WWE IN HAMBERG GERMANY 11/16
- 11/17/2005 (11:00:33 pm)
- Christian Rhode
Hope its not another 7 years before another show……
WWE in Hamburg, Germany 11-16by Christian Rhode
Here is a more extensive report from the Raw house show in Hamburg, Germany.
WWE hasn't been in Hamburg since April 1999, when it last was at the old Sporthalle. Back then, 7.000 easily packed the Sporthalle. Now we have the new Color Line Arena, and while I think 7.000 might have been there, half of the upper deck was blocked and there were many empty seats throughout the arena. I doubt WWE will come to Hamburg again any time soon, although the crowd was actually quite lively.
The show opened with Lillian Garcia introducing Raw GM Eric Bischoff, who got good heat until he spoke about the passing of Eddie Guerrero and lead us in an "Eddie!" chant before the 10 bell salute.
1) Val Venis & Viscera defeated Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch. Viscera was surprisingly over, as were several other heels throughout the night. Decent opener and I think Venis is totally underused.
2) Tajiri defeated Nick Nemeth with the Kick of Death. Nemeth, or as the people around me called him, "Who is this?", did quite well and the match fine. Tajiri looked a little off. The first two matches had more "Eddie" chants.
3) Chris Masters defeated Eugene. Masters, also, was pretty over and played to the crowd quite well. Eugene was booed by a lot of people, and in the funniest spot of the night, hugged the referee and began to cry. He did a bad Rock Bottom and a Stunner and then wanted to finish Masters with the Masterlock, but ultimately Masters won with his finisher.
4) Shelton Benjamin defeated Rob Conway with the T-Bone. Conway was surprisingly over, too, and played well to the crowd. Shelton convinced with his work, but there was something missing as far as connecting with this particular crowd. Another enjoyable match.
5) Intercontinental Champion Ric Flair defeated Carlito with the figure four leglock. Carlito was very over, and of course, so was Flair. He acknowledged the guy next to me with the "Flair is God" sign and thanked him during the entrance. Lots of "Woooo's" throughout the night, and especially this match. Carlito did some good heel work and got a lot of heat for using chops, the figure four and finally spitting apple on Flair. Flair countered, did the "ref, check the time"/low blow spot and won with the figure four.
Intermission. Lillian threw t-shirts into the crowd. When she walked by, she slapped everybody's hands, gave one guy an autograph and even hugged another guy. She came across as a genuinely nice person.
6) Candice Michelle & Victoria defeated Ashley & Maria in the pop corn match. I actually missed the intros. Not much to it, but not horrible either, even when Maria was in. Short match, with Victoria pinning Maria after the Widow's Peak.
7) Shawn Michaels defeated Kurt Angle. So I suppose they're 2-1-1 now. Angle came out with Khosrow Daivari, who got pretty big heat. Angle was super over as a heel. People were expecting him to face John Cena, but the match was changed, so the scattered "Cena sucks" chants quickly turned into cheers when HBK came out. Good house show match, but you could tell they were holding back. Still, HBK won with the superkick and gave the fans what they wanted.
8) WWE Champion John Cena defeated Triple H. Again, both were very over. Cena got some boos, while HHH got lots of cheers, but it wasn't terribly anti-Cena. Decent match that was carried by HHH's working skills. Some of Cena's punches looked really bad. The referee got bumped and HHH hit the Pedigree. A second ref ran in and counted two. HHH knocked the second referee out and took a chair into the ring, but Cena countered, hit the FU, and got the three. He briefly celebrated and then looked up towards the sky as another "Eddie" chant arose.
All in all, an enjoyable show with a lively crowd. There was a sense that some guys were elsewhere with their thoughts, but that, and the late changes in the card (as well as the absence of Big Show and Trish Stratus) was understandable. Fit Finlay and Ricky Steamboat were the road agents at ringside and I thought it was remarkable how well the non-wrestlers (referees, Lillian, agents) came across in their brief interactions with their fans.
I hope it's not another 7 years.
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