SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
The following report was published originally ten years ago on PWTorch.com…
WWE Raw house show report
April 23, 2004
St. Paul, Minn. at Xcel Arena
Report by Chris Ketchmark, PWTorch.com correspondent
(1) Rosie & Hurricane beat La Resistance. Basic tag match with little heat. Superheroes win after a double team move.
(2) Batista challenged anybody in the back to a match and squashed Rhyno.
(3) Val Venis beat A-Train. A-Train missed a charge into the corner and Val rolled him up.
(4) Victoria & Lita beat Molly & Gail Kim. The ladies worked hard. Decent match. Victoria pinned Kim after Molly’s wig came off.
A skit happened with Coachman (who was ring announcer) bragging about beating Tajiri at Backlash. Tajiri sneaked into the ring and beat Coachman down. Garrison Cade made the save and he and Coachman beat up Tajiri and left him laying.
(5) Chris Jericho beat Christian (w/Man in Black from Raw) in a no DQ match ordered by Bischoff minutes into the match. Decent house show match with Jericho pulling the trunks for a the win. Post match beat down on Jericho to get heat back on Christian.
Prior to intermission shirts were being shot into the crowd. Eugene showed up and stole the shirt blaster. He was stopped by Regal but managed to shoot the kid who was loading the blaster in the groin with a shirt. Eugene got some cheers from the crowd.
(6) Kane beat Matt Hardy. Eric Bischoff substituted Hardy for Edge. He was punishing Edge for his actions at Backlash. Hardy was put in the match for saving Lita on Raw. Hardy got in some early offense but Kane won with a chokeslam. Post match Kane was going to chokeslam Lita but Bischoff ordered him to “Tombstone the skank”. Egde made the save with a sneak attack spear on Kane and on Bischoff.
(7) Randy Orton defeated Shelton Benjamin. Orton retained the IC Title pinning Benjamin with his feet on the ropes. Long match which started slowly. Both wrestlers looked good with good heat on Orton. Lots of Foley chants.
(8) Chris Benoit beat Triple H. Crippler won with the crossface when Triple H tapped out. Very good match. Crowd was all over Triple H for tapping out at Backlash prior to and during this match. Finishing sequence saw a ref bump. Benoit pinned Triple H for several seconds, tended to the ref and was triple teamed by Evolution. Triple H hit the Pedigree but Benoit kicked out. Benoit hit Orton and Batista with his belt to clear them from the ring. After some back and forth action, Benoit slapped the crossface on Hunter who tapped out to a frenzy of heat. Post match saw Evolution beat up Benoit. Superheroes tried to make the save but were fought off. Rhyno and Val tried to make the save and were also fought off. Finally Benjamin and Edge came in and Evolution headed back to the locker room. The faces put Benoit on their shoulders to cheers. Benoit ended up acknowledging the crowd by himself for a few minutes to good cheers.
Notes: Small crowd for a large arena. No Trish or Flair. It was good to see feuds from TV carried over to the house show. Bischoff was a good surprise as were Regal and Eugene.
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