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The following report originally published 20 years ago this week here at PWTorch.com.
WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW REPORT
SEPTEMBER 12, 2005
LITTLE ROCK, ARK.
REPORT BY WADE KELLER, EDITOR
1 — BIG SHOW vs. EDGE
Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, and Coach introduced the show was Big Show made his entrance. Then it was revealed that Edge was his opponent. It was pointed out that Edge having to wrestle just six days before his PPV match wasn’t fair, but it proved that Bischoff was being even-handed since he made Hardy wrestle last week. Lawler gave Ross a hard time for using the word “affair,” saying that’s what got Hardy and Edge feuding in the first place. Less than three minutes into the match, Gene Snitsky interfered against Show. Matt Hardy then ran out. The ref called for a no contest.
WINNER: No contest.
STAR RATING: n/a
-Eric Bischoff came out and said that he was making it a tag match.
2 — MATT HARDY & BIG SHOW vs. SNITSKY & EDGE (w/Lita)
Hardy got in the early aggressive offense against Edge. Show and Snitsky fought to the back.
[Commercial Break]
Back from the break, Hardy was selling for Snitsky. Hardy began a comeback at 8:30. Hardy caught a charging Snitsky with a boot to the face. He showed good fire as he hit a legdrop off the ropes. Lita grabbed his leg. Hardy went after her. Lita backed off, then rolled into the ring. Hardy grabbed her by the hair. Edge charged at Hardy. Hardy set up a Twist of Fate on Edge. Lita kicked him from behind between the legs. Edge then speared Hardy, which he sold like he was hit with a wrecking ball, and scored the pin. Lita gave Hardy a Twist of Fate after the match.
WINNER: Edge & Snitsky at 9:49.
STAR RATING: *
-They plugged Ric Flair vs. Chris Masters and John Cena vs. Kurt Angle & Tyson Tomko. There is a report in the “Arena Reports” section on last night’s Raw house show featuring that main event match.
[Commercial Break]
-They replayed Chris Masters giving Shawn Michaels a chairshot last week after he broke the Masterlock, then reapplying the Master Lock.
-Todd Grisham interviewed Shawn Michaels on the stage regarding Chris Masters. Masters said up until last week nobody had been able to break the Masterlock. He said there is a part of him that wants to get really upset. He said another part of him asks what was he thinking. After all, Masters is so young and so small and until last week no one was able to break the Masterlock. He said he did wonder why he sat in a chair and let him put it on him. He said there wasn’t even a cash prize offered to him like there was others.
“I’ll tell you why. Because I’m the heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels. Whether I am right or I am wrong, I believe I am untouchable, I am Teflon, I can do things no one else can do. That’s what makes me different and that’s what sets me apart. Chris Masters, that’s why you picked me. That’s why you decided to bust my head open with a steel chair. The idea that at Unforgiven you were going to have the opportunity to step into the ring with the Show Stopper simply was not enough for you, so you decided to take it just a little bit too far. And that, Chris Masters, was your big mistake. Masterpiece, the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels became famous for taking things one step too far. And at Unforgiven, you’re gonna find out why. But tonight, Chris Masters, you are gonna have your hands full with the 16 time…”
Ric Flair began whoo’ing in the background. Out walked Flair in his robe strutting. Grisham faded into the back and Michaels and Flair stood side-by-side and took over the segment. Flair said, “You’re big, you’re bad, you’re 24, your strong. Nobody knows better than I do first-hand I’ve felt the Masterlock. Can you go head-up with the dirtiest player in the game. Carlitos [sic], I hope you’re watching because at Unforgiven for the first time, the Nature Boy will become the Intercontinental Champion.”
Great promo from Michaels. He is delivering the best promos of his career lately.
