"WWE 2/5 Hiroshima Sun Plaza results"

[Guest wildpegasus]

Check out www.puroresupower.com in the news section.

 

 

Results for the 2/5 Hiroshima Sun Plaza show are up. TV details too.

[Guest Quik]

Did the crowd in Hiroshima cower in fear when the Dudley's pyro went off?

[Guest BionicRedneck]

Poor. Very poor.

[Placebo Effect 0]

(WWE)

The hot word coming out of the Hiroshima Sun Plaza show on Thursday is that Vince McMahon will show up for the Saitama Super Arena show in Omiya on Saturday. Not verified fully, but expected. Fuji TV is setting up TV equipment to tape the Saturday show. The discussion is that the next Japanese tour (either RAW or Smackdown) will occur in August, starting out in Sapporo and finishing in Yokohama.  Regarding the attendance for the Hiroshima Sun Plaza (without a Titantron, they could fit 6,000 in the building), most reports were 70% capacity. The only concrete figure actually given was 2,800 (and that was not from the promotion itself). Reporters from the show came away with the feeling that local promotion and advertising was little to nonexistant. The big stage WWE used had fireworks and special effects (including flames, meaning no streamers allowed). Steve Austin gave Eric Bischoff; Christian stunners while drinking Asahi Super Dry beer. The who's who of Japanese press names were at the show. The promotion had American cameramen taping the show. A clear rock-star-like atmosphere at the show. They dimmed the lights for all the matches, so it will look super on TV and will hide some of the empty seats.

 

Results from the show: Hurricane Shane Helms defeated Rico. The valets were involved in intereference which led to some Japanese fans making lesbian (at the girls) and gay (at Rico) chants.  The Dudley Boys defeated Test & Matt Hardy when The Dudleys put Test through a table. Randy Orton defeated RVD to keep the Intercontinental Title after an RKO.  Chris Jericho defeated Christian with the boston crab (Walls of Jericho) in 15 minutes, 17 seconds. Jericho tried to speak a little Japanese after the match. Chris Benoit defeated Batista with a cross-face hold in 9 minutes, 11 seconds. After the match, Austin did his attacks on Bischoff. Shawn Michaels defeated Ric Flair with the superkick in 17 minutes, 52 seconds. Stacy Keibler came out with Michaels and received the biggest pop of the night. Then they ran the WWE Women's Title match with Lita & Molly Holly with Molly going over clean in 6 minutes, 53 seconds with the Molly Go Round.  Triple H defeated Kane in the RAW World Title match after a pedigree for the three count in 13 minutes, 51 seconds.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

*thinks a bit* Umm, Hurricane has a valet? I must have gone brain dead because I have no idea where this came from. Unless someone came out with Jackie. I'm assuming that's what they're saying.

[Guest wildpegasus]

2800 is now the official attendance paid according to puroresupower.com

[Art Sandusky 0]

Lack of publicity? No shit, I had no idea they were even over there.

[Guest wildpegasus]

A more detailed report from the Torch website:

 

 

 

WWE Road to WrestleMania house show report

February 5, 2004

Hiroshima, Japan

Report by Matthew Rowles, Torch Team Contributor in Japan

 

Reported attendance - 2800

 

(1) Hurricane defeated Rico (w/Jackie) by Flying Body Press. Rico entered to Japanese calls of "Sideburns!" and "Homo!" His valet, Jackie, interfered but ultimately wound up getting kissed by Hurricane. Apparently this got Jackie really hot as she then kissed the referee. At some point during the match, she lost part of her wig. A patch of blond hair just fell to the the blue mats surrounding the ring. Jackie consoled Rico after the match and they exited together.

 

(2) The Dudleys beat Test & Matt Hardy with the 3D. Test entered first. Once Test had made his rounds in the ring, Matt Hardy entered. Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley came out to pretty good pops. Pretty routine tag team match once it got started. Much to the amusement of the crown, Bubba Ray managed to trip over the second rope after getting tagged and trying to enter the ring. Later, he also nearly missed properly setting up a move when he seemed to forget he had to use both his arms to lift his opponent. The match concluded with D-Von setting up Test for a 3D. After D-Von and Bubba Ray smashed Test through the table, they smashed it up a bit more and brought a young child into the ring, perhaps the offspring of one of the many US military in the audience, and presented him with some authentic Dudley lumber. This fan service was well received by the Japanese in the audience and the little guy seemed quite happy.

