House Show Report: St. John's, Newfoundland

[BifEverchad 0]

House Show Report: RAW Brand

Mile One Stadium, St. John's, Newfoundland

Attendence: Approx. 4800

 

 

First of all, I'd like to say there were a number of discrepancies between the card they presented on WWE.COM and the actual show. The show itself though was extremely entertaining, and was probably better han last year's SmackDown! house show we had here. Anyways, this was pretty much a carbon copy of the Guelph house show, with a few little differences thrown in here and there. My friends and I had a few beers to start off the night, so we were ready, willing and able for the show to start. By the time 7:30pm rolled around, we couldnt wait for the "Superstars of th RAW Brand" to emerge. And emerge they did as the first match started with....

 

 

Match #1: Maven vs. Rodney Mack

Typical opener. A decent heel reaction for Mack, as he made his way out first. Maven got a stereotypical first-babyface-of-the-night pop. Match was okay but nothing special; Maven won with a highcross body off the ropes, followed by the 1-2-3. Fair opener, got the fans going. Only downslide, no Teddy Long.

 

 

Match #2: Trish Stratus & Lita vs. Molly Holly & Gail Kim

The heel team came out first to a chorus of boos, except for a small pop Gail kim got when she hit the corner and showed off her nice, nice body. Too bad she can't show off her nice, nice wrestling skills, like Molly, but hey? Anyways, huge pops for both Trish and Lita. Surprisingly Jazz was announced as the special guest referee, before the match and actually called things straight down the line until late in the match, when she turned on the faces (big surprise). She finally got hers when Lita hit the Twist of Faith on her, to a great pop. Trish pulled off the Stratusfere and pinned Molly as Charles Robinson ran in to count the 1-2-3.

 

 

Match #3: Lance Storm vs. Test w/Stacy Keibler

Test came out first. He got a decent pop because we all know Newfoundlanders love Canadian wrestlers, and they usually get the biggest pops of the night. Stacy got a huge ovation as well, since not many people were expecting her to be there. Test turned the crowd on him immediately by cutting a heel promo saying how he moved to Florida as soon as he got rich enough to leave this stinkhole called Canada. He furthered his heel heat by not letting Stacy in the ring. Lance came out to another enormous pop, much just like last year's show. Good back-and-forth match between the two that say a good number of false finishes. Lance finally got the pinfall victory, when he slid out of the powerslam, and nailed Test with a Savate Kick to end it at around 8 minutes. After the match, Storm invited Stacy into the ring to dance with him. Stacy said she would, just as long as Lance danced with her. So, her music hit and the two got 'jiggy' with it ion the middle of the ring. Pretty hilarious stuff here. Got a great reaction from the crowd until Test finally broke it up and took Stacy out of the ring. Great match and one of the top candidates for MOTN.

 

 

Match #4: Garrison Cade & Mark Jindrak vs. Tommy Dreamer & Steven Richards w/Victoria

Cade and Jindrak came out first, to a reasonable babyface reaction. Then Dreamer, Richards and Victoria emerged...wearing the hometown sports jersey (the St John's Maple Leafs hockey team). They got a surprisingly big pop, too. Richards and Victoria actually played the face role pretty well, as did Dreamer, of course. Lots and lots of ECW chants during this one, which was pretty surprising coming from a market which didnt recieve much ECW, other than its short stint on TNN in 1999/2000. It was pretty much a comedy match, with Cade and Jindrak pulling out the homoerotic gimmick at times, ala Billy & Chuck. Despite Victoria interfering, Cade and Jindrak somehow got the win, which disappointed the hot crowd.

 

 

Match #5: Kane vs. Shane McMahon in a Street Fight Match

The crowd seemed a little surprised to see this one so far up on the card. Both Kane and Shane-O-Mac got big pops, and that continued throughout the match. The match started off with Shane sneeking in through the crowd, accompanied with a kendo stick. Other than a bit of brawling, some inside th ring, some outside, it was actually pretty short. All the requisite weapons were brought into play: the kendo stick, a trashcan lid, a chair. Shane got the win following a Van Terminator! GREAT reaction for that one, as Shane pulled the 'upset' on the 'monster'. After the match, Sgt Slaughter came out to check on one of the referees, which got him a great "Slaughter' chant from the fans.

 

 

Then the t-shirt guy came out, followed by a fifteen-minute intermission. I was *this* close to getting a shirt, but not really.

 

 

Match #6: Val Venis vs. Mark Henry

Ouch. Probably not the greatest match in the world to have coming back from the break, but anyways. Little reaction to Henry, as he cut an anti-Goldberg promo before the match. Val then came out, but only got lukewarm pops. This match was just gross, and wasnt even HeAT calibur. A few Goldberg chants started, which Henry played up to, but other than that, nothing good here at all. Henry got the pin, after the World's Strongest Slam. After the match, Val got the ref to throw his towel into the crowd. Which got the fans going, but why? It was only Val Venis' towel, I mean seriously.

