Doctor G's Live InsurreXion review

[Guest TSMAdmin]

Note from Nik... Okay, I didn't write this, it was writen by Andrew "Doctor G" Rumney, who was unlucky enough to pay to see WWE live in Newcastle. Here's his full report.

 

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The card

 

Jazz vs. Trish

RVD and Kane vs. La Resistance

Christian vs. Booker T

Golddust vs. Rico

Dudley Boys vs. Long/Mack/Nowinski

Jericho/Austin/Bischoff Hi-Lite Reel

HHH vs. Kevin Nash

 

A revised Lonely Road Of Faith video played (slightly edited to replace the

scratch WWF with the WWE, and new clips of RVD etc) Loads of cheers for

Andre, Hulk, Bret, Owen, British Bulldog etc. Got a big reaction overall, as

the crowd was really hyped. A picture of Freddie Blassie was shown, that got

a big reaction too.

 

The Fink came out, gave the usual stuff about not taking photos with the

intention of selling them. Then the first dark match started. Someone we've

never seen came out to a flat reaction, some guy from Germany. I booed when

I saw he had the German colours on, and everyone else booed when they

announced where he was from. Out next was... Maven. We were hoping for

Ultimo, but hey, can't win all the time. He got one of the biggest freaking

pops of the night. My mate and I sat on our hands. We booed Maven quite a

lot, the rest of the crowd cheered him. Crap match, at one point I shouted

out "Stop wrestling in slow motion!" which got a laugh from the people sat

around us. Maven won with the dropkick from the top rope, posed for ages,

went back. Next out was Hurricane to a decent pop, then Storm who got a lot

of heat.

 

Match wasn't anything special, but we saw the neckbreaker, the cross body, a

dive over the rope onto the mat and the shining wizard, so we were happy.

Hurricane won with that last mentioned move, and posed for a bit.

 

The Fink got back on the mic and said we were about to go live. JESUS that

pyro was loud. The Telewest arena is tiny, and those explosions shook the

place down to it's foundations just about. The last one sent HUGE sparks

flying into the crowd, I saw them hit loads of people. The looks on their

faces were classic.

 

JR came out to a big pop, Jerry came out to a bigger pop, with a large Jerry

chant. Trish came out, then Jazz. Jazz had a lot of heat, surprisingly. A

small "She's a crackwhore" chant broke out, but despite our efforts, it

didn't catch on.

 

This was the time we started noticing the funny signs in the crowd.

 

"The guy behind me has SARS"

"My arms are tired"

"Booker T sold me crack"

"Austin beat my wife"

"I miss Nitro"

"I shagged Trish"

"Marks" (with arrows pointing everywhere)

"I'm with Hogan"

"Randy Orton, your ass is mine"

 

and a load of others that had us chuckling everytime they popped up. The

people here have had years since the last Newcastle WWE event to think up

some good signs.

 

The women wrestled for a bit, the crowd was still warming up so there wasn't

a HUGE reaction to the pin falls. Victoria came down and tried to interfere,

but was held back by officials. We chanted "She's a psycho!" but it didn't

catch on.

 

Long had some heat, especially when he ran in and threw Trish into the ring

post. Jazz picked up the win after that. Oh, and since the arena is so

small, the smoke from the pyros was floating around like a huge fog. A small

"We can't see" chant broke out. We watched through the smoke for the first

few matches.

 

They aired the Booker/Christian vid from Judgement Day. Booker came out to a

huge pop. The explosion was cool, but the "flames" looked pathetic. More

like small puffs of smoke. Christian came out to a large reaction, mostly

boos but some cheers. He had a lot of heat on him, lots of "Christian

sucks!" chants. Match went on for a while, Booker went for his side kick and

went OVER the top rope to the floor instead of landing on the rope. Looked

pretty good. Later on Christian came off the top rope only for Booker to hit

that kick again and catch him in mid air. Crowd went wild when Booker

motioned for the spin-a-roonie, which he delivered. Christian won by holding

the tights and the rope.

 

They opened the doors to the arena to try and get the smoke out, which

didn't really help.

