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Here is Tim Whitehead's original report on the 10/27/03 edition
of Raw:
The 10/27/03 episode of RAW IS ON A ROLL aired live from Fayetteville. They seem
to be on a roll with good shows, and they're doing a great job of building up
Survivor Series early.
The opening video montage was of Batista destroying Goldberg last week to
collect Triple H's $100,000 bounty.
HHH wasn't there, so Ric Flair & Randy Orton & Batista came out as
Evolution. For obvious reasons neither Jim Ross nor Jerry Lawler mentioned why
HHH was absent. They put Batista over as a monster for eliminating Goldberg.
Batista grabbed a mic and told Goldberg, whom he assumed was watching at home,
to take the beating he received as an honor. After all, Batista noted, the
bounty proved that HHH took him seriously as an opponent, otherwise he wouldn't
have gone to such expense to take him out. Batista said he knew he'd be the one
to collect the bounty from the beginning, and declared that he was the unseen
guy two weeks ago who tried to take Goldberg out (the mystery man who tried to
run him down in a car and who later dumped a bunch of crates off a ledge nearly
onto Goldberg's head). He said those incidents were designed to rattle Goldberg
and make him vulnerable and an easy target. Batista boasted that Goldberg is now
gone from the business for good. Orton took the mic and said the injured
Goldberg won't be able to defend the world title, so he suggested stripping him
of the belt and returning it to the prior champ, HHH. Eric Bischoff came out and
did his now-common routine where he at first pretended to be angry at Evolution,
but then he smirked and congratulated them. He said they made him the happiest
man on the planet by destroying the guy who speared him without provocation a
few weeks ago. He was glad Goldberg was history, and announced that he had
picked up something that Goldberg left behind as he was being carted off to the
hospital last week. It was the title belt. Bischoff said he would ignore the 30
day rule and just go ahead and present the belt to a deserving champion. But
before he could announce who that was, Steve Austin came out. He flipped
everyone off. Austin told Bischoff he can't strip Goldberg of the title because
Goldberg will be wrestling at Survivor Series. He said he's talked to Goldberg
and that he's angry and out for revenge, so Austin set up a Goldberg vs. HHH
title match for the PPV. Flair grew enraged and went off big time on Austin,
prompting Austin to tell him to calm down or he might blow his pacemaker. Austin
noted that Goldberg will be fighting badly injured, but that he's willing to do
that to get at HHH. Batista, who had thought he permanently eliminated Goldberg,
was fuming. When Austin turned to leave, Batista ran after him and threatened
him by saying, "you're next" (Goldberg's frequent catch phrase
threat). As Batista and Austin had a staredown on the ramp, Mark Jindrak &
Garrison Cade ran in through the crowd and attacked Flair & Orton. Batista
ran back to help his allies, but Jindrak & Cade escaped. This was a pretty
good way to get some new guys over.
Trish Stratus & Lita were walking around in their bras. No complaints from
me about that. Trish said Chris Jericho left a phone message for her, and she
seemed happy about it. Lita was a little more suspicious about Christian's
interest in her. She thought Jericho & Christian were plotting something,
and vowed to get to the bottom of it.
Booker T defeated Rico in 1:38. Jackie Gayda was at ringside, but didn't have a
chance to get involved. Rico attacked before the bell and hit some kicks. Booker
went for a scissor kick but Rico evaded it. Booker then hit a second scissor
kick and scored the pin. Booker was about to do his post-match spinaroonie when
he was interrupted by Jericho. There was a cage suspended over the ring, and at
the beginning of the broadcast JR & Lawler had wondered why it was there.
That was about to be explained. Jericho entered the ring, announcing plans to
interview Booker in an impromptu Highlight Reel segment. He called Booker stupid
and naive for joining Austin's Survivor Series team. Scott Steiner &
Christian charged the ring as Jericho called for the cage to be lowered. The
idea was that they were going to do a three-on-one on Booker in the cage as a
warning to Austin, but before the cage could get all the way down, Rob Van Dam
ran in. He cleaned house with kicks, sending the three heels from the ring. So
when the cage finally lowered, the heels were outside while RVD & Booker
were safe inside. RVD announced that he will join Austin's team. For the record,
Christian is on Bischoff's team, as was revealed when he came out with Steiner.
Neat angle!
Backstage, Jericho & Bischoff were furious that RVD's run-in ruined their
plans to destroy Booker and send Austin a message. Jericho asked for an IC Title
shot against RVD, insisting that taking the IC belt from RVD would really send
Austin a message. Bischoff agreed and made that the main event.
Theodore Long led Mark Henry to the ring. He said that crackersnake Austin cost
them $100,000 last week by ejecting them from the arena before they could finish
Goldberg off. I seem to recall that they walked off voluntarily and were only
ejected after that, but I guess an excuse is an excuse. Long vowed to take out
his frustrations on a white boy, which led to....
