Live Feed Mania – WWF Monday Night Raw 10/30/00

WWF @ Boston, MA – FleetCenter – October 30, 2000

We’re a week removed from WWF No Mercy so let’s see if anything is happening when the cameras aren’t rolling but the satellites are!

Dark Match!

Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Paul Fuller

Hey it’s big WCW jobber Rick Fuller! Who according to CageMatch had a brief NJPW run eight years after this? Excuse me?

Wow. Anyway this is one of two dark matches he’d have for WWF.

We’re JIP to Fuller landing a sidewalk slam before squeezing the worm around the ring post. Camera shows the back of Fuller’s tights have THE FULLER EFFECT written on them. Fuller blocks a sunset flip to continue this beatdown before The Flying Nothing collides with a hot knee. Hotty rolls out of a powerbomb to land the facebuster and W-O-R-M to finish. Nice reminder of how insanely over Hotty was.

Coachman, Kelly, Prichard and Hayes all head out for commentary. Hayes describes the new gear the office wants them to wear as “shit.” Oh good I hope we get a shot of it. (edit: we don’t).

Jakked 11/04/00

Raven vs. Essa Rios

Raven’s WWF theme was so basic and boring outside of the Caw Caws at the start. How are you supposed to portray a 90s outsider grunge guy when your theme sounds like everyone else?

Raven gets barely any reaction which is crazy considering he’s only just returned to the company. Crowd are mild for Rios who responds by backflipping off Raven’s back. Missile dropkick gets two. Rios’ giant moonsault sadly lands on knees. Running clothesline/bulldog combo that CM Punk would steal gets two. A loud fan gets on Raven’s case for being sloppy. It’s got to suck when you’re in such a big arena but you can only hear one loud dude. Leaping Frankensteiner from Rios only results in “BORING” chants. Rios tries his bouncing-on-the-ropes armdrag but he slips and then Raven still takes the bump anyway. Crowd shits all over that so Raven ignores it and the Evenflow DDT ends a miserable match at 4:15. Hayes and Coach yell “clean it up, clean it up!” in response.

(edit: I checked the aired version , they don’t try and edit they just have Prichard yell “what a slip by Essa!” to help things).

Prichard gets confused over the notes he has here and asks Kelly about Rikishi’s “new revolution”. Kelly clarifies it’s “revelation”, specifically that he ran over Steve Austin. Prichard understands now.

WWF Hardcore Title

Steve Blackman (c) vs. Just Joe

It’s Just Joe! He talks to people! This is his only title shot during his brief WWF run.

Blackman kicks Joe to the outside where they trade whips into the guardrail. A bin lid shot does not wake up this crowd. You can’t start with Hotty then follow with Just Joe. “OK fans we’ve opened up with something from Hotter Than Hell so here’s a bit of Music from The Elder.” Blackman gets on offence and his hard bin shots wake up the crowd. His spinning bin shot elbow combo is pleasant. You can see it being used in a real fight involving bins. Joe whips Blackman into a bin but his attempt at using a chair goes nowhere. Blackman sticks all over Joe before shoving one under his crotch for the fin-no! Joe kicks out of Blackman’s usual finish during this time to instead deliver a backdrop off the second rope to set up a cane shot off the top at 5:57. Blackman having to step up for Just Frigging Joe was the only noteworthy thing here.

The Fink shills Mick Foley’s Christmas Chaos and J.R.’s Cook Book. Not read either.

Gangrel vs. Funaki

Gangrel’s entrance is usually the highlight of these feeds by default.

Funaki punches Gangrel then jumps up and down to celebrate. A missile dropkick sets up Funaki doing an up-and-over to nothing. Speaking of nothing: Gangrel’s offence. After some elbows and punches, Funaki somehow recovers enough to run away and return with an eyepoke. Double underhook belly-to-belly is nice but kills the crowd. Funaki’s tornado DDT is blocked into the Implant DDT at 3:20 for Gangrel’s last win in the WWF before being released two months later. I love Gangrel but I don’t love watching his matches.

Lawler and Ross practice some lines backstage as Fink shills merch yet again. Ross laments the fact he’s not going to sell any copies of his book because of Fink.

Tonight! Jericho vs. Rock! Austin vs. Rikishi in a steel cage!

WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn (w/ Terri) vs. J.R. Ryder & Bob Evans

It’s future ROH great (uhh) Brutal Bob. Also J.R. Ryder who apparently performed at Woodstock ’94. So he’s an outlaw who worked a mud show?

