On Sunday, January 22, 2006 at 5:55 PM EST WWE RAW Brand House Show Results - 1/22/06
Location: Asheville, North Carolina
Graham Cawthon of www.TheHistoryofWWE.com sent in this report:
Asheville Civic Center
January 22, 2006 (matinee)
The arena was about 60% full. The ringside and lower riser sections were packed; lots of open areas up top.
1) Chavo Guerrero Jr. pinned Rob Conway with the Frog Splash at 6:56 after reversing an attempt at the Ego Trip into a DDT
- Lots of Eddie chants; the crowd was very receptive to both men.
2) Viscera pinned Trevor Murdoch with the Embalmer at 4:55
- The crowd popped big for Viscera; Murdoch cut a promo before the match to the effect of the crowd was jealous of him because he made something of himself despite looking like them. The rear end humping thing Viscera does was very over with the crowd.
3) Lita & Victoria defeated WWE Women’s Champion Trish Stratus & Mickie James at 10:09 when Lita pinned Trish with a roll up as Trish argued with Mickie for spearing Victoria just as Trish prepared to hit her with the Chick Kick; after the bout, Trish left Mickie alone in the ring; Maria was the guest ring announcer and Val Venis was the guest referee; Maria put over the local team by saying she was going to be watching the Carolina Panthers beat the Seattle Seahawks later in the evening
- Lots of heat; Mickie played the face in peril for most of the contest but pulled out some good offense; after the bout Trish actually left to some boos because of her treatment of Mickie for costing the team the match.
- Jonathan Coachman, who assured everyone the Panthers would be losing, introduced Ricky Steamboat, who came out to a very strong reaction. Coachman insulted Steamboat almost immediately, saying Steamboat wasn’t a real legend and was comparable to Iron Mike Sharpe, Doink the Clown, and even Val Venis. Within moments Ricky removed his glasses, watch, and jacket. He then laid Coach out with several chops, played to the fans, and left without having said one word in the ‘interview’.
At this point, Carlito’s music played. As the spotlight shone on the entrance, Arn Anderson came out instead and went to what I can only assume is the production table to tell them they messed up and Carlito wasn’t on until later in the show. Arn received a big applause and on his way back he paused … looked at the crowd … to which they popped … he took a bow, and went backstage.
4) Brent Albright defeated Aaron Stevens (w/ Beth & Shelly) via submission with an armbar at 7:28 after avoiding a clothesline, moments after ramming Beth and Shelly’s heads together
- I felt so bad for these guys (and girls) because they seriously put on the best match to that point in time and the crowd crapped all over it. All involved put on a strong showing but the chants of “boring” started before they even had a chance to do anything. Most of the crowd used this as a food / bathroom break but, thankfully, by the end of the contest at least some in the audience were receptive to their hard work.
5) WWE Raw Tag Team Champion Kane pinned Carlito Caribbean Cool with the tombstone at 7:33 after causing Carlito to choke on his own apple; surprisingly, Kane actually came out with the title belt
- Carlito had quite a bit of offense in this, much more than I expected.
Intermission
6) WWE IC Champion Ric Flair defeated Shelton Benjamin via submission with the figure-4 at 15:12 after avoiding a reverse crossbody off the ropes
- Flair was treated like a God. Benjamin attempted to cut a promo before the match about his momma and how he was on the “Momma Said Knock You Out” tour but the crowd would have none of it and kept chanting “We Want Flair.” Good match, lots of heat, but Benjamin didn’t bust out any strong offense such as his spin kicks or the Exploder suplex.
7) Shawn Michaels & WWE Raw Tag Team Champion the Big Show defeated Triple H & Chris Masters at 14:39 when Show pinned Masters with the chokeslam as Masters had Michaels caught in the full nelson
- All involved worked this one well. At one point Michaels attempted a sunset flip on HHH and ended up pulling his tights down. They stayed down for a good 2-3 minutes as Trips was beaten down by both members of the opposition. Another spot had Triple H jump face-first into a boot from Michaels … stand there for a good 15 seconds as though he was going to take the face-first drop … then shake it off, walk toward Masters to make the tag, and drop hard face-first to the mat. Important to note is Show wore the cast on his right hand to sell the sledgehammer injury.
8) John Cena defeated WWE World Champion Edge (w/ Lita) via disqualification at 13:42 when Edge hit a low blow on the challenger as Cena prepared to hit the FU on an interfering Lita; after the bout, Cena avoided being hit with a chair and dropped Edge with the FU
- Cena’s applause was deafening. Within 5 minutes, they were fighting in the crowd, with Edge dumping the challenger between the ringside section and the lower risers. A dazed Cena barely made it back in the ring to break the referee’s 10-count. Cena could do no wrong here and Lita received many harsh words from the fans for interfering.