Raw from JHawk's Beak (February 24)

[Guest TSMAdmin]

Raw from JHawk's Beak (2/24/2003)

by Jared "JHawk" Hawkins

 

I hate goodbyes. I need more hellos: I hate that this is becoming a weekly thing. I would like to express my condolences to the friends and family of Tony Altimore, who passed away this weekend at the age of 74. Altimore is best known as one half of the Sicilians tag team with Capt. Lou Albano. They held the United States Tag Team Title (which evolved into the current WWE Raw "World Tag Team Title") for two weeks back in 1967 and had a lot of success in the northeast and around the country. Allow me to once again toll the bell 10 times for another fallen member of the professional wrestling fraternity.

DING!

 

DING!

 

DING!

 

DING!

 

DING!

 

DING!

 

DING!

 

DING!

 

DING!

 

DING!

Thank you.

 

E-mail of the Week: This week goes to the first e-mail I received from John Capobianco.

 

 

Is there nothing we can do? I have actually taken to reading rants and reviews and watching my Wrestlemania boxed set and other various DVDs to fill the void of a good wrestling show. Short history: Saw Andre V Studd (w/Heenan) at Kingston Memorial Centre (cap. 4,000 tops) in about 1984. First 3 Mania's via closed curcuit at same place. Never missed a single PPV, Raw, Nitro, etc from 90-current. Go to house shows when I can, host weekly Raw/Nitro parties for about 3 years. NOW WHAT? Honeslty I am the guy Vince wants. Their stories? I mean it is so messed up I dont need to point to specific instances of shit but come on. EVERY angle is wrong in some way. THE FOUNDATION STORIES that feed other smaller stories are wrong themselves. No trades, hardcore matches, people fired, alliances, blown matches, blown spots, old, fat, bald, YELLOW, pose down, dead doll raping, etc etc etc ...

 

anyway here are my top 5 turn around angles if you weeeel

 

1. Jericho / Nature Boy Feud - Replace how this went down (Fozzy, HHH over Flair, etc) with this - Jericho beats Flair for a month with dirty wins using Natures signature dirty moves Flair wants 1 more PPV shot to regain his pride Jericho, desperatly needing an updated monicher (y2J + 3 dont cut it) wants Nature Boy name and Flair to retire. They go broadway with Flair losing via doublecrossing AA, Jericho is now the Nature Boy Chris Jericho with new version of Flair theme (guitars) robe hair all of it. Flair regains heat by costing new Nature Boy the title at next PPV and retires AA in a loser leaves Earth match or whatever

 

2. Hogan puts Giant over in a WWE version of WCW battle this time without monster trucks or roof bumps. Giant can attack hogan at some shillfestmania or whatever and maybe, just maybe, get over as a legit heel

 

3. Undertaker is destroyed by Dudley/Some tag threat and gets a terrible face burn as angle..comes back as Kane's tag partner with matchin suit but opposite red/black with mask and all.. both stay in mid card hell of ever jobbing to TE III teams

 

4. I cant stand it why do I do fantasy booking. I am a mark. That is the bottom line. I need a good wrestling show. 2 hours a week. 5 years ago, 3 years ago even I could get almost 10 hours a week of GOOD wrestling shows.

 

Its all over. I am going to follow something that is either sports or entertainment, because the pair is neither right now.

 

 

For someone that doesn't like fantasy booking, that is one hell of a scenario for Flair and Jericho. But nothing is going to change unless Vince McMahon wants it to, and right now it doesn't appear that he wants it to. Thank God for the magic of videotape, that's all I can say. As always, drop me a line at the feedback address at the bottom of the column if you want to be immortalized in the E-mail of the Week.

