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KELLER'S WWE RAW REPORT
DECEMBER 2, 2002
LIVE FROM AUSTIN, TEX.

What You Need To Know...

-Hunter pinned Rob Van Dam in the main event to earn no. 1 contender status for the World Title headed into the next PPV. Shawn Michaels was the special referee.

-You really don't need to know anything else as nothing else major happened.

Complete Detailed Rundown

-Last week's RVD vs. Shawn Michaels match was one of the lowest rated main events in Raw over the past several years with a mere 3.2 quarter hour rating, further backing those who say Michaels isn't a draw and shouldn't banked on (and I am among those making that argument) and that Triple H has done so much to cut the legs out from under RVD that he isn't a draw (despite having potential if pushed well). The Michaels vs. RVD match was actually the lowest rated segment on the entire show last week. As a result, they opened this week's show with a nice video recap of last week's match; the video made the match seem better than it was.

-Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler introduced the show. Not sure if I haven't noticed before, but Lawler was not dressed in his King wrestling gear, but instead a reasonably professional looking Raw wind breaker. Not sure if he just forgot his gear or if he's planning to change the tone of his announcing to being a bit more serious and credible as opposed to just comedic. Ross and Lawler hyped the main event of RVD vs. Triple H for the no. 1 contender status.

1 -- ROSIE & JAMAL (w/Rico) vs. BUBBA RAY & D-VON DUDLEY.

Bubba and Jamal exchanged chops in center ring. Bubba then took Jamal down and applied an armlock using his legs to apply extra leverage. D-Von tagged in, and thanks to interference from Rosie, Jamal gained control of the match at 3:00. The lack of any credible explanation for Rico's change from his previous character with Billy & Chuck to a generic tough guy ringside accompanier for Rosie & Jamal is one of those little things that adds up to undercut viewer loyalty. D-Von hot-tagged Bubba at 6:00. Bubba tackled Rosie and scored a near fall. Bubba did a Dusty Rhodes impersonation with a crotch grab and bionic elbow. "He thinks he's the son of a plumber," Ross said. When Rico interfered again, Spike Dudley ran to ringside and attacked him, then shoved Jamal off the top rope. Bubba then slammed Jamal and set him up for the What's Up headbutt. A four-way brawl broke out. The crowd chanted for the 3D, but Rico attacked Bubba from behind. D-Von knocked Rico out of the ring. The Dudleys then gave Rosie the 3D for the win.

WINNER: Dudleys at 7:53.

STAR RATING: *3/4 -- Good energy by everyone, especially Bubba, in this opening tag. The finish may have been a bit complex, but the six involved pulled it off successfully.

-They showed Triple H and Ric Flair backstage wearing suits approaching their locker room. I wonder if when Triple H pushed to get linked up with Flair on the air if he was hoping that Flair's ratings power would rub off on him and help his grip on power and influence backstage. Instead, because of how management has strictly limited what Flair is allowed to do (perhaps to avoid the problem of Flair overshadowing Triple H), Flair lost his drawing power and is now being dragged down by Triple H.

[commercial break]

When they returned from commercial, medics were checking out the Dudleys in the ring. Ross said Chris Jericho and Christian attacked them during the break. They went to footage of Jericho and Christian attacking the Dudleys, including bashing them with chairs in the ring. Rico and Jamal helped in the attack.

Backstage, Sean Morley told Eric Bischoff he wanted to be referred to from now as Chief Morley since he is Bischoff's "chief of staff." Triple H walked in and complained about having to wrestle RVD to earn the no. 1 contender slot. Bischoff said he has always treated Triple H fairly, such as handing him the World Title originally, but now he is interested in good TV and therefore he booked the Raw main event the way he did. Triple H said if he wanted entertaining TV, he'd give it to him with a trainwreck in the main event. Bischoff and Morley said the main event may need a special referee.

[commercial break]

-Ross and Lawler plugged Jericho vs. Booker T as another match on Raw.

2 -- TRISH STRATUS vs. VICTORIA

Before the bell they showed Victoria watching Trish's ring entrance on a monitor and grimacing. Ross said we'd find out if Ivory is "tough enough" to beat Trish. He said the kids on Tough Enough know Ivory is tough. Lots of hair pulling by Ivory. Trish fought back with a kick for a near fall at 3:30. Lawler asked Ross who the special ref might be. Ross said maybe Chief Morley (which eliminated him).

WINNER: Trish at 4:08 with the Stratusfaction.

STAR RATING: * -- Good intensity by both.

-Backstage Jackie asked Victoria if she was going through her bags. Victoria said no, but if she was she would surely find something battery operated. Victoria challenger her to a match. Jackie called Victoria a psycho bitch. Victoria grabbed Jackie. Jackie rammed Victoria into the lockers backstage several times and then left. Ross said you don't mess with Jackie ever, but especially not in her hometown.

[commercial break]

-Jericho and Christian warned other wrestlers in the locker room (D-Lo and Chris Nowinski were visible) that they were warned that the same thing that happened to the Dudleys could happen to them. Nowinski congratulated them on their work. Christian gave Jericho a peptalk for his match with Booker.

