WWE Raw In Nashville Live Report

Welcome to the "after 13 years of attending events and seeing Bret Hart at my first one in Nashville and booing him, here I am cheering him in the same building live in 2010" edition of The Wrestling List. I attended WWE Raw Monday night at the Sommet Center in Nashville, TN. They announced on TV that the event was sold out. If it wasn't, it sure was close because it looked full all the way up in the upper level of the building. Fun atmosphere at the show. Lighting looked incredible as always and the sound was awesome. That ending of the show was great to watch live. It was just bizarre to see Bret Hart and Vince McMahon in a WWE ring right there in front of me in 2010!! Unbelievable. Here is the recap and I'll cover all the details of the show and include any live notes to throw in there. Then, I'll give my overall thoughts on it.

The show got underway as usual with the WrestleMania music video. The recap of WrestleMania 25 was shown to get the crowd pumped up. Right after that, we go into the Superstars taping. The Superstars opening and pyro starts up and we go into our first match of the evening. Kelly Kelly and Eve taking on Alicia Fox and Katie Lea. Alicia and Katie get the victory. Solid match. Crowd was into it. Next match was Evan Bourne taking on Carlito with Bourne getting the win following the air bourne. The matches finished up around 7:45 or so. The tease went on the air at around 7:53 or so with us going live on TV for 30 seconds to tease Raw getting ready to go on the air. The lights then went down and they played the Tribute To The Troops recap music video set to Bon Jovi's Superman which was awesome to see live. I love that they always air this video at TV tapings. Great to show what WWE does for the troops and great to hear the great reaction of "USA" chants for the troops when it concludes.

8:00 gets near and we go on the air live. Opening graphic was the tribute to Jack Brisco who passed away earlier in the day. Nice tribute applause in the building for it. The open comes up and we're into Raw. I'm ready for pyro and no pyro. LOL. I thought it was bizarre that they went right from the Raw open into the Bret/Vince graphic. The pyro was coming though as Edge was introduced to open the show. Edge makes his way to the ring to a mixed reaction. I was of course loving it. Edge talked about how Jericho's trashing of him as a partner at the Slammys was one thing that motivated him to get back sooner. He also got a jab in at Dennis Miller during the promo about how unfunny that he was. While watching Raw back on TV, I completely missed his Jericho and TMZ comment. Wow. I did not catch that live. He talked of how he could face The Undertaker who had never lost at WrestleMania or face a champion that has never competed at a WrestleMania. Edge went on to say that the smarter thing to do would be to wait three weeks to see the outcome of the Elimination Chamber PPV. So, that was what he was going to do. Sheamus then arrived and talked trash back at Edge while Edge said that while he had been gone that Raw had been taken over by an evil Ronald McDonald which was funny. Lots of good back and forth between the two. Then, Sheamus punches Edge and the fight is on. Edge avoids the kick and tackles Sheamus to the mat with punches. Edge sets up in the corner and nails him with a spear leaving Sheamus laying in the ring to which I'm fist pumping in the crowd at. LOL. During the commercial, they air the “welcome to the world” WrestleMania 25 music video from last year. In the building, we did not know about the Elimination Chamber qualifying matches until Justin Roberts announced it just before the first one. The first one is John Cena taking on Cody Rhodes. Huge ovation for Cena!! His music hit and the place just went nuts. This match was more competitive than I expected it to be based on how Legacy has been booked lately, especially Rhodes. Rhodes surprised me with that moonsault on to Cena as I haven't seen him use that much or at all. Cena wins with the attitude adjustment. Place goes crazy. The usual. Cena moves on into the Elimination Chamber match. WWE then aired a video package of Montreal from Survivor Series. Kind of bizarre watching this segment at a WWE event all these years later. Then, it is backstage to Vince McMahon running into William Shatner in his office. Shatner tells Vince that he can't wait for Bret to embarrass him later in the show. During this commercial break, it’s time for the fans to hold up their signs to get up on the big screen. This is a normal deal that they do with every televised event while playing the song “signs” in the background. Next is another Chamber qualifying match with Triple H taking on Jack Swagger. Fun to see the Triple H entrance to his "game" music. I was hoping for a DX entrance but seeing the classic Triple H entrance was great and really adrenaline pumping. It just looks incredible with the lighting and the big screen. Big reaction to him in the building as