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The following report originally published 20 years ago this week here at PWTorch.com…
WWE Raw house show report
Friday, September 24, 2004
Sioux Falls, S.D.
Report by Rolland I., PWTorch.com reader
The Superstars of Raw came back to Sioux Falls for the first time in two years Friday night. Attendance was not very good for the show, so I would not expect WWE to come back any time soon. Overall, the house show was a fun event, but nothing spectacular. Here are the results.
Howard Finkel announced the lineup for the night and informed us that Chris Benoit was not able to make the event. He said that by orders of Vince McMahon, though, there would be a 17-man over-the-top-rope battle royal instead of Kane-Benoit.
(1) Shelton Benjamin defeated Christian (w/Tyson Tomko) with the a modified powerslam. Christian cut a quick promo about how all of his peeps in South Dakota should be glad that Captain Charisma showed up and not Chris Benoit. The match got off to a slow start after (literally) ten minutes of posing and showboating between Shelton and Christian. Tyson Tomko got sent to the back after attempting to interfere, which caused enough of a distraction to allow Shelton Benjamin to hit a huge powerslam for the win.
(2) Rodney Mack & Chuck Palumbo defeated Val Venis & Maven when Rodney Mack hit Maven with a DDT. Not a very good match. The finish came when Palumbo pushed Maven off of the turnbuckle and right into Mack, who was waiting with the DDT. Afterwards, Venis gave his towel to a kid in the front row.
Simon Dean came out next and ripped on the crowd for all being out-of-shape and lazy. When he asked for any volunteers to come and try out his exercise program, Rhyno ran out from the back. E-C-Dub chants broke out. Dean thanked Rhyno for coming out and praised him for admitting he had a weight problem. Rhyno gored him.
(3) Tajiri defeated The Hurricane with a roll-up. Dull match, and crowd was not into it at all. Tajiri offered Hurricane a handshake at the beginning of the match, but Hurricane gave him a “thumbs down” and went on the offensive. Tajiri hit a buzzsaw kick at one point, then rolled up the Hurricane for the win.
(4) Randy Orton defeated Batista with the RKO. Earl Hebner arrived first and got a tremendous pop (nobody cares about the Montreal Screwjob in this neck of the woods). Batista got on the mic and talked for a couple minutes about what he was going to do to Orton for breaking his nose two weeks ago. The two had a pose-down, with Orton playing to the crowd big time. When Batista went to get a cheap shot in on Orton, Orton grabbed his nose and twisted. Batista ran out of the ring and walked up to the entrance area. Randy went up to a man with down’s syndrome in the front row and talked with him for a little while, then grabbed the replica world title belt that the man had and climbed on the apron and went through all of Triple H’s mannerisms and posing, complete with the spitting and everything. He gave the belt back and raised the man’s hand, in a neat gesture. Then, he snuck up on Batista and failed an RKO attempt. They wrestled for a while, each hitting their signature moves before Orton hit an RKO out of nowhere while Batista had him up for the Batista Bomb.
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Finkel shilled the merchandise for sale in the lobby and plugged No Mercy as we began a twenty minute intermission.
(5) La Resistance defeated William Regal & Eugene when Robert Conway rolled up William Regal. Very fun match with several high points. Eugene started the match off by grabbing one of the Quebec flags and riding it like a stick horse and then poking everyone with it, including Regal. Conway went flying when Eugene let go of the flag during their tug-of-war. The turning point of this match came when Eugene & Regal set up Grenier in the corner (in a “Shattered Dreams” position) and used Conway as a battering ram. Ouch! Eugene then hit the Rock Bottom on Grenier, and Regal did a perfect People’s Elbow. Afterwards, while Eugene was outside of the ring giving Grenier the Stunner, Conway rolled up Regal with a fistful of tights.
(6) Kane defeated Gene Snitsky with a Chokeslam. Kane got a tremendous pop and made short work of Snitsky, who got a small chorus of boos.
When Finkel began to announce the final match, he was cut off by Muhammed Hasan and his manager (didn’t catch his name–he had a real thick accent but resembled Tiger Ali Singh). They went on about how corrupt America was and how they were going to destroy the USA. Hasan said that there were no American heroes left. His manager unrolled a prayer rug and the two got on their knees and began to pray, only to be interrupted by Sergeant Slaughter. At this point, the crowd went wild with chants of U-S-A and for Slaughter. He got on the mic and said that there are still American heroes, and they were looking right at one. Slaughter said that they had better pray that they would be able to walk to the back after he’s through with them. He tossed the manager over the ropes and locked the cobra clutch on Hasan. Sergeant Slaughter saluted fans on his way out, the crowd still going nuts.
(7) Randy Orton won the 17-man over-the-top-rope battle royal. Participants were Orton, Kane, Christian, Rhyno, Tyson Tomko, Eugene, William Regal, Robert Conway, Sylvian Grenier, Shelton Benjamin, Chuck Palumbo, Rodney Mack, Maven, Val Venis, the Hurricane, Tajiri, and Batista. Eugene sat in the crowd for a few minutes, drinking a Mt. Dew and talking with the fans. Christian hid under the ring for most of the match, only to come back in and get eliminated by a Randy Orton RKO on the apron. Eugene got back into the match and hit consecutive airplane spins on Conway, Orton, Palumbo, and Kane. After the last one, Eugene was a bit dizzy and was eliminated by Kane. Orton won it with a dropkick to Kane and on RKO on the ropes. Orton did a bit more posing before leaving and concluding the house show.
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