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Submitted by Daniel Pena on Friday, February 24, 2006 at 11:24 AM EST
Report sent in by Jason Inocencio *Venue:* Araneta Coliseum, Cubao, Quezon City *Gates opened:* 3:30p.m. *Show started:* 6:00p.m. For the first time in over a decade, the WWE was back in Manila! Needless to say, this was the hottest ticket in town, and despite some political rumblings around etro Manila, the shows was definitely going on. This was the most number of people that I've seen in the Araneta Coliseum, and I've seen a lot of events in what we affectionately call "The Big Dome". (The venue is usually packed during college basketball season of the University Athletics Association of the Philippines or UAAP and during the finals of the local Philippine Basketball Association or PBA). When the gates opened, those of us in the Upper Box B made a run for good seats immediately. No Titantron, so we weren't treated to videos of the stars. Lots of "Wooooo!" chants even an hour before the show started. Most popular wrestlers based on the t-shirts worn by people around the venue were (in no particular order) Cena, HHH, and surprisingly Carlito! Crowd pops when the first ref of the evening, Chad Patton, comes to check the ropes and turnbuckles. Chad gets quick requests for photos with some people sitting at ringside. Crowd pops again when Mick Foley takes a peek at the crowd from the tunnel! Mick was just here last month acting like an advance party for the WWE, so he already knows how big they are over here. Pyro immediately followed the familiar RAW theme and the venue was literally shaking. First match of night had Maria as guest ring announcer. First superstar to emerge from tunnel is Eugene. *Eugene vs. Tyson Tomko* got a good reaction, mainly because they were the first guys out. Good idea to have this as first match, since Eugene set the fan-friendly tone of the evening. *Eugene** wins after a stunner* in a five-minute match. We next hear the music of "The Masterpiece" Chris Masters as the young powerhouse gets set for action. *Masters vs. Val Venis* was probably the only match that didn't get a huge reaction. Masters looks really buff in person, poses a lot, even does the old Luger trick of moving his pecs individually. Val is a real veteran of these world tours as the previous day, during a meet-and-greet session with the show's sponsors, the former "Chief Morley" brought all the kids to have pics with him and Viscera. *Masters wins via Masterlock* after about 15 minutes. Next was Viscera vs. Snitsky. Gene got a decent pop, but Vis was way over. Apparently this was Vis' second trip to Manila. My pal Christian remembers that he was still wrestling as Mabel the last time he visited. Vis did his funny strut and that probably *was* the largest smoking jacket in the world. Crowd got excited when the former Mabel did the Visagra, and he's more agile than we thought. After about 15 minutes, *Viscera won via a Samoan drop*. After the match, Gene kept checking his ass if Vis got any penetration going! Divas match was next with Trish Stratus going against Torrie Wilson for the Women's Championship. This was the match that really got the audience rocking. After all, these two are way, way, way prettier in real life. Trish is a legit athlete and Torrie wasn't bad at all. She played the spoiled brat part very well, no Chloe though. Sporadic chants of "We want puppies!" throughout this 10 minute fight. *Trish wins after "the Ma-trish" and a Chick Kick.* Both women were fiiiiine! Crowd pops the moment we hear Carlito's spit as he's set to face Rob Van Dam! *Carlito vs. RVD* easily stole the show as RVD had the crispest moves among all the wrestlers and Carlito showed why he's the next great heel in wrestling. Rob had the crowd chant "RVD" and "Rob Van Dam" every time he did the "thumbs pointing to myself" thing of this. Carlito drew some heat by, rather than throwing his new shirt to the crowd, he walked back through the tunnel to deposit it. Great psychology from both. RVD hoisted Carlito on the railing outside the ring then leapt with a leg drop from within the ring at some point. As Carlito grabbed and bit on his apple, RVD gives him a nice dropkick to the face. *End comes after Rob Van Dam delivers a five-star frog splash*. Van Dam really gets great height on that finisher of his. *15-minute intermission followed.