well. I wasn't sure how this match would go cause they book Swagger back and forth so much. He'll be competitive one week against big stars and then get humiliated for weeks by Santino later on. Competitive and fun match. Swagger looks up at the WrestleMania sign as he picks up Triple H. Triple H counters out and hits the pedigree for the win to advance to the Chamber. Lots of Triple H posing after the match which was fun. At this point, I'm thinking that it has to already be 9:00. We were not even 45 minutes in??!! Wow, lots of action on this show in such a quick amount of time. Next was a very funny segment. It was a produced segment of William Shatner speaking the lyrics of WWE entrance theme songs. This was hilarious!!!! Perfect to have him start with Shawn's. He went on to do the themes of Cena, Rey Mysterio, and Triple H. His voice was perfect for this!! So funny. This was great stuff and there were a lot of laughs in the arena. Backstage to DX. Hornswoggle runs in at first telling Triple H of Shatner messing with Triple H's music. Triple H tells him to go bite Shatner or something similar. Triple H tries to joke with Shawn about the Rumble about Shawn eliminating him. Triple H acted annoyed and then said that he would have done it too if he had gotten the chance to do it first. That was funny. Shawn is still focused on not getting The Undertaker. Triple H tries to get him focused on his qualifying match saying that they'll both dominate the Chamber. Then, one of them wins the Rumble and Triple H says he has no problem with the two of them tearing the house down at WrestleMania for the title. Shawn thanks him for the talk and walks off for his match. Randy Orton makes his way to the ring. I actually didn't think that they showed any of his entrance based on how many backstage segments were shown in a row. Orton did his long entrance which I like. Love his theme song and love the glaring entrance. They do go to commercial and when we come back, they show the recap of the Rumble happenings with Legacy. It was fun to just watch Orton's reaction. He just stood in the ring and watched the screen expressionless. Music comes back on in the arena and he is introduced. Shawn Michaels makes his entrance and faces off with Orton. Lots of fans behind Orton in this match. It seemed like overall that the actual chanting was more for Orton than there were HBK chants. They're going to probably end up turning Orton cause he is getting more and more popular. Solid match with them countering finishers at the end. Shawn then nails the forearm and kips up. Out of the kip up, Orton rolls up Shawn for the pin. Shawn sits in the ring frustrated. He gets up and starts screaming while throwing his wrist pads. Another Montreal segment airs which covers Vince's interview on Raw back in 1997 discussing the incident. The music video to WrestleMania 25 of Kid Rock’s “So Hot” is played showing the divas. Back from commercial and the first WrestleMania countdown music video then aired as we were at 55 days till WrestleMania XXVI as of Monday night. Really well produced. After that, it's the normal Nashville camera shot where they send a cameraman across the street to Tootsie's showing a band performing and walking out to show the arena. Cool shot. Backstage, we see Dibiase apologizing to Orton about the Rumble. Orton just gives him a nasty stare and walks off as Dibiase then looks annoyed as well. Another Chamber qualifying match up next with Mark Henry taking on Ted Dibiase. Wow, this one wasn't booked at all like I expected. Henry's arm was worked on throughout. Dibiase's dream street was countered. Henry charged at Dibiase in the corner but Dibiase moved and Henry's arm caught the corner. Dibiase then dropped Henry on his arm and got the win. I was stunned watching it and the building was as well. Dibiase is in the Chamber. WWE aired a really classy tribute video to Jack Brisco. Really well done and the crowd watched quietly and respectfully in the building. Nice applause at the end of it. Backstage segment with Maryse talking to Gail Kim and Kelly Kelly. Basically, she was buttering up Gail about them having a great women's match. She said something in French and walked off which was probably something bad. LOL. Kelly and Gail talk about how odd that it was. Next segment was Miz and Big Show in Shatner's office. CM Punk and his gang walk in and want the same thing as ShowMiz. Tag team title shot. Enter Shatner as "Raw match negotiator". He listens to both sides and makes a deal. He makes a match with DX taking on Punk/Gallows and ShowMiz for next week's Raw. There was a groan in the live crowd when he said next week. His "freeze frame" was pretty funny at the end. Back to DX, Triple H is trying to encourage Shawn saying that he needs to move on and is spiraling down. Triple H says there are other opponents that he could take on but Shawn says there is no one else for him. Last Chamber qualifying match with Kofi Kingston taking on Big Show. The Miz arrived at the beginning