WWE RAW - 31.03.2003

Location: Seattle, Washington, USA

Arena: Key Arena

Rating: 3.7

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Raw stars of with Rock backstage looking in the mirror and cuts a brief promo calling the show, Rock Appreciation Night. This was short but to the point and included a Rock segment which is always a plus. 

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Stone Cold comes out cus a promo, recapping on his match with The Rock at WrestleMania 19 admitting defeat saying Rock’s the better man and wishing for him to come out to shake his hand. Before that, Eric Bischoff came out surprisingly dismisses Stone Cold for his current medical issues which infamously landed Stone Cold in the hospital the night before WrestleMania. 

I imagine that people thought at the time that Stone Cold would be back on Raw (or SD) in no time but as we all know know, he was legitimately done after WM. That was his retirement match. The segment was pretty well done I thought, it was a classic Austin story device to get him off TV, only this time he’s not coming back. Well, to the ring at least. 

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Up next, the current World Heavyweight Champion, Triple H comes out ready to wrestle The Hurricane. On the way to the ring, Hurricane does the Bret Hart gives glasses to kid in crowd spot but with the mask. BUT Ric Flair takes it off the kid and Hurricane attacks Flair, prompting HHH to attacking Hurricane, starting off the match. 

Non Title Match - Triple H vs The Hurricane

Not a match I was expecting. I expected it to be very short with Hurricane being a midcarder and HHH being HHH, but Hurricane dominated Triple H and I do mean dominated. He had a lot of offence on Triple H, getting some close near falls including a high cross body off the top rope and the chokeslam which needed Ric Flair to pull him off HHH. HHH had barely any offence and I think he did 3 moves on Hurricane, including the finish and that’s it. Anyway, after Hurricane missed a cannonball, Triple H hit a pedigree for the 3 in an anti-climactic finish. The crowd loved Hurricane and hated HHH. The match was a bit sloppy in the beginning but overall, a bunch of fun. **½ 

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We go backstage to Kane and RVD talking to each other and Kane suggest that he wants to break up their tag team after losing the tag team titles last night. Before it goes any further, RVD says that they have a rematch for later tonight. Kane is weary at this decision and RVD says that in return for the title shot, they have to join the Bischoff Administration per them losing tonight. Kane is not pleased and walks off, while RVD is stunned. 

I thought this was a fine segment. They were clearly teasing the break up of the two right here but nothing to in-depth happens just yet. From this segment, I definitely thought that Kane is basically a regular (7ft tall) guy in a mask. He’s not a monster anymore. Maybe it’s just me looking back though.

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Christopher Nowinski vs. Scott Steiner

Scott Steiner comes out to a thunderous pop. Chris Nowinski comes out and asks Scott Steiner to not hit him in the face due to his facial injuries. Scott Steiner says no and chases him around, absolutely squashing him and destroys him until submitting him with the Steiner Recliner whilst swearing into the camera. 

This was a squash. Steiner being as foul mouthed as ever was the highlight of this in all truth. SQUASH

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Terri interviews Austin backstage who says nothing except that he is fired with a dejected look on his face. JR calls Eric Bischoff a SOB and says he should burn in hell for firing Austin. 

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The Dudley Boyz are backstage arguing about them attacking Lance Storm/Chief Morley and then RVD/Kane, costing them instead. Chief Morley says The Dudleys are in the title match later tonight but says they will help Storm and Morley win. The Dudleys don’t look pleased. . 

Interesting segment here. It shows what The Dudleys’ intentions were last night after their confusing actions. Chief Morley comes across as an arrogant douche and rubs the Dudley Boyz the wrong way which could lead to something later in the show. Good segment. 

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Booker T is in the trainer’s room taping up his leg after last night’s match where Triple H targeted it during the entire match. Ric Flair comes in and taunts the defeated Booker T, who roughs him up against door. 

