Jeff Lindberg sent in this report from last night’s WWE RAW broadcast:
I was at Raw tonight. I just got home and started watching the show on my DVR. The first thing I noticed was how drowned out the crowd was. It was extremely noticeable when Vickie Guerrero came out with the “excuse me” routine before getting down to business. There was a lot of heat live, but it didn’t really come through on the TV. Her third excuse me on TV actually sounded like how the first two sounded live. Then I noticed in your report about the crowd being dead most of the night and figured I’d give you my perspective.
The crowd was hot for Undertaker, C.M. Punk, Randy Orton, and Sheamus’s entrance. Crickets could be heard during Big Show’s (although that’s been commonplace for years). Vickie may have gotten biggest heat of the night when she came out (but again, didn’t sound nearly as good on DVR). The crowd was into the Ryback vs. Cesaro match. The Dolph vs. Miz match the crowd got into. There was a strong “Let’s go Ziggler” chant (that my crew started), but that was ill-timed because it ended up being during the commercial break.
The crowd was on fire for The Rock. Buffalo seemed to be anti-Cena. I was in the minority of people cheering him tonight. The crowd wasn’t hot for two matches after Rock and Cena segment.
The one spot that I really noticed the crowd dead where it shouldn’t have been was during Triple H promo. He didn’t get nearly the reaction I would expect from a live crowd, especially after how great last week’s encounter was with Brock Lesnar. The crowd really got hyped for the New Age Outlaws. I think Road Dogg and Billy Gunn got more reaction than Hunter did.
The main event was strong. I didn’t really soak up live crowd buzz for that, as I was extremely tuned in on the match itself. A good match, but I felt they left a little on the table as far as match quality. Maybe it’s because Punk is just so much better than the other three in the ring and he did the least amount of in-ring work of the four. Taker showing up again after match was great.
Post show, The Shield’s triple power bomb of Big Show was scary. They had a tough time with him. Big Show was holding on for dear life to Reigns’ neck to help stay up. I almost didn’t think they could pull it off, but they made it work.
The dark match was usual business. One thing of note for me was John Cena was wearing an elbow pad on his right arm, which I can’t say I recall last time he wore one. I wonder if he suffered a minor injury last Monday, or maybe at a house show during last week.
I loved the show. Buffalo wasn’t the hottest crowd WWE’s seen in a long time, but we weren’t nearly as dead as it seemed to come through on TV. Maybe a sound problem on their part or acoustics of the arena…not really sure. We sounded much more alive than the broadcast gives us credit for.
Matt Teal sent in this report from last night’s WWE RAW broadcast:
There were a lot of Steve Austin and “What?” signs. Wishful thinking maybe? Also, the “what?” chants really need to end. Undertaker was mostly what people in line were talking about.
Seeing Undertaker live was something to behold. There was a great pop when he came out, but when the WrestleMania symbol came up behind him the roof blew off.
There was a nice setup for the four-way match to start the show. Everyone but Big Show got nice ovations. Randy Orton is still very over. I like how they are going about this with building C.M. Punk up again via earning this spot. When he mentioned The Streak, he really got some nuclear heat from the crowd.
Ryback vs. Cesaro: Boy, Cesaro made him look really good. Interesting to see Ryback play a lot to the crowd. Even doing the Hulk ear thing except he just looked like a guy with swimmer’s ear. The crowd didn’t seem to know what to make of it. A great moment with him and Mark Henry
Mark Henry vs. Zack Ryder: We are in New York, so Ryder got some love…well, that didn’t last long.
Miz with Ric Flair vs. Team Ziggler: Flair is still over. Seeing Flair and Ziggler out there at the same time really made me think about how they make sense together as opposed to Flair with Miz. I was in the upper bowl and could still see how good Dolph bumps. Ziggler losing to the Miz should make the smarks ecstatic.
The Rock and John Cena verbal exchange: Anyone else feel like this is the exchange we should have seen last year. They both looked strong. Good exchange. Rock got the loudest pop of night. In watching this closely, I feel like maybe Rock genuinely doesn’t like Cena, period.
I was taking a deep breath. It felt like WWE really went all out in first hour. I wondered what could top that. It was the best hour of Raw I’ve seen in months. One thing I like about this season is the slow methodical builds they seem to be making.
Jack Swagger: Boy is Swagger not over. I heard a strong DWI chant, which I did find hilarious. Having Alberto Del Rio attack in him backstage felt strange. If he’s a face now, why let Swagger beat up the “common man” Dusty Rhodes and the other legends only to get at him later.
Prime time Players vs. Team Hell No: Darren Young showed no signs of injury. I heard a strong “We want Virgil” chant, which got Ted DiBiase’s attention. Daniel Bryan is definitely over. Seriously What happened to Tensai?
