20 YRS AGO – Keller’s WWE Raw Report (6/13/2005): Fallout from the draft with Triple H, Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Batista, plus Shelton vs. Hassan, Jericho & Cena vs. Christian & Tomko, Maven, Mabel, Kane, Steve Austin

The following report originally published 20 years ago this week here at PWTorch.com.

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WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW REPORT
JUNE 13, 2005
BINGHAMTON, N.Y.
REPORT BY WADE KELLER, EDITOR

-After the Raw opening, Steve Austin came out to his full ring entrance wearing a new “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Beer) t-shirt. There was a loud “Austin” chant. Austin said he first wanted to thank the fans for their greeting and making him feel at home. He said he was there to address a concern someone had about being treated unfairly. He said he would dish out some Stone Cold Justice in an unbiased fashion. Muhammad Hassan came out. When Hassan offered Austin a handshake, Austin said, “I see sand people.” He said he didn’t want to shake his “grubby little hand.” Austin told him to speak his peace. Hassan said he has never lost a match, and then played video footage to back his case. Austin said he had seen enough evidence and he concluded that Hassan is a piece of trash, but he has been wronged by the system, so he was granting him retribution – an IC Title match against Shelton Benjamin.

[Commercial Break]

–Q2–

1 — SHELTON BENJAMIN vs. MUHAMMAD HASSAN — IC Title match

Shelton was impressive early, as usual a step above the athleticism typical of WWE wrestlers these days. They had a big slugfest at 5:00. Shelton came out ahead and hit a clothesline and a backdrop followed by a running kneelift for a two count. Hassan ducked a Stinger Splash. Shelton caught himself in mid-air and landed with his feet on the second rope. Hassan, though, yanked him to the mat with a schoolboy pin attempt. He followed up with an elbow to the back of Shelton’s head and scored a near fall. Shelton came back with a springboard bulldog. Then Daivari attempted to interfere. Shelton took care of him quickly, but when he turned around to Hassan, Hassan nailed him with a low blow and then applied the Camel Clutch. Austin entered the ring and kicked Hassan in the head, then gave a Stunner to Daivari. He stomped Hassan in the corner a dozen times, gave him the finger, and then caught a beer. He ruled that Hassan was the winner via DQ and “still undefeated.” He mispronounced his name again. Hassan blocked a subsequent Stunner attempt. Shelton roundhouse kicked Hassan in the head. Austin then hit the Stunner, knocking Hassan out cold. Austin and Shelton celebrated with beers in opposite corners of the ring. Ross plugged the WWE show this Saturday in Dublin, Ireland at a 25,000 seat arena as the beer party continued.

WINNER: Hassan via DQ in 9:00.

STAR RATING: **1/4

-Ross plugged Cena & Jericho vs. Christian & Tyson Tomko and the second Smackdown-to-Raw lottery pick would be announced later.

[Commercial Break]

-Coach walked up to Eric Bischoff and wanted to apologize since he knew that his plan didn’t work out. Bischoff, selling the effects of the beating he took last night by rubbing his shoulder, said he didn’t want to hear anything more about ECW ever. The crowd chanted “ECW.” Chris Jericho walked into the room and asked if rumor he heard is true that Christian is the no. 1 contender for the WWE Title. Bischoff revealed that it is going to be Christian vs. Cena for the WWE Title at Vengeance. Jericho said maybe he can change his mind tonight before he makes it official. Bischoff said maybe then they’d have something to talk about. Talk about forecasting a wrestler turning on his partner. Hunter walked into the room. Jericho and Hunter had a “Seinfeld-Newman” type exchange. Hunter asked Bischoff if he had something to tell him, such as who the draft lottery pick is tonight. Bischoff said he couldn’t. Hunter said he heard a rumor that the wrestler who is jumping from Smackdown is going to be allowed to go to the ring and say whatever he wants to say about Batista to Batista. Bischoff said he was considering it. Hunter didn’t like that because it might affect his match against Batista. He said he intends to be an eleven time champion in 13 days after Vengeance and he didn’t want anything to get in his way. He said he worked too hard to let some second rate Smackdown wrestler screw up his plan. That made no sense. How exactly would a wrestler from Smackdown causing Batista some sort of distraction possibly be considered a negative by Hunter? Wouldn’t he want Batista’s mind to be otherwise occupied?

