Monday Night Raw From 2001 with KB

[klunderbunker]

Just like the previous year, I’ll be taking a look at this whole year of Raw. This is going to take a very long time to get through obviously but it’s fun to take a look at anyway. This is the absolute dying days of WCW and WWF is the undisputed hottest thing in the world. Austin is back and is on a collision course with Rock and all roads lead to Houston and Wrestlemania X7. This is also the Alliance year, so we have that to, ahem, look forward to. Let’s get to it.

Monday Night Raw
Date: January 1, 2001
Location: Frank Erwin Center, Austin, Texas
Attendance: 9,512
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

We’re on the road to Mania but the first stop is at the Rumble. Kurt Angle is world champion and Austin wants the title. As does Rock, Taker, HHH and just about everyone else. Angle didn’t deserve to be champion so everyone wanted to beat him up and take it from him as they all figured they could beat him but no one could take the title from him. Sound similar to any current AWESOME World Champions? Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap from Smackdown where Stephanie says she’s going to be all annoying. Austin comes out and says he’s not getting in the ring unless it’s a match with Angle for the title. He poured beer on her for no apparent reason. There was also a stupid handicap match on the same show.

Austin is here and Stephanie wants to see him.

Cue theme song.

Rock vs. Kane and Taker vs. Rikishi tonight. The winners fight on Smackdown and the winner gets a title shot next Monday.

Undertaker vs. Rikishi

Rikishi is still heel here and no one cares in the slightest. He stands on the stage FOREVER so Taker is like screw it and tries to run him over with his motorcycle. Ok that was awesome. They fight to the back for a second before coming back out. Taker almost punches Rikishi off the stage which would be just a month after throwing him off the Cell.

And hey there’s a bell. Rock is watching in the back. Rikishi tries to bail but Taker wants to play a bit more. Kane is watching too. Taker gets taken down with a kick as just like last time there’s an energy here that you don’t get today. Also how weird is it to see Taker on Raw? The fat man gets a belly to belly but misses a corner charge.

Taker wants the Last Ride but the gravitational pull of Rikishi’s ass won’t allow him to. I read that line somewhere and can’t remember where for the life of me. And now we get something I definitely like: Taker hits a running DDT to get the pin. That’s VERY nice to see as he won with something other than a finisher and it’s believable. It’s nice to see that as it gives the matches a sense of unpredictability as you don’t know when it’s going to end. I like that a lot.

Rating: C. Pretty basic match but it wasn’t rushed and the ending was rather good. They tried for months to make Rikishi look like a legit force and it just never worked. He wasn’t at Mania and he was more or less a face again by the end of the year. It’s one of the big WTF were they thinking moments in company history but like I said in the 98 thread, they were throwing anyone out there to try them out. Can’t fault them for that.

Austin goes into Stephanie’s office and says he wants to talk about his title shot. She says he has to earn it and hands him a beer vendor’s cart. Oh and he sells hot dogs too. If he doesn’t sell them all he never gets a title shot. Yes I’m sure that a bunch of Texans will never buy beers and hot dogs from Steve Austin in 2001. Austin beats up the regular beer vendor for fun.

Angle, Christian and Edge get here and Angle hadn’t heard about his title match so he yells a lot. Apparently the three of them also have a six man tables match vs. Jericho and the Dudley Boys. Bad interview for them.

Acolytes/Billy Gunn vs. Right to Censor

We’re in The One period for Gunn. The RTC had injured Chyna’s neck in a spike Piledriver over her being in Playboy. The RTC here is Buchanan/Goodfather/Venis. Big brawl to start of course as you would expect there to be. Buchanan and Bradshaw are the actual starters as I don’t expect this to go that long. The Acolytes hit the reverse neckbreaker that the Dudleys used.

We get an XFL reference to really date the show. Gunn comes in for a bit to run around like he’s somewhat insane and look stupid in general. Val gets a boot up to take over again. And never mind as a tilt-a-whirl slam gets two for Billy and the brawl breaks out. Cobra Clutch Slam to Venis from Billy ends it.

Rating: D+. Worthless match here for the most part as this feud would go on until Mania and accomplish absolutely nothing. I’m not sure why the RTC lasted as long as it did but they wouldn’t go away. Anytime Billy Gunn gets TV time it’s bad so I’m not sure what this was supposed to accomplish. Short enough though I guess.

Austin hasn’t started selling stuff yet so he squirts mustard on Stephanie. Why doesn’t he just buy them all himself?

Back from a break and Austin is drinking all of the beers. Stephanie calls Vince, freaking out over the mustard thing. He tells her not to break and Trish comes in. Trish was more or less openly sleeping with Vince at this point. She hits on Vince on the phone and Stephanie’s looks are hilarious. Vince makes Benoit against Test for the IC Title just because. Ah I forgot Trish was still managing him at this time. Stephanie says Trish’s big breasts won’t work on her. DAMN IT. Stephanie can’t act. She just can’t.

D-Von rants about the tables match coming up.

The Rewind is sponsored by No Mercy. Oh that’s awesome. It’s Raven stealing the Hardcore Title from Blackman.

Hardcore Title: Raven vs. Tazz

Raven says this is the year of the Raven. So weird seeing Tazz in the ring again. Raven throws a noose around Tazz’s neck and we hit the crowd immediately. Tazmission goes on but Raven gets a low blow to break that up. We do the women’s room thing and Raven is put into a toilet with very yellow liquid in it. They head into a locker room with the Hollies inside. Blackman shows up to fight some too. Raven fires a fire extinguisher and pins Crash to end this somehow.

Rating: N/A. Well this was what it was I guess.

Austin only has one beer left.

Austin comes out and talks about Stephanie, demanding her to come out here right now and give him his title shot. I miss that old school HHH music. She’s in a new top which is much lower cut so I can’t complain. Stephanie: Who the hell do you think you’re talking to? Austin: A complete bitch. Austin’s timing was always underrated. He informs her that the fans are calling her a ****.

He points out that he sold everything to the APA so now we should see Stephanie do some vending. She bitches about various things and puts him in a match with Regal for no apparent reason and the winner is added to the #1 contender match on Smackdown. It’s as convoluted as it sounds. She says get this thing off her and so he does just that, but rips her top off with it. Great rack.

Ad for the Rumble. “If you build it, they will come.” The voice means a ring in a cornfield.

Chris Jericho/Dudley Boys vs. Kurt Angle/Edge/Christian

Tables match here and I think just one fall. Jericho runs down Stephanie and says everyone has seen her naked already anyway. Note to self: BECOME WRESTLER! Edge and Christian make some jokes and Jericho owns all three of them. Big wild brawl to start of course with D-Von and Edge being the only two in the ring. Again we have to tag in tables matches. Of course we do.

The fans of course want tables. Hot tag to Jericho and here he comes to save the day. Everything falls apart rather quickly and What’s Up Kurt? Here’s the table as I have a feeling the ending won’t work as well as I think it should. Christian moves the table to save Kurt. Jericho does the same to save Bubba. Jericho reverses an Angle Slam and gets the Walls on Angle. Edge breaks it up but it allows him to walk into 3D through the table.

Rating: C. Short and sweet here but these matches are almost always perfect for getting the crowd going. This was about halfway through the show so that’s as good of a time as any to wake them up. This worked fairly well I think and it advanced at least one feud. Jericho would fight Benoit soon enough.

Trish goes to talk to Test but she gets thrown out due to Albert breaking up with Test recently. Trish talks her way out of being fired and the title match is next.

XFL ad. Wow this is great.

We see Regal coming out of Stephanie’s office all smiley. Ok then.

Intercontinental Title: Chris Benoit vs. Test

This should be short. Test jumps him early and hits a gutwrench powerbomb for two. Benoit hooks the Crossface maybe 40 seconds in and Test barely makes the ropes. Damn he was fast. Test uses basic power stuff to put Benoit down and goes for the top rope elbow.

Albert runs down so Test dives on him instead. Why in the world would you give Benoit time to recover? Test is dominating here actually which is odd indeed. And then Trish shoves him off the top and Benoit gets the easy pin. Well that was odd. Must be that time of the month or something.

Rating: N/A. This was just a way to further the breakup of T&A which is fine. We get to see Trish more if nothing else so that works. Nothing match though.

Albert and Test fight a bit post match.

Regal comes up to talk to Debra who is commissioner or something. He talks about her boobs and apparently there’s a guest referee in the main event. I think we all know what’s coming.

Here come the Radicalz who are going to do commentary for the next match. This is during Dean’s man ****e phase when he wanted Lita.

Hardy Boys vs. Kai En Tai

Well this shouldn’t last long. Taka does the Japanese dubbed thing which is great INDEED. Taka and Matt start us off. Spin Cycle to Taka as it’s ALL Hardys so far. We slow it down a bit and the Japanese dues take over. And never mind as Matt must have smelled bacon of something. Twist of Fate and Swanton end Funaki with ease.

Rating: N/A. Just a slightly extended squash to set up the post match brawl.

Team Xtreme beats up the Radicalz post match.

Kane vs. The Rock

Rock has a bad back apparently. Rock sprints to the ring and it’s on. We hit the floor after a lot of punching and Rock is rammed into the barricade to injure the back some more. We head into the crowd and Kane slams Rock on the concrete to really work on the back some more. We finally get back to the ring as Kane hits a top rope clothesline for a long two.

Rock starts a comeback but walks into a powerslam. Apparently his back and chest are hurt from Rikishi beating him up on Smackdown. He comes back with more punches and a Samoan Drop to get us to even. Rock gets that spinning DDT for two. He gets a belly to belly for two as for some reason this is hard to comment on. This style is so much faster than most other matches and it’s hard to adjust to the pace.

Here’s Angle to get involved for obviously apparent reasons. Kane gets a clothesline to send Rock to the floor and Angle helps him up. Rock destroys him and hits a Rock Bottom on the floor. Nice to see he can beat the world champion that fast. Back in the ring and the spinebuster sets up the Elbow but Kane pops up and can’t get a chokeslam. They head to the floor again where Angle gets a belt shot to Rock. Chokeslam in the ring ends it with ease.

Rating: C+. Definitely the longest match of the night and the most fun for the most part. They were flying through this and the pace was kind of working for me. It’s not a great match or anything but for the semi-main event of a TV show this was pretty good. Kane was perfect to throw into spots like these and this was fine for what it was.

Kurt bails with Edge and Christian.

William Regal vs. Steve Austin

What a main event indeed. Stephanie is of course the referee as everyone expected her to be. Before the match we get a Royal Rumble Rewind where Foley did all three characters in one Rumble which was awesome. Austin goes straight for him to start and we get the Thesz Press. Regal gets in some jobber offense and we hit the floor.

Stephanie says keep it in the ring so Austin keeps beating Regal up on the floor. Austin gets a suplex and Stephanie has something in her eye of course. So simple yet so effective. Austin shoves her to the floor and we’re running out of time. A mudhole is stomped and here’s Hebner to referee. And never mind as Regal gets a low blow and hits the referee. Spinebuster gets no count and of course as Austin yells he gets rolled up and the fast count ends it.

Rating: C-. Standard thing with the whole evil referee but they did what they could. More or less zero reason to have Earl come down but again they were trying I suppose. Austin getting screwed is always a good way to go and it made his winning the Rumble all the sweeter. Decent little match to cap off the theme of the evening.

Overall Rating: C-. The wrestling wasn’t bad but it was a rather exciting show. Austin vs. Stephanie isn’t quite Austin vs. Vince but they were trying. Obviously once we hit the Rumble we’ll get a lot more on track towards Mania. This was a decent enough show but the wrestling left something to be desired and the show came off as a bit flat. Nothing bad but nothing exceptional. Decent show.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Sounds a pretty decent Raw. If I remember all episodes of Raw were great around this time. It is probably my 2000-2001 is probably my favoruite time in the business, since I became a fan.

There were so many stars around at this point and even guys like Test were good to watch. Plus, Trish Steph and Debra on the same show....not too bad at all!

And Raven was on there, always a good thing.

Another good review dude

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: January 8, 2001
Location: San Jose Arena, San Jose, California
Attendance: 13, 769
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

Back with week two of the new year. Austin is still hunting for a title shot and I’d assume Stephanie will have something to say about that. All things considered this era should be pretty good but we’re just waiting on Austin to win the Rumble so that we can really get down to the meat of this year. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of last week’s ending where Austin lost to Regal due to Stephanie being a mean little bitch. We also get a clip from Smackdown where Vince ran in to save Stephanie and make Austin vs. Kane vs. Taker that night with the winner getting Angle on this Raw. Vince gets a Stunner just because. Austin won after a Stunner to Taker after Rikishi interfered, setting up Austin vs. Angle for the title tonight.

Here’s Vince to start the show properly. His advice is that we respect authority and is greeted by an ASSHOLE chant. I didn’t know we were in Green Bay. We see clips of Rock beating up referees on Smackdown which has put them on the injured list. Stephanie suggested to Vince to make Rock vs. Rikishi/Kane tonight but that’s not fair. Rock is going to have two partners. Take a guess who those people will be. Yep they’ll be referees.

Vince turns his attention to Austin and says that his new year’s resolution is to be fair. He talks about leading by example and cue Glass Shatter. Austin calls BS on Vince leading by example or being a changed man and all that jazz. Can’t say I disagree there. Austin says if you look like a jackass and smell like a jackass it doesn’t matter if you have spots or not. All that matters is he’s taking the title tonight.

Cue Angle who says that he’s not sure if that’s going to happen tonight. Angle talks about how he was winning gold medals while Austin was losing strap matches to Savio Vega. He mentions beating Austin in a 6 man match and a 4 man match which is true. Austin flips Angle off and his music hits. The belt also hits him square in the back and Angle runs. This was kind of boring for some reason, even though it was fine from a production and delivery standpoint.

Austin is walking in the back. Literally that’s all. No talking or anything. He’s just walking.

We recap the Hardys saving Jericho from a beating from the Radicalz. What a perfect segue to this.

Chris Jerico/Hardy Boys vs. Perry Saturn/Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko

This should be good. Benoit is IC Champion and would have an epic ladder match at the Rumble. We start with a brawl on the floor and I think Matt vs. Dean is the official start. Poetry in Motion takes down Perry but Benoit comes in and destroys Jeff just because he’s better than Jeff. Jeff plays Ricky Morton tonight as the beatdown begins.

Back off to Saturn who sends Jeff into the corner but can’t get a suplex. Swanton Bomb hits and off to Jericho vs. Benoit. I could watch these two fight all day. Jericho shoves down Terri and Saturn drills him for his trouble. Crossface is blocked by Jericho into a backslide of all things to get the pin. Malenko throws a hot dog cart, mainly mustard, on Lita who he wants to sleep with. Odd choice of flirting but whatever makes his plane fly.

Rating: C. Rather short match here but Benoit got the pin that he needed to make him seem like more of a threat to Benoit and his reign. We had the Malenko vs. Lita thing too which is good as well, especially once they go on a date which I think was on Smackdown. This was quick and decent, although I can’t get into this show at all for some reason.

We go to the back where the referees are lined up in front of Stephanie who looks INCREDIBLE in a tight pink top. The two referees are Jack Doan and Teddy Long. I don’t care though as I’d rather look at Stephanie some more.

XFL cheerleaders are here.

During the break Lita got into the shower to clean all the mustard off. Once the Hardys left, naturally Malenko goes in to take a peak.

Over to the Rock, and they are chanting his name. Rock hints at a match with Austin at Mania and the fans are almost stoic about it. You can feel things get more awesome as the idea of those two fighting each other. Rock turns his attention to Stephanie and the match she’s put him in. He’s going to win. That’s about it. His energy is so refreshing.

More of Dean looking at Lita in the shower before he finally just goes in. Matt and Jeff nearly kill him. How did they know he was in there? They use a table to Pillmanize his leg.

We get an update on Chyna’s neck being all screwed up by the RTC and a spike Piledriver. We get a sitdown interview with Cole and Chyna. Her neck is all screwed up and she hopes to be back. She would only fight women after this and then screw over the whole division as she would win the title, dominate the division and then leave without dropping the belt.

Billy Gunn vs. Val Venis

This is a lumberjack match to keep the RTC away from interfering. Billy tries to be all serious and says he’s going to hurt Venis. Billy has elf ears. It’s on fast with Val dominating as Billy charged in. Billy hits the floor and beats up the RTC aspect of the lumberjacks like a big bully. Val gets beaten up by all the other lumberjacks of course. And then we repeat that.

We slow things down a bit after the APA beats down Val. Spinebuster gets two for Val and then a Jackhammer gets two for Billy. I don’t get why no one else has used that move as a finisher again. It’s a solid move to be sure. The problem here becomes evident quickly as once they start avoiding the lumberjacks, it’s Val Venis vs. Billy Gunn which isn’t exactly a match where the fans are turned away at the gate.

Val tries to run from a Piledriver so the APA stops him again. Ivory tries to run in but gets thrown in anyway. That goes nowhere of course and the Fameasser ends clean. Everyone gets in for the big Rumble time of the year brawl that accomplishes nothing at all. Chyna is “vindicated” I guess. The world can sleep better knowing that or something.

Rating: D+. It’s ok I guess but at the end of the day, it’s Billy Gunn vs. Val Venis in a lumberjack match on Raw. For once though the gimmick made a bit of sense as I guess everyone was mad about Chyna being hurt. Could they have told us that or something at least though? I’m assuming that’s what’s going on but it might be wrong which isn’t a good thing at all.

Edge and Christian tell Angle they have something special for the Dudleys.

Kane intimidates the referees.

Kane/Rikishi vs. Jack Doan/Teddy Long/The Rock

Why do I smell a screwy finish? The Rumble is in 13 days. Nice to know. Teddy Long has to start so it’s him vs. Rikishi. The fat man basically forces him into the corner on threats of violence and backs that ass up before hitting a Stinkface for good measure. Teddy no sells it though and gets over to Rock to make this an actual match.

We get to the expected handicap aspect here as Rock hits a DDT on Rikishi. He distracts Tim White and the referees double team Rikishi in a funny bit. Spinebuster sets up the People’s Elbow but runs into a Kane chokeslam for two. Stinkface to the Rock is countered by a nice ball shot and Rikishi turns inside out on a clothesline.

Off to Kane who walks into a Samoan Drop for two. For some reason there’s less to make fun of here. Rikishi kicks Rock’s head off and the big fried freak goes to get a chair. Doane attempts to stop him but Kane shoves him off which for some reason is enough for a DQ. I’ve seen weirder….nah that was just stupid.

Rating: C-. Not much of a match but Rock’s energy helped it. The ending was about as predictable as you could ask for and the whole thing just kind of felt meh. Not a bad match given that Rikishi and two referees were in it, but nothing I wanted to sit through as I watched it. That’s been happening a lot tonight and it’s really not a very good thing.

Kane and Rikishi destroy Rock until Taker comes down for the save.

Stephanie bitches about Taker and continues to look great. This Thursday it’s those four in a fatal fourway, winner is #30 in the Rumble. I think Rikishi wins that.

Hardcore Title: Raven vs. Steve Blackman

This might be decent for some twisted reason that I need therapy to solve. Raven says that Al Snow was the first man to fall victim to what will now be known as the Raven Effect but is cut off by Blackman. I never was a Blackman guy but that spinning trashcan lid to the back of the head was always cool. Blackman gets his shots in with the sticks and the suplex to go with them.

Hardcore Holly comes in and hammers Raven with the windmill trashcan lids so Raven gets a fire extinguisher shot to Holly and…wins the match? Blackman goes after Raven so Holly kicks Blackman in the balls and goes after Raven but only gets two. Raven finally wakes up and runs away to the always elusive waiting car. This was like 90 seconds before Holly ran out so no rating of course.

Edge and Christian say don’t come out until we tell you to. We can’t see who they’re talking to but I think I know who it is if I’m remembering right but the timing is way off. Yeah it can’t be Rhyno so I’m not sure who to expect here.

We get a Rumble moment from 1999 where Kane dominated things. He would do a bit better this year.

Kai En Tai are at WWF New York. Bad dubbing is still funny.

We’re told that later tonight we’re going to hear about how to become WWF Superstars. Oh boy.

Edge and Christian are here and have something for the Dudleys. They crack me up easily as they were absolutely hysterical at this point. They’ve been to Dudleyville apparently and have brought back the Dudley parents. They’re dressed like the Dudleys and yep we’ve got baby pictures. The Dudleys SPRINT to the ring and beat up the parents. It’s much funnier than it sounds, mainly due to Edge and Christian being awesome. 3D to dad and What’s Up to mom. Naturally mama gets wood which is just funny as hell.

Vince asks Stephanie to get him some coffee. DAMN those boobs look epic. He takes his jacket off and looks all happy.

We get a clip of Rock being the spokesman for a new videogame. It’s name: Xbox. It doesn’t matter what Bill Gates thinks either.

Stephanie comes back with the coffee and here’s Trish. Stephanie puts Trish in a match tonight against Test. Oh she gets Albert as a partner at least.

Fans at WWF New York pick Austin to win tonight.

Vince is looking for somebody.

XFL ad. That debuted on my birthday so it’s coming soon.

It’s the first mention of Tough Enough! Wait…is that good or bad?

Is there a reason it’s been almost ten minutes since our last in ring segment?

Trish Stratus/Albert vs. Test

This isn’t going to be much at all with Test as the most talented person in this match at this point. Test looks all kinds of pissed off here. Naturally the men start us off and a bicycle kick half kills Test. Stephanie is enjoying this. Trish slaps Test and is dragged in. Albert can’t get the gorilla press and Test takes over.

He brings Trish in again and almost gets the pumphandle slam. She manages to get out of it somehow but Albert takes a SICK big boot to take down Albert. For absolutely no apparent reason here comes William Regal. He gets a shot in on Test and the Baldo Bomb (Albert’s choke bomb) ends this. These matches need to be longer in a huge way.

Rating: D+. Only real thing this had going for it was Trish looking great. Actualy that isn’t fair as Test was kind of awesome here. That guy had a ton of potential but for whatever reason he never went anywhere. He had a huge run in 99 and then after that just faded away. Kind of a shame really. Anyway this was short and really nothing special.

Stephanie yells at Vince for sending Regal out there.

We get a rather not needed recap of the Austin vs. McMahons thing for his title shot which we kind of already know.

We get a package on Angle and how awesome he was in his first year, which really was absolutely amazing and second to probably only Brock in awesomeness. Austin is watching this and isn’t very pleased.

WWF World Title: Kurt Angle vs. Steve Austin

Not a bad main event at all. They keep saying it’s been a year since Austin had a legit shot at the title. More like a year and a half as he didn’t have a straight up title shot after Summerslam 99 that I remember and he was out for all but the tail end of 2000 where he didn’t get a one on one match for the title. Austin grabs the belt to start and we have no commercials to go. That’s always awesome.

Stone Cold dominates to start with Kurt being in big trouble early on. Austin goes for a suplex off the middle rope but Angle throws him forward and Austin’s head SMACKS the mat in a hard looking shot that was mostly legit. Thesz Press hits out of nowhere to get Austin out of trouble. As I’ve said before: when all else fails, HIT THEM IN THE FACE! Austin gets all suplex happy but can’t break two on the counts.

They speed things up again and Angle gets a cross body (???) for two. They head to the floor and get their brawl on, which is stupid speak for Austin beats the tar out of Angle. Regal pops up out of nowhere with a pipe but can’t get it to connect on Austin. Austin fights off both guys and sends Angle into the crowd where he hits a flying clothesline (??? Again) to half kill Angle.

Somehow that and the beating before that only gets two every time. This has been a pretty solid beating to Kurt so far. In an impressive looking spot Angle throws his hands up to block Austin’s double axe off the middle rope and pops him over with a PERFECT belly to belly overhead. Take that Scott Steiner. Angle goes suplex crazy again, probably breaking ten of them or so.

Somehow that wouldn’t be anywhere close to his record as later this year he would sink in the Rolling Germans and get up to 12 in a row with no break. All these suplexes only get him two so Angle suplexes him again. Austin can’t slam him which looks odd indeed. Nice selling on the suplexes I guess. Angle Slam is blocked though and a knee lift sends Angle down as well as Austin.

Angle gets all pissed off and they slug it out as Austin has to use the ropes to hold himself up for awhile. Austin slugs him into the corner and there’s the Mudhole Stomp. Spinebuster and a middle rope elbow gets no cover as it’s Stunner time. It’s blocked twice as is the Angle Slam but after the Stunner finally hits it’s HHH to return for the save and the DQ. JR of course, loses his mind over it and damn’s HHH’s soul.

Rating: B+. Where in the hell is this on DVD packages? This was great stuff and it came out of nowhere more or less. Austin was so underrated in the ring because of how great he is on the mic and this is another fine example of that as he went out there and beat the hell out of Angle. That being said, Angle was putting on a clinic in there and the whole thing just worked to near perfection. It’s not as good as their later stuff, but this is a damn good match that needs to be released somewhere. I’d watch it again just for the suplexes.

Austin flips HHH off and says bring it. HHH backs off and then comes at Austin with the big slow build. He gets in the ring and you keep waiting on him to bail but instead IT’S ON! They slug it out and with the extended build to the fight it’s awesome stuff. Austin is in trouble for awhile but fights him back until they hit the floor. HHH gets the pipe Regal had earlier and DRILLS Austin with it three times to bust him open and put him down to end the show. GREAT ending segment with an awesome brawl that felt absolutely huge.

Overall Rating: C+. Well the first hour and a half or so more or less were dull as could be. Nothing jumps off the page at you at all as it’s so clear we’re waiting for the Rumble to get here and we’re going through the motions until then. And then there’s the last half hour which was GREAT.

It’s rare to get a solid TV match and not only do you get one here, but there isn’t a single commercial in it. Coupling that with a great brawl that also felt epic and the last half hour easily carries this to a decent rating. If you have 15-20 minutes, find the main event as it’s good stuff and I don’t remember seeing it on any DVD which is a shame.

 

[Raiden]

The shows were awesome during that time. IMO, WWF/E was at it's best in 2000 and 2001.

I remember the Angle/Austin match, it's one of the most underrated TV matches in history.

And the fight between Austin and HHH was epic !

[youtube]TtRbCvfY9JQ[/youtube]

This also marks the debut of "The Game" song by Motorhead.

 

[Dean Winchester]

I agree WWE from 2000-2001 was great and my favorite time period...also 2002-2003 was good too. This is how TNA should be like WWE from 2000-2001. Good wrestling, good feuds and champions.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

Angle vs Austin on Raw was a fantastic match. Really anyone who feels that Austin had limited number of moves should watch this match once. I think at one point he busted out a gordbuster suplex and I thought " Whoa man never seen this before." I think that Austin did not have few moves as many people think. He just used different moves in different matches. I remember he once used a powerbomb on Owen Hart and I have never seen him use that again.

He really deserves more credit than he is given as far as ring work is concerned.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: January 15, 2001
Location: Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Attendance: 13,936
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

We continue on the Road to the Royal Rumble here as this is the final Raw until the show. Austin is of course the hottest thing in the world at this point and is on the verge of winning his record setting third Rumble. Also we’re looking at Angle trying to hold onto the title as he gets ready to face HHH on Sunday. This should be fun though so let’s get to i.

After a brief tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. we’re ready to go. The holiday was around this time remember.

Rock/Taker vs. Kane/Rikishi later tonight.

Hardy Boys/Lita vs. Right to Censor

It’s Ivory, Venis and Richards here. WOW that siren is annoying. Ivory issued a challenge to Chyna on Heat the previous night which would result in Chyna actually losing to her at the Rumble. Val and Jeff start us off here. Jeff of course outmaneuvers Val with ease to take over. Off to Matt and it’s all Team Extreme to start. Spin Cycle (a weird double suplex kind of move) from the Hardys to Val.

Side slam by Richards gets two for Matt. Only the girls in this didn’t wind up in TNA at some point. I’m not sure what that says but I don’t think it’s good. JR and the King get to make fun of the RTC which is a parody of the PTC which was a major thorn in the side of Vince because they didn’t like what was on TV so they talked about it incessantly. Double suplex gets two for Steven.

Matt fights him off and gets a middle rope legdrop for two. Good thing that didn’t happen today or Steven would be buried under the ring. Off to Jeff who cleans house. The fans want Lita and Ivory accidently tags herself in. Litarana to Val and a spear to Ivory. Ivory tries to run but Chyna throws her back into Lita and a Twist of Fate to end it.

Rating: C+. Formula based but fun match here. Both teams worked pretty fast paced and the RTC didn’t drag this out somehow. Not a great match or anything but for an opener this was fine. Chyna coming out for the save helped a lot as there was limited point to having Lita vs. Ivory. Fun match to start the show.

Chyna accepts the challenge.

Stephanie and HHH arrive.

We get a clip from Smackdown of Austin destroying Edge/Christian and the Dudleys.

Here’s HHH for a little chat. Stephanie looking damn good in a black leather dress. HHH talks about how he hears the same thing everywhere he goes. Everyone says to him to kick HHH’s ass. HHH says unless he’s provoked he won’t go after Austin tonight. Stephanie says that order will be maintained tonight by Vince, who is here live via satellite.

Vince is surrounded by XFL stuff and has an XFL ball. It launched on my birthday which isn’t one of my prouder moments. If HHH provokes Austin then he loses his title shot. If Austin provokes HHH, he’s out of the Rumble. Vince aged a lot in the last decade as he looks very young here. Tonight it’s Austin/Dudleys vs. Edge/Christian/Angle which should be interesting. Vince has to leave now for a meeting but he has his phone on. Odd way for him to go but whatever.

It’s odd because the segment isn’t over yet. HHH says that Angle is champion because HHH has allowed him to be so. He says he never lost the title (Rock pinned Vince in a 6 man to win it) and Angle has never won defended against him due to being busy with Austin. He talks about Kurt’s title reign and how Kurt can bring all the help he wants because HHH will win the title on Sunday anyway.