Fandango vs. Kofi Kingston: I seriously thought Mr. Fandango had no chance. DOA. But this guy can cut a promo. He actually got heat. I expected an effeminate voice to come out when he started talking but this might actually work. Great move holding off on match. It got the crowd angry. I so expected this disaster of an idea to go over like a fart in a phone booth.
Triple H: Still pretty over. There is something to be said for someone with an established ring entrance.
The Shield promo was a nice tease. It had everyone in my section guessing about what they were going to do.
Alberto Del Rio vs. Wade Barrett: Way to get a world champion over by having him come out at the 2:15 mark. Even better to bring out no heat guy (Swagger) to bore the crowd. Del Rio is so smooth in ring, though. I really dislike secondary champs losing. Hey, they actually advertised a Del Rio vs. Ziggler match for Smackdown!
The New Age Outlaws vs. Primo and Epico: The Outlaws can still can go. Pretty big pop for them considering that this is historically a slow part of the show. It’s always interesting to put old acts who are obviously going to be one and one over on an established regular tag team. No lie, on the ride home to Rochester after the show I saw Primo and Epico at a rest stop Tim Horton’s still looking defeated. It is saying something when this week sucked more than most for them. That bar was pretty low to begin with.
Mae Young birthday cake: Oh lord Jesus it’s a fire! That cake lit up the whole arena.
Cool to see wrestlers interact. It seemed like a lot of the superstars genuinely seem to like Cena. Wrestlers seemed happy for Mae. The Punk interruption was brilliant. Not sure if his promo in the ring made it to air but man is he firing on all cylinders. We are talking nuclear heat. Orton once again got one of the bigger pops of night. Sheamus looked like he may have tweaked his knee during match. There were some great spots for everyone to look strong. The finish was well done. Everyone stopped running to the exits when they heard the gong hit again.
Biggest Pops
Taker and Rock (tie)
Cena
Orton
Sheamus
Random Notes
I didn’t mention the 3MB segment…did anyone even catch that I forgot it?
The Old School powder blue ring announcer getup got a laugh.
They said they sold out the arena and it looked that way live. I saw only a few random empty seats.
I know it’s my imagination but the Undertaker almost looks like he floats when he does that slow walk.
I kept thinking to myself after two hours that “I’m still really into this, where’s that lull that Jason and Wade talk about? 12 minutes later, I couldn’t find the energy to go much more than stand there like Jack Swagger did.
I saw Jack Swagger at the same rest stop as Primo. He appears to have bulked up a bit since his last run. Old man Dutch was hanging back in the rental car like a boss in the passenger seat waiting for him.
Dave M. sent in this report from last night’s WWE RAW broadcast:
The arena was packed…even the upper sections were not tarped off and seemed full. I would put attendance at 99.99% full.
Merchandise stands were packed and the line for your photo on a green screen with a WWE Superstar with you holding the belt for $20 had a lot of people forking over their money.
The old school look attention to detail was awesome. From the announce table, the old metal ring guards and entrance had that old school feel.
Superstars
Usos vs. Rhodes Scholars who reunited for the “old school theme”. Rhodes Scholars won.
Layla (loooong blonde hair= extensions) vs. Tamina was a great match with Tamika doing all the power moves but Layla getting a sloppy win.
Raw Notes
In Ryback’s match, when he was knocked out of the ring he hit his head head on the metal barricade really hard. He was loopy when he stood up. They rushed to fix the barricade when he moved away from it.
The Rock was way over with the crowd, When he came out he looked to the people sitting on the sides and behind the TitanTron and was shocked at how many people were there. He looked up to the upper/cheap seats and smiled. I have been to numerous concerts and sporting events at the arena and Rock received the loudest ovation that I can recall.
The crowd was not into Jack Swagger at all. People around me were heard saying “bathroom break time” Security took numerous signs that had Swagger DUI or variations. One guy behind me had “Swagger 4:20 I just had a DUI”. (security took it) There were also a lot of DUI chants.
What a waste of Dusty Rhodes and Sgt. Slaughter.
The Mae Young birthday tribute was too short. I noticed afterwards, the Divas were helping her to the back….that was a nice touch.
After Raw went off the air, The Shield (way over) attacked the Big Show and laid him out with the triple power bomb. This brought out Cena, Ryback and Sheamus for a six man match. Shield was disqualified for using the chair and then Cena and Ryback used their finishers.
