WWE RAW

June 14, 2004

Tyson Tomko . . . may have the perfect look of a problem solving heater, but he shows that he’s definitely not ready to be in the ring on TV.

Stacy Keibler . . . is pretty much the definition of a limited worker, and she puts everything she has into the few things that she can do.

Ric Flair . . . may be well past his prime and unable to do a lot of things, but he’s still the second best worker of Evolution at this time.

MATT HARDY/LITA vs. TYSON TOMKO/TRISH STRATUS

Somehow Trish Stratus was the best worker in the match, and I’m not sure if that should be a surprise or exactly what to expect. Matt isn’t bad but he doesn’t have much to do, Lita looks awkward and clunky, and Tomko can’t seem to do anything more complex than a bodyslam. He catches Matt coming off the turnbuckle for what’s ostensibly going to be a powerslam, but he has to run across the ring to both keep his balance and also not drop him. Tomko’s bump on Matt’s DDT counter is another ugly spot, and Tomko practically throws himself to the floor when Matt low bridges the ropes when he charges at him. In the midst of all of this, Trish pulls off a few nice spots and bumps and sells huge in order to make Lita’s offense look better than it actually is. I’d normally be disappointed at them only getting four minutes to work with, but in this case it’s probably for the best.

Flag Match: ROB CONWAY/SYLVAN GRENIER vs. THE HURRICANE/ROSEY

Aside from Rosey bumping around Grenier, there really isn’t anything to see here. The only crowd interest in the match is due to the USA vs. Canada bit. The match moves far too quickly for them to build up any genuine crowd heat or emotion, and there’s nothing as far as any sort of theme or story to make you connect with what they do. The only thing that feels like a credible near fall is Rosey’s legdrop on Grenier, which is entirely due to the size difference. Rosey bumps Grenier around a couple of more times and then Conway trips Rosey while he’s doing a suplex and holds the legs for the Canadians to steal the win.

MOLLY HOLLY/GAIL KIM vs. NIDIA/STACY KEIBLER

Everyone involved here looks more game than Lita did in the mixed tag match. Even Stacy, the most limited worker of the whole bunch, made it seem like she was putting everything she had into the few things that she could do, and her selling when she was getting worked over was more than passable. Nidia works a few good sequences with both Gail and Molly, showing how far she’d come in such a short time, and Molly and Gail were heat machines when working over Stacy and getting the crowd excited for her to tag Nidia. In that sense, it’s something of a disappointment that the tag never comes. Between Gail and Molly doing their best imitation of Masa Fuchi circa 1993, their cheating behind the ref’s back, and drawing his attention so that he misses the tag, the crowd was more than ready for Stacy to make the comeback and tag out. Luckily, this doesn’t stretch out too far beyond when it seemed like the tag was going to happen and the finish is suitable for what had been happening just before it. Who would have thought the first worthwhile match of the show would be the diva’s tag match?

Elimination Match: CHRIS BENOIT/CHRIS JERICHO/EDGE vs. RIC FLAIR/RANDY ORTON/BATISTA

If this had been a trios match that ended after the first pinfall, it wouldn’t have been anything great, but it’d have wound up a good bit better than what we got. It’s scary to think that Flair was the best member of his team, but that’s what wound up happening. The work in his segments with all three babyfaces isn’t anything that hadn’t been seen before; they back bump Flair in the usual ways and have no problem going along with the chop exchanges and selling big for him if they need to, right down to Edge taking the eyepoke and stumbling around. But it’s good, in a sense, that they’re able to do that, rather than try to force Flair into something that’s more typical of their style and have it not be any good. Other than a few spots to Benoit, like the powerslam and spinebuster, Batista and Orton are content to punch, kick, stomp, choke, etc. when they’re in control. The sequence that leads to Batista’s elimination puts him over as much as possible. He misses a corner charge and goes into the post, which gives Benoit the opening he needs to tag in Jericho. Batista cuts off Jericho’s comeback with a lariat, leading to Jericho escaping the powerslam, taking a shot at his knee, and going for the Walls. This triggers everyone to run in for a scrum and it takes finishers from all three of the opposing team (spear, headbutt, and Lionsault) to eliminate Batista.

The segment immediately after the first elimination is pretty much the last of the good work. Flair goes right after Jericho, with a combo of his usual Flair stuff and working over Jericho’s midsection. But the body work doesn’t wind up going anywhere, and when Flair tags in Orton the match starts crumbling. Orton’s chinlock is more or less a wasted effort from him. It’s nice that he thinks to try cranking it and show that he’s putting a lot of energy into it, but it’s way too much for a hold that nobody cares about and won’t have any direct effect on the match. Considering how good a performance that Flair was putting in, it’s disappointing that he didn’t get a clean elimination on Jericho. It’s clean in a sense, because they could have pulled it off without doing the ref distraction, but it puts over the RKO more than it does Flair. After that, any sense of build or structure is pretty much gone. Flair and Benoit exchange a lot of chops and Flair takes the biggest bumps of the match from a couple of Germans. Orton still cranks the chinlock for all it’s worth. The only other thing to really take away is how strongly they put over the RKO, with it also taking Edge out of the match, and Benoit being the one member of the team that’s able to completely avoid it.

After Edge is taken out, the match sprints toward the finish but there isn’t much at all that’s good. Benoit’s counter of the figure four into the crossface to eliminate Flair doesn’t look very good at all, and the sharpshooter than submits Orton and wins the match for Benoit looks ugly too. The ref bump that leads to the HHH run in is pretty much meaningless in the grand scheme of things. HHH’s intrusion only leads to Benoit hitting him with a German and then countering the RKO and outwrestling Orton into the sharpshooter. Just about the only storytelling element is their blocking of big moves. Benoit was the only one to block the RKO, and Orton is the only one that is able to block the German suplex. Considering how rough Orton looked for pretty much the whole match, especially after a couple of months of doing various tag and trios matches of Evolution versus Benoit and friends, it seems crazy that Orton would be the one to eventually take the title from Benoit.

Conclusion: This winds up a pretty disappointing TV show overall, even the usually reliable main event winds up a disappointment.