Here’s Kurt with a rebuttal. Angle is disappointed in Stephanie because she blew it because she picked HHH over him. Speaking of games, Donkey Kong has a better chance of taking the title from Angle than HHH does. He’s the big smelly ape that people actually like. Angle has someone in his corner, which is someone that the McMahons know quite well: Trish. DAMN those are some big old boobs. Remember she was sleeping with Vince at the time.

Trish makes innuendo about her sleeping with Vince so Stephanie calls her a ****e. That’s more or less true actually. Stephanie makes a spanking match with Jackie vs. Trish. Yeah because that’s such punishment. She can’t wrestle so let’s make her do something where there’s no wrestling required. Long segment, running nearly 10 minutes.

Back and we get a clip of Trish volunteering to get a spanking from Vince on Smackdown to explain things a bit more. HHH isn’t sure how Vince is going to take this. Stephanie needs acting lessons in a fierce way.

Hardcore Title: Test vs. Raven

Well at least they both have good music. Raven brings out his shopping cart full of weapons. Fire extinguisher to the face gives Raven control to start but he walks into a full nelson slam to take him down. Here’s Hardcore Holly as I think you know what’s coming. Blackman comes out too and it’s a big mess. As in a bigger mess than usual if that’s possible.

Raven tries to leave but Test follows him up the ramp. Test picks him up and rams Raven’s face into the WWF.com sign above the entrance. Abandon all hope ye who log on? They go to the back where Regal jumps both of them, allowing Raven to pin Test. No rating of course as this was maybe two minutes. Raven drives off in a waiting car. This might result in Raven’s ninja.

Blackman and Holly make a match for later tonight. Good thing they had a time slot all emptied up and waiting on someone to fill it in isn’t it?

XFL ad makes me laugh.

Here’s Rock to do his usual awesome stuff. We’re six days from the Rumble and Rock has a tag match with Taker vs. Kane/Rikishi. Excuse the Rock for not doing cartwheels and backflips of joy. This is a one night partnership but today is a very special day because it is the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Rock has a dream of his own and that is to win the Rumble. Nice transition there. He emulates I Have A Dream but switches out free at last with whipping ass in a funny line. Good stuff here although kind of short by his standards.

The Dudleys say that tonight it’s a one night partnership with Austin and after the match is over, they’ll have a Dudleyville Discussion with Austin.

HHH and Stephanie call Vince to talk about Drew Carey wanting to do something at the Rumble. Ah wait that’s not why they’re calling. They’re calling to make Rock happy so Vince changes it to Rock/Kane vs. Taker/Rikishi. Uh, ok?

Some Milwaukee Bucks are here.

Undertaker/Rikishi vs. Rock/Kane

Some odd pairings here. Rikishi is #30 in the Rumble. Tough Enough is coming. It’s now 2011 and it’s on its way back. Kind of ironic isn’t it? Not really but it sounds good and these entrances are taking a long time so I need something to pass the time. Rock vs. Rikishi to start. Rikishi knocks him back into the corner and goes for a Stinkface but Rock hits a big clothesline out of the corner to avoid a bad facial.

Kane tags himself in and Rock isn’t too thrilled with that. Samoan Drop takes down the Big Fried Freak as I continue to wonder what Vince was thinking when he picked Rikishi as the big bad. Kane manages to slam him in an impressive spot. Top rope clothesline takes him down again. How exactly was that hellacious though? I’m not getting that part.

Off to the Deadman now (with a tag most would call a right hand to the jaw) as the Brothers square off….again. Rock returns the favor and tags himself back in to give us the eternally bad pairing of Rock vs. Taker. Taker beats him down and hits Old School. Rock fights back but both guys go down to a double clothesline. Swinging neckbreaker puts Taker down for a second as this is a brawl.

Everything breaks down and Kane clocks Rikishi in the head with the bell. He’s a Samoan. That isn’t supposed to work. Spinebuster takes down the Rock but Kane jumps Rock to wild heat. Taker tries to give Rock the Last Ride but Rock dead weights him or something before the second attempt ends Rock.

Rating: C. This was a main event tag match and not much more. It’s fine in that regard but sweet damn I don’t get why Rikishi was pushed so hard. Did someone really think that was a good idea? Not bad here but it’s nothing I’m going to remember in about five minutes. At least it built to the Rumble somewhat.

Benoit is bringing a ladder to the arena.

After a break here’s Benoit on top of said ladder. He talks about how awesome Jericho is and what an honor it’ll be to wrestle him in a ladder match. Benoit has made a little video for us called the best of Benoit vs. Jericho. As predicted it’s all Benoit destroying Jericho. Naturally Jericho comes in from the crowd and destroys Benoit.

The Dudleys and Edge/Christian get into it in the back and the Dudleys are left laying, including a Conchairto to D-Von.

HHH and Stephanie talk about Austin not having partners now. Stephanie thinks she should call her dad for….uh…no adequately explored reason.

Hardcore Holly vs. Steve Blackman

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what the world has been waiting for! For no apparent reason this isn’t hardcore. They trade strikes and reversals to start us off. Blackman drapes Holly over the ropes and shoves the referee (Teddy Long) maybe 40 seconds in. Holly with some low blows and it’s still not a DQ. A chair is taken away from him and Blackman goes to get some more stuff. Teddy walks off as I hope this isn’t the referee strike angle. I always hated that thing. Not really even a match.

HHH/Steph call Vince who says if Austin can get some partners he can have replacements. Vince asks about Trish and Stephanie…I think gets on him about it?

Trish Stratus vs. Jacqueline

At least Trish looks great in leather pants that are skin tight. I have no idea how you’re supposed to win this as they both have straps. I’m assuming you win by pinfall. As Trish is about to be whipped here’s Angle for the save. Jackie tries to spank her but only gets her pants down. Her thong-clad ass is slapped by the strap and I guess Jackie wins. This was whatever.

We get a clip of Kai En Tai dancing with Too Cool but then turning heel for no apparent reason.

K-Kwik/Too Cool vs. Kai En Tai/Tazz

Kwik is commonly known as R-Truth. Some odd pairings here to be sure. Tazz cuts a brief promo. Kai En Tai’s dubbing gimmick is something I wasn’t a fan of back in the day but now I find it hysterical. Scotty and Funaki start us off. Too Cool hits a Hart Attack of all things. Taka tries a rana but gets caught in a nice sitout powerbomb by Grandmaster. Tazz surprisingly does the worst of his team as Truth comes in. The Worm hits Tazz but after Funaki interference the Tazmission beats Truth.

Rating: D+. Nothing special here in the slightest. It was a quick six man tag to fill in a spot on the card. Tazz would be face by Mania and I have no interest in the other five guys here. Yeah there really isn’t much else to say about this match is there? Why was this on the card again?

Angle suggest that Trish head back to the hotel and put some salve on her ass. She was somehow curvier at this point.

Royal Rumble Moment: Too Cool and Rikishi dance in the ring. That was awesome.

HHH and Stephanie conspire evily.

Info for Tough Enough is given. This would result in Maven and Nidia who both meant a grand total of nothing.

We recap the Chyna/Ivory thing from earlier in the night which is an odd time to have this on. Ok then.

Billy Gunn is at WWF New York and they ask him how he feels about Chyna coming back so soon. He’s not sure about it but it’s her call. Oh and he might win the Rumble. That’s hilarious.

Kurt Angle/Edge/Christian vs. Steve Austin/???/???

That’s quite the heel team as they’re all champions at this point. Out of nowhere the APA run in and they’re the partners apparently. Austin and Angle start but Angle tags Christian in almost immediately. Off to Edge and Bradshaw now which goes badly for the Canadian. Double spinebuster to Edge as Farrooq comes in. It’s weird to see Austin beat up Edge. They’re tagging that fast mind you.

Angle vs. Austin now and Austin shockingly BACKFLIPS out of a suplex. Edge and Christian grab some chairs but can’t hit a Conchairto on Austin. The APA chases them off and we’re down to the two stars. Superplex gets two for Austin. HHH comes out to the ramp and Austin stares him down. Low blow by Angle and Kurt takes over. Austin manages to counter an Angle suplex and takes over again.

There’s a belly to belly for Austin’s trouble though as Angle pops those hips like only he can. Angle Slam is blocked as they’re flying through this. Thesz Press and Austin hammers away. Angle goes up but jumps into a Stunner to end it. More or less a one on one match but that’s fine by me.

Rating: C+. WAY fast here and it worked pretty well I thought. This works fine as HHH not getting involved here and having Austin do his dirty work for him was perfectly fine as it kills two birds with one stone for him. The tag team aspect meant nothing for the most part but the match was still incredibly energetic and fun.

HHH comes down to the ring and begs Austin to hit him, offering him the first shot. Austin goes to the floor and gets a chair while HHH screams at him to hit him. Austin walks away and makes the symbol of the title around his waist. HHH calls him a pussy, making him charge back but Angle comes up from behind HHH and gets the Slam but Austin gets a Stunner on him to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. Well the wrestling was pretty bad, but everything was covered for the Rumble. The PPV was awesome so that helps a lot, but I don’t think anyone actually believed Austin would lose. There were only five matches and everything got some build, but this was pre-Brand Split so there was always Smackdown for more building and the final build. Fun little show, but nothing great or memorable at all.

Here’s the Rumble if you’re interested:

http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthread.php?p=1740287#post1740287

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: January 22, 2001
Location: Cajundome, Lafayette, Louisiana
Attendance: 8,226
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

We’re another step closer to Mania this week as it’s still not the final show in January. Austin has won another Rumble and is going to meet the champion at Mania. It was pretty clear that meant Rock, but he had to win the title first. That would be at No Way Out and if you couldn’t tell I’m filling in space because I don’t remember the last show I did from this year. Let’s get to it.

Theme song opens us up.

Rock/Jericho vs. Big Show/Benoit later.

HHH and Stephanie open us up as HHH is mad at Austin for costing him the title last night against Angle. He runs down the town which is great heel heat. This is just after HHH’s peak as a heel so this is rather good stuff. Austin is blamed for the lack of a win and says that once he gets here, HHH will be waiting. As he says this he picks up a sledgehammer. Good stuff with a great slow pace.

Here’s Kurt to make fun of HHH in a funny voice. He says that HHH whines a lot and gets in one of the funniest lines I’ve ever heard him say. “Maybe if you spent less time crying over spilt milk and more time drinking it like me, you’d be a winner.” His over the top innocence is one of the funniest gimmicks I’ve ever seen. HHH says bring it on now and Angle asks why it always has to be a foreign object and not just natural ability.

He wants a rematch and is almost a face here. Angle says it’s on and here’s Trish for no apparent reason. DAMN she looks good in Carolina blue. Trish challenges Stephanie for later tonight and Stephanie says sure but it’ll be Stephanie giving Trish her next spanking and Trish will be her bitch.

Vince arrives. After a break Vince says that the matches might not happen.

European Title: William Regal vs. Test

Regal is champion coming in here and runs down Test a bit. Test runs to the ring and destroys Regal inside of two minutes. Regal got in some punches and a knee but other than that it was ALL Test. The big boot sets up the top rope elbow (pretty) for the title. Match didn’t even make 90 seconds. Test would hold the title until Mania.

Vince is reading an article on the XFL when HHH comes in and is rather pissed off. HHH accuses him of thinking with his other head and being in the interest of Trish instead of fairness. Vince is going to take it under consideration.

The XFL is coming.

Regal isn’t happy.

APA vs. Hardy Boys

The APA and Jackie beat the Hardys and Lita on Smackdown to set this up. The Hardys may be having problems here. Jeff tags himself in to officially start against Bradshaw. He jumps into a fallaway slam for no cover for no apparent reason. Off to Farrooq as the domination continues.

Everything breaks down for a bit and Bradshaw intercepts Poetry in Motion. Matt gets mad at Jeff for some reason over that and the beating continues. The fans chant for Lita. Spinning neckbreaker for Matt and a headbutt for Farrooq both get two. Matt takes Farrooq down and it’s probably hot tag time. Off to Jeff now and it’s some double teaming. The Hardys cause some APA miscommunication but get the Twist and Swanton on Bradshaw. Farrooq is legal though and hits Jeff with the Dominator to end it.

Rating: D+. I wasn’t feeling this in the slightest. I get that the Hardys are supposed to be having issues, but this felt way too forced in that sense. This was nearly a squash and the Hardys would be way above the APA by Mania. I didn’t get this and of course the Hardys were fine by Mania. They would have more issues later in the year though.

Stephanie tries to calm HHH down but gets angry herself. She’s going to try talking to Vince next.

After hearing about a Mick Foley contest, Stephanie is trying to convince her dad about the matches. She accuses him of trying to protect Trish which makes him a bit shaky. He says go get ready.

We get a clip of Show destroying everyone in the Rumble last night.

Now we get a sitdown interview with Rock about last night. This is serious Rock as he says he’s disappointed in losing last night because of Big Show. He does get in some jokes about Cole being a wannabe member of N’Sync. Rock says that if Austin were here he’d congratulate him but it wouldn’t matter who won, even if it was Drew Carey, Jim Carey or Harry Carey, it’s not the Rock.

Cole: “Where does the Rock go from here?” Rock: “The Rock should get up and punch you in the mouth for asking such a stupid question.” The goal is the title and he’ll get it again soon. Do you smell that? His question, not mine. Funny stuff indeed if you didn’t expect that.

Jericho is on his way to the ring.

We get a clip of the AWESOME ladder match from last night.

Chris Benoit/Big Show vs. The Rock/Chris Jericho

Well this should be awesome. Jericho won the ladder match the night before and is the new IC Champion. Benoit tells Show that it’s Canadian vs. Canadian. Benoit vs. Jericho to start us off. Show hits Jericho in the back of the head to stun him and then comes in on his own. After a mini beating it’s back to Benoit. Rock comes in very quickly after a Jericho enziguri.

Rock takes down Show with a single punch but walks into a belly to back from Benoit. JR messes up the Canadians’ names about five times in three minutes. Chokeslam to Jericho on the floor as Benoit beats on Rock. It’s a handicap match now and Rock is in trouble. A bunch of punches don’t hurt Show at all. Rock fights back on Benoit and you can hear the crowd getting into it.

Never mind as it’s Rolling German time for two. Swan Dive headbutt gets two as well. Jericho has been helped to the back if you were wondering. Show can’t get a pin either and gets all pissed off. Chokeslam is blocked though and a clothesline puts Show down. Back off to Benoit as Rock is fighting them both off. Benoit takes a spinebuster for two as Show saves.

Rock gets a shot with the ring bell to Show’s head but comes back in and is caught in the Crossface. Somehow he makes the ropes as this is a rather good performance out of Rock after a pretty slow start. Benoit is sent to the floor and it’s only Rock left inside. Jericho drags himself back out to ringside and sends Benoit into the steps and then into the ring again. Rock Bottom ends this.

Rating: C+. Despite being a glorified handicap match this was a fine performance from Rock. The ending works for the most part as Jericho made it even and his team was able to win. This was pretty good overall and shows that Rock wasn’t just a great talker. Fun match and a good showcase for the next world champion.

Show chokeslams all three guys post match.

There’s a Chris Jericho VHS. Yes they really did exist.

Trish comes up to Kurt to talk about their matches but Kurt says they’re still under advisement. Trish implies she’ll get the matches made. Jerry’s face after that is hilarious.

We recap Chyna hurting her neck the night before against Ivory and being stretchered out.

Women’s Title: Ivory vs. Molly Holly

Pre match, Ivory holds up a copy of Chyna’s book and says how awful Chyna was. Molly comes out and makes fun of Ivory. She was too cute for words. Ivory charges with the book but gets taken down pretty easily by the blonde. Richards tries to get involved but Crash intercepts him. He does manage to shove Molly off the top and let Ivory get the pin. This was nothing and barely a minute long.

Trish goes into Vince’s office.

Rikishi vs. Kane

Rikishi is still a BAD MAN here. The fight starts on the floor with Kane dominating. Scratch that as Kane tries to hurt Rikishi’s head and the Samoan takes over. In the ring and a side kick and leg drop keep Kane down for a bit. Kane avoids the Stinkface and hits the top rope clothesline. Chokeslam hits and Haku wobbles down for the DQ.

Pay no attention to him being late and Rikishi not kicking out in time as the referee just doesn’t count the pin even though Rikishi’s shoulder wasn’t up. The Samoans beat Kane down. This was supposed to lead to the Samoans vs. the Brothers of Destruction but it never materialized. Taker makes the save. This was another very short match and was too short to grade.

After a break, Rikishi wants Taker on Thursday, no holds barred.

There are sounds coming from Vince’s office.

We recap Drew’s experience last night in the Rumble. This was something a lot of people thought was stupid but at the end of the day what’s better: Drew Carey, a legit big time celebrity (back then) in the Rumble or D’lo Brown in a comedy gimmick lasting for 8 minutes and meaning nothing at all? This is a somewhat famous moment and it was entertaining for what it was supposed to be. I’m totally fine with this and always have been.

Tag Titles: Dudley Boys vs. Lo Down

Low Down is Chaz (Mosh from the Headbangers) and D’lo Brown in an Arabian gimmick. They were supposed to be in the Rumble but Drew got their spot so this is their makeup present. I miss the missile/rocket that would come down for the Dudleys’ entrance. Tiger Ali Singh, the manager of Lo Down, is on commentary here.

The challengers jump the Dudleys early and take over. The Dudleys are slightly hurt from Edge and Christian attacking them and their match the night before. The Dudleys beat down the challengers as Jerry gets a turban. Brown tries to use a belt but gets hit in the head with it for the DQ. Lo Down wins and Tiger goes through a table via 3D. This was again really short and too short to grade.

Trish leaves Vince’s locker room and is all sweaty.

Vince is going to make an announcement on the main event in a few moments.

Hardcore Title: Al Snow vs. Raven

Raven is champion here, having beaten Snow a few weeks ago by breaking a cinderblock over his head. Snow returned last night and the fight is on early. Snow brings a trashcan that actually has trash in it! They’re under the stage and hit each other with pyro. Some of it goes off and they’re both down. Raven is still wearing the belt as he sprays Al with a fire extinguisher.

They fight backstage and Raven takes an ironing board to the ribs. Into catering and Snow hits him with a potted plant. They fight with the cooking stuff and throw food at each other. We head outside and Snow hits him with a pole or something for the pin and the title. Moments later Raven’s ninja (never revealed, played by Tori) pops up to drill Snow with a pipe and Raven gets the title back. No way to grade these (sorry for doing that so much tonight) but this was pretty bad even by hardcore standards.

Vince makes a mixed tag for the main event.

Ad for the XFL cheerleaders.

Stephanie comes outside to tell HHH that it’s a mixed tag. He’s pissed to put it nicely. Austin isn’t here yet and we have ten minutes left in the show.

K-Kwik (R-Truth) and Too Cool are dancing at WWF New York.

Kurt Angle/Trish Stratus vs. HHH/Stephanie McMahon

Trish is sweaty when she comes out. HHH sets a record for fastest time changing and is ready to go almost immediately. JR points out that HHH isn’t stretched or anything like that. He manages to get a baseball slide to Angle to take him down and the fight starts on the floor. The guys start in the ring with HHH dominating. He works on Kurt’s knee and yells at Trish for a bit.

Angle gets a spinning neckbreaker to put HHH down and brings in Trish. The genitals don’t have to match here. She comes in off the top with a cross body. Kurt dropkicks her back to put down HHH. Kurt accidently hits Stephanie and gets the hell beaten out of him by both Helmsleys. Facebuster hits Angle but he manages a belly to belly to HHH and it’s back to Trish.

She tries coming in off the top again but this time Stephanie slams her down. Was Trish just like Flair there? They slap it out and Trish spears Stephanie down. The girls brawl for awhile until Trish gets a bulldog for two. HHH Pedigrees her though and Stephanie gets the easy pin for the win.

Rating: D. Total mess here and way too much of the girls in there. Still though with like six minutes to work with and the girls being the biggest part of it this was ok. The feud with the guys went nowhere though which is a shame but the girls had some good interactions. Either way, not much of a main event but I’ve seen worse.

Austin comes through the crowd and Stuns HHH to end things.

Overall Rating: C-. I really wasn’t that impressed with this show. WAY too much packed into a single show and the content was hurt because of it. It’s not horrible but at the same time they just tried to do way too much in two hours here and it didn’t work for the most part. Some stuff was good but most was too rushed. Until next week I guess.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: January 29, 2001
Location: Mellon Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Attendance: 13,449
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

Ok so I accidentally skipped this show and did the next one already. That explains a lot actually as some of the stuff on last week’s show was a bit out there. Anyway, this should be fun as most of the shows from this year are. I’ve done a show from March already so being one ahead in this year will balance out with the 98 shows eventually. Let’s get to it.

Theme song opens us up.

Rock vs. Jericho vs. Angle vs. Big Show later for the #1 contender spot. I was wondering when Rock got the title shot.

Also the contract signing for Austin and HHH later, which if I remember right has some brilliant stuff from HHH in it.

Austin is here.

Here’s Angle to open the show. Apparently the fatal fourway is for a shot at Angle on Thursday, not at the PPV. Smackdown was Smackdown EXTREME for some reason. Angle is a total face here as he’s the hometown boy. Apparently Kurt is the most requested sperm donor in all of the city. That’s not what Kurt wants to talk about though. He’s here to talk about being a savior.

We see a clip from about a year ago where he named himself the new hometown hero of Pittsburgh. He says that Mario Lemiux should have more courage and come back to play hockey. Back in real time Kurt says you’re welcome (Lemiux actually did come back around this time which is what he’s referencing). Kurt says it doesn’t matter who the participants in the fatal fourway tonight are and he leaves Rock out. Angle starts talking about former Pirates manager Jim Leyland and here’s Rock.

Rock says that Angle claiming credit for Mario coming back is a bowl of Penguin *censored*. Rock runs down Angle for a bit as they might as well make the Rock vs. Angle posters for Thursday already. He has some footage of his own apparently. Angle doesn’t like pie apparently, but does he like pizza? Oh I know what this is. We see a hilariously bad local pizza commercial with Angle as a local celebrity as the toppings fight each other. I loved that.

Rock wants to know what in the blue hell that was. It doesn’t matter what Kurt says doesn’t matter apparently. He says he’ll shove various things up Angle’s ass. As he gets ready to leave though, Big Show pops up and leaves Rock laying to try to make us think Rock isn’t a total guaranteed winner later on. Yeah it didn’t work.

XFL is coming Saturday.

Tag Titles: Dudley Boys vs. Edge/Christian

This works. The Canadians are in street clothes though and say they don’t want a rematch now. Why not? Oh apparently Edge has some food poisoning in Alabama and he has a doctor’s note to prove it. Instead there are some replacements.

Tag Titles: Dudley Boys vs. Kai En Tai

Bad dubbing abounds and apparently they are fueled by the powers of Grayskull! 80s fans are smiling at the moment. Edge and Christian are on commentary here. What do your really expect to happen in the ring here? Funaki runs at Bubba and gets drilled in the head for his efforts. Off to D-Von now and a powerslam gets two. Some double teaming takes down D-Von as Taka comes in.

Funaki and Bubba both come in and the beating is on. The future bully splashes both guys in the corner and it’s What’s Up to Funaki. The sweatshirt on D-Von never really worked for him. Taka avoids 3D but can’t avoid the reverse one. The Canadians interfere and Edge spears D-Von. That only gets two and the Canadians aren’t happy. 3D ends Funaki with ease. No rating for this total squash.

Vince says the match is happening no matter what, even if Rock is hurt. HHH pops up with his attorney (Raw head writer Brian Gerwitz) and argues with Vince a bit.

The doctor checks on Rock and he’s fine apparently.

Billy Gunn is mad about how hurt Chyna is.

Steve Blackman vs. Val Venis

Blackman beat Steven Richards up on Heat to set this up. Blackman speeds things up to start and beats Venis up for a bit. Superkick takes him down and he nails Richards. Venis gets a belly to back suplex to take over. We talk about Chyna’s book as Val does basic stuff to keep control. Chinlock goes on to waste some time. Blackman’s offense is very basic and limited and it’s showing here. Belly to belly gets two for Blackman as we make fun of the name of HHH’s attorney. Richards distracts Blackman and a rollup ends him.

Rating: D. Weak match that belonged on a house show and not on Raw. This is the kind of stuff you would see on WWF programming a lot more back in the day as this wasn’t direct storyline advancement but at the same time it was keeping the guys on TV. It also had a small angle of its own, which helped. The match sucked but that goes without saying.

The RTC beats Blackman down and Hardcore Holly of all people comes out to save him.

Ad for Tough Enough which has video submissions from people that want to be on the show, the first of which is one Josh Matthews.

Vince is on the phone to who I would guess is Trish, suggesting massages to get her back soon. Regal comes in and offers some tea to calm him down. Ok then.

We recap Austin vs. HHH and how HHH cost him the WWF Title. After the whole plotting his attempted murder thing that is of course. Austin returned the favor and cost HHH the title at the Rumble. HHH interfered in the Rumble and attacked Austin but he won the match anyway and has the Mania title shot.

It’s time for the contract signing and Vince says there will be a stipulation to be announced. Oddly enough the next week he said that was a bad idea when Stephanie suggested it. Apparently the stipulation is that there is no physical contact between them until 2/25 unless it’s in a match. If Austin hits HHH he loses his Mania shot and if HHH hits Austin he’s suspended for six months.

After both guys come in it’s time to sign up. Austin would like a beer though. He signs and it’s time for the Game. The attorney does it first and apparently has a briefcase for his glasses. HHH has an issue with the contract and Austin gets in his face over it. HHH signs and hands it to Vince….and then blasts Austin in the face with the briefcase! He beats the hell out of Austin and Vince shouts that he just got suspended for six months. Here’s the catch: HHH didn’t actually sign. Now Austin can’t touch him for about a month.

XFL ad.

During the break HHH left and shouted at Austin that Austin couldn’t touch him.

Hardy Boys vs. Acolytes vs. Bull Buchanan/Goodfather

There was a tag match on Thursday where it was a mix of the Hardys vs. the Acolytes (as in one of each per team) which went nowhere. The winner of this gets a title match Thursday. The brawl is on almost immediately as Lita and the worthless Jackie go at it on the ramp. Here’s the RTC after the fight already started. This is a total mess so far and there isn’t much to say at all.

Matt vs. Buchanan starts us off officially. Off to Jeff who has a bit more luck than his brother. Everyone comes in and the whole thing breaks down. Jeff misses a Whisper in the Wind and Buchanan gets two as Bradshaw makes the save. Clothesline from Hell to Buchanan but Bradshaw is taken to the floor. Swanton to Bull ends this really fast. No point to this at all for the most part.

Jackie vs. Lita is announced for later tonight.

Rock says he’ll get Big Show tonight.

Show is happy.

Hardcore Title: Crash vs. Raven

Raven has the cracked gold here. Crash has Molly though so I think he wins this one. Raven has his shopping cart of weapons and rams a charging Crash with it to send him off the ramp. We have shrubbery and a tricycle in there if you’re interested. We go into the crowd almost immediately as Crash hammers away with a trashcan. Crash dives out of the stands with a double axe to take Raven down for two.

They fight into the concession area and Raven finds a mop complete with mop bucket. Bulldog doesn’t work and Raven goes into a wall. Crash tries to crush him with a cart of some kind but misses a tope into said wall. We go out into the street and Crash hits a bulldog onto a park bench. Crash crotches him on a tree. Let that sink in for a minute. That gets two as Raven’s Ninja pops up to make the save and give Raven the win to retain.

Rating: C+. Energetic hardcore match here but at the same time it’s exactly what you would get in any of these matches. The Ninja thing never went anywhere at all but they had an interesting idea I guess. The idea was long since over by this point though but it would be over a year before they ended it.

Benoit says he’ll tear into all three guys tonight and none of them will prove him wrong.

We get a clip of the Samoans beating up Kane and injuring his ribs. Taker tried to save and got beaten down also, setting this up.

Haku vs. Undertaker

Naturally they slug it out to start and a big boot takes Haku down. That and a leg drop gets two. I guess Taker is a REAL AMERICAN Bad Ass. Old School kind of takes Haku down. Rikishi trips him up and gets beaten down a bit for his cheating. Haku drills him on the floor and takes over somewhat.

Taker fights back and tries a backdrop but Haku messes up the counter. The Samoan hammers away in the corner and a headbutt puts Taker down for two. Big clothesline puts Haku down again as does a DDT. Rikishi’s distraction prevents the Tombstone so Rikishi and Kane get into it. Chair to Kane’s ribs takes care of him as a chokeslam ends Haku.

Rating: D+. This was pretty worthless. Did anyone want to see Samoans vs. Brothers? Really? I can’t think of anyone out there enough to want to see it and it’s not like the feud was any good. Weak match here with zero doubt that Taker would get the pin here somehow. The feud was at least short lived so that helps.

The Samoans beat up the tall guys with chairs post match, busting Taker open. At least that’s what the announcers say as you don’t see any blood here. Could this be a preemptive PG strike?

After a break Taker and Kane want a first blood match on Thursday, which they would win and I think end the feud. Taker says bleeding (which you can see now) turns him on. Take notes Ms. McCool.

Dean Malenko, the ladies man, is at WWF New York. He still wants Lita and thanks her for the stuff she’s sent him.

Lita vs. Jacqueline

Ivory is on commentary for this but you can’t hear a word she’s saying. The winner gets Ivory on Thursday. Jackie bounces to the ring and gets beaten down easily. Why did she keep a job for so long? Ivory bitches about Chyna as a clothesline sends both girls to the floor. They’re not Divas yet for the most part. The girls finally dive at Ivory to beat the hell out of her. She was talking about Ross staying up at night thinking of her so I can’t complain here. Somehow this is a no contest. Ok then.