Bob and Ryder double hip toss Saturn who is in a giving mood. Malenko drops Ryder with a jumping calf kick before pounding him in the corner. Saturn continues to sell by taking a sunset flip from Ryder. Crowd don’t care about Perry being a nice guy and continue to save their energy for Raw. Saturn lands a pretty nice springboard legdrop but both Radicalz look fed up. Malenko takes a flying clothesline before Bob tags in to take the Demolition Decapitation style knee-drop, with the Rings Of Saturn ending a nothing match at 3:56. Unmotivated Saturn and Malenko on the WWF D-Show saddens me.

Ross and Lawler make their entrances and that’s your lot.

Also occurring but not recorded:

Ophelia, Charlie & Russ Haas defeated Ivory & the Dupps

Raw is War – included footage from the XFL draft held two days earlier in Chicago; featured Al Snow trying to bribe Jerry Lawler with candy so that Lawler would be his tag team partner against Tazz & Raven; later in the show, Snow returned ringside with a stack of Chyna Playboys in hopes of convincing Lawler; included WWF World Champion Kurt Angle, Edge & Christian celebrating Edge’s birthday as Stephanie McMahon was fighting the flu; during the segment, Edge & Christian played their theme song on kazoos before being kicked out of the dressing room by Triple H; featured an in-ring promo by WWF European Champion William Regal in which Regal referred to the Boston Tea Party as ‘gastly’ and then prepared to read a list of 127 ways for the fans to improve their life but was interrupted by the Undertaker, who drove to the ring and hit the powerbomb on Regal; included pre-taped footage of Trish Stratus, Albert, & Test in which they redid the APA’s poker table, only for Crash Holly to come in and mess it up; featured Stephanie McMahon being driven away due to being sick, with Triple H then demanding a match with Kurt Angle for later in the show; included members of the New England Patriots in attendance; featured X-Pac at WWF New York, where he was confronted and slapped by Tori for not checking on her after she sustained a shoulder injury at King of the Ring (Tori’s TV return following KOTR); included an in-ring promo by Mick Foley in which he introduced Debra as his new Lt. Commissioner:

WWF IC Champion Eddie Guerrero (w/ the Kat, dressed as Chyna) pinned Chyna at 2:41 when Steven Richards interfered and hit the Steven Kick on the challenger after Chyna press slammed the Kat onto Guerrero; after the bout, Billy Gunn came out to make the save and cleared the ring
Bull Buchanan, The Goodfather, & Ivory (w/ Steven Richards) defeated WWF Women’s Champion Lita, WWF Tag Team Champions Matt & Jeff Hardy at 4:59 when Ivory pinned Jeff after Richards interfered and hit the Steven Kick, moments after Hardy hit the Swanton

Test (w/ Trish Stratus) pinned Crash Holly in a hardcore match at 3:05 by placing Crash’s head in a trash can, hitting it with a kendo stick, and hitting the flying elbowsmash; during the bout, Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler discussed that Adam Sandler would be appearing on Smackdown!

Steve Austin pinned Rikishi in a steel cage match at 5:14 with the Stunner after ramming Rikishi face-first into the cage; pre-match stipulations stated that the victory could only come via pinfall; prior to the bout, the two brawled around ringside before finally entering the cage

Steven Richards (w/ Val Venis) pinned Billy Gunn (w/ Chyna) at 2:24 after Eddie Guerrero interfered and hit Gunn with the IC title belt, moments after Gunn hit the Fameasser on his opponent; prior to the bout, Richards cut a promo in the ring stating that if he won the match, Gunn would no longer be able to use the term “Mr. Ass”; moments later, Gunn & Chyna came out, with Gunn accepting but only if the stipulation was added that if Richards lost, he would have to kiss Gunn’s ass

WWF World Champion Kurt Angle defeated Triple H via disqualification in a non-title match at 5:53 when Triple H grabbed and shoved referee Tim White across the ring, moments after Triple H hit the Pedigree on Angle through the commentary table; after the bout, Triple H grabbed the microphone and said that if the crowd wanted a DQ, they would get a DQ; moments later, Triple H hit the Pedigree on White then hit Angle and an interfering Edge with a steel chair before hitting the Pedigree on Christian as well

The Rock pinned Chris Jericho at 7:10 with the Rock Bottom; after the match, Rikishi assaulted the Rock and threw Jericho to the floor before grabbing a microphone and stating that it was the Rock that helped and told him to run over Steve Austin during the previous year�s Survivor Series; due to pre-match stipulations, Rock became the #1 contender to the world title and would receive a title shot on Smackdown!

Overall: Sorry for wasting your time.

I’ve been Maffew