On this special Halloween edition of Monday Night RAW, the WWE Superstars pulled out all the tricks in an attempt to gain the upper hand on their Taboo Tuesday opposition.
Not even WWE Champion John Cena was immune from a dastardly Halloween trick. After tapping out to Kurt Angle’s ankle lock last week, Cena was put in a match against Shawn Michaels this week by General Manager Eric Bischoff. HBK, along with Big Show and Kane, are up for the final spot in the WWE Championship Triple Threat Match at Taboo Tuesday against Cena and Angle. So, this not only gave HBK a chance to soften up Cena before his match at Taboo Tuesday, it gave him another shot to leave a favorable impression on the voters’ minds heading into the event.
HBK controlled the match early on, but Cena
showed his trademark perseverance and fought back. HBK was able to stave off the
comeback. After a series of moves, Michaels went up top for his flying elbow.
Cena still had enough in him to move out of the way. Then, with both men still
down on the mat, Angle attacked. The Olympic gold medalist put the boots to both
Michaels and Cena, but he couldn’t keep them down. Cena recovered and got Angle
up for the FU, but before he could execute the maneuver, HBK got to his feet and
laid them both out with a dose of Sweet Chin Music. Could this be a sign of
things to come at Taboo Tuesday?
The tricks started early in the night, however. Bischoff came to the ring with Chris Masters in the beginning of the show, and they called out SmackDown’s Rey Mysterio to take part in the Master Lock Challenge. Before the challenge could start, though, Mysterio attacked Masters with the microphone and slammed him face-first onto a steel chair. Bischoff called for some RAW reinforcement as Edge, Lita, Snitsky, Trevor Murdoch, Lance Cade, Kerwin White and Nick Nemeth answered the call. Theodore Long, who had accompanied Mysterio to the ring, also called for reinforcements as Matt Hardy, Hardcore Holly, JBL and Christian ran through the Anaheim crowd and stormed the ring. Mysterio hit the 619 on Masters as the RAW troops retreated. Bischoff berated his RAW soldiers, Edge and Masters in particular, and said that he refuses to lose to Long and his SmackDown at Taboo Tuesday. Edge and Masters will face any two out of Mysterio, JBL, Christian, Holly and Hardy. You can vote on who you most want to see in the match now.
The Coach decided to get into
the Halloween spirit and came to RAW dressed up as Stone Cold Coachman.
Complete with a Stone Cold t-shirt, jean shorts, two black knee braces and a
couple of beers, he once again called out Stone Cold. He also said that he would
lay his cards out on the table and brought out his backup – Goldust. After the
bizarre one came out, Mr. McMahon informed Coach that Stone Cold had an accident
and won’t be at RAW or at Taboo Tuesday the following evening. McMahon said that
since Coach is the No. 1 announcer on RAW, his new opponent for Taboo Tuesday
would be SmackDown’s No. 1 announcer – Funaki. Funaki ran to
the ring, but Goldust made short work of him. Coach told McMahon that he can
handle anyone from the SmackDown roster, so with that, McMahon laid out an open
challenge to anyone on the SmackDown roster. It didn’t take long for someone to
answer, as the World Heavyweight
Champion Batista answered the
challenge. Batista laid out Goldust with a spinebuster, but then he was
blindsided by another surprise backup plan in Vader. Vader held Batista while
Coach laid in an insulting slap to the face before leaving the ring. So, at
Taboo Tuesday, it will be Jonathan
Coachman, with Vader and Goldust by his side, taking on World Heavyweight
Champion Batista in a verbal debate, an arm wrestling contest or a Street
Fight.
Also at Taboo Tuesday, Ric Flair will defend his Intercontinental Championship against his former best friend Triple H. A video package was shown on RAW documenting the long relationship between Flair and The Game. Following the package, Flair came out to the stage, and once again asked the fans to put him in a Steel Cage Match against Triple H.
Later in the evening Triple H faced off against the massive Viscera. Despite giving up a couple hundred pounds to Big Vis, Triple H made short work of the world’s largest love machine and put him away with the Pedigree. The Game showed his ruthlessness after the match when he knocked Viscera over the railing with the steel ring steps.
Eugene and Rob Conway also went at it in a one-on-one matchup. Eugene, who was scheduled to team up with a WWE Legend to take on Conway in a Handicap Match at Taboo Tuesday, went to work right from the bell. Irate that Conway had embarrassed some of his favorite legends over the past couple of weeks, Eugene tore into the Con man. Conway was frustrated by how the match was going and blasted Eugene with a steel chair causing a disqualification. The three legends who the fans can vote on – Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Superfly Jimmy Snuka and Kamala, made the save and got the best of Conway. Jerry “The King” Lawler even got in on the fun and hit his trademark fist drop off the second rope. Later on, Bischoff said that he had been waiting to get revenge on Eugene for last year’s Taboo Tuesday when his nephew defeated him in a Hair vs. Hair Match. And his revenge will be coming in the form of Tyson Tomko. At Taboo Tuesday, Tomko will team up with Conway to take on Eugene and the fans’ choice of either Duggan, Kamala or Snuka.
In addition to all of the tricks, the fans
also enjoyed some treats during the Diva Halloween Costume Contest. Ashley was
dressed as a dark angel, Maria was dressed as a Victoria’s
Secret angel, Candice was dressed as Cat
Woman, Victoria was dressed as a baseball player, Mickie James was dressed as Trish
Stratus, and Trish Stratus was dressed as Wonder Woman. Before the fans
could finish voicing their opinions on who should win the contest, Mickie James
interrupted and said that it was obvious they should choose Trish. Victoria told
Mickie she needed to calm down and before you could say “Trick or treat,” all
hell broke loose. Candice was quadruple-teamed by Ashley, Mickie, Trish and
Maria. These six participants will mix it up on pay-per-view in a Fulfill Your
Fantasy Battle Royal for the Woman’s Championship at Taboo Tuesday.
Carlito said he had a surprise for Mick Foley, so Foley came up with a surprise of his own. In a video message, Dude Love, Cactus Jack and Mankind all told Carlito what would happen if they were chosen to face him at Taboo Tuesday.
Big Show and Kane, who could end up teaming together at Taboo Tuesday as well, took on The Heart Throbs in a Texas Tornado Match. They tried outdoing each other move for move and eventually finished things off with a double chokeslam. Kurt Angle was also in action as he defeated Tajiri by making him tap out to the ankle lock.