Post RAW Notes
Great to have RAW back in town, especially a “go-home” show to a PPV! The top area of the camera side was blocked off. I was a few rows up from dead center ring. I had the “Y2-Loser!” and “Dolph Zittler” signs (well my kid and his friend had them). It was a great turnout overall. San Diego, Cali loves our "wrasslin"!
RAW Super Show
Opening Segment – Fun segment, that almost went too long. Crowd was disappointed when Punk said they weren’t going to fight. Crowd loved Truth’s bit.
Match 1 – Chris Jericho vs. Kofi Kingston
Crowd was REALLY into Y2J chants. They are going to have a hard time keeping Jericho a heel for long. The match was good back and forth. Crowd was pretty up for this one. When Jericho hit the Walls of Jericho, the crowd really popped! End saw Y2J hit the Codebreaker for the clean win. Again, a decent pop for Jericho?
Match 2 – Big Show vs. Randy Orton
Crowd really wasn’t into the match as much as I thought they would? Somewhat sloppy match. Orton botched an RKO to Show. You could easily see Orton tell Show that “he botched it” and the crowd started a chant of “you botched it” (we don’t miss a thing-LOL). So they maneuvered around with a few punches and Randy hit it correctly the next time. Bryan’s interference wasn’t a shock, and he got some decent heat for it. Audience wanted some additional interference from someone like Wade Barrett.
HBK Segment – Man did it get LOUD in the arena when Shawn’s music hit. Great segment. One of the loudest boos all night was when HHH turned his back on HBK and walked away, then walked up the ramp.
Match 3 – Dolph Ziggler vs R-Truth
Quick match. Truth is back to the “what’s up” back and forth. Crowd popped big time for the Truth upset win!
Match 4 – Tamina Snuka vs Brie Bella
Ummm… Gotta say that the Glamazon looks damn good in-person! Kind of a botched “Superfly” landing on Brie by Tamina. It was snack or bathroom break time for most of the audience.
Cena Backstage segment – Got AMAZING heat when he and Eve kissed. Plain and simple. Eve got MAJOR heat when she said the “I just want to be friends” to Zack. You could hear every guy booing to that. Thank God that has never happened to me!
Match 5 – Miz vs CM Punk
Some good heat for Miz still. But if he is in the “doghouse” then you wouldn’t know it from having a match with Punk. I would think you would have him fight someone on the lower card ranks and lose? Decent match and good crowd reaction with the Punk victory.
2nd Cena Segment – Short of putting Ryder in a full body cast, not much else they can do to him? Broke his body, and his heart in one show! The “Evil Kenivel” wheelchair off the stage was epic! Had a few OMG’s from the audience. Zack didn’t land right and could have done some actual damage to his leg? Eve came out to major heat as well. No one in the audience is liking Cena at this point. We really thought he'd do a full turn and deck Ryder, but it didn’t happen. We loved the tease though.
Non-Televised Match – Dolph vs CM Punk
Great action for the end of the night. Pretty much what we have seen in previous matches. CM Punk had a lot of fun with the crowd. Huge pop for the GTS on Ziggler to end the match.
Top Cheers for
The Return of HBK
CM Punk
Zack Ryder
HHH (embracing HBK in the back)
Orton
Undertaker (until they realized it was just going to be the taped segment)
Loudest Boos
Cena! (Consistently)
Dolph Ziggler
HHH (When he walked he turned his back on HBK)
Vicki G (only when she tried to speak)
Eve (after kissing Cena)
The Miz
Like I said, Cena got the most boos and some of the loudest. Whenever they showed him or promos for WM28 the crowd would boos. No back and forth lets go cena/cena sucks tonight. And with him locking lips with Eve.
The other stand out was how much the crowd was into Chris Jericho. There were a lot of Y2J chants and I am not sure how they are going to change the audiences mind? If anyone can do that, it’s Jericho.
Knowing this was the “go-home”show for the EC PPV, we hoped there would be some more interference and maybe a giant run-in from all of the participants in the Chamber match. Didn’t matter in the end, because it was a strong show and everyone had a good time!