3 -- JEFF HARDY & TOMMY DREAMER vs. LANCE STORM & WILLIAM REGAL

Ross said Regal & Storm are as hot a team as there is in WWE. Ross talked about Dreamer suffering 16 concussions in his career that have been documented, perhaps more during his ECW days that weren't documented. A bar at the bottom of the screen plugged upcoming ticket sale dates.

WINNERS: Storm & Regal at 3:24

STAR RATING: 1/2* -- Storm & Regal won when the ref missed a hot tag Dreamer made to Hardy, then rammed Dreamer into an exposed turnbuckle. After the match Storm and Regal teamed up on Hardy, but Dreamer eventually returned by wildly swinging a cane.

-They showed a well-dressed Flair approaching Dave Batista backstage. Flair called him "Dave Batista." Flair again told Batista that he is something special. Flair said he knows about his past bouncing around from foster home to foster home and fought every day of his life to get where he is today. The camera angle on Batista physique wasn't flattering. Flair gave him a final pep talk and Batista seemed inspired.

[commercial break]

4 -- HURRICANE vs. DAVE BATISTA (w/Ric Flair).

More terrible use of Hurricane. Batista knocked Hurricane off the ring apron even before he got into the ring. Hurricane threw a few punches at Batista, but then was unable to even whip him into the turnbuckles. Instead, Batista retained control by giving him a sitdown powerbomb for the win. When he kept beating on Hurricane, Kane made the save.

WINNER: Batista at 0:48.

STAR RATING: 1/4* -- Batista still didn't do anything special in the match to establish any credibility to Flair's claim that he is something special. He just seemed like a big muscular lug with a few moves, none of which are all that memorable.

-Booker got psyched up backstage.

[commercial break]

-Terri interviewed Shawn Michaels backstage, asking him how his back is. Michaels said it took him a little longer to get there because he's getting older, but he's there. He said as much as he'd like to wrestle RVD again, he can't wait to get his hands on Triple H. RVD walked into the screen and attempted to do a serious interview, saying that he had Michaels beat last week if not for Triple H. He asked him how he could ever have been friends with "that asshole." Bischoff then walked in and said that Michaels would be special referee for the main event, but if he doesn't call it down the middle, he'll strip him of the title.

-Booker made fun of Jericho showing last week when he was stripped naked that not only isn't he a big rock star, but he isn't big anywhere. He said a movie about Jericho should be called "Stuart Little" while his movie would be called "8 Miles."

5 -- BOOKER T vs. CHRIS JERICHO

They didn't do a good job establishing what, if anything, was at stake in this match. Other than penis jokes, neither wrestlers' motivation was stressed. Therefore, the announcers talked about the RVD vs. Triple H main event during the opening minutes of the match. At 5:00 Booker went on an offensive flurry and tried to get the crowd into it, but they didn't react much. At 5:20 Jericho applied the Walls of Jericho, but Booker reached the ropes to break the hold. Booker came back with a missile dropkick for a two count. WWE should set out to make two counts meaningful because fans have been conditioned to expect three counts between even opponents only after finishing moves or interference. Matches never end after a non-finisher. A few months of throwing in a surprise pinfall here and there and fans would begin to consider the apparent "middle part" of matches important because it might end up being the end. Speaking of interference, at 6:30 Christian came out and interfered. Goldust made the save. Booker then gave Jericho a scissors kick, but before the ref could count, Chief Morley came out and ordered the match stopped. He said if Christian and Goldust want to be involved in the match so badly, he is ordering the match to become a tag team match. He declared the singles match over and it would be restarted as a tag match for the tag titles. Morley's role is beginning to make Raw feel like an old 90 minute Memphis TV show where they were short on talent at the TV studio and had to use the same talent over and over again. It is fitting that a bland, meaningless match would be stopped with no decision. The fact that this match was put together purely to allow for Chief Morley to make another "ruling" this week explains why otherwise the match was given no meaning ahead of time. It was a means to an end.

WINNER: No contest at about 7:30.

STAR RATING: *1/2 -- Bland match before the stoppage. Not bad, but void of any sense of urgency or meaning. It seemed like a time filler between two name wrestlers without any strong storyline behind it. The pre-match speech by Booker wasn't all that funny, but at least it attempted to get some mileage out of last week's overly played out angle with Jericho and Christian getting stripped nekked last week.

[commercial break]

6 -- CHRISTIAN & CHRIS JERICHO vs. GOLDUST & BOOKER T

They joined the match in progress after the break. When Christian bailed to ringside to huddle with Jericho, Goldust ran up and banged their heads together. At 4:00 Goldust got a hot tag and beat up both heels. He then gave Christian the Shattered Dreams kick to the crotch in the corner. He then scored a very near fall on Jericho. That woke up the crowd, which got into the action by this point. Booker tagged in and gave Jericho a front wheel kick to the face, then signalled for the Spinaroonie. Christian entered with the tag title belt, but Booker and Goldust stopped him from using it. Jericho then Booker down with a neckbreaker and scored a two count with his feet on the ropes for leverage. Booker surprised Jericho with a Bookend for a near fall, but Christian yanked the ref out of the ring before the three. As the ref tended to matters at ringside, Jericho nailed Booker with the tag title belt in t he ring. Jericho then hit a Lionsault and the ref returned and counted to three.