 

No Way Out thoughts: I caught the show at a bar last night, but I got outvoted as to whether to go home or not after the show, so I was unable to contribute my thoughts anyplace before. So let's do the summary review before Dames' Diatribe goes up:

 

Chris Jericho vs. Jeff Hardy: A tad longer than I was hoping for, but a solid opener thanks to Chris Jericho. You have to love that Montreal crowd, as that crowd loved Jericho. I'm shocked Shawn Michaels actually got the type of pop he did in Montreal. I expected him to be run out of town.

 

Lance Storm/William Reagl vs. Rob Van Dam/Kane: I'm a mark for everybody but Kane, but I couldn't get into this one. Rather slow, no real sense of psychology that I could see, and I didn't like the finish worth a damn. Had Coach not said Storm was moving the mask, I would have thought he was going for an eye gouge.

 

Matt Hardy vs. Billy Kidman: A very solid cruiserweight match. For whatever reason a lot of people trashed this match before it ever happened (since when does being bland affect the in-ring work?), but I thought it was very good. Some good near falls, and a terrific finish in my opinion.

 

The Undertaker vs. The Big Show: Whoever gave the order to have this one go 15 minutes needs to be taken out behind the barn and put out of his misery. Good for a big man match, and much better than I expected, but neither one is saying much.

 

Team Angle/Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit/Brock Lesnar: The usual good stuff out of this group, although Angle still can't get any real discernable advantage over Lesnar leading into WrestleMania. My main problem with it is that Brock is starting look way too strong. Brock's win at WrestleMania will not have the same effect if there isn't at least the appearance that Angle can beat him.

 

Triple H vs. Scott Steiner: What can I say about this except "At least it was better than their Royal Rumble match"? Still slow, still plodding, and the outside interference, while expected, still doesn't do anything to help it.

 

Steve Austin vs. Eric Bischoff: This was a perfectly booked, fun-to-watch little match. And the bar crowd popped HUGE for Austin. But a squash is a squash is a squash.

 

The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan: Yeah, we get it, a screwjob finish in Montreal. Only this time with an ECW twist. Decent enough match, but let the Montreal finish die already. You wonder why Montreal fans keep chanting "You screwed Bret" when you do finishes like this. By the way, maybe we in Ohio have different tastes than the rest of you, but Rock's entrance video was met with chants of "Get on with it already!" It might have been the alcohol talking too.

 

With decisions like this, you'd think Vince wants to go out of business: Apparently Paul Heyman is off the SmackDown! creative team but will be an "advisor" for both Raw and SmackDown! Basically, Heyman doesn't kiss Vince McMahon's ass, so Vince basically gets to tell him "Screw having a kickass show, because I need my ego stroked, damn it!" Earth to Vince: HEYMAN'S NOT THE FUCKING PROBLEM! Look in the mirror! Hopefully this means Raw has some sense of...what's the word I'm looking for?...being good.

 

Tonight: Booker T and Scott Steiner vs. Randy Orton and Batista! Jazz vs. Jacqueline! Jerry Lawler vs. Chief Morley! Kane (w/Rob Van Dam) vs. Lance Storm (w/William Regal)! Will Eric Bischoff get payback on Steve Austin? Who's going to step up to play "The Game"? Have they actually thought as far ahead as WrestleMania? Or next week? Or tomorrow's SmackDown! taping?

 

Segment 1

 

LIVE from the Air Canada Centre in beautiful Toronto, Ontario, Canada!

 

