WWE Raw House Show - Live Report From Nashville - September 12, 2003

First off, some preshow talk. There was a guy there that looked exactly like Jeff Hardy. He had the hair perfect, had the painting, the whole outfit. This guy made you look really hard to make sure it wasn't Jeff Hardy. It wasn't I promise. ha ha. It sure looked like him though.

Ok, now on to the wrestling. I'd say the arena was about 3/4 full. It had such an old school feel to it. No pyro, no huge production. Just wrestling. Lights turned down in the arena. Lights were just focused on the ring with the rest of the arena in the dark. Loved the old school feel to it. Matched the feeling of the wrestling too cause with it not being televised, it was basically all wrestling. Very little talk. It turned out that the Coach was our ring announcer all night. Crowd wasn't liking that. Coach plays this heel character so well. He was funny all night. First match out was a tables match with D-Von and Spike against Conway and Dupree. This led me to saying that Spike owed them one for Monday night. ha ha. Really good match with back and forth action. Conway actually got thrown over the rail at one point and landed on this girl. The table leg got messed up and wasn't able to set up so the Dudleys sat it in the corner and threw them into it to win the match. D-Von then gave Coach a number 2 salute after the match. Next was the highlight reel. Jericho came out and was hilarious. He had some lines of the night that you'll see later. Stacy Keibler was his guest. Always great to see Stacy. He actually had her exit back out and back in for everyone. He then said to everyone, "don't say I never did anything for you". Jericho talked to Stacy for a while and then Stacy messed him up by telling him that his fly was down. It was really funny. She said that the word in the locker room was that Jericho "had a small wee lee". Jericho didn't like that comment at all but replied "I'm from Canada, it's cold down there". Stacy ended up slapping him before it was over. Jericho went to put her in the walls but Val Venis came down to save her. Test then ended up down there and we had a brawl. Test pulled Stacy out of there. Next up was Mark Jindrak/Garrison Cade against Rico/Stevie Richards. Really good match. Better than I thought it would be. It's amazing how good Jindrak is. If they could just give him a good character, he'd be good. Rico is awesome too just like I'd heard of in ring skills. Rico was doing all kinds of comedy stuff. The stuff he does on Raw basically. He goosed Coach at one point. Actually I think he goosed everyone. Cade and Jindrak get the win. After the match, the ref held up the cross sign to the back for Stevie Richards who hobbled out of there with help. Don't know if he's hurt big or what. Next was Tommy Dreamer and Lance Storm. Storm is really doing this gimmick well. I doubted it but if this show was any sign, it could work. He was playing to the fans. Dreamer cut a big heel promo at the beginning saying how he was in that building before with ECW but none of us cared about it. We cared!! Gotta love Tommy Dreamer. This was a really good match. Just goes to show when they let either one of these guys get a long match, they can go. Storm got the win and did one of the biggest dance celebrations ever.

Next match was Hurricane and Rosey against Rodney Mack and Mark Henry. Good match here too. Hurricane was awesome. He gave a little kid his mask at ringside ala Bret Hart years ago. Crowd was really into Hurricane and Rosey. Mark Henry did that move again where he does the splash on the ropes on the guys neck and then lands outside. That's the move I thought he hurt himself with on Monday night. He landed it perfect in this one. It was funny when Henry and Rosey went face to face as Henry mocked his costume asking him what in the world he was doing. Henry and Mack get the win. Next was one of my main events. It was as if they knew I was coming and booked this match just for me. Molly Holly defending the women's title against Trish Stratus. The most noise I made all night was probably for Trish. I'm a fan of both her and Molly. They're my two favorite divas so it was cool to see this one. They had an awesome match. Molly reversed the roleup and grabbed some tights to pin Trish. Coach rubbed it in to Trish after the match and she also gave Coach a number 2 salute. Next match was a match of the night candidate too. A triple threat match for the Intercontinental title. Christian vs. Jericho vs. Val Venis. This match was awesome. Jericho and Christian double teamed for a while and then it got to be a problem when one was going for the win. They argued over it and ended up fighting each other. They were swinging like crazy and ended up on the floor. I actually thought Val was gonna win the title with as many close 3 counts as he got. I mean they were close!! Christian ended up winning with the unprettier. Next was a big treat. Goldberg and Triple H on a house show!! Goldberg teamed with Maven to take on Triple H and Randy Orton with Flair in their corner. The pop that Triple H got was amazing!! The place went nuts when he stepped through the curtain. It was the loudest pop of the night. My ears were ringing. He actually did the on the apron pose right at us which was cool. Goldberg got a huge pop too but it wasn't as big as Triple H's. Thing with Triple H is he gets that reaction pop of people getting to see him, then he gets booed when he gets in the ring. It's funny. Flair interfered a ton and was fun to watch. Oh, speaking of Flair, I have to mention his good buddy Arn Anderson. He was sitting at the table at the entrance overlooking the action. He sat there all night. I didn't realize until a few minutes ago that it was the first time I've seen Anderson. Very cool. Maven was double teamed most of the match. The anticipation of Goldberg getting in the ring was huge. The place was buzzing. He got in and went crazy. He put some nasty moves on Orton. One being this powerslam out of something. ha ha. He hit a nasty spear and then the jackhammer as he pointed at Triple H. The two of them had words all through the match. Goldberg gets the win. I really enjoyed the post match stuff. Goldberg walked around ringside taking pictures with fans, signing autographs and just greeting people. There aren't many wrestlers who will do that. He stayed out an extra 5 minutes easily doing that. Next we had an intermission while the cage was set up. That's right, a cage. RVD vs. Kane in a cage. Coach ended up being a referee. Really good match. It just goes to show what RVD can do when you give him tons of time to wrestle. He's just amazing to watch every time I see him. He had the match won with a five star frogsplash but Coach wouldn't make the count. Coach ended up getting knocked into Kane and then RVD climbed out of the cage to win. RVD also greeted fans. Kane then took things out on Coach as Coach had helped him lose. He chokeslammed him once and went to leave. He went back in and gave him another one. That's how the night ended.

Overall it was one of the best cards I've ever seen. Most of my favorites are on Raw so that was a definite advantage tonight. Then, I got to see them in longer matches which was great. I bet most matches went at least 8-10 minutes. It's like I've said, house shows are the way to go if you want to see more wrestling. This goes high on my list of favorite events attended.

Matches Of The Night: Trish vs. Molly. Goldberg/Maven vs. Triple H/Orton (amazing crowd energy in this match)

Lines Of The Night:
"I couldn't possibly suck cause I'm in Nashville, Tennessee." Jericho to the fans who were chanting that he sucks. It got the crowd on him big time. Such a good heel.

"I'm from Canada. It's cold there" Jericho to Stacy's claims.

Signs Of The Night:
"Peep n' Ain't Easy. "
"HHH, Nice biker shorts."