Memories of the first RAW Roulette
LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Every time I come to Vegas, I think back to the first time I ever came here -- as a member of the WWE creative team in Oct. 2002, helping to produce the first-ever RAW Roulette.
I still remember flying in on Air McMahon the night before, seeing the lights of the strip from the plane and being absolutely mesmerized. I remember my face and the faces of several others plastered against the windows as we took in the beauty of the scene as we landed.
Anyhoo, here's some thoughts and memories from that first RAW Roulette show.
First off, the name "RAW Roulette" came from Good Ol' J.R. It was one week before the Vegas show, and we'd been referring to the show as a "Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal" concept, but we needed to brand it with something more WWEish. After we'd landed in Texas the previous week for RAW, we were on the plane when J.R. suggested the name to Vince, who loved it.
The main event of the show, you may remember, was a TLC Match with Kane and Hurricane defending the tag titles against three other teams. The plan called for Hurricane to be taken out before the match, but for Kane to single-handedly win the match for his team, giving him huge momentum going into his IC/World title unification match at No Mercy a few weeks later.
Keep in mind that this was when the thinking was to put the World Title on Kane at No Mercy -- which would have made him the only superstar ever to hold the World, IC and Tag Titles simultaneously. So he needed to be built strong.
The original plan for the match called for Triple H to be involved -- he was supposed to team with Chris Jericho as one of the teams in the bout. For whatever reason, Triple H was taken out of the match as a participant. (He did make an infamous appearance after the match, if you remember -- accusing Kane of being a murdered and killing a young woman named Katie Vick).
The RAW team was having a RAW-only meeting one day in the week before RAW Roulette, and I remember going down to the writer's room late in the day, where they ran by me the teams they had in mind. I don't remember what was said, but I do remember that it was a lot of random guys who hadn't teamed together before, which would have made following along extremely difficult.
I pitched an alternate idea: being that one member of each prior TLC team was currently on the RAW roster -- Bubba Ray Dudley, Jeff Hardy and Christian -- why not let them be "team captains" for the other three teams, and they could choose whatever partners they wanted to? That would at least give the match a little more logic and structure. The RAW team liked the idea, and said they'd even thought about it at one point too. I think it was my idea to put Christian with Chris Jericho, which turned out to be a long-running storyline for the company.
My personal favorite match from the show was the Triple H vs. D-Lo Brown Blindfold Match, just because I was such a mark for the Jake Roberts vs. Rick Martel match at WrestleMania VII.
Anyway, the main even turned out pretty well, though I still think doing matches like that on free TV -- especially with NO PROMOTION -- is a HUGE mistake. The point of wrestling is to make money by selling your biggest attractions, isn't it?
I remember Bubba Ray Dudley getting legit knocked out during the match -- if memory serves, he got a heck of a knock on his head. I also remember Triple H's confrontation at the end of the match when he dropped the Katie Vick thing -- to HHH's credit, he was even hesitant about doing it at first, as he didn't want that stupid angle to overshadow an incredible physical effort.
But still, for me, my favorite memory of that trip was that flight in, at night, seeing all those lights. Wow.
E-mail
Facebook
Digg
Delicious
Comments (14)
So why did Kane not get the World Title at No Mercy?
Do you not know the answer to that question already, Joe, or do you just want to hear it from a bona fide member of the creative staff from that era?
I never heard why Kane never got the title? Could someone tell me?
I never heard why Kane never got the title? Could someone tell me?
I'm curious to know what the justification was for keeping it on Triple H. And if it's because Trip decided to keep it, I'm curious to know what his reasons were.
jericho and christian were golden. i remember when they had ass-cream and they both said it was the others cream...funny shit
I am going to take a guess and say that Triple H fucked over Kane
Seth, are you the guy who wrote all those articles on WWE.com in like 2001 when everything started going down the tubes and the Hardys were being squashed by HHH and you wrote like "The Hardys get the rub by BEING IN THE SAME RING as HHH!"
Or did they just use your name?
I remember RAW Roulette. I know there have been at least three Roulette shows. The last one was fairly recent, since Maria helped Vince McMahon spin the wheel.
I believe the first one featured the cage match between Booker T and The Big Show, which was right after the NWO was dissolved.
The second one saw something very interesting - the first ever ladies cage match, between Lita and Victoria. The thing I remember most from that was that Victoria was a heel, but her tights came down and her thong was exposed - which led to the crowd cheering her. Shortly afterward, she became a face.
Come on we all know why Kane did not win. Just like why Jericho wasn't champ for 7 years, just why RVD wasn't champ for so long. However, I would like to hear it from creative.
You gotta tell more stories like this man....its been a while.
Sterling, are you accusing Kane of being out of the company for two years or a derilect pothead?
What I remember most about that TLC match was Jericho nearly dying from his ladder bump to the floor, as he came thisclose to hitting the steps.
This kinda stuff is your best work. You should definitely tell more stories from your experiences on the creative team. I want to hear backstage stories, pranks, angles, reasons for what was put on tv (like HHH's dominating the world title picture for so long). All that stuff that can't be heard anywhere else. You are THE MAN when it comes to that stuff.