Originally Posted by Cool King
(Post 5201814)
• Before the Raw opening (remember those?) we start with Paul Heyman talking to The Undertaker backstage where it's announced that the main event tonight is The Undertaker/Brock Lesnar vs Rob Van Dam/Ric Flair.
During this segment, Undertaker mentions how he makes people famous so I think that's where it all began (I remember the whole "I'll make you famous" thing).
• The Raw opening finishes and we see where we are and for some reason we're just shown the name of the arena and not the city and state like we usually are, although last week we were just shown the name of the city and no state.
https://i.postimg.cc/52MbLw80/z1.png
Maybe next week it'll be the name of the street?
• We start with the nWo's theme blasting out but Vince comes out instead.
It was actually weird seeing Vince come out with nWo's theme and entrance and I actually can't remember that from back in the day.
Anyway, Vince grabs a mic and announces that we've just heard the nWo theme for the last time and that the nWo are officially over (probably because Nash's quad exploded last week).
Vince says that the WWE have to move with the times and that's why he's going to announce new GM's for Raw and SmackDown, with Raw's GM being announced within the hour.
Vince's promo did leave me wondering what the original plan was with the nWo and Triple H, with the nWo trying to get Triple H to join them. Was Triple H going to join them? Was Triple H going to say no and be involved in an angle that pitted him on his own against all of the nWo?
We'll just never know.
Unless someone does know.
• The first match is a six-man elimination match (I love elimination matches, especially unexpected ones like this).
It's a shame this doesn't really happen these days. Both elimination matches and unexpected "special matches" on Raw.
It's Jeff Hardy/Bubba/Spike vs William Regal/Chris Benoit/Eddie Guerrero.
- Eddie eliminated Spike
- Bubba eliminated himself via DQ
- Jeff eliminated Regal
- Jeff eliminated Eddie
- Regal returns and hits Jeff with the brass knucks and Benoit eliminates Jeff via KO whilst applying the Crippler Crossface.
It was a fun match that I actually enjoyed. I would actually love to see more of that kind of stuff on Raw these days.
• Later backstage we see Tommy Dreamer talking to Rob Van Dam and then after RVD leaves, Steven Richards appears and challenges Dreamer to a Singapore Cane Match which Dreamer accepts (another unexpected "special match" happening on Raw, I might add).
We return from a break and Richards' music hits and the match is now.
At one point during the match, Richards hits Dreamer over the neck with a cane and the impact looks pretty brutal, along with the extremely loud "SNAP" noise the cane made when it came into contact with Dreamer's neck.
Later in the match I actually thought Richards had won after this:
But Dreamer kicked out.
Right after it, Dreamer smacked Richards over the head with a cane and the cane just exploded on impact and made a "SNAP" noise that was ten times louder than the "SNAP" noise I mentioned earlier.
Dreamer won and was left like this:
https://i.postimg.cc/YSKp10sp/z6.png
It was actually a fun match to watch which Richards totally dominated. I think we're getting to the point where Richards debuts a new theme and that it'll be his last WWE theme, as backstage with Dreamer earlier and during the match, Richards kept saying "You'll see!".
At the moment, Richards is using Kronik's Theme that's a remake of "Love Dump" by Static-X, so I'm sure it won't be long before he's using Jim Johnston's remake of it.
• After the match we see Booker T and The Coach comes to ask him about his match tonight and by the end of the interview Booker makes The Coach do a "Coacharoonie".
After it, Lawler asks if Coach is Caucasian and not long after that, Booker asks Coach "are you sure you're black, dawg?".
Booker is ending his promo in his usual way but stops as we see Eric Bischoff appear.
https://i.postimg.cc/7hk42Wsm/z8.png
• After the break we see Vince come out to no music who then introduces Eric Bischoff as the new Raw GM.
Bischoff comes out and we see a series of small memorable moments that together create a big historic moment that I'm sure we all remember so vividly.