Pops:
The Rock
Undertaker
Triple H
Cena
Flair
The “Why the hell are they here Silence”
Swagger (no one cared…crickets)
Fandango (no one cared…crickets)
Heat:
Punk
Cena
Rhodes’ mustache
I was at Raw tonight. I just got home and started watching the show on my DVR. The first thing I noticed was how drowned out the crowd was. It was extremely noticeable when Vickie Guerrero came out with the “excuse me” routine before getting down to business. There was a lot of heat live, but it didn’t really come through on the TV. Her third excuse me on TV actually sounded like how the first two sounded live. Then I noticed in your report about the crowd being dead most of the night and figured I’d give you my perspective.
The crowd was hot for Undertaker, C.M. Punk, Randy Orton, and Sheamus’s entrance. Crickets could be heard during Big Show’s (although that’s been commonplace for years). Vickie may have gotten biggest heat of the night when she came out (but again, didn’t sound nearly as good on DVR). The crowd was into the Ryback vs. Cesaro match. The Dolph vs. Miz match the crowd got into. There was a strong “Let’s go Ziggler” chant (that my crew started), but that was ill-timed because it ended up being during the commercial break.
The crowd was on fire for The Rock. Buffalo seemed to be anti-Cena. I was in the minority of people cheering him tonight. The crowd wasn’t hot for two matches after Rock and Cena segment.
The one spot that I really noticed the crowd dead where it shouldn’t have been was during Triple H promo. He didn’t get nearly the reaction I would expect from a live crowd, especially after how great last week’s encounter was with Brock Lesnar. The crowd really got hyped for the New Age Outlaws. I think Road Dogg and Billy Gunn got more reaction than Hunter did.
The main event was strong. I didn’t really soak up live crowd buzz for that, as I was extremely tuned in on the match itself. A good match, but I felt they left a little on the table as far as match quality. Maybe it’s because Punk is just so much better than the other three in the ring and he did the least amount of in-ring work of the four. Taker showing up again after match was great.
Post show, The Shield’s triple power bomb of Big Show was scary. They had a tough time with him. Big Show was holding on for dear life to Reigns’ neck to help stay up. I almost didn’t think they could pull it off, but they made it work.
The dark match was usual business. One thing of note for me was John Cena was wearing an elbow pad on his right arm, which I can’t say I recall last time he wore one. I wonder if he suffered a minor injury last Monday, or maybe at a house show during last week.
I loved the show. Buffalo wasn’t the hottest crowd WWE’s seen in a long time, but we weren’t nearly as dead as it seemed to come through on TV. Maybe a sound problem on their part or acoustics of the arena…not really sure. We sounded much more alive than the broadcast gives us credit for.
Matt Teal sent in this report from last night’s WWE RAW broadcast:
There were a lot of Steve Austin and “What?” signs. Wishful thinking maybe? Also, the “what?” chants really need to end. Undertaker was mostly what people in line were talking about.
Seeing Undertaker live was something to behold. There was a great pop when he came out, but when the WrestleMania symbol came up behind him the roof blew off.
There was a nice setup for the four-way match to start the show. Everyone but Big Show got nice ovations. Randy Orton is still very over. I like how they are going about this with building C.M. Punk up again via earning this spot. When he mentioned The Streak, he really got some nuclear heat from the crowd.
Ryback vs. Cesaro: Boy, Cesaro made him look really good. Interesting to see Ryback play a lot to the crowd. Even doing the Hulk ear thing except he just looked like a guy with swimmer’s ear. The crowd didn’t seem to know what to make of it. A great moment with him and Mark Henry
Mark Henry vs. Zack Ryder: We are in New York, so Ryder got some love…well, that didn’t last long.
Miz with Ric Flair vs. Team Ziggler: Flair is still over. Seeing Flair and Ziggler out there at the same time really made me think about how they make sense together as opposed to Flair with Miz. I was in the upper bowl and could still see how good Dolph bumps. Ziggler losing to the Miz should make the smarks ecstatic.
The Rock and John Cena verbal exchange: Anyone else feel like this is the exchange we should have seen last year. They both looked strong. Good exchange. Rock got the loudest pop of night. In watching this closely, I feel like maybe Rock genuinely doesn’t like Cena, period.
I was taking a deep breath. It felt like WWE really went all out in first hour. I wondered what could top that. It was the best hour of Raw I’ve seen in months. One thing I like about this season is the slow methodical builds they seem to be making.
Jack Swagger: Boy is Swagger not over. I heard a strong DWI chant, which I did find hilarious. Having Alberto Del Rio attack in him backstage felt strange. If he’s a face now, why let Swagger beat up the “common man” Dusty Rhodes and the other legends only to get at him later.
Prime time Players vs. Team Hell No: Darren Young showed no signs of injury. I heard a strong “We want Virgil” chant, which got Ted DiBiase’s attention. Daniel Bryan is definitely over. Seriously What happened to Tensai?
