LIVE PERFORMANCE REVIEWS
RAW Brings Down the House
Josh Brown
There truly is nothing like seeing professional live and in person. I have been to several live events, starting out with the small, independent companies back in California performing in my high school’s gymnasium. I had never been to a live WWE event though, until only a couple years ago, when I attended a RAW brand house show at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. (That show was special for the fact it was the first time the WWE had been allowed to visit Portland, or anywhere in Oregon for that matter, for over 10 years.)
Since then, I have attended a Smackdown! brand house show on my birthday and a live RAW taping, both at the Rose Garden, and the 2004 Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View in Philadelphia. And while the TV tapings and PPVs are awesome for the sheer magnitude of them, I still believe that nothing beats the quality and entertainment value of the small house shows.
This past Friday night, I attended another RAW brand house show at the Rose Garden, and while I had debated about going originally, I was thankful I went afterwards. Unfortunately, I had to attend the show by myself (I know, “how lame,” huh?) because only one of my friends actually enjoys wrestling enough to watch it, and he simply couldn’t go. So, I headed over to the Rose Garden alone, but not lonely, for I was happy enough just to be going.
When the lights went out, and the first match was announced, it was then that I remember just why I enjoyed house shows so much. While they don’t have all the pyros, the elaborate stages, the giant screens and everything else TV tapings have, they have much more than that. They have genuine fan interaction and performances worthy enough to make up for fancy tricks they use to impress the television audiences. They aren’t trying to look good for the cameras, as they are more apt to taking more risks and are unafraid of messing up spots.
They also don’t have the long, worthless promo segments, just the occasional mic work to get the crowd into the match. There are no commercials. And best of all, there are really no FCC censors to worry about.
Bets of all, the wrestlers know that the only audience they have is the live audience, and they do all they can to get them involved. While matches for TV have a specific time limit they must oblige to, house show matches are more drawn out to give the audience their money’s worth. The wrestlers are often found starting chants, stopping mid-match to taunt the crowd or encourage more chants, and interacting with the referee, ringside fans and the other wrestlers in goofy, comedic ways you would never see on TV.
Basically, they make fun and hide the fact that it isn’t some huge, elaborate program. They remind the fans why they were drawn to professional wrestling in the first place.
I realized this at the recent house show I attended. While I was alone, I had a great time thanks to the house show and the friendly and fun atmosphere it presents.
Here is a recap of the house show as far as what took place, what I thought of it specifically, and everything else I experienced. (If you’re not a wrestling fan, or haven’t been keeping up with it as of late, this part might bore you … just a warning):
The show started out with The Coach coming out (to heavy boos) and announcing he was going to be the official ring announcer for the evening while making sure that everything ran smoothly per orders of Eric Bischoff. This of course meant that we wouldn’t be seeing Bischoff, which was kind of disappointing.
The first match was a triple-threat match for the Intercontinental Championship, pitting the champion, Shelton Benjamin, against Y2J Chris Jericho and Christian. The match was an awesome way to start the show, with Shelton being even more to fun live than he is on TV (which I didn’t think was possible). It was odd though, because while Y2J is slowing becoming a heel on TV, he defiantly placed the face character in this match, while Christian, who is gaining quite a bit of popularity, was damn near booed out of the building. There were a few nice spots, including Y2J powerbombing Shelton off the second rope, while at the same time, Shelton managed to superlex Christian from the top rope. Of course, the champ walked away victorious in this bout.
The next match was Tyson Tomko (who was ejected from ringside in the first match) against Tajiri. This match was pretty quick, with Tajiri getting the easy win. The most notable thing from this match was the deafening “ECW!” chants throughout the match. Ahhh, ECW…
Next was a three-way tag team elimination match for the World Tag Team Championships. It was the champs, Hurricane and Rosey, defending against The Heartthrobs and the team of Simon Dean and Maven. Sadly, Stacey Keibler did not accompany the champs at ringside as she has been doing as of late. This match was full of crowd interaction, with The Heartthrobs playing up their flamboyancy nicely. I found it odd that Maven and Simon Dean are still tag team partners, because during the ECW Invasion angle the last few weeks, Maven was part of the anti-ECW coalition, while Simon was of course involved with ECW, known then as Nova, in the group BWO. The champs won much to the delight of the fans.
Gene Snitsky came out next, and issued a challenge to … Chris Benoit? He said even though Benoit was traded to Smackdown!, he still had unfinished business he needed to take care of. “What the fuck?” I thought to myself. If the WWE is going to sell this whole brand trade, why aren’t the house shows honoring it? Benoit should not have been there, plain and simple. It just didn’t make sense. Either way, he got some nice “ECW!” chants as well, and of course, won it with the Crippler Crossface.
