LIVE Notes from RAW!
I was at RAW this evening, and overall, I have to say it was a lackluster show live. However, there were some high points.
- Kerwin White cut a promo for Heat, and he came to the ring...IN A GOLFCART. WITH A GOLF BAG IN THE BACK. This ruled on so many levels. The crowd loved it (well, until he started heeling on the crowd). When he left, HE TOOK AN IRON AND TOOK A FEW PRACTICE SWINGS. I can't tell you how much this ruled live. And he had this Frank Sinatra pastiche that talked about soccer moms and such. The key word again is "ruled."
- The crowd was HOT HOT HOT for the HBK/Hogan face-off. HBK was certainly getting cheers, but he was doing his best to heel it up. Hogan of course got massive cheers, but there was certainly an anti-Hogan (and anti-Cena) contingent present. They were right next to me and thus loud, so I have no idea how strongly they come across on TV.
- And speaking of "anti" crowds, the reaction for Eugene was a complete 180 compared to the last time RAW was here (that was the Iron Man match, where Eugene returned after a couple of weeks off and kicked some righteous ass to the crowd's delight). Eugene was booed MERCILESSLY by the crowd, and Angle might as well have been a face (in all the times I've seen him here, he's still commanded respectable heel heat despite being the hometown guy).
- The crowd actually was into the Diva contest (I really didn't hear any boos), at least when they paraded out. It was short and sweet, and relatively inoffensive.
- Getting "Real American" so many times was tremendous live.
One of the security guys in the Edge/Matt segment was local IWC wrestler Glenn Spectre (dark hair with sideburns). Chris Hamrick (also a regular in IWC, btw) was another guard, which makes no sense since he wrestled on SD a few weeks ago and was ID'd. Are we not supposed to notice?
The dark main event was a decent 15 min match of Cena/Hogan/Batista vs Angle/HBK/JBL. It had some comedy spots (like when Angle cowered in the corner by grabbing JBL's legs right in front of his crotch, and JBL had this incredulous look on his face while HBK just kinda walked away), and it served to put the faces over and did a good job at that.
At one point, some idiots in the crowd were chanting "You screwed Bret" to people not even remotely involved in Montreal.
I think people started out more indifferent than anything to Cena' video, but people were certainly waiting for it to be over.
Biggest FACE pops (in my subjective order, but I'm betting most people will agree):
1) Batista (deafening)
2) Hogan
3) Cena
4) Angle
5) Hardy
Biggest HEEL heat:
1) Edge (his promo was well received by the crowd, IMO)
2) Bischoff
3) Eugene
4) HBK (mixed, but dammit he tried)
5) Y2J (mixed...he incited the crowd at times but still was cheered)
Again, a lot of the show wasn't up to snuff (the Heat matches were particularly yawnworthy), and I personally was only really looking forward to the HBK/Hogan stuff, Hardy/Edge stuff, and the dark main event, and that all delivered. So I feel like I got my money's worth, even if I've been to better shows.
- Kerwin White cut a promo for Heat, and he came to the ring...IN A GOLFCART. WITH A GOLF BAG IN THE BACK. This ruled on so many levels. The crowd loved it (well, until he started heeling on the crowd). When he left, HE TOOK AN IRON AND TOOK A FEW PRACTICE SWINGS. I can't tell you how much this ruled live. And he had this Frank Sinatra pastiche that talked about soccer moms and such. The key word again is "ruled."
- The crowd was HOT HOT HOT for the HBK/Hogan face-off. HBK was certainly getting cheers, but he was doing his best to heel it up. Hogan of course got massive cheers, but there was certainly an anti-Hogan (and anti-Cena) contingent present. They were right next to me and thus loud, so I have no idea how strongly they come across on TV.
- And speaking of "anti" crowds, the reaction for Eugene was a complete 180 compared to the last time RAW was here (that was the Iron Man match, where Eugene returned after a couple of weeks off and kicked some righteous ass to the crowd's delight). Eugene was booed MERCILESSLY by the crowd, and Angle might as well have been a face (in all the times I've seen him here, he's still commanded respectable heel heat despite being the hometown guy).
- The crowd actually was into the Diva contest (I really didn't hear any boos), at least when they paraded out. It was short and sweet, and relatively inoffensive.
- Getting "Real American" so many times was tremendous live.
One of the security guys in the Edge/Matt segment was local IWC wrestler Glenn Spectre (dark hair with sideburns). Chris Hamrick (also a regular in IWC, btw) was another guard, which makes no sense since he wrestled on SD a few weeks ago and was ID'd. Are we not supposed to notice?
The dark main event was a decent 15 min match of Cena/Hogan/Batista vs Angle/HBK/JBL. It had some comedy spots (like when Angle cowered in the corner by grabbing JBL's legs right in front of his crotch, and JBL had this incredulous look on his face while HBK just kinda walked away), and it served to put the faces over and did a good job at that.
At one point, some idiots in the crowd were chanting "You screwed Bret" to people not even remotely involved in Montreal.
I think people started out more indifferent than anything to Cena' video, but people were certainly waiting for it to be over.
Biggest FACE pops (in my subjective order, but I'm betting most people will agree):
1) Batista (deafening)
2) Hogan
3) Cena
4) Angle
5) Hardy
Biggest HEEL heat:
1) Edge (his promo was well received by the crowd, IMO)
2) Bischoff
3) Eugene
4) HBK (mixed, but dammit he tried)
5) Y2J (mixed...he incited the crowd at times but still was cheered)
Again, a lot of the show wasn't up to snuff (the Heat matches were particularly yawnworthy), and I personally was only really looking forward to the HBK/Hogan stuff, Hardy/Edge stuff, and the dark main event, and that all delivered. So I feel like I got my money's worth, even if I've been to better shows.
posted by Anonymous at 3:15 AM
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