Ryan attended the WWE TLC event on Sunday in Boston, Massachusetts and sent the following report.
I hung out outside the arena and in the lobby for awhile before the show while as I waited for people I was meeting. I heard some “Woooooo”s, a few “Yes!” chants, but “New Day Rocks” was definitely the most prevalent among the crowd as they filed in.
Lilian Garcia came into the ring to announce that Smackdown would be in Boston on March 22 and gave some promotional code. She then introduced the Spanish announce team to polite applause. After a fairly long delay during which Lilian just stood in the ring, she introduced Michael Cole, who got the negative reception you’d expect, but played it off very good-naturedly. JBL was out next to big applause. Jerry Lawler followed, also to big applause.
I didn’t see all of the pre-show match because I went to get a Super Pretzel (I know, bad reporting, but I was hungry). I could hear the arena as Sasha Banks entered though, and it got a big cheer as it always does in Boston. The heel tactics of Team BAD got some heat during the match, but there was still a good pop when Banks won.
There were more chants of “New Day Rocks” right before the show because they were obviously setting up for the Tag Team Title match. If you’ve never been to a televised show live, be prepared for the pyro being a lot louder than it seems on TV. I was on the other side of the arena and I jumped a few times during the night, including during the opening pyro.
New Day came out to a big pop. Xavier Woods taking a shot at Boston did very little to dissuade the crowd from cheering them. All three teams had some good support during the match, but New Day had the most. There were two small “This is Awesome” chants the first half of the match. The Salida del Sol through the ladder got a monster reaction and led to a third, and much louder, “This is Awesome.” Predictably, Kofi grabbing the belts got a good reaction.
Rusev and Ryback drew very little interest from the crowd, save for one or two small “Feed Me More” chants. There was a small “Let’s Go Patriots” chant during the match, which probably isn’t what WWE is hoping for.
Funny moment as they cut backstage to Dean Ambrose, which got a cheer. That quickly transitioned into boos though once the camera panned to Roman Reigns next to him.
Alberto Del Rio and Jack Swagger drew a little bit of interest, but not a ton. Swagger did manage to get some “We the People” out of the crowd. The crowd perked up for the ending sequence with the chair work by Del Rio in the corner. For a minute it looked like Swagger may be hurt because the ref seemed to be gesturing backstage, but he ended up leaving on his own.
Both teams in the Table Elimination match got a good reaction. Sizable “E-C-Dub” chant after the faces entered. I couldn’t tell what happened with the first table that broke but wasn’t an elimination, and there seemed to be some confusion in the crowd. After Erick Rowan got eliminated, he rolled and then crawled backstage, which was kind of odd. The match progressed to good reaction. The lighter fluid tease definitely got the crowd going until it was squashed a moment later.
Kevin Owens entered to a decent pop, although he definitely squelched that with his expert heel promo. He also got a decent laugh with his popcorn and soda line. Ambrose entered to lots of cheers. The crowd was definitely more into this match than anything since the opener. Ambrose’s win got by far the biggest and most sustained reaction of the evening. The cheers kept going until his music stopped and they prepared for the next segment. A really cool moment for everyone in the arena.
WWE did a good job of turning the crowd against Charlotte and Ric Flair. They definitely got a ton of heat for their tactics during the match.
Both Sheamus and Roman Reigns got negative reactions as they entered for the title match. Not sure if TV caught this, but after Reigns leaped the barrier, there was a guy right behind him giving double thumbs down. Early on, there was a fairly loud “We Want Cena! Cena Sucks!” battle. As the match progressed, Reigns started to get a bit of a backing from some of the crowd. He got a bit more of a backing once the League of Nations involved themselves. A good number of people left as soon as Sheamus grabbed the belt, even though it was only 10:46. Reigns’ beatdown of the League of Nations didn’t get much reaction, but his destruction of Triple H got big pops and eventually a large “Thank You Roman” chant.
After they went off air, Triple H was stretchered to the back. I would assume we will see that video on Raw.
