World Wrestling Entertainment presents RAW
Date: 5/12/2003
From: Philadelphia, PA
Christian is in the ring with the steel cage already down. Christian says he was sent out to compete first by Steve Austin, but feels like the match with Goldberg should not happen. Christian doesn’t think the fans want to see him brutalized inside a steel cage. He’s the new People’s Champion. Christian has an important photoshoot and it wouldn’t be a good idea to show up with a bruised face.
Co-GM Steve Austin makes his way out to join the segment. Austin tugs on the steel cage and says there’s no better feeling than a cage. Austin thinks Christian’s excuses are a bunch of crap. Austin tells Christian Goldberg isn’t even here yet and the match is later on and will take place. Austin declares Christian will wrestle because he said so. Christian tells Austin that he got flipped off and said that he was on first. Austin reminds Christian is was just him flipping him off. Christian wants to address the peeps. Christian thinks Austin is harboring resentment because Rock named him his favorite wrestler. It’s not his fault that Rock beat Austin at WrestleMania, but Christian is stopped by Austin. Austin is trying very hard to not lose his patience. The fans want Austin to lose his patience. Austin is going to maintain his composure or he’ll yank Christian out of the battle royal at Judgment Day and he’ll not have a chance to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
RAW Tag Team Champion Rob Van Dam makes his way out to join the segment. The cage has been risen up back to the rafters. RVD says he was listening in the back and he’s officially entering the battle royal because he’s the greatest WWE Intercontinental Champion and he’s going to walk out as the champion. Christian suggests RVD take his place against Goldberg in Philadelphia if he’s so great. Austin asks the fans if they want to see Christian get beat up in the cage give him a hell yeah, and they agree. RVD gets a chant to confirm that he’s worthy of winning the title at Judgment Day. Christian tries to get a night off with a Christian Rules, but he gets booed. Austin warns them both to not ripoff his material. Austin warns Christian he’ll give him a stunner if he doesn’t leave.
RAW Tag Team Champion Kane makes his way out to join the segment as Christian leaves. Kane tells RVD they may be partners and friends, but come Judgment Day he’s going to win the battle royal and nobody, including RVD, is going to stop him. RVD says he’s listening to Kane, but if he has to throw Kane over the top to win he’ll find a way to do it. Austin interjects and wants to have a beer to relieve the tension.
Co-GM Eric Bischoff makes his way out to join the segment. Bischoff tells Austin there’s not going to be a beer bash tonight. Bischoff recalls saying he’s going to raise the bar, and he thought of the tag champs. Bischoff signed a tag title match for tonight. It’s against a team they never wrestled before. The tag team could be the best tag team in their industry. The Legion of Doom make their way out!
MATCH #1: RAW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS KANE & ROB VA DAM VS. LEGION OF DOOM
FINISH: Kane chokeslams Hawk followed by the Five Star Frog Splash to retain the titles.
Bob’s Take: What a bizarre thing to see the Legion of Doom showing up in the WWE and the crowd gave them a huge reception. RVD used his kicks to knockdown both Animal and Hawk in the early moments, but Hawk stopped RVD with his trademark neckbreaker. RVD mostly dominates the match for his team with kicks. LOD try for the Doomsday Device, but RVD ducked it. That led to the finish, but interestingly Hawk popped right up afterward essentially no selling it. I thought this was fine for what it was and seeing the LOD for a one-off is cool with me.
Match Rating: *1/2
Backstage, Victoria and Steven Richards walk up to Trish Stratus and taunt her about losing her title at Backlash. Victoria notes they have a hardcore match and Victoria has many options to disfigure her face. Victoria laughs that once she does Stratus won’t be able to put her looks back together.
Backstage, Chris Jericho meets with the RAW World Champion Triple H. HHH notes they are in a famous arena all over the country. HHH notes that Kevin Nash tore his quad here one year ago. Jericho recalls tearing HHH’s quad two years ago. HHH says Jericho went from being a nothing to being a champion after tearing his quad. HHH suggests Jericho tear Nash’s quad tonight and how big of a superstar he’d become. Jericho sees where HHH is coming from and they shake hands.
