More Live Notes From RAW Last Night

Thanks to Darrin Granter sending this in:

Dark/Heat Matches:

Show opened with what I assume was a dark match with the Highlanders vs. Chris Cage and "The Miz", who was only announce with his nickname, and not his full name. Decent match with I believe Miz and Cage going over.

Next we got Shelton Benjamin vs. a jobber, whose name escapes me. It might have been the indy worker mentioned to be working the show earlier this week, as the crowd seemed to be familiar with him and he got a ton of heel heat (for a jobber). Shelton wins with the T-bone Suplex

Next was "Super" Stacy vs. Victoria. Not a great match, but that can probably be attributed to Stacy's lack of experience. She made a good effort, but it's clear Stacy is not a wrestler. Victoria wins with the Widow's Peak

I think the next match was Rosey vs Kerwin White. Some funny stuff with Kerwin taking off his sweater and putting it on a hanger, a la Mr. Rogers, before the match. Later in the match he made like he was going to use the clothes hanger and when the referee took it away from him. He used the shirt he was wearing to choke out Rosey. Decent match, with Chavo....I mean Kerwin, winning with a handful of tights.

The last Sunday Night Heat match saw Snitsky (what is it with WWE not wanting wrestlers to have a first name) fight Viscera. Standard comedy match with Viscera getting his usual spots in (including his humping spot). I believe Big Vis went over.

Off Air Notes:

The crowd was pretty hot all night. "We Want Bret" chants were heard even before the show started. Michaels got a ton of heel heat the minute he came out.

It appeared to me that Rene Dupree was limping back to the backstage area after Kurt threw him outside. Not sure how serious it was or if he was selling..

During the commercial break after Kurt came out for his match with Hogan, he proceeded to run down Montreal and Canada in general in order to get more heel heat (not that he needed it).

Biggest pops of the night were easily Hogan, Cena and Batista individually.

After Raw:

After Shawn put the Sharpshooter on Hogan, Cena came out to make the save, followed by JBL. Then, Batista's music hit and he came out to even the odds. This turned into the advertised 6-man dark match. Hogan got the pin on JBL if memory serves me correctly. This was followed by a posedown with Hogan, Cena and Batista which the crowd was going nuts for. At one point, Cena and Batista put their respective titles on Hogan's shoulders, and bowing in respect. The sign in the crowd said it all, "Montreal is Hogan Country".

Couple of other humorous signs I saw in the crowd were "1997 Called....It Said 'Get Over It'" and "Montreal hates HBK, But I'm From Ottawa".

Steve sent this report.

Just got back from the live Raw show in Montreal. The crowd was crazy all night long, throwing out huge heat and big pops. I've been skimming through my recording off Spike, and you just can't see how LOUD the crowd was. Definitely one of the most active crowds I've seen in awhile. The HBK segment especially got HUGE heat... no one in the building was quiet. And if you think the crowd was let down when they realized Bret wasn't coming out, you should have been there. I swear their were Canadians (I'm a Vermonter myself) on the verge of tears.

They ended the show with a 6-man tag, John Cena, Hulk Hogan and Batista vs. HBK, Kurt Angle and JBL. Pretty basic match, with the heels and faces bouncing back and forth until Hogan got the eventual pin. The faces posed in the ring for about 15 minutes afterwards, even pulling a big hairy dude outta the audience to pose in the ring with them. All in all, the show was pretty entertaining, with the only dull moment being the Conway vs. Hurricane match.

Biggest Heat: HBK (undoubtedly the craziest heat I've ever heard live), and Kurt Angle.

Biggest Pops: The Hitman's music drove the crowd wild, John Cena's entrance, Hogan's entrance (again, like everyone else says, there's nothing quite like seeing it live) and Batista. In fact, Batista's run-in got a huge pop, almost beating out Hogan and Cena's in my opinion. Undoubtably, both Cena and Batista were way over with the live crowd. Oh yeah, I should also mention that Eugene got a pretty big pop when he came out, much more so than I'd expected.

The arena was nearly sold out, with only the very upper deck behind the camera and the area behind the titantron tarped off. All in all, it was an extremely packed house, definitely a much larger turn out than their prior Smackdown show in Montreal.