Live News & Notes From Last Night's WWE RAW
The Qwest Center was packed long before showtime at 6:45 tonight, and the crowd stayed hot for the entire night.
Sean O'Haire v. Trevor Murdoch
This was a dark match before Heat was taped. I had gotten wind that O'Haire would be working a tryout match before the show from Mad Monk, so I wasn't that surprised to see him although I'm sure a lot of people were. They already had an entrance video ready for him so either they recycled the old one or he's already signed and coming back for sure. He looks a little less ripped than last time although with the wellness program that may be for the best; he's still in fine shape overall (especially noticable wrestling the Texas redneck Murdoch). Murdoch wins with the ropes for leverage and got huge boos, O'Haire got a good babyface pop and seems ready for that role if brought in. Funny to note Murdoch still comes out to his tag team's entrance music and video and still has the Murdoch/Cade tights.
Chavo Guerrero v. Rob Conway
Conway came out first and got withering heat for a guy who hasn't been on TV forever, including a surprising number of "FRENCH F**" and "GO BACK TO FRANCE" comments – nice to see people haven't forgotten La Resistance. Chavo got a HYOOOOGE babyface pop when his music played and the Eddie chant started almost immediately, prompting at least one person in the crowd to hold up a "Chavo's not Eddie" sign. Guerrero played face-in-peril for most of the match but made a strong comeback and hit the frogsplash for the win. If this one isn't on Heat I'll really be surprised.
Lance Cade v. Ace Steele
The jabroni doing the job made his way down to the ring before Cade and I got his attention by yelling "I don't even know who you are BUT YOU ALREADY SUCK" which to my surprise actually got him to turn around, smirk and yell back "Hey thanks a lot." A video package aired and when it was over Cade came out, and got a pretty good heel reaction too for a guy who's never on TV these days either. Steele was billed as the local guy but I'd never seen or heard of him and I watch the Midwest Pro Wrestling show on Cable 23 every Friday night. Nevertheless this was a hot crowd and they bought him as the babyface, though just to be a smart-ass I rooted for Cade. Cade played up being too good for this jabroni and got the best of him for most of them match, although Steele got a few comebacks. I believe Cade's big move was a top rope elbow but I could be wrong. Anyway he got the win and a round of boos.
Snitsky v. Golddust
This appeared to be the main event of Heat and came after they shot a bunch of t-shirts into the crowd, so everybody was already pumped up when Golddust's music hit and he got a nice babyface reaction, helped by the fact he got his full entrance with the gold spotlights and sprinkling gold pyrotechnics. Snitsky was mostly met with apathy and some derisive chants for his backne and Golddust was the face for the entire match. Snitsky beat down Golddust with power moves for most of the match but Dust made a comeback for the win and got a nice pop afterward, which he played up to the crowd as he left. This was the last match before Raw so the rest of the time was video packages, promos and the "Live from Omaha" break at the quarter hour.
Raw notes
They may claim TNA is not the competition but they sure don't like the signs. Among the many they confiscated were "TNA IS BETTER" and my own sign "I LIKE EVERYBODY NAMED STYLES~!" although for some reason they didn't grab the "AJ STYLES VS. RVD" sign, probably because they didn't see it. The breaks that were probably on WWE Unlimited included Carlito and Chris Masters cutting a Wrestlemania 22 promo, including Masters trying to heel it up by talking smack about Nebraska. Carlito was playing babyface behind his back – when the crowd started chanting 'YOU SUCK' at Masters, Carlito pointed at Masters and started saying it too then pretended he didn't do anything when Chris turned around and looked his way. Hella funny s–t. Vince was a monster heel the entire night long and almost managed to turn Cena babyface but by the time the show was over the boos were just as loud as the cheers, particularly as the show went off the air and both Cena and HBK stood there bleeding. There was no house match afterwards, Lilian just thanked everybody and we all went home. A bit of a ripoff after paying the inflated $70 price for floor seats but I knew they were going to jack them up the week before Wrestlemania not to mention they wouldn't give away any free matches that close to a PPV. Oh I almost forgot the other WWE Unlimited segments included a Kiss Cam hosted by Maria where Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson snogged (EWW) and another of the Schoolteacher Striker segments where he said the only person in the building tonight who was smarter than him was of course Vince himself.
Stevie J, AngryMarks.com