What You Didn't See On RAW & Won't See On SD!

Shaun sent this in. THIS REPORT CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Just got back from the Raw & ECW taping from the MEN Arena in Manchester, England.

The MEN (largest indoor arena in Europe) looked to be sold out. I was seated a few rows behind the commentators booth and ventured to the guardrail a lot to get some good pictures. Security were okay and only told everyone to go back to their seats once a match started.

Annoyingly, when promoting the location of the TV tapings, most of the outdoor screenshots were taken from London and that drew a lot of boos from the Manchester crowd. This was sloppy on WWE's part.

The dark match before ECW, was Charlie Haas, masquerading as Rowdy Roddy Piper going over Snitsky. These two had the same match they've been having during the European House Show loop. Haas won via a rollup after Snitsky missed a big boot and got his foot tied up in the corner. Plenty of 'brush your teeth' chants aimed at Snitsky with Haas getting the crowd going.

Lots of WWE ads and John Cena promos ran throughout the night. The constant stoppages were a bit annoying at times.

Various good clips plugging the Raw 15th Anniversary DVD also aired during breaks. These included a segment on the greatest slaps and the classic segment of Stone Cold assaulting Mr McMahon in the hospital. Great memories.

The six man tag on ECW was entertaining. Lots of 'who are ya' chants directed towards Jack Swagger. Cryme Tyme were over. I flipped off John Morrison during his entrance. He acknowledged me when he was posing on the top rope before laughing. Everyone groaned when Mark Henry came out for his squash match. I was pleasantly surprised when he didn't interfere in the Main Event. Matt Hardy and Finlay started out slow but built to a tremendous finish. I'm looking forward to seeing this one again on TV.

Lilian Garcia came out and sung the British National Anthem. She looked stunning as always. I made sure I got plenty of pictures. She interacted with the fans and was autographing ticket stubs when she didn't need to announce.

Santino Marella received quite a few cheers and was absolute gold in all of his segments tonight. William Regal got a good hometown pop and his post match promo came across as very sincere. Layla also played a face role as Regal's valet. The IC title match was very quick and was over before I had chance to get back to my seat. The same could be said about the D'Lo Brown-Mike Knox match. D'Lo got a big reaction which he seemed to appreciate. Shame he had to job to the man with the ugliest beard I've ever seen.

JBL was mostly cheered during his promo, but did great to turn it around when he started insulting the Queen and England. I really enjoyed the promo and subsequent interaction with Cryme Tyme. I expect them to be added to Shawn Michaels' Survivor Series team, while maybe Miz and Morrison will join JBL's. At this point though, I'm just guessing.

Batista got a mixed reception at first but that got better during the night. A small boring chant started whenever Cody Rhodes was on offense against Batista.

Rey Mysterio and Kane was a little dicey in parts, with some botched spots. Some people around me were grumbling about the lack of weapons used and questioning the No DQ stipulation.

Chris Jericho put in a great performance tonight. His promo and facials ensured plenty of heat and the Last Man Standing match had some cool spots. The Walls of Jericho on top of the taxi was my personal favourite. Personally, I was cheering Jericho, as in my eyes, HBK will always be the man who screwed Bret.

After the cameras stopped rolling, JBL came back out to beat on Shawn Michaels. HBK recovered, and nailed Sweet Chin Music to send the crowd home happy.

All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and I'm looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow when two weeks worth of Smackdown are taped.