My first WWE event

[IA-SteveB]

I went to a WWE Live event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa last night and it was my first event. I have to say that I was really excited after picking up wrestling again a couple of years ago. My eight year old son and I were counting the days until we got to go for sure. The venue is fairly smallish since, well it is Iowa. The entrance stage was pretty small and it was about 1/3 the length of what we see on television. They didn't have the huge RAW/Smackdown screens, but it was pretty well done with well placed screens in the arena and a fairly large LED panel at the entrance.

Now, a cursory review of what I saw.

The fans were really fun before the event started. I saw a ton of people walking around with replica belts, which was cool but I couldn't imagine lugging one around the whole time. Vendors were there and the shirts they were selling were a clue as to who would be there. We sat down about 45 minutes before the show and the crowd was pretty interactive. Plenty of YES YES YES, NO NO NO and Flair Woooooooos.

The matches:

Sin Cara d. Cody Rhoades
This was a fun match and we were just in awe seeing these guys in person. Sin Cara was WAY over with the crowd there, including us. Cody did a great job of making the crowd not like him and it really added to Sin Cara's capturing the crowd.

AJ d. Kaitlyn
I liked this match, but it was just like all of their others. I was surprised at how little noise these divas make when they hit the mat. Every time AJ took a hit and fell, it was like a puff of cotton hitting a feathery pillow. People were into Langston because he was a football player at the nearby university.

Khali d. Sandow
This was a great match. Khali is so freaking huge! Sandow got the crowd against him by announcing that nothing important ever happens in Iowa and the crowd hated his SILENCE rants.

Orton d. Wade Barrett
The crowd went crazy on this one and were WAAAYYYY on the Orton side. Wade spent a good deal of time mocking Orton's poses and the crowd was definitely on Orton's side in this exciting match. After winning, Orton went around the ringside and greeted all of the fans, smiling big and really enjoying it. He spent a good ten minutes with the fans before the next match was started. I really liked seeing him do that.

Cesaro d. Gabriel
Very boring match. Zeb thought he was in Kansas and this really ticked off the crowd. Constant chants of "this is boring"

Usos d. 3mb
This was a fun match all around. I do like Heath Slater because he is so good with the crowd. The crowd was definitely pro-Uso as the OOOOOO--SOOOO chants prevailed several times.

Del Rio d. Ziggler in crowd voted no disq
This was a great great match. Ziggler was very over with the crowd and he put on a well worked show. I actually got goosebumps when DelRio was announced by his personal announcer. Lots of great work with moves, sticks, tables, etc but the match ended when Ziggler was KO'd by a bucket swung by Rodriguez. The crowd didn't like Rodriguez that much because his pre-match mic work was bad. He was trying really hard to put down a small Iowa city but didn't really succeed. AJ wasn't out with Ziggler, but maybe I missed something in previous RAWS.

My final impression is that I was definitely wowed. It is a lot of fun to suspend your disbelief and just take it in for what it is ... entertainment! I will go again and my next one will be a larger RAW event that I will have to travel for.

 

[zigglerHEEL]

nice write up and glad you enjoyed your first show.... only question I have is you typed "Khali" and "great match" in the same sentence, not sure how that is possible..... Anyways i haven't been to a live event in years but I can't wait until my 2 and 3 year old boys are old enough to take to one!

 

[Captain Charisma]

Now I am surprised. How can Gabriel vs Cesaro can be bad

 

[Keith]

Now I am surprised. How can Gabriel vs Cesaro can be bad

Was thinking the same, at least it was something different unlike most of the card.

Glad you had fun, nice write up.

 

[IA-SteveB]

There were some good moves by Gabriel in the match, but there was way too much grappling and attempted submission holds. The crowd just wasn't into that match at all even though I felt Gabriel was entertaining with his moves. I normally like Cesaro, but he just didn't seem like he wanted to wrestle that night.

 

[Troy]

I always found that WWE house shows are really fun to go to even if you aren't enjoying the product that much at the moment. Because it is a house show they have so much more time for the actual matches and the midcard gets a lot more exposure. Great to hear that you enjoyed it and that you would go again. Not surprised to read that Sin Cara was still over, especially with children, even though he hasn't been used that much lately.

I was surprised to read that Ziggler was in a No DQ match that featured canes and tables. I thought that they would have protected him for a bit longer due to his concussion a couple of months back.

 

[Kiffy Lube]

There were some good moves by Gabriel in the match, but there was way too much grappling and attempted submission holds. The crowd just wasn't into that match at all even though I felt Gabriel was entertaining with his moves. I normally like Cesaro, but he just didn't seem like he wanted to wrestle that night.

What? How in the hell can Khali/Sandow be better than Gabriel/Cesaro? And don't give me crowd reaction because that would just tell me there was a lot of buffoons there.