Detailed Live Fan Report from "Monday Night Raw" - June 5, 2017

It’s always nice to see whatever the cameras don’t see.

One of our fans, William Moore, attended this past week’s “Raw” from Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Special thanks to him for sending us a detailed report from the show, which you can find below:

I got to the arena at about 6:45 with a 7:30 bell time and at that time it was pretty empty. At one point, one of the crew members was coming around and happened to be in my area, looking at empty seats and deciding what to do with them. Those seats eventually got filled up. 7:30 bell time comes for the Main Event taping for the WWE Network.

The first match was with 2 people I never heard of. The 2^nd match was with Bo Dallas and Curt Hawkins. There was nothing too spectacular here. Bo did get a nice pop, while a good amount of heat went to Hawkins. It was a decent match, went back and forth, and Bo ended up taking a good shot that looked like a botch going under the ropes. Kind of like what happened to Enzo a few months back. Bo laid motionless for a bit but all that did was give a good sell to the crowd. BO rebounded and won the match.

Michael Cole is introduced and was booed out of the building. Corey Graves was already at the desk from doing main event. Booker T was introduced to a huge pop. We go live and I have the crap scared out of me because of the pyro for how loud it actually was. I was actually able to see myself a few times only because I knew it was me sitting there. Camera did not zoom in close enough to get the Sign on TV.

We open up with Wyatt vs Reigns. Wyatt entrance is great live and for who that watched saw that on TV. (side note: our arena here is not that big as it seems on TV and Michael Cole could not pronounce our city. That’s why he only said Pennsylvania in the opening.)

In comes the BIG DOG and Dear God, I thought I was in Philly and the Cowboys showed up. He got so much heat, that you most likely could hear it outside. Nothing spectacular happened during the commercials for this. The best thing that happened was shown on the replay they showed after commercial. After the match, Roman stayed in the ring a little longer and took a slow stroll to the back while being booed out of the arena.

They showed WWE commercials on the score board during TV commercials.

I have no idea what was up with the blue beams in the crowd half way through the match, but they were annoying.

Next up, Elias Sampson sneaks to the ring when the lights are out. We come back from break and he could not say our city right either. What a spot monkey he was. When he got the city wrong, he got some pretty good heat. After their little spat, Sampson went up the ramp and out while Dean went out a side door close to where I was sitting for some reason.

The Hardys were in town; I got conformation from a friend who knew someone that works at a local gym by the arena and they were there around 230pm eastern time working out.

Samoa Joe and Heyman segment. Reaction to Samoa Joe was not nearly as loud as it was on TV. I don’t know if it picked up on TV, but with it being in Northeastern PA, there was an ECW chant that tried to pick up. Crowd started getting hype, because we thought Lesnar was going to come out towards the end of the segment. When commercial hit for that segment, Heyman was talking out by the refs through a side curtain on the far side of the arena.

Next match was Sheamus/Cesaro vs Heath Slater and Rhyno. There was an attempt of “he has kids” chat, which died before it even started. Crowd was expecting the Hardys after that squash match. No luck yet again. From what the rumor was, the reasons that the Hardys were not there, was due to being sent home due to Matt’s wife going into labor with their 2^nd child. They were originally scheduled to compete against those two.

Next was Mustafa Ali vs. TJP. Nothing to really tell here because basically no one cared. I looked around and I say about a good 25% of the crowd went to the bathroom, get a drink, food etc. the crowd was as dead as it sounded on TV. After the match I jumped as much as TJP did when the fireworks went off for Neville. Where they had their little spat on the stage is right where I was sitting off to the right. If the camera would of came over a little bit more My sign would have been seen. Great pop for Neville when the camera went off. He ran and grabbed his belt and walked back while TJP waited for him to do so.

Next up Kalisto vs Titus O’Neil.

I don’t know if it was shown on TV, but his flip was a botch and he almost bit it on his entrance. There was next to no reaction for Titus. Nothing to really tell here, as you can see from what was shown on TV, only thing that was relevant off air was that Apollo Crews was laughing at Titus while walking up the ramp.

During the Enzo and Cass segment, the workers flooded the ring to get that cheesy set up for Miz ready, while Maryse was introduced to the crowd. Once in the ring, they had a crew member holding that big wrapped box on stage closest to me. After Ambrose did the dirty deeds, the Z balloon went up to the celling. Ambrose then went back through the curtain as The Miz laid ringside during the commercial.

Gallows and Anderson did the blind entrance before Enzo came out to introduce the Big Show. HUGE POP. Again, I jumped from the pyro. Crowd took to Big Show and Enzo skit. A lot louder SAWFT chant then picked up on TV. Crowd started laughing while big show was holding Enzo waiting for gallows to get up. 1,2,3 over. During commercial, Big Show entertained the fans and waved to us all in the ring while Enzo was being Enzo Then again, Show waved while going backstage.

Crowd showed no interest in the quick R-Truth segment. You were able to hear a pin drop.

Nia Jax vs. Alexa Bliss. Nia is introduced and this was a very long commercial break. Nia was just walking around the ring talking to the ref waiting for the break to be over. A decent pop for Alexa, even though it didn’t come over the TV that well. Overall, the match was not that great with the fans. They enjoyed Dana Brooke and Mickie James getting squashed at the end more than the match.

Crowd got excited again when Brock called Heyman, thinking he might show during the main event.

Samoa Joe vs Seth Rollins. No reaction for Joe at all in the arena this time around. Crowd loved Rollins. Rollins took a hard fall to the outside during the commercial break, where it looked like he tweaked his knee. Good sell job. Crowd still engaged. Back from commercial. Where Rollins hit the turnbuckle with his head from Joe taking his leg out, he really hit his head good. People started leaving before the match was over to beat traffic and get out of the parking lot. The parking lot is a nightmare. That was a mistake on their part.

After the cameras went off air, Wyatt came out again to double team Rollins. Then the surprise of Finn Balor came out to help to a HUGE pop. They beat them down for a little bit and sent them back to the back. No official dark match was had. Crowd was engaged and loved doing the entrance for Balor while he came out. Then after they cleared the ring, he had Rollins doing it. Crowd went nuts again and Balor laughed. They entertained the crowd while walking out and Balor signed a few autographs at ringside then both left. Ring announcer officially thanked the crowd and end of show.

Biggest heat of the night: Roman Reigns

Biggest pop: Finn balor after the cameras went off the air.

Heyman got the 2^nd biggest pop, and Sampson got the 2^nd biggest heat when he screwed up saying the name of our city.

Overall ,atmosphere was pretty good and once cameras went on, it could have been truly sold out like Michael Cole said in the opening.

Other than the opening match and main event, crowd was kind of stale. This shows to me that WWE needs new writers.

I had a blast and glad I went to Raw, since I missed SmackDown 900 when it was there. I thought overall it was a good show. I give it a C+.