What you DIDN'T see on TV was Justin Roberts making a preshow announcement that, during his match the previous night at Wrestlemania 29, *CM Punk voice* Dwayne had torn some muscles in his abs and wouldn't be there. Crowd's response? “BULL-SHIT! BULL-SHIT! BULL-SHIT!” While I'm sure Vince McMahon was having 3.8 aneurysms backstage attempting to re-write the show, he had a full house of fans not only from around the world, but who were smart enough to not buy into WWE's crap. This comes into play later as well.
What does the show start with? Oh, you know, new WWE Champ John Cena. Same old shit. Except these boos were LOUD. Possibly louder than Mania, and that had 65,000 more people (give or take). John Cena plays off this by ENCOURAGING us to boo him, which we do. Cue a shitty promo and a few minutes later, we get Mark Henry coming out to confront Cena. Nice “Sexual Chocolate” chants ring out, and then something odd happened: Cena cut a decent promo, and we all listened while he talked. HUH. Funny how fans will appreciate your non corny crap, John.
Honestly, I had to go back and check my notes to remember what happened in between that opening segment & the Ziggler cash in (which I'll get to). Daniel Bryan AKA DBD (Daniel Bryan Danielson) took on Big E Carlton Banks. They were smart and didn't play Kane's opening pyro/music, so the crowd got to serenade DBD with the oh so over “YES!” chants. DBD lost to Big E's finisher that's supposed to hurt. Then we had an Intercontinental championship defense by THE MIZ vs Wade Barrett, in a rematch of the preshow match the previous night. The crowd somehow TRANSPORTED THEMSELVES TO FUCKING ENGLAND! “Wade Barrett's Barmy Army!” *clap clap clap* “Let's go Barrett!” *clap clap clap clap clap* The entire. Fucking. Match. Barrett winning the IC title back was a shock, but the pop he got was like he just won the WWE title.
Then, we get to the good stuff. Albertoooooooooooooooooooo Del Riooooooooooooooooooo vs Swags & Zeb in a handicap match. Sure, there were chants of “USA! USA!” and “Tag in Zeb! Tag in Zeb!”, but who the fuck cares what happened during that match. Del Rio's ankle was hurt, and as soon as the doctor got in the ring, there were SCREAMS for Ziggler. His music hit, and that place exploded like you haven't heard in 25 years. I can't put it into words, but personally there was so much adrenaline running through my body that I had to hold myself up to stay standing; My body was shaking like I had just run a mile. The crowd was so into that match, hanging on every second, and when Dolph finally got it done, it was one of those moments you could tell a star was born that night. As a HEEL, Dolph Ziggler was getting the biggest pop of the PG kiddie era. That should tell you something.
So after that we get a rest segment, right? NOPE. Vince decides to send out THE FUCKING UNDERTAKER next. He of course gets a pop from the crowd, he's Undertaker. He gets not two sentences into his promo when... SIERRA. HOTEL. INDIA. ECHO. LIMA. DELTA. SHIELD. Music hits and I lose my shit again. Standing up, screaming “oh shit! OH SHIT! OH SHIT!” at the top of my lungs while everyone else is in shock. If Shield had gotten in the ring, we would have had a second explosion in that building. Undertaker took off his jacket and the crowd started building again. Then the biggest fucking explosion of fire I've ever seen hits, Hell No runs to the ring and the place goes beserk. Any other Raw this or the Ziggler cash in would have been the highlight, but oh no, we weren't done yet.
WWE decided Randy Orton would face Sheamus, with the winner getting Big Show. Okay, so that should be a decent match, Sheamus is okay, Orton can have a good match if he really really REALLY tried... nope. 4 minutes in and it was “BO-RING! BO-RING! BO-RING!” You guys all heard the chants, and there are WAY too many to list here, but some of the chants that didn't make the broadcast were as follows: “We want X-Pac!” “Justin Roberts!” “Chris Benoit! Chris Benoit!” “We want pretzels!” etc, etc, etc. Thats the first crowd I can remember that instead of being dead for a shitty match, not only were vocal, but were MORE ENTERTAINING than the match! Anyone who was thinking of tuning out during Orton-Sheamus probably stayed to watch the crowd. Unheard of.
Then, the biggest chant of the night: FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO made an appearance, and what does the crowd do? Sing his fucking music. Loud. Not just during his entrance, not just during his match with Kofi Kingston (that was ruined by Y2J), but for the rest of the night into the next morning. We sang during the Tons of Funk match, we sang during Henry-Cena, we sang after the show went off. And now, Fandango's theme song “ChaChaLaLa” is top 5 in 4 countries. Another instant star.
Yes, there will be wild & rowdy crowds in the future. Yes, crowds after last Monday will still make moments, stars, etc. But there is no way you will see a Monday Night Raw crowd like that during the PG Era again. I hope they put that Raw on the Mania DVD set.
WE ARE AWESOME! *clap clap clap clap clap*