We recap HHH and Austin from earlier.

Big Show vs. Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho vs. The Rock

Angle is here for commentary. On the way to the ring we see the pizza commercial again. They already reshowed the attack on Rock by Show. Is this the reair hour? Jericho is Intercontinental Champion here. He runs down Angle a bit before the match and says the commercial made him hungry for the title, not for pizza.

And now we have some chick from the XFL talking about the league. To show what’s coming from this league, she says she’s in the Los Angeles locker room when you can see a Las Vegas sign in the background. Ton of sex jokes abound as you would expect. Wasn’t there supposed to be a MAIN EVENT WRESTLING MATCH here?

After a third Smackdown ad in the last hour, it’s time for the main event. Oh and there weren’t any entrances during that break. The XFL thing was like two minutes long mind you. Benoit comes out second and they start fighting immediately which is smart as they could get a quick win without interference. Here’s Show to make it three guys out of four. He cleans house for a bit until Rock sprints out and we’re on.

And he immediately runs into a chokeslam for two as Benoit saves. Ladies and gentlemen the next WWF Champion! Show vs. Jericho now as the Canadian jumps into Show’s arms like an idiot. Rock stumbles back in and hammers Show, sending him to the outside. Rock vs. Benoit in the ring now and a suplex takes Rock down. Headbutt misses and a Samoan Drop gets two. Missile dropkick makes Show stagger and a DDT by Rock puts him down for two.

Rock and Jericho hit the floor and Benoit locks the Crossface onto Show for a bit. Rock saves and gets beaten down by Benoit. Sharpshooter to Benoit but Jericho saves. Very fast paced stuff so far. Lionsault gets two. Jericho gets Rock in the Walls but Show grabs him by the throat until Benoit saves. Jericho knocks Benoit and Show to the floor but walks into the Rock Bottom to send Rock to Smackdown.

Rating: B-. This was short but I like that aspect of it. They were all over the place with it and the breaking up of the pins made things rather exciting. Fun match although another minute or two would have helped it. The lack of tagging was a good thing here too as it let them have a lot more fun out there. Good main event with an obvious ending.

Overall Rating: B-. Good show here as the idea was all about Rock but the other stuff wasn’t a letdown for the most part. This wasn’t bad and we start planting the seeds for No Way Out. The contract signing was a good addition as the ending to it was very clever. Good show here but not as good as the next week I don’t think.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: February 5, 2001
Location: Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia
Attendance: 24,639
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

We’re another step closer to No Way Out and ultimately Wrestlemania. I don’t actually remember what happened on the last show so I’m not going to be much help here in this intro. This show is in Atlanta and probably outdrew what WCW was doing in a week around this time so there’s a chance this was designed as a slap in their face. To give you an idea of how big a Raw this is, this is the building where Mania 27 will be held in about a month. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the events of Smackdown where HHH snuck into a triple threat title match with Rock and Angle. Austin came down to watch (remember they can’t touch each other) and distracts HHH long enough to have Angle roll him up and then Austin grabbed the referee’s hand and slapped the mat to have Angle retain. The buildup for their match was great and thankfully the match itself rocked harder than a bunch of boulders.

Intercontinental Title: Matt Hardy vs. Chris Jericho

The Dudleys beat up Jeff on Smackdown (I need to get to those eventually) so he’s out. Lita is in full on **** mode with her purple thong sticking out. Face vs. face here. Before the bell Dean Malenko comes out to stare at Lita. This would all pay off with them going on a date and Lita looking as hot as ever in some white lingerie and turning the lights out, only for the Hardys to pop up and destroy Dean.

Jericho grabs a headlock to start but gets sent to the floor. They chop it out on the floor and Jericho gets a suplex to take over. Jumping back elbow off the top in the ring gets two for Chris. Jericho loudly calls a clothesline to Matt and then does just that. The fans chant for Lita as Matt avoids a superplex and adds a top rope clothesline for no cover. There goes Matt’s shirt and he gets a boot in the corner and the leg drop for two. HOGAN REINCARNATED BABY!

Malenko comes down from the stage and the distraction is enough for Matt to get crotched on the top rope and put in the Tree of Woe. Lita gets a hurricanrana off the top and apparently the referee saw nothing weird about Jericho just falling down when no one else was in the ring. Matt grabs a Northern Lights Suplex but gets countered and sent to the floor. Dean hits Matt, knocking him into Lita. Back in and the bulldog by Jericho sets up the Lionsault to retain. Decent match actually.

Rating: B-. For a TV opening match, this was actually pretty entertaining. The fans were definitely into it and it advanced the Lita and Dean story a bit. This is what the IC Title should be used for. Matt isn’t a real threat to the title, but he got a shot here and we got a decent match out of it. Today, everyone would expect a swerve in the ending. That needs to stop being the norm.

Matt goes after Dean post match but Saturn comes out to help his buddy. Jericho helps Matt and then Eddie pops in from behind, returning from an injury for the 3-1 beatdown. Matt tries to save but takes a belt shot to the head. They put the title on Jericho’s face and Eddie frog splashes it to leave the Canadian laying.

Rock gets here and won’t talk to Kevin Kelly.

After a break Rock comes to the arena and is rather ticked off. Rock says that since the beginning of time there have been some questions. Why are we here, are we alone, and how can HHH be such a horse’s ass? HHH and Austin both got involved in his match and while Rock and Austin both hate HHH, Austin inadvertently screwed the Rock on Smackdown. Granted Rock would probably do the same thing. It’s all HHH’s fault though so it doesn’t really matter.

Apparently HHH’s mother enjoys circus midgets and sailors. That being said, Rock is going to return the favor to HHH. If HHH wants to be #1 contender, come and earn it against the Rock. Since HHH doesn’t have enough nuts to do it himself, bring Stephanie with you. He only gets Stephanie though so we get the My Time song which still kicks ass. She seems to have forgotten her bra. Not a complaint bust just an observation. Rock implies Stephanie likes balls and here comes the Game, rocking that sweet jean/leather jacket combination.

There’s the asshole chant as you would expect. HHH says he’s the man that has kicked Rock’s ass since the day he got here. Strong words indeed. This was just after HHH’s insanely great time on top of the company so he’s pretty right with a lot of what he’s saying. HHH says that he got screwed by Austin and Rock didn’t. If you change the names in this it’s cheerleader drama. Since HHH can’t kick Austin’s ass, he’ll kick Rock’s. The jacket goes off and Angle’s music goes on. Cock teases.

He says this is ridiculous because they want to have a match to see who faces Angle. Neither of them can beat him so it doesn’t really matter anyway. Even the 3% of the people here in Atlanta with a high school diploma can understand that. Angle says Whomp There It Is. That cracked me up for some reason. Go ahead and have your match though because Kurt is getting bored.

Cue theme song #5 for this segment as Vince comes out. In the interest of what the fans want to see…and he’s cut off by an asshole chant. “Be nice to me or you won’t get a future XFL expansion franchise.” I nearly died from that line. Rock cuts Vince off again and wants to know if he’s got HHH tonight or if he needs to get an XFL football to shove up HHH’s ass. Kurt says he thinks Vince is fair. Vince makes HHH vs. Rock for later…with their respective partners: Austin and Angle.

Edge/Christian vs. Kai En Tai

Funaki broke up a Conchairto to Farrooq for some reason and wound up taking one of his own. Before match we get a Kai En Tai impersonation with Christian and Edge saying all kinds of fake Japanese with it completely out of sync. It was clear they had to do something with those two soon but it would take awhile before that happened. Taka says that Edge just said he and Christian are going to have sexual relations with a camel. Kai En Tai totally reek of EVIL, INDEED!

Edge and Funaki start us off as Funaki has a headache. Neckbreaker by Edge puts him down and it’s off to Christian. Funaki is put in the Tree of Woe and gets his balls stood on. Total Canadian dominance so far. After some double teaming, Edge tries to slam Funaki and Taka dropkicks Funaki onto Edge for two. Funaki gets a rollup for one. The fans chant USA as Funaki grabs a headscissors to take Edge down.

There’s the tag to Taka who gets in some jobber offense. Edge knocks him back and Funaki takes him down with a bulldog. Camel clutch gets a chuckle out of me. Michinoku Driver to Edge but Christian makes the save. Taka goes up but gets crotched as Edge sends Funaki into him. Spear takes down Funaki and a Tower of Doom to Taka ends this.

Rating: C. Just a comedy match and a basic squash for the Canadians. They had outgrown the tag division at this point and Mania 17 was more or less the final blowoff for them in that division which is probably a good thing. Anyway the talking was better than the wrestling here, which is pretty typical. Not bad though.

Stephanie’s maid gave her an earring earlier which allegedly belonged to Linda but Stephanie says it’s not Linda’s, which is proof Vince is having an affair. She’s going to confront him about it apparently. Regal overhears it and we go to a break.

Vince is on the phone with someone about the XFL ratings and here’s Stephanie. He says he and Trish are just friends. She pulls out the earring and says it was found in the bedroom. With Vince scrambling for an answer, Regal pops up to thank Vince for the use of his hotel room last night as he needed something that is bleeped. The look on Stephanie’s face is priceless as her mouth just hangs open. Vince says I told you so.

Austin shows up and is told about the main event and says we’ll see about that.

The Kat goes into APA’s office and says she was interrupted. She wanted to be naked around this time and had a weak feud with the RTC. She doesn’t have any money so she flashes them and gets what she wants.

After a break we saw a clip of Raven beating Crash due to Raven’s mystery woman. Molly is waiting in the parking lot for the mystery woman. Still cuter than hell.

Tag Titles: Undertaker/Kane vs. Dudley Boys

The Dudleys are champions coming in here. Kane vs. D-Von to start us off. D-Von has to use speed of all things which isn’t something you often see. Kane misses an elbow and D-Von hits a dropkick (???) to put Kane down. Off to Bubba and Kane takes him down with relative ease. Top rope clothesline by Kane gets two. Taker comes in and cleans house, dropping Old School on Bubba.

Bubba gets a Russian leg sweep to take Taker down and Undertaker gets hit with What’s Up. That’s not right for some reason. Double flapjack to Taker but Kane saves him from the 3D. DDT to D-Von gets two. Off to Kane vs. D-Von now and a nice legdrop gets two. Off to the non-Deadman who hits his jumping clothesline. D-Von manages a neckbreaker and brings in Bubba.

They slug it out for a bit and Bubba gets a belly to back suplex for two. Chokeslam is blocked and everything breaks down. D-Von and Kane head to the floor while in the ring it’s a chokeslam to Bubba. Cue Edge and Christian for no apparent reason. Not that it matters as their Conchairto misses. The referee sees a chair down and Bubba down and that’s good enough for a DQ. LAME!

Rating: D+. Not much of a match as the styles clashed pretty badly here. I think this set up a triple threat later which wasn’t that good. This was just ok and the only answer for Edge and Christian was that they didn’t want to face the Brothers. The ending sucks either way and it wasn’t a great match prior to that anyway.

Trish is with Vince and takes her jacket off. Cue Austin who loves the match that Vince made. Austin says Vince isn’t trying to screw him but rather Vince is trying to screw someone else. Why did he come in there anyway?

Here are Kat and the APA. We get a clip of Kat trying to give us full frontal nudity on Smackdown but getting blocked. Kat has such a thick country accent it’s insane. She gives a speech about being able to be naked all the time so Jerry takes his shirt off. He looks better in 2011 actually.

Cue RTC but the APA takes them out. Steven gets through and calls Kat a ****. She kisses him for no apparent reason. Bradshaw ends him with a clothesline and Kat wants to strip. Ivory drills her and the fight is on. And then it’s off.

Molly is warming up in the parking lot and Raven pops up. He hits on Molly and that’s about it.

Vince demonstrates football to Trish, involving her bending over in front of him in a leather skirt. Al Snow comes in and interrupts them. He brings up the recently fired Mick Foley which doesn’t go well. Snow will have a match tonight against an unnamed opponent.

Raven’s Ninja shows up and Molly hammers on her. Rave tries to save her but gets low blowed. The Ninja kicks Molly when she’s distracted and Raven leaves with the Ninja (Read as she throws him in the back of her car and drives off).

Too Cool says they’re not facing the same Rikishi that they were friends with. Haku comes in and rants about nothing in particular. Rikishi comes in, says what’s up, and leaves.

Haku/Rikishi vs. Too Cool

They were building the Samoans up to fight the Brothers. Rikishi and Grandmaster start us off and Grandmaster actually takes him down with a forearm. Ass drop misses and it’s off to Scotty. The speed works for awhile until a big clothesline takes care of that. Haku comes in and beats on Scotty for awhile.

Rikishi comes in and misses a corner charge so that Grandmaster can come in. He puts on the goggles but gets crotched before he can drop the leg. Scotty takes Rikishi down and hits the Worm only to get taken down by Haku. Top rope legdrop hits Rikishi but Haku distracts again. Belly to belly and the Banzai Drop ends Too Cool.

Rating: C. Basic tag match here but I really don’t get the idea of letting Too Cool get so much offense in. It’s an ok match but at the same time this was pretty much a long version of what could have been half this long. I guess the right team won though so we have that at least.

Angle is looking for Rock and after he insults Essa Rios’ intelligence and a break he finds him. Angle tells Rock if they do well tonight Rock could be in another #1 contenders match. Rock says he’ll be champion soon and there’s nothing Angle can do about it.

Al Snow vs. ???

Al’s mystery opponent: Chris Benoit. Oh dear. Benoit goes off on him, stomping the hell out of him in the corner. Snow returns the favor but Benoit sends Snow into the post shoulder first. Benoit is sent into the corner chest first as this is more back and forth than you would expect. Out to the floor now and Snow goes into the steps. Apparently the main event is No DQ. Back in with Benoit working over the shoulder. Snow gets a suplex to try to counter and even takes Benoit down with a forearm. He hits two moonsaults for two but gets caught in the Crossface shortly thereafter to end it.

Rating: C. Just a step ahead of a squash here with Benoit never really being in any kind of danger. The moonsaults more or less sealed the fact that Snow had no chance which is ok. Watching Benoit pick people apart is always fun and it helps to have someone quite talented like Snow in there with him.

Stephanie comes to see Vince and is nervous about Austin screwing over HHH. She says the match at No Way Out should have a special stipulation. Vince tells Stephanie to go calm down.

We get a video on the XFL to fill some time.

Stephanie tells HHH to calm down and Austin comes in to say good luck and compliment Stephanie’s hair. Ok then.

HHH/Steve Austin vs. The Rock/Kurt Angle

Austin jumps Angle instead of hitting his third corner as they’re starting I guess. Thesz Press and Austin hammers away. Superplex puts Angle down and Austin slaps HHH on the shoulder for a tag. HHH turns around and has the now legal Rock waiting on him with right hands. A thumb to the eye slows Rock down but not for very long. Spit punch puts HHH down as does a clothesline.

Facebuster to Rock but HHH gets taken down by a DDT. These two always had great chemistry together. Angle tags himself in when Rock is about ready for the Rock Bottom so Rock drills him. HHH slaps Austin in the shoulder/chest to bring him in to beat on Kurt for a bit. Spinebuster by Austin for no cover. Stunner is blocked and Angle is sent to the floor.

Rock pulls HHH in and we have two beatings going on at once. Angle comes in to drill Rock from behind and….cue Big Show? Angle is all smiley and Show takes out Rock. Final Cut on the floor and Rock is more or less dead. Show leaves as Austin jumps Kurt. HHH and Austin have a who can ram Kurt’s head into the announce table harder contest. Rock is helped out as this is a handicap match now.

HHH vs. Angle at the moment as Angle is half dead. Austin pulls the rope down to send HHH to the floor just because he can. The thought process from Austin here is priceless. Back in a HHH neckbreaker puts Angle down as Austin keeps changing corners to not let HHH tag. Belly to belly puts the Game down. Angle tries to bring in a chair but walks into a Pedigree. Austin distracts the referee and they yell at each other. HHH swings which misses and Angle hits a low blow. Angle pops HHH with a chair and Austin is cool with it. That gets the pin for Kurt.

Rating: B-. This was hilarious with Austin thinking out there to mess with HHH as much as he possibly could. When he was on his game his comedy stuff was completely underrated. Good match here too with the psychology working very well as it was supposed to. Good stuff and a good way to build up to the PPV.

Stunner to Kurt ends the show.

Overall Rating: B. Despite most of the wrestling being somewhat weak, a lot happened on this show. They advanced a lot of stories and started building things up for the PPV which is always a good thing. No Way Out was rather good if I remember right so this clearly worked. Fun show overall and you can feel the build to Mania getting stronger and stronger.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: February 12, 2001
Location: Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey
Attendance: 15,345
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

We’re another step closer to No Way Out and now that I have the shows in the right order for once this should make a bit more sense. There’s another show before No Way Out so this isn’t quite the go home show yet. I’m guessing we’re going to see more on the Austin vs. HHH feud. That being said, let’s get to it.

Here’s HHH to open the show which isn’t much of a shock. Stephanie of course looking good in a black dress with straight hair. HHH immediately runs down the New Jersey crowd and the state itself. Damn he was ahead of his time to say the least. There’s a match later with Rock vs. Rikishi where Rock represents HHH and Rikishi represents Austin. The winner gets to pick the stips for the match at the PPV.

HHH doesn’t get why Vince picked either guy for the representatives but it’s the decision anyway. Tonight Rock represents HHH, not the people. If that didn’t make sense, if Rock wins then HHH gets to pick the stipulations and vice versa for Rikishi and Austin. HHH says that Rock better not do anything stupid.

Cue Rock who doesn’t look happy at all. Rock asks if HHH said not to do anything stupid when HHH married the biggest **** in the western hemisphere. What an odd choice of words. Rock guarantees he’ll win the title at No Way Out and will defend it at Wrestlemania. Both are true. The stipulation won’t be the winner gets 5 minutes with Stephanie because everyone’s had that already.

The stipulations Rock has for right now are HHH needs to stop running his mouth so Rock can get ready. If HHH keeps running his mouth then it’s on. He was a bit more colorful than that but you get the idea. Stephanie says something so Rock is like screw it and hits the ring. As he hits the ring though, here’s Rikishi as this segment hasn’t run long enough already I guess.

Rikishi says he’s perfect for Austin because he’d never “steer” Austin wrong. It’s going to be a fast match too, a “hit and run” if you will. Cue AUSTIN now as we’re over 15 minutes into the show now and it’s all been on this segment. Austin says Rikishi is one funny diaper wearing son of a bitch.

He hates Rikishi but tonight he’s going to be at ringside and will hand a beer to him and Stun him after he wins. HHH says he’ll be sitting next to Austin. I kind of want to see this main event now. HHH gets in Rock’s face so Rock drills him. Rikishi drills Rock and drops a leg on him. Now Rikishi beats up Austin and the heels stand tall.

Intercontinental Title: Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Jericho

Yeah this works. Jericho is champion here and this is the result of Eddie jumping Chris last week. HUGE pop for Jericho. Jericho’s tights are yellow and gray which is a weird look on him. The bottom is black so that helps a bit. Jericho is all aggressive to start us off and chops away on the ropes. European Uppercut puts Jericho down as this is more of a brawl than a regular match.

Eddie cranks on the arm on the mat and then goes up for the Frog Splash. Naturally that doesn’t work as Jericho counters into a superplex to put both guys down. Eddie charges at Jericho and gets launched into the top rope. Lionsault eats knees and a rollup gets two for Eddie. In what should have been an awesome ending Eddie does the Ultimo Dragon handstand in the corner and tries to come off with a rana. Jericho counters into the Walls but X-Pac runs out for the CHEAP DQ.

Rating: B-. The match was getting really good there until the stupid ending. Like I said at the beginning did I need to explain why this was going to be awesome? You have these two out there so of course it’s going to be good. I’d love to see them have a 20 minute match which I’m sure they did somewhere. Good stuff here until a stupid ending hurts it which is I guess the last dying parts of the Attitude Era.

X-Pac leaves Jericho laying. Apparently X-Pac was put out by Jericho three months ago. I vaguely remember that.

Vince gets here with Trish with him. Regal was in the limo with them.

Angle claims that Essa Rios stole his t-shirt for tequila money. This was on Heat apparently and Rios got a world title match which of course he lost.

Angle is talking to Edge and Christian about something. Cole pops up to say that Rios wants another match. Angle says find a partner and he’ll get a match. Edge and Christian already have a match or they’d do it.

HHH comes in to see Rikishi and asks him to lay down for Rock. Rikishi says no and that he’s done HHH favors already. HHH picks up a case to drill Rikishi but Haku pops up and HHH bails.

Lita/Hardy Boys vs. Chris Benoit/Perry Saturn/Terri

Terri is in a bikini bottom and a tube top. Why is she here anyway? Ah apparently she got involved in a match on Smackdown. Malenko, who wants Lita, comes out on the stage as it’s a big brawl. Saturn vs. Jeff get us started officially. Perry puts him on his shoulder and rams Jeff’s stomach into the buckle.

The unnamed Whisper in the Wind takes Saturn down and it’s off to Matt. It’s so weird to see Matt looking young and motivated. Benoit is sent to the floor and the girls come in. Saturn tries to save Terri and takes a rana instead. Twist of Fate to Terri sets up the moonsault to end this. Total nothing match and not enough to rate.

Malenko comes in to save Lita from the Radicals. Instead he clotheslines Lita down as well.

The Dudleys come out for commentary here.

Edge/Christian vs. Undertaker/Kane

Winners get the Dudleys at No Way Out. The tall Brothers glare at the Dudleys and get jumped by the Canadians. Taker hammers on Christian and go to the announce table. Kane chokeslams Edge but Christian pops him in the head with a chair. That gets two as Taker goes to the corner instead of fighting. Kane gets hammered on but blocks a double suplex off the middle rope.

Top rope clothesline puts down Edge and it’s off to Taker. A house is cleaned quickly and Taker sets for the Last Ride on Christian. Edge interferes so he has to settle for a chokeslam onto Christian instead. Edge and Kane fight into the Dudleys and the Dudleys fight back, making it a big double DQ. There would be a triple threat at the PPV.

Rating: C. I liked this actually. It was completely insane but for some reason I found it entertaining. The ending was pretty clear but you had a team like Edge and Christian who looked like they could actually pull this off. Their days as a tag team were pretty much over as the team would soon split but it was still fun for some reason.

Angle says he can find anyone to be his partner so he asks some middle aged woman. Raven pops up and volunteers to be his partner. Now there’s an odd team.

We hear about the lottery to pick the spots that went to Rikishi and Rock tonight. Austin originally had Billy Gunn but HHH took him out when Billy wouldn’t take a dive. Gunn says he’ll get HHH tonight.

Vince is on the phone and talking about Valentine’s Day with Linda. He would go visit Linda with Trish and it was rather evil of him. Linda was sedated. Cole pops up and asks about the tag title situation and makes the aforementioned triple threat.

HHH vs. Billy Gunn

Gunn is The One here which is failed push number 87 for him. Gunn rushes the ring and gets the regular guy that wants revenge offense including a backdrop and a press slam. Dropkick gets two. Here comes HHH and Billy is already in trouble. Gunn gets sent into the steps and is taken down as he gets back into the ring. After a knee drop HHH does those rapid covers that he often does which gets him two every time.

Billy steals a move and hits a spinebuster for no cover as both guys are down. Clothesline puts HHH down and Ross tries to tell us that Gunn has owned HHH during parts of this match. That lying bastard! Jackhammer gets two for Gunn so it’s time for the One and Only (cobra clutch slam). Fameasser is countered into a modified powerbomb and a bad Pedigree ends this.

Rating: D+. What were you expecting here? It’s more or less a nothing match with the only perk being able to look at the always hot looking Stephanie. This is what there needs to be more of: quick feuds that are easily resolved but you get a quick show out of it. That’s all you need to do at times and it worked here.

Cole asks Rios if he has a partner. Big Show pops up and wants to be the partner. Ok then.

X-Pac vs. Scotty 2 Hotty

Grandmaster is here too and he trips up X-Pac early. Scotty jumps Pac and there’s the Worm. Scotty injures his knee trying something off the top sp instead we shift over to Grandmaster Sexay vs. Pac. Ok then.

X-Pac vs. Grandmaster Sexay

Bulldog takes Pac down and Grandmaster hammers away in the corner. And never mind as a kick to the ribs and the X-Factor ends it. This was pretty pointless but I think they had to throw it together on the fly.

Jericho comes down and beats up Pac but Justin Credible debuts and hits Jericho with a chair, beginning the formation of X-Factor, a horrible stable.

Rock says he’ll beat Rikishi.

Al Snow dresses up like Mankind/Mick Foley who was fired.

Here’s Snow who says he’s here in a form of protest. Vince has been screwing people, either the fans or Trish. Foley is a fat man but he’s Snow’s friend and the people love him. Socko talks a bit also. There’s going to be a sitdown strike until Foley is rehired or until he gets to talk to Vince.

Cue Vince who says he’s all about fairness. He and Trish are just friends of course. Either Snow leaves now or Vince will remove Snow himself. There goes Vince’s jacket but Regal’s music hits. Regal says that this doesn’t have to end in violence like everything else. After a long talk, Vince gets a low blow to Snow and Regal hammers away for awhile before the heels leave.

Back with Regal and Vince being happy about it. Austin pops up to yell about Rikishi. He mentions using the stipulation to make the stipulation about attaching Vince’s balls to a monster truck. These two belong together.

We get a video on Week 2 of the XFL and you can tell various things about it that are just going to kill it.

The Kat is at WWF New York and does a pole dance. The RTC is watching it and Richards is furious about it. If you took this to a complete extreme it could have been absolutely epic.

Raven isn’t sure about fighting in this if Big Show is the partner. Angle says Raven can handle Show and Kurt can handle Rios so they can’t lose. Raven freaks out. Raven was really funny here.

Raven/Kurt Angle vs. Essa Rios/Big Show

The name graphic says Kurt Angle with Raven. You can tell what people think about this pretty easily. Raven is Hardcore Champion. The faces hit the ring quickly and the big stars pair off as do the lower level guys. Angle vs. Essa starts us off officially with Kurt easily handling him. Off to Raven who Rios has a bit better luck with. Angle Slam ends Rios and Raven steals a pin. This was nothing.

Show goes after Angle post match. Angle had gotten into trouble with Show at Smackdown to set this up. The female ninja comes out with a shopping can full of weapons which gets them nowhere. Show ends Raven with a huge chokeslam as Angle runs.

Rikishi vs. The Rock

Main event here as should be obvious. Gee think we’re seeing enough HHH tonight? Austin and he are here at ringside for this. Remember if Rikishi wins, Austin gets to pick the stipulations and if Rock wins, HHH gets to pick the stipulations. Rock hammers on the fat man to start us off as you would expect him to. DDT gets two.

They hit the floor and the brawl is on. Everyone is just waiting on the big showdown with Austin and HHH to get involved. HHH goes after Rikishi and whips him into the railing where he crushes Rock. Back into the ring where an elbow takes Rock down and a leg drop gets two. HHH plays cheerleader for Rock. Now when would you ever see that again?

Rikishi hammers on Rock just because he can for awhile as we’re still filling time before we get to the big ending. Granted it might be that no one cared about Rikishi in the slightest. Rock explodes with the clothesline that makes Rikishi flip inside out. Spinebuster and Samoan Drop have both guys down. HHH puts Rock on top but Austin puts Rikishi on top for two. Austin and HHH have their staredown, allowing a Rock Bottom to beat Rikishi.

Rating: C. The match means nothing of course as it was just a backdrop for the Austin and HHH stuff. Definitely the best way to go there as there was no interest in Rock vs. HHH which is why that happened at least once on PPV. Not much of a match but the crowd was into the Austin vs. HHH stuff so that helps a lot.

HHH gets on Rock post match as does Rikishi. Stunner for Rikishi but Austin and HHH still can’t touch each other. The build for No Way Out was awesome to say the least.

Overall Rating: C+. Pretty good show overall but this was far more of a transitional show than a show of any real note. Austin vs. HHH was an awesome build and it helped that the match was awesome once it finally happened. This wasn’t much of a show but they’re getting closer to the show and therefore closer to Wrestlemania and the awesome show that it was. Decent show this week, nothing great though.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: February 19, 2001
Location: Kiel Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Attendance: 14,840
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

It’s the go home show for No Way Out which was an awesome show. That being said, expect the final push for Austin vs. HHH (you know, because that match needs to be sold) and Angle vs. Rock (ok that one might need it). Other than that it’s going to be your typically decent 2001 show. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of Austin, HHH, Angle and Rock from Smackdown which was a big old brawl and set up most of tonight’s tag match main event. Sub in Benoit for HHH and there you are. At least Benoit was involved at the end as he came in and along with Angle had the two super powers in holds to end the show.

HHH/Stephanie vs. Regal/Trish later.

Undertaker vs. D-Von vs. Christian

Uh….ok? Oh that’s right there’s the tag team triple threat on Sunday. The Dudleys have the belts coming into Sunday. Only Edge comes out with his partner and Lillian botches the intros, saying that Edge and Christian are champions here. D-Von hammers on Taker to start us off while Christian chills on the floor.

Edge goes into a rant about how awesome his family is rather than the others, such as how at family reunions they play hockey rather than putting people through tables. Also he got Christian a spaghetti strainer for Christmas and didn’t burn him to the point of needing a mask. Edge was hilarious at this point as you can tell.

Taker grabs an armbar on Christian until D-Von makes the save. Double suplex to Taker as this turns into a handicap match for a bit. D-Von gets a lifting sitout reverse DDT for two as Taker makes the save. The tall dude gets in Edge’s face and the Canadian is shoved down. Edge gets on the apron, allowing Christian to hit a low blow. That gets no one anywhere though as everything breaks down again and the Last Ride kills Christian dead to end this.

