Raw house show report 3/7/2004

[Guest wildpegasus]

From the torch website:

 

 

WWE Raw house show report

March 7, 2004

Baltimore, Md. at Baltimore Arena

Report by Nick, PWTorch.com reader

 

I just got back from the WWE house show in Baltimore. Only the nosebleed seats were empty. The Coach was announcer.

 

(1) Rico defeated Horshu. Horshu was a relative unkown, but Rico and Miss Jackie got a pretty good pop. Rico did his usual antics, which got a pop from the crowd. But the rest of the match the crowd just sat there. I forgot the finish, but Horshu was pretty impressive in this matchup. Big guy, and he did a lot of power moves.

 

(2) Victoria defeated Molly Holly. The title was on the line. It's best not to call this a match, as it only went two minutes. Victoria got a great pop, but Molly got the silent treatment. She attacked Victoria to start and went on the turnbuckle. But Victoria crotched her and did the Widow's Peak for the win. That was it. But it was great to see them anyway.

 

(3) Matt Hardy Version 1 defeated Nick Dinsmore. Nick had a "Macho Man" type look to him. Hardy got a good face pop. It was back-and-forth stuff, but Nick did some heel offense like the ab stretch while holding the ropes. Matt got his Side Effect, flying leg drop, and the Twist of Fate for the win. Not a bad showing by Nick, but I was expecting more from him.

 

(4) Batista defeated Hurricane. Batista surprisingly had a lot of cheers. I think Hurricane's gimmick is wearing thin. Batista dominated the match, but Hurricane attempted a comeback with some shots and that flying neckbreaker move. But eventually Batista went back in control, and did the Demon/Batista bomb for the win. Good for what it was.

 

(5) Rob Van Dam & Booker T defeated La Resistance and Garison Cade & Mark Jindrak in a three-way Elimination match for the WWE World titles-La Resistance didn't get much offense in, as they were only in there for 4 minutes before being eliminated by a Booker/RVD combo move. Down to Cade and Jindrack and Booker/RVD, they put on a good tag match. RVD was the FIP, but when he made the hot tag it was nonstop. Booker/RVD won it with the scissor kick into 5-star frog splash combo. Afterwards, Booker did his Spinaroonie and they left. After this match we had a short intermission.

 

Back from intermission, The Coach invited Stacy Keibler, who talked about being back home. Coach tried putting the moves on her, but she would have none of it. And she brought out Mick Foley, who got the second-biggest pop of the night. He hugged Stacy and she left. Coach then complained about him ruining his show. Foley cut a small promo on Coach when Ric Flair came out THE biggest pop of the night. He cut a promo about Foley having to beat the man, and he said that Foley was in his town of Baltimore. Foley then went into Cactus Jack mode, and promised to beat the man at WMXX. They fought a bit until Mick got Mr. Socko. He sunk it in on Flair until Coach interfered. Then he got the Socko claw. Great bit, or a segment if it was on Raw.

 

(6) Chris Jericho defeated Christian-Christian got booed mercilessly. He said some comments about Trish and Y2J. Then Chris came out and the match was underway. Lots of great action, and based on this their WMXX match will be a doozy. Chris won with the Wall of Jericho.

 

(7) Stevie Richards defeated Test-It was mainly Test dominating the match. But Stevie somehow managed to get him to miss the turnbuckle charge, and he got a rollup for the upset win. Basically a breather match.

 

(8) Triple H defeated Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit in a Triple threat match for the World championship-Honestly, the crowd was kinda dead for this. They were splite between all three, as Triple H had a good bit of fans there. The match was great, with near-falls happening and lots of great situations. In the end, Triple H nailed the pedigree on Benoit for the win. Great indication of how the match will be at WMXX.

 

Overall, the show was great. Some great surprises in there, and the matches were good.

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

Might as well post this then:

 

Thanks to 411 reader Dan for sending in this report.

 

The Coach opened up the show with a local DJ. Coach got the most heel heat of the night.

 

Match #1- Rico d. Horshu by pinfall

 

A horrible match. No real wrestling moves for the first few minutes, just the usual Rico homoerotic antics, which got the crowd going. Rico's finisher is pretty sweet, though. It should be noted that Miss. Jackie got more attention than the actual match.

 

Match #2- Women's Title: Victoria d. Molly Holly by pinfall

 

Very quick match. Molly got some hair pulling offense until Victoria took Molly off the top rope with the Widow's Peak for the quick pin. The crowd was pretty into Victoria.

