Off-Air Notes From RAW

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Doors were ready to open at 3:45 which was a bit surprising (for the West Coast shows, the call time here is 5:30), but the Arrowhead Pond personnel decided it’d be funny to tease letting us in from 3:45 until 4:45, so there they stood ready to open, but not actually doing it.

They’ve touched up the “Desire” video with Kid Rock’s song. It now has Randy Orton instead of Brock Lesnar, when they show shots of the champions. Also, Trish Stratus kissing Christian at WrestleMania, and Kane unmasking (just to name a few out of the many) have been added to the package.

WWE was handing WrestleMania 21 cards to everyone. You can pre-order tickets before they go on sale by going to http://www.wrestlemania.com/presale.html. I’m not sure if that piece of news has been made public or not.

Heat/Dark Matches:

For whatever reason, Todd Grisham took over for Coach as play-by-play. I thought they’d do an injury angle with Coach on RAW, but I don’t think the Rock beating would count at all. Al Snow got a good pop.

Rodney Mack w/ Jazz defeated Maven, after a roll-up that looked ugly since they were in the corner of the ring, and were both tangled into the ropes.

Chris Benoit (you read that right) defeated Tyson Tomko w/ Trish Stratus via submission, after six German suplexes, and a crossface.

Chuck Palumbo defeated a Jobber who was dubbed from “Anaheim, CA.”

Lillian Garcia was looking very hot. She did a tremendous job with the anthem, as usual.

A lot of people (and I mean a lot) came in late, but by the end of hour one, the Arrowhead Pond was pretty full.

Method Man is in attendance, and the “Wu Tang” chants began here.

Coach came out and jumped perfectly on the second rope of each corner to “salute” the crowd. He was great at his gimmick. He got very good heat.

About 50% of the crowd knew The Rock would be appearing on RAW. Those who had come very early (like myself), saw him arrive and salute the fans, and others found out from those who were there. The building went insane when his music hit.

La Resistance just laid there and left to the back once the segment was over, while Rock came back after leaving the ring with Rhyno and Tajiri, to salute the crowd (and Meth), then left again.

The Evolution segment was horrible, since nobody really was able to hear what they were saying. There was a large chorus of boos towards Triple H when he first popped on the screen.

Edge and Jericho didn’t really get over with the fans in my section, but the rest of the arena seemed to be into it. Jericho cut a promo during the second commercial break… well, sort of. To fill time, he got on the mic and he cut his “never, ever again” line while telling “Edgeword” that he’ll get an ass beating. NOBODY knew why Edge was disqualified until the repeat was shown on the Titantron. That had to be a horrible finish. Because of the confusion, Edge got a pop.

The people who booed Triple H, and dis him on the Internet week after week on the mark sites, brought the house down when his music hit with a chorus of cheers.

In the middle of Edge vs. Jericho, several security guards in my section (I was in a seat next to the stairway) were setting up for something. Obviously a run-in, or a “run-out” was to be done and we later found out it was for…

Orton walked out through the crowd and I believe I made it on TV there, since I was a foot away from him. He looks tremendous in person, but much shorter than he looks on TV! His acting skills are ones to praise, as he didn’t even care there was people touching him and screaming at him while he was holding that belt.

Eugene quickly stole the spotlight during the commercial break before the Regal/Flair match. He walked around the ring area, saluted friends, did TONS of comedy spots with Regal, walked out to J.R. and Lawler, tried on J.R.’s hat, then Lawler’s crown, walked back to the ring with Regal, got a sign that was cut in the form of a Pac Man, and chased Regal with it until Regal submitted to it. It was absolutely hilarious. He then hugged the referee, tapped Lillian, and hugged/saluted some members of the audience.

The HBK commercial spot got a huge chorus of boos, as everyone thought he’d be returning tonight. However, the pop at first was huge too, because we thought he was indeed in attendance.

The whole process of changing the ring for the wedding began. They moved very quick, and did a fantastic job timing-wise. This was all happening while shots of the arena, the backstage Lita segment, SmackDown Rebound, and Diva Search voting segment aired.

I saw this on TV, and I don’t know if it was the Pond’s bad sound issues, or WWE editing something LIVE (so doubtful, it’s impossible), but Kane got a HUGE laugh when he was shown backstage in his tux, walking down for the wedding. The video package they aired (which had no audio from the arena, of course) got big laughs as well. People actually seemed to enjoy the wedding at some parts, until the “What?” chants started.

The Midgets and the one actor WWE has hired who did a good job, came in before Kane.

That “Wall” (I guess that’s what you’d call it) of fire that Matt and Lita had in front of them, was being started while Matt jumped Kane. You could see a tiny flame coming out of the stage. At first we thought, something was on fire, until the tiny flames exploded.

Nothing of importance happened after the show went off the air. They wheeled Matt Hardy out on a stretcher, and Lillian thanked us for coming.

Overall, good show if you saw it Live, but probably horrible for most at home, since most of what went down wasn’t exactly good if you stop to think about it and ignore the fact you were there in person. The Rock is amazing, and he truly does seem to enjoy himself every time he does WWE.

Eddie
TheBalrogsLair.com

Credit: PWInsider.com