Next on the list was a preview for the upcoming Vengence Pay-Per-View, with Kane taking on Edge, who was accompanied by Lita. Kane got one of the loudest pops of the night, much to the surprise of me. I thought I was one of the only ones who liked Kane. Anyway, this was an interesting match, with “You screwed Matt” chants throughout it. Kane almost choke-slammed Lita onto a chair, which would have been awesome, but of course, Edge made the save with a shot to the head with his precious briefcase and picked up the victory.
The Coach then came back out and invited RAW Diva Maria to the ring. He wanted to apologize to the fans for Maria’s horrible interview and ring announcing skills, which was fucking hilarious, I thought, because it was so damn true. Anyway, she ended up trying to interview Robert Conway, and by now, I’m thinking that they are going to not only allow her to continue being a dumb broad in front of people, they are going to make it her gimmick. Ugh … as if it was painful enough. During the interview, Conway got a little aggressive towards her, forcing Big Vis to come out and save the day. Then, he and Maria danced in the ring, he kissed her, and took her to the back … while I thought to myself “What happened to Lillian Garcia? Is this considered cheating on her?”
We then had a 10-minute break, which I used to add to my notes, making this whole review possible.
After the intermission we came back to “The Masterpiece” Chris Masters, and his uber-boring “Masterlock Challenge.” This segment was a sleeper, as it was damn near identical to the segment this past Monday on RAW. The Hall of Fame legend Sgt. Slaughter came out, put up a fight, but ultimately failed the Masterlock Challenge. Whoopdie-fucking-doo. I can’t stand this shit on TV, and it is worse in person. They need to come up with something else for this kid to do or his career is going to be short-lived.
After Sgt. Slaughter left to a standing ovation, another legend came out to an utterly deafening roar.
The bagpipes blared from the speaker system and out came hometown hero, Rowdy Roddy Piper. The crowd went absolutely ballistic, and gave him a genuine and sincere 4-5 minute standing ovation. He finally got the crowd to simmer down just enough to get some words out, most of which were intangible and incomprehensive, probably due to his Scottish accent and his most-likely drunken state. He talked about how good it was to be home and that Portland was the best place to be. The sounded true and heartfelt, especially when he thanked everyone for all their support throughout his career. He was smiling, energetic, truthful … and again, probably drunk. But hey, that is the Rowdy one.
The fanfare was short-lived, however, as Muhammed Hassan and his historical sidekick Divari came out and interrupted the homecoming. I was actually looking forward to seeing Hassan live, as he has become one of my favorites, despite his astonishing heel role. He is great on the mic and a superb wrestler … and just the right look on top of it all. Anyway, things were looking bad for Piper, when HBK Shawn Michaels came out and evened the odds. Piper took out Divari while the match between Hassan and HBK got underway. Typical HBK match, with Hassan looking pretty weak against him (unfortunately). Divari came back out to help Hassan get the win, but it didn’t work. Just then, Piper returned and took out Divari once again. He then tripped up Hassan as he bounced off the ropes, distracting him just long enough to allow HBK to execute the Sweet Chin Music, perfectly. HBK got the win, and celebrated in the ring with Piper as the fans gave him and Michaels a lengthy standing ovation, once again.
I found it interesting that Hassan lost, though, because on TV he has never been pinned, which he has bragged about quite a bit. I doubt this loss will change anything, but it made me wonder how often he is on the loosing end of matches in house shows.
Finally, we had the main event, which featured the World Heavyweight Champion Batista one-on-one with “The Game” HHH in a street fight for the title. This was obviously to allow the two to get a little more comfortable with each other in the ring before their big Hell in a Cell match at the upcoming PPV. The match was typical, with a couple referee bumps and Batista getting the win. However, a couple things bothered me. First, there was no Ric Flair, which was downright sad. While I can’t stand to watch that old man wrestle anymore, he is a character all his own, and the fans absolutely love him (which was made perfectly clear by the hundreds of “Whoooooooooo!” noises throughout the building all night. Secondly, it was a street fight, meaning there was no disqualifications … yet the referee still took a chair away from HHH just as he was about to lay Batista out, as if it was illegal. “What the fuck?” I thought to myself. But whatever … everyone screws up now and again.
Afterwards, Batista celebrated the win with the crowd, and that was it. A great show – quite entertaining and well done – and defiantly worth the 20 bucks I spent to see it. What was funny though was how full it was. Honestly, there were more people at this WWE house show that at Blazer games I went to last season … and they even had the entire upper level tarped off!
So if you are a wrestling fan, and you ever get a chance to check out a live WWE show, do it, even if it is a house show, because really, sometimes those are better for the audience anyway.
(On a side note, I got my hands on a flyer for a local wrestling company who is putting on a big show this next weekend. Tickets are only $5 for general admission and $10 for ringside seats. They claim to be an “extreme” wrestling company, which is the reason I am going to go check it out. I mean shit, look at ECW back in its heyday, before they went commercial. I figure if this Portland group is even half as entertaining as the old-school ECW group, it should be well worth the $10 I will probably spend.)
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