Outside, a limo arrives to the arena. Goldberg exits on the phone, but a white limo speeds by and hits the car door. Someone tried to rundown Goldberg!
Backstage, Teddy Long tells Steve Austin that Rodney Mack is going to beat two guys tonight. Long says Austin is missing an opportunity to have Rodney Mack in the battle royal at Judgment Day. Mack chimes in and says he deserves to be WWE Intercontinental Champion. Austin says Mack is not going to be in the battle royal, but instead it will be Booker T (who is not a former IC Champion, and was the point of the battle royal). Long is not thrilled to here this news. They head to the ring for their match.
MATCH #2: RODNEY MACK VS. THE PHOENIX BROTHERS (MIKE & KEN)— HANDICAP MATCH
NOTE: Ken Phoenix would be better known as Ken Doane.
FINISH: Mack forces both men to submit to the cobra clutch.
Bob’s Take: As you’d expect, Mack dominates the match and beats down the Phoenix Brothers. Ken almost gets a pin with a rollup, but Mack quickly recovers to beat them senseless. The referee, Charles Robinson, tried to ring the bell after the first submission, but Mack had to beat them both. The Philadelphia crowd didn’t seem to respond to Mack’s dominating performance, at all.
Match Rating: SQUASH
Backstage, Coach tries to talk to Eric Bischoff, but Bischoff doesn’t want to provide a comment. Bischoff walks up to Freddie Blassie who is in a wheelchair. Blassie tries to speak, but Bischoff talks to Rico. Rico is mad about Three Minute Warning getting their butts kicked for two months straight. Rico wants to figure out a way to get Three Minute Warning back on track. Bischoff invites Blassie into the ring.
Backstage, Goldberg is pissed off when Steve Austin enters the scene asking about the car. Austin asks if Goldberg saw the driver, but Goldberg didn’t see the driver. Goldberg is taking out his aggression on Christian. Austin tells Goldberg to get ready for his match before walking off.
Lilian Garcia introduces Freddie Blassie. Blassie is on the top of the ramp when Co-GM Eric Bischoff comes out to cut a promo. Bischoff tells the fans to give Blassie an applause. Bischoff promotes Blassie’s book that is available in bookstores. Bischoff cuts off Blassie. Bischoff hopes Blassie has about three minutes or so left. That cues Three-Minute Warning coming out through the crowd and Bischoff brings Blassie down to the ring in his wheelchair. However, Steve Austin comes out to stop this madness. Austin says they didn’t talk about this and notes that Bischoff suspended a couple of guys, and he un-suspended them. That brings out the Dudley Boys. Dudley’s proceed to clean house on Rico and 3MW. Blassie tells D-Von to get a table and Rico is put through the table with a 3D.
Christian has a chair with him and says it’s the same chair that Rock beat up Goldberg with a month ago. Christian says he’s going to beat the crap out of Goldberg tonight.
MATCH #3: GOLDBERG VS. CHRISTIAN — STEEL CAGE MATCH
FINISH: Goldberg finishes off Christian with a spear and jackhammer.
Bob’s Take: Christian tried to escape early on, but is stopped quickly by Goldberg. Christian is able to sneak the chair back into the match after Goldberg pulled Christian away from the door. Christian whacks Goldberg with the chair several times. Even with the chair usage, I’m still surprised that Christian is getting this much control over Goldberg. Christian misses a spear and hit the cage. Christian is busted wide open and is sent several times into the cage. It’s kind of what was expected with Christian using the chair for heel control, but quickly getting dismantled by Goldberg. Christian has been fantastic in his heel role.
Match Rating: **
Backstage, Ric Flair meets with Steve Austin. Flair tells Austin that HHH runs RAW as the champion. Flair continues to talk, but the Hurricane jumps into the scene. Hurricane says that Kevin Nash is going to kick HHH’s butt at Judgment Day and change his name to Triple Bitch. Flair gets fired up for Hurricane talking to him like that. Austin suggests they wrestle tonight. Austin says the match starts right now. Flair attacks Hurricane.
MATCH #4: RIC FLAIR VS. THE HURRICANE
FINISH: Flair forces Hurricane to submit to the figure four. After the match, HHH calms down Flair and raises Flair’s arm for the victory. HHH grabs a helpless Hurricane and delivers a Pedigree.
