The RAW Events
— The new year is finally upon us, and what better way can we start it off than with college football bowl games, another day off from school and work, and wrestling in a eve PPV show. Plus a first blood match that should give us, well, blood. To say the least we should be starting off 2006 with a bang. So enough with the countdowns, lets get things started.
Continental Airlines Arena
Hosts: Joey Styles, King and The Coach
The MAIN Events
– Kane vs. Shawn Michaels (with no Sweet chin finisher allowed stipulation)
Chops go after the big red monster as Shawn gets caught up in the arms of Kane and tossed easily against the corner. Small package gets 2! HBK is tossed against the ropes and goes over for the sunset flip for another 2! But Kane gets up off the pin and chokes out HBK with the boot and goes after the face with a few rights and a knee to the gut. Follow up with a big scoop slam and a cover for Kane. Shawn finally retaliates with a few more chops, hitting Kane on the outside of the ring and throws himself over to get the knockdown. But once outside Vince comes up to Shawn giving Kane time to behead HBK on the outside as we go to an early break. Back in, Shawn is back in control as he works on the upper body of Kane to slow him down. But HBK goes up top and misses as Kane slugs him right in the throat, taking control for the majority of the time. Flying forearm finally slows things down a bit for Shawn as he flips back up and nails the DDT for 2! Neckbreaker gets another 2! But the big boot shuts down another hit as Kane goes up top and misses the clothesline, giving HBK back the advantage. Flying elbow connects, but things come to a halt as Shawn wonders what to do next as he finally decides to use the sweet chin, but just before he does Vince announces that not only will he lose the match, he will also be disqualified from the elimination chamber. Thus giving time to Kane to set up behind Shawn and hit the chokeslam for the win. LONG entry match.
Winner: Kane (2)
– Victoria vs. Maria
The impromptu match begins with the beat down for Victoria as Torrie and Michelle get involved on the outside. But a botched splash on the ropes gives Maria the roll up for the win!!! However things don’t end good as the sexy trio strip Maria to her bra and panties!!! That’s the best gang attack I’ve ever seen! Then to top it off, Ashley does the run in save, but gets shot down too.
Winner: Maria (4)
– Shelton Benjamin vs. Chris Masters
I am so hoping that Benjamin gets off this losing streak, but I’m fearing the worst… and worst of all, it may have to continue with this no- namer talent. Sigh. Crowd tried to get behind Shelton, but just couldn’t with the limit showcasing of Masters. Strike continues… Master lock wins.
Winner: Chris Masters (3)
– 1st Blood Match: John Cena vs. Kurt Angle w/ Davari
Not a good sign as Cena tries to do his rap about the Chamber and the contestants, but gets booed doing so. They may chant “You Suck” but Kurt, they are definitely liking you a lot more than they are the champ. We come back from break with the match already in progress with Angle in the swing of things as Cena finally starts to fight back and gets booed?!? Wow, what is going on here? Angle gets launched outside to the mat with Cena following things up before Davari gets involved on the outside hitting Cena with the medals. And then a HUGE lets go Angle Chant starts up, and even with Kurt telling the crowd to shut up, they only seem to cheer more with every move he hits on Cena. Angle keeps himself in charge by running Cena into the exposed turnbuckle and follows it up with the Angle Slam to get the chair. Again, MORE chants for Angle as he misses the chair shot and Cena fights back with a few rights as the crowd boos. Davari takes out the chair from Cena’s hands as Angle stomps on the fallen champ. FU almost connects but its reversed into the ankle lock. ((Wow, with this type of reaction, I don’t know if I’m going to be forced to change my pick to Angle for the Chamber win.)) Angle nails the sstteell chair over Cena’s face, but yet no blood appears until Angle destroys Cena with a few rights over the face, but no ref is available to count the win. FU is attempted by Angle, but is reversed into an STFU, but the ref finally comes to and gives the win to Angle (another huge cheer!). Early chamber match ensues as everyone comes into the ring for the pre PPV brawl.
Winner: Kurt Angle (1)
Quick HEAT
— Vince comes out and reminds us of the zero tolerance policy. And also about how he should have “spit” in Shawn’s face and fired him. But he is moving on because of him, not for the fans. And from now on it’s all about him. And because of him, he made tonight’s first blood match as well as the first one of tonight.
