Full Credit: Todd Martin, WrestlingObserver.com
WWE Raw Report
By: Todd Martin
Email: MartinT2007@lawnet.ucla.edu
Date: 02/28/05 from Providence, RI.
The Big News: Following an exciting street fight where Shawn Michaels beat
Edge, Kurt Angle showed up to lay out Michaels and accept his challenge for
WrestleMania. Also, Batista was ready to fight HHH again, but HHH thought
better of that proposition. Finally, Hulk Hogan will be inducted into the
Hall of Fame, and Steve Austin will appear in Piper’s Pit at WrestleMania.
Title Changes/Turns: None.
Match Results: Chris Benoit b Muhammad Hassan-DQ; Shelton Benjamin b Gene
Snitsky; Chris Masters b John Walters; Chris Jericho b Maven; Street Fight:
Shawn Michaels b Edge.
Show Analysis:
HHH came out to start the show. He did a good job playing a guy who is
nervous and upset. The crowd thought Batista will beat HHH at WresteMania,
but HHH disagreed. HHH did the usual shtick about how great he is. He said
Batista is a child and that he is Batista’s father. He said Batista has been
doing good (sic), but HHH will show him the difference between doing good
and being good. Hurricane came out for no apparent reason, so HHH pedigreed
him on the floor. He warned Batista not to show up.
Chris Benoit beat Muhammad Hassan via disqualification. Hassan went after
Benoit’s back, but Benoit came back with rolling Germans. The referee got
bumped in the middle of this, and Daivari gave Hassan the ring bell. When
Benoit came off the top with a head butt, he supposedly hit the bell. I say
supposedly because Hassan didn’t get it over. Daivari rolled Hassan on top
of Benoit, but Benoit kicked out. Hassan then used a low blow for a DQ. This
was a train wreck of a finish, and this trend of at least one bullshit DQ
every week is an irritating trend. They aired a weird new Trish Stratus
Stacker 2 commercial, where she was treated like a total face to the extent
it came off as insincere, which hurts her ability to pitch the product.
They announced Hulk Hogan will be in the Hall of Fame, which was a necessary
and welcome inclusion. Batista arrived, not at all angry, and said he would
thank HHH for unleashing the animal. Shelton Benjamin finally beat Gene
Snitsky to retain the Intercontinental Title, with the Stinger Splash and
T-Bone. What was the point of this feud? It didn’t build a WrestleMania
match, and just wasted time with awful, unsatisfying matches. They announced
a Piper’s Pit with Steve Austin at WrestleMania. That’s somewhat intriguing,
but WWE seems lost as to how to build a buy rate for a pay-per-view. There
are plenty of ringside tickets available by the way.
Chris Masters beat John Walters with a full nelson. I don’t think they even
mentioned Walters by name. Gabe Sapolsky had to love that match. Jim Ross
interviewed Batista in the ring. Batista said Raw has always been about HHH,
and he decided to do something about it. Batista put over HHH but said he is
bigger, better and smarter. He said at WrestleMania 21 he will be the man by
beating the man. HHH and Flair came out. They were going to jump Batista at
the same time but Batista cut Flair off and HHH changed his mind. Batista
kept laying out Flair and begging HHH to enter, while HHH refused. Batista’s
first interview was borderline awful, but the angle afterwards was great.
The crowd was really into Batista, but Batista didn’t explain at all why he
turned on HHH. As I was troubled by last week, all the subtlety and build of
the angle has been lost. Maybe they should give Batista a manager.
Chris Jericho beat Maven with the Walls. Jericho said he wants to make an
impact at Mania, and he envisions a match involving 5 other guys and a
ladder. They aired a new WrestleMania parody, this time of A Few Good Men.
That’s hilarious, considering we watched that scene from the movie in class
today. Yes, we definitely have better things to do, but they’re taking it
easy on us in that class since we have a big memo coming up.
Christy unveiled her Playboy cover, but thankfully Trish interrupted. She
started to spray paint the cover, but Christy slapped her. Trish responded
to that escalation by giving her a chick kick and spray painting slut on her
back. At least Trish didn’t make her look like a skunk. Superstar Graham
backstage told Randy Orton to find something unique and special to do at
WrestleMania. Orton had a cover of Smackdown magazine with Undertaker on it.
Edge in an interview said Michaels is overlooking him and promised to vent
his hostilities on Michaels.
Shawn Michaels beat Edge in a street fight. They said come dressed as you
are, which was funny since Edge was wearing jeans and he is never shown in
jeans even backstage. They should have called this a bunkhouse brawl. They
brawled to the outside. Edge hit Michaels with a garbage can lid and gave
him a DDT on the chair. Michaels did a horrific blade job at that point and
was bleeding all over for the rest of the match. Edge used a drop toe hold
on a ladder for a near fall, and had Michaels’ blood on his face like war
paint, ala Jerry Lynn. Edge went after Michaels with a chair but Michaels
sent him into the ladder. Michaels then gave Edge a brutal chair shot. He
followed that up with an inverted atomic drop, body slam, and Singapore cane
shot. Michaels hit the elbow off the top, but missed sweet chin music. Edge
hit him low with a chair and hit the spear, but Michaels kicked out. Edge
threw a temper tantrum and Michaels hit sweet chin music for the pin. Kurt
Angle then showed up, and attacked Michaels. He gave him an overhead suplex,
picked him apart with punches, and gave him the Angle slam. Angle wore dress
pants, which were covered in blood. It was a great visual. Angle accepted
Michaels’ challenge for WrestleMania. This was a great match, and an
exciting angle to conclude the show. The crowd wasn’t that lively for it,
but Michaels did a really good job selling the lack of blood.
Final Thoughts:
The end of this show was great. The rest was a mixed bag. The WrestleMania
hype is very poorly focused. They are just throwing together matches, and
aren’t doing a good job establishing stakes for individual matches. You need
to provide a reason for the matches, and explain why it matters who wins and
loses. Right now it seems most of the matches are being fought for some sort
of abstract concept of greater glory. Batista-HHH this week was good in some
ways and bad in others. We will see how the next month goes on that front.
The closing angle on this show really brought interest to Michaels-Angle.
