Monday Night Raw 11-21-05 Review

Monday, November 21st, 2005
Hallam FM Arena
Sheffield, Yorkshire, England

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Eric Bischoff is out with Team Raw. He says that he hears SmackDown doesn't want to wait for Sunday, but Bischoff has seen no sign of them tonight. As they continue cutting their promo, JBL's limo is shown arriving and Team SmackDown is here. Shawn Michaels says that they're going to take care of them now, but Bischoff pleads for them not to. They go to a weird commercial break here and then show Raw on their way to meet SmackDown in the parking lot. Again, I actually like the brand warfare, but it really makes absolutely no sense why Batista would ever consider teaming with JBL. They start brawling and Batista is shown hurt after what we are assuming was a chokeslam from Big Show and Kane.

Ric Flair vs. Trevor Murdoch

Back body drop by Flair and a whole lot of "Woo"'s from the crowd. Flair goes up to the top and it almost works this time, but Murdoch catches him in the midsection. Murdoch misses with a knee drop off the second rope and then Flair clips the knee. Murdoch kicks out of the Figure Four, but Flair rolls him up by grabbing his tights and gets the quick victory. I'm not sure why they didn't put him over a little bit more aggressively with a Last Man Standing match in six days. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

As Flair celebrates, Triple H is on the Titan Tron to tell Flair that on Sunday it's all about surviving. 

Tajiri vs. Rob Conway

We join the match already in progress and Tajiri has Conway in the Tarantula. JBL is now out and knocks bout both men. He grabs a mic and calls Raw out. Bischoff comes out and argues with him. JBL wants Chris Masters, but Bischoff tells him that he's going to face Shawn Michaels instead. 

Hey, look. John Cena was on Mad TV.

Kurt Angle vs. Shelton Benjamin

They continue with the bleeping of the "You suck" chants. Daivari comes out as the referee for this match. After some back and forth to start, Angle hits an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Angle slows things until Shelton makes a comeback with a forearm. Shelton hits the Samoan drop. He goes for the Exploder suplex, but he ends up hitting a neckbreaker. He leaps out of a suplex attempt and lands on his feet and hits a spin kick to the head. Shelton hits a baseball slide to Angle on the outside. On the way back in the ring, Angle tries to hit a German suplex off the apron. Shelton escapes and hits a DDT to the hardest part of the ring. Back in the ring, Angle is able to put on the Ankle Lock. He gets close to the rope a couple of times and when he finally gets to them, Daivari doesn't break the hold. Shelton counters the hold into a pin attempt, but Daivari doesn't count and helps Angle counter it and get the pinfall victory. After the match (and a commercial break), Angle announces that Daivari is now his own personal referee. Cena then comes on the Titan Tron and says he is going to ask what other Superstars thing of Angle. This leads to him walking into the women's locker room in an unfunny bit. He then walks in on Snitsky giving Tomko a massage. The next door leads to the Boogeyman, who sings "London Bridge". Cena then goes to the crowd, who of course all say that he sucks. He gets in the ring and attacks Angle and sends him out of the ring. I get that they are getting over the Daivari stipulation, but I'm not sure this was the most effective way. The Cena segment went on forever and it did anything but treat Angle as a serious threat. 

Match Rating: **

Triple H vs. Val Venis

Venis starts on fire and he even sends Triple H out of the ring. Triple H grabs a chair and nails him in the head with the chair for the disqualification. Of course, with this being 2005, Val took it unprotected right to the head. I'm sorry, but you still can't tell me that they had no idea that hitting each other in the head was a bad idea. He continues the attack and then hits the Pedigree. This was obviously not a match. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Bischoff is on the phone and is told that Teddy Long is outside and is demanding to speak with him. 

Candice Michelle vs. Mickie James

They announce that the JBL/Shawn Michaels match will be a Lumberjack match. Victoria distracts Mickie, allowing Candice to attack her from behind. It doesn't last long, as Mickie quickly takes over and then goes out to attack Victoria too. Two masked people come and kidnap Trish Stratus through the crowd and the distraction allows Candice to get the victory. This was, well, it was short.

Match Rating: 1/4*

They show Trish backstage and it was Melina and MNM who kidnapped her. Melina challenges Trish to a match at Survivor Series for her championship. Trish is feisty in her response, so Melina kicks her in the head. Jerry Lawler leaves to go check on her while Joey Styles and Coach run down the card for Sunday.

Maria is with Shawn Michaels, who tells JBL that he's going to find out what it's like to get Raw. 

Lumberjack Match

Shawn Michaels vs. JBL

Batista is not at ringside due to the injury suffered during the brawl. Michaels attacks him while JBL still has his jacket on. JBL eventually rolls out, but then realizes he is by Big Show and Kane and rolls back in. JBL hits a side suplex and then goes to work on Michaels' back with a bear hug. JBL runs through Michaels with a shoulder block and gets a 2 count. JBL misses with an elbow drop and Michaels sends both of them over the top rope with a clothesline. This of course gets the lumberjacks involved. Big Show gorilla presses Michaels over the top rope and onto JBL, which gets a 2 count right before the commercial break. The SmackDown lumberjacks get another chance to attack Michaels and I'm sorry, but Rey Mysterio should not be attacking Michaels. JBL hits a weird looking clothesline, most likely as a result of a miscommunication. Michaels is battling back and has a little bit of blood dripping down his face. JBL rolls out of the ring as Michaels is going for Sweet Chin Music, so Michaels launches himself over the top rope and takes out most of the SmackDown team. JBL goes for a superplex, but Michaels is able to push him off. Orton then sneaks in from behind and pushes Michaels off the top rope as well. Michaels is able to hit Sweet Chin Music, but in comes Orton and he hits a RKO on Michaels. They all come in and start a big brawl, trading big move after big move. Who could have seen it coming? Here comes Batista and he has a pipe and then hits a spinebuster on Big Show. So we have no winner here, which we kind of knew would be the case. This was pretty good, even if it wasn't memorable. 

Match Rating: **1/4

This was just a bizarre show, as many of the overseas shows are. There were a lot of weird commercial breaks and the matches were all short outside of the main event. As a go home show, it did what it was trying to achieve. However, it didn't make me any more interested in the show, which is a bummer.

Overall Rating: 44%