And let's kick it off with Easy E, who has an arm in a sling, a black eye, and one leg dragging behind him, but interestingly enough, no signs of neck damage after three or four Stone Cold Stunners! Bill Watts would fire him for that. He's still standing, but he's hardly able to talk because of his swollen cheeks. Austin's been banned from the building (blatant false advertising there), and tonight's main event is a 20-man battle royal to determine Triple H's challenger at WrestleMania. Austin will be at Raw next week, and he'll meet Bischoff's personal welcoming committee. But with no Austin, the spotlight is on the "biggest star in the history of this industry". Cue The Rock's entrance video! The entire thing. And here comes Rocky wants to be in pictures. A trade? We're doing those? Will we acknowledge the other half of the deal? And someone brought a Rock sign when he shows up unannounced. Hmmm.... Rocky's got the stick! Get on with it already! Finally The Rock has started his promo, and he insults Toronto. Rocky is on Raw, if you didn't figure that out five minutes ago when he first came out here. Rocky's on Raw because...he whooped Hogan's candy ass, then Vince told him to go wherever. I thought they weren't allowed to jump ship without a trade. Rocky mocks the people cheering the mention of "Toronto". That is gold! See, Toronto is where it all started -- "where the people turned on the People's Champion." WrestleMania to be exact, with 68,000 "mother Canuckers" booing him out of the building. In fairness, not too many of those were actually from Toronto. Crowd chants "Hogan", and Rock says "This is Raw. Hogan's on SmackDown. Hogan's not here." Did you think Rocky forgot getting booed in Toronto? It doesn't matter what they think! But one thing bothered Rock more than that. Raw's Tenth Anniversary. Rock wasn't voted Superstar of the Decade by the people. I don't remember them actually publishing that ballot. Austin won, if you forgot (or blocked it out). The Rock doesn't love Stone Cold. He's nothing compared to The Rock. Rocky says the Maple Leafs suck, and I don't follow hockey closely enough to know if he's right on that or not. That draws an "asshole" chant though. And a huge "You sold out" chant. When did Rocky leave ECW? But tonight, there's a big battle royal tonight, and Rocky wants in. And he says he'll become World Heavyweight Champion, if you smell...don't sing along with The Rock ("take your boos and stick them up your maple syrup sucking asses")...is cooking.

 

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Mixed feelings about this promo. Some of it was absolute gold, especially when he was mocking the crowd reactions to every little thing. Good stuff. But basically, he got somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 minutes to cut essentially the same promo he had already cut on SmackDown last week. Now he's in the top contenders battle royal tonight, and realistically he can't win if they're pushing the Austin thing, but they can't have Austin cost him the match without throwing in one huge logic gap.

 

Segment 2

 

Scott Steiner and Booker T vs. Batista and Randy Orton tonight. And Good Ol' JR and The Pharaoh are joined by Steven Richards and Victoria.

 

One fall: Jacqueline vs. Jazz

 

Last week, Jazz beat Jacky to win the tag team match and beat her down afterwards, but Jazz and Victoria were getting into it. Jazz kicks Jacky even before the opening bell. Hard bodyslam. Jacky counters a side slam by hitting an ugly looking flying headscissors. Out of the ring they go, and Jacky drops Jazz facefirst onto the apron. Back in, and Jazz levels Jacky with a clothesline. Series of punches, but Jazz with a knee to the midsection, and then a 180 power bomb that forces Jacky to land on her face. Dragon screw into the half crab and eventually into the STF for the submission in 2:25. Holy crap, did that suck. DUD Jazz has the stick, and "The bitch is back." Interestingly enough, that cues Trish the Cheating Bitch's crappy music, and Trish returns in her hometown and takes Jazz down with a Thesz press. Victoria charges the ring against Stevie's wishes and gets taken down with the Chick Kick just before the referees come out to break up the catfight.

 

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So Molly is relegated to Heat (if we're lucky) to give us this abomination of a women's match. Lousy lousy match which is only there to build the three way Jazz-Victoria-Trish feud, and I'm assuming we're getting a triple threat at WrestleMania. Quite honestly, putting Trish in there now takes away from what had been a nicely built Jazz-Victoria storyline, but Trish's involvement makes sense. She's been in the feud with Victoria since Victoria got there, and Jazz put her out of action.

 

Segment 3

 

Tonight, Lawler vs. Morley in a no disqualification match. Remember GGW? Here's an in-depth look. This past Friday in Gainesville, Florida, Joe Francis met Test, and he's got to miss the party to pick the finalist for "Miss Girls Gone Wild". Why wasn't I given that job? The winner kisses him on the cheek.