 

Match #3- Matt Hardy Ver.1.0 d. Nick Dinsmore by pinfall

 

Solid match-up. Matt Hardy got a decent pop on his entrance, and nobody knew who Dinsmore was. Shame though, he's a pretty good wrestler and puled off a nice Northern Lights Suplex. Dinsmore kicked out of the Nightmare on Helms Street-like move Hardy uses which surprised the crowd. Hardy finished it soon after with the Twist of Fate.

 

Match #4- Batista d. The Hurricane by pinfall.

 

Hurricane surprisingly got a good deal of offense on Batista, who won with the Demon Bomb. After the match, Hurricane was cheered as he got up from the mat.

 

Match #5- Elimination Rules for the Raw Tag Team Title: Booker T& RVD d. La Resistance and Garrison Cade & Mark Jindrak.

 

Crowd was totally into Booker/RVD and hated La Resistance. La Resistance was eliminated after Booker T and RVD hit a neat Side Walk Slam/Flying Spin Kick on Renee (I think) and Garrison Cade covered him for the cheap pin. RVD pinned Cade after Booker hit the Axe Kick and RVD came off the top with the 5-Star Frog Splash. After the match, RVD got on the mic and asked Booker to do the Spinaroni for tall the fans and he obliged. The two took forever to get back into the locker room.

 

Intermission and the T-shirt launcher guy

 

Coach comes back and brings out Stacy Kiebler for the huge hometown pop. Hype for the Wrestlemania match, and Coach insults Stacy and Baltimore women before Mick Foley came out for a mega pop. He does the usual cheap poping and asks Stacy to leave after giving him a hug. Foley does the usual PPV hardsell and says The Rock and someone starts to walk out of the back and everyone assumed it was Rocky and popped really loud until they realized it was just Ric Flair and the crowd went dead. Flair trash talks Foley and does the "to be the man, you got to beat the man" and they start to brawl resulting in Mick giving Flair and Coach the Mandible Claw with Socko.

 

Match #6- Chris Jericho d. Christian by Submission.

 

Christian trashed Jericho on the stick before he came out. Really good match, with a nice cruiserweight-like roll-up reversal sequence, Jericho trying the Walls several times to no avail and a nifty Texas Cloverleaf by Christian. Jericho won after he finally managed to put the Walls of Jericho on. Coach and Christian hug after the match to many boos.

 

Match #7- Steven Richards d. Test by pinfall

 

Looked like a squash for Test until he missed a Big Boot off the ropes and Stevie rolled him up for the pin. Crowd was not into this at all, but I popped like crazy for the Stevie win.

 

Match #8: Triple Threat Match for the World Heavyweight Title- Triple H d. Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit.

 

Beniot got a pretty big face pop, and that pop was surpassed by the one for Michaels. Excellent warm up for Wrestlemaina. Everyone hit their big spots to good pops. Strange spot where Triple H grabs Michaels arm so he can't tap out of the Crossface. Match ended after Michaels superkicked Benoit while he had Trips in the Sharpshooter causing all 3 men to lay on the mat until Shawn and Trips got up and Trips hit the Pedigree for the pin. After the match, Shawn and Benoit had a stare down in the ring.

 

Overall, a really good show that got me pretty hyped to see the real 3-way and the Jericho/Christian match on Sunday.

 

Biggest Pops:

1.Foley/Stacy

2.Shawn Michaels

3.Benoit

 

Most Heat:

1.Coach

2.La Resistance

 

http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/news/new...hp?news_id=8873

[Boner Kawanger 0]

"Strange spot where Triple H grabs Michaels arm so he can't tap out of the Crossface."

 

That's actually a pretty neat spot, as long as you don't think about it.

[Guest Choken One]

It's smart too...instead of just breaking the move like most people...he keeps shawn from tapping but keeps the cross-face in effect...

 

Its smart things Like that I love to see...

[Guest Anglesault]

Of course, Shawn could always verbally quit in that situation.

[Guest Choken One]

Of course, Shawn could always verbally quit in that situation.

Triple H has a special counter move for that one that he and shawn have praticed in the back before.

[Guest wildpegasus]

If it was the same thing as the night before I think HHH punched Benoit off of Michaels right quick. If he were to do it extreamly quick I could see the spot coming off well.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Maybe the ref will be deaf.

 

 

 

Anyway...I think they're practicing up on a Cade/Jindrak vs. RVD/Booker final two pairing in there match.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

The cool spot would be HHH diving accross the ring to stop Shawn's hand from tapping...then spinning his lower half around and kicking Benoit in the face.

 

Of course...doing that would result in some kind of injury I'm sure.

[Boner Kawanger 0]

Of course, Shawn could always verbally quit in that situation.

That's actually a pretty neat spot, as long as you don't think about it.