Rating: C. Just a mess but not bad really. That was the point of matches like these back in the day so this was fine. Taker somehow jumped over to face HHH and got out of this weak tag team thing he was stuck in. Just a fun match here for the most part that set up the tag title match on Sunday which is fine.

HUGE chokeslam to Edge post match.

HHH and Steph are waiting on Trish to get here. HHH just chilling on the back of a car is cool for some reason. Stephanie cannot act. I mean she really can’t act.

Edge and Christian have plans for later.

Lita vs. Dean Malenko

We get a recap of this feud which includes a clip of their date and Lita in that incredibly hot white lingerie. Dean shoves her down with ease off a lockup and hits the floor quickly. That goes nowhere as we’re back into the ring now and Lita is in the Tree of Woe but Dean picks her up. A low blow and a small package (I guessed the blow caused the shrinkage. Isn’t that supposed to make it grow?) get two for Lita. Dean picks her up but swings her into the referee. He heads to the floor and grabs a chair but cue Matt to crack Dean’s head with the chair to give Lita the win. No rating but this was quick and pretty weak.

We get the important part here post match though as Matt kisses Lita for the first time and she’s not sure what to think of it. Lita follows him up the ramp and kisses him to a huge pop.

The other happy couple is still waiting. Here’s a limo and Trish is actually in there. Regal gets her out of there and the reaction is rather funny with HHH being all smiles about it. Ok to be fair his wife wants to be on top of Trish and he has to get on top of Stephanie to keep her back so I can’t say I wouldn’t be smiling either.

We recap HHH vs. Rock on Smackdown (I have to get to those shows someday) and Angle came down and got the ankle lock on Rock.

Angle had a sitdown interview earlier and Angle says he’s jealous of the Rock. He doesn’t like that he went off to the Olympics and comes home to people cheering a guy like the Rock more than he does. Kurt asks Kevin Kelly, a person, how the People’s Champion has treated him. Has Kevin’s son asked him what a hermaphrodite was or if his wife liked Rock making Kevin stick his finger in his nose? Angle doesn’t like people thinking Mania is set and he’ll prove them wrong on Sunday.

The Kat comes in to the APA’s office and yells at them for letting the RTC stop her from getting naked. They offer to take her to a strip club and that sounds great apparently.

Jericho says he’s happy that X-Pac and Eddie have a match tonight that he gets to referee. He has an awesome shirt that looks like the cover of a comic book. Vince apparently has made this decision in the interest of playing it safe. “Well Vince if you had done that the night Stephanie was conceived, the world would be a much less ****ty place.” I love Jericho.

Eddie Guerrero vs. X-Pac

Jericho is wearing an XFL jersey of the guy you may have heard of named He Hate Me. Eddie’s shirt has Japanese writing on it. Ok here we go. So in other words the American identified as a Mexican is wearing a Japanese shirt in a match with a Canadian involved? Egads. Spinwheel kick by Pac starts us off and Jericho counts very fast.

To the shock of no one, Jericho talks a lot in this. Abdominal stretch by Eddie which is broken up by Jericho for excessive hair pulling. Eddie goes up top but gets caught by a foot to the head. Superplex by Pac gets two. Bronco Buster to Eddie as my eyes roll. Jericho pulls him off that so Pac suplexes Eddie to the floor. Pac and Jericho go at it and here comes Justin Credible. Now Eddie helps Jericho sort of. Then they go at it in the middle of the ring. The match is thrown out I guess.

Rating: C. This was kind of cool actually. You very rarely get heel vs. heel so that always makes things fun. Jericho of course was funny and this set up a fatal fourway minus Credible with a guy you’ll hear about here in a minute. Not a bad match at all and kind of fun here. I liked it at least.

Benoit jumps Jericho as he leaves. He’s the fourth guy in the IC Title match Sunday.

The APA and Kat are at the strip club and Kat likes the ladies.

Edge and Christian talk to some guy to tell someone about a bike. They want the Dudleys in a parking lot. Luckily we have a camera on the Dudleys as they come to the parking lot. We cut from that to the small guy going to Undertaker’s locker room to tell him the Dudleys are messing with his bike. There’s a motorcycle in the parking lot which is all messed up. He finds the Dudleys and beats the tar out of them until the numbers catch up to him. Ok maybe they don’t. Kane makes the save, only to get a Conchairto by Edge and Christian.

Ok, think about why this was cool for a second. First and foremost, there were multiple aspects to it with a lot of camera cuts. Second, this plan is realistic. Edge and Christian just slipped around a bit and did damage to all four of their opponents. The whole thing made sense, advanced the storyline for Sunday, was fast paced and wasn’t incredibly complicated. Why is that so hard to do today?

Stephanie yells at HHH some more about him not being ready yet and walks out.

Stephanie comes to the ring and Lawler calls her hot which isn’t something you hear that often from him about her. She’s in charge tonight because Vince isn’t here tonight. The main event is happening later tonight because right now she wants to talk about Thursday. This was when Trish and Vince came to Linda’s room at a sanitarium or whatever it was and tormented her. It was Valentine’s Day and Vince gave the roses he had for Linda to Trish. I think that’s a sanitarium at least but it looked awesome.

Steph says that she was proud of where she and her dad put Linda. She’s the dominant female in this family so that means Trish has no place here. We get a clip of her slapping Austin on last week’s show. Stephanie wants Trish RIGHT NOW. Instead, here’s the Rattlesnake. Austin wants HHH but he has to wait until Sunday. Until then STUNNER FOR STEPHANIE! HHH storms the ring and Austin leaves with the Game furious.

After a break, HHH is all mad and Trish and Regal are all happy. The latter two leave for a hotel.

Hardy Boys vs. Haku/Rikishi

The Hardys dive on them as the Samoans make their entrance and the fight starts on the floor. Matt vs. Rikishi to start and they start fast. The speed game is working so far but Matt rams Haku’s head into the buckle. Haku rams his own head in a few times and beats up both Hardys with ease. Off to Haku officially and he cleans house.

Stink Face to Matt is avoided and Matt gets a DDT to take Rikishi down. Off to Jeff now and the Hardys go insane a bit. Twist of Fate and the Swanton look to end Rikishi but Haku gets a jumping headbutt to the back of the head of Jeff is enough for Rikishi to get the pin. That’s one of the most abrupt endings I can remember in a long time.

Rating: D+. No idea what the point here was but I guess it was to elevate the Samoans. Either way it went nowhere as Haku was gone soon and Rikishi was a face again by the summer. Weak match overall and a weird thing to do when you had the Matt/Lita thing earlier in the night as a feel good moment.

Haku puts them both in the Tongan Death Grip and leaves them laying.

The Kat gets on the table at the strip club and is stripping when the RTC pops up to cover them up. A huge beatdown follows at the hands of the RTC. Kat is kidnapped.

Back in the arena and Al Snow pops up with buttons as apparently he’s campaigning for Commissioner of the WWF.

We get a clip from Smackdown of Big Show destroying various people in hardcore matches. Raven runs away with the female ninja.

Hardcore Title: Crash vs. Raven

Crash steals the trashcan of weapons and they head up the stage as Crash chases after him with a fire extinguisher. This is exactly what you would expect as they head to the back and get into a vat of sewage water. You can’t really commentate on these as they’re almost all the same and are better or worse based on the amount of debris produced.

Raven reverses Crash into some metal stuff and here’s Big Show. Now that’s a scary image. The ninja pops up to hit Show in the knee with a 2x4 to put him down. Raven and the Ninja get into a car as do Crash and Molly (same car) but Raven stops and kicks them out before driving away, I guess ending the match. As insane and pointless as it sounds.

HHH puts Stephanie into a limo and he says he’s taking care of this. She reminds him that it’s six days or six months.

Here’s the RTC in the arena with Kat in their possession. Steven gets on the fans for wanting to see Kat naked and yells at Kat. Lawler finally has had enough and gets in the ring to stop it. Lawler manages to make the line “If I have to fight to see her naked that’s what I’ll do” sound valiant. A match is made for No Way Out. If Lawler wins, Kat can get naked at the PPV. If the RTC person wins, Kat is RTC. Lawler, ever the idiot, picks Richards instead of Ivory.

Rock says the people made him the People’s Champion because he listens to them. He does his tick tock thing again but pauses for the chanting. And that’s about it.

Before the main event, here’s HHH. And he’s just going to sit down. Ok then.

Steve Austin/The Rock vs. Chris Benoit/Kurt Angle

Austin’s music hits and HHH is about to kill him. I guess that’s Benoit’s job tonight though. And Angle’s. Austin puts beers in front of HHH on the announce table and HHH is shaking. They sold this match insanely well and the payoff actually lived up to the hype which helps a lot. Rock and Benoit start us off and HHH is about to end Lawler seconds into this.

Off to Austin quickly as Lawler can’t quit saying stupid things to HHH. Rock comes back in as Benoit is in trouble. Big chop to Austin and Benoit brings in Kurt who gets run over by a clothesline a second after he hits the ring. Austin gets in the Game’s face again on the floor as this has been almost all Rock/Austin. Spinebuster gets two on Angle via Rock. Benoit gets beaten on for awhile now as this has been completely one sided.

Austin tells Benoit to back him into Benoit’s corner and Chris obeys well. Angle gets a suplex to Austin and here come our not so beloved heels. As Benoit and Austin do their thing, HHH goes on a small rant about Mick Foley and how badly he damaged Foley. Hot tag to Rock who gets a spinebuster and the Sharpshooter on Benoit.

Everything breaks down and Rock gets caught in the Crossface until Austin saves. After some more insanity, Angle gets a suplex to Rock for two. Benoit hits some rolling Germans as HHH talks about Austin some more. I’m telling you every time he talks so he’s barely saying a word. Rock gets a suplex of his own and both he and Benoit are down. Double tag and Austin cleans house. HHH gets up on the apron to yell at Austin and Benoit tries to get a belt shot at Austin. The bald dude ducks and HHH gets drilled. Rock Bottom to benoit ends it.

Rating: B. Good main event level tag match here and a great way to set up for the PPV. When Rock is probably the worst in ring worker of the four, that’s saying a lot. Benoit was a good person to take the fall out there as he isn’t involved in the main events at the PPV. This was a great way to send us to Sunday, even though there was a Smackdown to go. Good stuff.

Overall Rating: A-. For a go home show this was very good all around. Stories were advanced, the PPV was played up well, and we got some decent wrestling on top of it all. Austin vs. HHH wound up being a classic so it’s cool to see the builds here being great too. We’re finally going to be on the actual Road to Wrestlemania now which is always a fun time.

Here’s No Way Out if you’re interested. It’s a very good show.

http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthread.php?p=2410835#post2410835

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: February 26, 2001
Location: America West Arena, Phoenix, Arizona
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

We’re officially one month from the final broadcast of Monday Nitro and just under five weeks from Wrestlemania X7. No Way Out has passed and Rock vs. Austin is now set in stone for the biggest show of the year. Other than that HHH beat Austin which ends the feud point blank. Also, HHH would soon get his feud set up but that would be on Smackdown. Anyway, let’s get to it.

We open with a video from last night with Rock winning the title.

Vince/Trish vs. Regal/Stephanie later tonight.

Here’s Rock to start things off. Rock says Kurt is awesome but he’s champion just like he said he would be. He respects Angle which isn’t something you often hear Rock say. And then he drops that away by talking about how Kurt cried and loved his milk and says Kurt is a virgin (remember he was married to Karen. Kurt wins) and all that jazz. Rock calls out Kurt but gets Austin instead. HERE WE GO!!!

Austin hits the corners and we mention that HHH won, which means very little given the way Austin lost. HHH won more or less by accident while still looking great. I love booking like that, especially when it works. Austin says that last night Rock was the better man and his advice to the champion is to stay healthy. Austin goes to leave but Rock says not so fast.

Even the staredowns with these two are epic. Rock appreciates the advice but has some advice of his own for Austin. His advice: get ready. The energy here is off the charts. We get one of the famous shots of them as they’re nose to nose and they’re both dead serious. Rock shows how important this is by taking the glasses off to finish his catchphrase. Dang man I want to watch Mania now. Austin goes to leave but gets in Rock’s face again so that Austin’s music can play him out. Little things like those make a feud.

Regal is waiting on Vince so Stephanie comes up to yell at him. Apparently Regal didn’t watch the opening as he didn’t know about the match.

The Radicalz are warming up when Eddie comes in. Benoit and Eddie are feuding over who the leader of the team is which would result in Benoit turning face. Eddie yells at Benoit about letting a title get in between them last night. Malenko defuses things and it’s time for a tag match as they pound it out.

X-Factor vs. Chris Benoit/Eddie Guerrero

X-Factor is Justin Credible and X-Pac. Eddie vs. Justin to start with Eddie taking over. And never mind as Credible takes over with a mudhole stomp and a powerbomb for two. Off to Benoit who somehow makes things even more physical. German is reversed into a northern lights suplex by Justin for two. Pac comes in to loud booing. Crossface is almost locked in but Justin jumps in IMMEDIATELY. He was in before they hit the mat if that tells you anything.

Eddie comes in and gets a suplex for two on Pac. Off to Benoit for a bit before Eddie adds a hilo for two. Ross points out that they’re all heels as Eddie gets a big spinwheel kick to take Eddie down. Bronco Buster misses as we’re waiting to get to the Radicalz fighting. Double superkick to Eddie gets two as Benoit comes in to clean house and drag Eddie to their corner. Why do so few partners do that? Eddie makes the easy tag and now legally cleans house. Rolling Germans to Credible but the Swan Dive misses. Pac rolls Benoit up for the totally clean pin. I wouldn’t have bet on that one.

Rating: C+. Nice little tag match here with a very surprising ending. Benoit would be a face in less than a month and maybe as early as next month. I’m still trying to get over X-Pac getting a pin completely clean over Benoit. Anyway, not bad here but X-Factor never went anywhere at all.

No brawl between Eddie and Benoit surprisingly enough.

After a clip of Trish vs. Stephanie from last night Vince arrives with Trish in the limo. Sex in the car is implied as Regal comes up to them. He tries to talk Vince out of the match but Vince says it’s on.

Slam of the week is a clip of Rock putting the Sharpshooter on Angle, only to be put through a table.

Kurt doesn’t want to talk to Coach. Neither do I.

Lita vs. Molly Holly

Molly’s looks are really underrated. Winner is #1 contender. Molly went after the ninja last night which cost Raven the Hardcore Title. Matt and Crash are here as seconds. Huge Lita chant to start as they exchange some arm holds. Rollup gets two as the highlight here is Lita’s huge yellow thong. Monkey flip by Molly sends Lita flying.

Lita pops up and gets a victory roll for two. Molly gets a suplex but gets slammed down trying the Molly Go Round. She hits the floor and Crash sends her back in. For no apparent reason Matt picks on him. Maybe he thought Crash was a sandwich. Lita goes to the floor also as the Ninja pops in to DDT Molly. Litasault ends it.

Rating: C-. Probably too short to grade but it was close enough. Lita was insanely popular to put it mildly and it’s a shame she would break her neck later in the year and be gone forever. Anyway this was nothing of note and Chyna would get the main title shot at the PPV so it’s not like this went anywhere.

Vince has a bucket of sewage for some reason when Kurt comes in. He wants a rematch with Rock even if it’s not for the title. Vince takes it under advisement as they add stuff to the sewage. No idea where this is going.

Ad for Mania. They made this one feel almost like a spiritual experience. Why is there a clown watching it though? And since when can you get PPV in the back of a car?

Steph comes in to talk to her dad and is scared to have to fight him. Vince says that’s not his problem.

Regal goes to talk to Trish but gets the door slammed in his face.

Al Snow wants to be Commissioner and is at WWF New York. He says if Commissioner he would bring back midgets. Even if they’re back in catering they should be in WWF. Also, less British people. This never really went anywhere.

Big Show comes in to see Vince (what is this his 5th appearance in less than an hour) and wants Rock also. Show defends his Hardcore Title in a match against Rock and Angle. That came out of nowhere.

Tag Titles: Haku/Rikishi vs. Dudley Boys

Dudleys beat Taker/Kane and Edge/Christian last night in a pretty decent match. Before the match starts here are Taker/Kane. D-Von vs. Haku to start us off as at least Rikishi took off his big yellow robe so he doesn’t look like a fat banana anymore. Haku takes over quickly and it’s off to Rikishi. It’s weird that D-Von is the smallest guy in this match. The fans want tables. The Samoans want the same but I’d bet they’d like food on said tables.

Double flapjack puts Rikishi down as it’s back to D-Von vs. Rikishi after Bubba was in for a bit. Belly to belly puts D-Von down. The Brothers of Destruction are still just casually watching the match on the stage. We look at them for a good while instead of the match so for all we know D-Von and Haku were playing Canasta. Now Rikishi stomps a mudhole as that has been a recurring move tonight.

Double headbutt by the Samoans should have killed D-Von but it only puts him down for a bit here. LEARN YOUR STEREOTYPES PEOPLE!!! Lukewarm tag to Ray who cleans a few rooms. Butt Drop by Rikishi misses and it’s What’s Up into that tiny thong. Haku breaks up GET THE TABLES but down goes the referee. 3D to Haku but there’s no referee. Banzai Drop to D-Von but here come the Brothers. They take out both teams and D-Von steals a pin as the referee somehow didn’t notice a thing.

Rating: C-. Just a quick tag match to try to further Samoans vs. Brothers which went nowhere as Rikishi got hurt and the feud was dropped. Haku would go on to do nothing for the most part and would get released in July. Not much here for the champions either but TLC 2 was on the horizon for them, as was the Alliance.

Cole (who dresses like a 14 year old girl according to Rock) asks Rock about the triple threat match made by Vince. Rock says read the shirt, which says IT DOESN’T MATTER.

Vince McMahon/Trish Stratus vs. William Regal/Stephanie McMahon

Vince brings out that bucket of sewage. Apparently Stephanie shoved Trish into manure on Smackdown. Trish kisses Vince to start and the girls go at it first. All Trish to start as I guess Stephanie and Regal are the faces here. Steph gets a suplex for two. They had the best match you could ever imagine they would have the previous night. DDT gets two for Stephanie.

They botch….something as Stephanie goes down. It looked like a clothesline I think but I’m not sure. Vince comes in and Steph has no idea of it. Regal backs off to huge boos. Vince gets a mic and Regal brings in the bucket. He says that what Vince wants, Vince gets. He tells Trish to get in here and tells the referee that this match is over.

Stephanie and Vince are apparently all cool and Regal takes Trish down with a neckbreaker. With Vince’s direction, Stephanie covers her with the mop in the sewage and shoves her face in the bucket. Vince says that there’s one Daddy’s Little Girl and Trish was just a toy, a toy Vince is tired of playing with. Trish would be back with Vince like next week. This was barely a match so no rating.

Cole picks NOW to try to interview Trish. Lawler and Ross rip into him for asking stupid questions.

Light Heavyweight Title: Dean Malenko vs. Taka Michinoku

Ross points out how rare it is to see this title defended on Raw which is very true. Taka has some rather unattractive woman with her. She’s EVIL apparently. I think that’s to play up the ladies man gimmick with Dean. Funaki tries to get involved and fails for the most part as Dean takes his head off with a clothesline.

Taka takes over in the ring with a backslide for two. Dean gets a forearm but the Cloverleaf is blocked as Jerry is talking about toys for some reason. Floatover superplex gets two for Dean as does the Michinoku Driver for Taka. That more or less signals the end of it as the finisher is kicked out of. Cloverleaf finishes it seconds later. Too short to rate but not bad at all while it lasted.

Angle has demanded an interview and says he likes the lack of rules tonight. Everyone knows he should be champion and Show should learn how to walk upright.

The RTC arrives with Kat who was forced to join. She’s crying over this and would be fired within a week.

Intercontinental Title: Raven vs. Chris Jericho

Raven says he’s cemented his status as the best hardcore wrestler ever, so he’s going to let you fans have the chance to genuflect (his word not mine and apparently it’s a real word meaning bowing down in respect to your superior. Raven is a genius after all) on your favorite Raven moment. Jericho’s music cuts him off though and he talks about lederhosen. Ok then.

Jericho gets a fast rollup for two as the Y2J chants start up early. Fast paced stuff here with Raven getting a bulldog for two. Jericho gets his own for two also and they slug it out. Rollups are exchanged as this is better than you would expect. Raven was underrated in the ring actually which I’ve been realizing with this run he had in WWF pre-Alliance. The Ninja runs out with a 2x4 but Molly distracts her. The mask gets turned around so Raven gets hit with the board instead of Jericho. Lionsault ends this quick so no rating.

We recap last night with the RTC winning the Kat via a missed belt shot.

Steven says they have truth on their side so there’s nothing that can beat them.

Show and Angle are warming up.

Tazz comes out for commentary on this match.

We recap a feud between Jesse Ventura and an XFL coach for no apparent reason other than to give Lawler more time to get ready.

Jerry Lawler/APA vs. Right to Censor

It’s Goodfather, Venis and Buchanan here. This same match with Tazz instead of Lawler would happen at Mania. Huge mess here as they’re all over the place. Richards jumps on commentary for no apparent reason. All three faces beat on Buchanan and we finally get down to Faarooq vs. Buchanan. Double shoulder takes down Simmons as the heels take over.

Kat keeps crying as Faarooq finally makes the tag off to Bradshaw as Buchanan comes in. The APA takes over as a lot of these spots are exactly the same as the ones they would do at Mania. Kat spears Ivory as the APA destroys Venis with a double spinebuster. Middle rope punch from Lawler gets the three. We wouldn’t see Lawler on Raw again for about 9 months due to a big complicated thing that I’ll get into next time.

Rating: D+. Pretty dull match here that never got off the ground. This feud would be cut apart because Kat was released. The reasoning for why that happened depends on who you listen to but Lawler thinks it was to get rid of him as Heyman was ready to replace him immediately so they fired Kat to get rid of Jerry which makes a bit of sense I think.

Hardcore Title: Rock vs. Kurt Angle vs. Big Show

Angle gets knocked down early so we get Rock vs. Show. The Brahma Bull hammers down Angle pops back up which doesn’t last long. Show takes everyone down and we hit the floor. Show meets the steps (they didn’t get along at first but they had some tea and crumpets where they discovered a shared interest in French landscapes later) and down goes the big man.

All three back in the ring now as Show breaks up a Sharpshooter attempt to Angle. Angle tries to suplex Show and how well do you think that goes. Rock and Angle manage a double suplex and now need three weeks off to heal their backs. They hit the floor and here’s Blackman as I think you know where this is going. Hardcore Holly pops in but can’t get the title.

Albert pops in but the bicycle kick is broken up by Saturn. Billy Gunn hits Show with a ball bat as it occurs to me that they could simply pin someone other than Show. If it was originally a triple threat, there’s no point in having a pin on Show right? This is officially one big match right? Show fights Gunn on the floor and those two plus Holly head to the back. Blackman goes with them as I have no idea where Rock and Angle are. Essa Rios and Crash dive off the stage at Show and everyone goes to the back. Holly pulls out a fire extinguisher and they’re all gone.

Back in the ring Albert, Angle and Saturn are triple teaming Rock for no apparent reason. This is all about the Hardcore Title at the end of the day isn’t it? We cut to the back again where Billy hammers away on Show some more but can’t get anywhere. Show then does something very different and picks up Rios and pins him against a wall. As in Rios’ head is above the referee’s. The referee slaps the top of a door frame to count the pin so Show retains.

Rating: C. We’ll go right in the middle here as I have no idea what to call this overall. It was really about 5 matches combined into one but it was still pretty fun. Good stuff overall as I don’t think anyone expected a new champion, at least not Rock or Angle. Not bad and kind of fun at the same time here.

The same three beat on Rock in the ring but he fights back. Ankle Lock goes on and here’s Austin for the save to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. Definitely not much in the way of wrestling here but the storyline development was great stuff. Rock vs. Austin is something that you always should see and their best rivalry ever was right here. The wrestling would get better over the next few weeks though as we rapidly approach Mania which makes me all tingly.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: March 5, 2001
Location; MCI Center, Washington D.C.
Attendance: 14,620
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

The main thing here is that Jerry Lawler is gone as he would be for about 8 months. The main reason is that the Kat, his wife, was fired and he walked. Now the reason as to why Kat was gone is open for debate. Lawler says that they wanted to get rid of him so they fired Kat, knowing he would walk also so they could bring in Heyman for less money. That isn’t too far out of the question when you think about it but I’m not sure I believe it. Either way, we also have the tag titles on the line and the Brothers of Destruction vs. the Samoans with four Raws left before Mania. Let’s get to it.

Theme song opens us up.

JR introduces Heyman who of course goes on a small rant about ECW on TNN but does praise Lawler for leaving when his wife was thrown out. He sticks to his guns if nothing else.

Here are HHH and Stephanie to get things going. She really does look better with straight hair. HHH talks about how he’s great and how he comes out here every week and knows there’s no one that can beat him. He talks about how Rock says that he’s great because he’s world champion. Then there’s Austin who comes out with Rock and they call themselves the two biggest names in wrestling. This is where HHH has an issue.

He says he’s always beaten Rock and he just got done beating Austin. He definitely has a point here, especially since he got two straight falls on Austin at No Way Out. HHH wants Austin RIGHT NOW. Obviously you don’t have to ask Austin twice for a fight and here he comes! Angle comes out to make it 2-1 and the numbers eventually catch up with Austin. Rock sprints out and I think you can see the main event from here.

Back and Angle demands a match with Rock after having not left ringside yet. Regal says Vince has made the obvious tag match for the main event.

Too Cool vs. X-Factor

Angle is still at ringside and jumps Too Cool during their entrances. After sending Grandmaster into the steps Kurt goes after Scotty and puts him in the ankle lock. The ankle bends (in reality they shifted Scotty’s shoe. His ankle was fine) and apparently breaks. This was a way for Scotty to take time off for neck surgery and he’d be back in June.

The Slam of the Week is Rock saving Austin on Smackdown and standing behind him in a position to grab the Rock Bottom but he intentionally stands there, letting Austin think that he could have gotten caught that quickly.

Scotty is taken out on a stretcher.

The Radicalz were told they could have one guy get an Intercontinental Title match later tonight but they have to pick who gets it. Saturn and Malenko say they should get it and Guerrero says Benoit should. Benoit says Guerrero should. Eddie says he doesn’t want it but Benoit talks him into it.

Here’s Benoit in the arena to be on commentary.

Intercontinental Title: Chris Jericho vs. Eddie Guerrero

Benoit has nothing to say as we get technical stuff to start us off. Heyman asks why Benoit wouldn’t take this title shot and Benoit has nothing to say. Ross reminds him he has a live mic. “I know.” Gory Stretch by Eddie which is reversed into one to Eddie. Forearm by Jericho as he controls for the most part. Lionsault misses and a rollup gets two for Eddie. And there goes the referee. Frog Splash misses and Benoit goes up top and hits the swan dive to Eddie, turning face for more or less the rest of his career in the process and letting Jericho get the easy pin.

Rating: C+. Yeah remarkably enough a match between these two was pretty good. The point of it was the Benoit turn but at the same time they were able to give us a few minutes of entertaining stuff which is something that shows the difference between today’s product and this one. Today, the whole point would be the turn. Here it was an afterthought which makes it look far more interesting and important. Subtle difference, but it makes it more important.

Matt didn’t realize Lita’s match was now and Jeff says they need to get ready. And never mind as Jeff says ok on the second attempt by Matt.

Snow still wants to be Commissioner, even though Regal is already Commissioner. AND HE HAS MIDGETS! He even has a cheer: Hi-Ho, Hi-ho, we want Commissioner Snow! Funny stuff and that took 30 seconds.

Lita vs. Ivory

The Hardys and RTC are here for their respective chicks. Lita speeds things up against the Women’s Champion and has to keep pulling her pants up. Basic stuff so far with Lita taking over with basic stuff. She sends Ivory to the floor and hits a nice dive of the top. Jeff tries his walk along the barrier spot but takes out Lita. A neckbreaker by Ivory ends this with ease in the ring. Match was barely even there other than Lita’s dive and that sweet thong of hers.

Kurt is glad that he broke Scotty’s ankle and that he’s going to have an ambulance ready for Austin and Rock later. He’s a bit insane looking here.

Taker and Kane head to the ring in a moment that is a lot odder than it should have been.

Mania ad which is always awesome.

Limp Bizkit video for Rollin which is Taker’s new theme song. Taker highlights ensue with the video.

Haku/Rikishi vs. Kane/Undertaker

Heyman calls the Samoans children of the jungle. Is that like Children of the Corn? The brawl begins on the ramp and everything is a bit nuts. Finally we get down to Taker vs. Haku in the ring and we actually get a bell. To the shock of no one, this is a slugout. The Samoan hits a German on the American for two. Taker can’t hurt Haku’s head so he calls some spots instead, namely running into an elbow. Off to Rikishi as those two had been in there way too long. And never mind as Haku is back in maybe 8 seconds later. DDT puts Haku down for two. Off to Kane and everything breaks down. Chokeslam ends Haku rather quickly.

Rating: D. Match was flat out horrible as I’d almost think Kane was hurt here as he did almost nothing at all. Taker in 2001 isn’t someone you want to have fight this long on his own, especially against Haku. Rikishi would be gone very soon due to an injury so this was one of the last moments for the Samoans. Yeah Rikishi would work Smackdown the next night and then was gone for two months.

My Way video for Rock vs. Austin but not THE My Way video.