–Q3–

[Commercial Break]

-Chris Masters came out and upped the ante to $11,000 for anyone who could break his Masterlock. Sgt. Slaughter came out. Masters called him a WWE Hall of Famer, but also an “old man.” Sarge called him a maggot and asked him if he thinks he could break his Cobra Clutch. Sarge short-arm clotheslined Masters and then put him in the Cobra Clutch. Masters looked to be in trouble, but then grabbed the top rope to force a break, then low-blowed Sarge and put him in the Masterlock. Sarge put up a fight, but eventually passed out.

[Commercial Break]

–Q4–

-A long video recap aired on the Triple H-Batista feud hyping Hell in a Cell.

-Christian, with a sizzling ring outfit, made his way toward the entrance tunnel with Tomko, signifying the tag team main event was next.

[Commercial Break]

–Q5–

2 — CHRIS JERICHO & JOHN CENA vs. CHRISTIAN & TYSON TOMKO

Jericho went after Christian at the start. Christian tagged out to Tomko at 1:15. Jericho hit Tomko with a dropkick, then tagged in Cena. Cena got a huge pop as he went after Tomko. Cena clotheslined Tomko over the top rope to the floor, then pressed Christian into the air and threw him onto Tomko. Cena and Jericho celebrated in the ring as they cut to a commercial.

[Commercial Break]

Christian, of course, was on offense coming out of the break. Cena made a comeback at 6:00 and Jericho tagged himself in at 6:30. He hit Christian with a flying forearm. Christian managed to tag in Tomko. Ross pointed out that Jericho’s band Fozzy is the top selling band on the internet. Tomko took control with a big boot and then rammed Jericho back-first into the ring apron. Christian tagged in and retained control against Jericho. Tomko choked Jericho as the ref was distracted by Christian who was yapping with Cena. Tomko then tagged in. Jericho came back with an enzuigiri and managed to hot-tag Cena at 9:45. Cena hit Tomko with some very ugly clotheslines and then caught Christian coming off the top rope with a punch to the gut. Jericho knocked Christian out of the ring, then flattened Tomko and did the Five-Knuckle Shuffle and the FU for the win.

WINNERS: Cena & Jericho at 10:41.

STAR RATING: **1/2 — They really upped the intensity and pace of the action from what you’d normally expect, perhaps the first sign of the influence the ECW energy level has had on the WWE product. They seemed to working 10 or 15 percent harder and faster than usual.

-As Cena celebrated, Jericho attacked Cena from behind with the title belt and then put Cena in the Walls of Jericho at ringside. Jericho eventually released the hold and took a long look at Cena’s title belt. Ross said Jericho made a hell of a point about wanting the title.

–Q6–

[Commercial Break]

-A video feature aired on the second WWE Raw Diva Search. They had clips of various candidates talking about how it was their dream job. Christy Hemme was shown telling the women it would be a roller coaster ride. Next week the finalists arrive on Raw.

-Jericho caught up to Bischoff backstage with wide-eyes asking if he has earned a WWE Title opportunity. Bischoff said he did earn a shot. Christian walked in and protested any chance. Bischoff said he was adding Jericho to the match so it’d be a three-way match. As soon as Jericho said he was happy with that, Cena jumped him and pounded away at him. WWE officials jumped in to pulled them apart. Lawler yelled, “I told you about John Cena’s temper.” They were shown brawling around two big travel crates that said “ECW” on them. Not sure if that was intentional or an oversight.

[Commercial Break]

–Q7–

3 — MAVEN vs. MABEL (Lilian. Garcia)

Lilian. walked to the ring with Mabel holding hands with a big smile on her face. Turns out “she did want it all along” after all. Maven clipped Mabel’s knee from behind to jump-start the match. Mabel mounted Maven from behind and rubbed himself against him. Lawler called that “Visc-agra.” Ross said Mabel and Lilian. had a good friendship blooming. Lawler said he thought it was more than that. Mabel won with his sitdown powerbomb.

WINNER: Mabel at 1:42.

STAR RATING: 1/4* — To think Maven was at one point considered to be a member of Evolution a year ago, and now he’s doing this.

-Ric Flair did his usual ass-kissing of Hunter for five seconds, then Hunter talked about the potential impact of the draft lottery.

-An ad aired for the encore presentations of ECW One Night Stand. They didn’t do much to promote it otherwise.