 

Powerman 5000 - Bombshell: The song Bombshell by Powerman 5000 blared from the PA system at Hiroshima Sun Plaza after the Dudleys' match. The lyrics "Everybody should drop the bomb" may not have been the most appropriate for the city in which this event was held.

 

(3) Randy Orton beat Rob Van Dam via RKO to retain the IC Title. This was a really slow moving match. Rob Van Dam put on the better show. He was quite well received by the Japanese and got quite a few pops as the face. The match started when Orton attacked RVD while the Dam man was striking some poses for the crowd. Orton threatened to leave the match in progress, but as he walked backstage, the referee began counting him out. Late in the count, Orton came running and flew back into the ring. Van Dam came up with some good moves and almost pinned Orton with a flying body attack before he got sloppy and Orton reversed to escape with the victory. Van Dam sold the victory by staying horizontal until Orton was all the way back through the dressing room doors.

 

(4) Chris Jericho beat Christian via the Walls Of Jericho at 15:27 Jericho and Christian woke the crowd back up with a well executed back and forth battle that had Jericho dominant in the beginning. Christian had a few moments here and there, but Jericho pulled it out fifteen plus minutes in when he applied the Walls of Jericho for the victory. There were some decent bumps taken by both wrestlers in this match. It should be noted that Jericho was wearing some tights which would not be deemed the most masculine of tights. This set him up for some heavy jeering from the US military presence, who exuberantly capped on his pink tights and questioned his masculinity. To his credit, Jericho reached out to the Japanese fans by saying that he loved Japan in Japanese and earned some heavy applause and cheering.

 

(5) Chris Benoit beat Batista via Submission at 9:11. First off, Batista is huge. Batista entered the ring first, looking huge. When Benoit made it to the ring, this image was amplified as Benoit is not very tall. It is seriously doubtful that this will make it onto TV, but Batista was picking his nose as he approached Benoit before the match began. Batista threw Benoit around quite handily, but during the course of the match Benoit executed three German suplexes in rapid succession on the 325 pound Batista (Note: WWE'S website reports Batista as being 275 lbs., however, I seem to remember he was announced as 325 lbs. at the Hiroshima match and that everyone was commenting on how Benoit was giving up a hundred pounds.) Benoit caught Batista with what may be called a "Crippler Cross Face" lock. Big victory over a big man for Benoit. The general sentiment amongst the fans was that Benoit was getting some sort of monster push for upcoming PPVs, title matches, and the like.

 

Eric Bischoff came out to massive heat and whined about not getting an introduction. He then went on to demand to the WWE ring announcer that he receive an introduction worthy of a man of his stature and that the announcer and everyone in the audience bow to him out of respect. When not satisfied with the announcement, he introduced himself and basically provided the cannon fodder for the "a--hole" chant. The PA system played the sound of glass breaking and Steve Austin made his way to the ring and played back and forth with Bischoff on the microphone. Despite the general lack of English ability in the audience, they were quite good with the "What?" bit as Austin delivered his gospel to Bischoff. Stone Cold criticized Bischoff's personality and worked the crowd into a frenzy, eventually egging them on to chant "a--hole" again. The crowd complied and Austin then went on to further chastise Bischoff. Austin broke out the Asahi Super Dry, which is Japan's best selling beer, and elicited what Bischoff was drinking during his Japan trip. Bischoff said "Chardonnay", to which someone in the crowd known only as "Big Rig" screamed "Chardonnay?!?! That's a f----t beer!" One had to be there to appreciate this, but Big Rig actually thought Chardonnay was a beer. Oh well... Austin persuaded Bischoff to drink a beer with him and then. Then, right when Bischoff least expected it, he delivered a Stunner. Christian rushed and rescued Bischoff by attacking Stone Cold. While Stone Cold was down, Christian called him "Baka," or "fool" in Japanese, and tried to get the crowd to give him some "Hell Yeah"s to no avail. WWE staff threw a can of Asahi Super Dry beer to Christian, who nearly dropped it and almost lost face while Austin quickly recovered and administered a succession of Stunners and forced beer down Christian's throat. Austin was extremely well-received by the Japanese fans and guzzled beer after beer in the ring, all the while spraying fans with the foam. While the foreign presence (mostly U.S. military) tried to cheer "Stone Cold," they were outdone by the Japanese fans who started an "Au-Stin" cheer. Things synced and everyone chanted "Austin." Austin's exit led into the intermission.

