*SPOILERS* WWE Dark Matches & SNH Taping Results, Off air Raw notes
Submitted by Calvin Martin on Tuesday, June 29, 2004 at 2:20 AM EST



Report sent in by Devin Payne(Cavalou22 on the LoP Forums)

Just got back from RAW in Richmond not too long ago. Here are
the dark matches and Sunday Night Heat taping results (actually, I am not
sure there were even any dark matches):

They played the rules over the sound system, followed by the WWE Desire
Video with Kid Rock's "Lonely Road Of Faith". The video of course got
the crowd, which was hot already, pumped up even more. Howard Finkel
then did his usual routine in the ring, and we were underway.......


The Hurricane defeated Carly Colon via pinfall: Decent little match to
kick off the night. The crowd was of course solidly behind The
Hurricane in this one, and Colon resembles Juan Epstein from "Welcome
Back Kotter". I am talking about the afro and all. After some good
back-and-forth action, The Hurricane went for his "Eye Of The Hurricane"
manuever, but Colon reversed it and attempted a schoolboy. Hurricane
held onto the ropes though, and after Colon rolled through, he was hit
with the Shining Wizard for the 1-2-3.

Al Snow and Todd Grisham made their way out to the broadcast booth for
Sunday Night Heat to Snow's theme music. Snow got a great reaction from
the fans in Richmond, but Grisham did not. Does this mean we should
consider Grisham a heel in Richmond(j/k)? Snow did a funny shtick where
he and Grisham stood on the stage and he took turns pointing to himself
and then to Grisham. You can guess what kind of reaction each of them got.

Pyro for Sunday Night Heat goes off, and.....

Garrison Cade defeated Maven via pinfall: Not bad. Cade did his best
"jawing with the referee" act to try and get some heat after an early
near fall. That's about all the heat he would get. Maven was over,
seeing as he's from Charlottesville, which is about an hour west of
Richmond. After some decent action, Cade went up top and nailed his
Flying Elbow Drop for the victory.

Victoria defeated Gail Kim via pinfall: Pretty good women's match. Kim
never seems to get much heat, but Vicky was pretty over. Kim broke out
a few different unique submission holds, prompting me to turn to a
friend of mine and say, "she's the second-best submission wrestler on
the roster behind Benoit". The end came when Victoria went to the top
rope for an attempted Moonsault. Molly Holly ran down to ringside and
pushed her off the top rope while the referee was distracted. Moments
later, Steven Richards appeared in drag, I believe to fend off Molly. I
believe this distracted Kim(people in front of me stood up quickly and I
didn't see all of what happened), who was rolled up and pinned by
Victoria. Afterwards, Richards backed up the ramp as Victoria looked
both puzzled and weirded out by him.

Val Venis defeated Murray Happer via pinfall: Val is still quite over
with the crowd after all this time. A few female friends of mine who
came along immediately rose to their feet when his music hit. Basic
match here, with Val nailing a Spinebuster followed by The Money Shot
for the win.

Tajiri defeated Chuck Palumbo via pinfall: Decent pop for Tajiri.
Palumbo is dressed similar to what he was as a member of the F.B.I., but
had different, generic-sounding music. The end sequence came when
Palumbo missed a charge into the corner, going shoulder-first into the
post. When he turned around, he took a stiff kick that knocked him to
his knees, followed by the Buzzsaw Kick to the back of the head for the end.

Lilian Garcia made her way out, sang the National Anthem(excellently
done as always) and out came J.R. and The King for RAW.

Off-air notes:

-I would say the arena was about 60-70% full. The upper concourse was
tarped off above the hard camera, as well as at the end of the arena
opposite the stage. I thought it would be a little bit more full than
it was, but the crowd was hot all night long.

-After the opening tag match between Orton/Batista and Jericho/Edge
began, I think all of the smoke from the opening pyro and Jericho's
entrance caused a smoke alarm to go off in one of the luxury boxes. I
don't know if it came off on T.V. yet, but the crowd may have drowned it
out with a "Y2J" chant.

-Speaking of Orton, he got great heat. There were many "Randy Sucks!"
chants. Evolution as a whole got a great reaction.

-Chris Benoit got the best face pop of the night, hands down. The place
exploded when he made his entrance, and then again when Kane tapped out.

-The crowd seemed ready to completely turn on Lita all night. During
her backstage scene where she was crying to Stacy, I heard chants such
as "Slut!". If she hadn't turned on Kane at the end, the crowd would
have turned on her altogether.

-Eugene's attack on Regal got mostly face pops.

-After the cameras stopped rolling, Kane began to make his way to the
back as Benoit was in the ring holding the strap. Benoit got on the mic
and asked Kane how it felt to be a member of the "You Tapped Out Club".
The crowd, just as they had done right after the match had ended,
chanted "You Tapped Out!" at Kane. Lilian then thanked us for coming as
Benoit made his way up the ramp and held the title in the air to more
cheers.

I am not real good at listing top face/heel reactions, so bear with me:

Biggest Pops
1. Benoit
2. Jericho
3. Edge
4. Eugene
5. Evolution(I put them here because they get mixed reactions)

Biggest Heat
1. Evolution(most specifically Triple H and Orton)
2. Kane
3. Bischoff
4. La Resistance

That should be about right. Eugene's pops were close to Jericho's and
Edge's, so he really wasn't far behind to be honest. Matt Hardy and
Sgt. Slaughter also got good pops. Rating Evolution is so tough because
they are over, but get really mixed reactions. H can be cheered one
minute and booed the next. Flair is insanely over since this is
Virginia. I would say Orton got the most consistent heel heat.








*NEW GALLERY* Candice Michelle's Head Up Maria's Dress! WOW!

• Quick Links -
  [Back to LOP] [News Archives] [Results] [Columns] [Forums]