Tag Titles: Hardy Boys vs. Dudley Boys

Matt vs. Bubba to start as IMMORTAL EXPLODES BABY!!! All faces here. The Hardys are having some issues allegedly here but that wouldn’t lead to a breakup for a very long time. The Dudleys work heel here out of a lack of a real heel team and it’s off to D-Von for a spinning elbow for two on Jeff. JR wants to see the birth certificate that proves the Dudleys are related. And people say he’s stuck in the past.

Jeff gets a headscissors but walks into a Bubba Bomb. Matt tries to break up the pin and Jeff hits Bubba in the balls. Nice guy there. Double tags bring in Matt and D-Von and everything breaks down. Poetry in Motion to D-Von but the Swanton misses. What’s Up to Jeff and it’s Table Time. As D-Von goes under the ring, Christian pops up and blasts D-Von with a chair. Twist of Fate gives the Hardys the titles.

Rating: C-. Not their best work here to be sure. To be fair though these teams fought each other so many times that they were bound to have a weak match out there somewhere. Not a terrible match but they were pushing the Hardys as having some issues and that went nowhere. TLC 2 was coming though and everything would improve in a hurry.

The midgets come into Vince’s dressing room with Snow. He pleads his case and Vince says he’ll consider it if Snow competes in front of the people tonight. Say in a title match. Say in a Hardcore Title match. Say in a Hardcore Title match against Big Show. After he leaves Regal asks if Vince would actually consider it. Vince doesn’t say no.

Wrestlemania Moment is the ladder match and Shawn’s splash off of it.

Trish is upset and Stephanie gloats. Trish is working for Stephanie now and sends her out for a special kind of coffee.

The fans chant for Jerry for no apparent reason.

Christian is calling Edge (collect) and asks if he saw what just happened. This is part of Operation Get E & C Their Titles Back apparently.

Regal and Vince are talking when Debra comes in. She wants to get back to managing so she’s resigning as Lieutenant Commissioner. Vince points out that she’s married to Austin as I don’t think everyone knew that. She needs Austin’s permission which she says won’t be a problem. After she leaves Vince says she’s hot.

Don’t try this at home.

Austin is getting ready and Debra comes in to ask him about the managing thing. He’s not happy because it involves Vince and says they can talk about it after his match. Not really in anger but that it was bad timing.

Hardcore Title: Al Snow vs. Big Show

Snow grabs a kendo stick and hides behind the entrance for Show. Show has the title around his arm and IT FITS. I mean it’s latched and he’s not having to hold it up. That’s scary. Snow jumps him with the stick which Show snaps with ease. Ever the scholar, Snow tries to fight him hand to hand and guess how well that goes for him. Al is in street clothes. He gets a chair which is punched back into his face as we head into the crowd. Maybe if you didn’t hold the chair right in front of your face that wouldn’t happen.

Show misses a shot into the post and Snow fires off with some weapons including a camera which goes dark. Snow throws a bunch of stuff into the ring so Show picks up the stairs and tosses them over the top from the floor. Snow turns when he hears them hit the mat and looks at Show. The look on his face is absolutely perfect. Snow knocks the steps into Show’s face with a chair but Al takes forever to cover so it’s only two. Snow is getting WAY more offense in here than I expected. He sets up a bunch of chairs face to face and of course gets slammed through them. Final Cut ends this.

Rating: C+. WAY better than I was expecting here as Snow got in a good amount of shots and actually had Show in trouble more than once. This could have been really boring but they managed to get a pretty entertaining little match out of there. I’m rather impressed here and the whole thing worked quite well.

Debra talks to Vince who says he has a great opportunity for her. Good luck to her as this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Kurt Angle/HHH vs. The Rock/Steve Austin

Before the Super Best Friends come out here’s Vince who makes Debra Rock’s new manager. Thankfully this was nowhere near Mania other than in a video package. They woke up and realized it’s STEVE AUSTIN AND THE ROCK and they didn’t need an add-on like Debra. So wrestlers have no say over who they manage? Back in the 80s they had people buying and selling contracts and here they get assigned? Times change I guess.

Austin is, in a word, REALLY FREAKING MAD. He grabs Vince but HHH jumps him, apparently worried about his inheritance. Austin fights HHH off and it’s off to Angle vs. Rock. Back off to the Game as we’re in the full on main event tag formula here. Big Rocky chant goes up. Austin and Rock clearly don’t like each other and the crowd seems to like Rock more.

Back to Austin and it’s a Thesz Press for HHH as Austin hammers away. Stunner doesn’t work and HHH gets a low blow to put Austin down. Back off to Angle who hits a suplex to Austin and it’s back to HHH. Suplex gets the bald dude out of a sleeper as this isn’t much as far as anything new or drama etc. Hot tag to Rock who cleans house. Rock Bottom to Angle gets two and it’s ankle lock time. Austin gets the Stunner but Debra has the referee. Austin goes to yell and Rock steals his pin. Debra claps for Rock to end the show.

Rating: C. You can only get so much out of these tag matches at times. This wasn’t bad but they were firmly in the formula here and they weren’t getting out of that no matter what. The problem with these kind of matches is they exist only for the very last few seconds more often than not and this was no exception. Not bad, but there was no way this was going to be anything past a house show level match.

Overall Rating: B. Good show overall here with a lot going on and some good matches as well. They were really getting ready for Mania with the major match set and the rest coming soon. HHH would get challenged by Undertaker on the next Smackdown to set up that match and TLC was already pretty clear. The rest kind of wrote itself with Shane returning soon to face Vince. That’ll be some interesting stuff to be sure. Good show this week.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: March 12, 2001
Location: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California
Attendance: 13,272
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

We have one more week before Vince shows up on Nitro in a show I’ve already reviewed. Anyway, counting that one we have a total of three Raws left before Wrestlemania, meaning these are very exciting times for a WWF fan. I’d expect a lot of build for it as if my memory is correct there’s only one match that hasn’t been made yet or at least implied, that being Angle vs. Benoit. I think HHH had started feuding with Taker on Smackdown so we have that to look forward to. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap video of last week where Debra was made to be Rock’s manager. Apparently on Smackdown Rikishi tries to give Debra a Stinkface so Austin made the save but Debra stayed back with Rock, further ticking Austin off.

Angle is waiting on someone.

Tag Titles: Hardy Boys vs. X-Pac/Justin Credible

Pac and Jeff start in a fight over who can snort the most cocaine I guess. Matt and Justin come in with COLD BLOODED taking over with relative ease. The heels double team Matt and Pac gets his set of kicks in the corner. There’s the Bronco Buster but Credible’s baseball slide misses, sending his balls into the post.

Not really hot tag to Jeff who hits a Whisper in the Wind to Pac and everything breaks down. Pac sends Jeff to the floor where he crashes into Lita. Not that it really matters as the Twist and Swanton….don’t end Credible as Albert runs in to form the weakest of weak factions known as X-Factor. Too short to rate but this was nothing of note in the slightest.

Regal shows up and is the person Angle was waiting on. He’s Commissioner now and Angle wants his rematch with Rock TONIGHT. No answer yet though.

Dennis Hopper is here.

Eddie gives something of a pep talk to Dean and Saturn because Benoit is out of the Radicalz now. Saturn suggests a lynching. Eddie and Dean head to the ring while Saturn stops for a beverage at catering. Benoit sneaks up on him, rams him into a wall and puts him in the Crossface, saying one down two to go.

Here’s Commissioner Regal who introduces us to the Regal Regime. Apparently he won the job in a match with Snow. This goes on for awhile until he announces Rock vs. Angle for the title tonight. He finishes off with an anagram of his last name. R is for respect, E is for education, G is cut off by the Y2J countdown as here’s Jericho.

G is for good God Regal, would you please shut up. We get a clip from Regal’s debut where Jericho interrupted his tea party. Jericho says that if Regal really does work for Vince as his lackey, then Jericho is going to interrupt him and embarrass him every time. Jericho has an anagram of his own. Y is for why are you such a clown, 2 is for his mummy and daddy who were clowns as well and J is for junior, and Junior, if you don’t do this job to the utmost of your abilities, you will never, EVER, be the same, a-gain.

Christian vs. D-Von

Whoever wins here gets their respective team a future tag title shot. D-Von is listed at 325 here. Good freaking night that’s a fat man. Powerslam gets two for D-Von who then hammers away a bit. Out to the floor and Christian gets a hot shot into the post to take over. Very basic match here as neither guy is really anything all that great at all as a singles guy, but that’s why they were in tag teams I guess.

Christian gets crotched on the top and it’s a superplex for the not-Bully Dudley for two. It’s so weird to think that you have three world champions out of the three main tag teams here and it’s possible that Ray could get a world title in TNA. I mean really, would it shock you that much at this point? Christian fights out of the reverse inverted DDT and grabs a rollup for two. And there goes the referee and it’s a reverse DDT for Christian who grabs a chair. Here comes Bubba and 3D ends Christian after he accidently punches the chair. The referee gets up just in time and the Dudleys get the Hardys next week.

Rating: C-. Just a match here that had nothing of note going on whatsoever. Neither guy was anything special as far as singles wrestling went but again I don’t think anyone was expecting otherwise. Not sure why it wasn’t just Edge and Christian and I’m not going to finish that as Edge had an injury (shocking) from No Way Out. Makes sense then I guess.

Vince and Trish get here and he wants to give the audience something unexpected. There’s going to be a Hollywood sex scene in the ring tonight apparently, meaning Edge isn’t so original I guess.

Eddie and Dean are looking for Benoit but they split up and Benoit gets to Dean, taking the pipe away from him and taking out Dean. Eddie gets in and Eddie backs off. Benoit says see you in the ring.

Regal is in his office and announces Jericho vs. all four members of the RTC.

Angle is happy to get his rematch but says it has nothing to do with Regal. He has no issues with taking out Debra either.

Mania ad.

Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero

Benoit goes all psycho to start us off and we hit the corner. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets no cover as they slug it out a bit. Eddie’s tornado DDT is blocked but Benoit can only get one German. Naturally this is a very back and forth match which surprises no one. Benoit chops away in the corner and adds a knee to the ribs. Eddie grabs a rana out of nowhere and hammers away to solid booing.

That advantage doesn’t last long as Benoit sends him to the floor but a suicide dive misses and Eddie stomps away. Eddie gets a belly to back/Saito Suplex for two. They slug it out again and Benoit takes him down with a running elbow. Rolling Germans time and Benoit adds the swan dive, naturally hurting himself too. Somehow that only gets two and Eddie hits a set of Two Amigo Brainbusters which is a new one for me. Frog Splash misses but Eddie grabs a rollup which is countered into the Crossface (ignoring the feet in the ropes) for the tap out.

Rating: B. It’s Benoit vs. Guerrero. I don’t need to say anything else than that, period.

Vince and Trish are here for the live sex celebration apparently. Vince talks about how Trish is hot and this is in front of a live audience unlike Hollywood which is filmed and edited. He references Friday with Linda who was brought out in a wheelchair where Trish and Vince made out in front of her, confirming their relationship.

Vince has Trish lay down on her back in the middle of the ring and lays down next to her. And never mind as they stand up and are going back to the locker room. His music kicks on and Vince says cut it, but Shane McMahon returns and Vince is terrified. Shane is all ticked off and Vince tells him to calm down. Shane won’t shake his hand and when Vince asks for a hug, Shane DRILLS him, taking him down and hammering him to an eruption. Regal comes in for the save but Shane takes him down too. He chases Vince up the stage with arms flailing around and Regal goes after them both. Vince and Trish get to a waiting limo and bail.

My Way video for Austin and Rock, but not the My Way video for Austin and Rock.

Chris Jericho vs. Right To Censor

All four of them here, as in Richards, Venis, Buchanan and Goodfather. Oh and Ivory is chilling there also. At the very least they have to tag so this won’t be a total slaughter. Buchanan starts as this is luckily non-title. No idea why Regal didn’t want the title on the line but I doubt it matters for the most part. Middle rope dropkick sets up the bulldog and the Lionsault but Goodfather makes the save.

Off to Venis now as the problem becomes clear: none of the RTC are that good. Regal would keep sending these matches against Jericho for awhile including a handicap tables match with the Dudleys. The RTC finally triple teams him to take over for Venis. Venis gets a Russian leg sweep and it’s off to Goodfather. Jericho fights them off but walks into a Steven Kick which gets them nowhere as the heels have some miscommunications and start brawling as Jericho gets the Walls on Val and then Buchanan and then Goodfather, only for Val to get a powerbomb move for the pin.

Rating: C. For a 4-1 match this wasn’t all that bad. The idea of stacking the deck against Jericho was a good idea which resulted in Jericho beating Regal at the PPV for the IC Title before losing it to him at Backlash I think. Not bad here but really nothing they could go anywhere with as he wasn’t going to beat four guys.

Austin yells at Angle about Debra and that goes nowhere.

Hardcore Title: Undertaker vs. Big Show

This should be….riveting I guess. Taker gets on his bike in the back but HHH jumps him. The cameraman goes down but the bike is on Taker’s leg. HHH gets a chair and puts it over Taker’s throat, asking if he’s the guy that makes people famous. HHH is already famous for crippling people. He’ll cripple the Undertaker if Taker keeps messing with him. No match I guess. HHH sets for a big chair shot but Kane runs him off. Big Show runs in and beats up Kane as maybe there will be a match. Chokeslam puts Kane through a table and the brothers are left laying as we go to a break. No match after all.

The APA and Jackie are at WWF New York. That is such a great idea it’s unreal.

Austin comes up to Rock and says if anything happens to Debra, he’s holding Rock responsible. Rock doesn’t like being barged in on and says he’ll see Austin at Mania. It helped that the match was a classic.

We recap Chyna hurting her neck at the Rumble and still wanting to fight Ivory at Mania. Ivory said cool on Heat.

European Title: Test vs. Raven

Test hammers him into the corner with ease and gets a powerslam for no cover. Out to the floor and Raven sends him into the post and adds a Russian leg sweep into the railing to take over. Back in the ring now and Raven gets a clothesline and bulldog which I think Punk stole from him. Raven hammers away but walks into a tilt-a-whirl slam for two. Full nelson slam puts him down again as Test shifts to the power game. Pumphandle slam doesn’t work but a big boot does and we’re done. Too short to grade but this was fine for a semi-squash.

The Wrestlemania Moment is Taker beating Diesel in 1996.

WWF Title: The Rock vs. Kurt Angle

Debra is with Rock here. Rock grabs a Sharpshooter and has it on inside of ten seconds. Angle grabs a rope and cries GET HIM OFF! DDT gets two for Rock as we’re still in the opening minute of the match. Angle tries to run but Rock takes him down with a clothesline and low blow. Back to ringside and Angle gets in a chair shot to break the momentum.

Into the ring now and Rock gets in some rights but can’t take over as Kurt gets a knee to the ribs. Suplex gets two. Belly to belly breaks another comeback attempt and another is added just for fun. There’s a third as Angle needs practice I guess. Rock sends him over the top to take over though and we’re back on the floor again.

Back into the ring quickly but the moonsault misses and both guys are down. Angle Slam hits out of nowhere and say it with me, only gets two. Angle puts on a bearhug to my surprise for a few minutes. Rock fights out of it with punches and gets a big old Rock Bottom out of nowhere for a close two. More rights send Kurt to the floor for about two seconds.

Down goes the referee of course and a spinebuster sets up the People’s Elbow but because of the delay it only gets two. Ankle Lock (weak one) goes on AND ROCK TAPS!!! He had already grabbed the ropes but HE TAPPED!!! Angle won’t break the hold though and it’s a DQ. The tap of course doesn’t count but a face actually tapped to a submission hold. Wow indeed.

Rating: B-. Too much going to the floor and brawling for my taste but that’s the WWF main event style around this time so it’s not like it’s surprising or anything here. Not much of a main event as there was no way they were changing Wrestlemania three weeks before the big show. Not bad though and perfectly fine for a TV main event world title match.

Post match Debra comes in and Angle puts her in the ankle lock but Austin comes out and beats the tar out of Angle, sending him to the floor. Stunner to the Rock ends the show. Debra tends to Rock again because she’s not a nice person.

Overall Rating: B. Above average show here as you had two good matches which is a nice touch for Raw. It’s hard to believe WCW was even still around at this point as the stuff for Mania is so good that it’s unreal. Granted that’s probably why there were only two more episodes of Nitro to air after this show, one of which was the final episode. Not much here to complain about as WWF is firing on all cylinders for the biggest show of all time.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: March 19, 2001
Location: Pepsi Arena, Albany, New York
Attendance: 11,951
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

Officially I guess this is the final show in the Monday Night Wars. Now of course the wars had been over for like two years at this point for all intents and purposes, but this is kind of the nightcap on them. It’s still in Mania build mode which is fine. Almost everything is ready to go except for one match which we’ll get to next week. Not much else to say other than that so let’s get to it.

Theme song opens us up.

Hardcore Title: Big Show vs. Raven

Raven jumps him with a trashcan lid which gets him nowhere at all. Show throws him over the ropes but Raven’s leg gets caught in the ropes. We’ve got some shrubbery in the ring. Raven takes the knee out but that gets him nowhere for the most part. Powerslam kills Koko B. Ware’s relative and here’s Kane. Big shot with the steps to the head looks to set up a chokeslam but Raven stops it for some reason. Kane hits the top rope clothesline to Show and Raven falls on top for the pin to get the shocking title win.

Rating: C. Just a hardcore match here. These three would have a triple threat at Mania which was a good old fashioned fun hardcore match. Raven would get the title here just because it was a fluke which is fine and it brought Kane into the mix. Not much of a match but it was fine for what it was and it did the proper job.

Kane stalks Raven to the back and Raven runs out the door.

Shane is here.

Rock is waiting for Austin but Austin’s flight has been delayed.

Here’s Shane with an announcement. He talks about being Vince’s son and how it was interesting to be able to watch his father be able to roll over everyone with nothing to stop him. No one has ever been able to stop Vince, not even Billionaire Ted. We also get references to Vince’s interview with Bob Costas, where he more or less cut a promo on Bob. Shane challenges Vince for a match at Mania.

Instead of Vince here’s Stephanie. In a mostly unrelated side note, this is the same clip that Jericho used to show that Stephanie had implants. This would be the before picture. They still look good here though. Stephanie says the family already has problems and this isn’t going to make things any better. She says to think about the money and everything he’s done to get here. Vince/Shane’s music hits again and here are papa and Trish.

Vince talks about Linda and how she’s still in a comatose state. He talks about how Shane has tried to challenge Vince more than once now but it’s failed every time. Trish is sent to the ring to get the contract as apparently the challenge has been accepted. Vince gets the paper and comes to the ring, morphing into Mr. McMahon mode. He takes it to the announce table and signs it up. Vince teases getting in to fight Shane now but here’s HHH for the big beatdown. With HHH holding him in place, Vince says the line that summed up the feud: “I will never forgive your mother for giving birth to you.”

Video about Mania.

Back and HHH is beating on Shane even more.

Tag Titles: Hardy Boys vs. Dudley Boys

And instead of the Dudleys here are Edge and Christian. They say put the titles on the line right now because the Dudleys aren’t here for some reason. The Hardys say cool.

Tag Titles: Hardy Boys vs. Edge/Christian

Big brawl to start and Matt hits the middle rope leg drop. Christian and Matt start us off and the Canadian takes over. Off to Edge who gets caught in a DDT and it’s off to Matt also. Poetry in Motion is set up but the referee is crushed in the middle. Everything breaks down and Lita hits one of the sweetest hurricanranas I’ve ever seen on Christian but Edge spears her down. Twist and Swanton to Edge but Rhyno debuts and gores Jeff, allowing Edge to get the pin and the titles. Too short to grade but this was fast paced and dude, it’s E&C vs. the Hardys. Do you really think this wasn’t going to be fun?

Taker arrives.

Edge and Christian celebrate a bit more.

Regal comes up to Taker in the back and tells him that there’s a restraining order against him by Stephanie. Taker says cool but threatens Regal.

Coach is waiting for Austin’s plane at the airport.

HHH comes to visit Regal and gets a match with Test out of it.

HHH goes up to Big Show and suggests that Show take out Taker to get at Kane. They take a walk to talk about it.

Tazz vs. Steven Richards

We have an ECW original and one of Heyman’s favorites vs. a guy that likes things censored. Think Heyman is cheering for Tazz? Tazz hammers away and there’s a suplex. Venis comes in to break up the Tazmission but gets caught in it himself. I don’t even see a referee. They finally beat him down….and here’s the Rock? He clears the ring and hits Tazz with a spinebuster.

Rock doesn’t buy Austin’s story about having plane troubles. Austin has a bigger issue: Rock troubles. Rock wants Austin TONIGHT.

My Way Mania video. Not the great one but just a quickie here.

The Dudleys arrive at the airport because their reservation was canceled.

European Title: HHH vs. Test

Test is European Champion but I guess that’s beneath the Game or something. Apparently it is for the title. Always interesting to see HHH slumming it. Test fires back and beats HHH down in the corner, adding a full nelson slam for two. HHH sends him shoulder first into the post and here’s Taker.

Show pops up behind him with a chair but Kane steals it and takes Show down. In a smart move, Taker sends Kane to the ring, but it turns out to get rid of Stephanie because there’s no restraining order for Kane. The Test match is thrown out of course and the big brawl is on. Chokeslam is set up but Show makes the save and HHH bails. Test gets all ticked off at Taker so he gets the chokeslam.

Don’t try this at home.

After a break we recap the segment we just saw. We go live to the back where Kane has Stephanie over his head on a balcony with Regal and Taker underneath. We get Show vs. Kane and HHH vs. Taker made for Mania.

Steve Blackman/Grandmaster Sexay vs. X-Pac/Justin Credible

The non-X-Factor guys got together when Blackman got the glasses put on him on Smackdown. Albert is with the heels here. Grandmaster vs. Justin to start us off here. Grandmaster takes over and there’s some double teaming. Blackman vs. Pac now with Blackman taking over rather quickly. Albert crotches Blackman on the floor and Pac takes over. There’s the Bronco Buster and everything breaks down. Crowd is DEAD. Albert shoves Grandmaster off the top and Justin gets the pin. At least it’s over.

Rating: D-. This was so boring it redefines the word. I mean there was NOTHING of interest here. I’ve seen OVW filler matches that held my interest more. This would also be the dark match at Mania 17 and was even less interesting there. I guess they thought something of X-Factor but I never got the appeal. No one else I know of did either.

The Dudleys say they’re ready for their title shot but Regal says there are already new champions. They threaten Regal into giving them a shot later tonight.

Jericho literally pisses in Regal’s tea.

After a break a guy tries to warn Regal of it but he has a cup anyway.

Here’s Ivory with a cardboard cutout of Chyna. Ivory does the usual Chyna won’t be at Mania thing and this is a big waste of time. She pulls out a paper, saying that Chyna has to sign it and agree that if Chyna gets hurt at Mania then Chyna has no legal recourse. Ivory rips up the cardboard and here’s Chyna with a DDT for Ivory. She signs the paper and bails before the RTC takes her out.

Regal makes him vs. Jericho at Mania and Rock/Jericho vs. Regal/Benoit/Angle for later. There had been talk of Angle/Benoit vs. Rock so I guess this is an amplified version.

Mania moment is Butterbean killing Bart Gunn.

XFL video about how awesome they are. You know, because this has so much to do with wrestling.

Austin’s plane is here and Austin/Debra arrive at the airport with about half an hour to go in the show. Austin makes Coach chill at the airport and get his bags.

Tag Titles: Dudley Boys vs. Edge/Christian

Double flapjack takes down Christian almost immediately. Christian and D-Von officially start us off and with some Edge interference the blonde takes over. Edge comes in and hammers away, adding a neckbreaker for two. The Canadians beat on D-Von for a good while until he gets a clothesline to bring in Bubba. Everything breaks down and Edge spears Christian. What’s Up to Christian and it’s almost table time until Edge kicks it into Bubba’s face. Spike Dudley debuts and hits a Dudley Dog onto Edge onto a chair. 3D gives us our second new tag champions of the night.

Rating: C-. Just a quick tag match here with a nice bit of continuity as the Dudleys did the same thing Edge and Christian did earlier in the night to win the titles. This would set up TLC 2 where it would be a 9 person match (unofficially) with Lita, Rhyno and Spike coming in for their respective friends. Nothing to see here, but nothing too bad either.

Angle and Benoit say they need to get to the Rock. Angle says use the Crossface to set up the ankle lock. Benoit isn’t exactly thrilled with the idea.

Eddie is at WWF New York. He’s challenged Test for the European Title at Mania, which he would win.

William Regal/Kurt Angle/Chris Benoit vs. The Rock/Chris Jericho

Jericho makes jokes at Regal’s expense from earlier. Jericho and Regal start us off here and the fight is on. Benoit comes in for some Canadian on Canadian violence. He has to settle for a former Canadian football player in the form of Rock but Benoit seems all groovy with that. Angle comes in as they are MOVING out there. Rock hits a Samoan Drop to Angle and brings Jericho back in.

Angle gets a low blow in to set up a German to the Canadian by the American so he can bring in the Englishman to beat up the partner of the half Samoan. Regal gets a suplex for two. Benoit can throw some chops. The heels tag in incredibly fast as we’ve gone to all three in maybe 30 seconds. Back off to Angle who breaks up the tag to the Rock. Victory Roll gets two for Jericho.

Rock still can’t get in as the three on one beatdown continues. Spinwheel kick puts Regal down and double tags bring in Benoit and Rock. Rock cleans house as you would expect, beating everyone down and getting a DDT for two on Benoit. Regal gets caught in the Walls but Benoit saves. Rock and Angle are on the floor as are Jericho and Regal, leaving Benoit all alone. Rock and Angle head back in and Benoit breaks up the People’s Elbow. Ankle lock and Crossface at the same time to Rock but Jericho saves. Regal gets a belt shot to Jericho and we’re done. Very fast paced match here.

Rating: B-. I liked this a lot as they were moving very fast out there. When the weakest in ring guy is either Regal or Rock, you know you have a great match. The ending works too as Regal finally gets something to go right on this show and sets up the title match at Mania a bit more. Very fun main event and I had a good time with it.

It’s a three on one beatdown post match until Austin runs in for the save. He tries to Stun Rock but Angle makes the save. Rock kills Austin with the title and runs into Benoit, only to take him out also. Austin gets up and walks into the Rock Bottom to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. The wrestling wasn’t much but how often do you see three title changes, two characters debuting and about four or five matches added to a PPV in one night? A lot happened here and the energy was great. Somehow next week would blow away everything that happened here inside of about 3 minutes. Not bad at all here as they had a very energetic show and it flew by, which is always a good thing.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: March 26, 2001
Location: Gund Arena, Cleveland, Ohio
Attendance: 15,566
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

If you read my final Nitro review, you know that this is both the go home show for Mania 17 as well as the night where Vince bought WCW. I barely remember this as I was mainly watching WCW that night for obvious reasons. This should be a pretty weak show though as they don’t want to waste anything or risk an injury 6 days before the biggest show of the year. With all that being said, let’s get to it.

We open in Vince’s office where Vince is watching two monitors, one with WCW (although not footage from the show at the time) and one with WWF. Naturally they’re labeled because you can’t tell the difference otherwise. We’re promised the simulcast which I mentioned in the Nitro review. He makes sure to make it clear that Jeff Jarrett is gone. This would result in a thing called TNA about 15 months later.

Austin/Rock vs. Brothers of Destruction later, which is a dream match actually.

Here’s Angle to start us off. He talks about not having an opponent and it’s 6 days before Mania. The Gobbledy Gooker has a match but Angle doesn’t. There’s something awesome about that. Kurt keeps running his mouth until Benoit’s music hits.

Benoit says exactly what you would expect him to say and that he’ll make Angle tap like a bitch. What kind of a bitch taps anyway? It’s on for Mania of course and they slug it out here. Angle winds up tapping to the Crossface until Edge and Christian run out for the save and the Benoit beatdown.

Vince and Trish make fun of WCW while he’s on the phone with Stephanie.

Debra doesn’t want to talk to Cole. Shocking.

Tazz vs. Val Venis

This is a lumberjack match for no apparent reason. They would be in a 6 man match on Sunday. Tazz beat up Steven Richards on Smackdown as this was during the RTC days. The RTC and the APA are the lumberjacks here, making this a pretty weak lumberjack match. Tazmission is on in maybe 30 seconds but Steven runs in with the Steven Kick. Money Shot misses and a Northern Lights Suplex ends this in maybe a minute. No rating of course.

Vince, Regal and Trish make fun of Road Warrior Animal who of course got a job in the dying days of WCW.

Doink is chilling in the crowd, since he’s in the Gimmick Battle Royal on Sunday.

Regal comes out and talks about WC….Fields. What exactly is a toe rag? He wants one of the Hollies so here are Molly and Crash. Crash is Light Heavyweight Champion actually. Regal grabs Molly though and that’s our match? Ok then.

William Regal vs. Molly Holly

This is Regal’s warmup match for Sunday. Can’t you tell the resemblance between Molly and Jericho? The Stretch is on almost immediately but Crash breaks it up, only to have it put on him instead. Cue DOINK for the save. Doink throws on a fairly familiar Boston Crab before unmasking to of course reveal Chris Jericho. For almost 10 years I’ve watched Regal vs. Jericho at Mania and wondered why Jericho was dressed as Doink. Now I get it!

Vince and Trish make fun of WCW again, which appears to be clips from Greed, which was the final PPV. This turns into Vince talking about Trish’s boobs.

Regal, the Commissioner, makes Big Show vs. Jericho.

Edge and Christian tell Kurt they have a six man later while Kurt insists he wasn’t tapping earlier. Christian has a surprise for Angle, who is the debuting (last week that is) Rhyno who is INSANE here but awesome still.

