Raw SPOILERS from Japan

[BHK 0]

While the tag title change is cool, I liked the Tajiri/Rhyno team a lot better, personally. Nothing against Regal, of course.

 

 

But let me get this straight, Edge's character is built up for a LONG time as going psycho after the world title, months even. So they blow it off on a taped Raw from Japan? am I the only one that sees problems with this?

[Lightning Flik 0]

Its been said countless times that his character is dead BHK because he should've won. Or did you actually READ the thread? I'm guessing not.

 

Unless he absolutely fucking snaps in two weeks, Edge needs a new character. Dammit, I was really liking his current psycho one.

[AndrewTS 0]

Nice. If they don't clip the matches, that leaves the wrestling just a little shy of 50 minutes, leaving a good half-hour for skits, etc.

[I like Forums 0]

The results aren't comprehensive. For all we know HHH cheated or somebody came down to distract Edge. Hell, Edge could even come down the week after this to the ring and claim somebody put tranquilizers in his cola.

[razazteca 0]

Nice. If they don't clip the matches, that leaves the wrestling just a little shy of 50 minutes, leaving a good half-hour for skits, etc.

50 minutes of wrestling

40 minutes of HHH talking backstage with Batista

30 minutes of commercials

[Dark Age 0]

Ignore.

[Cherry Blossom Viscount 0]

Edge's character is dead? What character, he has none. All he does is scream at faces, does a generic run in or two, cheat a little bit, and piss and moan when he loses. That's no character, that's just a generic heel. What makes him a psycho? Oh yes, he screams, how could I miss that? Of course 90% of the wrestlers who get any mic time scream their promos, so what sets Edge apart? Edge only played one character well; blonde 80's surfer dude. Notice he was also over the most too then. Then, he went to playing generic 80's babyface to now generic 80's heel. Edge hasn't had a character in almost FOUR years.

[Guest TigerDriver91]

I am interested in watching just to see how the Japanese fans react to the matches and such. Should be interesting. Too bad Benoit-Jericho didn't get more time, but hopefully this will lead to a big match at Mania.

 

Tag title match should be interesting. I like Tajiri and Regal.

[Guest jumpingbombangel]

What a great picture!

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

For all those complaining about Edge losing, what did you think the result would be?

[Enigma 0]

Kane vs. Snitsky AGAIN?

 

Good Lord...

[BHK 0]

Its been said countless times that his character is dead BHK because he should've won. Or did you actually READ the thread? I'm guessing not.

 

Unless he absolutely fucking snaps in two weeks, Edge needs a new character. Dammit, I was really liking his current psycho one.

Actually, yeah I didn't read the thread. I was kind of in a rush. Sorry about that.

 

 

And I wasn't really EXPECTING Edge to win, it's just that usually when you build a wrestler's character around the "OMG I MUST GET TITLE OR DIE" character, he usually, you know, gets it.

 

Perhaps it was just the wrong time to introduce that particular aspect of him, and they should ahve waited until after WM? Or something?

 

Basically, i'm more confused than anything. I don't undersatnd why they'd build a character around that, and have the blow off fizzle out like it did.

 

fizzle in the sense of Edge not actually getting the title, I mean.

[strummer 0]

Notes from Meltzer:

 

The feeling come out of the show from a Japanese perspective was it was a strong and entertaining event. The crowd was strong for everything.

 

The fans enjoyed Kane vs. Gene Snitsky, which is likely a dark match, because Kane threw a beautiful dropkick, which nobody expected and got a huge reaction. They had no trouble with the rest of the match.

 

There was disappointment that Benoit vs. Jericho was kept so short.

 

Eric Bischoff in the open on Raw put over that they were coming from Tokyo. It's kind of weird because Saitama is a different and major city of its own. It would be like if All Japan did a taping in Philadelphia and said it was New York, on the guise that their audience would only know New York.

 

Steve Williams, Katsuyori Shibata and Akebono were at the show. Williams was backstage. He may be at tonight's Giant Baba tribute show. Most of the people I know in Japan are going to the Baba show instead of the Smackdown taping, but the Smackdown taping is sold out, as this show was.

 

Maven vs. Batista was what you'd expect from 32 seconds.

 

Regal & Tajiri's tag title win over La Resistance went over well. Short match. Of course the people were heavily behind Regal & Tajiri, and Tajiri did a speech in Japanese after winning the title.

 

Akebono came to ringside before the Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair match. For reasons I'm not really sure, WWE doesn't like to acknowledge athletes at the show unless they are NFL or NBA players, but I'd think just because he's 480 pounds and looks unique they may point him out.

