The SmarK RAW Rant – February 7 2005

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The SmarK RAW Rant – February 7 2005

Hey, look , it’s a pre-show plug…

“Hey Scott,

It’s Greg Conley from 411. While I’m still with 411, I have opened up a website for my direct-to-video reviews, which appeared on 411 under the column “Your Video Store Shelf,” and will be updated every two or three days with a few new reviews. The website is http://www.yourvideostoreshelf.com.

Think you could be the bestest ex-fellow 411er and give me a Blog plug? “

Of course!

– Live (on tape) from Saitama, Japan

– Your hosts are JR & King

– Eric Bischoff is out to annoy the Japanese to start, but even he can’t kill the incredibly hot crowd.

– Opening match: Chris Benoit v. Chris Jericho. They should have ditched Lillian for this week and gone with the New Japan ring announcer. The crowd is absolutely molten for both guys, to say the least. Benoit takes him to the corner on a lockup to start and they fight over that, and right out of the ring. That’s always a fun spot. Back in, more stink-eyes follow and exchange wristlocks and take it to the mat. Both fight for a takedown, but both reverse each other, and it’s a stalemate. Back to the lockup and Jericho pounds him into a front suplex onto the top rope, but Benoit anticipates the springboard dropkick and counters him. They fight to the top and slug it out, and both guys take a nasty bump to the floor, as we take a break. Back with Benoit elbowing him down, setting up a snap suplex, but Jericho fights back with chops. Benoit rolls with it and gets the german suplex, but Jericho counters to an Octopus attempt. Nice, although he doesn’t quite nail it. Benoit suplexes out of that and then gets the rolling germans, but Jericho hangs on and gets a half-crab. Benoit makes the ropes and pulls himself up, using that leverage to power Jericho into a Shaprshooter, but Jericho fights out. So it’s back to the germans and Benoit goes up with the diving headbutt. Jericho tries to crawl away, so Benoit dives for a Crossface, but Jericho fights out. Jericho then head-fakes him with a Lionsault attempt that Benoit blocks with his legs, but it was just a RUSE by Jericho, as he lands on his feet and tries the Walls. Benoit fights, so Jericho catapults him into the corner, but Benoit survives and takes him down with the crossface. Jericho makes the ropes. Benoit drags him back and tries again, but Jericho reverses to the Walls. Benoit kicks him in the head until he drops, then powers him into another crossface, and this time he can’t reach the ropes and taps at 11:50. How they can pack that much into 10 minutes, I don’t know, but good on them. ***1/2 They shake and make up afterwards, because Canadians don’t turn on each other. Unless they’re Edge.

– Quick commercial (in Canada) rant — what the f*ck is with ANOTHER Motley Crue greatest hits CD? After two previous ones, two box sets, a B-sides collection, an entire re-release of the whole catalogue and a couple of DVDs, doesn’t everyone pretty much have the entire collection of stuff?

– Meanwhile, Christian irritates another country (“Great hair, don’t ever change!”) and mocks Randy Orton (“He does this a lot”). Tomko sucks in the ring, but as exasperated straight man, he’s pretty good.

– Maven v. Batista. The Japanese certainly believe in Dave. Maven doesn’t, so he attacks to start and gets spinebusted. Demon bomb kills him dead at 0:30. However, it’s another mysterious Smackdown promo afterwards, this one by Big Show.

– RAW World tag titles: La Resistance v. Tajiri & William Regal. Crowd goes crazy for Tajiri, of course. Regal fights with Conway over a wristlock to start and brings in the hero of Japan, who throws some chops and gets a flying headscissors. Back to Regal, who drops a knee on the head for two. Conway takes him into the corner after some Grenier interference, but Regal keeps fighting alone. Conway prevents a tag with a facelock and La Rez work him over in the corner. Tajiri gets knocked off the apron by Grenier, preventing Regal from tagging out, so he goes to an STF instead and then tags Tajiri. Tajiri cleans house with kicks and gets the Rey bulldog for two. Enzuigiri on Grenier gets two. Double handspring elbow puts both heels down and he starts chopping Grenier again, setting up the Tarantula. Conway breaks that up, so Regal kicks his ass on the floor. Grenier gets the flag, so Tajiri blows mist in his face and finishes with the big kick at 4:10 to win the tag titles. Quite the reaction to that, to say the least. Now PLEASE find something else for La Rez to do. **

