Thanks to Steve Graessle for sending this in:
I was on my way to the arena about to pull into the parking lot to the US Bank Arena when traffic was stopped. Approximately 2 ambulances and three fire trucks drove past my car blocking the entrance to the arena. I arrived in front of the arena at approximately 7:15 eastern time to see roughly 8,000 people standing outside the arena. Word got around of the fire in the arena in which everyone was evacuated to the outside. At approximately 7:30 they began letting everyone back inside. The first match started at 7:45. It's nice to know that Cincinnati has not had a Raw in 2 years, but you can put it in the record books this place was on FIRE!!!….literally.
Dark match before Raw: Cody Rhodes defeated Zack Ryder–not sure if this will be a superstars match or not, presuming it is not.
The best matches on Raw were: Sheamus versus Daniel Bryan–on a side note the crowd was very into this match especially with the whole "yes" chants. Not sure the reasoning for Bryan telling the fans to stop chanting "yes" when everything he did he held up his hands saying this phrase.
Tag team match with Ziggler, Jericho, Christian and Miz–overall very entertaining match.
Cena versus Big Show– The crowd was very into this match chanting "let's go cena" and "cena sucks."
At times it seemed like the crowd was very hot and cold. They were chanting a lot for the above matches but very quiet for all the other matches. Not sure how this appeared on TV as I have not watched it yet.
After the show was over John Laurinaitis came out and went after Cena with a steel chair. Cena dodged an attempted chair shot and hit the Attitude Adjustment. Cena then gave the Attitude Adjustment to Big Show after Show tried to attack him.
Biggest Pops:
Cena
Randy Orton
CM Punk–not sure why fans were cheering for him so much when you would think the heel persona was established last week.
Biggest Heat:
Big Show
Vickie Guerrero
A little bit on Ziggler
I noticed they played the same video packages three times (Triple H and Lesnar, CM punk promo from beginning of the night, Summer Slam promo)–not sure if this was shown on TV or just for the audience.
Hope this helps. Overall pretty descent show.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