[Commercial Break]
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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3 — SHELTON BENJAMIN vs. KERWIN WHITE
White used his shirt as a weapon to choke Shelton. Benjamin ducked White and gave him a snap backbreaker at 3:30 in a cool sequence. Shelton hit Chavo with a spin wheel kick, sending him to ringside. Shelton followed him and threw him right back into the ring. Kerwin then used the golf club, prompting the DQ.
WINNER: Shelton via DQ at 4:45.
STAR RATING: *
-A pretaped promo aired with Kurt Angle, who was in maximum intensity mode as he piercingly looked at the camera and said everyone knows he is the greatest wrestler. He said Cena stands to lose more than just his title. “I hold your future in the palm my hands. Think of all you stand to lose. Think of what the most vicious son of a bitch on God’s green earth is going to take from you Sunday night. Think Cena and fear it.”
[Commercial Break]
-Torrie Wilson, Candice Michelle, and Victoria called Ashley to the ring again. She said there is no way she would be dumb enough to enter the ring alone. She said she had back-up. Then Trish Stratus’s music played and she made her return to Raw – still with the Women’s Title (so much for that old 30 days rule for defenses). Trish charged into the ring. Ashley backed her up. They tore off Candice’s dress. Trish and Ashley hugged in the ring as the three heels regrouped and regained their senses.
-They plugged that Flair vs. Masters was next.
[Commercial Break]
4 — RIC FLAIR vs. CHRIS MASTERS
Coach said if Masters wants to make a name for himself, it doesn’t get any bigger than Flair. Ross said he wanted to set the record straight that Masters is only 22 years old. Ross said Flair won his first World Title before Masters was born. That’s a great stat. Pretty soon I’ll be writing about wrestlers who were born after the first edition of the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter was published (we’re about to enter our 18th year) and then I’ll feel really old. Flair outmaneuvered Masters early on and strutted and whoo’d in celebration. Masters took control with two press slams, some punches, and a suplex. Flair eventually fought back with an eye poke. Flair went to the top rope, but Masters caught him up there and press slammed him to the mat. He then clotheslined Flair to the floor. As Flair regrouped, they shockingly didn’t cut to a commercial. Instead, they ended up brawling at ringside for a minute, then cut to a break.
[Commercial Break]
Masters had Flair in a bearhug and remained there for a long time after the break. Eventually Flair escaped and went back to work on Masters’s eyes. He went for a figure-four, but Carlito interfered. Michaels ran out for the save. Masters put Michaels in the Masterlock again. Michaels didn’t escape this time, and left Michaels lying. Ross then plugged Sunday’s PPV, stating, “You know in a big match environment exactly what Shawn Michaels can do,” shouted Ross. That is true, and it can be taken two ways. One, if he can have a good match with a crippled Hulk Hogan, he can have one with Masters. Two, he always turns it up and has a great performance almost every time he’s on PPV. Both are true, and both are good selling points for Sunday’s PPV.
WINNER: Flair via DQ at 15:00.
STAR RATING: *1/2 — Not bad, really. The bearhugs weren’t exciting, but the first segment was pretty solid in playing into each wrestlers’ characteristics.
-The Smackdown Rebound aired.
-Coach plugged the TV main event – Cena vs. Angle & Tomko – again.
[Commercial Break]
-They plugged the line-up for Unforgiven.
5 — EUGENE & TAJIRI vs. LANCE CADE & TREVOR MURDOCH
Murdoch threw a little tantrum early in the match and made crazy faces. Coach said Murdoch is famous for losing control and getting into bar fights. Eugene bit Murdoch’s butt. Lawler and Ross got into an argument over whether everyone in Tennessee or everyone in Oklahoma looked like Murdoch. Lawler conceded people in Oklahoma don’t look like Murdoch, they all look like Eugene. Coach then began giving Ross a hard time about the record of the Oklahoma Sooners college football team. “Let’s get back to the wrestling match,” said an irritated Ross. “What a novel idea that would be.” Tajiri got a hot tag at 5:30 and cleaned house. He put Cade in the Tarantula, but that left him prone to a punch at ringside from Murdoch. Eugene made the save. As Eugene distracted the ref, Murdoch gave Tajiri a sitdown powerbomb and Cade hit a top rope elbow for the win.
