chainmail and red "Freakzilla" tights, and Test, in black undies w. hip flames, and Henry, in red "Mark Henry" singlet with Long, in grey sportscoat and black pants. Hebner officiates. Out of nowhere, Adbreak interferes.
Booker/Rosie/Hurricane vs. Steiner/Test/Henry, cont. Mark Henry locks a bearhug onto Hurricane, and Earl calls for the bell. Post-match, Mark puts BookerT into a bearhug. An average match.
In Bisch's Room of Fun, he appoints Evolution and Mark Henry as lumberjacks (but don't you need more than four?).
JR, in grey sportscoat, white shirt, and black hat, and Lawler, in black "WW" tshirt, run down the PPV card.
Trish, in black, and Lita, in pink and black, vs. Adbreak, vs. Molly, in black, and Victoria, ALSO in black. The match is joined in progress. Christian! and Jericho watch from the ramp. Damnit, ladies, a little variation, please (Lita, you're excused). Matt Hardy comes down to inject his blue shirt (and some needed color) into the match. Someone in black pinned someone else.
The lumberjacks arrive. Kane, in black tights with red strpes, vs. Goldberg, in black undies with barbedwire butt and white trim, wearing the World Heavyweight Title. Charles Robinson is the referee. The lumberjacks eventually interfere, causing the DQ. Rob runs down for the save, then BookerT, then Shawn. Eventually the heels are driven off.
Overall: Too many Adbreak interference. But there was a LOT of in-ring action tonight, too, which was good. I have now totally lost interest in the love angle; the only way this can continue is for some major swerve to happen at the PPV. Speaking of which, I'll be keeping my money. Still, a pleasing show (but it can do without the Austin love).
POP POP POP POP POP POP POP POP THE ROCK THE ROCK THE ROCK! That was such a great surprise to not only see The Rock, but to have him BE The Rock instead of “Hollywood Rock”. I geeked out completely.
The whole show before it was great too. I liked the continuing Jericho/Christian/Lita/Trish stuff because it seems clear Jericho will turn on Christian to save Trish.
So since Trish hit her headbutt to the junk just ahead of Lita, does that mean Jericho wins the bet?
I loved Kane’s promo. Between Kane and Evolution, there was a lot of buildup to the main event tonight, and it was all good. About the only thing I didn’t like was the Test/Steiner/Henry six-man. But even Mark Henry couldn’t suck the life out of this show.
It's still SO WEIRD to see the newer, gentler, Womens' Rights Dudley Boyz. Remember when Bubba was obsessed with putting Trish through a table, and had to fight off Test and Albert to do it?
I actually felt bad for Booker and company for having to follow the Rock and Sock segment. You could tell the crowd was tired from popping like balloons for every thing (good, dumb and otherwise) The Rock said.
Like Mr. Heel II said though, nothing could take away from the fact that the show was great. There was a ton of wrestling, and hardly any Bischoff or Foley. A great sell for the PPV; it's a shame nobody is going to be watching it.
Damn you WWE for making me change my sig. I'm sure you have good enough reasons to get rid of Shannon, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Let me thus be the first to say: BRING BACK DAFFNEY!
Solid show this week. I only realized there was a PPV this Sunday when they made mention of it early on....good job on the Jericho/Christian Lita/Trish storyline. Made up for last week at least....The Dudleyz are STALE....RVD/Batista had some sloppy moments....The Green Monkeys v.s Storm/Venis was about what you'd expect for a 3-minute match. Cade and Jindrak don't seem to be clicking with the crowd very much....The whole Foley/Rock La Resistance segment was VERY well done, including giving some rub to the newer guys again (like Rock gave Hurricane last time, albeit over more time). It is amazing how Rock can call them "Fifi" and have 95% of the crowd chanting it two seconds later, whereas WWE STILL couldn't get "CLB" over after how many weeks?....
The six-man had some sloppy spots as well, including Test falling on his face....It wouldn't surprise me if 500,000 people actually signed that WWE petition. Gotta love marks....Nice for Trips to show up the RAW before his main event PPV match....The women's tag match was short, but good for what it was....The Lumberjack match needed something more. I long for the days of 20 lumberjacks around the ring, not 5-10 they've had lately.....The crowd seemed hot the whole night, and it made the show better.