Henry squashed Lance Storm by DQ in 0:47. So much for Storm's push. Henry was
mauling Storm when "Heartbreak Cracker" Shawn Michaels ran in. He
nailed Henry with the sweet chin music, which had the side effect of getting
Storm DQ'ed. Afterward, HBK high fived the large contingent of servicemen in the
crowd (Fayetteville is a strong military town, with Ft. Bragg & Camp LeJeune
nearby).
JR & Lawler reported on several upcoming media appearances by Austin.
Hurricane & Jon Heidenreich were scheduled to team together, which was
billed as the tryout match Austin gave Heidenreich as reward for giving him that
RAW ticket a few weeks ago. Heidenreich was all excited and was proud to team
with Hurricane. Rosey asked them to pose together for a shot for the Daily
Globe. As they posed, Heidenreich whispered the identity of Little Johnny into
Hurricane's ear. Afterward, Hurricane told Rosey that Heidenreich is nuts,
without revealing who Little Johnny is to the TV audience.
Lita visited Christian and began asking questions about why he came to her
rescue last week. Christian opened up a copy of Lita's book, to reveal a photo
of the two of them together. He interpreted that photo as meaning that Lita has
a crush on him. Guess he belongs to the Stone Cold school of interpretation.
Lita tried to explain that it was just one of many photos in her book, but sort
of got flustered and left, with Christian more confident than ever that she has
the hots for him.
Jonathan Coachman interviewed Shane McMahon. Shane was scheduled (by Bischoff)
to fight a mystery opponent in a no-DQ match. Coach smirked and predicted the
mystery man would be Kane. Shane calmly replied that he hoped it would be.
Hurricane & Heidenreich defeated La Resistance in 5:54. The heavily military
crowd rallied big time against the French team. Lawler said he saw an ad on ebay
for a French army rifle which said it had never been fired and had only been
dropped once. Rob Conway attacked Hurricane as he was about to toss his mask to
a brat in the crowd. Hurricane rallied and hit a somersault plancha on Rene
Dupree. Conway nailed Hurricane with a neckbreaker off the top. They destroyed
Hurricane for a while to set up the Heidenreich hot tag. Heidenreich went wild
when he came in, laying out both foes with lariats and kicks. He hurled Dupree
from the ring and chokeslammed Conway for the pin. Pretty good debut for him.
Afterward, as Heidenreich was high fiving the troops, La Resistance began waving
the French flag so he went back in and beat them up again.
Hour two began with Shane beating Test in the no-DQ match in 6:24. Both JR &
Lawler had assumed all night that Kane would be the mystery foe, but it turned
out to be Test. Test blamed Shane for breaking his foot, and swung his crutch at
him to start the match. Shane ducked the blow and went after Test's bad leg.
Test rolled from the ring and began yelling for Kane to come out. Apparently the
storyline match plan was for Kane to run in and help Test maul Shane, but the
joke was on Test when Kane never ran in. Test tried to flee, using Stacy Keibler
as a shield, but she slapped him and Shane pounded him back to the ring. Test
took command and rammed Shane into the stairs. He again yelled for Kane to come
out, saying, "We had a deal!" But the insidious Kane didn't show. Test
full nelson slammed Shane and retrieved his crutch. Stacy grabbed the crutch and
he shoved her down. Shane took this opening to spear Test and then to hit him
with like 346 shots from a garbage can lid. Kane's flaming entrance pyro went
off, and everyone looked for Kane to run in, but it didn't happen. Test went for
a pump handle slam but Shane blocked it and DDT'd Test on a garbage can. Shane
hit the Van Terminator and scored the pin after a chairshot. Being the
promoter's son is a priceless advantage. Afterward, Shane got on the mic and
dared Kane to come out, calling him gutless. As a message to Kane, Shane
walloped Test's broken foot with a chair across the stairs. Test really got
creamed here. Kane finally came out on the ramp top. Shane said Kane has pushed
him over the edge and that he's now just as sick and twisted as Kane. He said he
wants their match at Survivor Series to be an ambulance match, meaning they
fight until one man is hauled off in the meat wagon. Kane simply nodded yes,
smirked, and walked off. Kane had better win that one.
Lita won a four way match over Trish, Victoria, and Gail Kim to earn the women's
title shot at Survivor Series in 2:50. All four were in the ring at the same
time. Trish hit a spinebuster on Gail as Victoria slammed Lita. Molly Holly came
out to watch the match from the ramp top. Trish chopped Victoria hard. Gail
legdropped Lita. Steven Richards caused Trish to bump out and hit the security
rail. Gail & Victoria doubled on Lita. Victoria put Lita down with the
widow's peak, but Gail broke the pin up. Victoria then went after Gail. The
finish saw Victoria collide with that clumsy fool Richards, allowing Lita to pin
Victoria after a DDT. Molly just kept staring at Lita.
The make-up lady was preparing Coach for his next segment. He kept bragging
about his looks.
The video segment honoring Hawk (which aired on Smackdown) aired. Hawk will be
missed.
