» Reported by Peter H. of WrestleView.com
» On Monday, March 29, 2004 at 11:40 PM EST

Full WWE RAW Results - 3/29/04
LIVE from: Cincinatti, Ohio
Commentators: Jim Ross & Jerry "The King" Lawler
Report by: Peter H. of WrestleView.com

We kick off the new look Raw, with a recap of the Draft Lottery and the trades that the new Smackdown GM Kurt Angle made. Just to recap the trades, Triple H going back to Raw for Booker T, and the Dudley Boys. Also, A-Train and Chuck Palumbo go to Raw for Rico and Miss Jackie.

King and JR pimp tonight’s main event

Ric Flair and Batista (c) vs. HBK & Chris Benoit for the World Tag Titles

Highlight Reel with special guest Trish Stratus

Evolution’s music and out they come minus Triple H. When they get to the ring, Flair gets the mic and says he is looking forward to tonight’s Tag Title match and is also thrilled that Triple H is back on Raw. He is disappointed in the Raw locker room for what they did to Triple H after he got drafted. Flair is also disappointed in the lack of respect for the IC Champ, Randy Orton. Flair is demanding more respect from the fans. Orton takes the mic (note: his voice is not 100% because of tonsil surgery) Orton cuts a quick promo on Mick Foley calling him a coward when all of a sudden out comes the hardcore legend himself. Foley is standing at the top of the ramp and is responding to Evolution’s promo. Foley wants Evolution banned from ringside for the Orton/Foley match at Backlash. Foley also wants Orton to put up the IC title as well. Orton agrees but Foley says no. Foley wants the rulebook thrown out the window as well in a no holds barred as well. Basically it’s being turned into a hardcore match for the IC title at Backlash. Orton agrees and the match is set. Have a nice day

Garrison Cade and the two remaining members of La Resistance are initiating Tajiri to the Raw locker room by convincing him to spray the green mist to the next person to go through the door. Of all the people, Coach walks in and gets sprayed. As soon as Coach crawls out the door, the 3 idiots tell Tajiri that Coach is Bischoff’s boy and that he is going to be in trouble. Tajiri looks all scared as we go to a

Commercial

We come back to see Nidia make her 1st appearance on Raw since the draft lottery for our first match tonight

Nidia vs. Molly Holly

Out comes Molly Holly wearing a brown wig with a chinstrap. Molly is outwrestling Nidia to start just punishing the former Tough enough contest winner. The crowd seems to be really dead for this match. Nidia fights back using a couple of clotheslines and a slingshot on Molly to regain the advantage in the match, here is how the finish happened. We see Nidia try to hit a bulldog on Molly and accidentally takes off the wig. Nidia throws the wig at the referee; Molly gives chase as Nidia rolls up Molly for the pinfall victory.

Winner: Nidia

King and JR recap Bischoff picking Edge in the lottery. We then go to a shot of Johnny Blaze and Bischoff watching on the monitor. Basically, Bischoff wants to show that no one disrespects him so he makes a match for Backlash as it will be Edge vs. Kane

Commercial

We come back to see JR and King pimp the Highlight Reel and Jericho’s special guest Trish Stratus.

Hurricane walks out from behind the curtain and starts to make his entrance before Triple H jumps him from behind. He throws the Hurricane into the Raw set (hurricane just bounces off of the metal side) and then goes down to the ring and cuts a promo on the Raw Locker Room. Triple H is applauding Bischoff’s GM skills and trashes Angle being the Smackdown GM. Triple H is calling out Bischoff to make a switch for Backlash’s main event to be Triple H vs. Chris Benoit for the World Title. Bischoff comes out and can’t replace who’s in the match but can change it but basically makes the match a Wrestlemania Main Event Rematch, calling it a final encounter. Triple H is happy as Bischoff walks out to the back

Commercial

We come back and watch a brief behind the scenes clip of Walking Tall with the Rock

HHH is walking in the back and meets up with his Evolution members. Evolution is talking when Shelton Benjamin walks in the hall and Batista gets in his face. Triple H attacks Shelton from behind and says that no one disrespects Triple H.

