SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
WWE RAW ON-SITE CORRESPONDENT
FEBRUARY 25, 2019
ATLANTA, GA.
REPORT BY ZACK BENNETT, PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT
ATTENDANCE
-The arena was full to the rafters. There was only one area tarped off – the club level on the end, directly across from the tron. I think it may have been closed because (and just guessing) the WrestleMania sign would have obstructed the view for anyone sitting there. But as far as everything else, there wasn’t an empty seat to be found. Even the obstructed view seats behind the tron were sold and full, and the entire side of the arena with the hard camera was full. Upper deck was full as well.
MAIN EVENT TAPING
(1) REZAR pinned NO WAY JOSE. The crowd hot for this match. It was a good crowd overall, especially compared to last week.
(2) APOLLO CREWS pinned EC3. Apollo is from Stone Mountain, Georgia, so that probably is why he won. It’s odd they buried EC3 in not only losing, but also just wrestling on Main Event.
RAW NOTES…
-The crowd reaction for Roman Reigns was amazing. It was hard to hear everything he was saying between crowd noise and the sound system. Everybody was happy to see him. I bought my tickets in December dn didn’t know this was going to happen. When I heard he was coming back, I was pumped. I was never a guy who booed Roman. I was at Money in the Bank and that match he had with Jinder was just a yawn. But now I’ve seen the real life hero he is. The praise he got from everybody in the industry after the diagnosis, I figured I got the judgment on this guy wrong. Nobody was booing that I could hear at all. I was pretty close to the ring in the third level of the riser seats. I don’t think he will ever be a heel again, and I hope people don’t just boo him again for the hell of it in the next few weeks when he’s out on screen regularly.
-The reaction to Ronda Rousey, if you judge by people pulling out cell phones to take pictures, was pretty good. Everybody was too busy taking pictures to boo or cheer. She was treated as a big star until Becky came out. Then the crowd was on Becky’s side. Ronda didn’t get any heel heat, though. It was a face reaction. People started chanting “We Want Becky!” pretty quickly into the Rousey tag match.
-Ronda’s pop was mid-level compared to other main eventers on the show. After the Roman segment, nothing could compare unless Flair had actually appeared. That’s what everybody as waiting for.
-The crowd didn’t seem to know how to react to Dean Ambrose. It was pretty much average. Everybody knows he’s on his way out or we’re being led to believe that. I was part of a Facebook discussion during the show and people were saying they like this chill version of Dean better than anything else he’s done. He didn’t get a big star reaction. It was polite and a face pop simply because of who he was wrestling.
-As far as Aleister Black and Ricochet, the people around me knew who they were, but the reaction wasn’t over the top for them. There were a few “NXT! NXT!” chants trying to get started in the section next to me, but it never really took off beyond a small group of fans.
-Sting got the biggest pop of the four celebrity guests for Flair’s birthday bash. Rick Steamboat got more of a polite pop. I grew up watching WCW on WTBS. Shawn Michaels got a pretty good reaction. It wasn’t as hot as I thought it’d be when his music hit, but it was still pretty good. He was just on the Crown Jewel thing four months ago and Halftime Heat three weeks ago.
-Pat Patterson slinked out late and stood with everybody on the stage. Nia Jax came out onto the stage late, but was still selling her knee injury. The ref helped her walk. It was cool to see that attention to detail.
-The crowd wasn’t that upset after Ric Flair never came out. Everybody was still “wooo’ing.” There were some boos when the copyright logo came on the screen. They may have been booing Batista or that it was the end of the show and they realized Ric wasn’t coming out. People were excited all day. I was down by the arena for a couple of hours before the show. The arena is connected to CNN Center and there’s big food court there and everybody was talking about Ric Flair and were excited to see him. There wasn’t a mass revolt afterward. It was odd, I thought. I think everybody was happy because Raw was decent for once. It was a pretty good show.
-As we were watching on the tron, people were shocked to see Batista. That might have made people not see the Flair situation as a no-show since there was a good storyline reason for Flair not coming out. People thought, “Okay, we’re going somewhere with this. This is something unexpected.”
AFTER RAW…
-As soon as the copyright notice came on the screen, Jinder Mahal came out and paid off the trash-talking he was doing earlier in the night. He said he should be celebrated since Ric wasn’t there. Kurt Angle punched him and Shawn Michaels gave him a superkick. Jinder botched it and flew over the table and missed the cake. He was lying on the ground and you could see the table sagging, but it didn’t break. So Angle came over and dumped the cake onto Jinder. He kept throwing cake on Jinder and Angle slammed the Singh Brothers. And that was about it. Sting and Ricky Steamboat didn’t get physically involved. They stood by and watched.
So, the WWE hypes Flair’s birthday and all we get is Batista.They couldn’t reintroduce Batista in some other fashion than beating the hell out of Flair to set up a Hunter-Batitsa match at WM? Always has to be about the McMahon’s!!!!!!
The McMahons have to be on the big show – Trips gets Batista (that’ll be a snoozefest) and Shane gets Miz. Steph gets involved with the Raw Women’s Title picture scenario. I have never understood why they think that their being on the show increases ratings.
Flair stepped between them at SD 1000 Flair had always sided with Hunter including talking behind his back after Batista won the rumble while outwardly trying to get him to challenge JBL for his title on Smackdown. Batista has even said Flair helped get him right when Evolution formed. But we always saw the on screen bromance of Trips and Flair. While i agree that they could have been an alternative method of getting to this match, had they decided to do it in the ring, would you be saying anything different than it has to be about the McMahon’s? As i said the seed was planted at SD 1000. Hunter is a special attraction, how would you suggest him be reintroduced. Attacking Hunter while he was dealing with the Women’s title situation? While he was walking around back stage or working in Gorilla?
@ Bill.
Yes it does. It’s their family playground more than the family business.