First Time Raw Attendee Shares

Photos and Story by James S.

For my first live event, I had a blast!!! Didn't know what to expect, but definitely loved every minute of it. Not a review, but just my perspective.


Started off with Superstars matches with Gail Kim beating Jillian Hall, and then Zack Ryder with Rosa Mendes defeating Primo. Ryder needs new pants.

LOVED the pyro in person for the opening of Raw. My buddy that went just gave me the opening video he took with his camera. Shhhh...Don’t tell Vince.



First match was epic. Miz definitely can bring the heat and has great mic skills. AWESOME to see The Hitman in person. Great match. Definitely was told by Show to "Shut the hell up" by heckling him. One of the highlights of my night. Glad to see Hart Dynasty finally getting their belts and paying homage to those ahead of them by doing their moves. Show really landed a nice punch on Miz and sold it well.

 

Divas match was blah. Maryse is so HOT in person. Wish I got better pics of her. Actually, they are all pretty hot. Except for Vickie of course. Booing Vickie Guerrero in person after she says "Excuse Me!" was well worth the admission. Lots of "We want Mickie chants".


Evan Bourne vs. CM Punk was a cool match. I actually rooted for CM Punk. Surprisingly he had a lot of people in my section cheering for him. I yelled at him to take his sweater off. So was that Rey that interfered in the match???



Sheamus needs to learn how to spell his name correctly, and Orton is huge right now. Huge pop. Chants of Randy and RKO. Of course Cena got his cheers and jeers. I jeered cause I can't stand his lame ass jokes.

Team Smackdown vs. Team Raw Battle Royal. Kane and Mark Henry are freaking' huge! Loved McIntyre getting his punk ass eliminated from the get go. Thought the Mistirio/Dibiase exchange was too much with the "almost" eliminated element. LOVED Santino. Freaking' hilarious!!!
 Jericho vs. Christian was a nice match. Jericho is always entertaining on the mic even though predictable. I do love me some Y2J, but was rooting for Christian. I consider myself one of his peeps. :) I hope he challenges Swagger for the title in Smackdown. Christian's rookie reminds me of a red haired Brian Kendrick. Good to see Kofi going to Smackdown. Hopefully he can get a better push since EVERYONE is going to Raw now.

Swagger vs. Morrison was the most boring match of the evening. I heard crickets. Lots of boring chants. Nothing exciting about this match at all.

Ziggler vs. Hornswoggle was funny. Hornswoggle was laid out throughout the entire commercial break. He was carried out by 4 refs. Really?!? 4 refs? Lawler was very concerned.



Batista came out and cried. Then the triple threat match. Awesome match with lots of action outside. It was ridiculous how red Sheamus gets from getting hit or scratched. Fan base for Orton was off the charts. Edge spearing Orton definitely shocked fans, and many didn't know how to react. I thought Batista was going to take time off, so I was shocked that he won the number 1 contender spot.

 After Raw went off the air, Batista came back to the ring and taunted Orton as he laid on the ground. He said something to Orton that was so cheesy it was hilarious! Something to the effect of, "You and you're stupid RKO". So he picks up Randy to do a Batista bomb and Orton gets out of it and gives Dave a big RKO to the joy of the remaining fans. Music plays, Orton gets on the turnbuckle, stand for effect, and stretches his arms out like the good ol' days. Walks to the back and then Tony Chimel says, "Still your number one contender for the WWE title, Batista". Boos rain down mixed in with some cheers and Batista walks to the back with his arm raised.

A few funny things, a guy had his sign taken away cause it said "Hogan" with arrows pointing down. A woman asked me to watch her kid as she went to get him some food. I agreed as long as she promised to come back to claim him. I forgot Jericho had pyro and it scared the crap out of me. Someone yelled at Tony Chimel to return his dad's tie. Ref Chris Robinson was standing right behind me for a few seconds.

 Upset that Triple H and Undertaker didn't make appearances, but understand that they are both pretty banged up from previous weeks.

Weekly Ratings for April 18th - 24th

WWE Raw Champion: John Cena 1. Triple H 2. Mike Mizanin 3. Randy Orton 4. Batista
5. Vladimir Kozlov 6. Sheamus 7. Zack Ryder 8. Carlito 9. Yoshi Tatsu 10. Ted Dibiase Jr.

