Went to the RAW house show last night...

[Dobbs 3K 0]

My wife and I attended the RAW house show in Madison, WI last night. It was pretty much the same results as the Green Bay show, but I thought I'd give my thoughts anyway. This was the first WWE show I'd been to in at least three years, IIRC.

 

- Show was held at the Alliant Energy Center (aka the Dane County Colliseum). Building wasn't even half full...probably not more than 5000 people, and that is being generous.

 

- I'm so glad we didn't buy our tickets off Ticketmaster...we got great seats at the box office yesterday afternoon, and didn't have to pay the extra almost 20 bucks in "convenience fees." Our seats were actually pretty good...we were just slightly above and to the right of where the wrestlers made their entrances to the ring. It was cool only being about five yards from Flair, HHH, Benoit, etc.

 

- Caught a glimpse of Arn Anderson a couple times. I marked out; I think most of the fans had no idea who he was though. Another thing that struck me about the fans...I went to a bunch of shows in the late '90s when wrestling was super hot...everyone would be wearing black wrestling shirts and merchandise. Almost all the people at this show were dressed in normal clothes...although I saw one dude with two replica belts (seemed rather excessive). A lot of families with young kids, and a lot of seemingly inbred and smelly hicks were around too. Oh well.

 

- There was no pyro or anything...WWE didn't even utilize any of the "score screens" in the building...though the building is pretty old and run down, so maybe that wasn't possible. Another thing that struck me is that the Colliseum has a really awful sound system.

 

- Coach came out first, and got a lot of heat. He almost completely recapped Taboo Tuesday, and then Stacey came out after Coach made a comment about wearing a dress. This led to three other divas coming out, which led to:

 

- Stacey Kiebler/Victoria vs Molly Holly/Trish Stratus: Stacey played diva in peril most of the match. Trish got knocked off the apron about three times. Stacey got the win with a roll up on Molly, IIRC. Molly really needs to update her look...she looked really frumpy compared to the other divas.

 

- Simon Dean came out and bad mouthed "Fat-ison". Val Venis came out, and in a hillarious bit, Dean said something to the effect of "see, Val knows that because he's out of shape, his career sucks so much". Val attacked, and we had another seemingly impromptu match:

 

- Val Venis vs Simon Dean: Pretty decent actually. Simon was pretty funny...he would do push ups while choking Val on the ground, etc. Simon won by using the ropes for leverage while the ref missed Val grabbing the ropes. Val was fairly over, but he really, really needs a gimmick change...like, three years ago.

 

- Gene Snitsky vs Maven: I marked out for Snitsky, and booed Maven. I hate wrestlers who have no point...he won Tough Enough, what? Four years ago? Get a persona already. WWE should realize they can only push guys on the "young up & comer" gimmick for so long. Snitsky basically squashed Maven, though Maven got a couple good moves in, like a dropkick off the second rope. Snitsky won with an over the shoulder backbreaker move (like Albert used to do), which is better than that dumb pumphandle slam I guess. Snitsky also cut a surprisingly good promo on Kane and Lita before the match.

 

- Hurricane/Rosey vs Rodney Mack/Chuck Palumbo (w/ Jazz): Ok, here's my Chuck Palumbo story. I remember back around 1999 on one episode of WCW Saturday Night, it was Palumbo's debut. Scott Hudson said "just think, year's from now you'll be sitting around, remembering this night as Chuck Palumbo's debut". I laughed my ass off, 'cause Palumbo looked like such a crappy jobber. Yet here he is half a decade later, still wrestling in WWE. Anyway, my wife is a huge Hurricane mark, so she liked this. It was kind of a dull match...lots of punching and kicking. The Justice League team won with a samoan drop/neckbreaker combo move. Oh yeah...Chuck's new look is awful...he looks like a greaser, wearing brown pants, and ORANGE CHUCK TAYLORS! I like Chuck Taylors but they don't work on a 6 foot+ "tough guy".

 

- We had an intermission after this. I bought an MGD for four bucks. It wasn't very good, but it was beer.

 

- Rhyno/Tajiri vs Eugene/William Regal vs La Resistance: Mostly a comedy match. Eugene bounched around on the ropes, and Regal couldn't get him back in. Then Eugene took one of La Resistance's flags and was poking everyone in the ass with it. It was pretty funny. Rhyno and Tajiri were eliminated first, rather quickly...Eugene and Regal ended up winning. I forget exactly how. Match was kind of a mess, really, but the fans were into it.

 

- Shelton Benjamin vs Christian: Big heat for this match, and arguably match of the night. Funny spot early in the match where Shelton was outwrestling Christian on the mat, and Christian ended up clinging to the bottom rope with his whole body, and staying there for almost a minute. Shelton ended up winning with what looked like a sort of uranage into a powerslam. Lots of good back and forth action.