 

(6) Shawn Michaels beat Ric Flair after Sweet Chin Music at 17:52. This started out great because none other than Stacy Keibler came to the ring before the match and posed for all fans on every side of the ring. She then proceeded to announce Flair and Michaels. Things went downhill thereafter as this developed into quite a slow match. At some points during the match, Flair and Michaels would get one another into various holds and then not move for what seemed like an eternity. Flair did get Michaels into a leg lock but eventually lost after receiving the Sweet Chin Music and getting pinned.

 

(7) Molly Holly beat Lita after the Molly-Go-Round.. Lita worked the crowd really well on the way to the ring. She threw herself into the fence so fans could have some contact with her. The women put on a good match with a speedy back and forth match ending when Molly Holly jumped off the top rope, landed her crotch and legs around Lita's neck, and then pulled out a Molly-Go-Round to set up the pin and retain her belt.

 

(8)Triple H beat Kane to retain the World Hvt. Title after a Pedigree at 13:51. This was Kane's first match in Japan. His entrance was something to behold. Tons of noise from the pyrotechnics, PA, and fans. During the intermission, the crew had set up fire blasting devices on each corner. These really lit the place up when Kane made his entrance. Triple H made a majestic entrance garnering cheers praising his coolness from the local population. The military crowd was a bit tougher on him as they ragged on him for wearing a "tampon" on his forehead. The so-called tampon was actually some sort of bandage. These guys moved the ring when the threw each other into the turnbuckles. Although I've forgotten who threw who, at one point the ring seemed to slide about a foot or two back on the floor when the guy on receiving end hit the buckles. Despite some slow points here and there during the match, Kane and Triple H put themselves over quite well and seemed to satisfy the crowd. The match ended like this: Triple H caught Kane with a pedigree and got a two count, but Kane came back and nailed Triple H with a flying clothesline, also getting a two count. Triple H then administered a second pedigree and got the fall on Kane. Triple H quickly got out of the ring and Kane had a "sudden awakening". Don't know what else to call the way Kane sat up from his horizontal position. It was sort of the way Frankenstein's monster sat up. Triple H made it a point to look back at Kane as he was exiting. Kane sold the moves pretty well and took some time moving around before exiting the ring.

 

Notes: As we waited in a coffee shop connected to the event hall in which the match was held, we overheard a staff member telling the facility's general manager that the event was going to be at least 30 minutes late starting. The arena was far from being full. Contrary to some reports I've seen on the Internet about this event, the 2,800 reported in attendance were NOT all paid customers. I personally witnessed Americans behind the Japanese ticket sellers giving out complimentary tickets to other and tickets clearly stamped as being complimentary. Non-stamped tickets were also distributed as complimentary tickets. If it were not for the large number of US military in the audience, the rows around the ring would also have been empty. As it stands, I'd wager at least half to two-thirds of the second floor seating was empty. There were a few blocks of seats here and there on the first floor which also lacked human accompaniment. This was a dry show. No alcohol or food was sold on site, only soft drinks. The merchandise sales seemed fairly good. T-shirts priced at 3500 Yen were selling quite well. On the way back to the train station, the knock-off artists were selling similar shirts for 2500 or 2000 Yen. Stone Cold came out post-show decked out in a cap and hunting jacket to swill beer with the fans and sign autographs. He stayed for a long time signing as much as he could and really left a positive impression on those who stuck around long enough to meet him or witness his actions. Despite the low attendance, the wrestlers and staff seemed to do their best to put on an entertaining show. I am personally unsure as to why attendance was so sparse but offer the following possibilities: A-Ticket prices were more expensive for this show than the following two shows. The cheapest tickets for Hiroshima's show were double the price of Osaka's cheapest seats. B-Local promoter. The local promoters may not have done the best job promoting the event. I came across precisely zero advertisements for the event as I walked around Hiroshima prior to the show. Also, a company named "Candy Promotion" doesn't exactly instill a feeling of trust to someone whose first language is English. C-The location and weather. Although Hiroshima Sun Plaza is a fairly large event hall and hosts several events, it is not in the main part of Hiroshima and may have discouraged some people from attending just for that reason. Besides... It was cold! At least for Japanese standards, the past few days have been quite cold.

[Guest Anglesault]

(3) Randy Orton beat Rob Van Dam via RKO to retain the IC Title. This was a really slow moving match. Rob Van Dam put on the better show

I'm SHOCKED