Coach came out to do a live review of Austin's book, titled "The Stone Cold
Truth", which hits the bookstores tomorrow. Coach even had a podium with
his name on it. Coach said he read the book from cover to cover and that it had
no truth in it at all. For example, he said Austin's story that Bischoff fired
him via phone from WCW because he lacked the guts to do it to his face was a
flat-out lie. He said Bischoff got in his car and drove over to Austin's house
to fire him in person, but Austin wasn't home so he had no other option but to
do it long distance. He said the book contains hundreds of lies such as that,
and recommeded that we all buy the book to see for ourselves what a liar Stone
Cold is, adding that the book may become a valuable collector's item since
Austin will be gone from WWE after his team loses at Survivor Series. Austin
came out and went through his routine of daring Coach to provoke him. Coach
wouldn't, so Austin announced that Coach would be assigned to interview him
after the Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff challenge match at Survivor Series.
Austin said Coach was the first guy he wants to see after the rule banning him
from beating up the talent is repealed. Coach looked terrified. I get a kick out
of Coach.
Terri interviewed Jindrak & Cade. They began arguing over, of all things,
the terminology used to describe their plans against Evolution. Cade said they'd
prove they could "hang" with Evolution, while Jindrak wanted to
"beat" them, as if Cade was using language that was too soft. WWE
seems to be getting a little ahead here, as they usually wait until a team gets
popular before starting to break them up. HBK arrived and calmed them down. He
also praised their theft of the bounty money last week, not caring that it
didn't work (not to mention that he wears Christian T-shirts and the Bible says
"thou shalt not steal"). Theodore Long interrupted this crackerfest by
reminding HBK that Henry destroyed him a few weeks back and dragged his bloody
carcass up the ramp. He challenged HBK to fight Henry next week. HBK accepted,
and was immediately confronted by Bischoff, who had the cops escort HBK from the
building so he couldn't interfere in the main event (i.e., Bischoff had plans to
interfere himself). HBK deliberately bumped against Bischoff as he left. A
provocation, perhaps?
Jindrak & Cade beat Flair & Orton in 3:13. Flair got a lot of cheers in
Fayetteville, but not as many as usual in the Carolinas, probably because the
crowd had so many servicemen in attendance and they are from all over the
country as opposed to being Carolina natives. Batista was in the Evolution
corner, so Maven came out to be in Jindrak & Cade's corner. I like this
upward mobility. Orton lariated and stomped Cade. Flair chopped the hell out of
Cade and hit his kneedrop. Jindrak came in and backdropped both opponents.
Jindrak does a great dropkick. The finish saw Flair roll Jindrak up, but with
the ref distracted, Maven came in and lariated Flair to reverse the roll up.
Jindrak pinned Flair, which was treated as a big deal. Batista went wild
afterwards and the faces were all left laying by Evolution to get their heat
back. JR put over Batista's sit down powerbomb as devastating.
Jericho beat RVD to capture the IC Title in 4:23. Jericho started with a choke.
RVD hit a springboard crossbody. Jericho retaliated with an enzugiri but hit the
post when he went for a charge. RVD scored two with a northern lights suplex.
Jericho went for a lionsault, which missed when RVD rolled clear. Jericho then
rolled clear when RVD went for the frog splash. Jericho hit a low blow and
hooked the walls. RVD made the ropes but Bischoff had by this time arrived, and
he distracted the ref as Jericho pulled RVD back to the center and continued
with the walls. RVD tapped for the title change. Austin came out and claimed he
couldn't overrule the ref (apparently forgetting that he's done it before) but
said that he can order a rematch. So he called for the cage to be lowered and
ordered Jericho to immediately defend the belt against RVD. Austin also banned
both general managers from ringside. Bischoff ran to Austin to protest, and
stumbled and bumped into him. That was a "provocation", so Bischoff
fled in terror with Austin chasing him.
RVD beat Jericho to regain the IC Title in the cage in 6:05. Jericho worked RVD
over, hitting a backbreaker. RVD hit some kicks and sent Jericho crashing
repeatedly into the cage. RVD twice tried to climb from the cage but Jericho
hauled him down. Jericho bulldogged RVD and nearly climbed over, with RVD barely
stopping him. Jericho again went up, but was thwarted by RVD. Jericho bumped to
the mat and RVD started over the top. As RVD was coming down the outside of the
cage, Jericho started through the cage door. RVD kicked the door into Jericho's
face, bloodying him, and then dropped to the floor for the win. Both matches
were good. Afterward, Steiner & Christian attacked RVD and threw him back in
the cage for a three-on-one. The Dudleys ran in for the save to even the odds.
Henry then arrived and joined the heels, with Long padlocking the cage to keep
anyone else out. Or so he thought, as Booker arrived, climbed the cage, and did
a leap off the top onto Henry & Steiner inside. But Henry's power carried
the day, and in the end the four heels destroyed the four faces. Jericho climbed
the cage top and posed, as if they had succeeded in sending a message to Austin.
I presume we can safely say that the Dudleys are now on Austin's squad, and
Henry on Bischoff's, so that leaves one man apiece to round out the teams.
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