The Rock was an awesome surprise...I'm glad I stayed away from the spoilers, since it was a big thrill to see him just show up out of the blue. And he even wrestled (sort of).
It definitely helped spruce up an otherwise lacklustre show. The six-men wasn't a bad match because the crowd heat was good, Steiner was hugely over as a heel because of his Michigan ties, and Henry's spinebuster on Rosie was pretty damn impressive.
Oh Tino...put some pants on for God's sake.-- Chuckc14 in the Worst Album Covers thread Click Here (The W)
Manny [Ramirez] could show up for spring training with ice-blue hair, a "Free Lee Boyd Malvo" tattoo and a batting helmet made out of chorizo and I wouldn't be surprised. Hey, it's just Manny being Manny.-- Bill Simmons
Watching "Mad Dog Time" is like waiting for the bus in a city where you're not sure they have a bus line.-- Roger Ebert
I'm really not seeing Jericho turning face after his calling Trish a "bitch". Looks to me like the guys are going to be humiliated back into their usual whiny heel roles, while Lita and Trish use the advantage of the bet on each other(just for you horndogs). Either way, I wanted Christian to be the one go face. Guess he's too much of a joke. I'll never trust another major angle again. :Sniff:
Rock was a cool surprise. I didn't care for his "lips" joke, but he was a perfectly adequate alternative to Rene Dupree being out there..
I would like a to sign a petition to get Mark Henry fired.
So let's say you're in the audience tonight, on the front row, and Lillian hands the clipboard to you. It's got a Stone Cold Returns petition with The Rock's signature. Do YOU sign and pass it along? eBay, baby. EBAY.
I like how they're building up Henry's bearhug as a factor in the match. It's not a terribly difficult move for him to do and there's little risk involved, but it's packaged as the Deadly Deathhold of Death. It's old school and welcome.
Not a terribly interesting show excepting Rock's appearance. I have no interest in the mixed tag match; why don't they just add Matt to Vitamin C now?
I don't care for the tag turmoil because the most interesting team is busy fighting girls.
If this show was solely built to make me buy its PPV, it failed. It just can't lure me in with Foley guest-reffing and a main event Triple H can't even be bothered to market. Movie, schmovie. We've seen Goldberg beat him twice. We've seen Goldberg demolish Kane in consecutive weeks. We've seen Triple H beat Kane already. Why am I supposed to care about this match again?
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
Originally posted by darkmatcherI'm really not seeing Jericho turning face after his calling Trish a "bitch".
am i the only one who saw jericho's apprehension after bischoff booked the match at the ppv? christian gets all enthusiastic and shouty, while jericho kinda looks at him with this "what have i gotten myself into?" look. so i don't think it's over just yet.
Originally posted by TorchslasherI actually felt bad for Booker and company for having to follow the Rock and Sock segment. You could tell the crowd was tired from popping like balloons for every thing (good, dumb and otherwise) The Rock said.
Like Mr. Heel II said though, nothing could take away from the fact that the show was great. There was a ton of wrestling, and hardly any Bischoff or Foley. A great sell for the PPV; it's a shame nobody is going to be watching it.
I feel bad for the fans. Forgive the harshness but I get like this when they shoot themselves in the foot every time they do ANYTHING right. Seems that whenever you have some mark out moment, this is the shit they follow it up with. I am sure a lot of people are just not going to watch until they hear Austin is back. That brutal Spin the Wheel-Make the Deal RAW was so bad I am sure most people didn't care that Foley was back. The Rock however can give you a spike to make people watch.
So how do they follow it up? Booker and company? Try Booker, Hurricane and pure shit. Make it long and throw on a commercial break. Then add a women's match. Top it off with a run in fest main event and we are out of time people!
Yeah, pump em up at the end of hour one and they are sure to stick around for the ending of the greatest Nitro in the history of our sport! Sorry fans, I'm outta time!
Originally posted by The GoonHey, I signed the petition.
May I ask why?
Oh, and Big Bad- there were no spoilers about the Rock being on RAW. At least that I could find. Besides, it's live- what kind of REAL spoilers could there be?
Originally posted by The GoonHey, I signed the petition.
May I ask why?
I miss Stone Cold. Plus I love being part of the mob. When he does return, I know I'll have played a small part.