- The Hug
- The Handshake
- Bischoff's Thumbs-Up
- Vince Raising Bischoff's Arm
JR's deadpan commentary during that was great though:
Lawler: I used to sit in the same broadcast booth every Monday night with Vince when he would wish death upon Eric Bischoff and now they're hugging each other, look at this!
JR: They're probably picking each other's pockets.
and
JR: I've got twenty-five years in the business and it comes down to where Eric Bischoff is my new boss. My God, am I lucky fat Oklahoman.
I do want to mention Bischoff's theme and that on the WWE Network, it's been dubbed.
I've seen clips of this moment on the internet and it's always shown Bischoff coming out to "Back in Black" by AC/DC, but I honestly can't remember Bischoff coming out to that theme when I first watched it back in 2002.
I remember him coming out to his "I'm Back" theme and for years I always wondered why I remembered him coming out to that theme when in fact, he came out to "Back in Black", as shown by the numerous amounts of videos of that moment that have appeared on the Internet since then.
Well, I've done some research and it turns out that I'm not going crazy or anything like that, as apparently, Bischoff coming out to "Back in Black" was only ever seen by North American audiences, as they watched it live.
Back in 2002, Raw was still being shown on Friday nights here in the UK and in the UK showing (and pretty much every other country), his theme was dubbed with his "I'm Back" theme.
It's taken me sixteen years to find that out.
I don't know what to do with my life now.
Anyway, bad attempts at comedy aside, it's back to Raw and Bischoff enters the ring and delivers his promo, a promo I remember mostly for the fact that Bischoff always had his back to the hard camera, so we got a cameraman in the ring instead and we saw the crowd behind the announce table for the longest time ever.
• Later in the show we're at ringside with JR and Lawler and JR announces the death of Jimmy (as JR called him) Miranda who was a WWE employee who recently passed away.
https://i.postimg.cc/XNBXyrLz/z10.png
I can't remember WWE employees who aren't wrestlers or other on-screen talent getting this kind of treatment when they've died but I actually think he's the only WWE employee to get this treatment, so I'm assuming that he was either very important within the company or his death was very tragic.
• Hardcore Championship match now and it's Bradshaw vs Chris Nowinski.
Bradshaw comes out with his new "Texas Hardcore Championship" (but it's not referenced as that on TV) and in reality, it's just a toy replica of the Smoking Skull Championship with a Texas flag sticker and bull horns on it.
https://i.postimg.cc/tTCWj9HH/z11.png
The match starts and it quickly ends up backstage (I always liked it when Hardcore Matches would go backstage).
Bradshaw then attempts to murder Nowinski by jamming his head in a crate, however, as that was happening, Johnny "The Bull" Stamboli appears from the world's most pointless door and whacks Bradshaw over the head with a plank of wood and pins Bradshaw to become the new Hardcore Champion.
When Stamboli appeared, JR said "Wait! There's that Johnny "The Bull" Stamboli!" and Lawler said "Who's that!?".
I also can't remember Johnny "The Bull" Stamboli having this funky techno number as his theme:
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We all know the WWE loves stereotypes, so it surprises me that Stamboli was given this theme as it sounds more "Stereotypical Australian" than "Stereotypical Italian (American)".
• After that we see Big Show enter Bischoff's room and he asks him to make a match at Vengeance between himself and Booker T and Bischoff does so and that is Bischoff's first WWE match that he made.
During the segment, Bischoff accidentally called Big Show "Giant".
A break happens and when we return we're still with Bischoff but he's talking to Stamboli who is trying to cut a promo but keeps struggling to deliver his lines.
Bradshaw then appears from nowhere and pretty much decapitates Stamboli and takes the Hardcore Championship back.
• We start right from the opening pyro with Chris Jericho vs John Cena.
Was Cena's nickname at this time "The Rookie"?
I ask because ever since Cena debuted, Micheal Cole has always called him "The Rookie" or "This Rookie" but even though at this time Cena was a rookie and Cole is right by calling him so, it's just the amount of times Cole uses "Rookie" during Cena's matches is crazy.