Lance Storm is in the ring and is cutting a promo denouncing his carefree style as of late. He is telling the fans that he could have had a new beginning but wasn’t drafted. Out comes Rhyno and we have our next match.

Rhyno vs. Lance Storm

Lance Storm starts the offense but Rhyno quickly, like in 2 seconds and finishes him off with the Gore and the pinfall

Winner: Rhyno (very brief match)

Tajiri is walking in the back and goes to Bischoff’s office to apologize for spraying Coach but Coach is already in the office. Coach tells a story playing the poor Coach story and then turns it to make Tajiri look like he doesn’t respect Bischoff. Bischoff makes a match for tonight. Tajiri vs. Kane no DQ

Commercial

We come back to see a video package seeing WWE be awarded the Legecy of Hope award for their work with the USO

Out comes Benoit for our next match

Chris Benoit & HBK vs. Ric Flair & Batista (c) – World Tag Title Match

HBK comes out and does his little dancing entrance and when he gets in the ring, here comes the Tag Champs. Lillian announces that Johnny Spade is the special guest referee and he tells Lillian to announce him as Johnny Nitro. This match is just chaos with a guest referee All 4 brawl and then we see Flair and Benoit fight in the ring with a quick cross face attempt by Benoit. Batista breaks it up and helps Flair to the outside. Batista and Benoit now in the ring with Benoit working on Batista’s leg. HBK gets tagged in and works on Batista until he breaks free and tags in Flair. Flair starts to fight but HBK puts Flair in the figure four. Flair finally gets to the ropes and HBK tags in Benoit. Benoit and Flair trades chops and somehow HBK and Batista get tagged back in with HBK in control. Benoit gets tagged in and works on Batista’s arm. Benoit tags HBK back in and Batista is now in control so let’s tag in Flair. Flair is in control of HBK and Flair hits a nice double under hook suplex for a quick two. Flair works on HBK and tags in Batista and then gets a quick tag back. Flair is going up to the buckle (it never works) and gets thrown back down by HBK. Benoit gets the fresh tag and it brawling with Flair. Benoit hits the 3 German suplexes and then locks in the Sharpshooter. Batista hits Benoit to break it up and HBK comes in so Johnny Nitro decides to get in HBK’s face, HBK decides not to hit the ref

Commercial

We come back and Benoit is getting beaten down by Flair. Benoit fights back and thy both make the hot tag. HBK and Batista are now legal but we have all 4 men in the ring. Batista gets double teamed out of the ring and then Flair gets Body slammed, Flying head butt by Benoit and then the sweet chin music for the pinfall and the victory.

Winner & New Tag Champs: HBK and Chris Benoit

HBK and celebrate the victory but Batista complains at Johnny Nitro saying that Flair was not the legal man. So Johnny gets the match restarted. Flair rolls up HBK for a quick two count. HBK kicks out and gets in Johnny’s face and punches him down to the mat. HBK and Benoit clear the ring and Johnny DQ’s HBK and Benoit

Winner & Still Tag Champs, Ric Flair & Batista

HBK grabs Johnny and throws him into the ring. Benoit puts him in the cross face making Johnny tap and HBK gets in Johnny’s face

Bischoff is seen watching it on a monitor as Shelton Benjamin walks in and tells Bischoff about what happened with HHH. Bischoff tells him to shrug it off but Austin is behind Bischoff. Austin tells Shelton to challenge HHH to a match tonight. He agrees and asks Bischoff for the match, so Bischoff makes the match for tonight

Commercial

We come back and it’s time for the Highlight reel. Jericho is in the ring and calls out Trish. She gets right in Jericho’s face and explains that he was never there for her. She continues to trash talk Jericho as the crowd calls her a S*** that rhymes with butt. He agrees that she is a former woman’s champ and a 3 time WWE Babe of the year but she is the S*** of the century. Jericho cuts a very funny promo on Trish that makes the crowd laugh very hard. It reminds me of the promos he used to hit on Stephanie McMahon.