We get a clip from the sitdown interview with Austin vs. Rock, which is absolutely amazing. These two had some of the best chemistry both in the ring and on the mic of all time, and this might be their best promo ever. The line “I need to beat you Rock. I need to beat you more than anything that you could ever imagine” is one of the best delivered lines Austin ever had.

Debra still doesn’t want to talk. She was made Rock’s manager by Vince just to be a dick.

Vince is going to go address WCW, which I could have sworn was on the last segment. Trish kisses him as he leaves.

Vince comes out, and Lillian in the Mania jersey is absolutely amazing. They mistime the simulcast intro so Vince makes Lillian introduce him again. I love live wrestling. This is the simulcast, so this is what closed both the end of Nitro and the first hour of Raw. The moment here is incredibly historic to say the least but it shows everything that was wrong with the Invasion, but we’ll get to that in just a bit.

Vince runs down WCW the whole time because that’s just what he can do. This is gloating at its finest to put it mildly. He talks about various wrestlers he wants to fire and that he’s going to do that. WCW is going nowhere and will be buried apparently. You’re about 2 years too late for that one buddy. We get our first reference to Shane, as Vince manages to take the night he won the Monday Night Wars and plug an angle with it. That is just simply amazing.

The Boss wants respect but we cue Shane’s music (which is the same as Vince’s music so it’s kind of confusing). Shane is on the screen, with a WCW logo behind him. He’s on Nitro in Florida, which was a shock as well. These two are having a street fight at Mania if you didn’t get that by now. This is a surreal moment.

Shane talks about how Vince’s ego has gotten the better of him as always as he wanted Ted Turner to sign the contract at Mania. The deal however is already finalized and the name on the contract does say McMahon, however it reads SHANE McMahon. Shane has bought WCW, getting a huge pop. He promises WCW will kick Vince’s ass again, just like he will at Mania.

This was supposed to mark the beginning of WCW as its own brand, but due to a DISASTER of a match in Tacoma where the fans booed Booker vs. Bagwell out of the arena, that didn’t happen. Naturally not having Hogan, Flair, Nash, Goldberg, Sting, Steiner or any of the other main WCW guys for about a year, of course it died and we got what we wound up with.

I always thought this was at the end of the show. I guess not.

Vince is PISSED. This has to be illegal somehow wouldn’t it?

Hardy Boyz/Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle/Edge/Christian

I could seriously look at Lita in that tied off jersey forever. Rhyno put out Spike which is shown here, which implies Dudleys interference to me. They start on the ramp and it’s a big brawl. Jeff and Edge start us off with Edge taking charge thanks to Christian’s interference. Benoit almost gets the Crossface on Angle but settles for Christian instead for the tap. Another 2 minute match. Benoit and Angle go at it for a bit post match. The tag teams do also, resulting in Rhyno goring the hell out of Matt and Lita.

Rating: N/A. Covering two matches in one is rarely a bad thing and this certainly wasn’t. This worked fine and shows efficient booking, which is lacking on Raw at times lately.

Taker says HHH can’t hide forever. That’s a very underrated match which not a lot of people ever talk about, which is a shame indeed.

Test vs. X-Pac

Test is European Champion here. Eddie Guerrero, the guy Test is fighting at the PPV, is the guest referee here. Test hits a nice tilt a whirl slam but Eddie of course counts about one an hour. Pac sets for the Bronco Buster but Test just kind of stands up to end that. Eddie cheats again so Test just punches him in the face.

That’s how you solve a lot of problems: PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE! Pumphandle Slam ends Pac and another referee runs out for the pin, but Eddie stops him. While they argue, Albert, the stable mate of Pac, comes in with the Baldo Bomb so Eddie can count the pin.

Rating: D+. Simple story here but the match never really got going. The whole thing was based around a simple idea which is what made it rather predictable. Their Mania match was one of the weaker ones on the card and this is kind of the same thing: not horrible, but it just isn’t that interesting.

Mick Foley is here! He says Mania wouldn’t be Mania without him, but while he’s about to announce how he’s going to be involved Vince comes back out. Long story short, Foley gets to be referee for Vince vs. Shane, which is awesome as Vince fired Foley and humiliated him in December, but Mick had a meeting with Linda and signed a bunch of documents to get him to be able to do this.

Chris Jericho vs. Big Show

Jericho hits a springboard dropkick to knock Show to the floor before he can get in. If you’ve been paying attention all night, you should see this coming a mile away. After about two minutes, there’s Regal to hit Jericho into the chokeslam for the pin. Raven and Kane come out afterwards for some brawling, leaving Kane standing tall.

Undertaker/Kane vs. The Rock/Steve Austin

Kane vs. Rock starts us off. All four guys are faces here which is a rather weird thing. Taker comes in as we’re just waiting for the hot tag to Austin at this point. Austin gets the tag as we’re totally going through the motions here. Thesz Press to Taker as it’s pretty clear they’re in a slow gear here.

Taker shoves Austin into the Rock and grabs him by the throat. JR thinks it could be for the chokeslam. Gee you think? HHH pops up out of nowhere and drills Taker with a chair, allowing Austin to get the pin. Austin drinks beer after the match but walks into a Stunner to end it.

Rating: N/A. No one cared here and everyone knew it. They did manage to get the Game on the show though, so that’s always a plus.

Overall Rating: B+. Other than the wrestling, THIS is how you do a go home show. Other than the Women’s Title match, everything was covered and that got covered on SD in more detail. This was an excellent show and when you couple in that this was the end of the Monday Night Wars (As an aside, WHY DID THEY NOT WAIT FOR THE NIGHT AFTER MANIA TO DO THAT?) how can you not say this was an excellent show? I want to go watch Wrestlemania again, which is the point of this show. Great go home show and solid all around.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 2, 2001
Location: Fort Worth Convention Center, Fort Worth, Texas
Attendance: 11,181
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

We’re past Mania now, which also means it’s all downhill from here. The main event tonight is Austin vs. Rock for the title in a cage which would be Rock’s last appearance for a few months as he would go film Scorpion King. Other than that it’ll likely all be Mania fallout, which is really all you can do here. Let’s get to it.

Here’s Stephanie to open the show with a strap in hand. She complains about Trish and how Trish turned on Vince after everything he did for her. There’s going to be a whipping match tonight. She brings out Vince who has a big red box with him. Stephanie leaves and Vince is very happy.

Tonight Vince is going to get to hand the WWF Championship to Stone Cold as soon as he gets here. He talks about the street fight last night where everything crashed down onto him as Trish turned on him, Linda wasn’t medicated, Foley beat him up and Shane dropkicked a trashcan into his head. However, the show ended just fine for him because he shocked the world.

Vince goes out to the announce table and gets in JR’s face, yelling at him for what he said last night about Austin. Contrary to what JR claimed, Vince isn’t the devil. He mentions the fan reaction for Austin’s turn, which really was one sided. When he arrived there was a gift for him and it’s apparently a white cowboy hat. He throws it down and stomps on it, making him public enemy #1 in Texas.

Cue Rock who isn’t happy at all. He demands a rematch with Austin and he demands it tonight. Vince doesn’t think so but Rock says if not then he can convince McMahon otherwise. He comes to the ring and Vince backpedals very quickly. Vince keeps talking and gets punched and put in the Sharpshooter. That’s enough to get his rematch tonight. Vince makes it a cage match.

Radicalz vs. APA/Test

The APA are surprise partners here. After a brief brawl we get to Faarooq vs. Saturn who gets beaten up pretty quickly. Off to Bradshaw and Malenko with Bradshaw throwing him all over the place. Eddie comes in and that goes badly for him also. The Radicalz triple team Bradshaw and get him down. Leg lariat by Malenko and it’s off to Saturn. Double tags bring in Eddie and Test with the Canadian dominating. Gutwrench powerbomb gets two for Test and it all breaks down. Full nelson slam gets two on Saturn and Terri gets in. She almost takes a pumphandle slam and then a big boot takes Saturn down for the pin.

Rating: C-. Just a six man here that didn’t mean anything. These guys wouldn’t feud anymore that I can remember. If they did it was nothing to write home about. Test would get into the Alliance stuff soon enough and the others would be dropped to the back of it. Eddie would do very little before being released due to a DUI arrest.

Stephanie comes in to see Regal, wanting a guarantee that Trish won’t get out of the whipping match. She whips various things in the office and that’s about it.

We get some still shots of TLC 2 last night.

Vince comes in to see Regal and says he doesn’t want to have to worry about Stephanie. Shenanigans are implied.

HHH says there are 365 days in a year and one night, last night, he had a bad night. He says he’ll get Taker back. Regarding Austin, HHH is asked if he knew anything about it. He doesn’t say yes or no.

Steven Richards gives the RTC a pep talk, saying they need to keep up the fight. They’re going after the Hardcore Title tonight.

Stephanie McMahon vs. Trish Stratus

This is a spanking match which means they both have straps/whips. Trish has her face music at this point but doesn’t have Lil Kim yet. They go at it on the ramp and this could be ugly. Trish isn’t that good yet, which is an understatement if there ever was one. At least she takes the coat off so we can see the nice halter top. Stephanie chokes Trish and hits a half decent DDT. Here comes the whipping and now it’s a catfight. Stephanie gets whipped and barely moves. She hides behind Lillian which doesn’t work as Lillian goes down. Steph gets both whips but wastes too much time. Regal comes in and takes Trish down for the DQ.

Rating: D+. You would think whips involving Trish and Stephanie would be hotter than this. Not much of a match but at the same time Stephanie was actually trying to wrestle which is a major step up for her. They had a far better match at No Way Out but they were trying here at least, which helped a lot.

Jericho makes the save from the beating.

Post break Stephanie is freaking on Regal so he makes Jericho vs. Regal/Angle for later.

Crash Holly vs. Rhyno

No entrance for Rhyno. Crash gets in some quick offense but this is ended with a Gore in like a minute. Post match Molly actually takes Rhyno down with the Molly Go Round so she gets gored too.

Debra says she was surprised by what Austin did last night.

Here’s Vince and it’s time for the title presentation. Vince doesn’t understand why Austin is being booed because he did something everyone does on a daily basis. Everyone sucks up to their bosses every day and Austin did just that. Here’s Austin to a mixed reaction. They couldn’t have picked a worse place to have the heel turn than Texas. Vince presents him with the belt and he holds it up on the ropes.

Austin teases that it was all a sham, saying that now he’s the champion and now that he has Vince here all alone, should he whip Vince? The fans say yes, but Austin says no. Why should he do everything the fans want? Why should they get to leech off Austin? He doesn’t owe anyone an explanation so the fans call him a sellout and chant for Rock. Austin yells at Rock for putting “Mr. McMahon” in the Sharpshooter. He says he’ll win tonight and that’s all he has to say about Rock. That’s the bottom line because Mr. McMahon says so.

HHH is glaring at the monitor in the back at Austin.

Rock is watching too.

Hardcore Title: Val Venis vs. Kane

Kane won the title last night and Venis is RTC. Val jumps him and that doesn’t go all that well for him. Kane fires back and gets a powerslam for two. Side slam by Kane and he grabs a trashcan lid. Richards gets in too and gets smacked around. Val gets a trashcan shot in and we go outside. That doesn’t last long as Val gets a DDT back inside for two. Val hammers away and that doesn’t work out too well for him. Russian leg sweep is blocked but Val gets a shoulder block from the middle rope for two. Kane starts no selling stuff and goes up for the clothesline, which actually gets the pin here.

Rating: C-. Not bad here as Val was a pretty steady hand most of the time. Not a great match or anything and really more about the match than the weapons which is a different thing around this point. Kane would lose the title to Rhyno in like two months and would shift into the main event scene again.

RTC beats him down post match until Taker makes the save.

HHH asks Regal where Vince is.

After the break HHH finds Vince and freaks on him for not being in the loop about Austin. Vince says it was none of his business. Austin came to Vince apparently. He also won at Mania, unlike HHH.

Chris Jericho vs. Kurt Angle/William Regal

I can feel the international jokes from here. Angle distracts Jericho and Regal gets the jump on him. Jericho fights them off for a bit but the American tries a German on the Canadian but it’s reversed into the Walls, but that gets broken up by the Englishman. Off to Regal again who works on Jericho’s bad shoulder. Regal sends Jericho into the ropes but he knock Angle to the floor.

Lionsault gets two on Regal as Angle saves. Angle goes down again, but this time Chris goes with him. Jericho sets for probably a missile dropkick but Angle crotches him. A butterfly suplex off the top gets two. Angle Slam gets two. Angle pops him with a chair and the Regal Cutter ends this.

Rating: C+. Not much to say here as the handicap aspect made it more or less impossible for Jericho to win here, but he did try, which made the match a lot better. Regal of course had psychology in there where he worked on the arm from last night and a few days ago on Smackdown. Better than you would expect, but look who was in there.

Benoit breaks up the double beatdown post match.

Shane McMahon is at WWF New York.

Billy Gunn vs. X-Pac

Uh…why? Billy was seen talking to Shane recently so this is punishment or something. Credible tries to interfere but only gets Pac sent over the top. A superkick by Credible is blocked, but it lets Pac hit a baseball slide to take over. A spinwheel kick almost makes contact for two. Billy grabs a tilt-a-whirl slam and a gorilla press to set up the Fameasser but a Credible distraction lets Albert hit the Baldo Bomb for the pin. Not enough to grade but this wasn’t much of anything. Total filler.

The cage is being set up.

We get some stills from the street fight last night.

Shane, with a big black eye, says he’s proud of what he did but it was hard to do. Vince had it coming though and it’s good that it was him that got to beat Shane. The fans chant WCW.

Rock says Austin did what he did because he knew he couldn’t beat Rock. Austin may not owe the people anything, but Rock owes them an Austin whipping.

WWF World Title: The Rock vs. Steve Austin

In a cage remember. Rock won’t let Austin get in so Austin slams the door on Rock’s head. They fight on the floor and the bell rings to start us off. Rock gets a low blow and a belt shot as Austin is reeling. They’re still on the floor and Austin is bleeding. He gets rammed into the cage wall a bit and hasn’t been in the ring yet. Oh there they go.

Austin takes over and hits a slingshot followed by a spinebuster for two. Vince brings Austin a chair and it’s the series of shots that Rock got last night. Rock escapes though and there’s a Sharpshooter. Austin taps but Vince has the referee. Spinebuster sets up the Elbow but Vince breaks up the count. The referee shoves Vince down and Austin walks into the Rock Bottom. Vince breaks up the pin AGAIN so Rock massacres him. Rock loads up the Rock Bottom but Austin gets a low blow in. Vince beats up the referee and CUE HHH!

The match is more or less thrown out and here comes HHH, sledgehammer in hand. Austin and HHH stare each other down….and then HHH bashes Rock with the hammer, joining Austin and Vince to form the Two Man Power Trip. Rock gets destroyed and the trio drinks a beer to end the show.

Rating: C+. It’s Austin and Rock but this was just an angle for the most part. Rock would be “suspended for his own good” after this and would return during the Alliance angle. Not much of a match here overall but it’s hard to criticize Rock vs. Austin, if nothing else for how epic it feels when they’re out there.

Overall Rating: B-. Hard to argue with this one as they set a lot of things in motion for the coming months. Austin vs. Rock was a nice touch and the rest of the card revolved around that as it likely should have. The wrestling isn’t much and also this wouldn’t mean much due to the Alliance coming in, but the next month or two were all about Austin and HHH dominating, leading up to the classic with the Canadian Chris’s. Pretty good show with Mania momentum pushing it.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 9, 2001
Location: Fleet Center, Boston, Massachusetts
Attendance: 14,737
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

Well things have been put in motion now and it’s time for the Two Man Power Trip to take off. They meet their first challengers tonight in the form of the Hardy Boys, but other than that the real ones wouldn’t be coming for another week I don’t think. I could be wrong but I think that's right. Anyway there isn’t much to say other than that so let’s get to it.

Here’s Kurt to open the show. Uh…there’s no JR. Where is my fat Oklahoman? Angle is annoyed about something and Tim Wakefield is in the front row. Since he won the King of the Ring here, he should win something again here. He challenges any champion for a title shot tonight. Angle isn’t leaving this town tonight until he wins championship gold, no matter who it is. HHH is IC Champion now by the way. Instead here’s Kane so we get this.

Hardcore Title: Kurt Angle vs. Kane

Kane hammers away in the aisle but gets caught in the ropes going back in the ring. Angle tries to capitalize but gets kicked in the face by a free Kane. Garbage can to the face and Kane adds a suplex on the floor. Heyman on commentary on his own is kind of weird. A gorilla press is countered into a failed ankle lock attempt. The extra time though allows Kurt to get a trashcan lid shot to take over.

There’s a nice little story being told here as Angle is completely out of his element and doesn’t know how to wrestle in a hardcore match so he can’t really get anything going. Nice touch, very nice touch. Anyway we can forget that because he’s a tall fat man in a women’s swimsuit called The Big Show. I guess there are two title matches going on at once here. Undertaker comes out to even the sides and in a funny moment, Kurt tries to get with them and triple team Show (pretty logical) but the brothers drill him. Kane pins Big Show after a double chokeslam.

Rating: C+. The story in there was a very nice addition that you don’t get from hardcore matches that often. It goes to show you what you can do with talented people in there who are smart enough to know their character would have such little issues in a match like this. I love that kind of stuff because it takes you to a higher level of psychology, like this did.

JR is apparently in Vince’s office and isn’t thrilled with it. This is about Austin apparently and JR not being happy with his change of attitude. Here’s Austin himself who sits on the couch next to JR. Austin says JR has a pretty little cowboy hat in a voice that is creepy on a lot of levels. Vince has a video for JR to watch.

Big Show wants Undertaker later.

The video Vince has is called The Life And Times Of Good Old JR. It’s a clip from last week’s Smackdown of JR confronting Austin in the ring. JR says Austin owes the people some answers, namely why he’s joined up with Vince. Austin said Vince is an insurance policy. He talks about how there was a chance that at the biggest show of all time, he would be stupid to roll in there without an insurance policy. Vince will continue to be an insurance policy in the future.

The fans chant for Rocky (remember this is from Smackdown) and Austin doesn’t appreciate it. He doesn’t feel remorse either and why should he? When has he ever said he wants to be a hero? He’s always said Don’t Trust Anybody so why should he feel sorry for anyone? Austin doesn’t want to be sassed either. Ross’ next question is about HHH and Austin doesn’t like Ross talking about HHH behind HHH’s back. If HHH was sick enough to try to run Austin over, wouldn’t you want him on your side? Hard to argue on that one.

Austin doesn’t like being talked down to by Ross so Ross talks about being there for him when he got out of surgery. He talks about always calling Austin and telling him never to give up. Austin isn’t comfortable about this and looks down. JR feels like he’s losing his best friend and it doesn’t feel good. Austin says it sounds like JR doesn’t want to be his friend anymore which JR denies. There goes the hat. This must be RIVETING for the live Raw crowd. Austin offers JR a swing and JR declines.

JR tries to walk away and Austin jumps him from behind, pounding away. Vince finally comes out and calls the champion off and says stop taking it easy on JR. Vince wants blood. My how the times have changed. A bunch of referees come out to try and help but that gets them nowhere. JR gets busted open and Austin talks trash to FINALLY end this.

And how let’s go back to the three of them sitting in Vince’s office. Austin says never look at him like that again and leaves. Vince asks if JR is in the right frame of mind to go to work now. Ross has talked to his attorney and has a great lawsuit if he wants to go that route. Or he could just quit tonight and go work for WCW. Vince really doesn’t like that and JR walks. This ran well over 10 minutes and considering this aired four days earlier, it’s kind of hard to imagine the live crowd was that interested for the most part.

JR comes out to do commentary and won’t hug Heyman.

Crash/Molly Holly vs. Rhyno

Mixed handicap here. Molly’s looks are totally underrated. Crash starts and grabs a small package for two very quickly. Rhyno loads up the Gore but Molly stops him. Crash gets a rana for two. Cross body gets two and there’s the Gore. Molly was never in the match at all. She tries to jump Rhyno post match and Hardcore comes out to protect her and sends Rhyno running.

Vince is talking to Stephanie and is worried about JR. Stephanie still can’t act. They see Linda arriving on a monitor and Vince is a bit freaked.

After a break Linda gets here and talks to the APA for no apparent reason. She keeps walking and sees Chyna who hugs her. Linda says she has business to take care of.

Spike Dudley says he lost to Lita last night but is cool with it. X-Factor comes up and makes fun of him. Cole says at least wait until Bubba and D-Von are here but Spike says he can fight his own battles. Naturally he gets left laying.

We recap Regal and Angle beating Benoit with a double submission and attacking him post match until Jericho makes the save. Regal cost Jericho the IC Title later that match as he lost it to HHH.

Regal wanted to talk to Coach for some reason. He wants Coach to tell the Chrises that they’re fighting later.

Undertaker vs. Big Show

Pretty standard match from these two to start with them fighting in the corner. Show takes over and actually does ten punches in the corner. Yeah I think you know what’s coming here. Match was like 90 seconds.

Here’s Linda as we get the old school Wrestlemania theme song. She says she has three announcements. First of all she’s fully recovered and is back mentally. She’s also back to work as CEO. That’s just one announcement so number two is saying she’s proud of Shane for doing what he said he’d do at Mania. Her most important announcement is about Vince. She wants him out there to say this to his face.

Here’s Vince and she won’t let him hug her. He thinks she’s here to apologize and she tells him to shut up. She plays a video from the time where Vince said he wanted a divorce. Vince says he was just angry that night and Linda doesn’t buy it. It made Linda sick but not sick enough to be put in a sanitarium. She brings up all of the stuff he did and we see footage of it. Dang Trish was hot as the total ****. Linda talks about Mania and she says that wasn’t enough revenge. Vince says he’s sorry and the people boo loudly. Linda says that’s not enough as Linda wants a divorce now. I don’t remember seeing this mentioned again.

Lita says what Linda did was inspiring as Linda leaves. Vince tries to talk to her but she drives off. Vince isn’t happy so he makes Hardys/Lita vs. Stephanie/HHH/Austin. Oddly enough when he implied it was Lita vs. Steph, it got a huge pop.

Dudley Boys vs. X-Factor

Six man tag here. They start brawling in the aisle until we start with Justin vs. Bubba in the ring. Off to Spike as the Dudleys control early. Heel miscommunication puts Albert down but Spike dives on him which of course fails. Paul: “Not over here! We’re not Spanish!” Pac vs. Spike now. Spike gets beaten down a bit more until it’s hot tag to D-Von. This doesn’t last long as the bigger Dudleys put Albert on the floor and a 3D ends Credible. More or less a nothing match.

X-Pac gets What’s Up post match. Albert stops the table spot though by throwing Spike over the top and onto the floor in a FREAKING OW spot. Bubba goes through the table. Oh and X-Factor has their far better music now.

Vince tries to leave and HHH/Stephanie aren’t thrilled with it.

The Hardys and Lita are worried about tonight. Matt needs to move his head so we can see the massive Divas Magazine cover with Lita looking incredible on it. Jeff is fired up about this.

Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho

Face vs. face here. And there’s no referee. Yep it’s Regal in a white and black striped shirt. I smell a comedy match. Actually it isn’t to start off which is a good thing. They do their usual fast paced and awesome match with both guys knowing each other like a book and being able to counter everything. Benoit goes for the Crossface a bunch of times but Jericho keeps countering.

Butterfly backbreaker gets barely a one as Regal won’t count. A German hits by the future crazy man but Regal still won’t count because he’s busy waving. Jericho and Benoit are finally like screw this and drill Regal before going back to their match. Regal hits them both and the double beatdown is on. The match is thrown out. Regal gets put in a double submission which looks wicked.

Earlier today the RTC was talking to Raven and trying to recruit him. Stevie tries to talk all philosophical to him but since that’s Raven’s bread and butter he has them talking in circles. Val threatens him and that goes nowhere. RTC needed a star to get something going and they never got that.

Edge and Christian are at WWF New York and talk about defending the titles against the Hollies on Thursday. We even get a SEVEN SECOND POSE!!!

Stephanie doesn’t like being left out of planning for the main event.

Val Venis vs. Raven

No real point to this other than they need a match to fill in a little time at the end of the show. That’s something you don’t see enough of today. Very rarely do you see a quick reason put together for having a match between two guys that aren’t put together that often. It works though and there’s nothing wrong with it at all. DDT hits but Richards pulls Raven out. There’s a DDT for old white socks but this time Buchanan pulls the referee out. While the referee is distracted Goodfather drills Raven but they still can’t pin him. Fisherman’s suplex gets two and a scissors kick and the Money Shot finally end Raven.

Hardy Boys/Lita vs. Steve Austin/HHH/Stephanie McMahon

Genders can mix here. HHH/Austin jump the brothers very early but the Hardys clear the ring in something rather surprising. HHH and Matt get us started. Off to Jeff and there’s Poetry in Motion. There go the shirts which unfortunately Lita doesn’t go along with. Whisper in the Wind gets two on HHH. Sunset flip gets the same as this is starting very fast paced.

Matt walks into a facebuster though and it’s off to Austin. After the Hardys beat on Austin for a bit it’s heel cheating that lets Austin beat up on Jeff. Austin wants to know the difference between a choke and a blatant choke. Jeff takes Trips down with an enziguri but Austin breaks up the potential tag. Jeff manages to dive and get a double tag to bring in Matt. Everything breaks down and Lita gets Stephanie alone. Twist of Fate and Moonsault end Stephanie and the Power Trip is MAD.

Rating: C+. The idea of them losing this fast was kind of surprising but at the same time the point of it was to let the post match beatdown happen. Also on Thursday Jeff would win the Intercontinental Title. Granted he would lose it back the next Monday, but the point of that was to set up the first real challengers to the dominance. Other than that, the match was fine though.

Austin and HHH massacre Lita post match with chair shots, a Pedigree and a Stunner.

Overall Rating: C-. Not a great show here but things would start to pick up next week. Austin and HHH were a problem to have as a team because they were almost too unstoppable, especially with Vince in their pocket. The Alliance would come in a few months but these few months before that were pretty weak when you look back at them.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 16, 2001
Location: Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tennessee
Attendance: 11,938
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

This show has one of my favorite moments ever at the end of it so I have that to look forward to. Other than that the main event is HHH trying to get the IC Title back from Jeff which he lost about 4 days ago. We also get Benoit vs. Regal and Jericho vs. Angle so the midcard stuff is certainly going to be solid. Let's get to it.

We open with a recap of Smackdown where Jeff beat HHH with the help of Matt.

Here's Vince who was told last week that his wife wants a divorce. Vince talks about marriage, saying that every marriage should last until death do them part. He even plays the sake of the children line. There won't be a divorce and he doesn't care what he has to sacrifice to make that happen.

Debra cuts him off. Well that's rather random. She doesn't buy what Vince said and says that Vince has had a negative influence on Austin. Vince says it wasn't his fault and Austin did everything himself. Not for him hooking up with HHH, not for him beating up JR and not for him beating up Lita last week. She says she blames Austin but also blames Vince and slaps him in the face and leaves.

After a break, Vince leaves.

Austin yells at Debra.

Tag Titles: Edge/Christian vs. Hollies

Before the match Rhyno pops up and gores Hardcore, letting Edge get a fast two. Hardcore gets beaten down in the corner by both Canadians and can't get anything going. Eventually he manages to get going and hits an Alabama Slam to Christian but Edge makes the save. Hot tag to Crash but Edge spears him down. Molly hits the Molly Go Round for two. And never mind as Crash hits a cross body off the top but Edge rolls through for the pin.

Rating: C-. Nice touch here as Rhyno had been feuding with the Hollies a bit before this. The match was kind of an afterthought but the champions looked pretty good and the ending was clean. For a four minute match, what else can you really ask for here? Taker and Kane would win the titles on Smackdown.

The Hardys say they'll win again tonight and that they have unfinished business.

Shane McMahon arrives.

Bubba Ray Dudley vs. Justin Credible

Uh...ok? Ah apparently X Factor beat up Spike. I forgot that one. This is a revenge match. Albert takes out D-Von on the floor to make it 3-1. There's the Bubba Bomb and both guys are down. The middle rope splash misses but Justin jumps off the middle rope into a Cutter. That looked great but Albert makes the save, allowing Pac to take Bubba's head off with a kick for two. D-Von pops up and What's Up ends this. Yes, that got a pin. Match was pretty much nothing.

Grandmaster Sexay, who would be gone very soon, talks to Shane, saying it was awesome when Shane beat up Vince. Show comes up and chases him off. He hopes Shane is there for Show's match but Shane is there for Vince so he's going to leave now. Show seemed glad to see Shane for some reason.

Steven Richards says he's going to show the RTC is alive and well tonight.

Kurt thinks Regal is nuts as Regal comes up. They go off to have tea.

Austin says don't worry about Debra when Matt jumps him.

Stephanie, with some HUGE cleavage, says she can't believe Matt just did that. Austin pops in on HHH and Stephanie and says let's go get the Hardys. HHH says chill because it's going to cost HHH the title tonight.

Hardcore Title: Steven Richards vs. Kane

Kane shrugs off some trashcan shots and Richards runs. We're in the back now and Richards is getting mauled. He's sent into a locker and then a railing. RTC comes in for the 4-1 beating until Taker makes the way too casual save. Kane harpoons Richards into a truck and we're done. This was nothing again, other than having the Brothers give a beatdown.

Taker tells the unconscious Richards to find a good woman.

Chris Jericho vs. Kurt Angle

This should end that streak of weak matches. Jericho cuts him off before he can say anything. Angle charges into him which goes badly for the American hero. They go to the mat and into a pinfall reversal sequence. Jericho dropkicks him to the floor and keeps up the beating. Angle gets a shot in with the bell and they fight to the table. Paul: “WE DON'T SPEAK SPANISH!”

