Okay I'm going to post my impressions of last nights Raw from a live perspective. I'll do it again when Raw returns to Toronto in 2018.
A few things to note before I got to my seat:
-They were selling the worst merch ever. One shitty D Bry shirt (not even the YES YES YES), a shitty, cheap looking Punk shirt, not even the really popular Cena shirt (the green one all the marks wear with the cap and wrist bands). No Rock shirts either. Just a real shitty selection.
-There were a TON of kids. Like a ton. The majority of people there were kids, I'd say. I've never seen so much Cena merch in my life. If you ever question the direction WWE goes sometimes, just show up to Raw. Christ.
Possibly the worst part (or cringe worthy, at least) was trying to start chants. I'll get into that soon.
So I get into my seat just as Superstars is ending. 25 rows up, pretty good seats and a great view. Big E won his match and got a pretty good reaction. He's relatively over. Then the show started.
Edge/Bryan/HHH
Do kids remember who Edge is? Because he got a decent home crowd reaction, but I was expecting a much louder pop.
However, when Bryan came out... Jesus Christ. There is no doubt he is the number one guy in the company right now. Even the little Jimmies love him, although I had some Orton fanboys in front of me chanting NO when the rest of the stadium was chanting deafening YESes.
Orton had some fans but there were definitely more boos than cheers at this point, which is a good thing. Same with HHH. Christian coming out half dead got some mild boos, but most of the reactions came from the bickering between HHH/Edge. I kinda want to see that match now!
When HHH was talking, we started an ASSHOLE chant. I think Edge picked up on it in his promo, which was great. Anyways, as we started it up, I not only had to put up with little Jimmies giving me puppy dog eyes, but their parents giving me the DEATH STARE. I know I shouldn't chant profanities but it's so fun sometimes >_<
Kofi Kingston/Curtis Axel
NO HEAT for either of these guys. I don't understand why Axel is being booked like this going into the PPV match with Punk, and I don't think anyone really cares. CM Punk chants broke out halfway through the match, along with the first JBL and Randy Savage chants of the night.
Backstage Segments
Heyman slipping on water (?) got no reaction.
Booker/Big Show got boos and BORING chants. I think people don't want to see Big Baby Show at all. Just not entertaining. What exactly does Booker do? His lame speech was god awful.
Ziggler/Wyatt
Meanwhile, on another planet it would seem, these two were over as FUCK. Ziggler got a massive pop as his music hit and a ton of cheers. But when the lights went out and Wyatt came out, it may have been even louder. I'm not sure if that's because Wyatt is over or because kids + complete darkness = cheers. Anyway, hot match, crowd was way into it. In fact, there were dual "LETS GO ZIGGLER LETS GO WYATT" chants at some point... but I was sad Ziggler lost. Jobber status at this point =(
Doctor Segment
This was entertaining thanks to the crowd. E C DUB chants in full effect. Then Heyman started the heel promo and the boos started coming in. After he made fun of Canadian health care, a LOUD "FREE HEALTH CARE" chant broke out, which was awesome. When the doctor checked on Heyman, exposing his leg, I heard a number of cat calls, which was fucking hilarious. Did we ever see Heyman's leg before? lol
The kids (and parents) tried to start a WALRUS chant, which was quickly shot down by some dude a couple of rows behind me. He must have been drunk, as he was loud the entire night. Anyways, he says something along the lines of STOP CALLING HIM A WALRUS, PAUL HEYMAN IS A CREATIVE GENIUS AND A FUTURE HALL OF FAMER. Dude was hilarious, basically trolling the kids the entire night.
Punk comes out, and the pop is just as loud as Bryan's. These two are so far above everyone else at this point. It's really awesome. CM PUNK chants as he beats Asylum with a stick.
Piss break
God damn it's so true. As soon as that music hit, I'm pretty sure at least half of the male population in that stadium got up to take a piss or grab some beer, myself included. That washroom was PACKED. I heard AJ was good on commentary, though. Of course something the live crowd couldn't experience.
Del Rio/R Truth
Oh God. These guys lost the crowd, didn't they.
Though I'm 99% sure his entrance wasn't seen by the TV audience, R Truth got a pretty damn loud reaction from the crowd. Mostly high pitched. Apparently he raps when he comes to the ring? I haven't seen his entrance in years. Anyways, ALL the kids knew the words to this guy's rap. I don't get it.
Del Rio got no reaction when he came out, lol. So cold.
Anyways, the match started. And then we started the chants. LOUD chants, by the way. The entire crowd was into these chants way more than the match. Started with JBL, then transitioned to:
-JERRY JERRY JERRY
-MICHAEL COLE (weren't as loud as the others lol)
-JUSTIN ROBERTS
-UNDERTAKER
-RANDY SAVAGE (in case you missed my other post, there was an amazing Randy Savage cosplayer in the front row, and after the chants got decently loud, he would stand up and start posing. the building would EXPLODE at these points, legit loudest reaction besides Bryan and Punk)
Overall the crowd made this match fun.