We see Tajiri walking in the halls scared because of his no DQ match with Kane next

Commercial

Christian is consoling Trish about what just happened. Christian explains he was in Bischoff’s office and there is now a match at Backlash, it will be Christian vs. Y2J

Tajiri comes out and JR and King recap “earlier tonight” when Tajiri sprayed Coach. Out comes Kane and here we go

Kane vs. Tajiri

Tajiri tries to start some offense and does before Kane starts picking him apart. It’s your basic Kane squash but Tajiri takes the fight to the outside and as Kane gets hit into the ring post, Tajiri sneaks back into the ring and sprays mist at Kane who is still on the outside. The Ref goes for the bell and actually gives the victory to Tajiri via count out

Winner: Tajiri

Tajiri celebrates the win and turns around right into Kane who gives him a huge choke slam. Kane is happy and turns around to get speared by Edge. Edge walks back up the ramp as Kane sits up

Commercial

Benjamin is getting ready for his match when Benoit gives him a brief pep talk, Benjamin walks down the hall and Hurricane encourages him as well, Benjamin walks a little further and Mick Foley gives him a pep talk as well

JR and the King intro a quick recap package of the Raw superstars debut on Smackdown


Flair is seen talking to HHH pepping him up for his match with Shelton

Commercial

We come back and it’s main event time. Triple H comes out first and his usual water spitting entrance.

HHH vs. Shelton Benjamin

Shelton comes out to new music and a new video and there’s the bell. Triple H starts to play mind games but Shelton is out-wrestling HHH using some amateur wrestling moves. Shelton using mind games now on HHH and the crowd loves it. HHH hammering Shelton and almost hits the Pedigree before Shelton escapes. HHH continues the mind games. Shelton gets some offense in and uses mind games on HHH. This match is good, very good. Shelton hits a nice spin kick for a 2 and a half count. Flair comes down and is cheering HHH, so HHH throws Shelton to the outside. Before Flair can put a hurting on Shelton out comes Benoit.

Commercial

We are back and see HHH in control of Shelton but Shelton is starting to fight back and is now in control of HHH. Now some nice back and forth action by both guys, HHH throws Shelton into the ring post shoulder first. HHH repeats it and then hits a nice neck breaker on Shelton. HHH now in control using his fists but Shelton trying to fight back, HHH hits a nice suplex followed by a knee drop. HHH still in control once again and now Shelton trading punches with HHH. Sleeper hold by HHH weakens Shelton to his knees before HHH goes into the buckle head first. Both men are down now, Shelton starting to get an advantage and gets a close two count. This match is the best in a while on Raw with both men getting lots of close falls. Both men are brawling on the outside as Shelton rolls HHH back in the ring and hits a flying clothesline for a very close 2 count. HHH rolls to his side and distracts the ref as Shelton crawls to a corner. Flair (behind the ref’s back) hits Shelton with a fist. Benoit sees this and walks around the ring and is going after Flair, HHH (in the ring) walks to the buckle and is yelling at Benoit to leave Flair alone so Shelton runs at HHH and squashes him in the buckle and rolls him up for the pin fall victory

Winner: Shelton Benjamin

The ref and Benoit are at the top of the ramp with Shelton raising his arms as HHH can’t believe he just got beat

End Show


Results

Nidia defeats Molly Holly via pin fall

Rhyno defeats Lance Storm via pin fall (very brief)

Ric Flair & Batista defeats HBK & Chris Benoit via DQ

Tajiri defeats Kane via count out

Shelton Benjamin defeats HHH via pin fall


Thoughts
First off what a great match to end Raw, that was the best match of 2004 on Raw. The Jericho / Trish segment was very funny (sophomoric, but funny) It seems that the Backlash card is filling up fast.

See you next week

Peter H.