By James Caldwell, PWTorch columnist

CALDWELL'S LIVE WWE RAW REPORT
February 4, 2008
Austin, Texas

- We're live inside the Erwin Center for Raw. About 10,000 seats available tonight with part of the arena taped off for TV. We'll see how well it fills up tonight.

- At 5:30 local time, WWE crew brought out some EMT personnel to ringside to go over some procedures.

Dark match: Charlie Haas beat Val Venis by submission with an inverted Texas Cloverleaf. Haas did his mask routine. Decent opener.

By the time Lillian Garcia sang the National Anthem at 6:20, the building was pretty packed, but not full.

Jim Ross came out to a Cena reaction on campus at UT. Lawler came out to the UT fight song and got a good reaction.

RAW TV FOR FEB. 4

Orton-Cena contract signing: Orton came out first to heavy boos. He went over the WWE Title contract situation for No Way Out. Orton has already signed the contract. Huge pop for Cena. Only a few smattering boos. Cena quickly signed the deal. Cena has an arm wrestling contest with Mark Henry tonight. Orton and Cena went face to face, then Henry ran to ringside to distract Cena. Orton then caught Cena with the RKO. Bam.

Commercial.

Orton and Henry talked strategy backstage.

(1) Kelly Kelly & Mickie James beat Victoria & Beth Phoenix in 3:00. Good opener with fast paced action. Mickie with a Tornado DDT on Victoria for the win.

Regal and Hornswoggle shared a moment backstage.

Commercial.

- Shawn Michaels came out and cut an entertaining promo about hating second place. No Patriots references. Chris Jericho interrupted, then Hardy to a pop equal to HBK. They talked Chamber, then JBL interrupted and said he bought off Umaga. The million dollar man was interrupted by Umaga, who simply stared him down. Snitsky came out sixth and got the brush-your-teeth chant. HBK said he wants to talk a different way. Punches were thrown, then Regal came out and booked a six-man tag for the main. No sign of Hunter.

(2) Mr. Kennedy beat Super Crazy in 2:00. Kennedy with an inverted figure four to win via submission.

Afterwards, Kennedy cut a promo after they showed footage of MVP taking out Flair on SD. Kennedy mocked Flair and told him to forfeit their No Way Out match on next week's show or be crippled for life.

(3) Santino & Carlito w/Maria beat London & Kendrick in 2:00. Santino ran around the ring for 30 seconds while London chased and Carltio hit the backstabber on Kendrick to win. Santino is great.

- Vince McMahon got his ass buffered backstage. Seriously. He has to be HD ready.

- Vince came out and cut a promo on parents for letting their kids be spoiled brats. He called out Hornswoggle to join the Kiss My Ass club. Vince dropped his pants to reveal a full moon in a thong. After Horny teased a kiss, Finlay interrupted. He went back and forth with Vince before Horny bit Vince on the cheek and rode him around the ring with his teeth. Finlay had a good laugh. Vince then booked himself vs. Hornswoggle for next week and Finlay is fired if he interferes. Really hot segment.

(4) Holly & Cody beat Cade & Murdoch in 3:00. Cody with the pin on Murdoch in another short match. Cade yelled at Murdoch afterward.

Santino and Carlito came out after the match and announced themselves as new no. one contenders.

They showed a clip of divas on Project Runway.

(5) Hardy & HBK & Jericho beat Snitsky & Umaga & JBL in 12:00. The babyfaces got their early shine with a triple plancha on the floor. The heels then isolated Jericho for a while. Hardy eventually got the hot tag and they went into a rapid fire finish with some spots that were just off, but the roof came off when Hardy hit a Swanton bomb on Snitsky for the win. Huge reaction for Hardy post match as the focused on him as winner.

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