Full Credit to John Keane, PWInsider.com
Raw Recap for 11/15/2004.
Live from the Canseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Your Announcers are Jim Ross and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler.
I’ll start by quickly going over the results from last night’s Survivor Series PPV for the Raw side of the roster:
1. On Heat, World Tag Team Champions Sylvan Grenier & Rob Conway defeated Rosey & The Hurricane in a non-title match.
2. Shelton Benjamin defeated Christian to retain his Intercontinental Championship.
3. Lita challenging Trish Stratus for the Women’s Championship went to a ‘no contest’ when Lita went berserk and turned Trish into a bloody mess with chair shots.
4. In a Classic SurSeries 4 on 4 Elimination match, Randy Orton, Chris Benoit, Maven & Living Legend Chris Jericho defeated Gene Snitsky, Edge, Batista, and World Champion HHH (for those with an eye to history, Randy was the sole ‘survivor’). As a result, the members of the winning team will each get to ‘run’ Raw for one week (stip was previously laid down by our beloved General Manager Eric Bischoff, who immediately after SurSeries began a well deserved month long vacation). Who’ll be doing the honors tonight has not been announced.
Enough old stuff. Let’s do this…
Cold opening, we begin with tag champs Sylvan Grenier & Rob Conway waving their flags in the ring. Syl begins his standard butchering of ‘O Canada’ when Maven interrupts. Turns out it’s his night to run the show! OK. He already has some matches on tap-whoah, for the first time in 3 years, Edge & Christian will be teaming! One for my boy JG! They’ll face Shelton Benjamin & Chris Benoit. Also later on-Jonathan Coachman vs. Good ol’ J.R. (ehhh), and Stacy Keibler vs. Divas Search winner Christy Hemme in a ‘lingerie pillow fight’. Main Event will be himself facing HHH for the World Championship. Hey, got the power, use it.
As for La Res, right now they get to defend their tag titles in a 3-team elimination match-challengers are William Regal & Eugene Dinsmore and Tajiri & Rhyno. 2 men only in the ring at all times, tags (hot or otherwise) can be made all around. Bell rings, we get some nice crisp action (particularly between Eugene and Tajiri), all 3 teams remain as we go to break.
Back, action continues, Rhyno in particular seems like a man on a mission. Sadly he misses with the Gore and gets pinned by Sylvan-Team ECW are done.Eugene attempts to Hulk Up but gets dragged to the outside and hammered. La Res keep him isolated, from out of nowhere Eugene hits Rob with a Rock Bottom but can’t make the cover. Tags to William and Syl, latter goes down to a high knee, William goes for the cover-then decides to tag in his partner. Eugene connects with a People’s Elbow, 1-2-3. New tag champs-William Regal & Eugene Dinsmore. No problem here! Post-match Eugene invites some young fans into the ring to join him in celebration. Break.
(VERY cool commercial airs for WWE 24/7.)
Back, interview girl Maria chats with Regal. He promises he and his partner will bring honor back to the tag straps. Eugene enters and douses both with Yoohoo. William gallantly treats Maria to a toweling off. Watta cool guy.
Cut to Maven chatting up a girl named Candace on the way to his office. He enters to find HHH, who proposes a deal-scratch the World title match and become the 4th member of Evolution. Maven declines, Hunter goes into Cerebral Assassin mode-he reminds Maven that his partners of last night were nowhere to be seen while he was being beaten down by Snitsky early on in the PPV. He promises nothing of the kind will ever happen to him again if he joins Evo. Simple choice-roll the dice on the big match or take the sure thing. Maven ponders as Hunter states he’ll have until the bell rings to make his decision. Break.
Monster Job of the Week: From last night, Lita goes berserk on Trish.
Next match: Lita vs. Molly Holly. Bell rings, back and forth action, both women take turns controlling-until Lita slaps on a sleeper and laces the leg. Molly quickly taps out. Post-match Trish, wearing an elaborate facial mask, makes her way down the ramp. She screeches about being disfigured and enters the ring, Molly goes for the sneak attack on Lita but gets effortlessly DDT’ed. Trish stands her ground screaming like a banshee, Lita piefaces her, then smiles. Think I like this new, vicious Lita. Break.