I also noticed Jericho's downbeat look when Bischoff made the match, but it didn't fit in with his attitude later when he was on the ramp watching the match. So who knows if there'll be any more twists and turns.
Flair's explanation of "Triple H is here but he's not going near the ring" seemed forced and unnecessary.
Yeah I read Jericho's reaction after the battle of the sexes match was announced and primed myself for a turn during the match at the PPV.. I was actually a little disappointed that they telegraphed it so poorly.
But his behavior on the ramp did throw a little something in there.
But the Rock as expected stole the show, one full of sloppy-looking matches. Amazing to see how wildly some of the crowd members reacted.. Saw a glimpse of one guy just repeatedly jumping in the air like a madman.
I didn't mind the women's tag... Victoria's offense is always a welcome sight.
I love how HHH has been hyped as being there or supposed to be there, or his absence being a mystery for the last two weeks and - nothing.
Line of the Night:
"It just went from bad...to worse" -JR, after Test tagged in Mark Henry... Was I the only one who found this ironically hysterical?
I was embarrassed to be watching the show during Rock's segment. I guess they just threw him out there to get his face on TV and pop the crowd, but hearing him spout off one-dimensional rhetoric like that was just shameful. This is the Rock, send him out there with someone you want to get over, not with someone you are going out of your way to bury for no reason outside of the apparent incompetence of your writing staff. If anyone doesn't need Duggan-esque cheap heat, it's Rock. I am really getting tired of being made to feel like an idiot for trying to enjoy wrestling, as oxymoronic as that may seem. Entertainment should be apolitical. A decision by the French government should not lead to a broad-based, clumsy attack on an entire nation of people who had no part in that decision.
Now, one might reference past gimmicks like the Iron Shiek, or the Bolsheviks, or Evil Slaughter. While most intelligent human beings would be humiliated to put some of that stuff out there, there was at least some logic in it. There were major conflicts going on with these countries. France however is just a footnote in the current military conflict in Iraq, a small point that stopped being relevant 8 months ago or whenever the hell it was that France decided not to get involved. This angle is not doing anything, it's not drawing money, it's not valid, and it's embarrssing to me as a viewer. I'm an American citizen (dual actually Canuck-born), but that doesn't require me to aim my blanket hatred at anyone.
Whew. As for the rest of RAW, it was good. Mark Henry may actually be getting over, proving once and for all that if someone hears something again and again they will eventually accept it as true. Couple scary moments in RVD/Batista but not sure whose fault they were. I'm going with Bastista as part of my IWC-mandated blame the hoss policy. Now we know who trained Heindenreich(sp). I still hate Randy Orton. Flair's still gold, but no mention of the DVD this week despite Christmas still being a couple weeks away. The Jericho/Trish twist is interesting. I'll still watch, but I won't be ordering that PPV.
BTW, how can people sign something over the internet? And when Austin really does leave, will anyone care?
(edited by Hogan's My Dad on 8.12.03 2225) What do you call Albert Einstein beatin' off? Give up? A stroke of genius!
Originally posted by ScreamingHeadGuyTrish, in black, and Lita, in pink and black, vs. Adbreak, vs. Molly, in black, and Victoria, ALSO in black.
Wow, at least they weren't all in 1980 one pieces. Having a bland color flashback to the 80's now. Black or Green trunks for tonight? Wait, I forgot Austin brought that gimmick back.
As Eric Bishoff asks if he's ok I get this message ------------
ssjaj23: Goldberg: What's wrong? I can't sell, I'm sloppy in the ring. I don't like being heel. I have no ring phycology
Nick Dinsmore this week is from Anaheim. Didn't get the name of the jobber, but he seemed to have borrowed his singlet from RVD.
Earl still screwed Brett. (I'm thinking he may have been told that a time or 2.)
Heat Matches ... -- Matt Hardy vs. Maven -- Stevie Richards vs. ??Shawn Dammanie?? (He's got a prayer rug kind of gimmick, which gets him major heel heat) -- ?Tony Gallette? vs. John Heidenreich -- Rico w/ Jackie vs. Tommy Dreamer
Spoiler Below: Highlight text to read
Not that jobber matches are any great suprise, but ... -- Matt d. Maven : Fun mocking of the "Vee-one-ah" by Maven -- Stevie d. whoever : I'm betting that Coach & Al call the one move "The Magic Carpet Ride" :-) -- Heidenreich squashes the guy in the fluorescent chartreuse ensemble -- Rico & Jackie d. Tommy : I hope you get to see Rico's "Happy Dance" as Jackie enters the ring. Much, much love for Tommy! The first 2 cheats by Jackie didn't work, but the third one did.
