I finally went to a live televised WWE event after many years of being a wrestling fan. I've been to two house shows, and RoH show, and a local indy so I'm not completely new to live wrestling, but this is on a whole different level. The Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids isn't a huge place, but it was the biggest I've been to and the way it's set up looked awesome and even up in the second level I had a good view of the ring.
I almost balked at the price of tickets for far away seats, but I'm glad I didn't. Granted this was a really good episode of Raw, but I think the experience still would have been awesome with just a standard Raw.
It was especially awesome to be there live for the return of Christian who's return I've been awaiting a long time and I'm a big fan of his. He pulled out a lot of high flying offense, and seeing somebody jump off the top rope to the outside looks good on TV, but it looks crazy in person.
It was fun to be part of a loud crowd, even at the times where I disagreed with their opinions especially concerning Sheamus and Randy Orton. I was really bummed how much louder the crowd was for Orton over D-Bry. Although I had the loudest, most annoying Randy Orton fan sitting right behind me, and all her fandom was because he's attractive. Ending of the match came off weird without commentary, but other than it was a good match, but I'm a huge D-Bry fan so of course I liked it.
It was cool to see William Regal in action, and even better to see Cesaro wrestle as I'm a huge fan of him and he looked good in this match. Curtis Axel vs. Sin Cara was a fun match as well, and I'm still behind a Sin Cara push. His initial debut was a little rough with botches as a lot of wrestlers weren't familiar with his style, but that's not the case anymore and he looked great against Cesaro last week.
The Mark Henry faux retirement speech was amazing especially coming after Cena's typical Cena victory speech. The tears and everything he said was perfect and I was hoping he was going to turn on Cena, but I don't like Cena. I was really expecting it when he gave the belt back to Cena he'd just clobber him. The tears sold me on everything being real though so when the World's Strongest Slam happened I was surprised and happy and it was just a fucking perfect segment.
The main event was wonderful. Like most people I'm a big fan of CM Punk so him taking on Del Rio was a nice treat. A nice match from those two before the ending which was well done, but still a disappointment. I can't wait to see those two get together again for a big match. Ziggler leaping off the stage onto Del Rio after the match was fucking awesome to see. Of course that is overshadowed by the appearance of Brock Lesnar which was awesome. That dude just has a presence that's so great. Him facing off with Punk and faking like he's going to talk to hit the F-5 was phenomenal. I'm excited about that feud and how Heyman plays it during it.
After Raw went off we got to see Cena vs. Ryback in a table match. Solid match with several nice table teases before Cena hits an AA through the table for the win.
The Pyro is really goddamn loud when you're in the arena for it happening. Makes it seem even more intense. The crowd reactions for Punk, Cena, and Ziggler were off the charts and awesome. Kaitlyn got a really good pop for her music and entrance which is funny that it was immediately followed by a "You tapped out" chant. A really awesome night and it's definitely up there with seeing RoH's Throwdown live. Suffice to say I'm glad I did it and I'm going to have to pay attention to when WWE shows up in my area so I can get better seats and maybe plan on getting a hotel instead of making a 6 hour round trip in one day.
There was an eight year old boy sitting close to me who was the most excited person I have ever seen. He was jumping around and cheering for his favorites the whole time and it was so awesome to watch.
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