of the match and did commentary on it. There was an awesome spot in the match that happened during the commercial and I'm glad they showed the replay when they came back. I'm talking about the spear that Show put on Kofi. It looked NASTY live. Oh my goodness. I'm talking the whole building groaned and were buzzing about it afterwards. Miz was about to interfere at one point. MVP ran out through the crowd. He ran down to the left of me. I didn't even see him until he was over the rail. MVP runs off Miz. The finish of the match had Kofi poking Big Show in the eye. Show is blinded and swings. The knockout punch catches the referee. Referee, Scott Armstrong, makes his way down and calls for the DQ. Show goes nuts saying that he didn't mean to and was blinded. Show throws a fit at ringside hitting the steps and all. The ref is stretchered out of there. So, the DQ costs Show a shot in the Chamber. Kofi is in. Qualifying for the Elimination Chamber match is John Cena, Triple H, Kofi Kingston, Ted Dibiase, and Randy Orton who will be joined by defending champion, Sheamus. The last Bret/Vince segment is shown with the happenings of their meeting last month on Raw. Jerry Lawler made his way into the ring during the commercial break and I was wondering if he was going to be the mediator between Bret and Vince or something. He introduced William Shatner who was accompanied by the Bellas who are always with the guest hosts. Shatner does a funny trip into the ring falling into Lawler which was funny. Shatner then introduces Bret Hart. Music starts and the place goes crazy. However, the level of the noise went up when he actually walked out into the building. Really cool to see his classic pyro going off as he got near the ring as far as the white popping pyro. Bret walks in and gets a big reaction!! He speaks about coming to make peace there after twelve years and that everyone warned him about coming back. He calls out Vince. Vince walks out with a really arrogant strut which should have been clue number one on that there was something in the works here. The power walk is so ridiculous and funny. Bret tells Vince that he is the best liar that there ever was. He talked of his stroke years ago and how pathetic that he felt sitting in the wheel chair. Bret said that he promised himself that he would never feel that way again but yet here he was again a month ago feeling pathetic after what Vince did to him. He talked of how much he had done for Vince with working sick and how Vince never appreciated anything. Good line of him saying that it took him 12 years to build a reputation and then it took 3 minutes to tear it all down. The used up chewing gum line was brought up of Vince's saying that he still had enough in him to take Vince out. Vince fired back talking about Bret’s nicknames and how Bret isn’t a hero to anyone. Vince called him pathetic and said he didn’t understand why the fans liked him. He said that Bret didn’t have any personality and how if his opponents like Austin, Hennig, and others didn’t have those big personalities that he would have been a footnote in history. Vince then mocks Bret’s appearance and adds that Bret deserved to be screwed. Then, the talk turned to Stu and the Hall Of Fame. Vince said that it wouldn’t happen because Stu doesn’t deserve it. Bret then punches Vince and hammers on him. Bret teases going for the sharpshooter and the crowd is going crazy. Batista then runs in and pulls Bret’s jacket over his head. Batista starts throwing some really soft punches. I was watching close thinking easy on the punches and he was. Batista holds Bret and Vince then mocks him. He follows with a spit to the face which was a payback of Montreal. Then, the show goes off the air as we’re all chanting for Cena. The post show had Cena running out and helping Bret. Cena looked stunned over the happenings. He helped Bret to his feet and then embraced him. A handshake and Bret left with his music playing with Cena hyping up the crowd to pay tribute as he left the ring. Cool moment. Then, we go right into the dark match. WWE championship on the line. Cena is introduced and then Sheamus makes his way out to the ring. Solid match and it was funny to see another match of theirs live after just 10 days of the last one in Cape. The finish had Batista getting involved. He destroyed Cena all over ringside throwing him over the table. Batista then grabbed the steps and put them in the ring. Batista hits the Batista bomb on Cena on the steps and it looked NASTY!! I was thinking how brutal this was just for us to see in the arena and it not being on TV. High risk spot for 15,000 people in the building to see. LOL. Batista stands over a hurt Cena and then walks out. Sheamus returns. I had forgotten all about him. LOL. He starts mocking Cena and stands over him with the belt in the air. After a few minutes of this, Cena jumps up and hits the attitude adjustment to send the crowd home happy. Cena poses for the fans and walks out. That was the end of the show.