 

Backstage live, Test and Maven discuss it, and he insults everything else Stacy made her do, and now that she knows it's "Girls Gone Wild", she's not happy. My Future Wife comes in and she bitches about it. But in comes Chief Morley, and since they were laughing at Bischoff last night, Test and Stacy meet Christian and Chris Jericho tonight...or they're fired. Oh what the hell! Weren't all the faces laughing last night? Test promises nothing will happen. Your hosts analyze the seemingly forgotten feud.

 

Let's remind you of Goldust's electrocution from three weeks ago, and JR sat down this week with Goldust. How is he feeling? "You either die or you live, and thankfully I lived." Booker T recently said Goldy ain't right, and there have been those rumors for years. Booker's been his supporter...and he stutters halfway through it. Yep, the Tourette's Syndrome gimmick is starting. As long as he takes his medication, everything will work itself out. What would he say to Batista and Orton? "You don't know what it feels like to be one the edge of death, but when this is all said and done, you will never forget the name of Goldust."

 

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Great, Stacy gets to wrestle. Even I, the ultimate Stacy mark, do not want to see that. Notice how the woman sets him up to do the GGW thing and then gets pissed that he went through with it? That's like going to the strip club with your boyfriend and getting pissed when he actually watches the stripper get naked.

 

As for Goldust's gimmick...please hire wrestling people to come up with the gimmicks and leave the failed comedy writers to doing stand up routines in some hole in the ground. I'll give the gimmick some time to see if it catches on, but a wrestler who actually stutters would never get a push because he can't talk.

 

Segment 4

 

One fall: Kane (w/Rob.....................Van......................Dam) vs. Lance Storm (w/William Regal)

 

Regal apparently suffered a concussion last night. Storm goes onto Kane's back but gets rammed into the turnbuckle. Corner whip, and he struggles to lift Storm for the Gorilla press. Out to the floor (not by choice) goes Storm. Storm in, but Kane is waiting for him. Elbow by Storm. Big boot by Kane. HIIIIIIIIIGH elbowdrop. Storm avoids Snake Eyes and drapes Kane's throat over the top rope. Up top...missile dropkick for 2. Dropkick, and Kane sits up. Forearms by Storm, and he goes for the mask, but Kane shoves him off and hits two choke slams for the win at 2:23. 3/4* Way to make Storm look good, guys. ::rolls eyes:: RVD's in the ring for the celebration, but he's not happy.

 

Don't Call Me Dave Batista and Randy Orton are backstage, and Orton is back tonight (at only 99%). In comes The Man (WHOO!) to encourage them to keep Evolution's winning streak alive. That match is next.

 

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One-half of the World Tag Team Champions gets pinned in less than three minutes by one of the men his team beat the night before. Does that make sense to anybody? But hey, he hit a rope clothesline and two dropkicks before taking the fall. It appears they're going to through with breaking Kane and RVD up, which leaves how many tag teams on Raw's face side exactly?

 

Hey guys, you might want to change the ad for the Youngstown house show now that Edge won't be there. I will be there on March 9 though, so look for the onsite report that weekend.

 

Segment 5

 

Tag Team Contest scheduled for one fall: Big Poppa Steroid Pump and Booker T vs. Don't Call Me Dave Batista and Randy Orton (w/The Man WHOO!)

