Friday, September 11, 2020

Ruthless Aggression Era Project: WWE Raw Review - October 7th, 2002 (RAW ROULETTE)

WWE Raw 

October 7th, 2002

Las Vegas, Nevada

It’s RAW ROULETTE. Bischoff spins the wheel and first match of the night is a steel cage match. 

1) Booker T vs. Big Show - Steel Cage Match 

This actually was pretty good. They built towards a number of big spots and Booker’s comebacks ruled. Booker gets the win after a scissors kick off the top rope and escapes the cage. 

Match rating - **3/4 

Booker celebrates his ~big~ win and gets attacked by Chris Jericho who ends up busting him open.

Jericho wants respect and last week Goldust disrespected him so he attacked Booker.

It's announced that Kane and The Hurricane will defend their tag team titles in a TLC MATCH TONIGHT. YEs the almighty fatal four way. I love this match and am so excited to watch it again. 

Backstage, the wheel spins for Triple H and it's a blindfold match. H is pissed at the idea. Flair brings in Bischoff a set of girls. William Regal walks in and says this whole thing is stupid. Bischoff puts Regal in a showgirl match against Goldust where Regal has to dress in drag.

2) Triple H vs. D-Lo Brown - Blindfold Match

Now this shit's getting dumb. D-Lo Brown bounces to the ring and that's the most enjoyable thing about this. After fumbling around for a little while, Flair distracts the ref and H takes off his blindfold and pedigrees D-Lo for the win.

Match rating - *1/4 (one star for D-Lo's entrance and 1/4 for them showing up)

Bischoff brings Bubba Ray Dudley, Jeff Hardy, and Christian into his office. Basically telling them they are all in the TLC Match later and have to find partners. 

3) Goldust vs. William Regal - Showgirl Match

This happened. Regal is hilarious in everything so it was at least a little entertaining. Lance Storm distraction allows Regal to bust Goldy with brass knuckles for the win.

Backstage, Christian and Chris Jericho decide to team up in the tag title TLC match later on. 

Trish & Stacy have their shot at spinning the wheel and of course it's two weird, sexually charged stipulations. Paddle on a pole and bra & panties. What a combo.

Bubba Ray runs up on Tommy Dreamer backstage and asks him to be his partner. Spike is there and looks sad. Bubba asks why and Spike said he was hoping he'd get his chance to team with his brother in a TLC match like Devon used to. Dreamer tells Spike to be Bubba's partner and GOD DAMN RIGHT. 

4) Trish Stratus (c) vs. Stacy Keibler - Bra & Panties/Paddle on a Pole Match for the Women's Title

Trish strips down Stacy and gets the win then paddles her afterwards. After the match, Victoria runs down and lays out Trish. Now that was good shit, I love Victoria. 

Backstage, Jeff Hardy reveals his partner for the TLC match as... ROB. VAN. DAM. 

5) Al Snow vs. Test - Street Fight

This was so random. Al Snow gets the most random ass good pop for what I'm guessing is a rare appearance on Raw since he's normally on Tough Enough. They hit each other with trash cans, lids, and signs. Botch a spot and then Snow hits Test with a bowling ball (see above). 

6) Jerry Lawler vs. Steven Richards - Legal In Nevada Match

Jesus fuck. The winner of this gets a night on the ho train with the Godfather. Obviously Jerry the pervert wins and leaves with them. 

RANDY ORTON hype video. Also worth noting, a Batista one aired earlier. Are we building towards their uniting with H & Flair to form Evolution? Both videos were sick. Batista's was him working out and talking himself up. Orton's included highlights of him in the ring and his dad talking about how in 10 years he will be remembered as one of the best to ever step in the ring. Well it's 18 years later and that was definitely a correct assumption.

Kane is backstage getting interviewed by Terri. He vows to become the first ever to hold the World Heavyweight, IC and Tag titles all at the same time. Meanwhile, H & Flair assault Hurricane. Coach lets Kane know and he runs down the hall, but it's too late. Kane yells out "YOU SON OF A BITCH" at Triple H. This rules. So much hype heading into this TLC match from every corner of the motherfucker. LETS GO.

7) Kane & The Hurricane (c) vs. Bubba Ray & Spike Dudley vs. Christian & Chris Jericho vs. Jeff Hardy & Rob Van Dam - TLC Match for the Raw Tag Team Titles

So, this is a match I watched probably 20 times as a kid. It was on the first Ladder Match compilation DVD that WWE did and was definitely a favorite of mine. With that in mind, reliving it was loads of fun and it was honestly even crazier than I remembered. Plus having the backstory of the Spike stuff, Kane missing Hurricane because of H & Flair, etc - it added even more to it. This was a trainwreck in the best possible way and the first TLC Match in Raw history so that makes it a must see in my book. Kane overcomes the odds and wins the match by himself so he & Hurricane retain the titles.

Match rating - ****1/4

Triple H and Ric Flair come out afterwards. They said they promised to make his life hell before the end of the night. H says he knows about Katie Vick. The show closes with him saying Kane murdered her and "Kane.. you're a murderer" and the show goes off the air just like that... Wow. This is gonna be some shit. I've heard the name Katie Vick, but haven't seen anything regarding this story so this should be interesting.

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