– Ric Flair v. Shawn Michaels. Another amazing reaction for both guys. They should do RAW every week from Japan. Flair takes him to the corner to start and throws the chops, but gets whipped into the other corner and backdropped. They headoutside and Flair offers the eyepoke, but Shawn backdrops him. Back in, Flair goes back to the eye again and chops him down for two. To the corner for more chops, but Shawn fires back and it’s a Flair Flop. That gets two for Shawn. Flair clips him and starts working the leg, then whips him into the corner and clips him again on the rebound. Figure-four time, which the crowd appreciates. Shawn reverses, so Flair breaks. So it’s back to the knee, but Shawn escapes a suplex attempt and gets a rollup for two. Flair goes for it again, but Shawn cradles for two. Shawn gets a backslide for two. Flair goes for the knee again, but one Whoo too many allows Shawn an enzuigiri and both are out. They trade chops and Flair kicks him in the knee again and goes up, and you know how that ends. Shawn gets the forearm and backdrops him. Slam and he goes up with the flying elbow to set up Sweet Chin Music, and that finishes at 8:32. This was pretty paint-by-numbers stuff, with Flair doing the leg stuff leading up to the figure four and Shawn being all resilient before hitting his five moves of doom, but that’s OK. **

– The divas come out for a fashion show, Simon Dean makes fun of them, and I fast forward.

– Meanwhile, HHH and Batista continue their battle of wits. Batista is now thinking about jumping to Smackdown.

– Tyson Tomko v. Randy Orton. Randy grabs a headlock to start and takes him down into a facelock, and a shoulderblock gets two. Tomko comes back with a powerslam as Christian drags Stacy out to ringside, which allows Tomko to hit Orton with a lariat out of the corner. Orton may have another concussion, as he appears to be shooting for X-Pac’s record of 12 of them or something. Tomko pounds him in the corner for two. Tomko keeps slugging him down and slamming his head into the mat, which is some unique psychology to say the least. Orton fights back with the backbreaker and staggers into the corner, where Tomko goes back to slugging him. Blind charge misses and Orton cradles for the pin at 5:05. * Christian and Tomko add insult to injury (literally) as Christian adds an Unprettier. Maybe Orton will ask for help from another often-concussed colleague…Mick Foley?

– RAW World title: HHH v. Edge. They trade headlock takedowns to start and do the wrestling sequence out of that, as HHH gets a backslide for two and goes back to the headlock. Edge counters with the headscissors and HHH does the handstand escape, which the crowd likes, and they slug it out in the corner. Edge hits him with a charge, but misses another try and hurts his shoulder. HHH sends him into the post for good measure, and Edge bails. And we take a break. Back with Edge getting a backbreaker for two. HHH comes back with an armbar takedown, and it’s a slugfest. HHH catches him with the facebuster for two, however. Edge necksnaps him and goes up with a missile dropkick for two. HHH catches him with the MAIN EVENT SPINEBUSTER for two, however. Edge reverses a suplex into the Edge-o-Matic for two. HHH misses a charge and Edge goes up, but lands in Pedigree position. He counters out with a backdrop and sets up for the spear, but HHH blocks it with the high knee for two. HHH goes to his trusty sleeper, but Edge counters out to the Edgeucator. Too near the ropes, however, as HHH makes them pretty easily. Edge charges again and spears the ref, then gets a neckbreaker on HHH with no ref. He got more out of that ref bump than Randy Orton did at the PPV. Flair runs in with a chair and gets speared, too. Edge grabs the chair and swings, but HHH hits him with a backdrop suplex to counter. HHH goes for the chair, but Batista, acting as the voice of reason again, takes it himself. HHH shoves Edge into him, wholly by accident of course, and it’s KICK WHAM PEDIGREE, but Edge manages to reverse to the Implant DDT. Still no ref. Forget Randy Orton, someone should check on THAT guy. Edge sets up for the spear again, but Batista bails out HHH again with a spinebuster and everyone is out. HHH makes it up first, KICK WHAM PEDIGREE, goodbye at 14:51. Too much laying around at the end, but they tried really hard within the confines. *** As Batista celebrates with HHH and his title, however, he gets a look in his eyes while staring at the belt that HHH should know all too well. Uh oh.

The Inside Pulse:

Well, this was pretty much my favorite show in a while, up there with the Beat the Clock episode in terms of a good crowd and no-bullshit in-ring stuff. Amazingly, when you book matches that people want to see and allow good workers to have good matches, the show turns out entertaining. Crazy but true.