— During the break after the match, Todd Grisham announces to Shawn that Vince has entered him 1st in the elimination chamber match this Sunday.
— Gregory Helms comes out on WWE Unlimited saying that he’s being held down by Jerry Lawler. Haha, pretty funny… hope this leads to King’s outing (hey we can hope right?)
— Helms follows it through as he comes out to the ring and calls out King. And tells King if anyone should be made fun of as a joke, it should be him. But King (ofcourse) buries Helms’ former character and new one as well, and even beats him out of the ring to challenge him at New Year’s revolution. Wow, great way to build Helms here, getting beat by an announcer.
— Vince backstage with Mickey until Davari and Angle comes in complaining about last weeks match with Mike Chioda and how he’s gonna make Cena bleed so much that Vince is going to have to take him to the hospital.
— Todd Grisham is backstage with Trish about last weeks mistletoe kiss with James as she’s ‘conveniently’ working out backstage. But doesn’t seem to wanna talk about it as she avoids Todd and tells him she’s going to hit the showers. (Um, can I join?)
— Kiss cam is center stage as we come back from break until Victoria, Candace Michelle, and Torrie come out to break up Maria. Victoria asks Maria where was she and also makes fun of her ditsyness as tells her she has a match tonight against her.
— Vince announces the first ever bra and panties gauntlet match at New Year’s Revolution.
— Trish is in the shower as Mickey shows up waiting for her outside. Surprisingly enough, Trish isn’t even wet as Mickey takes her towel and tells Trish she has some nice boobs. I say the same too… and also… interesting.
— Edge and Lita come out saying he’s gotten a lot of heat for disrespecting Ric Flair. But has some footage of Flair’s ‘road rage’ (Edge playing the part of Flair). And I think I actually heard the fans cheering at it!? Flair finally shows up and the brawl starts up to the ring. With Edge leaving Lita alone in the ring getting locked in the figure four.
— It’s HHH time as I’m sure he’s coming out to gloat how he broke Big Show’s hand, yada, yada, yada. And sure enough he does. But the funny thing about it is that HHH wants us to show last weeks clip, but we get one of 5 weeks ago, to HHH surprise. And since this is LIVE TV, he decides to wing it and actually does a good job of it, making fun of the mistake. Big Show actually shows up tonight with a massive cast around the right hand as HHH walks out of the ring to grab a chair. But Show uses the cast to his advantage as he smashes away the chair and a TV monitor with the cast, causing HHH to run off.
— Shelton’s backstage as his momma shows up and lectures him out and threatens to use the belt on him if he doesn’t get his act together as those Benjamin’s don’t take “ass whoopings, the give them”. And orders to Shelton to get cleaned up because he stinks.
RAW Analysis
— And of course since the PPV is just around the corner I can’t leave you all without my award winning picks now can I? So to start the new year off on the right note with a sure to be unblemished record, here’s the rundown with my picks in BOLD:
– HHH vs. Big Show — HHH
– Women’s Title: Mickey vs. Trish — Mickey
– Gregory Helms vs. King — Helms
– Intercontinental Title: Edge vs. Flair (C) — Edge
– Bra and Panties Gauntlet Match: — Ashley
– Elimination Chamber- WWE Title: Carlito vs. Angle vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Masters vs. Kane vs. John Cena (C) — Cena
— And now about the show, well as usual Raw fails to build up the show to get people interested in watching the PPV this Sunday. With the exception of the Chamber, but even then they fail to even put on one of the contenders in the show with Carlito (so you probably know who’s gonna be going out first.) And maybe with the 1st blood match being the only decent savior, Cena gets massively booed throughout the entire match and even afterwards as he hits the FU on Angle, which is never a good sign, and then to top things off, Raw only puts out four matches, with only three that you can actually count as ‘real’ ones.
Finally, last but not least… the National Championship will be decided this Wednesday with (1) USC Trojans vs. (2) Texas Longhorns in the Rose Bowl, and if you’ve read my columns over the past year, you know where my allegiance lies. So not only do you get my picks for the PPV, but you get one for this as well. USC wins by two touchdowns.
— USC- 35 Texas- 21
Hit me up if you wanna comment to me about any of my picks, either way it should be fun. Till the next EVENT as always, I’m out, Peace! GO TROJANS!!!!