 

We saw Austin backstage, and he told Teddy he was changing the match later

on. He added Long to the team of Mack and Nowinski to take on all three of

the Dudleys instead of just D'Von and Bubba. Austin got a big reaction, but

it was really hard to hear what they were saying. To be honest, we cared

more about Booker T as he was leaving. Got a big reaction as he went back up

the ramp.

 

Kane walked past Austin, and they started to talk, again it was hard to hear

what Austin was saying, then the picture went off and the opening image from

La Resistance's titontron video came on for about a minute before going back

to Austin. We could hear him, but all we saw was one half of the French

team. I think Austin was asking if Kane was gonna be a bad ass.

 

They showed the King and JR at their table as they talked to the people at

home. Obviously, we couldn't hear them, but a huge Jerry chant went out

which I started, and Jerry smiled and saluted us.

 

La Resistance came out and Rene got on the STICK¬! He said they hated the

English as much as the Americans. They didn't get too many boos when they

came out, but there was a lot of heat on them after he finished his promo.

RVD came out to one of the biggest pops of the night. No pyro though. Big

RVD chant and everybody was on their feet, arms in the air for the

announcement that he was Rob Van Dam. Didn't really have enough elbow room

for us all to do it, but we tried. Kane came out to a big pop. They had the

pyro for his entrance, but none for him in the ring.

 

Match wasn't too bad, RVD was insanely over, with constant RVD chants. He

hit a cool spot where he did a backflip onto one, flipped up, ran off the

rope and hit rolling thunder on the other. Kane hit the double chokeslam and

RVD went up for the frogsplash. Every camera in the arena went off for that.

During the match a huge "We hate Frenchies!" chant started (we really do)

Would be great if that started happening on normal shows, but it's not

likely since this was just a UK PPV. Kane did the explosion thing after the

win and Jesus it's loud. They walked past the ramp and got a huge reaction

as they left.

 

Air conditioning came on (to get rid of the smoke that was still there from

the very beginning, nevermind the pyro from Kane) and it sounded like a

bloody helicoptor. They shut it off after people booed because they couldn't

hear anything. Most of the smoke was gone.

 

Al Snow gave an interview with Goldust before the match. Rico's crowd

reaction is what you'd expect for somebody who hasn't been on TV much.

Goldust got a good pop. Match wasn't too bad. Earl Hebner was refeering this

match, two or three "You screwd Bret" chants started, but they were small.

My friend and I were chanting it as loud as we could, heh. Dust got the win

after a powerslam. Rico had gone for a moonsault earlier in the match, got a

LOT of height and distance on it, looked really good.

 

Y2J came out to possibly the biggest reaction all night. Huge cheers and a

big Y2J chant. He was coming out for the highlight reel, as they'd just set

up the ring. But it wasn't the big set you see on RAW, it was just a small

red carpet and two stools. Y2J finally got in the ring, still getting

cheered like hell. Called us all jackasses, got some boos for that. Touched

on how Newcastle lost the bid for Culture Capital of Europe to Liverpool,

got a lot of boos. Insulted us and said how pathetic the set was for his

show. Also said Bobby Robson was a failure (Newcastle Utd manager) Y2J

certainly did his homework.

 

His guest was Bischoff to came out to a hail of boos. They insulted us

together, and some "You fat bastard!" chants came out aimed at Bischoff.

Also some "asshole/arsehole" ones. I turned my head to the titontron JUST as

Austin's video played and the glass smashed to THE biggest pop of the night.

He came down, talked some trash, got a load of "What?"s, talked about

drinking.

 

"One pint! Two pints! Three pints! Four pints!" and so on until he got to

about 20 pints. The crowd was going wild. Had some words with Y2J, and he

said he was trying to hard not to lose his temper. I started a huge "Lose

it!" chant. He said he wouldn't because he wasn't insanely violent... but he

WAS violent. He told them he was making the HHH/Nash match a "good old

fashioned street fight." After making fun of them both, he drank a beer with

them (British sized cans of Miller) then stunnered Y2J. He talked to Eric,

then said something about not wanting to leave him out so he stunnered him

too. Drank some more beer, got some more thrown at him (one landed in the

crowd, heh) and went up the ramp.

 

Six man tag match with Rodney Mack/Long/Nowinski against the Dudleyz.

Dudleyz got a huge pop. Match wasn't too bad, some good moments and it

didn't drag. Crowd went wild for the wassup and then the "Get the tables!"

