I was lucky enough to attend the May 5, 2003 episode of RAW in Halifax..

The crowd was hot, the action was not, they screwed all the Canadians, the HHH/Nash brawl killed the crowd, the Austin/Goldberg segment made them horny ----- Howard Finkle has the best job ever!

My seats sucked, my back was against the wall and I couldnt see the big screen cause there was an overhang in front of me.. We had big monitors right in front of us though..

As the fans filed into the building, they kept themselves occupied by shouting WHHOOOOOOOOO back and forth. At one point it was so loud it rivaled the biggest pops of the night.. Shows up hot the crowd was..

Before the show, Lilian sang the national anthem and was interrupted by a La Resistance video package - inciting massive "ASSHOLE" chants.. They missed a crazy opportunity because Halifax is home of CIDITAL HILL, was was a Fort built to guard the port from the invading FRANCE like a bunch of years ago.. They could have done a cool vignette there but no such luck.. La Resistance's debut match was a stinker.. I hope it was just a case of the gitters..

The dark match saw one of my local heros Mike Hughes take on another local guy who was unknown to me.. Chris Jericho beat Hurricane, Victoria beat Jacky and Chris Nowinski beat another local guy..

Jerry Lawler got one of the biggest reactions of the night when he first came out, Chris Jericho got major pops, Vince & Stephanie both came out during commerical breaks to promote tomorrow night's Smackdown! in the same building, which still had cheap seats available.. The crowd absolutely hated Three Minute Warning, which is the general consensus accross the globe, I think..

The opening segment was mixed, as most opening segments are, because they're setting up for the entire show.. There was a huge ovation when Steve Austin pulled the Intercontinental title out of the briefcase.. I suspect Stephanie will counter with the United States or European title tomorrow night.. There was a strange lull for about 5 minutes until I realized that they were just stalling because of commercials.. And of course, major "JERRY! JERRY!" chants when Lawler voluteered to fight for JR..

The whole thing with Coach got over huge, poor Coach.. He took about 95% of the commecial break to get up and out of the ring, with help from WWE officials.. Coach may have been shaken up legit, or selling realy well.. But with Morely gone, could we see a heel Coach as Bischoff's assistant?

The pyro was insane, I almost had a heart attack and we were as far away from it as we could get. I can't imagine the people in the back row on the floor..

No Ric flair, which pissed me off big time, but they made up with it by giving us a Jerry Lawler match.. Lawler was awesome! I never noticed how good his in-ring work (still) is!

The Canadians; Trish, Sean Morely, Test, Lance Storm, Christian & Jericho all got screwed, except Jericho did beat the Hurricane for HEAT.. Ya got to love Lance Storm though, he came out like a kid, waving that beautiful Canadian flag looking so happy and so amazingly proud.. Then he got squashed by Booker, God Bless Lance Storm.. After the Booker match went to commercial, The Book stayed in the ring and gave the live crowd a Spinerooni!

When Test & Stacy came out, Test got up on the ropes and the crowd cheered really loud.. Test looked very happy and proud to finally get a respectable pop, but he turned around and saw that the crowd was actually cheering for Stacy doing her straight-legged ring entrance showing her ass.. Test had a rejected look on his face!

When Triple H whacked Nash with the chair you cant faintly hear me on the tape screaming ONE MORE TIME.. I thought for sure Nash injured his leg again when he booted HHH in the face.. For a second, I thought he has a compound fracture (like Sid) but he didn't, he limped around after that though (9 months rehab?).. They chanted "Diesel Sucks!" during the brawl, and there was almost no other noticable reaction from the crowd during that segment..

Goldberg chants disgusted me and I tried my best to start a booing uproar.. They changed "Jazz has balls" during her match.. By the way, some people say the Teddy Long trip was a mistake, but it's my opinion that it was supposed to happen that way..

The beer bash was INSANE, the drinking and insanity went on for about 20 minutes after the show went off the air.. Austin was wasted, and Goldberg looked very woozy at times.. Bischoff came out and Austin offered him a beer and then stunned him in the middle of the beer drenched ring!.. Many questions coming out of this segment; What happened to Austin's probation? Does it not apply when he's outside of the country? And #2, why is Goldberg such a hipocrital SELL-OUT?

The night was entertaining and fun (my first TV Taping ever) and I'm glad I was in attendance for the show that might go down as the turning point of RAW's ratings slump..

Let the good times roll,
Brad Dykens