Located in the shadow of what will eventually be the new Wembley Stadium, Wembley Arena played host to the RAW brands London stop off on the Live & Loaded tour on an unseasonably warm October evening. As this was my first visit to Wembley Arena I was pleased to discover that it is very well suited to a wrestling show being quite compact and giving all the crowd a good view of the action. Here is a rundown of the matches that took place.
National Anthem sung by Lilian Garcia and Introduction by Stacy Keibler
1. Rhyno & Tajiri def. The Hurricane & Rosey
2. Shelton Benjamin def. Val Venis
3. Maven & Nidia def. Chuck Palumbo & Molly
4. Kane vs. Gene Snitsky resulted in a No Contest
5. World Tag Team Championship: La Resistance (c) def. William Regal & Eugene w/Special Referee The Coach
6. Intercontinental Championship: Chris Jericho (c) def. Christian & Edge
7. Women�s Championship: Trish Stratus (c) def. Victoria
8. Randy Orton, Chris Benoit & Shawn Michaels def. Evolution (Batista, Ric Flair & Triple H)
The length of the show was just under 3 hours including an intermission between the World Tag Team Championship and the Intercontinental Championship matches. All of the matches were of a good quality with only the mixed tag team match featuring Maven & Nidia against Palumbo & Molly leaving the crowd a bit flat, and the ending to the Kane match leaving people slightly confused. The opening bout pitting the team of Rhyno & Tajiri against The Hurricane & Rosey got things started nicely and as is the case with house shows the crowd got to see things they might not usually see on TV. For example the performers in the opening match were given longer than they would have usually, they seemed more relaxed and there was a nice pace to the match, if a move went wrong it did not matter and there was a post-match embrace between all the participants which was good to see. Shelton Benjamin looked very energetic and competent in his outing, which must in-part be accredited to the more experienced Val Venis. The flames shooting up from Kane�s pyrotechnic entrance were a highlight of the evening, as was the tag team title match pitting Blackpool�s own William Regal & Eugene against La Resistance. Needless to say the crowd was fully behind England�s Regal, although it was Eugene who stole the show with his humorous antics helping to make the match the funniest and most entertaining of the evening. Unfortunately The Coach prevented the home-grown led team from winning with some highly biased refereeing. But Regal waved a St. Georges flag acquired from the audience and Eugene brought a child dressed up like him into the ring to leave the crowd happy. After a 15 minute intermission Chris Jericho made his explosive entrance to the biggest ovation of the evening thus far, louder than that of his popular opponent Edge, and the not so popular Christian, to defend his Intercontinental title, which he did by forcing �Captain Charisma� to tap out to the Walls of Jericho. After Trish had successfully defended the Women�s title against Victoria who performed an impressive standing Moon-Sault, it was time for the Main Event, a six man tag team bout pitting Chris Benoit, Shawn Michaels & Randy Orton against the Evolution team consisting of Ric Flair, Batista & Triple H. The legendary entrances of Ric Flair & HBK, with fireworks going off, had the crowd whipped up into a frenzied state before the match was even underway, but once it was the pyrotechnics did not stop there. Benoit seemed to do the bulk of the work for his team, with Batista being the recipient of the majority of the punishment, but all those involved managed to get in their signature moves with Flair coming of the top rope, HBK flying around, and Benoit suplexing anything within reach. Triple H managed to gain the majority of the animosity from the crowd with his posturing and flexing of his muscles, but in the end it was Orton who gained the victory for his side with an RKO on Batista. So the evening came to a close with the victorious trio having their hands raised in victory and the crowd going home happy.