WWE Raw House Show - Live Report From Cape Girardeau, MO - February 29, 2008

Before the show, we headed over to check out the action in the parking lot to watch the superstars enter into the building. Big crowd of people over there and it seemed bigger than usual. First, I saw Brian Kendrick and William Regal arriving. Funny moment with several fans who started a "say Umanga" chant at Regal. Maria arrived and played to the fans. A limousine pulled into the parking lot and Randy Orton got out of it. That guy was even getting all kinds of heat from the fans in the parking lot!! LOL. Next was a SUV pulling in that had Kennedy and Santino Marella in it. Brian Kendrick was signing stuff and taking pictures with fans making sure everyone got an autograph that wanted one. He walked up and down the line and did this for a while.

On to the show itself. Good size crowd and I thought the crowd was a hot one. The show opened with the lights going out with the Raw theme song playing over the speakers while the spotlights went all over the building. William Regal walked out to a ton of heat from the fans. He actually had to quit talking a couple of times cause of the chants directed at him. He announced the big matches for the show including the main event and Jericho vs. Kennedy. He said that there was originally going to be a divas battle royal but they only had four divas so it was now obviously going to be a tag match. Opening match was Super Crazy and DH Smith taking on Charlie Haas and Trevor Murdoch. What a random tag team of Haas and Murdoch. Good solid opener and with TV time being short for Smith most of the time, it was nice to watch what he could do in the ring. A Bulldog chant broke out during the match from a group in the ringside area. Haas went under the ring and disappeared for a minute and then he comes out with a mask on. Not this again!!! This totally random out of nowhere gimmick is back again. You know what? It still doesn't make any sense. Haas wrestled with the mask on for a few minutes and at one point he pulled the mask up to wipe his sweat off with Crazy's flag. Then Super Crazy ripped the mask off of him. Smith got the hot tag and ended up winning the match with a running powerslam. Solid opener but that mask gimmick just makes no sense at all. Next match had Paul Burchill and Katie Lee coming to the ring. They did a promo at the beginning talking about how they were going to beat an American hero. His opponent is Hacksaw Jim Duggan who was very popular in Cape. It's amazing how popular he still is. He brought the American flag and two by four with him to the ring. There was already a USA chant going while he was walking around the ring with his music playing. I keep hearing good things about Katie so I paid attention to her more to see how good of a valet that she was. I thought that she did good in the match and has a good presence to her. She choked Duggan on the ropes at one point. Strange ending to the match when the ref apparently DQ'd Burchill for not breaking a hold on the ropes at the five count. Just kind of came out of nowhere and the match wasn't very long. Next match was Brian Kendrick and Snitsky. This was a very annoying squash match. Kendrick did a lot of kicks to Snitsky's legs which was most of his offense while Snitsky was a lot of power stuff. Kendrick hit a top rope move but Snitsky made a big kickout and then won the match with the pump handle slam. Bummer as I was hoping to see Kendrick get a competitive match. Next was the tag team championship match with Santino and Carlito challenging Holly and Rhodes. Santino and Carlito came to the ring first and got on the mic. Funny stuff here. Santino talked about how miserable all the fans looked saying how they live in a "land of misery" calling the city, Cape Fear. Santino talks about Maria and Playboy and he's still upset over it. Santino is becoming one of my favorite heels. He's very funny. Holly and Rhodes make their way to the ring and the match is on. At one point, Holly delivers a HARD chop to Carlito who jumps out of the ring and into the crowd as he looked to get away. Upon entering the ring, he ran right in and tagged Santino. Holly's chops are just vicious!! He delivered plenty more. Holly ends up getting the win for them after hitting an Alabama slam on Santino for the pinfall. That brought us to the intermission. After the intermission, it was time for the women's tag team match. Looking forward to this one as I'm a big Mickie James fan obviously. Beth Phoenix and Jillian Hall take on Mickie James and Maria. Beth was the first out followed by Jillian. She sang a song for the crowd which was actually pretty funny. That gimmick is funnier in person than it is on TV. Beth was even plugging her ears up. Mickie was the next out to the ring followed by Maria. Good, solid match. Everyone looked solid in it. Mickie James got the hot tag and she was all over the place with offense including to the top rope. The ending of the match had Candice Michelle's music hit and she got a good reaction. She makes her way to the ring distracting Beth Phoenix which leads to a Mickie kick and Mickie getting the pinfall victory. It was basically the same type finish that they did on Raw a couple of weeks ago. Next was Jericho vs. Kennedy. Kennedy got on the mic as he entered the ring. He did his pose waiting for the mic to drop and then just went to the ring announcer and got his mic. Kennedy talked about how he was supposed to have the night off and how he would just use it as a tune up for Money In The Bank. Kennedy did his trademark screaming his name and got out "Miiiissssttteerrrr" and the crowd was right with him. He then stopped while giving the fans a "shhhhhhh" trying to get them to quiet down. Then, we got the Kennedy part. Funny stuff. Jericho made his entrance and got a big reaction. Kennedy threw his shirt at Jericho who then proceeded to blow his nose with it. They did a GREAT job of playing off the crowd whether it was heel or face reactions. Kennedy at one point got frustrated stumbling around ringside and threw a water bottle and then a box of popcorn. Jericho then proceeded to go at him and put the popcorn box on Kennedy's head as he continued punching him. Jericho grabbed a camera from a fan at ringside and took a picture of Kennedy beaten up and gave it back to the fan. Loved all that stuff. Kennedy is a really fun heel. Scary moment at the end of the match as Jericho went for the lionsault and didn't get the right spring off the rope. He landed somewhat on his head. That had to at least sting. The ref did get down to him immediately to see if he was all right. Jericho wins a few seconds later hooking the Walls Of Jericho for a submission win. Jericho didn't stick around after the match so he could probably get checked out. One live report that I've read was that the ref held up the cross sign to the back which I must have missed. He did appear to seem all right in the parking lot after the show. That was a very fun match. Main event time and this match had a big fight feel to it as the fans were very ready for it. WWE championship on the line with Randy Orton defending the belt against Jeff Hardy. Hardy was out first and got a huge reaction. Cameras were going off all over the place. Next was Randy Orton. Mixed reaction for Orton. He definitely had a section of fans there that were loud. There was this fan at ringside that was giving Orton all kinds of words as Orton stood on the steps ready to walk in the ring. Orton just faced off with him for about 20 seconds. That guy is a heat magnet among the fans that don't like him. This was a VERY fun match. They had a good back and forth match and the fans were very into it. Like I said, Orton did have a following there and it should be pointed out that his hometown is in St. Louis. There was a nice spot at one point where Hardy was on the apron ready to jump back in the ring. As he jumped to spring in, Orton caught him with a dropkick sending Hardy to the floor. The ending of the match saw an incredible countering of finishing moves. Orton went for the RKO which was countered and Hardy went for the twist of fate which was countered back into the RKO which he hit. A nasty looking RKO. Orton makes the pin and gets the win. Great stuff!! LOVED that finish. Crowd ate it up too as it looked great. After the match, Orton posed and then decided to try and hit the concussion kick on Hardy. Hardy avoided it and hit the twist of fate. Then, he went quickly to the top rope and hit a great looking swanton bomb. Hardy celebrated afterwards hitting all the turnbuckles to pose. He then went all around ringside greeting the fans including taking pictures with some of them. That ended the show.