[Commercial Break]

4 — KANE vs. SYLVAIN GRENIER

Ross and Lawler talked about the three-way WWE Title match added to Vengeance. Kane won easily with three consecutive chokeslams.

WINNER: Kane at 2:38.

STAR RATING: 1/4* — Basic squash.

-Lita walked out onto the stage and said she had some things to tell Kane. She invited Gene Snitsky to join her on stage. Kane snarled. Gene grunted. Lita said she wanted to clear the air and set the record straight. She said, “I now know it wasn’t your fault. It was Kane’s. It was Kane who put me in danger. So I owe you a ton of gratitude. The thought of having some demon-spawned demon running around and a useless husband sulking. I really, really wanted to thank ya’. She began seductively playing with his beard. Then she kissed him romantically for a quick second. Snitsky said, “My pleasure!” Kane shook his head in disgust. Lita said she had another message for Kane. She then introduced “my fiance, Edge.” Edge walked out with that cocky strut. He kissed Lita’s forehead. She brushed against his belt buckle. Lita said live on Raw next week, they’re going to get married. Kane was fuming. Lita said she wanted Kane to be present along with the whole world. She stopped short of inviting Matt Hardy. She said it was a once in a lifetime moment. Edge pointed out he was wearing Kane’s “Fear the Monster” t-shirt. Edge said after they get married, they’re going to celebrate and “I’m going to show her the real one-eyed monster.” Edge picked Lita up and they made out.

-Backstage Flair and Hunter walked and chatted.

–Q8–

[Commercial Break]

-Triple H and Flair stood in center ring and ranted about the draft lottery. Then they asked the latest lottery pick to reveal himself. Kurt Angle walked out and circled Hunter inside the ring. Angle said, “I’m not just anybody, and your days of being number one here are over.” He got in Hunter’s face. “Because Kurt Angle is back on Raw, baby. Whooo!” That was a very bad whooo. Flair said, “Nobody says whoo around here but me.” Angle and Flair got in a battle of whoos. Flair began to take off his jacket. Hunter interrupted and said, “That’s enough. That’s gimmick infringement and you know it. Listen, calm down. Hold on. Let me be the first guy to congratulate you, Kurt. Seriously, congratulations. It’s about time you finally made it back to the big leagues. But you know, Kurt, that doesn’t change a thing. This is still my show. I’m about to become the World Heavyweight Champion once again. And that means I call the shots. Hunter made fun of Angle for getting beat up by Sharmell. Angle said he has a thing for people’s wives apparently. He added, “What happened with Michael Jackson today is nothing compared to what I got away with your wife behind your back.” Hunter said that’s no big deal because everybody made out with his ex-wife. That’s right. In the storyline world, Hunter and Steph are no longer married.

–Overrun–

The crowd chanted “Ba-ti-sta, Ba-ti-sta.” Angle said he is a real champion, an Olympic Gold Medalist, but he wants to prove he is the no. 1 man on Raw and the best in the business. He said he can’t make title matches, but he does want to have a match with the champ, so the day after Vengeance he wants Batista one-on-one on Raw. “And Batista, if you’re listening, you get in the ring with me and you’re gonna choke.” Hunter told Angle he can talk about Batista all he wants, then Batista’s music began and he jogged to the ring. Batista said after what happened on last night’s ECW PPV, he wouldn’t be talking about “choking.” Angle asked if Batista was scared to accept his challenge. Hunter said he taught Batista everything he knows, he’s not scared of him. He asked Angle why wait until after Vengeance, why not have a match next week on Raw. Batista said, “I see what you’re doing. Don’t do that. The bottom line is I’m not afraid of either of you. You want your match, next week you’ve got it.” Batista said once he’s done with Angle, he’ll see Hunter in the Cell.

Shawn Michaels’s music then played. He walked out in a suit and said Angle doesn’t have a dance partner for Vengeance next. He challenged Angle to a rematch at Vengeance. Angle asked, “You wanna lose to me two times in a row? You’re on!” Angle was going to take a shot at Michaels, but Michaels beat him to it. Angle knocked over Hunter. Hunter went after Michaels. Michaels and Hunter exchanged blows. Angle and Batista exchanged blows. Michaels superkicked Flair. Michaels then tackled Hunter. The show ended as Ross yelled, “All hell has broken loose in Binghamton.”