Santino/Cesaro
Cesaro came out to a decent reaction. Coulter's promo got a ton of heat, as expected, and even a pretty loud MAPLE SYRUP chant. Lots of people got up to do the WE THE PEOPLE chant, until we were so rudely interrupted by Santino.
Santino got a HUGE return pop, the loudest besides Punk, Bryan and Savage. The crowd was hot for the match, as expected from a Cesaro match. That giant swing was fucking unbelievable, the crowd was quiet for the first couple of seconds but after 20 seconds and he's still going the crowd just went INSANE. After he finished, there was a super loud HOLY SHIT chant, which got me more puppy dog eyes from the little Jimmies, more death stares from the parents, and possibly best of all, a kid behind me yelled "STOP SWEARING!"
then cesaro lost. fuck me.
Miz/Sandow
Sandow got a pretty good reaction and the crowd was really into his promo. "I will not continue until I have complete silence!" Classic.
Miz, however, got an even louder reaction. I don't even. The kids in front of me fucking loved him.
Then Fandango came out, and Christ, it was like the night after Mania all over again. the ENTIRE place was doing the humming and the dance thing to his theme. It was really loud. He also got the entire house to say FAN DAN GO with him. Dude was super over... and I'm not sure why. lol.
Goldust/Orton
Orton came out to a chorus of boos. Sorry kids in front of me with giant RKO signs. I'm sure you guys heard some high pitched cheers on the TV, but all I heard was low pitched boos from where I was sitting.
Goldust came out to a huge pop. dude was super over the entire night. Lots of goldust and YOU STILL GOT IT chants throughout the match. Speaking of the match, it was really good. The crowd popped when Goldust set up the shattered dreams. That near fall was insane, possibly the loudest single moment of the night.
As I mentioned, I had two little Jimmy, Randy Orton marks yelling at Goldust. Some gems include "GOLDUST YOU SUCK", "OH MY GOD RKO RKO (when he's setting up his DDT)" and best of all "1 2 3 OH GOD NOOOOOOOO" when Goldust kicked out of something. Good for them, they're really into it. It was just amusing
That Steph promo after the match was pure evil. She's really great as a heel.
RVD/Ryback
Ricardo really sucks. Like seriously what is he doing. He's dragging RVD down by doing this intro shit. RVD INTRODUCES HIMSELF WITH THE FINGER THING. He's done the damn finger thing for 15 years. Why would they mess with that? When Ricardo finally shuts up. RVD got to do his standard intro on the turnbuckle, and the entire crowd was on their feet chanting ROB VAN DAM. Good stuff.
Ryback came out to a huge pop. Del Rio came out for some reason, and delivered a shitty promo. Crowd was silent. When he finally shut up, we erupted into a GOLDBERG chant. Ryback will never escape this chant, because it's fun as hell for audience members. The match was okay, finish was weird.
BRYAN/AMBROSE
Big Show smashed the fuck out of that CRT. The crowd popped.
So the shield came out RIGHT BESIDE where I was sitting. Pretty awesome. Unfortunately there were a ton of people crowding around the entrance way where they came out, so I couldn't get a very good shot of them. Nonetheless, it was exciting!
Ambrose got a very good reaction, of course Bryan got the biggest reaction of the night. Overall the match actually started off slow, and the crowd wasn't really into it. Big Show had to get off his ass a few times and start YES or DANIEL BRYAN chants, which effectively got the crowd on their feet and cheering. Eventually, it picked up with some awesome moves from Bryan. By the end, the crowd was chanting THIS IS AWESOME.
Overall a great match, and it was really satisfying to see Bryan standing tall at the end of the show. I also got to see the fucking busaiku live. AWESOME. I'm guessing the show went off the air with the crowd chanting YES, definitely the loudest YES chants of the night.
DARK MATCH: PUNK/AXEL/HEYMAN
Most of the people in the stadium had left after the main event, as I'm guessing lots of the kids there were up WAY passed their bed times. Good for me, as I was able to move way the fuck up to watch the dark match, probably 7 rows from the front.
Heyman sat crossed legged in the ring in reference to Punk's pipe bomb promo, and began to cut an anti-Canada promo. Punk interrupted to a huge pop, even though most of the people in the stadium had left. Obviously the people still there were the hardcores. It was a quick squash where Punk basically beat the crap out of Axel and chased Heyman up the ramp. Punk came back out and posed for the crowd to his music, and then shook hands with literally everyone in the front row. Definitely sent the crowd home happy.
All in all, I didn't think the show was that great. 3+ hours is waaaaaaaay toooooooooo fucking long... but of course, being there live pretty much negates all of that. It was a ton of fun to be back at an important wrestling show in Toronto. I had an awesome time with the Toronto crowd, even with all the little Jimmies! Hopefully it's not another 7 years til they come back for Raw. How about a PPV, Vince?
