Landon Arena
Topeka, Kansas
October 25, 2002
The superstars of Raw invaded Topeka, Kansas for a Friday night house show. After the God awful Raws the past two weeks, fans could breathe easier knowing the tasteless skits wouldn't be on house shows....right? Anyway we got some ex-WCW guys in Johnny Stamboli and Mark Jindrak take on ECW alumnists Justin Credible and Steven Richards. Deacon Bautista has been rebranded simply Batista and he takes on Redd Dogg, another OVW guy looking for a break. ECW aluminst Tommy Dreamer takes on Rico of 3 Minute Warning and more WCW alumni Lance Storm and William Regal take on ECW star Spike Dudley and WCW guy The Hurricane. Test takes on Rob Van Dam, D-Lo Brown goes one on one with Raven and the tri-main event has the titles on the line. Women's champion Trish Stratus takes on Molly Holly with Jacqueline in Trish's corner and Victoria in Molly's corner. The tag straps are on the line with Chris Jericho and Christian taking on the makeshift team of Jeff Hardy and Bubba Ray Dudley. Finally, World Heavyweight Champion Triple H defends the title against Kane in the main event. Let's get to it.
Match 1
Mark Jindrak and Johnny Stamboli vs Justin Credible and Steven Richards
WWE wanted to take a look at Jindrak and Stamboli, the ex-WCW guys and they put them against the ECW guys in Credible and Richards. Probably due to seniority, Credible and Richards won the match.
Winners: Credible and Richards by pinfall
Match 2
Redd Dogg vs Batista
OVW alumni Batista takes on another OVW guy in Redd Dogg. Batista was transitioning from Deacon Bautista to simply, Batista. They had BIG plans for Batista and he beats Redd Dogg here.
Winner: Batista
Match 3
Tommy Dreamer vs Rico
This entire house show is basically OVW, ECW and WCW guys as Rico takes on Dreamer here. Shockingly, Rico got the duke.
Winner: Rico
Match 4
Lance Storm and William Regal vs Spike Dudley and The Hurricane
And once again we got ECW and WCW guys with the remnants of The Unamericans taking on the motley crew of Spike and Hurricane. Apparently the babyfaces were victorious after Spike hit the Acid Drop on Storm.
Winners: Dudley and Hurricane by pinfall
Match 5
Raven vs D-Lo Brown
Believe it or not, D-Lo was about to be brought back on mainstream TV for a push and he needed a few wins on the house show circuit to be taken seriously again. Raven was wrestling out his contract and Brown got the victory.
Winner: D-Lo Brown
Match 6
Molly Holly (with Victoria) vs Trish Stratus (with Jacqueline) for the WWE Women's Championship
Molly gets the title shot but has the insane Victoria in her corner, but Trish has backup of her own in the form of Jacqueline. Trish won the match....hooray!
Winner: Stratus (still WWE Women's champion)
Match 7
Jeff Hardy and Bubba Ray Dudley vs Christian and Chris Jericho for the World Tag Team Championships
We got 1/3 of TLC with Hardy, Bubba and Christian so this must have been an interesting matchup. Jericho pinned Jeff with the lionsault to retain the titles.
Winners: Christian and Jericho by pinfall (still World Tag Team Champions)
Match 8
Test vs Rob Van Dam
If it wasn't for Brock Lesnar, this would have been the King of The Ring Finals. Kind of a random match but RVD takes it with the 5 Star Frog Splash.
Winner: Van Dam by pinfall
Match 9
Kane vs Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship
Raw on Monday raked the eyes of all the fans that watched it with the god awful Katie Vick garbage and it continued with Kane getting another title shot in Topeka. Apparently this match was full of mayhem. Kane went nuts with a steel chair on Triple H, the refs and some of the boys before HHH made his getaway. Why couldn't they just do that on Raw instead of the god awful storyline? Ah well, HHH retains.
Winner: Triple H by disqualification (still World Heavyweight Champion)
House shows were known for featuring guys that weren't on television as either a sub or for a tryout. Guys like Redd Dogg, Jindrak and Stamboli hadn't been on TV yet while they were grooming D-Lo and Batista for future roles. Like I said, most of the time the terrible storylines on television didn't carry over to house shows and watching Kane take a steel chair to a bunch of hapless referees would have been far more entertaining than what HHH did on Monday. Still, if you can get past the crap, matches featuring Chris Jericho, Christian, Lance Storm and Rob Van Dam at least on paper look good. Unfortunately this show has been lost to time, too bad there weren't smart phones back then. Now this show was Raw's midwest outing, the soliders on Smackdown had a show on this night in Belfast, Ireland as apart of their European tour. Once again Vince McMahon splitting up the rosters allowed him to promote two shows a night.....and people wonder why so many people died young or got burnt out. I'll see you in Belfast for the Smackdown show.
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