»Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
On Wednesday, October 6, 2004 at 6:27 PM EST

Ville Kovelo sent in the following...

Here is a brief recap of the action that went on Hartwall Arena just a few hours ago. The place was not packed, but near 10,000 enjoyed the show.

Show started with Lillian Garcia welcoming everyone and to my shock announced the first match as

Chris Jericho (c) vs. Christian vs. Edge for the IC-title
Edge got a decent pop, Captain Charisma loud boos and Y2J a very loud pop and a standing ovation. The match itself took some time to start since Christian wanted to cut a heel promo about Canada beating Finland in the World Cup finals but the microphone wasn’t working. Maybe it was a setup, maybe not. Either way he gathered some laughs out of the crowd. The promo ended when both Y2J and Edge attacked Christian and did some doubleteaming on him and dumping him out of the ring. During the match that we saw all the finishing moves and some good action, especially from Edge that seemed to enjoyed the recovery period. Y2J was a bit soft in his moves, but got the win with Walls of Jericho when Christian tapped out. Next up was

Chuck Palumbo vs. Maven
The crowd was very quiet during this match, except some “boring” chants. Maven hit some high spots but Chuck took the victory with a rollup after Maven tried a Crossbody from toprope.

After this filler match Stacy came to ring and asked if we liked her to dance. She was cut off by Coach who claimed that he was in charge in the absence of Eric Bischoff and she sent Stacy back to lockerroom. Coach also told about the main event and that there would be a match between HBK and Flair. Next there was

Trish Stratus & Molly Holly vs. Victoria & Nidia with Val Venis as special referee
Crowd was pretty tame during this match too, but to my surprise the ladies put up a pretty decent show. The match lasted about 10 minutes and ended when Victoria tried Widow’s Peak on Trish but Molly interfered and Trish took the win with a chic kick. Val handled the job pretty good and left the ring with Vic and Nidia.

Shelton Benjamin vs. Tyson Tomko
was up next. Shelton got a decent pop and was in very tight condition. Tomko was the boring himself. Match ended with the crossbody, splash & T-Bone suplex combo for Mr. Benjamin.

Quickly after them Gene Snitsky came out. Half of the crowd didn’t know how to react to him since the televised shows are running about a month behind the US timeline and the Lita angle hasn’t been shown here yet. The other half booed slightly to him. He cut a small “It wasn’t my fault” promo about the deal and then Kane came out.

Kane vs. Gene Snitsky
He got a HUGE pop and he looked a bit surprised by it. The match itself was pretty good although Snitsky only used a couple of simple moves. The end came with a vicious chokeslam from Kane. After the match there was a face like ovation for Kane and he seemed like he wouldn’t know how to react to it. Seems like Kane is a face around here.

Last match before intermission was

William Regal & Eugene vs. Hurricane & Rosey
As this match pitted two face teams against each other, the wrestling itself was more of a farce but the match had some very funny spots, some that haven’t been on TV shows too. Eugene got one of the biggest pops of the night. He also ended the match by pinning Hurricane after a Rock Bottom.

After the match Coach came out and said that uncle Eric was going to punish Eugene for not Behaving properly. This ended with Regal showing Coach into Eugene’s arms and him delivering Coach a stunner. After this Stacy came out and danced with Eugene and that with help of Lillian they shot some T-shirts into the audience.

La Resistance (c) vs. Rhyno & Tajiri for Tag Team titles
was after the break. This was pretty fast paced match and all four men were in top shape. La Resistance got some cheap heat as always and took the win.

HBK vs. Ric Flair
was one of the highlights of the night and both guys got huge pops and standing ovations. The match itself was very slowpaced and featured a Figure Four done by both of them, a few Flair nosedives, lots of WOOOOOOOOOOs and as finish and Ric going to the top rope buttnaked! The match ended with a Sweet Chin Music that was some what botched, HBK might have sprained his leg while doing it. He was helped to the back of the stage by a trainer. Or he just sold it for some reason very well.

The Main Event was

Randy Orton & Chris Benoit vs. Triple H & Batista
All four guys got big pops and the action was very good. Benoit got the crowd into the match by Chanting RKO several times, he was also in mint condition as was everyone except Hunter. He didn’t gather that much heat, only a few boos when he escaped the RKO and the ring a couple of times. Match ended with Orton giving RKO to Batista. We didn’t see a single Pedigree during the match which was a disappointment to my friends. Chris and Randy celebrated in the ring for some time and the show ended.

The show was pretty tight, running 2h 45mins and containing almost only wrestling, very little promos. Some wrestlers were clearly in bad shape or tired from the jet lag, but some surprised me very positively.

Biggest pops: HBK, Flair, Eugene, Kane, Y2J

Biggest heat: Christian, Coach, La Resistance

Biggest surprise: Good condition of Edge, Shelton and Kane (Benoit is always in top condition)

Biggest letdowns: Bad condition and ringwork of Trips and HBK