Back, J.R. announces a poll is up at WWE.com; ‘Will Maven join Evolution?’
Oh boy-time for Coach vs. J.R. Good ol’ removes his jacket and tie and heads down as Coach talks trash. Bell rings, Coach and J.R. circle-until Maven appears on the Titantron. He announces that the J.R. he mentioned earlier wasn’t Jim Ross-actually the ‘J’ is silent, however there is an ‘R’-as in Randy Orton. Coach attempts to bail, Randy enters through the crowd and cuts him off as J.R. returns to the announce table. Quick squash, Coach gets pinned after the RKO.
Cut to Todd Grisham with Edge & Christian (man it feels GREAT typing that). Neither man is all that thrilled about being ‘demoted’ to the tag ranks. Both put over their accomplishments as singles wrestlers. After Christian exits Edge teases a ‘5 second’ pose’, but instead nearly delivers a Stone Cold Salute (camera abruptly pulled away). Break.
Back, Randy Orton is WALKING! (weekly CRZ tribute) and runs into Maven, who’s still undecided on joining Evolution. Randy tries to dissuade him, Maven points out that being in Evo could have it’s advantages-after all, when Randy was a member he had an 8-month IC title reign. Issue remains undecided.
Next match: Edge & Christian, with Tyson Tomko vs. Chris Benoit & Shelton Benjamin. Bell rings, early on Christian gets isolated, he finally gets to make the tag, match continues on a back and forth basis, good crisp action. Shelton and Chris take control, E & C are left lying on the outside, we go to break.
(Commentary: No sign of Ric Flair or Batista so far tonight. Kind of odd…)
Back, E & C have assumed control with some help from Tomko. Shelton gets isolated and double teamed, E & C go for a ripoff of the Hardys and try for Poetry in Motion, Shelton ducks under and makes the tag. Benoit kicks ass like only he can, Tomko’s interference backfires, rolling Germans are unleashed, diving headbutt sets up the Crossface, Christian quickly taps out. Real good match that I can’t do justice to in the space of this quick recap.
Post-match Edge goes nuts and attacks Christian, leaving him lying at ringside.
Back in his office Maven continues pondering HHH’s proposal. Oh, there’s the Nature Boy-he offers some incentive to join Evo in the form of 2 floozies. Ric exits as the girls paw at Maven, who still appears undecided. Break.
Back for Stacy vs. Christy in a ‘lingerie pillow fight’. King Size bed is in the ring. Stacy’s wearing fishnets, as she ALWAYS should. Pillows are tossed, feathers fly, Christy gets the win. Enough said.
Cut to HHH backstage. Batista joins him and asks why he made the made the Evo membership proposal to Maven. Explanation-since he’s sure the entire locker room would empty to insure a win by Maven (a far easier ‘target’), he figured he could ‘buy’ his way to an easy title retention. All through their chat Hunter issued snide ‘joking’ comments regarding Batista’s ability to ‘think’. Not real nice.
Back, J.R. gives us results from the WWE.com regarding Maven-64% of those voting feel he’ll pass on joining Hunter’s crew.
Simon Dean is in the ring for a live infomercial. He mentions some of ‘the boys backstage’ have a problem with some of his comments regarding overweight people. Guy in the ring with him, ‘Eric’ gets described as morbidly obese (huh? bit, paunchy maybe). More unkind comments regarding ‘fatties’ draws Rosey out. Simon at first tries to make amends, then rags on the Superhero. Rosey launches an attack, Simon uses Eric as a shield, then tosses ‘Fitno Powder’ at Rosey before bailing. The point?