Back inside a suplex gets a pair of two counts for Kurt. Off to a chinlock which doesn't last long. Jericho grabs a rollup for two but gets caught in the ankle lock. A rope ends his issues though as they're going fairly hard so far. There's an enziguri to put Kurt down. Another rollup gets two for Jericho and there's the forearm. Angle Slam and Lionsault both miss and Angle takes a walk. Jericho goes after him and gets nailed by Regal for the DQ win.

Rating: C+. Eh it's Angle vs. Jericho so by default it's good. This certainly wasn't one of their best efforts but they were trying and with what they had to work with it was fine. They would do better of course but for a five minute TV match, this was fine. Jericho and Benoit would team up soon for a classic so having just an ok match here can be forgiven.

Jericho fights off both evildoers because Benoit is busy petting his cat or strangling a human or something. The numbers catch up with Jericho though and he gets caught in a double submission until Benoit makes the save.

After a break, Regal tells Benoit to get down here because he wants a match RIGHT NOW.

Chris Benoit vs. William Regal

Angle and Jericho are here as seconds. Big brawl to start and Benoit fires off the headbutt maybe 20 seconds in which gets only mat. Regal starts firing off his strikes and then into something like a seated abdominal stretch. I think it would hurt but I'm not quite sure. A knee to the ribs puts Benoit down again.

Chinlock goes on and then some forearms in the corner. Benoit wakes up and the Canadian hits a pair of Germans on the Englishman. Regal sends him to the floor where Angle cheats, letting Regal get the Regal Stretch. Jericho of course can't get outdone so he runs in and breaks the hold up, letting Benoit get the Crossface to end it.

Rating: C+. Not as good as you would expect here as it was almost 90% domination by Regal. They beat on each other a bit but Regal did a bit too much on offense. I could watch these two chop each other all day though and Regal throws in such stiff shots that it's almost always entertaining. Kind of weird to see Benoit beaten down that much though.

The Hardys fire each other up. Lita comes in and Matt isn't happy at all.

Radicalz vs. Billy Gunn/Raven/Test

Now that's a weird combination. After the faces clear the ring we get down to Dean vs. Test to get us going. Off to Billy vs. Eddie with Eddie offering a handshake and not liking the results. Eddie is European Champion. Billy gets beaten back into the corner and after firing off some punches is beaten down again. A We Want Lawler chant pops up which the announcers have to ignore.

Saturn, complete with blonde handlebar mustache (Hulk Saturn?), comes in for more of the beating but gets caught in a tilt-a-whirl slam to put both guys down. Off to Eddie vs. Raven and Test comes in too. He gets a NICE big boot to Saturn as Dean takes Raven down. Eddie misses the Frog Splash though and the EvenFlow pins Eddie clean. Didn't see that one coming.

Rating: D+. Just a six man here but I'm stunned at Raven getting the clean win like that. He was getting a very moderate push at this point and this was a big part of it. He wouldn't win the title or anything but I guess he got a shot at it some time. It's nothing special as far as the match goes, but that big boot did look great.

Big Show is going to show Kaientai who is EVIL.

Big Show vs. Kaientai

Kaientai does their thing but say they've spent some money. Cue the APA to do the fighting for them. They beat down Big Show with some impressive power stuff including a double spinebuster. There's the bell and they leave. Show gets up and a double chokeslam ends this very quick. Less than 30 seconds probably.

Trish is at WWF New York. She says she's naughty but she was only after Vince's money, not Vince himself. She admits to taking Linda off her medication and she'll support Linda in the divorce.

We get a video on the upset from Smackdown which might be the same one that opened the show.

While the Hardys are on the way to the ring, Regal bars Matt from ringside.

Intercontinental Title: HHH vs. Jeff Hardy

Trips jumps him immediately as he gets in. Lita and Steph are at ringside. Dang Jeff is only 23 here. The idea here is that Jeff won on a total fluke and that he's in WAY over his head here against HHH. It's basically HHH mauling him until he's ready to put him away. Jeff hasn't gotten in anything here other than some punches. Out to the floor and Jeff gets dropped on the steps.

Back inside and a big clothesline gets two. HHH is starting to get frustrated because he tried to pin Jeff but couldn't. Off to the abdominal stretch with the use of a rope. Jeff tries a jawbreaker which is botched at first but thankfully HHH was nice enough to let Jeff do it again. There's a facebuster though so it doesn't really matter. Lita breaks it up and the girls are about to fight until HHH cuts the redhead off.

They fight to the floor where Jeff gets in the most overblown belt shot ever, jumping about three feet to reach the announce table which he goes sailing over. Jeff sends him into the steps a few times and momentum has changed. Inside a missile dropkick gets two. Rollup gets two as does a backslide. Something like the Whisper in the Wind misses and HHH goes up, only to get dropkicked down.

Jeff gets a top rope rana and sets for the Swanton. HHH moves though and both guys are down. We cut to the back where Matt is watching on the monitor. Austin jumps him with a chair and leaves him laying. Lita sees it and isn't sure what to do. She goes up the ramp and runs into Austin. While the stalking is going on we miss the Pedigree and only hear the three count that gives HHH the title back.

Rating: B-. Pretty fun match here as these two always have good chemistry together. Jeff would of course get a lot better and would go on to have a bunch of world titles and beat HHH a few times in some good matches. HHH would lose the title to Kane like 6 weeks later at the PPV after Backlash. I don't think the ending was in doubt here but that's all well and good.

Post match the beatdown is on. Matt comes in with a chair and gets taken out quickly. Lita gets thrown in by Stephanie and the Power Trip looks down at her. In one of my favorite moments ever, Kane's pyro goes off (Austin and HHH's heads snapping towards the stage is a nice touch) and the Brothers of Destruction come out to stare them down. I love scenes like these where the cavalry comes in for the save right when things look the worst. Austin and HHH act like they're ready to fight and then run when the Brothers get there. JR: “I like this! I think I like this a lot!”

Overall Rating: B. I liked this one a good bit as it had a lot of stuff going on at the same time. We even got a little something out of WCW which hasn't been mentioned in a few weeks. The ending is solid and it shows that under the right circumstances, the IC Title can be a draw. The two midcard matches were solid and the whole show just kind of works. Good stuff here.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 23, 2001
Location: Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado
Attendance: April 23, 2001
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

We're at the go home show for Backlash and we have an 8 man tag for the main event as we again combine matches, this time in the form of the Hardys/Edge/Christian joining up with the four main event guys. Undertaker/Kane won the tag titles on Smackdown and I think the main event for Backlash, as in the tag match where all titles are on the line, is already set. Let's get to it.

We open with a recap of the main event of the PPV being set up.

Also we have a submission tag match with Benoit/Jericho vs. Regal/Angle. Cool.

Here are the Brothers of Destruction to open things up. Taker does the talking of course and talks about how this hasn't been a decade of laughs but rather a Decade of Destruction. A few weeks ago HHH said something and it make Undertaker laugh. On Smackdown, HHH said he and Austin were the most dominant guys ever. They show it twice and Taker says he and Kane are the most dominant. Kane thinks it's funny too and is laughing on the inside. The crowd is rambunctious tonight.

He talks about the main event on Sunday and says Austin or HHH losing their titles makes him happy. How about tonight we have a match to see who is more dominant. Isn't that what we're having on Sunday? Taker says let's do it now and wants a fight. Instead they get Edge and Chrsitian. Good heat on the Canadians here. Edge says since they're seven time champions, they're seven times better.

Christian claims that it wasn't fair to them on Thursday but since there's no way the champs will defend the titles tonight, how about a fight right now? The Canadians have backbones here and come to fight. This goes about as well as you would expect until Austin and HHH show up to make it 4-2. They beat down the tall guys and destroy them with chairs. Austin uses his belt to tie Taker to the ropes. Remember that Kane had a bad arm coming into this show.

Vince and Stephanie (pre-implants) watch the replay and are happy. We see a clip of Mick Foley in New York. Vince: “What is Mick Foley doing at WWF New York?” Stephanie: “You know Mick Foley will do anything for free food.” It doesn't really answer the question he asked but it was kind of funny.

Hardcore Title: Rhyno vs. Spike Dudley

The bigger Dudleys are on commentary. Rhyno won the title on Thursday thanks to HHH. X-Factor comes out to watch also since they have a six man with the three Dudleys on Sunday. Spike goes right after him and we hit the floor with Spike hitting a big dive off the top. Spike goes for a trashcan lid but Rhyno kicks it back into his face. Spike avoids the gore but the brawl starts with X-Factor. Dudley Dog hits but Albert makes the save. Gore hits and we're done fast. This was there for the run-in and that's it.

Justin takes a 3D post match. 5/7 of those people involved in this segment were regulars in ECW. Think it was influential?

We get a clip from Thursday (that was a busy show!) with the APA and Kai En Tai beating the RTC.

Steven gives the RTC a pep talk then yells at them for losing. They would split soon.

Kai En Tai vs. Right to Censor

Goodfather/Buchanan this time. The Japanese guys head to the back to get John Elway jersies to make the crowd love them. They still can't quite get the lip synching thing right. Paul: “Their lips don't match!” Jim: “Get out of here!” Another good one: Jim: “The RTC is on a bad losing streak. It's almost as bad as my broadcast partner's losing streak with women.” This commentary is on tonight. The RTC fights them off early but it breaks down fast. Buchanan gets crotched but manages to catch a diving Taka. Funaki dropkicks Taka down onto Buchanan and hooks the foot for the surprise pin. This was again nothing.

Foley is chilling at WWF New York and eating peanuts. “Put this on the McMahon tab.” He keeps getting food brought to him and we cut to the McMahons. Stephanie, sweetheart, you look great in a leather dress, but GET ACTING LESSONS. Big Show barges in and yells at Vince who called him a disappointment.

Vince says he was kidding about that but isn't kidding about the last man standing match that Show has with Shane on Sunday. Show hands him a video and says the McMahons will want to see it. They play the tape and it's Jeff talking to Test and Test congratulating him for hitting a Twist of Fate on Steph. Show vs. Test later.

Off to Regal's office and Angle comes in. Angle likes the tag submission match and makes fun of the Broncos. It's a preview of the ultimate submission match on Sunday. There's also a Duchess of Queensbury match on Sunday with Regal and Jericho. They get into a my submission is better than your's argument. This was kind of pointless.

Cole tells us that Kane has reinjured his elbow so they aren't going to be wrestling tonight. Austin and HHH come up and are happy with that news.

And now here's a video about the main event set to a Marilyn Manson song. I think this was the Backlash theme song.

Here are Austin and HHH again to Vince's music. HHH makes fun of the fans a bit and then talks about the beatdown from earlier. They brag about it and JR yells a lot. HHH says they're still champions and the tag titles belong to them. This company is their's and they'll win on Sunday. Austin says that's true and everyone knows it. What happened to Taker and Kane earlier could happen to the fans here because no one can stop them. He calls out the Brothers again saying they don't want to wait until Backlash.

Instead here are the Hardys. Matt shows why he doesn't talk often and says here we are and you can't jump us from behind. They don't know the meaning of the word quit. Jeff says they're still alive. So is Matt after that suicide fiasco this week. The Hardys are ready but here are the Brothers, even though they can barely walk. Austin and HHH bail and here's Foley...in New York. Ok then.

He talks about how he's enjoyed the menu at WWF New York and manages to get a cheap pop for the name of a town from two time zones away. He has a magic bag (which does not contain his new book, Foley is Good, available in bookstores May 8). He does however have a contract that he signed while he was still Commissioner that says he can make a main event on any Raw he wants. He makes Edge/Christian/Austin/HHH vs. Brothers/Hardys (also brothers but not Brothers if you follow me). Those contracts were kind of a cool idea.

Chris Jericho/Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle/William Regal

Submission only. Jericho has his contractually required microphone and wants to know what the Duchess of Queensbury rules are. He does however have a picture of the Duchess and it's Regal in a dress. There are no disqualifications here so I'd presume no tags. The Canadians try some fast submissions but they both get broken up. Ok so we do have to tag. Jericho vs. Angle to start.

The Walls are reversed into an ankle lock attempt but Benoit is in almost immediately. Off to Regal who tries the Regal Stretch. Jericho pops him with an elbow and hits an Enziguri to bring in the Canadian who hits some Germans on the Englishman then some Germans on the American. And there's the Crossface and we're done quick again with Regal tapping.

Rating: C. Fun but it needed more time to make it effective. It does however show how awesome their submission skills are which plays into the ultimate submission match on Sunday. Also there's something so cool about seeing Benoit just drive someone down with the crossface. With more time this could have been great.

Trish talks about her dating game last night. It's amusing that Coach is made to be a zombie by Trish whispering something about the new Divas video in his ear as I've got Sportscenter on and he's anchoring the 6pm edition, which is the main show for ESPN. There's something awesome about that.

Big Show vs. Test

Test gets right in his face and is tossed into the corner with ease. Show is in his ultra manly one piece women's swimsuit. Show works on the back and adds a backbreaker. Off to a bearhug which makes sense here. Test gets going and the crowd pops big. He hits a jumping back elbow so the cheering is fine. And here's Shane with a chair on Big Show for the DQ. GIVE US A LONG MATCH ALREADY.

Vince is looking for Shane and finds Trish instead. Vince puts her in a match with Ivory. If Trish loses she has to join RTC.

The very odd team of Grandmaster Sexay, Raven and Steve Blackman talk about facing the Radicalz tonight and Raven makes fun of the name Radicalz. Grandmaster does a rhyming thing about clocks and eventually gets to bagels and locks. He and Raven leave to reveal that Blackman was doing the splits. He doesn't eat bagels. There's your Steve Blackman trivia for the night.

Raven/Steve Blackman/Grandmaster Sexay vs. Dean Malenko/Eddie Guerrero/Perry Saturn

Raven had Saturn beaten on Heat but Eddie made the save, setting up this match. Raven faces Eddie on Sunday for the European Title. The non-Radicalz get separate entrances to waste some time. We have three matches left and about 25 minutes of time left. Saturn jumps Blackman as he gets in the ring. They have a martial arts contest which is fast paced.

Off to Dean and Grandmaster who dances a lot. Saturn hammers on him a bit but Grandmaster hits a crossbody off the top to bring in Raven. Raven tries to get to Eddie but gets Saturn instead. There's the corner clothesline into the bulldog which Punk uses now. Everything breaks down and Eddie grabs La Majistral for the pin on Raven. Way to make me think Raven can get the pin on Sunday.

Rating: D+. This was just a basic six man tag and I have no idea what the point in the ending was. Raven needed to get a fluke win out there to set up the title match but now the drama is gone. In a really weird booking move the match wouldn't take place though as Matt Hardy would win the title on Thursday and defend it against Christian and Eddie in a triple threat. Raven fought Rhyno for the Hardcore Title instead, and to WWF's credit that's considered one of if not the best traditional hardcore matches ever. I guess they did know what they were doing.

Ivory tells the RTC to chill because she's got it.

Trish Stratus vs. Ivory

Dang Trish looks good in leather pants. Ivory destroys her to start because as JR says “Trish is a Diva, not a grappler.” I'm not sure if that would get him fired or praised today. Trish gets a slam for two. She would get a lot better soon after this. Ivory hits a sitout FU for two. Ivory misses a missile dropkick and Trish hits what is supposed to be a bulldog but it's more like a slap to the back of the head. Either way it's good enough for the pin. JR: “That's the longest Ivory has been on her back in months.” Again too short to grade.

HHH and Austin tell the Canadians not to screw up.

Taker and Kane give the Hardys instructions.

Let's talk about the XFL Championship Game and we even get a highlight package. It was a rout so this isn't really much of a highlight package. The final score was LA 38, SF 6.

Undertaker/Kane/Hardy Boys vs. Edge/Christian/Steve Austin/HHH

The name graphic still says Edge and Christian are tag champions. They would never win the titles again. JR says the main event Sunday is an 8 man match. He's been way off all night and even he was making fun of it in the Radicals match. No glass shatter for Austin. That's very smart because it's what the fans react to.

Big brawl to start and did you expect anything else? Kane is fighting Austin on the floor while Taker is beating up HHH. Edge and Christian put the Hardys down and go out for the save on the more famous partners. Back inside Poetry in Motion takes out both Canadians. Officially Jeff vs. Christian gets us going. Austin is on the floor but is back in now. Taker gets a tag and the fans react to him beating up Steve.

Taker cleans house and it's off to Kane who kills Austin with the top rope clothesline. The Canadians are sent to the floor but HHH breaks up a chokeslam. The fans are WAY into this. The fans are all over Austin. Kane hammers away on Edge but Austin comes in to break the momentum. Off to the arm again but Kane breaks the hold and nails a big boot. Everything breaks down quickly and Kane goes for a tag but is all alone. Oh never mind there's Matt. Taker manages to choke HHH but Edge saves. Austin stuns Matt and HHH steals the pin.

Rating: C+. Eh this was fine. The Hardys vs. E/C didn't happen so I'm not sure why they were thrown in here other than to give us a different match. I would usually complain about how there shouldn't be what would be considered an upset in the main event, but in this case there's a balance to the PPV main event of titles vs. titles so it's ok. This was fine for a TV main event.

Overall Rating: B-. The lack of wrestling got annoying as everything went so fast. I did the go home show before the post Mania PPV in 1998 yesterday and one of the main differences is the focus on the main event here dominating the show. It's around more than anything else in 98 but it's not even close as far as the amount of main event talk and action. Sign of the times I guess.

Here's Backlash if you're interested:

http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthread.php?p=3179447#post3179447

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 30, 2001
Location: Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

Ok so we're past Backlash and we have new tag team champions. The main event tonight is Austin vs. Taker for the world title and that's about it. We're very slowly inching closer to the Alliance but we're about two and a half months away from them setting up shop. We are however only a few weeks away from one of the best TV matches of all time. Let's get to it.

JR and Paul open the show and we're told it's Austin vs. Kane for the title.

Here's Angle who lost to Benoit in an ultimate submission match last night but it was in overtime so I'd be on some complaining. He talks about Benoit showing a side that he's never shown before. Would that be the murdering side? Oh apparently Benoit is a cheater. The murdering would come later. He says he usually takes losing like a man but this is ridiculous.

We get a clip of the ending of regulation last night and Benoit holding on. Benoit tapped just after the bell. If we went to overtime then shouldn't that tap has counted? That....kind of makes sense. The IOC (International Olympic Committee) says that any overtime starts immediately so Angle wins. Angle says he's the best so here's Benoit. Angle cuts him off and says Benoit will never have gold medals.

Benoit says that's true and that Angle is an Olympic gold medalist. However, last night he was tapping out despite all those accomplishments. They get into a brawl and the Canadian hits some Germans on the Americans, including one over the top to the floor. This was more fast paced awesomeness from the two of them. Benoit takes the medals with them which would result in some rather funny moments in the future.

During the break Angle wanted his medals back.

Post break Angle still wants his medals. Cole and Tazz wonder if they should tell him Benoit left the building. Tazz says let him look a bit longer.

European Title: Edge vs. Matt Hardy

Matt grabs a neckbreaker for a fast two but a superplex is countered into a crotching. Out to the floor and Edge rams Matt's head into the railing a few times. Matt rolls through a top rope cross body for two and grabs a DDT to put Edge down. The fans are really into this. The middle rope leg gets no count as Christian pops up on the apron. Jeff takes him down but Edge hits a spear. Jeff knocks Christian into the referee's feet to break up the pin and Edge yells at Christian. Matt hits the Twist of Fate to retain.

Rating: C. It's always worth seeing any combination of these teams working together because the matches were always at least passable. Edge vs. Christian was coming and would really be pushed forward by Edge winning the King of the Ring in a few months. This was just a quick match but the difference between Matt here and Matt at any time past about 2006 is remarkable.

Regal makes Rhyno vs. Jericho for the Hardcore Title. “I hate Jericho so let's give him a chance to become a champion.” Coach, the guy he was telling this to, leaves and Trish comes in. She's told about her non-title match tonight with Chyna. Trish implies he has a small penis. How would she know that?

X-Pac vs. Spike Dudley

More X-Factor vs. Dudleys. HUGE X-Pac Sucks chant to accompany the fast paced start from these two guys. Pac gets a sweet spin kick to take Spike's head off. Off to the chinlock by Pac which is countered into one by Spike which is countered into a belly to back which is countered into a crucifix by Spike for two. The Bronco Buster misses and Spike tries the Dudley Dog which is countered into an X-Factor for the clean pin.

Rating: C+. Fun match and I forgot to mention that Albert tried to interfere but Bubba stopped him and it didn't go anywhere. Pac is FAR more interesting and entertaining when he's against smaller guys and this was no exception. When he can move around like that and isn't a giant killer his matches are a lot more fun.

Stephanie is here and has a big bruise on her face which she attributes to Kane. She's also mad at Test and she goes looking for him.

We get a shot of Kane's arm and that thing is colorful.

Edge yells at Christian when Angle comes in and wants to know where Benoit is. Christian says he interrupted them and Angle says stop being selfish. He accuses them of a Canadian conspiracy and goes off looking again.

The APA says Crash is getting the hang of poker quickly and there's no point to this scene at all.

We get a video of the last man standing match last night which Test helped Shane to win.

Test is on the phone and Stephanie comes up to yell at him. “You're not part of the family.” “THANK GOODNESS.” HHH vs. Test later in what could have been a big PPV draw in 99.

Crash yells about the poker game again and yells about losing the Light Heavyweight Title. Hardcore comes in and sends him away. He demands a tag match tonight and messes up their table.

Hardcore Title: Rhyno vs. Chris Jericho

Regal is here for this also. Rhyno jumps him to start but gets sent to the floor. This goes badly for Jericho as the weapons are brought in. Jericho goes after Regal with a chair and gets taken down by Rhyno again. The Gore into the railing misses though and Chris finds a weight belt. Rhyno sends him into a trashcan wedged between the top and middle rope for two. That looked good. Jericho gets a shot in and stacks up some chairs so he can hit a hurricanrana to put Rhyno down. And here are Edge and Christian for the distraction to set up the Gore so Rhyno can retain.

Rating: C-. The rana was good but this was nothing of note. With only about four minutes to use they couldn't do much though. The match was fine but they had much better matches later in the year during the Alliance era. Nothing special to see here but it was more to set up the post match stuff anyway.

Regal comes in post match and Jericho destroys him with a trashcan.

Here are Vince and Stephanie for the state of the WWF address. He talks about how the Two Man Power Trip is better than everyone else here. They don't live by the people's standards either and are leaders, not followers. As good as their accomplishment last night was though, there were two blemishes at Backlash. One was Shane beating Test so tonight it's Test vs. HHH. The other was Kane kicking Stephanie in the face last night. The fans cheer so Vince yells.

Now it's Steph's turn to talk and she introduces the Two Man Power Trip. Before they can talk though, here's Linda in WWF New York. She brings up the divorce and says her attorneys are liking what they're seeing. However, if Vince agrees to certain things she'll put them on hold. First of all, Kane can't compete tonight due to his arm and Taker needs to take his place. That's it for now and Austin FREAKS.

After a break Austin basically says figure this out or else to Vince.

APA vs. Hollies

It's a big brawl to the shock of no one paying attention. Bradshaw vs. Hardcore to start with the future WWE Champion in control. Hardcore manages to send him to the floor and that gets him nowhere. Farrooq gets the stairs and they go upside Hardcore's head as Crash accidentally has the referee. They throw him into the crowd and Bradshaw keeps up the dominance. Crash tries to help his cousin and that gets him nowhere. Crash is supposed to be a bit drunk here. Hardcore keeps fighting and escapes the Dominator but Crash accidentally takes him out with a missile dropkick and the Clothesline ends Hardocore.

Rating: D. Just a comedy match for the most part and not a particularly funny one. This is something you never see anymore: a random match on a story made earlier on in the night. Anymore you would expect a swerve or a run-in here because that's what you've been taught to expect. Not much of a match but Crash was always good for a chuckle.

Hardcore beats up Crash post match.

Vince gives HHH a pep talk.

Taker says Austin/HHH had a gameplan last night and it worked, but they know they took a bunch of stuff to beat a one armed man.

Test vs. HHH

Non-title match. Feeling out process to start with Test using power to send HHH to the floor. And never mind as HHH grabs a chair to cave in Test's head after about 45 seconds.

He beats up Test for awhile using various metal/steel objects and Test is out cold. HHH powerbombs him through the announce table and Test is dead. Kane comes out for the save and chases HHH to the back.

Vince applauds HHH for what he did but is worried about Kane. HHH is like BRING HIM ON, threatening him before the night ends. Vince smiles.

Paul thinks the table being destroyed is cool.

Rock will be on the Tonight Show tomorrow and we get a video of him at the Mummy Returns premiere. Why was he gone three months for a tiny part?

Trish Stratus vs. Chyna

If this were like 4 years later, it could have been a featured PPV match. These two kind of missed in the timeline though. Trish is getting a lot of her signature looks and styles down but is wearing shorts instead of the long pants. Heyman does the sponsor ad for the Judgment Day PPV which would be Chyna's last WWF match. Trish tries a charge and literally bounces off Chyna. This is domination even though Chyna doesn't want to hurt her. Military press puts Trish down as does a jackknife, good for the pin. One of the most dominant squashes I've ever seen.

Chyna grabs the mic and says she doesn't have much competition so she's going to spank her opponents instead of pinning them. Cue Lita to a big old pop. She challenges Chyna and this actually approaches epic. Chyna squashed her because that's all she did to the other Divas. The spanking thing was supposed to be....well I'm not sure what it was supposed to be. It was Chyna's last American match for about 10 years.

WWF World Title: Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker

Time for the match with some of the worst main event chemistry you'll ever see. And there's no Austin. He and HHH are in the back destroying Kane. Taker and Austin fight into the arena as the other two are down in the back. Austin still has his shirt on and we're ready to go. A big boot gets two and the fans are WAY into this. A minute in HHH is in with the hammer and it's thrown out. They hammer him down and Kane comes out for an attempted save. That goes as well as you would expect and they crush his arm to end the show. They also Pillmanize it. JR's freaking out about how this has to stop ends the show.

Overall Rating: C. Not a great show and the Austin/HHH are evil stuff is getting a bit old. Taker/Kane are doing their thing but it's not working for the most part anymore. It just isn't interesting but the fans are getting into it so I guess that's the point. Things around this point kind of slowed and while it's not a bad show, it was starting to need a shot in the arm and that's becoming obvious.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: May 7, 2001
Location: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York
Attendance: 14,509
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

We're less than two weeks from Judgment Day so expect more Austin/HHH vs. Brothers stuff for this show. Looking at the card we've got a fourway, a cage match, a 3 on 3 tables match and a six man. Did Russo get hired and I wasn't paying attention? Anyway at least the card isn't going to get boring. Let's get to it.

The opening video is about the tag team feud with the Brothers being mauled but then Taker coming out to beat up Austin on Smackdown. Austin was thrown through a window and got glass in his eyes but Taker was driving the ambulance. Oh and Vince got beaten down. Austin came back later but Taker held him off with a chain.

Vince has ordered a 24 hour cooling off period for Taker and Austin.

Regal vs. Jericho in a cage tonight.

Here's Mick Foley to open the show in his hometown. He has his new book with him which goes on sale tomorrow. That's a good book actually. He says he's not Commissioner anymore but his job now is to go around the world and make personal appearances. So why not make one right here in Long Island, New York? He also has time to watch TV and he caught Smackdown. Foley cheered Taker when Austin got beaten up and Foley knows what it's like to be made famous by Undertaker. He thinks Austin will be made more famous at the PPV.

Also Austin, being made famous isn't all bad. It made him famous enough to write a book, which he just has to have a copy of. It's on sale tomorrow and would make a perfect Mother's Day gift. We cut to Vince in the back arriving with Stephanie where (Steve) Regal tells them that Foley is in the ring. Foley makes fun of Regal in general as the McMahons are on their way. After Foley stalls for a bit because Vince takes longer to get there than usual, here he is.

Vince says Foley reminds him of an unwanted house guest because no one knows when he's going to show up and he'll stay way too long. He talks about how since Foley was fired, Vince and Austin have hooked up. Also Rock is suspended. That's one of the first mentions of Rock in about a month. HHH is sick tonight and likely won't be here. Vince throws Foley out with threats of violence.

Actually never mind as Vince says he ran into someone on his way here that can get rid of Foley: it's Rikishi, returning from an injury from just before Mania. Scratch that as he had been on Smackdown the previous week. Foley talks about how on Smackdown, Rikishi almost got his head taken off but the McMahons were nowhere to be seen. Stephanie tries to be all tough (and gets called a backdoor **** by someone in the crowd) and orders a Stinkface. The fat man hasn't moved until Stephanie slaps his glasses off. Regal threatens to beat some sense into him and gets kicked in the head. Vince/Stephanie run.

Foley says cut his music and play Rikishi's old music because Long Island wants to see him dance. I'd love it if he said “uh....no I don't want to dance. I want to go to a buffet.” Foley helps out with it since it's been awhile. Ok Foley dancing is pretty funny stuff. I used to know a girl that had a crush on Rikishi. That girl needed help. And now Rikishi is stripping. This is disturbing on so many levels. Since this hasn't gone on long enough, here's Vince again to say the cops are coming for Foley and Rikishi gets Austin tonight, non-title. Total time of this opening segment: 20:36. And people complain about the segments today.

During the break Foley was thrown out.

Edge and Christian are making fun of Eddie Guerrero for some reason when Kurt comes up to apologize for last week. Kurt asks them to keep an eye out for Benoit while he's in the ring, wanting them to hold him down if they see him. They're tired of hearing him talk about the medals.

Bradshaw vs. Kurt Angle

Before the match starts we get a clip from Insurrextion from England where Test and Bradshaw combined to beat up Big Show. They start fast with Bradshaw hitting a big boot and belly to back suplex to put Kurt down. The fans are all over Kurt here. Kurt grabs a belly to belly and then goes after the knee to take over. He goes up, possibly for the moonsault but gets crotched.

