As always, Philly is a hot crowd for wrestling. The arena was sold out, or very near so because you could see the seats filled all the way up to the very last row in the nose bleed section. Although the crowd was hot, the reactions weren’t.
Steph opening was received with a flat response. The crowd cheered initially because of who it was but there was disinterest while she was talking. Roman Reigns is just simply hated in Philly. Not sure how it came off on TV but nobody cared about anything he said and the boos were overwhelmingly loud.
Decent pop for Kevin Owens and AJ. Nice pop for KO hitting the frog splash and he also hit one on the outside as well. Not sure if it was shown on TV but the first time AJ was on the floor and almost counted out he grabbed a fans hand to help him up. It was something out of the ordinary b The crowd seemed to be into the opening match but hated the finish when Jericho came out. The ending was anticlimactic.
League of Nations got the jobber entrance and to no reaction for any of them. New Day got a decent reaction but nowhere near what you see in other cities. The jokes they told fell flat. The match between Big E and Rusev was a match-it was there
Big Show segment was met with a lukewarm response-see a pattern yet? And the m nation of Andre was met with a respective applause. Nobody cared about the Social Outcasts, Kane coming out actually saved the segment.
Fandango was again met with a tepid response, there was some dancing in the crowd, but not much. Jericho is always well received in Philly but the match was another filler, even with AJ coming out it just seemed like nobody cared.
Owens announcing was different, but the only participant Philly cared about was Ryder. Formulaic match and finish to set up the obvious Wrestlemania match for the IC title.
The crowd popped for Sasha Banks more so than Becky, Natalya or Charlotte. Lots of woos for the Nature Boy. Typical Divas match, yet another filled match to advance the feud.
Usually the Dudleys get a huge reaction in Philly but not this time. A few ECW chants and the crowd shit all over the Usos. The boos were on the same level as Reigns. The table tease spot was met with boos towards the Dudleys.
Standing reception for Vince but that’s about it. Very ambiguous promo meant the crowd had no idea how to react.
I’m not sure how it came across on TV but the main event was an absolute piece of shit that the crowd hated. Chants of boring and this is boring were heard more than once and it was ploddingly horrible. Because of the announcement earlier about WWE returning in September for Smackdown there was quite a number of people either leaving to go tongue box office or to get a jump start on the traffic.
All in all a hot crowd that by the end of the night was cold. I’m not trying to be that guy that says cliche stuff, but it seemed as though WWE was trying to intentionally bore the crowd.
Biggest pops:
AJ
KO
Dean
Most heat:
Nuclear heat for Reigns
Usos