* We're then told of Shelton Benjamin's recent I-C title win over Flair. Shelton grabs the mic and says contrary to what some may think, he's "not a momma's boy". He dedicates this Intercontinental title defense to his momma, even though she didn't make the trip. Shelton says he'll defend the belt next "against whoever", prompting "Thus Spake Zarathustra" to play, which means it's time for The Nature Boy! Great pop for Flair, he gets lots of love from the Filipino crowd. Ric says "Does this look like 'whomever'? Looks like I am in 'Flair Country!'" Lots of "Wooooo!" chants. Slick Ric has us eating out of the palm of his hands. Flair says "tonight after the show, I will find me five beautiful Filipina women and celebrate my birthday!" Ric then tells Shelton that "I don't have a problem with you except your momma's got a big fat ass! And the reason your momma's not here tonight is we could not get her big fat ass on the airplane!" Flair gets the whole crowd to chant "Momma's boy! Momma's boy!" then mixes a few "Woooos!" throughout. This all happens before the *Shelton Benjamin vs. Ric Flair* match! Sheltongets lots of heat for trying to walk out and the crowd gets on him after lots of momma's boy chants. Flair hits all of his classic spots, falling on his face, crisp chops, and of course, a few low blows. Shelton puts Flair in the Figure-Four leglock, prompting even more boos. Flair eventually reversed it. *Shelton** eventually won by pinning Ric while holding the ropes*. Nobody cared though as Ric was way over. Next, a streetfight was announced. Then we witness the best entrance in all of wrestling as "The King of Kings", "The Game" Triple H made his way to the ring with Motorhead blaring! After seeing this intro, I don't think I can ever boo Trips again. He's got such a strong presence and the crowd anticipated every move like the spewing water in the air and the flexing on the turnbuckles. *And he's a heel!* Big Show comes out next to a decent pop, but Hunter, "the heel" arguably got a bigger face reaction. *Triple H vs. Big Show in a streetfight* was more than we were expecting for the evening. Show is monstrous, we were all in awe at his sheer size. This is a true giant of a man. Crowd was really into this match, anticipating Show shushing us even before his first chop of Trips. When HHH managed to toss Show out of the ring and the big man was lying there, he looked like a beach whale, especially when you consider how small the average Pinoy is. The first time Hunter heads out of the ring and looks under the mat for a weapon, crowd is popping like crazy. He gets a cord and chokes the big man with it. Eventually, Big Show uses his power to knock the wind out of Hunter. HHH brings a chair into the ring, but Show knocks it out of his hand. Trips then brings the ring steps into the ring, tries to Pedigree Show onto the steps! Show reverses and HHH is down. *Match ends when Hunter connects with his chair onto the steps while Show tried running at him and HHH pins the big man.* Main event time! Crowd starts chanting "Cena! Cena!" before guest ref is even announced. Great pop for the special guest referee, the Hardcore Legend, Mick Foley! Edge and Lita came out next, and they're already making out! Roof blew off when the WWE Champion, John Cena's music started blaring! *Cena then defended the WWE Championship with Mick Foley as guest referee*! Cena probably got the biggest pop of the night, as my friend noted that this is literally "his time" in the spotlight. The kids love him, so do the girls. Mid-match though, there was a "Let's go Edge!" chant to fight with the louder "Let's go Cena!" After Edge distracted Mick a couple of times, Lita would choke "the Doctor of Thuganomics" on the ropes. After the third try, Mick turned and saw her, ordering Matt Hardy's ex to the back. Sporadic chants of "slut! Slut!" and "Hoooo!" while she was around though. With the match reverting to one-on-one my friend noticed that Cena uses too many clotheslines. He's got loads of charisma, but he really needs to add some more moves to that repertoire, not just rely on his usual moves. Edge spears Mick, calls for another ref. When, after Cena kicked out from a pin, Edge doesn't like what he thinks is a slow two-count by new ref Chad Patton, Edge spears Patton. Cena hit a five-knuckle shuffle after the much-anticipated "You Can't See Me!" move. J Lita comes in, hits Cena with the WWE Title, then tosses it to Edge. He gets ready to hit Cena on the ropes, but ends up hitting Lita instead. *This gives Cena the opening to pin Edge with the FU.* After the match, people start chanting "Socko! Socko!" and cena convinces Mick to let out the beloved Mr. Socko! Mick gives Edge the Mandible Claw, then when Lita tries sneaking in, Foley gives her the Mandible Claw too! Mick thanks everybody for coming and tells a little girl in the audience that he loves her. Mick seems to have assumed "an ambassadorial" role within the WWE. Mick passes the mic to Cena, but not before telling John that Manila is John's town. Cena thanks Mick but corrects him. Tells the crowd that "Manila ain't Cena's town." Cena happily says that this is "your town!" and we should be proud to live in it. Show closes and none of us have voices left after all the screaming! Everyone leaves very satisfied. The only big stars who skipped this tour for the Raw brand were Shawn Michaels (after Vince's "forced retirement") and Kane (wonder what he's doing for WrestleMania 22?). We're all now praying that the rumor of Smackdown coming over in October are true! Biggest pop: 1. John Cena 2. Triple H 3. Ric Flair Biggest heat: 1. Shelton Benjamin 2. Lita (lots of "slut!" chants) 3. Edge *NEW GALLERY* Exclusive Photos of WWE's 12 Rounds Starring JOHN CENA!
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