Live News & Notes From WWE RAW

Credit: PWInsider.com
By: Adolfo Acosta

The entire upper tier of the Bryce Jordan Center was tapered off. The building holds roughly 15,000... and there was probably 9,000 to 10,000, so not a sell out. One might argue that it is a college campus during the summer, which might account for low attendance... but I attended a June show in 1998 (the Raw after King of The Ring) in the same venue and it was sold out.

However, the crowd was absolutely red hot all night.

The crowd did not at all know who the hell Harry Smith was. But they saw a Canadian and British flag on his tights, and chanted "USA" and got behind the jobber instead. If WWE would have announced him as the son of Davey Boy Smith, that may have gotten the crowd behind him.

During the Cade/Murdoch squash match, they had control of the microphone and were providing live commentary. In other words, while Cade was wrestling, Murdoch would be insulting their opponents and providing "commentary" and Cade did so when Murdoch wrestled. It was pretty entertaining until Murdoch made a cheap heat comment about Ben Rothelesberger which no one appreciated.

Victoria and Mercedes Martinez had an ok match, but the crowd was dead... it will be interesting to see the crowd sweetening they do for this. Martinez looked solid, and if she's not already under some developmental deal, they should sign her.

The Striker squash match was nothing special, but Striker got good heel heat ripping on Penn State by saying he graduated from Michigan.

This you may not believe... but Snitsky got a HUGE pop... absolutely huge. It may have a lot to do that he was the first real babyface to appear all night, but it was still a huge pop.

Here's an interesting note. There was a very pro-WWE section of the crowd and a pro-ECW mention of the crowd. Anytime an ECW chant started, the pro-WWE section would boo it. This happened anytime ECW was mentioned at all. A very interesting reaction.

The Earthquake Graphic got a brief "Earthquake! Earthquake" chant started, but subsided when they started the show.

The fans took a massive dump all over the Kane/Orton double count-out, and they hated the Kane VS Kane angle. Also the ring was not mic'd up, so the bumps in the ring didn't sound that impressive.

On a funny side note, the Striker segment on Unlimited where he wanted to get the fans to chant "Let's Read Books!" actually got the fans to chant that.

The crowd pretty much died during the "water" fight... they did pop for the Stink Face, though, as well as Torrie bombarding JR and the King with water balloons.

Let me just say this right now... the Triple H/Sprit Squad/DX segment was absolutely, positively over HUGE. They popped huge for Triple H... they gave McMahon plenty of heat... and they went absolutely crazy when HBK joined the action and DX reunited. By far the most over segment of the night. The entire building was standing from the moment Triple H entered to the moment DX left the ring.

Ric Flair was a nice surprise for the crowd and that segment was very over as well.... even though the crowd still popped for Mick saying "University of Pennsylvania" instead of Penn State University... 2 different things Mick.

Cena, as usual, was way over with the women and kids, but very unpopular with the guys. Edge had a split reaction as well.

There was no post-show dark match.