Thanks to Culley Smith for the following:
This was my first live wrestling event ever and I’ve been a steady fan for over 20 years.
Fink came out to introduce the show and tell us that tonight was special because it was the debut of Spike TV.
Dark Matches:
1. Iranian Guy v. Local Guy, Dan (something) from Moline, IL. Local Guy got a good pop and started a USA chant. Iranian guy went for a splash off the top rope using his “magic carpet,” but he missed. Local guy won with 540 flip off the top rope. Great move! Decent cruiserweight match.
2. Rob Conway v. another local guy from Rock Island, IL. I’m starting to think they are lying to us about the local guys. Anyway, okay match. Rob Conway won with a simple neckbreaker.
Heat:
Coach came out to a decent pop. Snow came out to a big pop and got the crowd to boo Coach by pointing at himself first, then at Coach. A “head” chant started.
1. Test v. Val Venis: Lots of close near falls, but Test won with a boot. Okay match.
Fink announced the start of Sunday Night Heat and the Pyro went off. During the night, I kept wondering how these guys do this week in and out. That pyro is deafening!
2. Maven v. Steven Benjamin(?): Some boring chants, but Maven and the other guy really tried to work the crowd. Maven won. Okay match.
3. Mark Jindrak & Garrison Cade v. 2 guys (it’s hard to understand the names): Jacqueline was the special guest referee, but I have no idea why? Cade and Jindrak won with their finisher, where Cade holds the guy up and Jindrak dropkicks him. This move is impressive, especially since Jindrak didn’t use 45 dropkicks during the match!
Fink tried to get us to buy WWE t-shirts. A guy used the t-shirt gun to shoot about 8 shirts into the audience. The t-shirt guy was cheered until he left the ring, then got a good amount of heat.
4. Steven Richards (w/Victoria) v. Tommy Dreamer. Richards got the biggest heat on Heat, and Dreamer got the biggest pop. Dreamer got an ECW chant during the match. Victoria got up on the rope, Dreamer grabbed her like he was going to hit her, but gave her a kiss instead. Richards got the win at this point, because Dreamer was distracted. The crowd was cheering Victoria after the match and booing Richards.
Raw:
Nothing noteworthy happened. Between commercials. Lillian got lots of cheers and whistles, but other than that, nothing happened. Except, Christian came out twice to Booker T’s music, which was confusing. Maybe, they did a re-shoot, but the first time was definitely louder.
After Raw went off the air, Flair and Orton walked up the ramp and Lillian thanked us. One thing I’d like to note, though, is that watching it taped now, the crowd doesn’t sound anywhere near as loud on TV as we were live.
One note to WWE, keep the crowd pumped during the commercial breaks! It was literally dead and the crowd was just waiting for something to happen!
Biggest Heat:
1. Easily Eric Bischoff… all night, every time he came out he got booed.
2. La Resistance
3. Coach
4. Kane got booed when he didn’t chokeslam Eric
5. Crowd sort of got on Trish and Gail for both missing spots back to back, which led to Molly getting a decent pop when she won.
Biggest pops:
1. JR
2. Goldberg
3. Austin
4. Stacy and Steiner (more Stacy)
5. Hurricane
Culley Smith
Rock Island, Illinois
