Opening Dark Matches.
The Dupps Vs. Bull Pain and someone whose name I missed. Bull Pain is an Indie guy from around the Midwest, I think he works for one of those Tennessee promotions). Pretty much a standard match between the two teams, with the Dupps working as the faces. The Dupps get the win, with a double team move that I somehow missed.

Rico Constentino Vs. Heavy D. Actually, I'm not sure of the second guys name, but it was something D. Rico works for Ohio Valley Wrestling, and is pretty good. D looked OK, but botched his run-into-the-turnbuckle-and-jump-to-the- top-turnbuckle thing. For some reason, D also did a variation of the "wax-that-ass" dance done by Norman Smiley. Rico looked good here hitting a standing moonsault and vaulting off the outside middle rope onto the rampway(ala TAKA). Decent little indie-style match, with Rico getting the win. Both guys received decent pops (for guys no one in the crowd knew) post-match.

Out comes Kevin Kelly, Michael Cole, and Jonathan "The Coach" Coachman, and cue our Metal/Jakked tapings.

Gangrel Vs. Joey Abs w/ the Mean Street Posse. Gangrel received a decent pop, after coming out of his ring o' fire, maybe because he was the first guy anyone in the crowd recognized. A blah match between the two, with Gangrel getting the win with his DDT.

Midion Vs.The British Bulldog. Mixed reaction for both guys. The Bulldog looked horrible, but got the pin after the 10 minute suplex (which received a big pop).

Al Snow/Steve Blackman Vs. Kaientai. Rocking match between these two teams. Snow/Blackman were way over, with tons of "head cheese" and "we want head" chants. Spot of the match, and maybe the night, was Blackman dropping Funaki right on his face on the ramp way (a spot we've seen a lot but, hell, I dig it). Headcheese get the win, with Blackman hitting the leg drop on TAKA, while Snow held him. I'm going to call this the match of the night. I don't know how it will play out on TV, but it might be worth catching Metal/Jakked to see this.

Stevie Richards Vs.Headbanger Mosh. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Three or four years ago Stevie was one of the best wrestlers around, and now he's stuck in some shit-ass match with the unmotivated Mosh. Neither guy was trying, and this match blew soooo much ass. Maybe Raven will show up in WWF, and rejoin the Meanie and Richards, although given what's happened to those three guys in the last few years(their suck levels have risen highly), maybe it's better if that doesn't happen.

Hit the Oklahoma Fight Song and Lawler's theme, and out comes our announce team. Decent pop for JR, loud pop for the King. After our little drop-in spot during Texas Ranger (which people around me thought was the opening for Raw, do they think they dub in the pyro?), Lillian Garcia does the National Anthem proud.

Cue the pyro, hit the music, it's time for RAW!!!!!

Nothing of note happened in the arena during Raw. No old women flashing their boobs, no drunken fights, no little kids getting streachered out, nothing. Although there was a sign hanging out of one of the suites saying "The Peoples Sweet" (sic) which was kind of funny. During the commercial breaks all we got was Lillian shilling Rock elbow pads (what the fuck would you need Rock elbow pads for???), and the new Rock shirt.

Post show, HHH stumbled around in the ring for a bit with Tori and Steph. That was it.

Decent Raw live. I don't know if I would have liked it on TV as much. Actually, the crowd was rocking and vocal. Even if they didn't "the worm/ Too Cool dance", "sing-along-with-The-Rock", or a Dudley's table break, the crowd seemed to dig the show.

Scott Bryant