Live Raw Fan Report: Off-Air Notes, Dark Matches & More

Thanks to Ryan Kennedy for sending in the following:

I was at the show on Monday night and just wanted to pass along some news and notes. It was a good crowd, not sold out but a good turnout considering it was a postponed show since New Orleans was originally advertised for a short time in the summer to have the live Smackdown SyFy debut in October. Many upper level sections were tarped off and a few upper level sections were halfway tarped. A lot of kids in full Cena gear.

Superstars Taping – Nice pop for CM Punk when he came out for commentary.

Zack Ryder vs Darren Young: Good heat for Zack Ryder but I don’t think a lot of people knew who Darren Young was or was even still employed.

Drew McIntyre vs Yoshi Tatsu – A lot of heat for Drew. I’m not sure how it will look on Thursday, but when Drew went for the first future shock DDT, he botched it and the I guess sound of it didn’t show up on the ring mic. So when he went for the second one, Drew shook his finger at the crowd, picked up Yoshi, and hit the DDT for the win.

Good pop for The King and a lot of boos for Cole when they came out to announce. There were a lot of promo videos for Tribute To The Troops, WWE week on USA next week, and the Knucklehead movie throughout the commercial breaks.

Many boos for David Arquette and I don’t know what voice he was trying to do tonight, but it sounded like he was drunk. The powerbomb spot through the table was cool to see live. During the commercial, they wheeled Arquette on a stretcher and Orton stayed in character just staring at him on the stretcher. Orton posed at the top of the ramp and they wheeled Arquette up the ramp and through a side exit on the stage.

The crowd went crazy for Cena during his segment with Barrett and his match. Good heat for Miz and Barrett.

Post-dark match main event: It was advertised as a Triple Threat match for the WWE title between Miz/Orton/Barrett but it was changed to a tag match between Miz/Barrett vs Cena/Orton. Miz and Barrett double-teamed Orton throughout the match with many failed attempts by Orton to make the tag to Cena. Once Cena was in, he cleaned house and the crowd went crazy. The finish saw Cena win with the Attitude Adjustment on Barrett to send the crowd home happy. Cena and Orton shake hands and pose on the turnbuckles a few times. Cena greets fans at ringside before heading to the back and Orton poses some more before heading to the back.

A funny story that happened tonight: For anyone that noticed and remembers, my friend and I were pretty much in camera view all night since our seats were the first two seats in the first row in the section after all the floor seats. Since hearing about the Hogan fan having to remove his Hogan gear at a recent RAW, I wore a Mr. Kennedy shirt to see if anyone would say anything to me. And my friend brought some old signs that he had from when Extreme Rules 2009 came through
here, mainly one that says “Jeff Harvey” (an inside joke on Jeff Hardy and Mike Adamle) and “It Ain’t 1996 Tommy” (an inside joke on Tommy Dreamer). We were able to get our signs on tv during the Superstars taping and roughly the first hour of RAW.

After the Miz/Mysterio match, a guy in a headset and wearing street clothes (no visible WWE credentials on him whatsoever) comes to our section and looks over the railing to see the signs. He asks us what the signs say and we show him all the signs we had (about three total). He told me along the lines of “I know you’re not doing it on purpose and I’m not going to take the sign away but can you not show the Jeff Hardy sign or the Tommy Dreamer sign since we do not
advertise TNA talent. Normally I would ask you to take your shirt off since it advertises TNA talent also but I’m not going to.” Surprisingly, he was very calm about it and didn’t take our signs. So for the rest of the show, we just held up our “Hypocrites” sign, our “Where’s Yoda?”, and our anti-Cena sign which was not taken away.

Most pops:
1. Cena
2. Orton
3. Big Show

Most boos:
1. Barrett
2. Miz
3. Cole

Thanks.
-Ryan Kennedy