Live Fan Report From Last Night’s WWE RAW Broadcast

Credit: Nick Aiello and Prowrestling.net

Baltimore loves Daniel Bryan, they had me thinking that it was going to be a great crowd night (more on that later). I was hoping to hear an actual promo from Bryan but Stephanie McMahon put an instant stop to those thoughts It felt like it took forever for Kane to appear. The crowd was very responsive to the Kane attack, we were all hoping for a Daniel Bryan comeback.

There was a decent amount of concern (at least in my section) when Kane went for the table spot. Things could have gone very wrong if that table broke. Luckily it stayed in one piece. Stephanie’s heat peaked when she was holding the title belts. That stretcher scene went on for far too long.

Bad News Barrett got a pretty good pop. The crowd definitely was into the”I’ve got some bad news” Sheamus got an even bigger pop but then a lot of fans immediately turned on him. It seemed like Bad News Barrett won the crowd chants between the fans. I pray they don’t try to turn him face and call him something like good news Barrett or Wonderful News Wade.

It might have been during the commercial break but Sheamus performed a top rope cross body to ring side. Pretty impressive for the big guy. This was match of the night, by far. Considering most of us expected Cesaro to walk away with the IC title tournament, Barrett winning was a shocker.

I brought my girlfriend to the show (her first time ever even watching a whole show). She was into everything thus far until the Bo Dallas video package. Apparently, she’s not a #Boliever. She turned to me after his vignette and said “other people think that’s dumb too, right?” This is the moment where WWE started to lose the crowd.

Seeing the Wyatt promo live took some of the fun out of it. They had to hustle to get on camera in time and it seemed out of character. I know that’s probably nit-picking, but it took away from their gimmick. A lot of people were singing but not as many as I would have expected. The promo itself was good and was exactly what it needed to be.

Los Matadores were over in their entrance. I think people just like to chant. We got up to see if there was any good merchandise, there really wasn’t (in my opinion) by the time we got back the match was over. The timing of the merchandise break was chosen by me. I said we’d to during a crap match.

My girlfriend asked me how I would know. When both teams made their entrance, she turned me and asked “this is going to be a crap match isn’t it?” Until someone tells me otherwise, I am going to assume she speaks for all casual fans. I’m happy to hear the crowd crapped on that match.

The Shield were in position pretty early. Everyone was standing up trying to see where they were. I can’t help but wonder if Triple H’s portion of the promo would have been longer if he had his voice. Batista had the most heat out of the three.

The Shield got a pretty decent pop, but their promo felt awkward. Ambrose asking if they looked humbled made me think of the iron sheik. And Rollins did a return of the king style promo (having 5 different ending points). The whole segment just kind of ended. I expected the Shield to try to take out the superstars guarding evolution or a backstage segment later but there was nothing. Disappointing.

The Adam Rose vignette is dumb. That is all.

Rybaxel came out to zero reaction. People just don’t care. The Usos got a mild reaction. Same goes for The Brotherhood. Goldust tried to get the crowd into the match but they just didn’t care. Cody possibly splitting intrigues me but I hope that they do something more substantial, because right now they are both lost in the shuffle.

There was an audible groan from the adults when Emma put on her cobra, but the kids still loved it. She can work, it’s sad to see her reduced to a bad dancing gimmick with Santino.

I couldn’t hear John Cena’s interview over the Lets go Cena/Cena sucks chants.The Cena sucks chants seemed louder here.

Cesaro got a much more mild reaction than I expected. I can’t tell if that’s because of the crowd or because Paul Heyman makes fans not want to cheer. “My client, Brock Lesnar…” is effective and hilarious.

During the commercial break, Paul Heyman went to each side of the ring and taunted the crowd in a Hulk Hogan like fashion with his “my client Brock Lesnar” line. Then he sat down in the ring and said he had a pipe bomb for us. That Brock Lesnar did what “another Paul Heyman guy couldn’t do” the previous year. The name CM Punk was not mentioned. Cesaro was in full support of the taunting. The crowd lost it when Heyman started mocking CM Punk.

RVD got a nice reaction but I chalk half that up to stopping Paul Heyman from continuing. RVD moved slow in this match. It was bad at some points. Maybe it was just due to his weekend “festivities” It’s funny to hear the crowd during Van Dam’s thumb pointing because half the people say “Rob Van Dam” while the other half says “R V D”.

I expected Swagger to get a bigger reaction when first appearing. The crowd was not pleased with RVD winning but they were happy they got to see the swing.

Aksana came out to her porn-like music, they really need to change that. The crowd proceeded to pop for Paige and then sit on their hands. The Rusev squash match was just there.

Cena came to more cheers than boos. The crowd was just burnt out. The Wyatt’s entrance is awesome live. The hard cut to light is pretty great in person. They told a good story in the Handicap match. Wyatt dancing with Cena got a pretty good laugh from the crowd. The five moves of doom woke everyone up, even if only for 30 seconds.

Cena and Bryan (earlier on) getting beat down makes both characters look like assholes. Would both of them have no one in the back who likes them enough to come help them out? The crowd likes to sing with Bray but I don’t think any of us knew the second verse.

After the show went off the air, the Shield came down to save Cena (which makes no sense) but it sent everyone home happy.

Raw will return to Baltimore on September 8th. Tickets are available with the special code BALTIMORE

Overall,a lackluster show. The first 45 minutes were good but besides that nothing too memorable. It might have been the worst show I’ve been to but I’ve been to some pretty great shows. WWE killed this crowd tonight. They came in ready to go and got fed up with weak stories. I’ll be watching closely next week to see if that trend continues.

100% DIRECT LINK (PHOTOS): Eva Marie Getting Ready For A Date! OMG!