 

 

Match #7: Rob Van Dam vs Randy Orton for the Intercontinental Title

By process of elimination, my friends and I assumed that this would be the Main Event, since Kane and Shane wasn't. But, we were wrong, there was another one after this. Anyways, Randy Orton came out to some decent heel heat. I have to admit though, the Evolution theme music is awesome. Orton gets on the mic first, and talks about he IS the 'Legend Killer', but since there were no legends in the building, he was going to go after the IC Title instead. RVD came out to a MASSIVE pop. Great match-up, with both wrestlers getting in plenty of offense. This was probably the best 'wrestling' match of the night. RVD got the win with the Five Star Frog Splash.

 

 

The Fink came out to thank the fans of St. John's for the great reactions the wrestlers had been getting, and apologised that WWE can't come to Newfoundland more often. He said we were one of WWE's best audiences they've ever had. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess he says that in pretty much every city they go to, but all in all it was still a nice gesture.

 

 

Match #8 - The Main Event: The Dudley Boyz vs Rene Dupree & Rob Conway for the Tag Team Titles

Lots of great heel heat for Dupree and Conway, and a gigantic pop for Bubba and D-Von. But before the match got underway, the Fink announced he had a special surprise: RAW Co-GM Steve Austin had authorised a special stipulation for the match... which would be chosen by the fans! The crowd loved this and immediately started chanting 'tables! tables!'. Fink suggested either a no-DQ match or a Falls Count Anywhere match - both of

which sounded good to Dupree and Conway, but of course the "tables" chants had already drowned him out by now, so a Tables Match it was. Great match, far better than what I expected from these two teams. A close call when Dupree & Conway tried to put Bubba through the table and D-Von was a little slow pulling it away, but fortunately only the corner of the table got broke. Finally, Dupree & Conway attacked the Dudleyz with their French flag, prompting Spike to do a run-in, and hit the Dudley Dog on Conway, allowing his brothers to send Dupree through the table via a Bubba Bomb off the top to win the match and retain their titles.

 

After the match, the Dudleyz invited a young boy from ringside and a mentally-disabled man into the ring, each getting a piece of the table as a souvenir. A good five-minute-long post match show, as Bubba and the Dudleyz thanked St. John's and said see ya next time! before going to the back.

 

 

All in all, this was a great show, probably exceeding last year's SmackDown! event. Great moments in all the matches, and the crowd was red hot, all night. Match of the Night for me, was probably Rob Van Dam vs Randy Orton, with Test and Lance Storm being a very close second.

 

 

Biggest Pops

1. Dudley Boyz

2. Rob Van Dam

3. Lance Storm

4. Trish Stratus & Lita

5. Dreamer & Richards

 

 

Biggest Heat

1. Test

2. Rene Dupree & Rob Conway

3. Randy Orton

4. Rodney Mack

5. Jazz

 

 

Some interesting notes, from after the show. As the group of friends I was with, kinda split up after the show ended, two of us stayed as everyone else filed out and finished off one last beer. As we sat there and chatted about the show, the ring guys and the arena workers immediately started to take down the ring, fold up chairs and clear the floor out. As they started loosing the ropes, and taking off the aprons, my friend and I decided to stay as long as we could before someone could kick us out. I mean, its not everyday you get to see the crew take down the ring, and see whats actually underneath. As some of the workers asked us to leave, we kept prolonging the situation, and continued to stay in the seats and watch the guys strip the ring down. So, here's the offical breakdown of whats uder the WWE mat. First is obviously the canvas, then a thin layer of foam insultant, then strips of plywood, kinda like a tiled basketball cort, and then the steel stringers and beams underneath the actual structure. So about 30 minutes went on, and finally one of the suit and tie guys from the Mile One Stadium kindly asked us to leave, and we did. But it was fun to watch, and answered our questions of what the ring was actually made up of.

 

Another interesting note, was when we were leaving the building, some fans were crowded around the side doors waiting for some of the wrestlers I guess. So we just went over, as it was on our way to a local pub anyways, to see what was up. The only wrestler we seen was Randy Orton, who was decked off in a white track suit. He totally ignored the fans and didnt even acknowledge their cheers and/or boos. He just seemed more accupied with whether or not his friends were coming to pick him up. Two large dudes (not any wrestlers that were on the card) then pulled up in a Jeep Liberty and Orton went to the window and nodded his head (still ignoring everyone) and then got in his own rental car and the two vehicles drove off, leaving the crowd with no good memories of Mr. Orton. He could of at least smiled, or wave, but nothing. Some kids that were next to us were especially disappointed, and called him a 'jerk'. Anyways, the rain started to come down, and we finally left.

Edited October 5, 2003 by BifEverchad

[Guest Askewniverse]

Shane got the win following a Van Terminator! GREAT reaction for that one, as Kane pulled the 'upset' on the 'monster'.

Kane pulled the upset on the "monster?" That doesn't really make sense, since Shane won the match. Now if Kane had won, then that statement might make sense, since everybody knows how much of a monster Shane McMahon is.

 

Well, either that, or you meant to say that Shane pulled the upset.

[BifEverchad 0]

Shane got the win following a Van Terminator! GREAT reaction for that one, as Kane pulled the 'upset' on the 'monster'.

Kane pulled the upset on the "monster?" That doesn't really make sense, since Shane won the match. Now if Kane had won, then that statement might make sense, since everybody knows how much of a monster Shane McMahon is.

 

Well, either that, or you meant to say that Shane pulled the upset.

Oops!

 

EDIT.