WWE Smackdown! Champion: Jack Swagger 1. The Undertaker 2. Drew McIntyre
3. John Morrison 4. Edge 5. Rey Mistirio 6. CM Punk 7. Chris Jericho 8. Kane 9. Doph Ziggler
10. Shad Gaspard

WWE Unified Tag Team Champions: The Big Show & Mike Mizanin
1. David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd 2. CM Punk & Luke Gallows

TNA World Champion: Rob Van Dam 1. AJ Styles 2. Rob Terry 3. D'Angelo Dinero
4. Jeff Hardy 5. Abyss 6. Jeff Jarrett 7. Samoa Joe 8. Sting 9. Desmond Wolfe 10. Kurt Angle

TNA Tag Team Champion: Matt Morgan 1. Team 3-D 2. Beer Money Incorporated

Weekly Ratings for April 11th - 17th

WWE Raw Champion: John Cena 1. Randy Orton 2. Mike Mizanin 3. Batista 4. Sheamus
5. Ted Dibiase Jr. 6. Evan Bourne 7. Kofi Kingston 8. Christian 9. Montel Vontavious Porter
10. Carlito

WWE Smackdown! Champion: Jack Swagger 1. Edge 2. Drew McIntyre 3. Chris Jericho 4. Kane
5. Dolph Ziggler 6. Matt Hardy 7. JTG 8. Rey Mistirio 9. CM Punk 10. R-Truth

WWE Unified Tag Team Champions: The Big Show & Mike Mizanin
1. David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd 2. CM Punk & Luke Gallows

TNA World Champion: AJ Styles 1. D'Angelo Dinero 2. Rob Terry 3. Jeff Hardy
4. Desmond Wolfe 5. Abyss 6. Jeff Jarrett 7. Shannon Moore 8. Kazarian 9. The Amazing Red
10. Jay Lethal

TNA Tag Team Champion: Matt Morgan 1. Kevin Nash & Scott Hall
2. The Motor City Machine Guns

RIP Gene Kiniski

Former NWA champion and one of Canada's greatest professional wrestlers, Gene "Big Thunder" Kiniski, passed away yesterday at the age of 81. Gene had been battling brain cancer for some time and had recently stopped eating.

Kiniski ended the final NWA title reign of the legendary Lou Thesz, he would go on to hold the title for almost three years before dropping it to Dory Funk Jr. in 1968. Kiniski was a major star for both the NWA and AWA throughout the 60s and 70s. He also did occasional spots for Vince McMahon Sr.'s WWWF. An interesting sidenote is that Kiniski was the special referee for the the first Starrcade's main event, that saw Ric Flair regain the NWA title from Harley Race. Kiniski's sons Kelly and Nick also became professional wrestlers.

Thoughts and prayers to the entire Kiniski family.

News Updates

The WWE is in Europe this week, with Raw and Smackdown! both being taped in the UK. Bret Hart is in town for the tour. This could be his last participation with WWE for a while. Triple H has not been a part of the tour due to an aggravating neck injury.

David Hasselhoff is tonight's Raw guest host. Upcoming hosts include Wayne Brady, Telia Tequilla, Flava Flav, and Jon Lovitz.

Names being tossed around for the WWE Hall of Fame in Atlanta next year are Goldberg, Sting (if he is done with TNA), Lex Luger, The Steiner Brothers, and Ron Simmons.

"Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels was released from TNA and has signed on with Ring of Honor.

Bobby Lashley and Kristal Marshall have split up. Jeff Jarrett and Karen Angle recently became engaged.

Kurt Angle will be taking around a month off after this Sunday's Lockdown pay-per-view.

TNA Impact is making the permanent move to Monday night's at 8pm starting this week. They will still be going with the one week live, one week taped format.

With Cryme Tyme having been broken up look for one of the stars to be moved to Raw during the upcoming draft.

Batista and The Great Khali are both set to begin a long period of time off. Khali was put into an angle with Dolph Ziggler to explain his absence and Batista should be finishing up at Extreme Rules.

Rena "Sable" Mero and Brock Lesnar are expecting their 2nd child.

At this time Jim Ross is NOT expected to return to the announce booth. He may be taking on an ambassador role similar to that of Gene Okerlund.

