Mark Of The Quad
Moline, Illinois
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
From Los Angeles to Moline. That's quite the change in culture.
Trish Stratus & Molly Holly vs. Christy Hemme & Victoria
Molly and Victoria start things of. Victoria hits her standing moonsault and then tags in Christy. Christy hits a splits leg drop for a nearfall. Christy goes off the ropes and Trish is a little late in kicking her in the back. Trish is now in and is in full heel mode tonight. Molly hits a nice dropkick on a seated Christy. Victoria is in and goes for Widow's Peak, but Trish breaks it up. Hemme nails Trish with a slap to Trish who is on the apron. Molly inadvertently hits Trish with a handspring elbow and Christy rolls Molly up and gets the upset victory. That was a spirited match that the crowd was into. Not a bad way to kick things off.
Match Rating: *1/2 (out of 5)
Kane's music hits and he chases Trish through the crowd.
They show clips of Randy Orton from his match with Batista last week and promise a major update on Orton's shoulder. Back from commercial and they show Orton at Dr. Andrew's office in Alabama. They show some footage of the actual surgery and then he blames it on Batista. That's kind of interesting given that Orton would go on to feud with Undertaker for the remainder of the year.
Stacy and Candice Michelle are in the locker room talking about Orton getting what he deserved. Candice Michelle says that she wishes that Batista would take her out and then powerbomb and pin her. Um, ok. Kane then chases Trish through the room and the girls all scream.
Coach is here with Muhammad Hassan, who is going to take on Shawn Michaels later tonight. Hassan says that Michaels should go home early and watch an un-funny American sitcom.
Triple H is on his way to the ring for an interview. He tells Batista that he is on borrowed time and that he will get his rematch at Backlash. Triple H goes on his usual rant until Hurricane of all people interrupt him. Hurricane says it's clobberingtime and brings Rosey down with him. They both come to the ring and take out Triple H. Triple H grabs the mic and says they picked the wrong night and he wants to fight both of them right now.
Triple H vs. Hurricane & Rosey
After a commercial, Triple H is in command of Hurricane. Triple H hits a huge spinebuster, but Hurricane is able to hit a headscissors and tag Rosey in. Rosey hits a nice reverse leg drop. After a double team, Hurricane heads up top and Triple H is able to knock him off. Triple H gets Rosey's foot stuck in the ropes and hits the Pedigree on Hurricane for the victory. The match was nothing special, but bonus points for the booking after Triple H took out both guys prior to WrestleMania.
Match Rating: 3/4*
After the match, Triple H grabs the mic because he hasn't talked enough yet. He vows to Batista that he will be laid out tonight. Triple H then Pedigrees Rosey.
Batista and Chris Benoit are backstage high fiving.
Chris Masters vs. Seth Skyfire
Masters goes right after the jobber and is a little bit more aggressive than in previous squashes. The jobber goes off the turnbuckle and Masters hits him with a double ax handle and then puts him in the Master Lock for the win. It's kind of crazy that Masters was only 22 years old here.
Match Rating: 1/4*
After the match, Masters announces that he is going to issue a challenge to anyone who thinks he can break the Master Lock and is offering up $1,000 if he can.
Shawn Michaels vs.
Hassan says that Michaels doesn't deserve to fight him. He said that if he wants to fight him, he has to beat Daivari. Daivari tries to gain the early advantage, but Michaels isn't having it. Hassan gets involved early on and distracts Michaels so Daivari can hang him over the top rope. Daivari hits a nice leg drop off the top rope. You have to love professional wrestling. They are acting as if Daivari is a jobber because he is small and is a "manager", while the very green Hassan is considered a big enough act to get into a program with Michaels. Michaels fights back and attempts to go up top, but Hassan stops him. Daivari was trying to attack Michaels with the ring bell, but Earl Hebner intercepts it. This distraction allows Hassan to hit a low blow and Daivari gets the very surprising win. It was too short to be anything memorable, but they did work a furious pace there.
Match Rating: 3/4*
Shawn backstage demands a handicap match with Daivari and Hassan to Eric Bischoff. Bischoff refuses unless he has a partner.
It's time for the Highlight Reel with Chris Jericho. He says that the only problem with the Money In The Bank match was that he didn't win it. He says that he's been in a little bit of a funk since Taboo Tuesday when he lost the Intercontinental Championship to Shelton Benjamin. Naturally, he is the guest tonight. Jericho doesn't care about Shelton's 6 month title reign because he made that championship what it is. Shelton says he can do things that nobody else can do in the ring. After trading insults, they brawl because what else do you do on a wrestling talk show? Shelton struggled with promos during this time and as a result the crowd wasn't completely into this.
Kane is on the hunt for Trish and he walks into a locker room and finds Lita. She asks if he did and and he tells her that Trish is scared to death. They then make out because this is what they thought we wanted in 2005.
Shawn Michaels is back out here to tell us how much he loves his country. He now understands why his dad, brother and nephew volunteered to serve our country. He then asks Hulk Hogan to come back and be his partner. This is met with a huge pop and he gets the crowd to chant "One more match".
Edge is backstage with a steel chair and the Money In The Bank briefcase.
Chris Benoit vs. Christian
Edge comes down to be a guest announcer. We get some chops and slaps before we get some back and forth wrestling. Christian is able to dump Benoit outside of the ring to take control. Benoit ducks Christian's boots to the face and is about to crotch him on the ring post, but Tomko stops him. The distraction allows Christian to continue working on Benoit's arm. Benoit gets a little momentum, as he's able to knock Christian off the apron into the barricade. However, after the break, Christian is back to working on Benoit's arm. Christian tries to remove the top turnbuckle. While the ref tries to make sure it is secured, Benoit puts a small package on Christian, but the ref doesn't see it right away and Christian is able to kick out. Benoit is bleeding from the mouth and is able to hit a suplex on Christian. Both men collide and are slow to get up. Benoit hits a northern lights suplex into a pinfall and almost gets the victory. Benoit turns Christian into the Sharpshooter, but he is able to get to the ropes. Benoit hits three consecutive German suplexes and then heads up top. Tomko tries to stop him, but is not able to but he buys Christian enough time to move out of the way. Christian goes for the Unprettier, but Benoit reverses it into the Crippler Crossface. Both Tomko and Edge attempt to interfere, but Benoit takes them both out. Christian hits the Unprettier and gets the victory. I was expecting a lot more, but it was still pretty good. It will never not be weird watching Benoit matches.
Match Rating: **1/2
Jim Ross introduces Batista. Batista gives a pretty vanilla interview about being the predator. Triple H's music hits and tries to attack him from behind. Triple H tries for the Pedigree, but Batista dumps him over the top rope. JR holds up Batista's arm in the ring. Triple H grabs the microphone and says that next week at Madison Square Garden and acts as if he will be going one-on-one with Batista, but he means that he'll be facing Jim Ross next week. Jim Ross is stunned.
That wasn't Raw's best show of the past couple of months, but it certainly wasn't bad. They did a nice job of getting the Backlash card going with Triple H/Batista, Jericho/Shelton and Michaels & Hogan/Hassan & Daivari. I haven't seen that show in a really long time and am looking towards revisiting it. Next week's Raw should also be interesting, as I really don't have much recollection of the JR/Triple H match.
Overall Rating: 60%
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