[loopydate]

OCTOBER 11, 2004 - MONDAY NIGHT RAW

It seems like so long ago, but we're just one day removed from No Mercy, and the road to Survivor Series kicks off! WWE Chairman Eric Bischoff has stated that he will make an announcement about that PPV tonight. Plus, a massive tag main event has been set up pitting four members of the Elite against each other as John Cena teams with the WWE Champion The Rock to take on Chris Benoit and the World Champion Chris Jericho! And the four winners of last night's matches who are not already members of the Elite will face off in a fatal fourway match for membership!

But first, it's a triple threat match featuring three teams looking to work their way into contention in the tag division as Lance Storm and Tommy Dreamer take on Fred 'n' Tom and the team of Rob Conway and William Regal. The heels work over Fred Williams early, but then quick tags quickly work all the participants through. Eventually, the two guys named Thomas wind up in the ring together and Dreamer puts Howard away the Dreamer Driver for the win.

It's another triple threat next as A-Train hopes to get back on the winning track as he takes on Lance Cade and Johnny Stamboli. He does, putting Cade away with the Train Wreck.

Last week, we saw the debut of the monstrous Payne as he saved Big Show and Kane from an assault by their former stablemates Damien and Kane. Tonight, he takes on another member of the Natural Born Ministry, Chuck Palumbo. It's a solid brawl that ends with Payne picking up the submission hold by virtue of the Payne Killer.

As a result of last week's attack, Show and Kane are set to defend the WWE Tag Team Titles against Damien and Kane in our next contest. Decent match that gets a better reaction than any of these guys have had in weeks. As Kane prepares to chokeslam Damien, he's attcked by Mark Jindrak. Show tries to make the save but gets laid out by Shawn Stasiak. Jindrak hits Splash Mountain on Kane, and they go to work on their former partners.

Back from commercial, and the entire Natural Born Ministry has hit the ring, and they've incapacitated Show. With him out of the picture, they focus all of their intensity on Kane, beating him down brutally, leaving his immediate future in doubt.

As JR and Prazak talk about what just happened to Kane while introducing our next tag match as being for a shot at Kane and Show next week on RAW. It's the World's Greatest Tag Team against La Resistance. Good match between two pretty evenly-matched teams As Shelton Benjamin prepares to put Sylvan Grenier away during a spotfest clusterfuck at the end, Randy Orton blasts him with an RKO behind the ref's back. After the match, the trio of heels work over WGTT.

"I'm ba-ack!" The crowd erupts in a chorus of boos as WWE Chairman Eric Bischoff makes his way to the ring. He grabs the microphone and cuts a promo hyping the success of the Elite program and wishing luck to the quartet of superstars looking for a tenth spot tonight. He brags about No Mercy drawing the best buy rate in six months, just a sign of things to come under his regime. He then goes on to talk about Survivor Series, coming up in five weeks. Tonight and every show leading up to the Series, one new team will be announced. Just like last year, there will be four preliminary matches to determine who will participate in the main event, as well as a Divas match and a battle royal. But unlike last year, all the teams will consist of superstars from both RAW and SmackDown! He introduces the first team - the Jerichoholics! World Champion Chris Jericho comes to the ring with Chris Benoit, John Layfield, and the Metro Connection. They pose with Bischoff as we go to break. What a collection of talent!

Up next it's a tag team showcase with two members of the Elite, Brock Lesnar and Jeff Hardy, teaming up to take on Rhyno and a third Elite member, Rico! Exciting match that gets a great reaction until Rhyno puts Jeff away with the Gore! After the match, the heels get a measure of revenge and everybody looks like a million bucks.

And now for a play-in match for the Elite as United States Champion Rob Van Dam (who beat Benoit last night at No Mercy), Randy Orton (who beat Benjamin), Sean O'Haire (Train), and Tajiri (Cena) go all out in a fatal fourway! Tremendous match featuring a ton of high spots that ends with Tajiri putting RVD away with the Kick of Death for a spot.

In the rubber match following two great pay-per-view encounters, Eddie Guerrero and Christian go toe-to-toe tonight on RAW! The crowd loves this (97% reaction!) but Eddie's lax attitude leads to a match that fails to live up to expectations. Eventually, Christian slingshots Eddie facefirst into an exposed turnbuckle to allow him to pick up a rollup victory. Christian takes off at speed to avoid Eddie's wrath.

And now for our main event! Both world champions, plus two of the biggest stars in the Elite go at it live on RAW. Eventually, Benoit rolls through a Rock pin and grabs the tights to get the win. Canadian Violence celebrate the win until their rivals Rhyno and Rob Van Dam come out for a measure of revenge after months of frustration, blasting Benoit with a spike piledriver. Afterwards, they put him through a table and stand over him as RAW goes off the air.