 

- Main Event: Triple H/Batista/Ric Flair vs Chris Benoit/Chris Jericho/Randy Orton: Huge heat on evolution. Ric Flair had an awesome looking black and gold robe on. Hopefully he wears it on RAW. Benoit came out holding both tag belts. Orton got to come out last, which I thought was kinda lame. Everyone was very over, and Orton seemed popular with the girls in the crowd at least. Some kids in the front row had three signs spelling out "Y-2-J" except they had it as "J-2-Y" the entire match. Very good match, with lots of heat. Went for a good amount of time...at least over twenty minutes, I think. There was a hillarious segment where all three members of Evolution got their asses exposed, and HHH wrestled for a good couple minutes with his pants down. Didn't need to know he tanned with a thong, personally. Also, the faces put all three of them in simultaneous figure fours...ala NWA 1987 I guess. At the end of the match, with all four others out of the ring, Randy Orton hit HHH with the RKO to get the win.

 

Overall I had a lot of fun. Hopefully WWE can get a better crowd in the building next time.

[hhh6294 0]

actually I was at that show too... I was sitting in the 2nd row from ringside nearest the entrance ramp.

 

I loved that fat guy on the other side of the ring that was taunting everyone and got the Hurricane mask. That was funny.

 

but with the pyro and presentation thing, I think it's pretty rare when WWE goes all out like that on normal US house shows. I can understand when they go to Europe and other places around the globe, but in normal US House shows I think they just use the bare minimum.

 

Also... those were WWE speakers, not the stadium's speakers. I've been to several concerts there, along with a bunch of High School hockey toruneys and the sound was really good. You can blame the sound on the 4 dinky speakers that were above the ring.

[SuperJerk 0]

Val was fairly over, but he really, really needs a gimmick change...like, three years ago.

But Val's has had two gimmick changes in the last 4 years (RTC and Chief Morely), but neither got him as over as the porn star gimmick.

 

Okay, the Chief gimmick could've worked if they'd had him work more matches instead of making him Bischoff Jr.

[humongous2002 0]

Orton got to come out last, which I thought was kinda lame. Everyone was very over, and Orton seemed popular with the girls in the crowd at least.

That's the only type of heat he's been getting in the last 2 years.

[Guest Phenom]

Val Venis came out, and in a hillarious bit, Dean said something to the effect of "see, Val knows that because he's out of shape, his career sucks so much".

I'd mark out if he did that on TV.

[SuperJerk 0]

Orton got to come out last, which I thought was kinda lame. Everyone was very over, and Orton seemed popular with the girls in the crowd at least.

That's the only type of heat he's been getting in the last 2 years.

I'd argue that his overness rivals that of Lex Lugar, Sid Vicious, or several other untalented hacks who were pushed to the moon (not quite as over as Ultimate Warrior, who is the benchmark for undeserved popularity). I was at a RAW taping a month ago and he got a pretty good reaction from just about everyone there, not just the girls.

[thuganomics 0]

I went to a very similar show in Cedar Rapids, Iowa last night, and the main event was pretty much similar. Sorry for anyway posting above, but the marks love Orton. He got a huge pop (although Flair and Triple H's were bigger...) when he came out and the crowd ate it up when he pinned Triple H.

 

If the main event I watched was any clue, we're heading towards Orton vs Batista (again) and Chris Jericho vs Triple H. Flair tried his best to turn the fans against him, but for the most part his reactions were face reactions.

 

We got a real funny bit when a guy in the first row told Batista that he hoped Orton would kick his ass and Batista started making cock sucking gestures.

 

Simon Dean definitely has a chance to get over. Nova's a solid wrestler and his insults about Maven not being "Tough Enough" before their match were hilarious.

 

Shelton Benjamin proved kinda bland. He needs to really pick up a few decent spots if he's going to continue to get over in WWE. He just comes off as so vanilla. And I like Christian and all but he and Benjamin just didn't put on that great of a match.

 

Snitsky used the Derailer to win his match against Val Venis at our show. Maybe Val didn't want to take the Pumphandle Slam bump.

 

Rhyno was WAY over. The fans went freaking crazy for him. He and Tajiri beat Palumbo and Mack soundly, and I must say Jazz has dropped some serious weight and picked up some hot damn ring attire.

 

Why Stacy continues to get wins is beyond me. She doesn't absolutely blow in the ring, but she doesn't really deserve the number of victories she's received over Molly and Trish.

 

All in all an enjoyable show; it will be interesting to see if the matches hinted at any storylines to come.

[Guest M. Harry Smilac]

Funny spot early in the match where Shelton was outwrestling Christian on the mat, and Christian ended up clinging to the bottom rope with his whole body, and staying there for almost a minute.

Ha,hope they bust that one out on TV.

[TheBigSwigg 0]

Rhyno was WAY over. The fans went freaking crazy for him.

I don't understand WWE. Rhyno get's huge pops, but no push.