Live Report From Last Night’s WWE Monday Night Raw

Credit: Reynold King and pwtorch.com

This was my first visit to the Nutter Center. Here are some notes from the show:

– I was struck by how poor attendance for the show was. Almost the entire hard camera section of the arena was tarped off in addition to various patches of empty seats on the TV side. This is especially bizarre considering how small the Nutter Center really is. I’ve been to a lot of WWE TV events and I’ve never seen a TV taping in such a small setting (the arena simply had the floor section and a larger-than-usual lower bowl, but no upper bowl/balcony). I overheard a fan behind me note that “this is a Smackdown crowd,” which perfectly summed it up. The attendant workers that were assigned the hard camera sections literally stripped back the tarps off the seats that they hoped fans would sit in and watched the show for the entire three-plus hours.

– Lots of fans in my section were questioning whether Ryback would once again botch hitting his Shel Shocked finisher on Tensai following Sunday’s pay-per-view encounter.

– The heat that Vickie Guerrero draws is outstanding. The booing was so intense that we were not able to hear a word she said. Considering the intense reaction she draws, it really is remarkable that she is able to focus on giving a promo, much less with the usual typical awesome heel character that she is.

– Many fans in my section were worried for John Cena after the fall he took after he left the ring to chase Dolph Ziggler, but the concerns in the crowd subsided after they made an angle out of it just minutes later.

– After the show, Ryback was helped by referees after he took the table bump and made his way backstage on his own.

– The advertised Punk vs. Cena bonus match that was advertised never happened, but frankly the fans were okay with that. Sitting down for three-and-a-half hours for a mediocre-at-best show that constantly promoted the last segment was a chore. And, the final segment was basically an angle that they recycled from just one night ago, so it’s not like it was exactly worth it.

– Justin Roberts gave the standard “we look forward to returning to Dayton in the future” shtick with no announced return date to send people home.

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