FEBRUARY 9, 2004 - MONDAY NIGHT RAW
With just twenty days to go until No Way Out, the EWR gods have decided to bless me with a dud show. Huzzah!
The night opens with a tag team match pitting the Sin City Swingers against Batista and the Boss Man. Decent match that actually gets Boss Man a little bit over (!) as he manages to get in a decent amount of offense. In the end, Batista hits a low blow on Rico and rolls him up for the cheap win. After the match, the Swingers get revenge and take their opponents out.
The crowd is way into the next match pitting halves of the biggest tag-team rivalry in WWE against each other. It's Bubba Ray Dudley against Christian! For the second week in a row, Christian puts on a hell of a match against a Dudley, and this time he again takes the cheap way out. Chris Jericho hits Bubba from behind with a chair allowing Christian to hit the Unprettier for the win. After the match, D-Von Dudley comes to the ring to make the save.
In an undisclosed location (the Hurri-Cave), Hurricane - the #1 contender for the Intercontinental Title - cuts a promo about his rival Matt Hardy. He knows where this is going to end up, and so does everyone else. But before they can make it to the 19th anniversary, they're going to need to last that long without destroying each other completely. If Matt was smart tonight, he'd stay in the back (
).
Damn me for putting good matches on early! The crowd was still pumped from the Bubba/Christian match that they shat on Spike and Lance Storm versus Test and Regal. Crap crap crap. Plus, it's a dud show, so the rating is preposterously low. Ah, well, Storm hits Regal with a Superkick for the win.
A pretty decent D-Von Dudley vs. Matt Hardy match also gets the dud treatment. The crowd is into it, but the game isn't. Christian hits D-Von with a chair (shades of the earlier match) to allow Matt to set up the Twist of Fate for the win. After the match, Hurricane tears down the aisle with a chair of his own to chase off Christian and Hardy.
Backstage, Shawn Michaels cuts a promo on The Rock. These two were never friends. The Heartbreak Kid doesn't have any friends. And, apparently, he doesn't have any fans anymore, either. He thought that the carefree, degenerate, show-stopping Shawn Michaels was what the fans wanted, but after the reception he's received since superkicking Rocky last month, he has two words for the fans. And the first one gets bleeped out.
Ugh, I hate writing up reviews on dud shows. Nova hits the Kryptonite Krunch on Sylvain Grenier giving him, Tommy Dreamer, and RVD the win over La Res.
There's actually a ref bump in the Victoria/Molly Holly title match, but it doesn't really go anywhere other than the fact that it's cool that Molly hit an enzuigiri. Victoria retains with the Black Widow.
Backstage, The Rock cuts a promo on Shawn Michaels and how he's the antithesis of everything HBK is. Where Shawn Michaels doesn't give a damn about the people, The Rock is the People's Champion. And while Shawn Michaels may be the Showstopper, even he can't lay claim to being the most electrifying man in sports entertainment today if you smell what The Rock is cookin'.
Up next, it's Hurricane versus Chris Jericho, and one can only bet that after the way the night has gone, Bubba Ray Dudley and Matt Hardy can't be far behind. These two put on the match of the night (not surprisingly), and also not surprisingly, Jericho eats a Bubba Cutter, which allows Hurricane to pick up the pieces and the win. After the match, Matt Hardy hits the ring with a chair and drives off his rivals. Hmm... What could this be leading to?
The main event of the evening pits The Rock and Booker T against Shawn Michaels and Kane, a preview of two of the matches at No Way Out. Decent match that ends with HBK using the champ's tights to pin The Rock. After the match, Rock and Booker get their revenge, laying HBK and Kane out as the show goes off the air.