I was at last night's RAW in Vancouver (my first ever live event -- loved it) and wondered how the live crowd translated on TV. From my perspective the crowd was pretty hot at times but seemed to sit on its collective hands for extended periods as well. Obviously the Canadians got a good response (especially Jericho, who owned the crowd), but others getting a good pop were Flair (wooo!), Goldberg (who had both cheers and 'Goldberg sucks' chants), HBK, RVD and Rosey (!!?!). The low point of the evening was the mass exodus from seats to washroom/snack bar when the Women's title match came on. I found the near silence which greeted Nash to be a clear highlight. My girlfriend pointed out that her 83 year old Dad is Big Sexy's equal in the speed and agility departments.
Unfortunately my VCR failed to tape the show so perhaps I could get some feedback with regard to the crowd from those who watched it?
"It takes a whole lotta whiskey to make these nightmares go away" -- Tom Waits, Blue Valentine
"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named 'Bush', 'Dick', and 'Colon. Need I say more?"
I've been to most live events here in the past but skipped this one. Generally Vancouver fans are really loud for what they like but sit on their hands for other stuff, mainly vignettes or silly stuff.
It's pretty sad that WWE couldn't even fill up PNE Coliseum when years ago they were selling out GM Place but we seemed to get lame show after lame show here for quite some time during the peak. The brutal Rock Bottom 98 PPV and a RAW in 2000 with Kid Rock preforming American Badass spring to mind.
I went to Raw this past Monday, and the Coliseum was pretty full - a few dots with empty seats here and there, but pretty much a packed house. There were about 40-50 seats that were covered for non-use, but I believe that was because of obstruction - they were way up and probably wouldn't have had a good view.
I did find it pretty telling that the arena was so small they couldn't use the full Raw set (no elevated stage/rampway).
Kain Interview: the first since he's been unmasked!!! Major changes to SummerShow main event!!! All this plus an interview with Kain in the latest Inside The Ropes!!!
A really good example of the crowd totally NOT cheering for what they're supposed to is the opening six-man match at Halloween Havoc '92, when Tom Zenk, Shane Douglas and Tom Brandi (known as Johnny Gunn at that point) took on the mega heel team of Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton and Michael P.S. Hayes. The event was in Philly, and MAN when Double A sneakered Zenk (or Gunn) after a blind tag, the crowd face-popped HUGE. Anderson even pumped his fist to the response!
It just goes to show that ultimately, fans will cheer for what they want, and even though the Vancouver crowd kinda' got me mad when I watched RAW, I give them all the respect in the world. Not trying to put down fans in my town, but I wish the Denver crowd, for the most part, were just a tad smarter. But then again, with what I heard about the awesome reactions at Vengeance, that might have changed A LOT.
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Or do the Ultimate Torture and watch the main event of Heroes of Wrestling, where Jake takes wrestling to depths that the Ed Ferrera/Madusa feud did not reach.