It's almost constant.
During this match against Jericho, Cole used "Rookie" about three times in quick succession so I decided to count how many times he would say "Rookie" when referencing Cena and by the end of the match, Cole said "Rookie" ten times and it was a really short match as Jericho got himself DQ'd.
I might actually have a "Micheal Cole Rookie Count" or whatever during Cena's matches from now on.
• Anyways, after that we see Marc Lloyd outside waiting for the new SmackDown GM and a white limo pulls up and inside is Bischoff.
• The Hurricane vs Chavo Guerrero now and it's a short match which Chavo wins after making The Hurricane tap out to a STF (when was the last time someone won a match with a STF?) and after the match, Chavo grabs a mic and challenges Rey Mysterio Jr. to have his debut match in the WWE be against him.
• After that we see a black limo driving up backstage and Tazz says "Does anybody take a taxi anymore?".
Inside it's Vince and he tells Marc Lloyd that the new GM may already be inside the arena.
• A break finishes as we see Bischoff backstage talking to Rico.
Rico gives Bischoff his card and tells him that if he ever needs his services then not to hesitate to call him. After seeing that, my first thought was "so that's how 3-Minute Warning began".
Bischoff then leaves and he comes across Vince and the two talk but they don't say anything noteworthy.
• It's Billy & Chuck vs Hardcore Holly & The Big Valbowski and this match is basically a "Velocity Match" as the "mini-tron" was displaying the Velocity graphics and the arena lighting was changed to green.
https://i.postimg.cc/KYRS1Mbq/z14.png
At first I thought it was a mistake with the "mini-tron" and Cole claiming that it was to advertise the "hot new show" that is Velocity was just a cover-up for the botch, as it was obvious by the sound of Cole's audio that his audio was recorded later.
Then I saw that the arena lighting was green too and I thought, "oh, maybe it wasn't a mistake after all and it is just one big advertisement for Velocity".
But then I realised that I'd been had when I saw this:
https://i.postimg.cc/V6q7vfJZ/z15.png
Micheal Cole and Tazz aren't at the announce table, yet I'm hearing them call the match.
It turns out that this match is an actual match from Velocity that's being shown on SmackDown and being portrayed as being a "SmackDown Match".
What's going on?
I can only guess why Vince & Co. decided to edit in a Velocity match on SmackDown and pretend that it's happening on SmackDown and so many reasons are flying around my head that I can't really name them all, as I'd be typing forever.
Anyway, Hardcore Holly & The Big Valbowski won and after that, Valbowski's old "Val Venis Theme" played instead of the theme he had when he was "The Big Valbowski".
• We get another "Extreme Blast Of The Night" but this time those top notch 2002 graphics have changed slightly (they added the "Tower of Power" logo and some confetti).
The "Extreme Blast of the Night" was just Hogan & Edge saving Rikishi from Lance Storm, Christian and Test.
• Later backstage we see The Rock warming up in his locker room and Eric Bischoff comes in and tries to sign him to Raw but The Rock refuses.
The Rock says that when he becomes Undisputed Champion at Vengeance, he can go on any show he wants.
He can go on Raw, SmackDown, The Osbournes, The Sopranos and he then says he could even "go on Frasier and kick him right in the nuts if he wanted do".
That line got a big laugh from Cole & Tazz.
The Rock then does an impression of Frasier and also of himself kicking Frasier in the nuts.
• After a break, Vince McMahon comes out to announce Stephanie McMahon as the new SmackDown GM and out comes a very young looking Stephnaie.
It's crazy that she was only 25 at that time.
Stephanie takes the mic and she even sounds young.
It's actually quite jarring.
Listening to her talk, she actually sounds like a female. She has a very "feminine voice" whereas now, her voice is quite deep in comparison.
It's mad.
Stephanie ends her promo by saying that she is going to throw Bischoff out of the arena and the camera follows her through the Gorilla Position and my how the Gorilla Position has changed.
Back then, it's so small and dimly lit that it actually resembles a crack den.
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