 

Flair vs. Michaels went 10:00 and people loved it. They were into everything Flair did. I was told by someone right at the ring that the timing and work was very good here.

 

They did an angle where they had a fashion show with three women, who I think were Christy Hemme, Victoria and Maria. Simon Dean interrupted it so there was no winner. It was designed to get Hemme over as she gave Dean a low blow.

 

Randy Orton over Tyson Tomko had Stacy Keibler managing Orton and Christian in Tomko's corner. Orton won with a schoolboy. This was to set up an Orton vs. Christian program, or at least match next week. Christian & Tomko beat up Orton after the match and laid him out. Orton was selling for several minutes with all the referees around, so they played it up as something big, probably off the concussion deal.

 

HHH vs. Edge for the title was a U.S. style title match with a few Japanese spots thrown in. Flair was at ringside and interfered a lot. Edge played the babyface role. Match was said to be excellent from a timing standpoint. HHH did the Nishimura head-stand out of a headscissors, which got a Nishimura chant going. He did the high knee which reminded people of Tsuruta, although he does that as a Race tribute all the time anyway. They did all their usual spots. HHH survived one spear, and also made the ropes from Edge's submission move. Edge speared the ref when HHH moved. Flair brought in a chair but Edge speared him. HHH did a Japanese style back suplex. Batista came out for the finish. I think there was a secnod ref bump and Batista used a spinebuster on Edge, to set up the pedigree finish. Edge was said to have gotten over really strong in the match. The buzz after was people didn't realize just how good a worker he was. Match went 16:49.

 

After the show, HHH played total babyface, doing a 5:00 promo saying how much he loved Japan. He shook hands with Akebono. Nobody left until he was done, and when he did leave, they were cheering so much they wanted him to come back out.

[Lightning Flik 0]

Well, if the match was like how it was above, I have no problems with Edge losing then.

 

Hehehe... I wonder if JR and King will acknowledge who Nishimura is. Heck, wonder if the chant will even be on the taping that we get shown to us.

 

And wow, sounds like a good main event. I'm also surprised that HHH was called out by the Japanese fans for an encore for only saying he liked Japan.l

[Enigma 0]

Eric Bischoff in the open on Raw put over that they were coming from Tokyo. It's kind of weird because Saitama is a different and major city of its own. It would be like if All Japan did a taping in Philadelphia and said it was New York, on the guise that their audience would only know New York.

That's pretty damn disrespectful to Saitama.

[Guest Trivia247]

Well, at 480 you'd think that JR would be Salavating at the chance to Make mention to ...Bah Gawd a Japanese Hoss!

[Precious Roy 0]

Well, at 480 you'd think that JR would be Salavating at the chance to Make mention to ...Bah Gawd a Japanese Hoss!

Hawaiian Hoss

[Precious Roy 0]

And I'll wait to see how it comes off on TV, but a submission match only lasting 10 minutes doesn't sit right with me, as IMO it makes the loser look weak. My guess is they'll stick a commerical break in the middle to make it seem like it went 15, but even so....

[Guest The Shadow Behind You]

The first match with Jericho and Benoit this year went 12 minutes and this one goes nine minutes? I don't get this at all. I'm glad to see we will get 50 minutes of wrestling on Monday and from the looks of it; 50 solid minutes of wrestling but count me in with the disapointment crowd for the CVC situation.

 

The series is now even, I'm certain they will do either match three to settle the series or perhaps make it a best of five program, extending it Wrestlemania. I'd love them to use a Last Man Standing gimmick for match three with Jericho winning, then a 2/3 falls for match 4 and blow it off at Mania with a 30 minute ironman. However; there's not a chance in hell they will get 30 minutes @ Mania.

 

show looks fun however.

[Precious Roy 0]

2/3 falls and 30 minute ironman is pretty redundant. A good 2/3 falls match should be going around 30 minutes anyway.

[Guest Loss]

I'm predicting that the final encounter for Benoit/Jericho probably won't go longer than 16 minutes and change. Just an educated guess.

 

I don't know that we'll ever get the classic, 30-minute plus match that we've been waiting on.

[Vyce 0]

I must say, I like the Tajire / Regal win, although collectively I think they've both won about 35 different tag championships in the WWE with mixed & matched partners. And we all know that in probably 2 weeks, at most, they'll put the titles back on La Res, for absolutely no good reason at all.

 

 

Akebono (famous Hawaiian sumo wrestler who was the first foreign Yokozuna) was at ringside for this match.

 

Not bad. It would have been more awesome if this was Asashoryu, though.

