Special thanks to Daniel Pena of PWPix.net for passing along the following report:
Nothing much of note happened off-camera from tonight’s RAW from the Verizon Center. But for those interested, here is what happened:
To warm up the crowd, WWE played a really long video featuring their stars on mainstream shows such as “Best Damn” and “Regis & Kelly”. The video also featured a countless amount of clips of celebs and sports stars who have appeared on WWE programming in the past.
Lilian came out first and said that there would be a bonus match. To my surprise, Christian York (Joey Mercury’s tag team partner in the indies) of all people came out. His opponent was indy wrestler Fred Sampson, who has done jobber duty on HEAT in the past year. He was announced as being from Washington D.C. Anyways, York played the heel and Sampson played the face. It was a back and forth match-up, but Sampson won in the end. The match didn’t get much reaction from the crowd, but Sampson got a nice pop when he won.
After the dark match, J.R. and King came out. Lilian then sang the national anthem. Right before RAW went on the air, practically all of the male RAW wrestlers came out at the same time.
Just prior to the Carlito/Chris Masters confrontation, a bald guy in a suit warned some nearby security guards to be alert because something was going to go down where they were. A few minutes later, I was standing, and a security guard tapped me and told me to move. Moments later, Masters and Carlito were brawling right next to me. When they went over the stands, their feet touched me, though it didn’t hurt at all. After they were done brawling, there was a lot of “blood” on the floor. It nearly got on my personal belongings. Also, just before Masters went over the stands, I got a good look at his bacne.
In between the matches, they played a bunch of videos including videos on WWE 24/7, the WWE Divas, the Hogan anthology set, and such. In between matches where there wasn’t a video played, Maria came out to do the “Kiss Cam,” Lilian had a guy shoot shirts into the crowd, and Todd Grisham did some RAW in DC-based trivia with three fans. If the fan answered the question correctly, that person would receive a free t-shirt. The first two fans answered their respective questions correctly, but the third fan answered wrong, and thus he didn’t get a shirt. Todd Grisham got some heat for that.
At the end of the show, WWE agents Michael Rotundo, Steve Keirn and Dean Malenko came out to assist HBK and HHH. Rotundo got a faint “I.R.S.” chant, not to mention that some other people were calling him out, but he didn’t acknowledge them. Also, I tried to get Keirn’s attention by blurting out “Skinner!”, but he no-sold it too. Anyways, all the stars left and then people started filing out of the arena.
The advertised after-show dark match in the local commercial didn’t occur. Although, the main event was pretty much the same thing that was advertised, so it was no big deal.
Overall, it was a pretty good show and I think the crowd went home satisfied.
Biggest Pops
1. John Cena
2. DX
3. Cryme Tyme
4. Ric Flair
5. Hardyz
Most Heat
1. Kevin Federline
2. John Cena – he’s like a lightning rod when it comes to getting a crowd reaction, both positive and negative
3. George Bush impersonator
4. Edge
5. Randy Orton