WINNERS: Cade & Murdoch at 6:19.
STAR RATING: * — Cade & Murdoch looked better this week. It’d be tough not to with six minutes against two good workers like Eugene and Tajiri. Still, Murdoch’s in-ring style doesn’t go far enough in seeming like a half-witted, crazy, violent, uncontrollable, unpredictable backwoods guy. His crazy faces are a good start, but he still seems too much like Robert Gibson the rest of the time (not in appearance, of course, but in being too passive and bland).
[Commercial Break – including a new commercial for TNA Impact featuring a lot of high flying moves from a variety of camera angles.]
-Edge and Lita stood on the stage. Edge bragged about being with the women who broke his heart and the man who tore it out of his chest. He and Lita then made out. “Get a room,” said Ross.
-Cena approached Bischoff backstage. “I’m out, I don’t want it. I’ve had enough. I’m talking tonight, I’m talkin’ the PPV,” he said in a conciliatory tone. He said he is tired of swimming up stream and he has nothing left. He began to hand the belt over to Bischoff said he just wants to be part of the team from now on. He said it hurts, but take it. Bischoff hesitated, then reached for the belt.
Cena then yelled, “You stupid son of a bitch!” He yanked the belt away. He mockingly said he wouldn’t come crying to Bischoff just because the odds were stacked against him six days before the PPV. He continued with a charismatic in-your-face trash-talking session aimed at Bischoff and concluded with a spin of the belt faceplate and a “The Champ is Here!” and his high-pitched “ah-haaaa.” That hasn’t caught on yet, but it’s not a bad signature war cry. Very good segment for Cena.
Kurt Angle came out first for the TV main event. “Here comes the blue eyed wrestling demon,” said Ross. “They don’t get any badder, they don’t become any more talented than the number one contender, Kurt Angle.”
[Commercial Break]
6 — JOHN CENA vs. KURT ANGLE & TYSON TOMKO
Bischoff stepped out and distracted Cena just long enough for Tomko to get advantage. Angle hit Cena from behind and then tagged in. At 2:30, with Cena on the mat, Ross asked if he could “survive the odds.”
[Commercial Break]
Back from the break, Angle was giving Cena a beatdown. After a sustained beating, Cena began his comeback at 11:30 against Tomko. He gave a charging Angle a spinebuster, then set up Tomko for an FU. Angle, though, gave Cena and Tomko an Angle Slam, which was pretty impressive, if not unwise given his neck condition. He followed up with a German suplex. Tomko mistakenly hit Angle. Cena then gave Tomko the FU for the win.
WINNER: Cena at 12:40.
STAR RATING: *3/4 — Pretty one dimensional with Cena taking a sustained beating, and not a particularly interesting one.
-After the match, Angle dropped his knee between Cena’s legs. Tomko then wrapped his ankle around the ringpost. Angle dropped a knee on his angle. As Cena screamed in agony, Bischoff entered the ring and got in his face and vowed to end his career and crush his dreams. “You understand me, you piece of garbage,” shouted Bischoff. Ross called Angle the “blue-eyed demonic killer.”
Ross wondered if anyone could beat Angle, including a one-legged man. They stayed with the post-match scene much longer than usual, and Ross did a good job keeping the intensity high as he filled about two minutes of Angle standing on the rampway making faces and Bischoff circling Cena. This is a total conspiracy theory, but if WWE wanted to hurt UFC’s audience, they could stay extra long with a post-match scene hoping viewers lost patience with the situation and switched to Monday Night Raw. That would hurt UFC without affecting their ratings and viewership in the least. I wouldn’t think twice about it if WWE weren’t typically so smooth when it came to ending shows efficiently at the emotional peak of a post-match angle.
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