He tries to jump off but jumps into a fallaway slam but still no cover. There's an ankle lock out of nowhere but Bradshaw makes the rope. Here's Benoit's music and he's at WWF New York. He offers to pay for his meal with the medals and the distraction lets Bradshaw hit the Clothesline to put Angle on the floor. Angle runs away to get to Benoit and it's a countout win. Not long enough to rate but it was fine although just there for the ending.

Angle is already in the parking lot and tries to find his car but steals someone else's instead.

Earlier today the Hardys yelled at Eddie about not trusting him but needing to be in the match with him anyway. I wonder if they'll exchange dealer numbers on the apron. Eddie takes offense to this but says he'll prove his loyalty in the ring.

Edge/Christian/Rhyno vs. Hardy Boys/Eddie Guerrero

The referee makes the teams switch corners for some reason. Christian vs. Matt to start and sweet merciful goodness here are two paths that have gone in different directions. Jeff comes in with no tag and cleans house on the Canadians but Christian grabs a backbreaker to bring in Rhyno. Things break down and Matt's Twist of Fate is broken up by an Unprettier to Jeff. Jeff takes Edge down and Eddie gets the tag. He cleans house but goes to the floor. Edge sets for something on Jeff but Lita takes him down with a rana. Rhyno sets to Gore her but Eddie takes the bullet and gets pinned because of it. Too short to grade but this was just ok.

HHH and Stephanie were on Heat last night and did nothing of note it seems.

Light Heavyweight Title: Jerry Lynn vs. Grandmaster Sexay vs. Taka Michinoku vs. Crash Holly

Lynn is the champion. Everything kind of goes nuts to start as this title is sort of an afterthought in the company's history. The Cruiserweight title would come in to replace it soon enough though which would help a lot. Crash shoves Grandmaster so Grandmaster kicks him in the face. Michinoku Driver gets two and it's Crash vs. Lynn in the ring. A top rope bulldog by Crash gets two and Grandmaster is back in now. Top rope legdrop gets two as we're in full on “hit a big move, get it broken up, repeat sequence. And then Lynn hits a DDT on Sexay for the fast pin. This was barely two and a half minutes.

Taker isn't happy with being barred from the arena tonight. He's not in the arena tonight and says Austin has to live with the consequences of the decisions he's made. Taker says Austin never knows who is waiting on him in the shadows. At Judgment Day, he's coming for the title and is going to skin the rattlesnake.

Jericho says this thing with Regal feels a lot longer than two months. Tonight it's God Save Regal, not God Save the Queen.

Regal talks about how the British are barbaric.

Chris Jericho vs. William Regal

We're in a cage here. The fans are all behind Jericho as is expected. Regal dives for the door quickly but the Canadian makes the stop. Jericho hits a springboard dropkick to send Regal into the cage. He goes up but Regal makes the stop this time and rams the Canadian into the cage wall over and over. Regal has the match totally won but stops and slams the door so he can beat on Regal some more.

Jericho can't get anything going and the xenophobic crowd loudly boos the British dude. Some spots are called and Jericho's face is rubbed into the cage. Chris goes up but is pulled down again quickly. He gets his real comeback going and sends Regal into the cage time after time. The Lionsault misses and Willy makes a run up the cage. Jericho pulls him down and climbs as well but Regal goes for the door. With Jericho halfway over the cage he slams the door on Regal's head with kind of a dropkick and hits the floor to win.

Rating: C+. I couldn't get into this but it was pretty good. It's your standard cage match from the modern era which means it was all about escaping rather than the violence or one person dominating the other. At least this was about escape rather than just a win though. Good match but it never really got going with drama or anything like that. Having about 8 minutes didn't help things either.

Marilyn Manson music video about the main event feud.

Austin rants about Taker a bit, saying that Taker is afraid.

Lita vs. Molly Holly

Chyna is on commentary. Molly really did look good. Chyna plays up the spanking thing which never went anywhere. Molly uses some speed of her own because she can actually keep up with Lita in that area. She goes up and channels her inner Ric Flair by getting slammed off. Moonsault hits and we're done in maybe 80 seconds.

Lita spanks Chyna post match.

The Dudleys are bringing their own table for the match later.

Vince is talking to Debra in the back and says he enjoyed her slapping Taker on Smackdown. He asks her to get him a cup of coffee and he goes to get it instead. Uh...ok?

Dudley Boys vs. X-Factor

Three on three table match but it's one table to win it. Spike is launched onto Pac and Credible in a human torpedo spot. They have to tag here which is rather stupid but it's a thing for these kind of matches for some reason. Pac kicks Bubba's head off but Bubba cleans house anyway. Albert comes in and runs over various people but the Bronco Buster misses Bubba. This has broken down fast and What's Up hits Pac.

The bigger Dudleys pull out another table but Albert hits a bicycle kick to split it in half. Spike hammers on him but gets kicked down as well. Albert sets up a table on the floor but Raven comes out with a kendo stick shot for no apparent reason. Spike grabs the Dudley Dog to put Albert through the table for the win.

Rating: C. This got a lot better once they dropped the tagging stuff and let them have a brawl. Albert got pushed soon after this actually, winning an IC Title for a month or so. Spike getting the win here was a nice touch but I don't remember the Raven thing going anywhere at all. This was fine for what it was I guess.

Benoit is here with about half an hour to go in the show.

Rikishi says someone is getting a Stinkface.

Angle arrives at WWF New York but is told Benoit left awhile ago. Benoit's music comes on and Angle sees Benoit in the arena on the big screen. Benoit says Angle looks naked without his medals but he's grown attached to them. He puts them back on and Angle is ticked. Kurt gets his shot to get them back at Judgment Day. Angle accepts and Benoit says he's going to keep the medals in a safe place. The medals go down Benoit's pants.

Edge and Christian come up to Benoit in the back and want the medals back, either the easy way or the hard way. You don't have to ask Benoit to fight twice and a brawl breaks out. Jericho comes in for the save.

Foley is back with a front row ticket and some books to give away. Good to see a front row seat was available until about 15 minutes left in the broadcast.

Video on Rock's new movie Mummy Returns which set up a prequel that he was in for more than five minutes. He was on the Tonight Show to promote it.

Rikishi vs. Steve Austin

Only in wrestling could about six months pass and someone go from an attempted murder to being the good guy when feuding with the same guy. I wonder if they'll bring that up. Austin pounds away but gets caught in a side slam and a suplex. Back in and Austin pounds him down in the corner but gets caught in Stinkface position. Vince saves, only to get caught in the little Samoans.

Austin takes over for a bit and avoids a Rikishi legdrop. He hammers away even more and Rikishi is in trouble. Scratch that as he comes back and pounds Austin down in the corner. They're really not going huge on their movesets here. Austin tries a chair but gets legdropped onto it. Samoan Drop puts Austin down and Vince takes a superkick. Rikishi drops down on Austin for two and Stephanie comes in. Austin tries to save her but sends Rikishi into her like a splash. Not that it matters though as a Stunner gets the pin.

Rating: D. This was really boring. They did nothing but punch each other for the most part which doesn't make for an interesting match. This was just whatever and it never got going at all. Rikishi isn't a guy that works well with Austin because of his size and their matches never were any good. He would be gone after the PPV though due to a shoulder injury and would be out until December.

Austin goes for a chair but Foley makes the save. Austin beats him down but Rikishi gets his own chair to make Austin run. A Stinkface to Stephanie ends the show.

Overall Rating: C-. Well they tries here but it didn't click for the most part. The matches being really short for the most part didn't ehlp things and with the big deal being Rikishi, that's not saying much. His size really hurt things for him as he couldn't do much and he was a comedy guy at the end of the day. Without three of the four main guys in the main event feud, this was a lot of talking about the big stuff and that's about it, which doesn't make for a very entertaining show.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: May 14, 2001
Location: US Bank Arena, Cincinnati, Ohio
Attendance: 12,022
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

We're just one week away from the big tag match but first we have one more show to get through. It's the go home show for Judgment Day which is pretty much the end of the Two Man Power Trip vs. the Brothers so we're going to be through that. There isn't much else here to talk about so let's get to it.

We open with a video from Smackdown of Taker waiting on Austin all night, including chilling in his locker room and stealing the vest. This includes a clip of Vince hitting Taker in the back with a chair that was in the Smackdown intro for awhile. Kane made his return to make the save.

Here's Austin to open the show and he gets a solid reaction. They just didn't want to boo him. Here's the Game as well. Steph gives her husband a big introduction and isn't quite that big herself yet. HHH says Kane should have just stayed away, but Kane couldn't just stay away. For some reason, HHH offers Kane an IC Title match at the PPV in a chain match. HHH wants Kane here now but it's Austin's turn to talk.

He says he'll keep the title and he doesn't need to jump people from behind like Taker did to him. Austin demands more respect. For some reason, he wants to defend the tag titles against the Brothers. What's up with the brave heels tonight? Austin says the tall ones won't do it because they can't and that draws out Taker.

Taker doesn't approve of being called a coward and says he's looking for someone brave enough to fight him. On behalf of Kane, Taker accepts HHH's challenge which Kane would win. The tag title match is on too. Taker says that Austin said he doesn't like traps. That means he's not going to like this then and cue Kane's fire. Kane pops up out of nowhere and they chase off the champs.

Kurt comes in to see Regal and it's Kurt vs. Rikishi tonight. If Kurt wins, he gets to pick the kind of match he and Benoit have on Sunday.

Kurt Angle vs. Rikishi

Kurt tries to get behind him and suplex Rikishi and after about two seconds he goes over and hammers away instead. A clothesline puts Angle on the floor and we slug it out on the outside for a bit. Kurt avoids a drop and tries to hammer away but Rikishi is too big. They go into the corner and Rikishi loads up the Stinkface but here's Regal for the DQ. Angle hits the Slam post match. Regal would beat Rikishi on Sunday where Rikishi would hurt I believe his shoulder and would be out until December. This match was nothing and pretty short.

There are cops on the way to find Taker.

Crash comes up to talk to Molly and he doesn't like her talking to Spike. These two aren't good talkers at all. Crash has a Hardcore Title match tonight. He's only a 12 time champion here and says you can't trust a Dudley.

Malenko wants to know what's up with Eddie and Lita/Matt/Jeff. Saturn says Eddie is either with them or against them in the tag match tonight.

Here's Trish who has music now. She says Vince won't approve of this. The fans want to see more of her. Maybe they'd like to see more of all the Divas. There's a new Diva video and here's a clip of it. Lita and Trish in bikinis is never a bad thing.

The cops are talking to Taker in the locker room. The cop comes out and Taker bolts out the door. After a break the cop says Taker's wife had a car accident and Taker is being escorted there. And you know that no one has ever lied about something like that in wrestling.

Hardy Boys vs. Perry Saturn/Dean Malenko

Lita is getting ready for a match later so the Hardys are on their own. Jeff and Perry start us off. Whisper in the Wind gets two and it's off to Dean who cheats a bit. Dean works on the leg for a bit as JR gets the upcoming show announcements in. Everything breaks down and Perry has a chair from somewhere. Eddie steals it from him and the Twist of Fate ends Saturn. This was even shorter than the other match.

Post match Eddie clocks Saturn with the chair and officially turns face. Eddie would be gone from the company by the end of the month and wouldn't be back for almost a year due to going to rehab and then getting released for a drunk driving arrest.

Austin talks to the cop and asks how Taker took the news. He's a bit too happy about Taker being gone.

Hardcore Title: Crash vs. Rhyno

Crash speeds things up to start and hits a dive on the floor for two. A top rope trashcan lid shot to the head gets two. Rhyno takes over with a big shot and covers but Spike pops up out of nowhere to put Crash's foot on the rope. Rhyno gets up and Gores Crash for the quick pin anyway. Crash beats up Spike post match. That was kind of odd.

Kane arrives in gear and Regal says it's a handicap main event. If Kane doesn't fight, both he and Taker are fired.

Edge/Christian vs. Chris Benoit/Chris Jericho

Benoit still has Angle's medals. Jericho vs. Christian to start but it's off to the Canadian quickly. Oh wait that needs some more doesn't it? It's Benoit who beats on Christian for awhile, mainly with chops. Edge comes in and walks into a German from The Canadian. Edge breaks up a Crossface attempt and Christian takes over for a bit. The reverse DDT is countered into another Crossface attempt and another Edge save. I know he carried the team for awhile but this is ridiculous.

Off to Edge legally and they chop it out for a bit. The only one of these four that is still active comes in and chokes away. Edge and Christian didn't really have any big kind of offensive repertoire at this point so them winning in a way other than cheating or a rollup or the occasional spear was rare. Benoit dives for a tag but Christian makes another save.

Benoit finally gets a hot tag a few seconds later and things speed up a lot. Jericho hooks the Walls on Edge but now Christian makes the save. It's Conchairto time but they miss, sending the chairs together. Benoit dropkicks the chairs into their faces and here's Angle to steal his medals back. Jericho hits a Lionsault on Edge for the pin.

Rating: C. Not bad here and it's really a tuneup for Benoit/Jericho taking the tag titles next Monday. They would be in a tag team turmoil match on Sunday to get the shot. Edge and Christian were on their final legs as a team here because they've outgrown the division and have nothing left to prove. It would take Christian years to get over as a singles guy though.

Angle celebrates on the ramp with his medals but Benoit says he hopes Angle finds them sweet, because they're made of candy. He pulls the real medals out of his tights and says come get them on Sunday.

Post break Angle is still ticked and doesn't know what he's going to pick for the stipulations on Sunday.

Jericho talks about how he and Benoit beat Edge and Christian but the evil Canadians jump him and give him a Conchairto.

Here's Regal who makes it a handicap match later tonight. Didn't he already do that? Also the chain match is confirmed. Regal vs. Rikishi on Sunday as well. He gets ready to leave and here's....Grandmaster Sexay? He says Regal needs to chill because Rikishi is cool now. Sexay is very annoying. Regal says he has no idea what Sexay just said and I'm not sure I did either. Sexay wants Regal to dance. He brings in four decent looking girls from ringside to dance with them. The look on Regal's face is hysterical. Sexay suggests Regal doesn't like women so Sexay dances with the girls. Regal finally beats him and Rikishi doesn't save.

Debra is with Austin and is sad about Taker's wife's car crash. Austin says it won't ever happen to her.

We recap the Canadian tag match and Jericho taking the Concharito.

I don't know why or how, but that transitions into Rock on NBC Dateline.

Lita/Chyna vs. Molly Holly/Ivory

I don't get that transition either. Ivory is the only heel in this match. Ivory vs. Lita to start us off. Lita does fine for a bit but Chyna won't tag in. Molly comes in and Lita is kind of in a handicap match here. Molly hits the Molly Go Round but Chyna makes the save. A sloppy Twist of Fate sets up the moonsault for the pin on Molly. More or less a handicap squash.

Austin comes in to see Regal to make sure he understands the main event. He asks Regal if he thinks it's fair to Kane. Austin demands that it be for the tag titles. Ok then.

Lita says she doesn't know what Chyna was doing out there but she'll get her Sunday. Chyna pops up to say that Lita needed to prove something to her. This didn't mean anything as Chyna destroyed her in like 5 minutes Sunday and wouldn't be seen again. She also says don't trust Eddie.

We get a clip from earlier with Taker bolting from the arena.

The Austin racecar is at WWF New York. The driver is there too and doesn't have much to say.

Stephanie talks to HHH who has a racecar debuting soon. She can't get excited about it because she can't stop thinking about the car wreck. HHH and Austin talk about how bad Taker's wife might be after the wreck.

APA/Test vs. Big Show/Bull Buchanan/Goodfather

Show got a Stinkface on Smackdown at Test's instruction so there's your backstory. The good guys beat down Big Show before the RTC gets here. Oh never mind they're here now. After a brawl we start with Goodfather vs. Faarooq but it's off to Buchanan quickly. Big Show vs. Test at the PPV. Bradshaw comes in for a bad swinging neckbreaker. This is a rather sloppy match. Lukewarm tag brings in Test who hits a full nelson slam on Goodfather. Big Show comes in and botches a low bridge spot to send himself to the floor. Not that it matters as he hits Test with the steps and Buchanan steals the pin. Another short match.

Kane says this is for Sarah and Taker. He has a chain with them and says it's for Austin and HHH.

Austin says he feels no remorse.

Tag Titles: Kane vs. Steve Austin/HHH

Kane has the chain with him. He also has a broken arm. They head to the floor quickly and Austin starts in on the arm. It doesn't look like the champions have to tag. A double clothesline puts the champs down and Austin takes a powerslam. There's a chokeslam but HHH jumps off the top with a chain shot and it gets thrown out.

Rating: C. No idea what to call this otherwise as it's barely over three minutes long. The idea here was to get the guys out there and set up the post match beatdown which is kind of pointless since Kane already has a broken arm in the first place but whatever. Either way, not much of a match here but it could have been a lot worse which is the bright spot I guess.

Austin and HHH beat down Kane and Austin says Taker's wife will be fine. I think the accident was faked by them to beat down Kane.

Overall Rating: B-. This was a pretty weak show but it was a very solid go home show for the PPV. Everything got at least some time which is the right idea for a show such as this. The PPV wound up pretty decent if I remember correctly. We're still a few months away from entering the Alliance Era so we have that on the horizon. Anyway, good go home show here.

Here's Judgment Day if you're interested:

http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthread.php?p=2877522#post2877522

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: May 21, 2001
Location: Compaq Center, San Jose, California
Commentators: Jim Ross, Paul Heyman

We have arrived. This is the show with probably the most famous and best TV tag match in company history if not wrestling history. It's Austin/HHH vs. Benoit/Jericho in a tag title match. The rest of the show doesn't matter but last night was Judgment Day and HHH lost the IC Title while Austin is still world champion. Let's get to it.

Austin is here immediately to open the show. He says he's still the champion no matter how much the people hate him. Austin represents all of them and even though he's a fighting champion, Undertaker doesn't get a rematch. There's no one in the WWF that can beat him, and here's Jericho. He asks if Austin would shut up and asks him why he sold his soul to Vince. He sold his soul and is as big a **** as Stephanie. The challenge for later on is made (Benoit/Jericho won a match last night to determine the #1 contenders) and it's a big brawl with the partners coming in as well.

After a break the Two Man Power Trip (which has three people in it) rant a lot with HHH being the main hot head.

Angle gets here with his medals again. He shows them off to various people because there's a ceremony later. Oh it's this show. Nice.

Hardcore Title: Big Show vs. Rhyno

This is a more even match than it sounds. Rhyno gets weapons out but gets beaten down quickly. The size difference here is massive. Show suplexes him on the ramp but misses a charge into the post. Here are the weapon shots as Rhyno works over the arm. Getting rid of the chokeslam makes sense. Rhyno sets for the Gore but it hits a chair. Show hits something like a Van Daminator (minus the jump) and a chokeslam onto said can gives Show the title.

Rating: C-. This could only be so good. The match lasted about 4 minutes so it's not like this was supposed to be a classic or anything. Show shrugged off the arm work which was kind of stupid and made Rhyno look weak, but the reign wound up being pointless as Jericho would win it the next week but lose it back to Rhyno the same night. Go figure.

Angle shows the medals to someone else.

Terri comes in to hit on the APA and pours beer on her top to mess with them. They're facing the Radicalz next. The Radicalz jump the alcoholics.

Austin can't find Debra.

Spike and Molly talk about their families fighting. Are they Romeo and Juliet? He gives her some Dudley Glasses as a good luck gift.

Perry Saturn/Dean Malenko vs. APA

Farrooq beats on Dean to start us off. The beating they took doesn't seem to really be hurting them that much so far. The double neckbreaker gets two on Malenko as this has been one sided so far. Suplex gets two for the future JBL. The heels have to cheat and a superkick puts Bradshaw down for two. Off to Farrooq who can't get the Dominator on Saturn so Perry hooks a suplex.

Farrooq takes a quick beating but snaps off a powerslam to set up the double tag. Bradshaw cleans house so Terri flashes him....to no effect at all. Saturn takes a big beating with a ton of power moves, getting pinned by a pair of double powerbombs. This would be the start of the Saturn is loopy angle.

Rating: D+. This was pretty stupid. The pre-match beatdown didn't mean anything and neither did the flashing. Saturn was getting too popular or something so they decided to give him the upcoming gimmick where he was nuts and wanted to date a mop. I can't stand the idiocy of this company at times.

Regal is talking to someone when Austin comes up looking for Debra. Regal says she might have been attacked by Taker.

The soon to be face Edge and Christian decline to be in on Kurt's gold medal ceremony.

European Title: Matt Hardy vs. X-Pac

Fast paced feeling out process to start with no one being able to take over so far. The fans all chant for Lita as this is still fast paced. Justin Credible distracts Matt so Pac can take over and let the cheating begin. JR and Paul argue over who “they” are (as in they call Justin the one man crime spree) as Pac/Credible crotch Matt on the post. Bronco Buster is still annoying. They slug it out and Matt blocks the X-Factor into a slingshot.

Pac grabs a backslide for two with the feet on the ropes. Other than a chinlock they've been going strong for like 5 minutes. Out to the floor where Jeff interferes and it turns into a big brawl. Lita tries to jump Pac which results in her getting flipped. Here's Eddie for the save and he throws Pac into the Twist of Fate for the pin as Matt retains.

Rating: B-. For a six minute match, this was pretty awesome. They didn't stop moving the entire time and it made the match a lot better. Pac can go when he's in there with a smaller guy like Hardy and this is what you get out of it. As long as he's not around big guys and overcoming the odds and making said big guy look like an idiot, this was fine.

Saturn is still out of it.

Angle is very happy looking as he comes to the ring. After a break here's the medal celebration, complete with an Olympic style three place podium. Kurt reads from a scroll about what a hero is because San Jose is stupid. It's pretty epic with fireworks and Heyman saying John Wayne wishes he could be the American that Angle is. Imagine how JR takes that.

This brings out Shane McMahon to I believe new music which is still awesome. I know he didn't have it at Mania. He talks about WCW which is starting soon. Shane goes through the letters WCW, starting with W, which stands for World. We live in the world on the planet Earth. There are other planets like Mars, Jupiter, Pluto, and they all have moons. Kurt: “What are you talking about?”

Shane goes on to talk about the letter C, which stands for championship, which Kurt currently doesn't have. It can also stand for crayon, coyote and for cookie, which is good enough for me. Kurt: “WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” (According to Eric Bischoff, it stood for commitment but continuity didn't mean anything in WCW). The final W is for wrestling which he says as he walks up the podium. Angle runs up and hits a big old Angle Slam and the ankle lock to leave Shane laying. This was odd as Shane had no real reason to come out here. It set up a great brawl at KOTR though so no complaints there.

Debra is in the back and is fine. Austin comes in and she says she was just gone getting coffee. She apologizes and Austin says he was worried about her. He talks about Regal thinking it might have been Taker and here is that Taker, getting right in Debra's face. Taker says it's not over, which it more or less was. He says it's personal and to keep his family out of it. Austin isn't that much shorter than Taker. Taker leaves and Austin says he didn't fight because Debra was there. Austin came off looking like a face here while Taker looked like a heel.

Shane is escorted out. And I'm sure we won't see him all night long right?

Dudley Boys vs. Hollies

Molly isn't tall enough to be the Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress and I don't know of any Bus Stops in Dudleyville. That's all the Hollies songs I know so no more references. Big brawl to start and Hardcore is sent outside so double teaming ensues. Bubba vs. Crash officially gets us going. Off to Bob vs. D-Von as the fans want tables. Spike and Molly are near each other on the floor which distracts D-Von, giving the Hollies the advantage.

Heyman is making Jewish references which are probably pushing the limits a bit too far. Suplex gets two. Hardcore's dropkick is still sweet to watch. Crash gets a DDT for two. Bubba gets the hot tag and there's What's Up to Bob. It's Table Time and JR asks why it's always D-Von that has to get the tables. Spike tries to convince Bubba not to use it but Crash hits a baseball slide to send it into their faces. Crash tries to use the bell but Molly breaks that up. The bell winds up in the ring and upside D-Von's head for the pin.

Rating: C-. The Hollies were an interesting team that were actually former tag champions, having a totally forgotten two week reign back in 1999. That being said, they were interesting in that they were rarely put into storylines other than hardcore matches or against each other but they were a fairly decent tag team. Fun little match here with a nice surprise at the end, which is usually the best part of a match.

Vince gives Kurt an IC Title shot against Kane. Kurt isn't sure if that's a reward. Vince wanted Kurt to hurt Shane even worse.

The more famous Dudleys yell at Spike about Molly. They declare that Molly is going through a table.

Eddie comes in to check on Matt before he and Jeff team up against Edge and Christian.

HHH reminds Austin that they're a team.

Steven Richards is at WWF New York and announces that.....well I'm not sure as Heyman yells that NO ONE CARES and to go tell someone who cares. I don't know if it was his voice or what but that cracked me up.

Eddie Guerrero/Jeff Hardy vs. Edge/Christian

Eddie vs. Edge starts us off and this is a pretty stacked tag match. Jeff speeds things up but Christian cheats like a good heel. He comes in legally now and gets a powerslam for two. Heyman shows what an analyst is supposed to do by asking the question of who would make a better partner for Eddie: Jeff or Matt.

See, that simple question is pertinent to the match and angle at hand, gets JR into the conversation, and isn't something that there's a clear cut answer to. Today you would hear about how one isn't in the Fave Five and something about how Cole is going to do this or that and how something is trending on Twitter or talking about the main event. In about 4 seconds, Heyman has probably played more attention to a match than Cole has in a year.

Anyway, Jeff comes in with a jawbreaker to put Edge down and we get a double tag. Eddie snaps off a gorgeous headscissors and the non-Canadians beat Christian down in the corner. There's Poetry in Motion but Eddie takes a spear and everything breaks down. Eddie might have pushed Jeff out of the way for it. Lita crotches Edge on the post and Eddie gets a sunset bomb on Christian for the pin.

Rating: C. Pretty nice fast paced tag match here. Unfortunately the Eddie and Hardys angle never got any resolution as Eddie would be sent to rehab later this month and would be released in November. After next week, he wouldn't wrestle on Raw until April of 2002. Shame too because the angle was pretty intriguing.

Intercontinental Title: Kane vs. Kurt Angle

Kane still has a bad wing. He takes over anyway with a powerslam early on. Kurt avoids a chokeslam and goes after the arm. A cross armbreaker doesn't work that well so Kane gets Kurt on the mat and pounds away. The arm work continues for awhile until Kane fires back with a side slam and the clothesline. A big boot and another clothesline put Angle on the floor and here's Shane for the return attack. He throws Kurt back in for a chokeslam to keep the title on Kane.

Rating: D. Pretty meh match here but it wasn't terrible I guess. These two didn't have a particularly good match when they wrestled at Mania either so maybe they just don't click well. They had six minutes or so and it went by fast, but everyone was waiting on Shane to return and attack, so it was a pretty moot point anyway.

The Chrises say remember where we came from to get here.

Tag Titles: Steve Austin/HHH vs. Chris Benoit/Chris Jericho

Here we go. Austin vs. Jericho gets us going and one of the belts is laying in the ring. Austin takes over with pounding boots but Jericho snaps off a cross body for two. A top rope elbow to the head scores for Jericho and he works on Austin's arm. HHH comes in and the Canadians take over. Benoit chops Austin HARD and then hits a snap suplex for no cover. There's a superplex for two as HHH saves.

Jericho comes in to even things out but it lets the champions take over. Benoit is like screw that and pounds them back, hooking the Crossface on Austin. HHH comes in with a big chair shot to break it up but Benoit kicks out to a big pop. Benoit goes into the steps for no count as he kicks out before the one. Austin pounds away on him and it's off to HHH who hooks a cheating abdominal stretch.

Make that a sleeper as Benoit is in big trouble. Benoit manages to fire off a suplex to put both guys down and an enziguri is good enough for the hot tag to Jericho....but the referee doesn't see it. The fans don't like that at all. Jericho goes off with Austin on the floor as HHH hits the Pedigree. There's no referee though so Jericho goes up and takes HHH's head off with a missile dropkick.

There's your hot tag to Jericho and he takes on the now legal Austin and HHH at the same time. Thesz Press is countered into a spinebuster and then the Walls but HHH makes the save. That right there, that save, resulted in HHH tearing his quad off the bone and would put him out of action until January of 2002. You could see HHH's leg just stop moving. His leg is dead weight now.

HHH is like screw this potentially career ending injury and goes to set up the announce table. HHH loads up the Pedigree but Jericho counters into the Walls on the table, and remember that HHH has a torn muscle. FREAKING OW MAN!!! Benoit hits the swan dive on Austin but there's no referee. Stunner to Benoit gets two as Jericho pulls the referee out. Lionsault gets knees and HHH finds the sledgehammer from somewhere. The second Lionsault hits but the hammer hits Austin and Jericho gets the pin and the titles as the place erupts!

Rating: A+. WOW this match holds up really well. After Jericho gets that hot tag, this is full speed ahead the rest of the way. The energy in this is great as they did everything they could to keep the Canadians down but in the end, HHH messes up to end it. Notice one very important thing here: Jericho had Austin (presumably) beat with the Lionsault, so it's not like they got dominated the entire time and won on a mistake by the other team. That's huge and it makes Benoit/Jericho look far stronger as the new champions.

Overall Rating: A. This is a great show overall with some very fun stuff throughout the night. Everything clicks and for a TV show, that's almost unheard of. When you get a classic main event, you're guaranteed a good show but a great show surrounding it makes this one of the best Raws I can remember in a very long time. Check this show out as it's awesome stuff.