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WWE RAW ON-SITE REPORT
OCTOBER 23, 2018
PROVIDENCE, R.I. AT DUNCAN DONUTS CENTER
REPORT BY EDUARDO N., PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT
If you attend a live event, please send results in the format of the following report to pwtorch@pwtorch.com. Thanks!
-The arena holds about 10,000 for wrestling and it was about 90 percent full.
PRE-RAW MATCHES
(1) Zack Ryder beat Jinder Mahal.
(2) Bobby Roode & Chad Gable beat The Revival.
OTHER NOTES
-The boos for Roman Reigns were so strong when he first walked out, including a lot of kids. When he said he is “Joe” and revealed his cancer diagnoses, the crowd turned so fast, it was really eerie. It was really, really errie. When he changed his tone, it was just oh no, we come here to forget about that part of life. You can disagree with Roman, but nobody wishes that on anybody. Now I’m praying for Roman. It took the air out of the room. I’ve never seen that before at a pro wrestling show. It was tough after that. There was a lull, including with Finn Balor coming out and doing his ring entrance.
-When Dean Ambrose turned at the end, it was damn, we just gave you our real sympathy two-and-a-half hours ago, so come on why did you do this. There were kids and women and men crying. You can’t get that reaction twice when real life presented itself. You’re not going to get the reaction you want under these circumstances. Everything after the first segment should have been stay-the-course. It seems like instead they turned Elias, Braun Strowman, and Dean Ambrose.
-When the announcers came out, they acted normal. There was no sense of what Reigns was about to say to change the mood of the arena. Cole was booed and he winced in reaction. The other two came out to cheers to their own music.
-The fans really wanted to yell “Walk with Elias!” That angle with Baron Corbin was the most heated segment of the show in terms of crowd action. When he hit Corbin, the place went crazy. Poor Apollo Crews was an afterthought.
-Paul Heyman came out to the ring during the commercial and the lights were darkened for a video segment on the big screen. So when the lights came back on, he was standing there. Usually there are “ECW” chants for Heyman in the Northeast, but they didn’t last long. When he changed to the angle-part of his promo, it seemed fans weren’t ready to invest in it. It seemed like Twitter was a better place to talk about Reigns. It was uncomfortable to have him talk about it in a promo that was also angle-oriented.
-When Triple H and Shawn Michaels came out, fans weren’t sure how to react. I was confused throughout the promo. When Triple H mentioned there was “another X,” most people didn’t get it. I didn’t get it at first. Then pockets of fans chanted “NXT” and then everybody caught on and the chant got louder. They were dying out there. It’s enough. When Undertaker’s bell tolled, fans were upset that he was only on the big screen meaning he wouldn’t be there. Fans saw it as a chance to get refreshments. It was a popcorn segment completely. The lights were down in the ring and Triple H and Michaels just leaned on the top rope and watched. Then they left. It was stale.
-When wrestlers said Crown Jewel, there were pockets of boos throughout the arena or people yelling it sucked. It was a few hundred boos, probably, and it sounded louder in the venue. They were pretty liberal in showing the logo on the big screen. When Braun said he was going to “beat up Brock Lesnar all over Crown Jewel.” He was very careful not to say Saudi Arabia. It sounded so strange. If it was in Dallas, he’d have said, “I’m going to beat you all over Dallas. He would never say, “I’m going to beat him all over Armageddon.”
-It didn’t feel like an adequate go-home show for Evolution. This was the perfect time to focus completely on the women because they didn’t have to focus on the men’s angles with the Roman news. I thought they were smart to put Lita and Trish Stratus backstage in front of a live audience.
-The fans were standing the whole time for the Ronda Rousey-Bellas segment. When Rousey came out, there was a really genuine happiness to see her. There’s something about her, a star-power. She’s not phoning it in and fans notice.
-After Raw went off the air, fans left right away. Nobody was expecting anything else. Dean walked up the stands and Jo Jo thanked fans for coming.
-They had advertised Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs. Braun Strowman & Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre. They obviously didn’t have that match after Raw. They had the two-on-two tag title match instead with the Braun run-in.
If you attend a live event, please send results in the format of the following report to pwtorch@pwtorch.com. Thanks!
NOW CHECK OUT THIS REPORT: 10/15 WWE Raw On-Site Report: Crowd reactions in Philly for Trish & Lita, Ronda, Reigns, Braun, dark match, more off-camera and crowd notes
— “When Braun said “When Roman Reigns beat’s leukemia, he’s going to get these hands.” We don’t need that. Just put that to the side.”
Braun didn’t say that about Roman. He was respectful. He said when Roman beats Leukemia, he’ll be the first in line to get a title shot.
He said Brock was going to “get these hands”.
The turn was perfect, and it WAS the right time. Any other time you’d get the clichéd, “oh, Seth and Dean win the titles, Seth and Dean loses the titles, Dean turns”, that happens all the time. You strike while the iron is hot, and it was hot last night.
OMG!!! What were you thinking having Dean beat Seth last night? After Romans announcement you think you would have changed the storyline at least last night. I’m very disappointed in raw I don’t think I’ll be watching it anymore