Good fight, good night: WWE Stars battle it out on live broadcast from the BJC
By Brandon Linton and Mike Kulick (Collegian Staff Writers)
March 23, 2005
Spandex and testosterone were in abundance last night at the Bryce Jordan Center where World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) broadcast WWE RAW live on Spike TV.
The superstars of the WWE entertained a packed house of Penn State students and area residents of all ages for a little over three hours, with a night full of wall-pounding entrance music, spontaneous fireworks displays and a whole lot of attitude.
Before the actual RAW show went live, audience members stirred restlessly in their seats during an hour-long taping of Sunday Night Heat, which will air 7 p.m. this Sunday on Spike TV. The show features up-and-coming performers and couldn’t hold the audience’s attention past the entrance of each performer.
As soon as Heat wrapped up, Lilian Garcia strutted into the ring to begin the night of debauchery with a stirring rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” that would put American Idol contestants to shame.
As soon as RAW went live at 9 p.m., an extravagant fireworks display exploded in front of the huge screen that hung above the entryway leading to the ring, and audience members held up home-made signs either in support of or bashing various WWE superstars.
RAW kicked off with a triple-threat match that included the WWE women’s champion Trish Stratus, Victoria and Molly Holly. The sudden surge of estrogen was a welcoming sight to many in attendance, especially the men in the audience.
Stratus hair-pulled, dropkicked and elbowed her way to victory in the event, leaving the ring to a mostly cheering crowd.
The most exciting match that took place was a featured tag-team event that pitted the team of Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton against Edge and Christian.
The crowd’s energy was lifted immediately when all four wrestlers took turns standing on the ropes, pointing into the audience and pumping up the crowd for the drama to come. Many humorous things stood out, including wrestler Simon Dean, who ran into the ring decked out in bright purple spandex.
Dean had several choice words for the booing Penn State students in attendance, including a pointed comment at one of Penn State’s own: Joe Paterno.
“[Paterno] wanted me to sell him my Simon [exercise] System, but I had to turn him down because even I can’t work miracles for a 95-year-old fossil,” Dean said with a sneer.
Dean later faced famous superstar Chris Jericho, with the crowd cheering approvingly as Dean went down hard and without much of a fight to back up his loaded words.
Another interesting personality was Muhammad Hassan, an Arab American who screamed at the crowd that he was tired of being the “only victim of prejudice in America.”
The most anticipated moment of the evening was when Dave Batista, arguably WWE’s most popular superstar, decided to betray his Evolution teammates by attacking Triple H and Ric Flair.
He then signed the contract to face Triple H at WrestleMania 21 for the world championship.
With the combination of video footage, interviews and of course, wrestling, the WWE put together a perfect package of entertainment for fans of all ages.
