WWE Raw TV taping report
May 14, 2012
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Report by William Wellek, PWTorch reader

After Raw went off the air, WWE set up two bonus matches for the live crowd.

(1) WWE champion C.M. Punk beat Chris Jericho with the GTS in a very short match.

(2) John Cena & Randy Orton & World Hvt. champion Sheamus beat Kane & Dolph Ziggler & Lord Tensai in a six-man tag match. Ziggler took the faces's finishers, and Cena got the pin with the Attitude Adjustment.

Overall TV taping notes

- The "Yes!" chants were off the charts outside and inside the arena while the crowd was filing in. Then, after the show, there were tons of "Yes!" chants outside the arena.

- The crowd was really hot for the dark match and Superstars taping, then tailed off some during the Triple H promo, but the place went nuts again for the Punk/Santino vs Bryan/Rhodes match. Bryan was over beyond belief.

- Trouble started when WWE booking kicked in. The Divas match drew absolutely no response from the crowd. Then, there was an extremely long wait before the next match due to promos or whatever what was being shown on TV. Kane vs. Big Show had very little crowd reaction until the begging and firing bit with Show and John Laurinaitis. The crowd really bought into the Big Show's performance and gave him a very nice "Thank you, Big Show" chant.

The Funkasuaras six-man tag drew little reaction. There was a standing ovation for the National Guard commercial shown to the arena and a huge "U-S-A" chant.

Orton vs. Jericho pretty much left the crowd confused on who to cheer...so they pretty much sat there. A "Y2J" chant broke out for awhile. That was actually pretty interesting considering the amount of children in attendance.

I think the most amazing part of the show might have been John Cena of all people breaking the crowd out of its coma. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand for whatever reason. We had no idea when the show ended.

People started leaving quickly and kept filing out during the Punk-Jericho and six-man main event dark matches. It seemed as if no one knew they were scheduled.

- Overall, a disappointing show leading into a PPV and way to much sitting around for a hot crowd that wanted to be heard and were given few chances. WWE dropped the ball after having horrible crowd reactions the last few weeks. The people were willing, but WWE wasn't able.

People were also willing to buy the latest C.M. Punk t-shirt, but they ran out of children's sizes and most of the adult sizes before Raw even went on the air. WWE really needs to get their act together and judge their live crowds better. They really seem to be out of the loop of what we want.

[Torch art credit Travis Beaven (c) PWTorch.com]

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