Monday, June 13th, 2005
Broome County Arena
Binghamton, New York
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Steve Austin is here to kick off the show. He is here for court and introduces Muhammad Hassan. Austin tells him he doesn't like him, but says he has an unbiased opinion. Hassan says that he still has never been pinned and yet he still gets the shaft. He then shows a video package as part of his proof. Austin calls him a piece of trash, but tells him that he's right and that he has been wronged by the system. He then asks Hassan if he has ever had an Intercontinental Championship match. Hassan tells him no, so Austin tells him that he had a feeling he would make this decision so he has Shelton Benjamin standing out back and he's going to have a match with him tonight. Good on Austin for mentioning that as opposed to Benjamin just randomly being ready for a match.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Muhammad Hassan vs. Shelton Benjamin
We join the match after the commercial break and Shelton is in charge. Hassan drops Shelton face first into the turnbuckle and begins working on Shelton's back. The crowd is really into this. I wonder when the last time Binghamton had a televised show? Shelton was really finding his groove here and seemingly was getting over with the crowd, but he never built a memorable feud with anyone to take him to that next level. Shelton hits a really nice springboard bulldog and then throws Daivari in the ring. That allows Hassan to hit a low blow and he then puts Shelton in a Camel Clutch. Austin comes in and stomps away at Hassan. He then declares Hassan the winner and hits the Stunner with help from a kick to the head from Shelton. That was a good TV opener that gives Shelton a little personality with the rub from Austin. He and Austin drink some Steveweisers after the match.
Match Rating: **1/4 (out of 5)
Eric Bischoff and Jonathan Coachman are backstage. Bischoff never wants to hear about ECW again. Jericho then walks in and is wondering why Christian has been named the #1 contender for John Cena's title at Vengeance. Jericho says he is going to take care of Christian tonight. Triple H then walks in and stares Jericho down. Triple H wants to know who the draft pick is tonight, because he doesn't want that person to screw up his match with Batista.
Chris Masters is out and is saying that he will now be offering $11,000 tonight to anyone in the locker room. Out comes...Sgt. Slaughter. Masters asks him why he thinks he can break the Master Lock and calls him an old man. Sarge then gets out an old school "maggot" response and tells him he doesn't care about the money or the Master Lock challenge. He says he wants to know if Masters can get out of his Cobra Clutch and attacks him and puts him in the hold. Masters is able to get to the ropes and then gives him a low blow, which allows him to put on the Master Lock. Slaughter battles for awhile, but eventually is done. That was surprisingly pretty fun.
JR and Lawler talk about the upcoming Hell In A Cell match and we get a whole highlight package on Batista/Triple H.
Christian and Tomko are walking backstage as we go to commercial.
Christian & Tyson Tomko vs. Chris Jericho & John Cena
Jericho starts off on a mission, going after Christian. This is kind of an odd match for Cena's first Raw match. Not a main event and not really advertised. Cena gets tagged in and dominates Tomko. This arena is kind of strange because there is a TV screen in the corner, which is kind of odd for an arena. Tomko gets clotheslined over the top rope and they then throw Christian on top of him heading into the commercial break. When we come back, Christian is in control. They have a miscue where Christian tries to hit an elbow at the same time that Cena is doing his shoulder tackle. Right after that, Tomko falls too quickly for Jericho's kick. Stuff happens. The heels finally get their heat segment, using illegal double teams along the way. Jericho hits the hot tag to Cena and he hits the Five Knuckle Shuffle followed by the FU on Tomko and picks up the victory. After the match, Jericho attacks Cena from behind. Jericho had been teasing a heel turn, although it was with Shelton, which makes this all feel like this was a last minute decision. That was your typical fun match that you would expect with the guys involved.
Match Rating: **3/4
They show some clips of the Diva Search. This...is...something. We will meet the 8 finalists next week
Jericho runs to Bischoff and asks if he has done enough to convince him. Bischoff says he has earned a spot and in walks Christian. Christian is upset because he thinks Jericho has taken his spot. Bischoff then announces that it will be a triple threat match instead. In comes Cena looking for revenge on Jericho and they have to be pulled apart by some officials. Interestingly, as they are brawling there are some crates that they are in front of that say "ECW". I guess just leftovers from the night before?
Maven vs. Viscera
Talk about your dream matches. Viscera comes out alone, but he then unveils Lilian Garcia. Maven attacks Vis from behind. Maven goes up top and hits a missile dropkick for a 2 count. This is already longer than I expected. Viscera hits a slam and a splash. He hits a weak version of his spinning kick and then follows it up with a variation of a sit down powerbomb for the win. At least it was short.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Flair is pumping up Triple H. Triple H says he needs to send a message that they are calling the shots.
Kane vs. Sylvain Grenier
Interesting order to this show. The beginning was stacked and then you have Viscera and Kane back-to-back. Kane immediately attacks Grenier. Grenier, just like Maven before him, hits a missile dropkick. Also like Maven, it does him no good. Kane hits three chokeslams in a row and gets the victory. Bless this crowd for cheering for everything tonight. Nothing match, as you would expect.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Lita's music hits and interrupts his celebration. She introduces Snitsky and she tells him that she knows it wasn't his fault. She blames it on Kane for putting her in danger and then thanks him and kisses him. This is a terrible storyline. She then introduces her fiance and he kisses her on the forehead, ha. She then announces that next week on Raw, Edge and her are getting married. They make out in celebration.
Out come Triple H and Ric Flair and they are here to greet the new draft pick. After a long pause, we get Kurt Angle now on Raw and away from one of the worst storylines of the decade. Angle tells Triple H that his days of being #1 here are over. He and Flair get into a Woo off. Angle reminds Triple H that the last time he saw him was WrestleMania 21, where he tapped out Shawn Michaels and Triple H lost his title to Batista. Triple H's comeback was that at least he was a champion at WrestleMania 21. He comes back with a stronger one saying how he was getting beat by Sharmell. Angle tells him that he has a thing for other people's wives and brings up making out with Stephanie behind his back. Angle wants Batista the day after Vengeance on Raw. Out comes the champ. Triple H suggests that Angle fights Batista next week and Batista agrees. Now out comes Shawn Michaels, who challenges Angle to a rematch at Vengeance. All five men start brawling and the show ends before really too much happens.
If you take away the awful Lita segment, this was a very good top to bottom Raw. Austin had a good appearance that helped elevate Hassan and Benjamin. Cena's first match on Raw was an entertaining bout. The debut of Kurt Angle was a fun interaction between a bunch of top tier talents that all have history. Vengeance kind of got pushed to the side due to One Night Stand, but they did a nice job of building interest quickly.
Overall Rating: 70%
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