 

Booker pinned Triple H in a tag team match on last week's Raw, and I assume that's contributed to this match as much as the Goldust electorcution did. I love Flair's music. Goosebumps baby, goosebumps. Booker and Orton start. Lockup, push to the ropes, Orton right hand. Booker fights back. Leg lariat. Side slam for 2. Chops aplenty. Forearm. Heel kick. More forearms and chops. Reversal of a whip, and Flair trips Booker. Steiner goes after Flair, which enables Batista to enter illegally and spinebuster Booker. There's the legal tag. Corner elbows. Corner whip and a clothesline for 2. Ramming Booker into the corner and the tag to Orton. Series of punches as Flair holds the ankle. Powerslam for 2. Kneelift. Trading punches as Lawler mentions the history of injuries in the Orton family. Booker with a spinebuster. In comes Batista, and he gets hit with a spinning leg lariat. Flair distracts Nick Patrick and Booker get sent to the heel corner. Batista in legally, and he locks in a bearhug. The crowd tries to rally behind Booker. Knees and forearms and a tag to Orton. Orton locks in a sleeperhold. The copyright notice starts hour #2, and Booker works to his feet. Elbows to the midsection, but Orton with a knee. Booker with a knee, and there's the scissor kick! Batista runs in, gets hit by Booker's superkick, and again Booker gets dragged to the heel corner before he can tag. Steiner's finally had enough and comes in to clean house. Steiner's getting booed "because he's wearing red white and blue," sayeth JR. Steiner brings Flair in and locks in the Steiner Recliner, but Batista nails him, then throws Booker to the mat. Batista beats on Steiner on the floor while Booker lays down in the ring. Orton up top, and there's the flying bodypress, but Booker rolls through it for the pin at 7:45. Steiner is never legally in the ring, and I got to say that improved the match quite a bit. * 3/4

 

Let's rehash part of The Rock's promo tonight since he's in the battle royal. But next, Stacy wrestles the men, and not in the fun way!

 

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Not a great match by any stretch of the imagination, but the push appears to be on for Booker T. He got the pin on the champion last week, then gets the pin off of a returning Orton after being in the ring from bell-to-bell. Get rid of the bearhug and possibly the sleeper and you have a decent match there. But why do you need restholds in a tag match? That's what the partner's for, isn't it? Unless you're working a body part and use holds based toward that, there's not really a need for the rest. Still, not bad in comparison to the rest of the card.

 

Segment 6

 

Austin returns to Raw next week! Why not tonight for a usually hot Toronto crowd?

 

Tag Team Contest scheduled for one fall: Y2J+3 and ChrisTIAN vs. Test and My Future Wife

 

Stacy gets face heat for looking damn good in a Maple Leafs jersey. Test goes for Jericho, but Christian cuts him off and we're underway. Tilt-a-whirl slam, and Test hammers away at him. Jericho over to the other corner, and he pulls Stacy off the apron, and her face hits the apron going down. Test wants a press slam, but Jericho comes in and hits Test with a chair. That's a DQ in 1:15. DUD But the beating continues. Christian with the Unprettier, and Jericho's handcuffing Test to the middle rope. And they go out and roll Stacy into the ring. Test tries to make a save but can't for obvious reasons. Walls of Jericho applied to Stacy, and Stacy is doing a poor acting job in trying to sell it. Mr. Extreme runs out to try to make the save, but Christian takes him down with the Unprettier. Test finally grabs Stacy's hand, but Christian kicks their hands apart. Finally the Holy Bible Kid makes the save and frees Test.

 

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This might have worked to get Jericho over as a badass heel had they not been in Canada. Nothing surprising or earth-shattering here. I guess that's Test and Stacy's punishment for not making the trip to Columbus last week. Let's move it right along.

 

Segment 7

 

It's a snowy night in Toronto, but apparently they're not blizzard-like conditions tonight. Vince Carter is in the crowd tonight!

 

One fall: Mr. Extreme vs. Christopher Nowinski

 

Hardy has just gotten to his feet after the Unprettier last segment. Chris has the stick. Which isn't working. There we go! "You nobly tried to save the damsel in distress, but in a cruel twist of fate, you failed. But I'm sure you're used to that." Hardy jumps him, hits a reverse Twist of Fate, THEN the bell rings, and a Swanton Bomb wins it in 13 seconds. And if that's not bad enough, Hardy continues to beat on Nowinski after the match. Jack Doan reverses the decision, so Nowinski wins the match by disqualification. Since the bell shouldn't have rung anyway, good! DUD And Hardy chases Nowinski to the locker room just to be a dick.

