As mentioned in the last post, I was asked to attend last weekend’s Raw house show at Rod Laver Arena. Having never actually been to a live sporting event in my life, I took the opportunity in a heartbeat. It was a capacity crowd, apparently a record with 15,560 fans turning out to see some of Raw’s biggest superstars in action. The event did get under way a little late, but as previously mentioned, some of the backstage planning stuff was a little haphazard. Running long in the interviews meant I missed out on the opportunity to meet some of the superstars and get stuff signed, but eh, I’ll live.
First match was William Regal vs. Cory Rhodes. Despite being the opening match, it was quite a bit better than some that followed. Rhodes was the quick and agile compared to the older Regal, but also had the crowd behind him. There were some amusing moments to the match, particularly when the crowd began to accuse Regal of being a wanker, to which he replied “I can’t possibly be a wanker - I’m not Australian”, which garnered him a lot of heat. Rhodes won the match via pinfall after a DDT.
Next match was Brian Kendrick vs. Snitzky, which was a pretty terrible mismatch. Snitzky won by a pump handle slam followed by a pinfall.
An angle followed with Jillian Hall coming to the ring to sing some Kylie Minogue tracks before being insulted by Santino Marella, who also treated the crowd to his own terrible brand of singing before Jim “Hacksaw” Duggan came to the ring to clean house. Hacksaw proved to be a crowd favourite with his constant calls of “Hi-O!”, waving of the Australian flag, and calls to the crowd for the typical “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!”. Match did go on a bit long, but Hacksaw was victorious in the end.
A triple threat tag team championship match followed with Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas (aka the Greatest Tag Team in the World) vs. The Highlanders vs. Trevor Murdoch and Lance Cade. I’d always thought that triple threat tag team matches involved three teams with one competitor from each side in the ring at a time, but this followed the rule of being able to tag in a member from any team. The crowd seemed to favour Benjamin and Haas, but personally I felt that the Highlanders were the highlight of the match with some flashy high risk moves, and the occasional dirty tactic of lifting their kilts up in the face of the opposition. Cade and Murdoch took the match as predicted, retaining the titles.
Kennedy vs. Hardcore Holly was the next match. Kennedy was initially loved by the crowd, but they quickly turned on him after his dismay at Rod Laver Arena’s lack of ceiling microphone, and his claim that the Sydney crowd was far better. The match did run on a little long (the folks beside me started yelling “Boring” during the match), but it was a pretty classic display from two talented and rather blond superstars. Kennedy took the match after some dirty tactics.
The second to last match was a 2 out of 3 falls match for the Women’s Championship between crowd favourite Mickie James and Beth Phoenix, the current champion. Phoenix was arguably the more physically dominant of the two, while James had some rather impressive agility, and pulled off some impressive high risk manouevers. Phoenix got the first fall, but James came back for the second, only to be powered out of the third by a particularly powerful neckbreaker.
The final match of the night was a tag team match with Triple H and Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton and Umaga. The first three got the biggest cheers of the night, particularly Triple H, who’s introduction must have lasted some five minutes with non-stop cheering. Could have sworn the bugger was staring me down at one point of his crowd appeal (I wasn’t cheering because I’m lazy). Orton was hesistant to take on Triple H, obviously stemming back to the days of Evolution, tagging in Umaga whenever Helmsley was in the ring. Jeff Hardy was arguably the most impressive part of the match with his high flying moves, but also took the biggest beating at the hands of Umaga and Orton. Orton eventually got beaten down by Triple H, who pinned Orton after a Pedigree.
It was a reasonably good show on the whole - I personally would have liked to have seen a few better singles matches in the mix, particularly with a little more of Raw’s midcard performers. One must have great respect for the wrestlers however, who had performed three consecutive nights, and were arguably stuffed by the end of the night.