My thoughts overall on the show. I really enjoyed it. We got top name superstars and a lot of solid in ring action with the chamber qualifying matches. The Bret Hart/Vince McMahon segment was a lot of fun. Lots of crowd heat on it. I really had to just reflect on seeing my first live event in that building back in 1997 and the fact that I was booing Bret. Now, here we are thirteen years later in the same building and I'm cheering big time for Bret. Bret cursing on the show was interesting in this PG world of WWE but this is a heated angle to get over to the crowd. Batista was really pulling his punches on Bret which I was glad to see. If you watch, Batista is being really careful with those punches and pulling the jacket over Bret's head was a nice touch as well covering up those punches. Bret doesn't need to be taking any kind of accidental shots to the head so I was happy to see Batista protecting him with those. I did assume that the Cena save was on TV especially with how quickly that it happened. They must have went off the air and had him sent right out immediately. I guess WWE wants to save that for next week where Cena is going to be the guy to step in against Batista for Bret. I would assume that we're building to a Cena vs. Batista match at WrestleMania with Bret and Vince in opposite corners. Somehow, Bret and Vince will be involved in that one. It was interesting to hear the crowd reactions. The mixed reaction to Cena has stopped. The crowd is mostly with him now at the live events I've been to and he's gotten mixed reactions before. He got a big ovation Monday night when he made his way out. Interesting that the crowd was louder for Randy Orton than they were for Shawn Michaels. I think it is a combination of Orton is drawing more and more cheers and that Shawn is teasing a kind of middle ground between face and heel. I was stunned to see Ted Dibiase defeat Mark Henry especially cleanly. I'm not sure what that says about either. WWE has been booking Dibiase and Rhodes to get beat up all the time and a lot of times by one guy. Henry was a monster on ECW and now loses to Dibiase. Which side does that weigh more on? Did WWE help Dibiase more or hurt Henry more with that booking? William Shatner was funny!! He really was. His backstage stuff was funny. I thought him reading the lyrics to the theme songs was hilarious. It drew a lot of laughs in the building. I really was thinking at 9:45 that we weren't going to be seeing him live in the building. It is interesting to watch the show later to see what you guys were seeing as opposed to us in the building. For instance, they put the graphic for the Orton vs. Shawn match on TV as coming up but we didn't see that. The first mention that we knew of the match happening was when Shawn and Triple H were talking about it backstage. The Show/Kofi match was fun. For one, that nasty spear that I mentioned already. The other was the KO punch of the ref. My thinking is that if that KO punch knocks out wrestlers. That should end a ref's career. LOL.

Other notes from the show. Like I said earlier, that show did appear to be a legit sellout. If it wasn't, it was really close. Merchandise was a hot seller. They were selling out of just about everything and this was at multiple merchandise stands around the building. I know because I didn't get to buy the shirt that I was going to buy. They were also selling autographed photos of John Cena for $20 just like they were in Cape. I'm curious to know how many that they had because that is very reasonably priced. I did look and saw a big stack of them.

Overall, really fun show. Great fun and one of the better Raw shows in a while. I’m assuming it will be late summer before another show appears around here. Hope you enjoyed the live report!! Take care and God bless!!