Live Report by DrVenkman

The entire upper deck was blocked off, but most of the lower bowl was sold out.

Note: Originally scheduled for the show was Cena vs. O'Haire, Jones vs. DeMott, Matt/Shannon vs. Funaki/Rey, and Edge/Rikishi vs. Jericho/Christian in a Raw vs. SmackDown Kiss My Ass Match. Edge was not on the show and Rey took his spot in the Raw vs. SmackDown tag match, Matt took on Jones in a singles match, and DeMott/Cena took on Funaki/O'Haire.

Before the show and during the 15 minute intermission, tracks from WWE Anthology were played.

Also, it's very hard to judge the exact amount of response a match gets. If your section is loud, it doesn't mean anyone else is loud, but it sounds like EVERYONE is being loud.

Opening Match: Brock Lesnar def. Big Show and Paul Heyman (Handicap Match). Tony Chimmel starts the show be saying how great Detroit is, but Heyman interupts. The crowd was all over Heyman with a "You Suck" chant, to which Heyman replied to someone in the audience "Yes, I DO suck, but your daughter taught me now". Make of that what you will. At one point, Show had Lesnar down and tagged in Paul, who cowardly kicked at Brock's body. Match ended when Brock hit show with a chair while Heyman inadvertantly distracted the ref. Heyman took the F5 afterwards.

Match Response: Very good. Heyman's pre-match promo got him a lot of heat and everyone was happy yo see Lesnar. Things got quiet while Big Show was on offense but got loud when Brock was on the attack.

Match #2: A-Train def. Kanyon. Kanyon gave it his all and as a result it was a decent match. Kanyon's tights resembled Storm's old Red and White tights except they were Green and Black with "Who Betta?" written on them. Kanyon kicked out of the former Baldo Bomb but fell victim to the Derailer or Train Wreck or whatever the hell the Shoulder Backbreaker is called. Kanyon got a standing ovation after the match (from me and my friend Drew, anyway.. some scattered applause from others).

Match Response: A lot of people on the floor near us seemed to be Kanyon fans and cheered him on, and lots of people boo'd A-Train and yelled various obcenities at him.

Match #3: John Cena and Bill Demott def. Funaki and Sean O'Haire (Cena over Funaki, small package). Cena cut an anti-Detroit rap promo ("I ain't even tryin, the worst NFL team is the Detroit Lions" or something like that). Good heat, decent match. Mostly heels beating Funaki, brief hot tag to O'Haire who rocket launched Funaki onto Cena while the ref was yelling at DeMott. O'Haire took out DeMott and Cena packaged Funaki. O'Haire and Funaki hugged afterwards to some cheers.

Match Response: Funaki had what I considered a pretty good pop and some good crowd backing. This may be due to John Cena's hometown heat rap, which made him quite hated. Sean O'Haire got a big pop when he entered and another when he tagged in, but he spent much of the match on the apron. DeMott was met with little response.

Match #4: Nathan Jones def. Matt Hardy (Version 1.0). Matt cut a promo, asking if those were boo's he heard (I informed him it was "Boo-urns", but he continued to run down Detroit). Short match, Jones didn't look as bad as I've been led to believe, but not a tremendous talent either. I'd say he did better than Batista. Jones won with the Midcard Spinebuster (the one Batista does, not to be confused with HHH's spinning Main Event Spinebuster).

Match Response: Pretty much the entire floor section I was in cheered Hardy and flashed the V1 sign, but that didn't stop him from pointing out the boo's and working as a heel. Mostly quiet due to Jones being slow and people not being familiar with him, but people did pop for his Digeridoo entrance theme.

Match #5: Billy Kidman def. Jamie Noble (/w Nidia). Good match, better than the last one I saw live at Vengeance. There was a blown spot where either Kidman was too far or Noble didn't sell it, but the always trusty "Opponent Powerbombs Kidman, Kidman does a Faceslam" spot ended with Kidman landing on his ass and Noble still standing. They quickly transitioned from that to that powerbomb Kidman does that D`Lo did too (Raiden bomb?) followed by the SSP.