 

The King wrestles NEXT!

 

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Interesting. Not the match, but the fact that they wait until they decide to keep Hardy as a face before he finally starts wrestling like a heel. Ya gotta love that booking. It's a refreshing little tweaking of Hardy's character, at least. Reversed decisions suck, but since the match was essentially over before the bell even rang...oh wait, I'm discussing rules on a wrestling program. Never mind.

 

Segment 8

 

RVD is warming up backstage, and in comes Kane to complain about Rock entering the battle royal. He promises to eliminate The Rock and win it. RVD says to go ahead and throw Rocky out, but he thinks he'll win it tonight.

 

The Rock is on his cell phone, and if Austin doesn't like what The Rock says, then just tell him face-to-face in Long Island next week. "Have that pie ready." So he's talking to a chick, we know that much. Rocky grabs an acoustic guitar, and if that's really him playing, he's quite good. And he sings for us. "Canadians got no class/That's why they can kiss the people's ass". In comes The Hurricane. Rock was loved by millions, and now he trashes the people? WUZUPWITDAT? Rock: "Who in the green hell are you? Oh, I know you! You're the Hamburglar!" Rock tells Hurricane that he's nothing. "Aquaman, the guy who talks to the fish? He can beat that ass!" Hurricane: "I know one superhero I can beat. The Scorpion King. Brendan Fraser beat the Scorpion King." Rock: "That was a special effect in the movie!" Hurricane asks if he can fly, because he's going over the top tonight. He leaves.

 

No Disqualifcation Match: The Pharaoh vs. Chief Morley

 

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The Hurricane and The Rock trading witty banter on the stick? Gold, baby! Pure 24 karat gold! Some great lines there but both guys, and the live crowd got really into it. Maybe this will lead to at least a minor Hurricane push, but my guess is that Rock eliminates Hurricane tonight to send him back into lower midcard hell. Great stuff though.

 

Segment 9

 

No Disqualifcation Match: The Pharaoh vs. Chief Morley

 

I hate when they start the introductions before the break. The fans get to watch Lawler stand there for three minutes. Exciting, huh? This was set up because Lawler tried to save JR from Morley and Bischoff's double team. Morley's finally in wrestling gear and looking in great shape. Right hands by Morley to start. Boot choke in the corner. Lawler comes back with a clothesline. Back bodydrop. Series of punches to the face. Lawler tosses Morley over the top rope and follows him out as the crowd directs "You screwed Bret" chants toward Earl Hebner. Lawler reverses a whip and sends Morley into the ring steps. Morley reverses the whip this time and sends Lawler to the ringpost. Ramming Lawler's back to the post before sending him back into the ring. Rolling vertical suplexes for 2. A couple of kicks to the ribs, and Earl warns him despite the no DQ stip. Chops in the corner. Lawler punches back but runs into a spinebuster for 2. Morley to the top for the Money Shot, but he doesn't go for the cover. Outside goes Morley, and he grabs a chair. JR bitches even though it's legal. Earl kicks the chair away from Morley, and from behind come the Reunited Damn Dudley Boyz with a 3D to Morley. They set King up on the turnbuckle, Lawler looks at them like "what the hell are you doing", but he comes off with the flying fistdrop and gets the pin at 4:46. That's probably the most boring no DQ match I've ever seen. DUD

 

The battle royal is next!

 

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Morley, who has wrestled sporadically in the past year, against Lawler, who is well past his prime, and it showed here. When the only person in the ring getting any type of reaction is the referee, and that's for something not related to the match, you know you're in for a long night. No explanation of how the Dudleys got in the building, but at least JR acknowledged that they were still suspended. This was filler for the sake of filler.

 

Segment 10

 

Austin returns to Raw next week. We get it already!

