Hey everyone!
I just got back from the RAW and SmackDown! tapings in Anaheim and wanted to share a quick few notes.
Doors opened promptly at 4:30 and to be honest, the Pond security does a much better job than Staple Centers’, as people were able to come in quickly.
WWE was really late on kicking things off tonight. They didn’t start until about 5:40 PM PT (RAW goes live at 6 PM PT here so it’s 9 PM in the east). The WWE history package has been replaced with a familiar one, only this was used to plug WWE 24/7 and it actually features footage from all the other wrestling organizations WWE has in its tape library. Lots of ECW shots, and plenty of WCW ones here.
Maven lost to Val Venis in a dark match that I suppose will end up on Heat? Val scored the pin after the Money Shot. Crowd was very hot for Venis, which was somewhat of a surprise to me.
I was impressed with tonight’s attendance. There were very few empty seats one could spot. Very good turn-out.
Ross and Lawler and walked out to the usual applause. We were told we’re about to go live in less than two minutes, when Coachman’s music played and he was booed heavily on his way to the announce booth.
Flair recieved an amazing amount of cheers in his segment with Angle, as well as later in their match.
The footage from Vengeance had a funny screw-up. The opening shot stood still on the titantron for almost a minute with Jericho’s mouth wide open. Funny. The segment got a lot of laughs.
Big Show got a decent reaction, but nothing over the line, to be honest. That match was ridiculously short. Crowd was mostly dead, but still reacted.
The Michaels/Cena/Maria segment backstage got over huge. Loud cheers for Cena, and then Michaels. Maria is pretty funny at her role. Michaels messed up as he said his “friend” is on the 405 driving down. The 405 leads to the LAX airport, and San Diego, and does NOT go to Anaheim or the Arrowhead Pond. It’s I-5 that goes through Anaheim. Some people caught that in the arena, which caused a laugh.
I was a bit surprised, but Masters’ entrance got over with the crowd (not sure if it was televized). He received lots of heat, although it was hard to tell if it was good heel heat, or X-Pac type of heat. People were waiting for the mist.
They set up for the Cabana, with lots of cheers for the set-up alone.
Carlito came out to a great response. Once he got on the mic, some boos could be heard, but people were mostly cheering for him. That kid’s character is really working. HUGE ovation for RVD. It was pretty loud.
Angle and Flair was booked like a good ol’ rasslin’ fight. The mouth hooks, nose-picking, and balls-grabbing (yes, you did just read that) got over huge with the crowd. It was quite interesting, to say the least. The heat on Angle was big here. Flair was super over once again.
The SmackDown! Rebound did NOT air in the arena. The opening flash of the SmackDown! logo did, then the titantron went blank.
Up to this point, every backstage segment of the Diva Search contenders had gotten pretty decent pops and cheers. The Diva Search segment was not successfull, and based on how it started, this year might be worse than last. Anyway… Vis got a decent pop, but then the segment died again, until Slaughter kind of saved things at the end.
Grisham’s interview with Batista god a huge pop for the champ. The Jericho/Christian/Tomko segment was absolutely hilarious and the fans bought it up. The Nash reference was priceless. As the segment ended, people actually were expecting The Rock. They didn’t realize that the Hollywood reference was to Hogan. A Rocky chant broke out.
Vince McMahon walked out in the commercial break to remind us that there’s two hours of WWE SmackDown! action coming up, with the crowning of the brand new SmackDown! Champion!
John Cena got the biggest ovation of the night, which was deafening. Wow. He is indeed becoming the man around here. Of course, his ovation was overshadows by Hogan. I’d say the cheers for him beat out the cheers Rock got last time when he returned to help out Foley against La Resistance in the same building. Sickening loud!
After Cena bowed down to Michaels and Hogan, the two posed a bit more and went to the back.
I’ll post the SmackDown! notes/spoilers in the next post.
Eddie
Levski11@aol.com