Match Response: "Hey Noble, I hear your home needs an alignment" was yelled by a fan and met with laughs. Quiet during the match, pops for spots. Actually the crowd response to this match was probably better than the one at Vengeance. The three teenage girls behind us seemed to really hate Noble and Nidia, and let everyone know it with a string of curse words that would make <insert comedian who swears a lot> offended. They did that during almost every match, too.

Bonus Match: Steve Gray and Canadian Change vs. Soda Vendors Who Won't take 3 Canadian Quarters. Also known as 15 minute intermission.


Match #6: Team Angle def. Los Guerreros. Not much heat (some people hadn't returned from intermission yet not to mention some people view the Guerreros as heels) but it picked up near the end. Team Angle went for a second Superkick / German Suplex Combo on Chavo, but the ref ended up getting in the way and was knocked out. Eddie hit Haas with the tag title with no ref. I apologize for forgetting the finish, but I believe Haas pinned Eddie with an Oklahoma Roll after the ref got up.

Match Response: As I said above, not everyone hat returned and many people still view Los Guerreros as heels. As was the case whenever a face lost, Eddie and Chavo posed after the match and got cheered. My friend Drew yelled at Eddie, asking if he wanted some nachos, which was very wrong but very funny at the same time (I'll admit it doesn't SOUND funny now, but I laughed at the arena).

Match #7: Nidia def. Torrie Wilson (Special Ref: Dawn Marie). Bad match that seemed decent live, mostly due to all the interest from the male fans. At one point, Torrie and Nidia did the trademark "let's roll around, have the ref jump over us, continue rolling around and take the ref with us" spot, with the added twist Dawn was the ref, so you had tree chicks rolling around together. Torrie hit her Neckbreaker of Doom, but Dawn didn't count it. Torrie argued, Nidia rolled her up, fast count by Dawn.

Match Response: Loud for the entrances, not much for the "Wrestling", loud for the rolling around on the ground spot.

Match #8: Rikishi and Rey def. Jericho and Christian. Comedy to start (Jericho promo, Christian standing on the ropes and falling down when Jericho high fives him). A good match live with both god comedy and good wrestling, but also some slow stuff when Rikishi was in. Finish involved Christian choking Rikishi on the middle rope, setting up a 619 from Rey and a Belly to Belly suplex by Rikishi (I think...). Rey and Rikishi gave stereo stinkfaces to Jericho and Christian respectively and danced with Brian Hebner and a little kid they brought into the ring.

Match Response: Most reaction of the night, as Rikishi was so damn over it was scary. Everything he did was met with an absolute huge pop. Rey got great response too, and Jericho really pissed off everyone with a pre-match promo, getting him and Christian some "U-S-A!" chants during the match. At the end of the match, Rikishi, Rey, and Brian Hebner were pointing to the 4 sides of the ring, judging for the loudest crowd response to see who they would face when they danced.

Main Event: Kurt Angle def. Chris Benoit. Some people left early to avoid traffic... shame, as the match was much slower than TV bouts but got quite good at the end. I assumed Lesnar would do a post match run in, but was quite surprised by who DID show up. Benoit had Angle tapping in the crossface but Charlie Haas distracted the referee while Shelton hit Benoit with the title belt. After the match, RHYNO came out to a huge pop and everyone went nuts as he gored Charlie and Shelton. Benoit and Rhyno had a staredown and shook hands.

Match Response: Quiet during rest holds, pretty good response to the wrestling. Again, those girls behind us really hated Angle and cursed up a storm. Rhyno's run in post match was met with a HUGE response, and even I felt the need to jump up and down and yell "RHYNO! RHYNO!" at the top of my lungs, totally using up what voice I had left.

Good show overall, I really enjoyed it. I just wish people wouldn't bring signs to house shows. I was sitting towards the end of a section on the floor and could see the ring perfectly, but whenever someone put a sign up it got in my way. No one can see it, people!

Last Edited: Monday, February 17th, 2003 - 11:44 pm EST