 

I believe Johnny Ace had a meeting with Misawa and NOAH and talked a bit about working with the WWE in the future.

 

This will never happen, but I'll go on record that I would pay a small fortune in PPV fees to see Kobashi absolutely fucking demolish HHH.

[Guest jumpingbombangel]

More pics!?

 

 

 

[CBright7831 0]

Where does Edge go from here then? His character is over now, since he's had his 'shot'.

Another character killed by the WWE booking team.

[Guest hhheld_down]

it'll be interesting to see how it does in the ratings seeing as the ME is heel vs heel.

[Guest wildpegasus]

From the Observer:

 

 

The feeling come out of the show from a Japanese perspective was it was a strong and entertaining event. The crowd was strong for everything.

 

The fans enjoyed Kane vs. Gene Snitsky, which is likely a dark match, because Kane threw a beautiful dropkick, which nobody expected and got a huge reaction. They had no trouble with the rest of the match.

 

There was disappointment that Benoit vs. Jericho was kept so short.

 

Eric Bischoff in the open on Raw put over that they were coming from Tokyo. It's kind of weird because Saitama is a different and major city of its own. It would be like if All Japan did a taping in Philadelphia and said it was New York, on the guise that their audience would only know New York.

 

Steve Williams, Katsuyori Shibata and Akebono were at the show. Williams was backstage. He may be at tonight's Giant Baba tribute show. Most of the people I know in Japan are going to the Baba show instead of the Smackdown taping, but the Smackdown taping is sold out, as this show was.

 

Maven vs. Batista was what you'd expect from 32 seconds.

 

Regal & Tajiri's tag title win over La Resistance went over well. Short match. Of course the people were heavily behind Regal & Tajiri, and Tajiri did a speech in Japanese after winning the title.

 

Akebono came to ringside before the Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair match. For reasons I'm not really sure, WWE doesn't like to acknowledge athletes at the show unless they are NFL or NBA players, but I'd think just because he's 480 pounds and looks unique they may point him out.

 

Flair vs. Michaels went 10:00 and people loved it. They were into everything Flair did. I was told by someone right at the ring that the timing and work was very good here.

 

They did an angle where they had a fashion show with three women, who I think were Christy Hemme, Victoria and Maria. Simon Dean interrupted it so there was no winner. It was designed to get Hemme over as she gave Dean a low blow.

 

Randy Orton over Tyson Tomko had Stacy Keibler managing Orton and Christian in Tomko's corner. Orton won with a schoolboy. This was to set up an Orton vs. Christian program, or at least match next week. Christian & Tomko beat up Orton after the match and laid him out. Orton was selling for several minutes with all the referees around, so they played it up as something big, probably off the concussion deal.

 

HHH vs. Edge for the title was a U.S. style title match with a few Japanese spots thrown in. Flair was at ringside and interfered a lot. Edge played the babyface role. Match was said to be excellent from a timing standpoint. HHH did the Nishimura head-stand out of a headscissors, which got a Nishimura chant going. He did the high knee which reminded people of Tsuruta, although he does that as a Race tribute all the time anyway. They did all their usual spots. HHH survived one spear, and also made the ropes from Edge's submission move. Edge speared the ref when HHH moved. Flair brought in a chair but Edge speared him. HHH did a Japanese style back suplex. Batista came out for the finish. I think there was a secnod ref bump and Batista used a spinebuster on Edge, to set up the pedigree finish. Edge was said to have gotten over really strong in the match. The buzz after was people didn't realize just how good a worker he was. Match went 16:49.

 

After the show, HHH played total babyface, doing a 5:00 promo saying how much he loved Japan. He shook hands with Akebono. Nobody left until he was done, and when he did leave, they were cheering so much they wanted him to come back out.

 

 

 

 

After the show, HHH played total babyface, doing a 5:00 promo saying how much he loved Japan. He shook hands with Akebono. Nobody left until he was done, and when he did leave, they were cheering so much they wanted him to come back out.

 

 

That's one of the biggeset problems with HHH. He's often booked as a face even though he's a heel.

[JN News 0]

Where does Edge go from here then? His character is over now, since he's had his 'shot'.

Another character killed by the WWE booking team.

God, I wish someone would just KILL THEM!

[Ravenbomb 0]

they could always go the Steve Austin ECW "I came this close to the title, and it makes me want it even more" route with Edge

[CBright7831 0]

they could always go the Steve Austin ECW "I came this close to the title, and it makes me want it even more" route with Edge

Perhaps.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Dammit Edge . . . enough w/ the F'N spear!!!