Smackdown Rebound: From SurSeries, U.S. Champion Carlito Caribbean Cool ran like a scalded dog to avoid an attack by John Cena. He subsequently left Luther Rains, Mark Jindrak & Olympic Hero Kurt Angle hanging when they faced (and lost to) Eddy Guerrero, The Big Show, Rob Van Dam and Cena in what was to be a 4 on 4 match. Next Thursday Carlito will put his title on the line, facing John C., as ordered b Smackdown GM Theodore R. Long.
In his office, Maven is still hanging with the girls as Y2J and Benoit enter. Ladies bail, Chris X2 do their best to convince Maven not to sell out to HHH. Bit unnecessary, I’m thinking-Maven’s already in his wrestling gear…Break.
WWE Rewind: From last night, Orton pins HHH to become the sole ‘Survivor’.
Wrestlemania Recall: From WM12, Shawn Michaels defeats Bret Hart for the WWE Championship. Their classic ‘Iron Man’ match.
We get a re-recorded message from Muhammad Hassan. He’s pissed about his Uncle Akbar having to close his convenience store (BLATANT STEREOTYPE ALERT) due to a lack of community support. So’s his manager Khosrow Davari. Muhammad threatens to ‘lead a revolt against his very own country’. Stupid and classless, Arab-American groups have a right to be WAY pissed off. In my opinion, of course.
Here we go. HHH, flanked by Batista and Flair, makes his way to the ring. Maven joins them in his ring gear. HHH wants the decision made, NOW. Maven obliges-Evolution membership is declined. Bell rings, Flair and Batista enter the ring, they back out as Jericho and Benoit march to ringside. Match begins for real, HHH dominates, Maven mounts the comeback and goes for a move off the top, Batista knocks him to the canvas, ref sees it, Batista is immediately ejected. Flair comes in and shoves the ref, bye bye Nature Boy. HHH is left to go it alone, Benoit and Jericho take turns distracting the ref/pounding HHH, who struggles mightily to keep things on an even keel with Maven. Game ducks under a move off the top and looks for the Pedigree, Benoit distracts the ref as Y2J hits Hunter with a bulldog and a lionsault-Maven weakly covers for 2. HHH tries for another Pedigree, he gets it this time and covers, Jericho drapes Maven’s boot on the bottom rope before the count of 3. Ref’s had enough of Y2J, he’s told to hit the bricks. As he walks him toward the ramp Benoit charges in, HHH takes a German and the diving headbutt. Ref reenters, another weak cover by Maven just gets 2. Both men rise, HHH looks for another Pedigree, Edge runs in through the crowd, Maven and Hunter separate, Edge flies through them, ref goes down to the Spear. Jericho reenters the fray, he and Benoit pound the s*** out of Edge, Flair and Batista return to even the odds, we’re now officially in Pier 6 mode. Ric tosses Hunter the belt, he prepares to clobber Maven as Orton charges in. Randy seizes the belt, HHH takes the shot and drops, ref shakes off the cobwebs as Randy bails, Maven goes for the cover, ref gets to 2 before being dragged out by Flair. Randy lays into the Nature Boy, last entrant to the wild schmozz is Gene Snitsky. Maven and HHH groggily stand, Even Meaner Gene thinks for just a moment before deciding to flatten Maven with a big boot. Hunter follows up with the Pedigree and gets 3. Winner and still World Champion: HHH.
Hunter barely manages to crawl to the ramp as J.R. and the King wonder who’ll be running Raw next week. End of show.
Short form match results (all victories by pinfall unless otherwise noted):
1. William Regal & Eugene Dinsmore won a 3 team elimination match to become World Tag Team Champions. Coming up short were Rhyno & Tajiri and (now former champions) Sylvan Grenier & Rob Conway.
2. Lita defeated Molly Holly, submission.
3. Randy Orton defeated Jonathan Coachman.
4. Chris Benoit & Shelton Benjamin defeated Edge & Christian, submission.
5. Christy Hemme defeated Stacy Keibler in a ‘lingerie pillow fight’.
6. HHH defeated Maven to retain his World Championship.
Source: PWInsider.com