After the show, it was back to the parking lot once again. Maria worked the crowd once again going down the line of fans slapping hands with them. She is always great with the fans from what I've seen at the live shows and she seems to have a great time. Jeff Hardy walked out to his vehicle and waved to the fans. Randy Orton headed back to his limo and gave a wave to the fans as he got inside. Chris Jericho walked out and headed over to sign autographs. He signed for a few minutes and then went to his vehicle. He gave some poses to the fans and waved at everyone. He honked his horn as he left the parking lot. Santino and Kennedy left together. As they were driving through the fans, they rolled the window down and said something that got everyone laughing but I wasn't able to hear it.

Various notes about the show. The lineup for the show changed quite a bit over the last couple of months. Note to any of you that are attending live shows, never take that lineup that is advertised as the final lineup. It almost always changes. The original lineup for Cape had Triple H on it but he was quietly removed on the next lineup that came two weeks later. They originally had Triple H vs. Umaga which was changed to Jericho vs. Umaga which was changed earlier in the week to Jericho vs. Kennedy. I was very happy to see Kennedy put into that match as I figured they would have a more fun match anyway. Candice Michelle was listed against Beth Phoenix through the whole promotion which was odd with her being injured. Speculation yesterday morning was that Cape might be Candice's first match back in the ring cause of the promotion but the match was obviously changed. The sound was really good in the building. Theme music sounded good. My only complaint was why in the world do they continue to put a mic right by the ring bell? It's loud!! LOL. I've got to say that Hardy's music is really growing on me. It really sounded good with his entrance and celebration after the match. It became apparent to me just how much the kids really like John Cena. There was this kid next to us in line going inside that clearly really looked up to Cena. The women in front of us were Randy Orton fans which was pretty funny cause the kid hated Randy Orton and also Edge. I almost said something about the happiness that is being an Edgehead. LOL. The amount of flashes from pictures being taken in the building was incredible all night. Merchandise table had a good variety of stuff and they were very busy selling stuff. Funny merchandise story from this fan before the show started as he was sitting in the area near us. He was a big fan of Rey Mysterio and saw this kid walk by with a Rey mask. He asked his friends there "are they selling Rey masks?" He then proceeded to run up the steps to head to the merchandise area to find out. I thought that was hilarious.

Overall, very fun show and a great time!!