Tuesday, December 18, 2007

RAW's 15th Anniversary - Night For The Fans


For one night, i was a night of superstars, old faces and alliances, and even old rivalries for one night on Raw's 15th Anniversary.


Raw started off with a funny segment where Triple H ruins the family picture for Vince McMahon and the family, considering himself part of the family - which as everyone knows in real life, he is.


So, Triple H crashes the family portrait and his real wife, Stephanie McMahon tells Vince she is going to embarrass him after all the embarrassment he has put their family through, kissing Triple H.


As Stephanie leaves the ring, Triple H tells her he will see her at home, just mocking their whole real life situation, then "covering himself up" by saying "I mean your brothers a gnome."


What he said made no sense, but it didn't take away from the fact that it was fun to see the destruction of the TV version of the McMahons.


Unfortunately Rock didn't make an appearance, however, in one night, Hogan came out and defended Hornswoggle before The Great Khali destroyed him, showing shades of Hogan and Andre the Giant. Hulk ran his forearm into Khali's face knocking the 7 plus footer off his feet and out of the ring, leaving Hogan and Hornswoggle posing for the crowd.


Evolution, or at least the main parts of it, in Ric Flair, Triple H and Batista faced off against Rated RKO as Orton said if he was to go down in being part of an alliance it would be with Edge, so they teamed with Umaga, just to have Evolution dominate and take out Umaga in the end.


Also, what kind of occasion would it be if Jeff Hardy didn't get to show off some high-flying moves in a match - well, we didn't have to worry about that as he faced off against Carlito in a Ladder Match for the IC Championship, retaining of course, but not without a few good shots and crash and burn moves with the ladder.


And what kind of show would it be without a title changing hands? Well we didn't have to worry about that either as Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes captured the tag-team titles with The American Dream at the announce table who celebrating with his son in the ring after the match.


Now we knew that two diva would be there that had long feuds with each other and they came face to face with each other. Yes, Lita and Trish Stratus.


First Trish appeared saying she was glad to be back and see all her friends. Jillian, who was already in the ring "singing" of course got up in Trish's face and more familiar music hit...it was Lita. The two got up in each others grill and Jillian kept telling Lita to take the fight to Trish. I guess Trish and Lita put their past behind them as they took out Jillian Hall who after seeing the two were not going to fight called them has-beens and started hogging the spotlight and breaking glass with her singing. Lita and Trish took turns beating on Jillian before they hugged in the center of the ring.


After the segment was over and Lita was backstage watching a clip about all the marriages that took place on RAW, her ex-hubby Kane appeared. They made first date conversation talking about things like the weather, but Ron Simmons blessed the 15th Anniversary by standing in between the two during this awkward moment, looking at both of them in the eyes and contemplated his thoughts, and he was able to come up with one word to describe things, and he put things perfectly as he echoed "Damn!"


One disappointment was when they had a battle royal and Goldberg's music hit. Who thought he would actually show? Well he didn't, it was Gillberg. The IRS did however win the battle royal, but who came out? None other that The Million Dollar Man who bought the victory from IRS.


The battle royal was a bit disappointing, however, that disappointment was made up for when Santino Marella made an open challenge and a familiar music hit "One Of A Kind"... RVD was back. With one swift kick to the head followed by his patented 5 star frog splash, "The Whole F'N Show" picked up the quickest victory in a long time, but not before he posed to each section of the crowd as he pointed to himself and the arena echoed Rob -Van-Dam.


Not enough guest appearance just yet. Former GM Eric Bischoff came out to mock the fans and the WWE saying it is the same people who follow and the WWE needs to keep bringing him back for entertainment. Well, "The Human Highlight Real" must have heard enough. Y2J came to "save us" from Orton, but saved us from Bischoff's mouth, knocking him down with a swift punch after Bischoff started taking shots at Jericho. In an Armageddon preview, Orton came out to RKO Jericho but Y2J beat him to the punch and locked in the Wall of Jericho. Orton tapped and Jericho starred into the title before gently placing it next to the fallen Orton's body.


In another Armageddon preview, the brash Kennedy took on Shawn Michaels former partner, Marty Janetty in a good back and forth match. Janetty hit his finisher but Kennedy managed to get out. Janetty then got caught in the Green Bay Plunge but managed to turn it into a pinning attempt. It was all for naught as Kennedy nailed Janetty with an inverted STO type maneuver like Edge used to use as his finisher, and got the 3 count. The Rock and Roll Express Reunited momentarily as Kennedy continued to beat on Janetty and HBK saved his friend, but not before one more reunion, as Triple H causing as distraction coming down the ramp and HBK tosses Kennedy away like trash out of the ring and DX is re-united one more time as they put on their DX gear and did their DX chops in the center of the ring with the flairs going off behind them.


Well, their is one thing missing - Who is the number one superstar in Raw history. Mr.McMahon comes down to the ring and asks for the sealed envelope. He asks for a drum roll, opens it, looks at it, points backstage and announces it is ... Vincent Kennedy McMahon - I think we all saw that coming, but then the sound of a screeching car ... it is Mankind and he didn't forget Mr.Socko, as he planted it down McMahon's throat until he was laid out.


The lights go out and a gong goes off. This isn't SmackDown, but Undertaker came walking down the aisle. Mankind scampered of the ring leaving a helpless Mr.McMahon in the ring. Taker "opens" the lights, takes off his jacket and hat and stalks McMahon as he stumbles back to his feet. t would have been wise for him not to turn around, but he did and had Taker's had rapped around his throat just to get slammed back to the mat below with a chokeslam. The lights go out again and the any trace of the Undertaker was gone except for Mr.McMahons body that was once again laid to waste.


Uh-oh, the glass shatter music hits and the Rattlesnake himself comes walking down the ring. He jokes with the crowd as Vince is stuck to the mat like a fly who was hit with a shoe, saying that he came to Raw to to congratulate Vince and tells the audience to look at him "sleeping" on the mat. Austin tries to give Vince a toast from his back, but that wasn't working to well for the Rattlesnake, so he eventually got Vince back to his feet and coaxes him into a beer where one more time we got to see a beer filled stunner on the chairman.


Austin takes the mic and says it wasn't any superstar that made RAW a success, it was all the fans, addressing those in person, and then free spirited Austin-like got his face right up into the camera and said it was for everyone watching from home sitting in front of the TV that has made RAW.


The show goes off the air as he invites every superstar to the ring for beers, but their need to be one more shot to McMahon who had rolled out of the ring tried to re-enter but got a fist to the jaw by Austin and Triple H and Austin beer bathed McMahon from the ring down to the floor where a motionless McMahon must have been tired and decided to take another nap face first on the outside of the ring while the entire roster toasted the fans.

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