FanPost

Live Perspective on Raw, 11/25/13

Last night, I was fortunate enough to attend my second Raw of the year (living in New York has its benefits), and while I understand that this show wasn't nearly as positively received as the first Raw I attended (the Money in the Bank fallout show), my two friends and I still had a great time.

We'd watched Survivor Series together the night before, and we agreed that the show was quite enjoyable up until the main event, at which point it became terrible, given the Peter Griffin ref bump, borderline smoz finish and the presence of the Big Show in general. That the cost was split three ways and that we had pizza probably contributed to our satisfaction, but we still looked forward to Raw the next night.

We arrived at the Coliseum at around seven o'clock, and parked in the Marriot hotel lot next door (protip: if you ever attend a show at Nassau Coliseum, park in the Marriot lot and walk through the gap in the fence, so you don't get caught in the parking mess after the show). Our seats were in the upper level, but because the arena is relatively small, we weren't too far away from the ring. There was also a small camera a few seats in front of us. Before Raw came the Superstars taping, in which (Superstars spoilers ahoy! (for the three people who watch Superstars!)) Zack Ryder defeated Fandango and the Usos defeated the Real Americans. The crowd was very happy to see Ryder, and Fandango, the Usos, and the Real Americans were well received. I was disappointed we didn't get a Cesaro Swing, but it's Superstars, so what can you expect, really?

Before I proceed, note that I haven't watched Raw on the DVR yet, so my perspectives come completely from the live experience.

The opening segment was okay. Orton got solid heat, as did Triple H and Stephanie, though they had a few more cheers. We were fustrated to see that the "Authority lacks confidence in Orton" angle had yet to be abandoned, but we were very happy to cheer for Daniel Bryan. Cena got a mixed reaction, and we were happy to hear unification teased, although we (like many Cagesiders, apparently) predicted yet another smoz finish, probably involving their somehow trading belts. We were somewhat surprised to see it announced this soon, which plays into the smoz finish, as they'll want to involve the Rumble winner (Punk or Bryan?) in it.

We went out to the hallway to see the Shield before their entrance, since the Coliseum only has one level. All three guys are big in person, but I was especially surprised by just how big Roman Reigns is. There was one drunk-sounding guy yelling all kinds of nonsense, but he was ignored. My friend believes that Roman Reigns gave him a passing glance when he yelled that Roman was a beast, but I can neither confirm nor deny this report. As a result of this, we missed the Shield, the Rhodes Brothers, and Mysterio's entrances, but we very much enjoyed their match, because of course we did, it's a Shield 6-man tag match.

MizTV with Michael Strahan was fun to watch live, but then Strahan is a local star and two of us are Giants fans. Titus O'Neil's impersonation was funny, but I can definitely see why it came across terribly on television, especially once they started hip tossing each other. The three of us all agreed that Miz may have one of the worst and most indecisive heel turns of all time, but it's mostly worth it if it gives us an excuse to boo his stupid face. Our attempts to start "Kelly Ripa!" chants were mostly unsuccesful.

Big E Langston and Mark Henry vs. Rybaxel was decent enough. We were disappointed we didn't get to hear Axel's music and thought Langston and Henry were going to start a feud after the match, but it turned out to just be a generalized meathead bonding ritual.

We also had fun during the Divas' Survivor Series match, but we all knew it was objectively terrible, and I wasn't surprised in the least to hear how bad it was on TV. Most of the enjoyment came from getting too boo Eva Marie (I normally don't believe X-Pac Heat exists, but she's making me reconsider. I want that damn wax statue off my television/live events now), and cheer for AJ and Summer Rae. I was personally surprised by just how much the crowd rallied behind Summer, but with any luck, it makes them notice that maybe the NXT Divas have something that the majority of the main roster girls don't. Once again, our attempts to start chants were unsuccessful, except this time we were chanting, "We want Vincent!" any time Cameron was tagged in.

Sandow vs. Ziggler was fun, if repetitive. Nothing much to say there. There was a hint of the randomly chanting crowd, but fortunately the random chants didn't take off. I was surprised by how close the vote was. Michael Strahan's backstage segment got a laugh out of the crowd.

The crowd was really hot for both Punk and Bryan, and they got a lot of dueling chants, and the two biggest pops of the night. Punk's initial pop was better, but Bryan's was more sustained ("Yes!" chants probably had something to do with it). We all really enjoyed their promo with Renee, especially Punk's little mini-shoot comments about how Renee wasn't actually asking any questions, Colt Cabana references, and the tease of the Authority's involvement. I'm also pretty sure that I could have been the new Brock Lesnar guy, had the camera been on me when Punk yelled, "It's clobberin' time!" I just reared back and let it loose. Their match with the Wyatt Family was similarly excellent, and we were very excited to see the Wyatts abduct Bryan and The Shield ambush Punk, both of which have the potential to rope them back into the main angle.

Miz and Kofi had a match. So did Xavier Woods and Heath Slater. We were disappointed that 3MB wasn't The Ramones (3MBlitzkrieg Bop) or Public Enemy/The Beastie Boys, but what can you do? They also seem to be tying in as many of the black wrestlers as possible with Truth, Woods, Clay, and the Funkadactyls all involved. The Kosher Butcher, the faces of Foley hocking merch, and Strahan with Goldust were awesome, and both got huge laughs from the crowd. I was elated to hear that the "Kosher Butcher!" and "Circumcision!" chants made the air.

The main event happened too. Cena and Orton got the same reactions from earlier. Big Show got a mixed response, albeit mostly positive. Del Rio got some heat, but not much. I assume they were doing some kind of concussion angle with the Big Show, which is why he nearly died halfway through the match. Cena won, of course, and got the better of Del Rio (can we get this mothercanucker out of the main event scene?), before being laid out by Orton. They used the camera near our seats during this match, at least.

After the show went off the air, Orton tried to punt Cena, who was playing possum and tried to hit him with the AA. Cena then posed with the titles before Orton somehow got the WWE Title back. Cena helped the Big Show to the back, and Justin Roberts told us to drive safely.

As we were leaving, we briefly floated the idea of waiting in the Marriot to see if we could meet any wrestlers staying there, but my two friends had work to do, and I had to be up relatively early in the morning, so we decided against it. We agreed that next time we'd try it, since it makes sense that the wrestlers would stay there, since it's literally right next door, and they could pretty easily leave for Smackdown in the morning, since it's about two hours away.

I made it home without incident, and was somewhat surprised to see how negatively the show was received, but on further reflection, it's clear that a few of the segments that were fun live weren't nearly as fun to watch on TV.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.