The Dudleyz won, Spike pinned Long, but afterwards the heels wanted to put

one of them through a table. Reversed. 3D through the table on Nowinski.

Crowd was going nuts.

 

The Freddie Blassie tribute came on and it got a massive, massive reaction,

with constant Freddie chants breaking out. First time most of us had seen it

since SmackDown would be on that night for us here in the UK. Really big

reaction, everybody was on their feet cheering or chanting. I read that JR

thanked the crowd for the reaction, but I'll have to check that when I see

the taped PPV.

 

They aired the video for Steiner/Test. Val came out as the special guest

referee to a big pop from the ladies. He introduced Stacy, who got a big pop

from the guys. My mate and I had the perfect view of her arse as she went

into the ring. Damn... She introduced Test (went through how she was

contracted to him and how he was her former boyfriend) He got booed, but

again we sat quietly, since we don't care about him. I shouted "You're a

hoss!" which got a laugh. Stacy introduced Steiner. We booed him, everyone

else cheered.

 

Match wasn't as God awful as you'd think, but then again, we were watching

Stacy. Test made her put on Val's towel. Got a big "Take it off" chant to

which she smiled. Later on she ripped it off. Steiner did all of 4 moves...

and that's including a punch. Won with that DDT style move. We were

constantly booing him, but the crowd seemed thoroughly behind him. I shouted

"Play it in fast forward!" which got a laugh. Spent the rest of the match

chanting "Boring." Only a few people joined in though.

 

Next was HHH/Nash. HBK came out first to a HUGE reaction. No pryo on the

stage. No pyro in the ring. Out came Nash, the crowd cheered, but again we

were booing. I was shouting "Where's your wheelchair?" The HHH fans sat in

front of us loved those. Nash got pyro, DAMN it was loud. Flair came out

with HHH, which was a shame, we wanted to see his entrance. Constant woos

from everybody. Even I had to clap at HHH's entrance. As much as I hate him,

it is pretty cool. As somebody once said, he can spit water better than

anyone else.

 

Constant boos and cries of "Boring!" from me and a few people around us.

Also shouted "Tear your quads!" a number of times. Flair was bleeding thirty

seconds into the match... and he wasn't even in it! He and HBK chased around

the ring. Flair was sent backstage, don't even know where HBK went. Flair

came back later, then HBK came back out and attacked him. I know all this

happened, since I wasn't even watching the snore fest in the ring. HHH got

the pedigree reversed on the ramp, and then they ended up next to the

announcing table. Can't even remember what happened, but nobody went through

it. So far, so crap. Some spots with a steel chair and some others with the

steel steps. HHH was soon bleeding.

 

Um... wasn't really paying attention to the rest but I know Nash had HHH

pinned after the powerbomb, but there'd been a ref bump, which we cheered

for, since Earl was refereeing again and there was about five or six large

"You screwed Bret!" chants throughout the match. They really seemed to

affect him. The small kid next to me obviously had no idea why we were

chanting that. He also seemed confused that we would boo Steiner and Nash.

 

Match ended with Nash about to powerbomb Flair but HHH hit him with the

sledgehammer and pinned him when the ref got up (one or two refs had come

down but either took a ref bump or were attacked by Flair)

 

HHH and Flair crawled up the ramp. Flair raised his hand. Nash was down for

ages, when he got up he got a big reaction. Obviously not from us, we were

still booing and chanting "Where's your wheelchair?" He did his arm raise

thing and looked to the crowd. HBK and an official helped him up the ramp.

JR and Jerry left (after much cheering) and the Fink thanked us.

 

Nothing special, no GOOD matches, but nothing too bad. Only two and a half

hours long, but there was only three backstage things, the one with

Austin/Long/Kane, one with Snow interviewing Goldust before the match and

one with Flair and HHH saying how unfair it was that it was a streetfight.

Each match was given enough time, but it's a shame Y2J didn't wrestle.

 

Top 5 pops:

Austin

RVD

Chris Jericho

Maven

Jerry Lawler

 

Top 5 heat:

Christian

Lance Storm

Test

La Resistance

HHH

 

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Andrew

[email protected]

 

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Drop him a line, and let him know what you think, and I'll be back this weekend. Nik.