Woah, Booker T was so intense in this segment. His voice, his face, his body language all great. Flair sold it perfectly going all red. The crowd reacted strongly to it. This felt like something they could’ve capitalised on. Booker T wasn’t doing comedy stuff with Goldust, he was serious and felt like a main eventer. He definitely should’ve won the title in this feud. But let’s crack on. 

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3 Minutes Warning are in the ring and out comes the first ever Tough Enough Winner, Maven.

Maven vs. Rosey (w/Jamal & Rico)

A short, pointless and bad match. Maven got busted open at the mouth, he botched a roll up and won with a terrible looking sunset flip. DUD

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Booker T vs. Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho cuts a pretty good promo before hand and says that it was one of the best matches in WM history, saying that he brought out the best of HBK. He says he was better in every way and deserved to win the match. Booker T interrupts before he could go any further

They start the match with Jericho attacking the injured leg which Booker T sells excellently. Booker T makes a comeback not before long but Ric Flair and Triple H interfere causing the DQ. HBK comes to Booker T’s aid, but he gets overwhelmed by the 3 on 2 advantage and they get locked in submissions by Y2J and HHH. Walls of Jericho on HBK and inverted Indian Deathlock by HHH to end the segment.

This was another fine segment I thought. It interlinked the two feuds. And lead to a pretty decent match before the interference.  **

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Jeff Hardy vs. Steven Richards (w/Victoria)

This was a pretty decent back and forth match. Nothing stand out but it was give a enough time for me to be more interested in Stevie Richards. *¾ 

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We cut back to Test talking very seductively to Torrie Wilson but gets caught by Stacey Keibler who doesn’t quite know what’s going on until Goldust and his tourettes gimmick blurts out the full story. 

Odd segment but I got a laugh out of Goldust and Test’s not subtle way of acting like nothing was wrong. 

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Rock looks for Stone Cold who left earlier in the show, winding up some backstage employees who look upset. 

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World Tag Team Title Triple Threat Elimination Match -  Chief Morley & Lance Storm (c) vs. Kane/RVD vs. The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley)

 One interesting spot in the match was where The Dudley Boyz got eliminated after Bubba Ray saved Chief Morley from a chair shot from D-Von, causing D-Von to be eliminated after RVD kicks the chair in his face and hit a frog splash. After The Dudley’s get eliminated, the match reverts into a typical work over the babyface team (RVD in this case) until the hot tag match. Kane gets the hot tag and clears house. Couple of near falls are exchanged before a chokeslam and 5* Frog Splash gets the win. 

I liked the match. It was built up throughout the night and gave some interesting development with Moley/Storm and The Dudley’s. RVD was pretty good in the match, flying around kicking everyone in the face. Getting the crowd involved. He was the star of the match by far. Good main event. ***¼ 

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Triple H & Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michaels & Booker T is announced for next week. 

~Is Cookin~ The Rock comes down to the ring for his Rock Appreciation Night Segment. There is some duling chants to start off, a mix between Rocky and you suck chants. The Rock plays it down and gets on with his promo. He feigns sympathy for Stone Cold and says he is the greatest. He says he is done with wrestling as he’s done it all, saying he people can kiss his ass. Then GOLDBERG comes out, the crowd was chanting for him a few minutes before he came out so he know who he was. They still went ballistic for him. Goldberg says Rock is next and spears him to close Raw. 

I really liked that segment. Admittedly not a big fan of Goldberg but he has aura and he brought that here tonight, even for a moment. Although I’m not sure if this was supposed to be a suprise or not because that’s what it seemed like with Bischoff being stchechy all night. Oh well. Great segment. Rock was fantastic as per usual.

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Okay Raw. Had a few good segments, decent matches with one really bad match. The ending was awesome and I liked how they built the tag match throughout the night, not just in one segment. Letting it all breath. 

Show Rating: C - 

MVP: Ric Flair - His struts were awesome. He sold the Booker T segment very well and taking the mask off the child was hilarious.