 

JR congratulates Lawler on his victory.

 

Batista and Orton are backstage, and Flair encourages one of them to win the battle royal tonight. Orton wants a piece of Booker T.

 

The Rock is walking toward the ring.

 

Top Contenders Over The Top Rope Battle Royal

 

The participants make their way to the ring. But before they can all get to the ring...

 

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Not much to say really. Keep an eye on Orton and Booker, I guess.

 

Segment 11

 

Top Contenders Over The Top Rope Battle Royal

 

These things are a bitch to follow (hell, even production misses an elimination or two half the time), so I'm not going real in-depth with the commentary until somewhere in the final 10. Probably around 5 or 6 remaining. Jericho and Christian hit the floor as Test enters the ring. Rocky enters last. The bell rings and everyone goes after The Rock. Test is eliminated by Jericho and Christian, and Jericho eliminates himself to get away from him. Jamal goes over the top but lands on the apron...but he gets kicked off and is gone. Why is Earl in the ring? The last battle royal on Raw was 10/23/1995, won by Owen Hart. Storm saves himself and slides back in. Tommy Dreamer is eliminated by Rock. Rock eliminates Maven. Steiner eliminates Steven Richards. Is Booker T even out there? There he is! He got lost in the shuffle. Booker and Steiner are working as a team for the most part. Batista and Orton eliminate RVD, and the crowd is PISSED! Batista eliminates Al Snow. Hurricane dumps Rodney Mack. Rock goes after Hurricane, and Hurricane fights back. Choke slam is countered by a low blow, and out goes The Hurricane. Booker knocks Rocky through the ropes, and Rock pulls Booker underneath the rope. Storm and Hardy brawl on the apron but get back in. Rocky starts heading for the locker room. And he heads for the broadcast booth. Lawler: "You gotta be better than Coach." Rock admits to merely taking a break until everybody else is gone. Orton eliminates Hardy. Orton is eliminated, then Steiner, then Batista. Rosey and Storm double team Kane as Booker and Christian work each other over. Storm holds Kane against the corner for Rosey to avalanche him. Rosey misses another avalanche, and Kane clotheslines him over the top rope. He's met by Storm. Off the middle rope, but Kane grabs him by the throat and dumps Storm over. Final Four: Kane, Booker, Christian, Rock. Rock makes his way back to the ring. Kane choke slams Booker and works over Christian. Christian onto Kane's back, and Rock comes in from behind and eliminates both of them. Down to Rock and Booker. And Booker is still down from the choke slam. Booker starts to fire back. Series of chops. Rock with a DDT, then he looks at the hand a la Booker. Headsmash into the turnbuckle. Rock goes for the win, but Booker reverses and sends Rocky over for the win at 12:23. BOOKER T IS GOING TO WRESTLEMANIA! This was more boring than a Cleveland Cavs game, but the right guy went over. 1/2* Top contender spinnaroonie! Rock sits on the ramp and claps. Booker continues to celebrate.

 

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END OF SHOW

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The right guy went over, but most of the stories they had going coming in were non-existent. Orton and Booker barely touched each other, Test and Jericho were gone very quickly, RVD and Kane never hooked it up...so basically, this didn't really further too many feuds. But they've finally guaranteed that Booker T is at least going to get his shot at WrestleMania, and hopefully they shock us all and have the right guy win there too.

 

No HHHater Clock this week. I like that! A LOT!

 

Overall, bad bad show from an in-ring standpoint (my only rating over * is probably pretty damn generous), but from a storyline standpoint, they've started working on WrestleMania rather nicely. Missed opportunities in the battle royal aside, we've got a couple of ways to go with Jericho (Test should meet Christian one-on-one if they both make the card), the Rock-Austin match is being built-up -- and that's another rant altogether that I won't bother with tonight -- and of course, the World Title match is set. It should be interesting to see how the granddaddy of them all shapes up.

 

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