Bob’s Take: They briefly brawled backstage and through the crowd before getting to the ring. Hurricane pulls down Flair’s pants for the exposed butt pop that Flair has used many, many times in his career. Hurricane manages to chokeslam Flair! Flair worked over the knee and got the submission soon after. I kind of feel like this is a moment where Hurricane could have won and continue his momentum, but it feels like the WWE doesn’t want to embrace the potential in Hurricane. I enjoyed the match, though.
Match Rating: **1/2
Before the next match, La Resistance cut a promo with Christopher Nowinski. Sylvan asks if we ever found the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Sylvan asks where they will look next in Syria or North Korea? Rene Dupree says they found an American with education and culture. They found one in Christopher Nowinski.
MATCH #5: CHRISTOPHER NOWINSKI & LA RESISTANCE (DUPREE & GRENIER) VS. GOLDUST, SCOTT STEINER & TEST
FINISH: Steiner finishes off Nowinski with a reverse DDT.
Bob’s Take: I honestly forgot that Goldust was still in the company. It’s a bit odd that Goldust hasn’t gotten much of a focus on TV since he was electrocuted. Goldust has been an enjoyable character and now he’s seemingly forgotten on TV. They started by brawling on the floor for some chaos, but there is some structure after a few moments. I guess this was more so designed to promote the duo of Steiner and Test. There wasn’t much going on here to be invested in.
Match Rating: *
Backstage, Steven Richards hypes up Victoria.
Backstage, Terri interviews Chris Jericho and asks if Jericho has any idea who could have tried and rundown Goldberg. Jericho tells Terri if he were to take Goldberg out he’d do it face to face. Jericho promotes himself as the first Undisputed Champion and he’s going to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship at Judgment Day. Jericho says he’s Big Daddy Cool’s daddy.
MATCH #6: TRISH STRATUS VS. VICTORIA — HARDCORE MATCH
NOTE: Tommy Dreamer comes out with a kendo stick to even the odds as Steven Richards is at ringside.
FINISH: Stratus finishes off Victoria with a springboard bulldog.
Bob’s Take: They had a hardcore match back at Survivor Series, so this isn’t a new stipulation for these two. They kind of mess up a mirror shot, but they recover fairly well. I do like Victoria’s obsession with making pretty girls ugly, but she’s ironically pretty in her own right. They don’t really use most of the weapons that are at ringside. Richards tries to get involved, but is met with a kendo stick shot by Dreamer anyway. Stratus uses the kendo stick on Victoria before the finish. For a hardcore match, this was not good.
Match Rating: *
MAIN EVENT: CHRIS JERICHO VS. KEVIN NASH
FINISH: Triple H and Ric Flair storm the ring to stop Nash. HHH chop blocked Nash and tossed the referee to the floor. Shawn Michaels runs down to the ring and makes the save. Jericho decks Michaels to the floor. Nash recovered to deck the heels with forearms. Michaels superkicsk Flair as Nash plants Jericho with the Jackknife and Michaels counted the fall. Michaels and Nash pose as if it’s 1995 again. Nash big boots HHH to stop a title strike. Nash lays out HHH with the Jackknife. Nash stands on HHH and Michaels counts another fall that doesn’t count.
Bob’s Take: Nash had the early advantage with a backdrop, but Jericho focused his attack on the left leg of Nash. Jericho is trying to tear the quad again, but Nash fought Jericho off. Jericho regained control with basic leg work, but Nash continues to fight him off. Nash delivered a nice side slam as Jericho jumped off the middle rope. Jericho almost wins after a springboard moonsault. The crowd seemed a bit dead for this and the run-in by HHH and Flair is not a shock. There was far more crowd heat for the interaction between Nash and HHH. The aftermath was far more enjoyable than the match was to end the program.
Match Rating: *1/2
Final Thoughts:
There’s quite a bit going on here with the surprise return of LOD, Dudley Boys back from suspension, and Goldberg nearly getting ran down. They are clearly setting up for the summer with some sort of compelling angle with Goldberg. I’ll consider this an average episode of RAW as there was some good angle advancement and a couple of entertaining matches.
Thanks for reading.