"WWE RAW" Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

The final RAW of 2004 comes your way as Triple H, Chris Benoit, Edge, Batista, Chris Jericho and Randy Orton count down to New Year's Revolution and their shot to win the vacant World Heavyweight Championship inside the Elimination Chamber. What will these six men do to gain that all important momentum?


http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/raw/images/20041220_lastraw2004.jpg
Another Bischoff bombshell
Dec. 27, 2004

General Manager Eric Bischoff will make another huge announcement tonight on RAW, which airs with New Year's Revolution looming close. During the last live RAW, Bischoff returned from a month-long vacation to find the World Heavyweight Championship vacated. Bischoff promptly shocked those involved in the controversy by declaring that the title would be won in the Elimination Chamber during the pay-per-view Jan. 9. What will the GM's latest news mean for Triple H, Batista, Edge, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit?

Raw will also feature plenty of in-ring action as Lita will look to continue her winning ways against the always formidable Molly Holly. And now that Simon Dean is officially a Raw Superstar, he will get the chance to settle his differences with Rosey. Weeks ago, Dean made fun of Rosey's physical appearance, urging him to use his patented Simon System to shed some pounds. Will Rosey get his sweet revenge?

With 2005 rapidly approaching people everywhere are starting to form their New Year's resolutions. But on Raw tonight, Stacy Keibler will let the world know what she hope to accomplish in 2005.

Also, Gene Snitsky was stopped by a wall of flame while in pursuit of Lita. Does this mean we'll see the monster Kane on RAW tonight?

Newcomers Muhammad Hassan and Khosrow Daivari recently had words with Mick Foley. Will they back up the talk on Monday Night?

Be sure to tune in to Monday Night RAW tonight (9/8 CT; Spike TV) for all the answers.

[VCXZX]

Interesting concept with the Beat the Clock matches. Haven't seen that in a while.

I noticed Bischoff acting like a face tonight. It looks like there's no Evil GMs in the WWE.

Edge-Eugene was pretty good. Eugene seems to get his heat back after his disaterous feud with HHH.

The Hassan segment was alright. Hassan better be careful when he steps outside, though. He got quite the negative reaction there.

I'm not surprised that HBK is the guest ref. Even Benoit looked upset at that.

[SirLemming]

This was a very good show. The series of Beat The Clock matches was fresh and exciting, and gave you a reason to watch the entire show. It also guaranteed 6 matches, and they even had 2 superfluous matches to add up to quite a nice total.
All the HBK signs kind of spoiled the guest referee revelation, though. Curse you spoiler-readers!

The best moment of the night by far was when that fitness guy said that everyone in the crowd was fat and lazy and stuff and they cut to a fat, redneck-y guy in the audience looking really hurt.

[Tapout]

Before I start I have to ask WTF is with Muhammad Hassan's ear? That thing is even creepier than Foley's. It almost looks fake.

A superb Raw marred by only a few things. First off was Batista v. Rhyno. I understand that Dave is in the middle of a rediculous push, but they dropped the ball on this one. Instead of trying to stick Benoit in an underdog role versus Viscera, it should have been Benoit v. Rhyno, who are more than capable of putting on a great match. Then Batista could have annihilated the 500-pound Viscera, making him look like even more of a monster than he did squashing Rhyno. But maybe I'm just upset that they're still jobbing Rhyno out and Viscera even has a job... :shrug:

Whenever WWE needs a high-profile special referee, they turn to HBK. That wasn't very predictable. :rolleyes:

Great show tonight. 4.5/5

[TheEvilClown]

IMO It would've been a Shoker to the Wrestler World if the Guest Ref was the Rock.

[BlackCat]

I was surprised by how good RAW was this week. It helped that there were actually more matches in the show than segments. I didn't expect any of the contenders to lose their matches but felt that their opponents were mismatched. The Muhammad Hassan angle really has me irked because of the general reaction. I guess I am in the minority that actually is starting to like him and sympathizes with what he's saying. I wouldn't mind a little less of Simon Dean, though. :rolleyes:

Overall, not bad. 4/5

[chris3116]

Very good RAW. The Beat the Clock matches were great. It's so funny when HHH is angry.

Hassan was great in the mic. 2 weeks ago, I thought he sucked but in my book, he was underrated.

I'd like Simon Dean was beaten by The Rock in a promo. It takes a lot of courage to fight Viscera. With his german surplex, Benoit could have been injured.

In others forums, some people wants HBK turns Heel at NYR. I don't think so. I think Batista will turn face at NYR. However, HBK will cost Edge the match. And at Wrestlemania, we're going to have a HBK VS Edge. Edge will win the World Heavyweight Championship this summer (Bad Blood, Vengeance or Summerslam) against Randy Orton.

