Credit: Jake Hromada and Prowrestling.net
My longtime buddy and I had gotten to the arena as the gates opened. It’s our tradition to attend Raw when it comes to Cleveland. I have been to every WWE event in Cleveland since Unforgiven in 2008. We were on the camera side at the club level, so we could see just about everything.
The show started with the Dusty Rhodes tribute they played to begin Money in the Bank, and the clip was played in front of the live crowd who paid tribute to the legend in a moment of silence. Then erupting in “Dusty” chants afterward.
Seth Rollins came out to his usual heat, until he dropped “Cleveland, this is what a title looks like, and certainly Johnny Idiot-Face over there will never bring you a title. LeBron James isn’t bringing a title back to Cleveland.” That set the crowd off and had me laughing. It was a solid heel promo from Rollins. Dean Ambrose coming out and brawling with Rollins got a big pop, Cleveland was hot for the Cincinnati native.
The promo backstage between The Authority and Rollins foreshadowed Brock Lesnar coming back in a way, but I wasn’t sure how exactly they were going to bring him back. It wasn’t until we were told that “Rollins’ Future” would close the show that I knew the rumors could be true.
Sheamus came out to a decent reaction, he drew some heat from the crowd, but nothing compared to Rollins’ reaction to open the show. The match between him and Ambrose was pretty good, as Ambrose sold the knee injury from Money in the Bank well. The crowd booed Sheamus when he began to walk towards the back, and then Orton’s music hit and that woke Cleveland up. The crowd loved seeing Ambrose win, and we awaited the RKO on Sheamus after the match but he slipped away just in the nick of time. The first hour or so of the show had the crowd pumped up to start this way too long three-hour journey.
R-Truth came to the ring with a positive reaction from the crowd, but the match he had with Barrett was a waste. Barrett shouldn’t be involved with Truth, but it was something for the crowd to relax with after the hot start to the show.
Cleveland isn’t a pro-Cena city, and it showed again tonight when the majority of the crowd cheered Kevin Owens. I’m a huge Owens supporter, and his promo on his actions after his loss to John Cena on Sunday was well delivered. There were kids all around us, and they were upset when Owens said Cena wasn’t there tonight. As much as I wanted to sing “John Cena sucks” along with his music, I was glad to see Cena was selling Owens’ attack.
The match Owens had with Ziggler was the best match of the night. They had plenty of believable falls near the end of the match. The want for the hometown favorite to get the win over the arrogant champion was shown from the crowd. Ziggler always gets a huge ovation when he comes to Cleveland, since he went to Kent State and openly expresses his love for the city. Both guys worked hard and got the well-deserved reaction from the crowd.
The promo with Paige and the Divas in the back didn’t get a reaction. Are you surprised?
Randy Orton’s music hit once again and Cleveland showed him love. His match with Kane was middle-of-the-road, and once Sheamus’ music hit I knew what was coming next. Kane made it a No Holds Barred match which allowed Sheamus to Brogue Kick Orton and helped Kane pin the Viper. Cleveland didn’t like the outcome, but it puts heat on Sheamus and moves their program further.
Ryback came out to a positive reaction from the crowd, while Big Show drew some boos. If you thought you heard the crowd cheer for the Miz, you heard correctly. Cleveland is the only place where you’ll hear Miz get cheered, unless he bashes it in a promo like he’s done in the past. If you’re from Cleveland and on TV regularly doing sub-par things, I guess we’re forced to like you. We’ll take all that we can get sometimes.
The Reigns/Wyatt promo was alright, sometimes I feel like we see too much Wyatt on the Titantron. The promo would’ve been much more captivating face-to-face but that’s not how Wyatt works. Reigns did get a nice reaction from the fans, and he made his mood very clear. Once Wyatt brought out a picture of Reigns and his daughter, that caught the crowd’s attention. It felt more personal, and it was a minor hook to their program.
For a Diva, Paige came out to a good reaction, but as always the reactions for her can be better. She’s the best Diva in the locker room, it’s just the booking doesn’t treat her like it. The Bellas got some heat though! I think that means they’re finally heels, Jason Powell! Other than the entrances, the match was a snooze for most fans.
The Machine Gun Kelly performance was mostly for the adult fans at the Q, and since he’s from Cleveland it worked for most of us, but I’m sure the TV audience could care less since he’s not all that mainstream. I follow MGK so I didn’t mind his performance, but when Kevin Owens came out and powerbombed him through the table off the stage, that made my night. To see my current favorite wrestler put an artist I follow through a table off the stage, I couldn’t believe it, and that led me to laugh because I enjoyed it. The Q was shocked with what they saw, I believe my friend and I were the only ones in our section to go wild for it. Kudos to MGK for taking the bump and giving more heat to Owens.
The “New Day sucks” chants are fun for the first couple of times around, and Cleveland ate that up. Both Neville and the Prime Time Players came out to an even reaction surprisingly (I wasn’t expecting the Players to get as much as they did). Neville hit the Red Arrow to make our day, because honestly that’s all we really wanted to see.
Rumors were swirling about Brock Lesnar’s return, and I just couldn’t wait for it to finally happen. The whole promo between the Authority and Seth Rollins seemed to last years, because we all knew Lesnar was behind the curtain. Once his music hit, the place went nuts. Seeing Lesnar sport a “Suplex City” shirt with “Cleveland, OH” on the front of it was special. That t-shirt will make money if they customize it with every city he appears at. It was a good way to close the show, because the crowd swallowed the moment and gave Lesnar the ovation of the night. I’m excited to see where they go with Lesnar’s redemption from here.
Overall, the show started hot, then the middle of it kind of lagged. Lesnar’s appearance made it worth the wait though, because c’mon, who doesn’t love seeing the pair of Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar in person?
Biggest Pops
Brock Lesnar
Randy Orton
Dean Ambrose
Biggest Heat
Seth Rollins
Kevin Owens
New Day
