15 YRS AGO – WWE Live Event (12-7-02): Triple H, Ric Flair, RVD, Booker T, Dudleys, Lance Storm, William Regal, Batista, Kane, Dreamer, Raven

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WWE Raw house show report
December 7, 2002
Pensacola, Fla. at the Pensacola Civic Center
Report by Rev. Paul Trampe, PWTorch.com correspondent

This was the exact same show as in Richmond on the 6th, apparently.

There actually seemed to be a bigger crowd for this show than when Smackdown came to town a few months ago, before the new GMs took over. The stadium was almost three quarters full and fairly hot for the most part.

(1) The Hurricane defeated Raven. The crowd was really into Hurricane and popped big when he took his cape and made it into a makeshift kilt to mock Raven with. Hurricane won with an Eye of the Hurricane.

(2) Tommy Dreamer defeated Sean O’Haire. O’Haire played the part of a real powerhouse, no-selling a lot of Dreamer’s offense and tossing him around. A small but vocal minority of the crowd was behind O’Haire, but the crowd popped fairly decently for Dreamer winning with his DDT.

(3) Rico & Rosie defeated D-Lo & Spike Dudley. Close your eyes and imagine a match with these four, and you’ve got it. Now open your eyes, because the words on your screen are more entertaining. The crowd did seem to have a mixed reaction when D-Lo refused a tag from Spike and walked out on him.

(4) Victoria & Molly Holly defeated Trish Stratus and Jacqueline. Despite being the best match so far, the crowd was fairly silent. Victoria eventually pinned Trish while holding onto the ropes.

(5) Batista defeated Kane. Not the best match in the world. Batista was able to finish it when Flair ran in and distracted Kane so Batista could hit his spinebuster.

(6) The Dudley Boyz defeated Lance Storm & William Regal in a tag team table match. The Dudleys got the biggest pop of the night and I really can’t overstate how much Bubba seemed to enjoy himself. Before the match, Regal held onto the microphone for a good minute before saying that we weren’t worth wasting his breath. Eventually Spike ran down to help out and the Dudleys tried to 3D Storm through the table but, while it was hard to see from my angle, it looked like he bounced off the table in what was obviously not the intended finish. Regal was quickly powerbombed through the same table. After the match, Regal seemed to be in pain, and while he could have just been selling well, he did have a visible welt on his torso.

(7) Christopher Nowinski defeated Maven. Before the match, Nowinski started to read out his own version of the poem “Mother”, altering it to insult Maven and his winning of Tough Enough over people who “more deserved” to win because of his mother being sick. And then the match started, and I actually had to turn to my father who came to the show with me and ask if I was losing my hearing, because the crowd was dead. Nowinski eventually DDT’d Maven onto a copy of Bartlett’s for the win. I guess he “more deserved” to win that match.

(8) Test, with Stacy Kiebler, defeated Steven Richards. Before the match, Stacy made note that Pensacola is a big navy town and said that in addition to loving Testicles, she’s a big fan of seamen(seamen – semen; get it?) and then started grinding Test until Steven Richards interrupted for their match. No huge reaction for either, though.

(9) Booker T defeated Christian. Booker got a huge pop and Christian got a respectable one, before starting up a Christian Sucks chant by saying he doesn’t suck. A fun match with a lot of reversals and just some really good wrestling. Booker teased a Book End at one point before Christian countered out. Booker eventually won with his Scissors/Axe kick.

(10) Rob Van Dam defeated Triple H (w/Ric Flair). Ric Flair came out first on his own to a huge face reaction, even keeping some of it after insulting the crowd(it was subtle, so maybe most of them didn’t get it) and introduced Triple H to a mixed reaction. He lost the fan support for the most part when RVD came out, as he got a huge pop. This was advertised as no DQ, but I can’t recall the stipulation being announced before the match, and the ref was bumped at any time a DQ would have been made. After Hebner got knocked out, Batista came out and He, Trips, and Flair all teamed up on RVD for what seemed like an eternity as everyone kept waiting for Kane to come out. Eventually he did and chased Batista away. RVD won shortly after with a Frog Splash.

Notes: Not a bad show at all. I think I assumed the role of obnoxious fan who makes the most noise, as I’d often shout things cheering for the heel if they were the one I liked better(such as Rico and Sean O’Haire) but I did seem to get acknowledged by a few of the wrestlers, including Flair who seemed amused by my yelling at Triple H(“Put somebody over, you selfish prick!” “You are not the entire company!” “Do a job for once in your life!”) so if you’re going to a show, remember that it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.

NOW CHECK OUT THIS PREVIOUS FLASHBACK: 20 YRS AGO: Keller’s WCW Nitro report including Scott Hall vs. DDP in main event, Luger, Buff, Savage, Ric Flair, Mongo, Konnan, more

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