[SirLemming]

The Arab guys didn't mention 9/11 this week. I hope it stays that way, especially considering that next week is a debate in Nassau Colisseum (which is something like a half-hour away from NYC). They'd better use good judgment.

And yes, that guy's ear is messed up.

[Kasumi]

The best moment of the night by far was when that fitness guy said that everyone in the crowd was fat and lazy and stuff and they cut to a fat, redneck-y guy in the audience looking really hurt.He seemed to giving more of a blank stare to me but yeah. That was awesome. I was laughing for minutes.

Last RAW of the year was great. The Beat the Clock matches were fun. It wasn't hard to figure that Batista would beat the clock. I thought the matches would determine their place in the EC match but I guess I was wrong.

I was betting that the ref would either be HBK or the Rock. I would have liked it better if it was the Rock.

Hassan is great on the mic and I agree with most of the things he says. Hopefully nothing happens to him after all the heat he gets from the crowd. And yes. His ears are scary :eek:

[PaQ]

Nice to see RAW back. A pretty good show, I can't wait to see what happens at NYR. I expected Batista to be the last man out for Elimination Chamber, and that's an interesting surprise to see HBK back as special guest referee, I was wondering how long it would be till we saw him back in the ring. ****

[Boy Wonder]

I didn't know HBK would come back as a ref for them Elimination Chamber! (That was obvious). Didn't really care for RAW this week, but it does have things SMACKDOWN doesn't have.

[The Penguin]

I feel like I’ve been MIA from the RAW threads for a couple weeks so I suppose this means I’m back. :)

A part of me is always a bit disappointed when the final spot in a main event is put up for grabs in a match or series of matches. I kind of like to be surprised by those kinds of things and this type of thing takes that away. Granted, the other part of me was intrigued by the concept when Bischoff made the announcement.

Christian made a very good opponent for Chris Jericho and one that I could easily see taking his spot. He gave Y2J too much of a run for his money to give him a real shot at the final chamber.

Triple H found himself having to backpedal quite a bit when Batista indicated he wasn’t concerned about his opponent. It was rather entertaining. :D

Well the one with Randy Orton was not the best interview Maria has ever done. :shrug:

I could have seen Maven as a Chamber underdog as well, but I was fully expecting for an RKO to put Orton in the driver’s seat.

Lita made short work of virtually her only non-Trish opponent choice—Molly Holly. One of these days WWE has got to notice that four women and Stacy does not a women’s division make. :mad:

Something about the way Gene “The Missing Link II” Snitsky said “I’m havin’ a blast” was just funny to me. :p

Simon Dean and Rosey would make a perfect match for New Year’s Revolution. It’s a dang shame that Hurricane & Rosey don’t make it on the RAW exclusive PPVs and this would be the perfect opportunity with Dean looking to make his PPV debut. I’d like to see him get a partner and throw Hurricane in with Rosey.

Edge went crazy after going over 6:14 against Eugene. I wonder if Eugene knew what he was doing by running around the ring like that. Edge didn’t seem to—he should have attacked the special Superstar immediately and thrown him back in the ring. Edge is lucky he didn’t cost himself the match and his World Title shot after he realized the final spot would not be his.

Now Viscera was the first man I had a hard time envisioning replacing his opponent in the Elimination Chamber. I was disgusted by how long it took him to tap to Benoit’s Crossface. Come on! It’s Viscera!

The second Stacy was in the ring I knew she was just killing time until Muhammad Hassan & Khosrow Daivari made their way to the ring. I’d like to give a shout out to the sound guy for dropping the ball and making Stacy repeat herself. :rolleyes:

While this is a minor part of his segment I question Hassan wearing a headdress. It seems to me that if part is his character is that he is an Arab American they would want to keep stuff off his head quite frankly.

Man, did Batista make Rhyno look like a tool with his 3:02 time or what?

:eek: All I can think about going into the “debate” next week is that the last time we had one like this it involved Christopher Nowinski and Scott Steiner. Granted I have more faith in Hassan, Daivari, JR and the King, but still.

Shelton Benjamin was the most believable opponent of the night when it came to replacing his opponent in the main event and he almost did!

With Mick Foley having just been on WWE Television I was racking my brain trying to come up with who would be the special referee. I wonder about Stone Cold making a return and just wondered what my level of shock would be. Then it was Shawn Michaels, the other utility special referee. I’m glad to see HBK back, but the shock level went down quite a bit. :shrug: