4/30 WWE Raw HOLT Report: Bizarro World on-site report from Montreal including details on Reigns and Seth reactions, Rousey, off-air happenings

WWE RAW HOLT REPORT
APRIL 30, 2018
MONTREAL, QUEBEC AT BELL CENTRE
REPORT BY WILL R., PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT

The arena was nearly full. They sold tickets all the way to the top deck.

MAIN EVENT TV TAPING

(1) Lince Dorado & Gran Metalic (w/Kalisto) beat Brian Kendrick & Jack Gallagher

(2) Breezango beat The Revival

NOTES FROM RAW

-The advertised match was Roman Reigns & Braun Strowman & Seth Rollins vs. The Bar & The Miz. The heels in the match didn’t appear as that match was advertised before the Superstar Shake-up, and the other three wrestlers in other matches during Raw itself. They didn’t acknowledge the change in line-up to the crowd.

-Biggest reactions of the night went to Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. Seth was easily the most popular wrestler. Reigns was easily the least popular. The floor shook so hard when Roman came out, he was booed so far. I’ve never heard someone booed that loudly. It’s got to take a toll on him to be the top babyface in the company getting booed like that. I don’t think he helped his cause much the way he talked about actually winning the cage match. It didn’t endear himself to the fans at all.

-As loud as they were for Roman booing, it was just loud positively for Seth. Seth’s cheers just built and built and built to the point you could literally feel the electricity in the air; that’s how powerful it was. There were a lot of chants for him. After the main event, Seth gave a thank you speech to fans in the ring.

-The fans were tempered in their response to Braun Strowman because he was going against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in their home town. They wanted to cheer him, but they liked KO and Sami before. Strowman and Reigns fought violently last year, so it was strange to see them suddenly aligned.

-Bobby Lashley didn’t get much of a reaction either way. I think he’s surrounded by names people know better or are more popular. He’s not doing anything. I remember vaguely from his prior WWE run, but I haven’t seen his work on Impact and haven’t seen anything that shows he’s better on promos than before.

-I wasn’t sure if Ronda Rousey was faster than Alexa Bliss or Alexa ran slower to make Ronda look fast. She would have gotten a better reaction coming out if she came out to her own music instead of trailing Natalya. The crowd didn’t really react to Natalya any more than usual, which was a surprise being that she is from Calgary. I expected it to be louder.

-Nobody reacted to Jinder Mahal like he was raised in Canada.

-Second most popular of the night behind Seth was Finn Balor.

-The crowd was luke warm for Bobby Roode.

-At the merchandise stand, there were t-shirst for Finn Balor, Balor Club, Balor’s rainbow version, Monday Night Rollins, House that A.J. Built, Braun Strowman’s Get These Hands, Kevin Owens, John Cena, The Shield, and one with the entire roster on it.

-Jo Jo told fans to come back tomorrow night for Smackdown.

-WWE sold discounted pairs of tickets if you bought tickets for both Raw and Smackdown. I paid $140 for a pair of tickets to both Raw and Smackdown. They were $95 seats, so it was a savings of $50 total. It was for a middle deck ticket straight opposite the hard camera with a good view of the ring and the scoreboard screen.

NOW CHECK OUT THIS RECENT REPORT: 4/24 WWE Smackdown HOLT Report from Louisville: What happened off-air, crowd reactions, post-TV dark match main event, more