Here is a report from Old School Raw:
Quick note to start, it was announced Raw would be coming back to Baltimore on April 1. The presale password for Ticketmaster is WWERAW.
Before Raw started, Cole and JBL had their introductions. JBL came out doing the Vince McMahon power walk.
Overall, the crowd seemed pretty energetic and into the show. I’ve read reports where the crowd sounded flat, and at times, it did (Curtis Axel vs. Big E Langston, Sin Cara vs. Del Rio), but for the most part the crowd was extremely receptive to the legends and the matches.Going back and watching a couple things off my DVR, the crowd was definitely louder in person than what came across TV (except for the couple of times mentioned before). I was seated in the far end of the arena in the 200’s, opposite the entryway, and it was hard to hear some of the bumps in the ring, which could have worked the other way in the crowd not coming through on television as well.
After Raw went off the air, C.M. Punk said a few things to put over Jake “The Snake” Roberts and thanked the crowd for coming out.
The dark match was a WWE World Heavyweight Title match between Randy Orton and John Cena. The match went longer than I expected and was much more than just a simple by-the-numbers dark match to send the crowd home. The crowd was almost as hot for that match as they were for Punk vs. Roman Reigns.
Demographically there were fewer kids and more “smart” fans in the crowd than the house show in Fairfax, Virginia the night before. Chants before the show seem to be divided between the younger fans chanting “YES!” and the older fans doing the Ric Flair “WOOO.”
