More Live RAW Notes: What Happened After The Show
Credit: Aggie Darkhorse and Pwinsider
- I just got back from the show not too long ago. I took a buddy, who is a very casual wrestling fan, along so we missed a good chunk of the Superstars taping and left before the dark match main event (which I believe was Batista vs. Sheamus vs. John Cena). I won't go too far in-depth on live thoughts from the show, as I'm sure there wasn't a whole lot you guys watching at home missed out on, but here are a brief few highlights.
- Cheech & Chong were tolerable. It was silly, but nothing that really hurt the show like the Dennis Miller Cavalcade of Suck, Jerry Springer, or Raw's Got Talent. The live crowd ate all their segments up – which, considering they were content with entertaining themselves with "Boomer Sooner" chants during every commercial break, wasn't exactly shocking.
- Jim Ross made an unsurprising "surprise" appearance. First thing that jumped out to me was how good JR was looking. Looked like he had lost a bit of weight, and looked to have made a great recovery from the health issues that had sidelined him. Ross announced that this was the first-ever WWE Raw sellout at the Ford Center, and got in some cheap plugs for WrestleMania, and – of course – his BBQ restaurants.
- Batista was positively fantastic in his promo with Cena. It wasn't very long ago that I thought the guy was a slug in the ring and dull as a character, but that man has found himself in his latest heel turn. Batista's promo was so strong that I think he kind of won over a few people in the crowd towards the end. Thumbs-up to whoever made the call for his change in wardrobe too... it was just asking a little much to buy into the menace of a monster when he wears baby polo shirts.
- I blinked and missed the end of the Santino/Swagger match. I was a bit surprised Swagger got such a lackluster reaction from the crowd considering he's from just up the road in Perry and wrestled at OU (though it's probably fair to say very, very few people in that crowd follow college wrestling).
- Overall, a pretty solid show. Nothing too spectacular beyond Batista, but a good stepping stone on the way to WrestleMania.
After RAW went off the air:
- When RAW went off the air Sheamus came back and threw HHH into the ring. Batista's music hits and he said you don't just beat down a guy like HHH, you take them out, let me show you. He runs to the ring and just before they start beating on HHH, Cena's music hits and he runs to the ring. The Sheamus and Batista clear the ring and Cena gets on the mic and says something to the effect of "let's have a tag team match right now" They all get up and a tag match begins. Went back and forth for a little bit in a real good match and eventually Cena hits the ring and tears up Sheamus does the five knuckle shuffle on Shaemus and then looks at Batista begging him to come in the ring. Dave then decides to walk out of the arena, looks like we wont get to see them go at it until mania. Cena turns back around and gives the AA to Sheamus then looks to HHH who wants in. HHH is tagged in and gives Sheamus the suck it before pedigreeing him and getting the pinfall victory. HHH and Cena then spend about 10 minutes walking around the ring high fiving all the fans. Good times were had by all.