Phillip Joiner attended last night’s WWE Raw television event in Atlanta, Georgia at Philips Arena and sent the following report.
1. The place was FULL. This was my fourth trip to see Raw at Philips, and I had a hard time eyeing an empty seat from where I was. The crowd was very engaged and there was a certain buzz – as a long time fan, it was interesting to hear fans around the building talk almost exclusively about the newer guys on both brands.
2. Enzo Amore is a certified star in the making. Besides Brock Lesnar (and at that point it took Paul Heyman and some riveting pyro to wake up an exhausted crowd), Enzo not only got the most enthusiastic response from the crowd, but the merchandise with his name on it (Certified G T shirts and hats) was flying off the tables and it wasn’t just kids. It’s clear that his stock is soaring. I suppose you can’t teach that.
3. The South is a different animal when it comes to smarks booing the “Vince guys” and Roman Reigns got a far better reaction than I’d expected, considering what I’d seen on television from hostile crowds over the last four months. The people here loved him. Very few boos from the adult males who typically go after him.
4. A lot of us were curious as to why Mark Henry didn’t get the U.S. Title – given that a) He’s the ideal guy not named Kurt Angle to be a WWE correspondent to the upcoming Olympics, and having the United States title around his waist would’ve been the perfect patriotic pairing for it b) do WWE stars (Rusev/Lana) not get a few days for a honeymoon?
5. Whatever was said in ring during Byron Saxton’s post squash interview with Nia Jax was not heard in the arena. There was very purposeful music playing over it. Not sure what made the broadcast, but we didn’t get to hear it.
6. If you get comp tickets from a radio station, beware. Your seats are NOT guaranteed. We saw a number of people – including kids – getting kicked out of their rightful seats for roving tv camera crews. We heard them say it too. “These are comps, they don’t entitle you to stay in these seats. Move.” Pretty unprofessional. I’ve been to 15-20 live tv events and that was a first.
Plus Dark match results:
1. John Cena, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns defeated Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, and AJ Styles in a six-man tag. There was no explanation as to why the Smackdown wrestlers, who were advertised, were appearing on a Raw event. They just went right to the match.
Credit: PW.net
