Off-Air Notes From Last Nights Taboo Tuesday

Thanks to Dimmona of PWInsider.com for these:

Just got back from the show a while ago. I've been to several house shows and TV tapings in San Diego, and for some reason, the crowd didn't seem as hot as usual, especially considering it was a PPV. There were several sections at the top behind the hard camera that were tarped off, otherwise it looked like a pretty packed house.

When Jerry Lawler's music played, he did not come out on stage. Then, Joey Styles' music played, and Lawler came out about 30 seconds after Styles. Not sure what the mixup was there.

Though it was probably supposed to go off at the top of the show, the pyro on the stage went off while the TitanTron was showing the FBI warning at the top of the PPV, so there was no pyro when the show went live on TV. Also, no national anthem.

This was my first PPV, so maybe I was expecting more from the crowd. I didn't really see any Austin signs, and it seems like either people didn't know he wasn't going to be there, or they didn't care. Also, while I'd been wondering if he'd do a cameo, no one around me said a word about The Rock.

Rey Mysterio was over, big-time, though that should be no surprise in San Diego. Wonder why they blew that pop on the opener when there were several weaker matches higher up on the card. Snitsky got no reaction whatsoever when he came out. For some really weird reason, a "shave your back" chant started that was directed at Snitsky.

Other than a big pop for Batista, no one seemed too interested in seeing Coach, Goldust or Vader. In addition to looking big in the middle, Vader also didn't sell much of anything that Batista dished out.

Lots of anti-Cena chants during the main event. You guys might disagree, but I thought John Cena looked pretty good, especially in the company of two of the all-time greats.

I had a great time and got to see some really good matches. Not sure why Mankind came out to his old, heel music but wore the face Mankind clothes. Otherwise, it was a well-paced show with some nice wrestling.

Thanks to Dimmona of PWInsider.com for these:

I just got back from the Taboo Tuesday PPV here in San Diego, and wanted to share a few notes.

* Arena was ~90% full, with no sections taped off for once. I've attended every San Diego WWE show for the last 4 years, and it was easily the largest crowd I've seen here. Before the Heat taping started, the crowd spent most of its time trading 'Wooohs' across the arena. Most of the fans seem to have either Cena or Mysterio gear.

* A lot of people in the crowd were heard talking about the situations with Christian, Austin, and Torrie. I was suprised that even a lot of the casual fans in the stands seemed to know what was going on with Christian.

* They had one Heat match before the PPV began – Shelton Benjamin and Val Venis vs. Kerwin White and Matt Striker. Short match that saw Val as the face in peril for most of the bout. Shelton got to clean house a little bit after a hot tag, only to fall to Striker's devastating School Boy + handful of tights + legs on the rope finisher.

* Crowd was hot at the beginning of the PPV and for the first part of the Smackdown vs Raw match (although people were pretty upset when Edge left and Snitsky came out as his replacement). Quite a few blown spots in the match that got quite a few late boos. One interesting note – they only displayed the results of the vote for the first match for a split second.... maybe they didn't want Rey's hometown crowd to notice that Hardy took most of the vote?

* The crowd died down quite a bit after the first match and didn't pick it up again until the end of the Flair/HHH match (although Batista, Kane, and Big Show all got decent pops). In what was the biggest surprise (for me) of the night, the crowd actually seemed to turn on Mick Foley. Their match was initially met by dead silence, and eventually quite a few 'this match sucks/Foley sucks' chants could be heard.

* Despite the very loud "Cena Sucks!" chants heard through out the night (which I lent my support to), Cena got one of the biggest pops I've ever heard in San Diego – probably equivalent to the pops the Rock got during his surprise appearances at Raw. The crowd was very hot for the main event, with a lot of loud chants for all three men. Cena easily had the most of the crowd behind him, but there were still quite a few Angle/HBK supporters.

* Not much happened after the PPV went off the air. Cena celebrated a little bit more and then limped to the back. Lillian thanked us for coming, and that was it.

Overall a mixed PPV that featured a solid opener, a good first chapter in the HHH/Flair feud, and a very entertaining main event. While the crowd was dead for most of the midcard, business picked up for the main event and I think everybody went home satisfied (except for us Angle fans).