Live! From Anaheim. It's Monday Night Raw!
Hey, when they do shows in Canada, does Lillian do "Oh Canada"? I've said it before, but her national anthem kicks serious ass.
I don't think they quite got all the roses dethorned. Jericho & Christian! both seemed to spend a good part of your adbreak trying to dethorn themselves. Frantic sweeping up of petals during your adbreak too.
Originally posted by ScreamingHeadGuyStupid crowd, this is NOT a tables match.
See, that's the crux of The Dudley Problem. They are great fun with the live crowd. They were out through the whole Adbreak, getting the crowd revved up. Among the things that D'Von had us chanting was indeed "Ta-bles!" -- so it's only natural that's what the crowd is going to chant when they get into the match.
Lance & Val -- thanks for dropping by tonight. (I barely got a chance to get a good screaming-girl shriek in there.)
La Res comes out -- some heat. Mick Foley comes out -- lotta love. Rocky comes out -- the whole place went totally apeshit.
Originally posted by Matt TrackerSo let's say you're in the audience tonight, on the front row, and Lillian hands the clipboard to you. It's got a Stone Cold Returns petition with The Rock's signature. Do YOU sign and pass it along? eBay, baby. EBAY.
:-) So let's say Lillian hands the clipboard to you, & before you attempt anything too silly, you notice the 2 WWE security guys on either side of her, juuuuust out of the camera shot... :-) (Good thought though!)
Originally posted by Mr Heel IIAbout the only thing I didn’t like was the Test/Steiner/Henry six-man. But even Mark Henry couldn’t suck the life out of this show.
Ahhh, but remember, you had the advantage of an Adbreak in the middle of it. (And how often do I refer to an Adbreak as an "advantage"?) We got to see Mark Henry's submission hold on Booker, for what seemed like minutes. Y'know, the one that you probably saw -- we got to see it twice. What makes that especially fun for the live audience is that both times, he did it for the fixed camera side. From the "main audience" side, we got to see ... Mark Henry's back. Completely obscuring Booker. Not doing anything. This was not a good match, in spite of Hurricane & the SHIT, Booker & Test all trying their best. (BigBad mentioned Henry's spinebuster on Rosie -- yeah, that was good -- got to gove him that.)
Don't know how much y'all saw of Steiner interacting with the crowd. Did the sound guy manage to dampen down the huge "Steroids!" chant? How about the "Steiner sucks" chants when he wasn't wrestling? Unclear how much of a work/shoot it was when Steiner went over the barricade (& getting pulled back by WWE security). It had a shoot-ish air to it, & was quite distracting from the in-ring stuff
Did Victoria look especially nice tonight, or does she just look better live? (No offence -- just saying she looked particularly attractive.)
We got to see the "Walking Tall" trailer -- looks pretty good. (Also looks like they might have done a good job of updating the story line to be contemporary.)
At the end of the ME, I'm guessing y'all didn't get to see them ripping Ric Flair's shirt to tatters, & tearing his pants off altogether. (Red briefs.) And Orton (at one point) attempting to drag Batista back up the ramp, & looking like he was about to herniate something in the process. Those were fun.
Weirdest sign of the night: "I [heart] Jeff Hardy"
Originally posted by Jericholic53am i the only one who saw jericho's apprehension after bischoff booked the match at the ppv? christian gets all enthusiastic and shouty, while jericho kinda looks at him with this "what have i gotten myself into?" look. so i don't think it's over just yet.
Plus, when Bischoff asked if they really had a bet, Jericho started trying to explain with "that's how it started" before Christian interupted.
The surprise appearance by The Rock was great, but I could do without his new "How's your lips?" catchphrase along with his silly story about knocking their lips off their face.
Birchall is doing a grand job as it is, calm yourself down. It has to be said, though, as impressive as the C4 looks, it's quite probably the least realistic looking wrestling move used in the northern hemisphere in the last 5 years.