WWE Raw house show
August 8, 2005
Pittsburg, Pa. at Melon Arena
Report by Dave Maddas of Altoona, Pa., PWTorch.com reader

I just got back from Raw in Pittsburgh. On my way to the event I was listening to Mark Madden's radio show on ESPN radio and he talked about Raw being in town and told his listeners to cheer for Shawn Michaels and boo Hulk Hogan. The crowd was hot most of the night and was pretty much full. The Pittsburgh crowd doesn't come off good on TV at times. Some empty seats but not many.

DARK MATCH

(1) Damaja beat Chris Cage. I don't think most people knew who these two were because there was a boring chant 20 seconds into the match and a Here we go Steelers chant during the match. The match itself pretty much a squash match as Damaja dominated the entire match and won with a reverse DDT/elbow drop combo.

HEAT

(1) Val Venis beat Johnny Parisi (Swinger). Before the match got on the mic and talked about starting his own airline Valboski Air. Val won the match with the money shot.

(2) Tyson Tomko beat J.P. Varsity(?). Not sure if the opponent's name is correct. Was a little hard to hear. This match lasted at most 30 seconds as Tomko whipped Varsity into the ropes and nailed him with a big boot that sent Varsity into a nasty 180. Varsity landed on his head when he landed. It was a nasty move. The ref went to check on Varsity and after checking on him called the match. Varsity was in the ring for a while after the match and was helped from the ring.

Kerwin White then came out on his white golf cart and got on the mic. A Chavo chant started and Kerwin goes "Chavo? Chavo? Chavo has left the building. He's probably down in the unemployment line like the rest of the Hispanics." He then went on to say that he is the new Great White Hope.

(3) Rene Dupree beat Matt Stryker. A decent back and forth match that saw Dupree win with a cobra clutch slam.

RAW NOTES

Kurt Angle was so over that even when he tried to turn the crowd against him it didn't work. There was a "Eugene sucks" chant at one point before the match... Matt Hardy got a decent ovation for his match. After the Cena video was over, it got booed. Hogan was so over it was sick... Cena, when he showed up, got a loud ovation. During the Michaels-Hogan segment when Hogan mentioned Bret Hart, that started up a loud "You Screwed Bret" chant... Before Jericho wrestled Jack Patton he got on the mic during the commercial and ran down Pittsburgh. That's how the Steeler chant started when the came back from commercial. Then during the match when Cena went after Carlito and it looked like they had a missed spot, Carlito actually slipped going into the ropes and got his head caught under the top rope. That is what messed up that spot...

AFTER RAW

The bonus match was Michaels & Angle & JBL vs. Cena & Hogan & Batista. The ovation for Batista was almost as big as Hogan's. It was unreal how over Batista was. There was some comedy early between the heels when Angle ran away from Batista and was on his knees in his corner with his head in JBL's crotch. Angle then went over to Michaels but Michaels was in the far corner, then Angle turned back to JBL and he wasn't around. Match went longer than I thought it would. After Cena made the hot tag to Hogan, Hogan hulked up on JBL and nailed the boot/legdrop combo to win. Hogan, Batista, and Cena played to the crowd afterwards for about 5 to 10 minutes.

BIGGEST OVATIONS
1. Hogan
2. Batista
3. Angle
4. Cena
5. Michaels

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