*SPOILERS* Raw 12/02/07 Play-By-Play
 

Hey, peeps.

I'm gonna be adventurous and stay up until 6am watching tonight's edition of Raw, two hours later than usual but I suppose I can't complain compared to the deal you Yanks are getting. :p

I shall add my play-by-play commentary as we go along for anybody who wishes to have Thursday's show spoiled for them (or for those not planning on watching) in NeanderCarl's inimitable, opinionated style!

There you go, that means you can ask me any questions as we go along, rather than reading some bland spoilers on some newsboard.

Do us a favour, though. Don't post the spoilers in here when they end up online until the show has finished on my end!

Great stuff. Only 45mins to go. Wonder if I'll make it...

Trumps wrestler vs McMahon's wrestler at Mania, with the loser (Trump or McMahon) getting their heads shaved.

Crowd did not dig it that much.

:(

Actually, I already read that, but :(

I'm watching it now. I thought you were too?

Mickie James looks eminently fuckable tonight. Is that a spoiler?

thank you carl, i always appreciated your live play by play coverage of WWE ppvs including your commentary.

She always does.

Nah, it's not on until 4am in the UK (starts in half an hour).

So...should I do play by play now or what.

:D There's never a lot of point doing them for Raw usually, as everybody watches it, but I thought I'd do it this week as it's not on until Thursday for the majority of posters.

Same with the Big Four PPVs, but I shall be do a PBP for No Way Out this Sunday.

It must be nearly finished on your end, surely?

You can't do that because then I won't be able to post in my own thread for fear of being *SPOILED!* ;)

Nah, I'm only a half hour in. Raw doesn't start in Canada until 10PM.

I may stay up and watch RAW. Not got anything to do tomorrow.

Carl, is No Way Out free in the UK this Sunday?

There is a very shitty match going on right now.

In today's WWE, I don't think that qualifies as a spoiler.

Special appearance tonight by (spoiler) Roddy Piper

Main event tonight: Undertaker, John Cena, Batista, Shawn Michaels vs Randy Orton, Edge, MVP, Mr. Kennedy

OMG BRET HART

Spoiler Flair cuts another promo on Carlito. Carlito challenges flair to a match, Flair accepts. end spoiler

Starting in a minute. Hope this is actually worth staying up all night for. I have to go to uni tomorrow with no sleep.

Okay, the audio is way out of synch...

Anyone else think Mickie James is nice to look at for five minutes a week, but she'd really fucking annoy you if you had to spend every day around her? She's FHAFH material.

First person announced for this year's hall of fame: Dusty Rhodes

The brand extention doesn't matter one bit any more to WWE, does it?

Piper appearance tonight, good stuff.

McMahon and Trump to kick things off.

Trump has aged a lot in the last few years, hasn't he?

I watched WrestleMania IV a few weeks back, and he looked almost like a totally different person.

Vince seems to having trouble pronouncing "WWE" tonight. Keeps saying "WW...a".

Just to prove it, as well as the main event, Ashley just escorted Trump to the ring.

Crowd hasn't turned on this segment yet, anyway.

:lol: @ Vince's claim that he will never wrestle again. Reckon they did that to protect Trump, make him look like a tough guy who was actually prepared to fac Vince?

Hmmm... I forgot I was supposed to be doing play by play.

Basically, Trump came out and said he was going to repeat the money drop from a few weeks back. Vince said that he was wise to the plan and stopped the stage hands. Trump challenged Vince to a match at WrestleMania. Vince refused on the grounds that his doctor told him he will never wrestle again following the Hell In A Cell match.

Vince's counter-offer is a match where Vince and Trump choose a wrestler each to second at Mania. Trump proclaims that he agrees on "Hair vs Hair" terms, just to prove that Trump doesn't wear a hairpiece. Vince refuses on the account that Trump probably has something up his sleeve.

Trump calls Vince gutless and that is enough to make Vince phlegm that the match is on.

Trump really has no business getting involved in WWE, but he is a mainstream name and a pretty good television performer, in that he can carry a segment well, as he just proved. It's a good rub for WWE and adds a bit of unusual interest to a match at Mania, plus the "Hair vs Hair" gimmick is one of the few gimmicks left that is not overexposed on TV.

It's not going to "save the wrestling business" but it does add to the WrestleMania MEGA hype machine. I give it a :y:

I just hope they choose the right guy to align with Trump. Some faces won't be hurt by being seconded by Trump, but some of their guys stand to lose a lot of cool points having Trump in their corner.

Despite what Hulk "The Truth" Hogan says, I reckon the Vince/Trump feud will culminate in a Shane McMahon vs Hogan match at Mania. It makes storyline sense, as why wouldn't Vince pick "my son Shane" as his representative, while Hogan had a storyline alliance with Trump (if only in Hogan's interviews) back in the WrestleMania at Trump Plaza days.

Johnny "Don't Call Me Over" Nitro vs Super "Stop Forcing This Catchphrase On Us, It Ain't Sticking" Crazy now.

My bad, it's actually a mixed tag. Nitro and Melina vs Crazy and Mickie James.

I think Crazy would make a good, Hennig/Rude-style heel.

If he changed his ring gear, that is.

Melina pinned Mickie out of nowhere, with no momentum whatsoever, with a tight-grab but this was a decent little match. Nitro and Melina take the win.

Eugene dicking about in the ring, and he is taking on The Great Khali. Eugene has a Ric Flair doll, and has grown quite the long goatee now.

I thought Eugene was meant to be a heel?

Is Khali better or worse than Giant Gonzalez? On a relative scale of how the athleticism in wrestling has increased since 1993, I'd say they are equally bad.

Jim Ross says that Khali is from the jungles of India. Does India even have any jungles.

Total squash, as Khali shoves Eugene to the floor in what Jim Ross described as a "chokeslam" and gets the duke.

Worthless but mercifully short.

Shawn Michaels interview next, and Michaels really needs to stop wearing the DX gear, especially if he is going to main event WrestleMania. It makes him look and seem like one half of a tag team.

When one half of a tag team goes solo, without making any changes, they tend to look weak and not get over. Michaels of all people should know that. Of course, Michaels has the bonus of having been a bonafide main eventer before the DX reunion. But with the DX music/T-shirts/etc I just get the impression that:

i) I am watching "Shawn Michaels, one half of DX"
ii) he is just doing it so Triple H can continue to get a merchandise payday during his layoff.

Would you back Jerry Saggs going into a singles title match? Or Phineas Godwinn? I know Michaels is a much bigger star, but still....


We get a replay of Flair's a-bit-too-close-to-the-bone promo against Carlito last week. Flair about to speak, but Carlito arrives looking for an apology. Flair tells Carlito he says no guts and no heart. Carlito is tamping! He challenges Flair to a match and promises to show him passion. Nice mental picture.

Flair agrees. Woooo.

Flair is a major hypocrite. A guy with "guts and passion" wouldn't have wrestled the same match blueprint for 30 years. Okay, it was a GOOD blueprint back in the day, but please! If he'd had the guts or passion to try mixing things up a bit, rather than getting wasted in a different bar each night, maybe then he'd be able to lecture guys like Carlito. I know, I know... he's a legend and he's had a lot of classic matches, and that much is true. But his reputation was always a bit of a sham and he has exposed that much many times in the last few years.

Jim Ross is having an aneurysm over the Skittles advert again.

We have Jeff Hardy vs Chris Masters non-title match, now. For the second week in a row, Hardy's opponent gets a future title match if they win. Isn't that wrestling law ANYWAY?