July 29th, 2002
Greensboro, NC
Eric Bischoff hits the ring to announce who he drove off with from Smackdown last week. It's Raw's newest acquistion - Christian, Lance Storm, and Test (The Un-Americans). They go nuts insulting NC and America. Christian says american teens do nothing but scarf down Big Macs and download porn. MY GOD. Shawn Michaels ends up coming out and pulls the Bret Hart insult card against the Canadians. Gross, fuck this.
1) Booker T vs. Eddie Guerrero
Book & Eddie both rule so this wasn't bad, but also nothing to write home about. Harmless five minute match with Book winning with the scissors kick.
Match rating - **1/4
Bischoff heard a woman showed up in a limo. He thinks it's Stephanie and snatches the door open to find... Mae Young and Moolah. Nice.
HBK is on a hunt for Triple H backstage and runs into BOOKER T. Book lays some vicious words on him, but Shawn doesn't care. Shame.
2) Trish Stratus & Bubba Ray Dudley vs. Molly Holly & Big Show
Molly was supposed to team with William Regal, but Big Show is his replacement. This is some more pointless shit. Bubba & Trish win yeehaw!
Match rating - *
Backstage, Shawn runs into Big Show, blowing him off in his hunt for H, also. Show is angry.
Ric Flair tells Jeff Hardy not to destroy himself to give Bischoff retains. Bischoff doesn't give a damn and can't wait to see Hardy in his hardcore title match with Bradshaw in a little bit.
3) Jeff Hardy vs. Bradshaw (c) - Hardcore Title Match
Two things on the brain here - 1) Bradshaw's theme music is bad fucking ass. 2) They've given Jeff Hardy like three titles in four weeks. Either they love love love him or have no damn clue what to do with him. Either way he loses this as soon as he wins it because the hardcore title can be defended ~~~~anytime~~~~ any place ~~~ Tommy Dreamer ends up with the shit and poses in the crowd.
4) Rob Van Dam (c) vs. Chris Benoit - Intercontinental Title Match
Benoit kills it and Van Dam is Van Dam so it's good at points, but also lacking at points. Regardless, still the best thing on this show so far and it actually got some time to develop. Benoit uses the ropes to get the win and take the title.
Match rating - ***
Bischoff's punishment segment of the week goes to Moolah & Mae. They try to plug the book and Eric is bored so the ISLAND BOYZ knock them flat.
UNDERTAKER DESTROYS CHRIS NOWINSKI AFTER HE TRIES TO STAND UP FOR ERIC B
The Un-Americans attack Taker after the match and stand tall over him. What a first night on Raw for those guys. Very nasty conchairto to Taker in this segment. OUCH.
Triple H comes out to address his attack on Shawn Michaels last week. He says HBK's career is over and all that good stuff. He's interrupted by an official and H runs to the back like something's wrong and it's Shawn! HBK has had the hell beaten out of him by someone and is covered in blood. H puts his issues with Shawn's ego aside and is pissed and wants to find out who did this.
5) The Rock vs. Ric Flair
It's Rock and Flair so it's solid, but pretty routine. Rocky wins and Flair chalks it up like it's the final straw for him and has an announcement after the match. But before he can get through it, CHRIS JERICHO makes his Raw debut and knocks the hell out of Flair with a chair to end the show.
FINAL THOUGHTS: This was okay. Benoit/RVD was good and the Jericho debut was sick! The continuation of HHH/HBK was interesting and left me wondering how they're gonna play this because it kinda doesn't make sense when you think about the fact that H just turned on Shawn, but now is coming to his aid.
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