LIVE Raw Report 11/22

As we were walking to the arena, some guys in the parking lot were pimping their wrestling radio show, and told us (through a megaphone) that Ricky Steamboat was backstage tonight. My friends and I were saying "Yeah, right" to each other.

Later, we were out by the wrestlers entrance. Mike Chioda signed autographs and some kid said he was there since 8 o'clock that morning and got a bunch of autographs...including Ricky Steamboat. We also saw Harvey Wippleman drive in with food and drinks. Steve Lombardi came out to help.

Prior to the show, the most heat was a couple of guys in the audience with Quebec flags. The most face heat was a guy with a sign that said "Bring back hockey." Then a "Bring back hockey" chant started up.

Dark Match: Mohammed Hassan v.s Cody Steele- Steele, apparently, is an area worker. Hassan got great heel heat (and the generic Middle-Eastern music ala Tiger Singh and Sultan). I cheered for Hassan, though.

Heat Matches: Tajiri v.s Steven Richards: Good match with good heat. Tajiri won.

Val Venis and Viscera each won squash matches, with Viscera's lasting like a minute.

Randy Orton beat Tyson Tomko. Yes, on Heat.

RAW:

The opening skit was EXCELLENT. I didn't get it at first, til' Vince came on. Line of the night: "Shelton, whether you realize it or not; you're an African-American."

The Snitsky/Maven match wasn't pretty. Little crowd heat too. Maven had to push himself on the mat to reach the ringpost when he was thrown into it.

All of the Hunter/Batista backstage segments were really well done.

Stacy was lucky- the t-shirt gun wasn't working earlier. The Simon Dean segment was okay....obvious feud with Hurricane coming.

The Batista/Jericho match was real disappointing.

Coach is actually well-built- sad to say, but I may be able to buy him as a wrestler.

The women's match was okay, nothing special. Again, little crowd heat.

The 6-man match was another one that was disappointing- should've gotten at least double the time it got.

I didn't see the swerve coming. At first, I thought Edge attacked Trips, forcing Benoit to not get a title shot. I also thought Batista may have done it, for obvious reasons. I think either one of those options would've been better than what actually played out.

Benoit v.s Edge was a pretty decent match. Interesting ending, too. Alot of the crowd left after this match, thinking it was the end of the show, but it was only 10:55.

The crowd was REALLY behind Batista that last segment. Good segment, but I don't like the Battle Royal idea, and I'm a man who likes his battle royals.

After the show cut out, all the wrestlers went down and brawled in the ring. Orton gave Trips two RKO's. Triple H afterward was selling like a champ, comically falling on the ref that helped him up the ramp several times.

After the show, we met my friend's dad, who was working security right in front of JR and the King. He said he got there at 5 o'clock, and saw them taping the Batista/Trips segments backstage at that time. As we talked and the arena was clearing out, Grisham and Coach came out to tape their segment at the desk for "Heat". I didn't know that's how they did it. My friend said "Nice match, Coach." He replied with a "Thanks" with a tone that said "Why are these kids still here/Where's security?"

All in all, a good time was had by all, but I was disappointed by the crowd heat. How did it come off on TV?