Ezekiel Jackson appears to have suffered an injury on the European tour.

Billy Kidman has been working as a WWE agent in addition to his role as a trainer with FCW.

Orlando Jordan has signed a long term deal with TNA.

No news on the Goldberg front aside from a marketing deal being near completion. I would not expect to see him as an active part of the company until next year's Wrestlemania.

Weekly Ratings for April 04th - 10th

WWE Raw Champion: John Cena 1. Randy Orton 2. Mike Mizanin 3. The Big Show 4. Sheamus
5. Ted Dibiase Jr. 6. Batista 7. Kofi Kingston 8. Christian 9. Triple H 10. Santino Marella

WWE Smackdown! Champion: Jack Swagger 1. Edge 2. Drew McIntyre 3. Chris Jericho
4. Rey Mistirio 5. John Morrison 6. Kane 7. Matt Hardy 8. CM Punk 9. Jimmy Wang Yang
10. R-Truth

WWE Unified Tag Team Champions: The Big Show & Mike Mizanin
1. David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd 2. The Dudebusters

TNA World Champion: AJ Styles 1. D'Angelo Dinero 2. Rob Terry 3. Mister Anderson
4. Kurt Angle 5. Desmond Wolfe 6. Doug Williams 7. Rob Van Dam 8. James Storm 9. Abyss
10. Shannon Moore

TNA Tag Team Champion: Matt Morgan 1. The Motor City Machineguns 2. Team 3-D

Weekly Ratins for March 28th - April 03rd

WWE Raw Champion: John Cena 1. Batista 2. Mike Mizanin 3. Shawn Michaels 4. Triple H
5. Randy Orton 6. Sheamus 7. Christian 8. Kofi Kingston 9. Ted Diviase Jr.
10. Montel Vontavious Porter

WWE Smackdown! Champion: Jack Swagger 1. Chris Jericho 2. Drew McIntyre 3. Edge
4. The Undertaker 5. Rey Mistirio 6. Dolph Ziggler 7. Matt Hardy 8. CM Punk
9. Shelton Benjamin 10. Kane

WWE Unified Tag Team Champions: The Big Show & Mike Mizanin
1. David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd 2. John Morrison & R-Truth

TNA World Champion: AJ Styles 1. Jeff Jarrett 2. Rob Terry 3. Eric Young 4. Rob Van Dam
5. Jeff Hardy 6. Desmond Wolfe 7. Jay Lethal 8. Shannon Moore 9. Kazarian 10. D'Angelo Dinero

TNA Tag Team Champions: Matt Morgan & Hernandez 1. The Motor City Machineguns
2. Team 3-D

Chris Kanyon Passes On

Chris Kanyon was found dead last night at the age of 40. The cause of death is believed to be suicide from an overdose of pills. Kanyon had come out in the last few years as a homosexual and also said that he suffered from bi-polar disorder. His desicion to come out was not met well by some unelightened folks and it certainly couldn't have helped his frame of mind. Kanyon was a mid card talent in WCW for most of the late 90s and had a brief run in WWE following the sale of WCW. In the last few years he did a few one shots with TNA and was still prominent on the indy scene. He also released his autobiography, Who's Gayer Than Kanyon. Kanyon was close friends with Diamond Dallas Page who likely will be releasing a statement on his friend's death soon. RIP Kanyon.

Monthly Ratings for March 2010

1. AJ Styles 2. Chris Jericho 3. Batista 4. John Cena 5. Edge 6. Drew McIntyre 7. Mike Mizanin
8. Rob Terry 9. Abyss 10. Jack Swagger 11. Dolph Ziggler 12. Jeff Jarrett 13. Matt Hardy
14. Shawn Michaels 15. Randy Orton 16. Jeff Hardy 17. Rey Mistirio 18. Ted Dibiase Jr.
19. Rob Van Dam 20. Desmond Wolfe 21. The Undertaker 22. Kane 23. Triple H 24. Cody Rhodes
25. Shelton Benjamin

1. The Big Show & Mike Mizanin 2. Matt Morgan & Hernandez 3. John Morrison & R-Truth
4. Beer Money Incorporated 5. The Motor City Machineguns 6. David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd
7. D-Generation X 8. Team 3-D 9. Ted Dibiase Jr. & Cody Rhodes 10. The Nasty Boys