By Ryan Shields
Live Notes from Monday Night Raw September 22nd, 2008
Cincinnati, Ohio
Notes:
-Shawn Michaels was insanely over, random HBK chants started during several of the breaks
-The backstage segments weren't very loud in the arena. During the segment with Shane and Adamle you could only catch bits and pieces of dialouge leading to me only really catch Kane saying "Say Hi to your mom for me" and Shane talking about Kane electrocuting his testicles.
-WWE's promo videos are amazing and came off great live. They were pushing Jeff Hardy pretty hard. They also showed highlights from the Dirt Sheet and Cryme Tyme's show on WWE.com which led to people being seriously into that match.,
Lillian comes out to do the intro, lots of cheers for her.
Local Guy def. Snitsky-
Snitsky actually had a lot of heat in this match, but he was the first "star" the crowd got to see all night. Very basic match with Snitsky playing a monster and the Local Guy ( I couldn't catch his name) getting all his offense off of evasions or counters. Lots of "Brush Your Teeth" and "Take a Bath" chants. Local Guy got a roll up victory to the delight of the crowd.
D'lo Brown def. Aaron (?) Escobar-
Escobar comes out and cuts a promo starting in Spanish which got instant heat. Cut a good heel promo calling the Cincinatti crowd stupid and asking to see what Raw had to offer. Enter D'lo to a decent react. Escobar played the coward at first running from D'lo twice. Eventually got the heat. Fun match with some good back and forth but I thought there was a TON of daylight showing on D'lo's offense. D'lo eventually hits the Lo Down for the win. Escobar looked good.
Cole is introduced to a very mixed reaction. King comes out and the "Jerry" chants continue until the lights go out for the start of the show.
Jericho comes out and is HATED. Cincy despised this man and he was great. He cut the promo from the top of the ladder and big chunks of it were inaudible over all the booing in the crowd. HBK chants started quickly. Randy Orton came out and got a reaction I can only describe as "YAY....wait a minute....BOO" the crowd was very into Orton for running of Jericho but turned on him quick.
C.M. Punk entered the picture to a BIG pop. The pop got even bigger when he slapped Orton in the face. When Adamle came out people were booing before he even opened his mouth. Suspending Punk got a big reaction which lead to a nice reaction for Shane McMahon and the place popped big for him over ruling the suspension. Shane continued to dance like crazy up the ramp while we went to commercial.
CM Punk def. Cody Rhodes-
I have no idea what happened in the commercial break but as soon as Cody Rhodes vs. CM Punk started the crowd died. Punk's offense got a few good reactions and the match came off okay live but was a little slow movie. People didn't seem to buy Cody as a threat and didn't react much until Punk's comeback that got a decent reaction but it was nothing compared to what he had at the start of the show. Beat down followed and Kofi makes the save, good reaction for him as well.
I am not sure if this played on TV or not but when they showed the Bengals on the TitanTron the Cincinatti crowd boo'd like crazy. It was really kind of sad.
Santino Marella def. Deuce-
Santino was really hated in this match. Very short match but Santino was amazing in his role. People actually seemed to believe for a minute that Deuce was going to beat him. Santino plays his role to perfection.
Kane def. Evan Bourne-
Kane's pyro is really loud. Good match with the crowd reacting well to Evan's high flying. His moonsault to the floor looked absolutely sick live. I thought he died. Kane eventually gets the win with a choke slam and Bourne looked like he took it HARD. Sucks to be him. Kane continues the assault afterwards and Rey makes the save. Little kids were going NUTS for Rey and then he proceeded to take a chokeslam that made Bourne's look tame. Kane ended up looking like quite the monster.
Kelly Kelly def. Beth Phoenix-
First off, we couldn't stop laughing about Santino saying "Kelly Kelly Kelly" Kelly is way more impressive live, both in appearance and in the ring. She looked really good here and the crowd was behind her. Very athletic offense and lots of gymnastics. Santino screws up for the Kelly roll up. Crowd got really excited when Kelly got the upset and the place popped HUGE for Batista when he came out to save Kelly. Batista snapping Santino's nose guard played great live and the crowd was hot for Batista.
Miz/Morrisson def.Cryme Tyme-
Miz and Morrisson had great heat and I can't say enough about how great their performances were tonight. You don't get to see it all on TV but they play the crowd during the whole match and were heat magnets. Cryme Tyme got over big and all of their double team offense got big reaction, especially JTG being rocket launched to the outside. Crowd was WAY into this match. This match was easily the sleeper hit of the night. Crowd was livid when Miz and Morrisson stole the win and they waited around to bask in the boo's during the break. Both teams looked really good and this match was awesome live.
I'm not sure if this made TV or not, I don't think it did. But Charlie Haas came on the screen in a package from a local Dave and Buster's resturant (For those not familiar, D&B is a resturant/arcade) saying that he had a "PERFECT" Tribute for tonight. Charlie put on a curly blonde wig and proceeded to recreate the old "Perfect" sports vignette, but Charlie, of course, missed everything. He was beaten by a child in air hockey, knocked out a waiter playing video boxing, missed every basketball shot he took and crashed into another waiter while trying to throw a football to himself. If this didn't play on TV, it should have, it was CLASSIC and of course was a giant plug for the Mr. Perfect DVD.
Chris Jericho, Lance Cade and JBL def. Shawn Michaels and Batista-
The story of this match was really just how popular Shawn Michaels is. From the start of the match until the hot tag there was some kind of HBK chant going nonstop. Crowd went nuts for Shawn slugging it out with Lance Cade and got very angry when Jericho got the heat. The tag to Batista got a huge pop and the countdown for Sweet Chin music was deafening. A very fun match and Michaels is incredible live. Everything with him and Jericho played perfect in the arena. Shawn Michaels played the "babyface in peril" perfectly and the entire match was hot. Lance Cade getting the pin in the end shocked everyone. Raw went off the air.
After the Show-
Almost as soon as Cade and Jericho made it out of the arena they turned around and came back. They slid into the ring to attack Michaels but he knocks them both out with Sweet Chin Music that both got great reactions.
After that Batista picked up JBL pretending to offer him a friendly hand shake only to pummel him and hold him up for one more Sweet Chin Music. Batista and Michaels posed on the ropes and walked around shaking hands and signing autographs for a few minutes before Lillian got on the mic and told everyone goodnight.
My reaction as a fan was that this show was a BLAST. Nothing seemed to drag with the exception of a few moments during Rhodes vs. Punk. A very good, fun show live.
Biggest Pops-
1. HBK
2. Batista
3. John Cena (on video package)
4. C.M. Punk
5. Cryme Tyme
(Note: Shane reversing the Adamle decision got a huge pop as well.)
Biggest Heat-
1. Jericho
2. The Cincinatti Bengals
3. Miz/Morrisson
4. Santino
5. Snitsky
Submitted by Ryan Shields, RyanStrikesBack on the board.
Ryan Shields
{plug}
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