WINNERS: Jericho & Christian in 7:00.

STAR RATING: **1/4 -- Much better than the singles match. Goldust added a lot with his energy. The crowd got into the match at the end. Good finishing sequence that did more to establish that Jericho & Christian are champs only because of cheating and luck, which is a legitimate approach to take to build heel tag champs because it puts them in a position of seeming vulnerable at house shows for title changes against babyface tag teams.

-A Hulk Hogan autobiography commercial break.

[commercial break]

-They showed a Raw Moment featuring Steve Austin filling Vince McMahon's car with cement. These segments go a long way to reminding viewers how different today is from just a few years ago and why the ratings are where they are. The answer isn't trying to relive the past either using the same characters (Vince and Austin) or different characters, but finding the next equivalent hot wrestlers and angles to move wrestling into the next boom period.

-F-View showed Test and Stacy making out backstage.

7 -- JACKIE vs. VICTORIA non-title match.

Ross said that Hulk Hogan's book debuted at no. 13 on the New York Times best seller list. Jackie took Victoria down out of nowhere with a roundkick to the temple. Steve Richards came out to console Victoria, who began to freak out when she realized what happened.

WINNER: Jackie via pinfall at 2:39.

STAR RATING: * - Short, but okay. Jackie and Victoria are both as intense as it gets in the women's division.

[commercial break]

-After the break, Victoria and Richards were still discussing her loss. Scott Steiner's siren blared and he came out. He offered Victoria a chance to see why they call him the big bad booty daddy. Richards attacked Steiner from behind, but Steiner destroyed him. Bischoff then walked out to his music. He stood on the stage and said, "Scott, I'd personally like to welcome you back to Raw." He said everyone at Raw recognizes him as the most coveted free agent on the market today. He said he has a special gift for him to show how much they value him. Bischoff walked Steiner backstage where he showed him about eight women waiting to serve him. Steiner smiled and said it was nice, but he said he has never had trouble finding his own freaks. He said he had his own superfreak in his limo. She walked Bischoff to his limo and out stepped Stephanie McMahon. Steph asked Bischoff if it frustrates him that she can offer something he can't. Steph got in the limo with Scott, then rolled down the window and said, "Hey Eric, holler if you hear me." Bischoff yanked his hair out. (In case you missed it, the message of that segment was that Scott Steiner would rather f--- Stephanie McMahon than eight models.)

[commercial break]

-Randy Orton at The World began an RNN Update, but in a twist, Ross interrupted him and said there was breaking news at the arena. Triple H approached Shawn Michaels and asked how his back was. Michaels said that one wrong move by Hunter and he could lose his coveted chance at the title rematch.

[commercial break]

8 -- ROB VAN DAM vs. TRIPLE H

Michaels (who thankfully wasn't wearing those sad tight shorts he's worn on such occasions in the past) sent Flair to the back before the match began, barring him from ringside. Michaels stopped Hunter from using a closed fist in the opening seconds. Lawler cried fowl. Ross said Lawler built his career on using his fist. Hunter went for an early Pedigree, but RVD backdropped him over the top rope to the floor. RVD then launched himself onto Hunter at ringside. RVD came off the top rope with a sidekick to Hunter and landed awkwardly on his ankle, but fortunately was just fine. When Hunter made his first cover, Michaels made a super-slow count. Hunter got up and protested. RVD then surprised Hunter with a roll-up for a two count. RVD dove at Hunter but knocked Michaels down. Hunter got a chair. Michaels yanked it away from him. RVD kicked at Hunter, but Hunter ducked and the kick hit Michaels. Hunter then nailed RVD with a chair and Michaels made a reluctant three count. Hunter insisted Michaels raise his arm. Michaels did so reluctantly, then throw a cheapshot at Hunter's face. They exchanged punches. The other refs ran to the ring followed by Arn Anderson, Terry Taylor, and Sergeant Slaughter. Michaels got the best of Hunter and nipped up. The crowd popped. When Michaels signalled for the superkick, the agents stepped in his way. Michaels snuck through their porous barrier and gave him Sweet Chin Music. His music then played. He stood over Hunter, seemed to be about to do the crotch chop, but then decided against it and left the ring.

WINNER: Triple H at 6:30.

STAR RATING: **1/4 -- Shorter than last week's match and no better or worse for as long as it lasted. The finish was less of a letdown if for no other reason than it was predictable so there was no letdown. Once again, the focus after the match was on Hunter and Michaels with RVD just lying in the background. Given that the PPV main event is Hunter vs. Michaels, that's the right thing to do, but when arguments are made internally about why RVD "isn't a ratings draw," it should be noted that treating him as background material in instances like this is why he isn't more of a draw.

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