Fandango vs. Kofi Kingston: I seriously thought Mr. Fandango had no chance. DOA. But this guy can cut a promo. He actually got heat. I expected an effeminate voice to come out when he started talking but this might actually work. Great move holding off on match. It got the crowd angry. I so expected this disaster of an idea to go over like a fart in a phone booth.
Triple H: Still pretty over. There is something to be said for someone with an established ring entrance.
The Shield promo was a nice tease. It had everyone in my section guessing about what they were going to do.
Alberto Del Rio vs. Wade Barrett: Way to get a world champion over by having him come out at the 2:15 mark. Even better to bring out no heat guy (Swagger) to bore the crowd. Del Rio is so smooth in ring, though. I really dislike secondary champs losing. Hey, they actually advertised a Del Rio vs. Ziggler match for Smackdown!
The New Age Outlaws vs. Primo and Epico: The Outlaws can still can go. Pretty big pop for them considering that this is historically a slow part of the show. It’s always interesting to put old acts who are obviously going to be one and one over on an established regular tag team. No lie, on the ride home to Rochester after the show I saw Primo and Epico at a rest stop Tim Horton’s still looking defeated. It is saying something when this week sucked more than most for them. That bar was pretty low to begin with.
Mae Young birthday cake: Oh lord Jesus it’s a fire! That cake lit up the whole arena.
Cool to see wrestlers interact. It seemed like a lot of the superstars genuinely seem to like Cena. Wrestlers seemed happy for Mae. The Punk interruption was brilliant. Not sure if his promo in the ring made it to air but man is he firing on all cylinders. We are talking nuclear heat. Orton once again got one of the bigger pops of night. Sheamus looked like he may have tweaked his knee during match. There were some great spots for everyone to look strong. The finish was well done. Everyone stopped running to the exits when they heard the gong hit again.
Biggest Pops
Taker and Rock (tie)
Cena
Orton
Sheamus
Random Notes
I didn’t mention the 3MB segment…did anyone even catch that I forgot it?
The Old School powder blue ring announcer getup got a laugh.
They said they sold out the arena and it looked that way live. I saw only a few random empty seats.
I know it’s my imagination but the Undertaker almost looks like he floats when he does that slow walk.
I kept thinking to myself after two hours that “I’m still really into this, where’s that lull that Jason and Wade talk about? 12 minutes later, I couldn’t find the energy to go much more than stand there like Jack Swagger did.
I saw Jack Swagger at the same rest stop as Primo. He appears to have bulked up a bit since his last run. Old man Dutch was hanging back in the rental car like a boss in the passenger seat waiting for him.
Dave M. sent in this report from last night’s WWE RAW broadcast:
The arena was packed…even the upper sections were not tarped off and seemed full. I would put attendance at 99.99% full.
Merchandise stands were packed and the line for your photo on a green screen with a WWE Superstar with you holding the belt for $20 had a lot of people forking over their money.
The old school look attention to detail was awesome. From the announce table, the old metal ring guards and entrance had that old school feel.
Superstars
Usos vs. Rhodes Scholars who reunited for the “old school theme”. Rhodes Scholars won.
Layla (loooong blonde hair= extensions) vs. Tamina was a great match with Tamika doing all the power moves but Layla getting a sloppy win.
Raw Notes
In Ryback’s match, when he was knocked out of the ring he hit his head head on the metal barricade really hard. He was loopy when he stood up. They rushed to fix the barricade when he moved away from it.
The Rock was way over with the crowd, When he came out he looked to the people sitting on the sides and behind the TitanTron and was shocked at how many people were there. He looked up to the upper/cheap seats and smiled. I have been to numerous concerts and sporting events at the arena and Rock received the loudest ovation that I can recall.
The crowd was not into Jack Swagger at all. People around me were heard saying “bathroom break time” Security took numerous signs that had Swagger DUI or variations. One guy behind me had “Swagger 4:20 I just had a DUI”. (security took it) There were also a lot of DUI chants.
What a waste of Dusty Rhodes and Sgt. Slaughter.
The Mae Young birthday tribute was too short. I noticed afterwards, the Divas were helping her to the back….that was a nice touch.
After Raw went off the air, The Shield (way over) attacked the Big Show and laid him out with the triple power bomb. This brought out Cena, Ryback and Sheamus for a six man match. Shield was disqualified for using the chair and then Cena and Ryback used their finishers.
Pops:
The Rock
Undertaker
Triple H
Cena
Flair
The “Why the hell are they here Silence”
Swagger (no one cared…crickets)
Fandango (no one cared…crickets)
Heat:
Punk
Cena
Rhodes’ mustache
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