On July 7th, 2014, I had the pleasure of attending Monday Night Raw, live at the Bell Centre in beautiful Montreal, Canada. I scored a pair of tickets during the pre-sale and decided to take my wife, who is also a big wrestling fan, along with me. Here are some of the things I witnessed and wrote about the night they happened.
I won’t bore you with the details of the supper I attended before the show, with my wife and two good friends, as I am sure you are here for wrestling and rightfully so. I had the Chicken Poutine at St. Hubert and it was fantastic. We all did, actually. Moving on!
We arrived at the arena at 7:10pm, a good 20 minutes before the pre-show started. The pre-show usually consists of two matches, taped for an episode of Superstars or some small program that airs on the WWE Network. In tonight’s pre-show, Adam Rose beat Titus O’Neil and Curtis Axel, with Ryback at ringside, defeated Tyson Kidd, who was accompanied by his wife Natalya. Adam Rose got a decent pop from the crowd upon making his entrance but it wasn’t fully appreciated until after the crowd started to sing along to his song. The match itself was rather slow-paced and sloppy, granted that will happen with a bigger opponent like O’Neil, and the finish came with Rose hitting his finisher. Axel defeated Kidd in a spirited bout that saw Ryback steal the show. Several Goldberg chants were made and Ryback had a blast with it, mocking the crowd and laughing while doing some of Goldberg’s old taunts. There was even a “Feed Me More” chant which drew some confusion in Ryback.
As the official Raw went on the air, Roman Reigns came out immediately and the crowd erupted. From where I was sitting, I got the impression that I’d be pretty close to where he comes out through the crowd. He was more than just close, he came out in the section next to mine. He appears bigger in person, especially when he is a few feet away from you. His promo was well received and the crowd especially loved him acknowledging the “Cena Sucks” chants. Kane’s interruption caught me off guard and I jumped when the pyros went off.
The Usos and Luke Harper/Erick Rowan was an excellent match, probably the best of the night. The crowd was eating up all the false finishes and large spots, especially Luke Harper’s sit-down powerbomb. Montreal couldn’t decide who the liked more, chanting “Let’s go Wyatts, let’s go Usos” a few times during the match. It didn’t seem to matter who won, the crowd was ready to cheer the winner regardless. The only disappointing part of this match was the random “CM Punk” chant that broke out. We get it. You miss him. He left by his own choice so it’s time to deal with it.
We get a backstage segment between Kane, Randy Orton and Seth Rollins. Fans weren’t paying too much attention to it save for the end when Kane mentions that he is starting to hate Randy. Crowd “ooooh’ed” at the statement, meanwhile the kid sitting in front of me is tapping away on his Samsung Galaxy. Way to god, bud, you paid close to $100 to watch your phone. STAY AT HOME!
Up next, Alicia Fox takes on Nikki Bella in a one arm tied behind your back match. Nikki obliges, Alicia doesn’t and then she proceeds to attack Nikki, who is helpless and cannot defend herself. The attack was mediocre and the fans seemed to not care about it at all. “What is the point of this?” my wife asked.
Rusev versus Rob Van Dam followed that waste of Red Bull and a mat canvas (seriously, Alicia Fox Steve Austin’d two Red Bulls and dropped one). What came off as a good match despite a lack of RVD’s goods, what stole the show for me was the few gentlemen in the front row that whipped out their cell phones and filmed Lana walking back and forth. It was so sad, yet hilarious to watch. The concussion pyros that blasted when the Russian flag was dropped spooked my wife and the crowd sang the Canadian National anthem during the match, to mock Rusev.
Dean Ambrose faced Randy Orton in a one-on-one encounter and the match itself was good. Randy Orton drew tons of heat on himself by repeatedly taunting the crowd. At one point, Ambrose had climbed the turnbuckle, looking as if he was going to attempt and axe-handle smash to the back of Orton and he jumped… and landed flat-footed behind Orton. It looked awkward and the folks in my section attempted and failed to get a “You F’ed up” chant going. Meanwhile, this kid in front of me is on Facebook, liking some girl’s status. Apparently she ate some lasagna last week and he found it interesting. Why did he pay to come to the show? Maybe he was forced.
Renee Young interviews Cena and they are interrupted by Reigns. The crowd didn’t pay much attention to this and neither did I. I did notice Cena refer to Reigns as “Holmes” and thought, “Why would he say that?” Doesn’t matter.
Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler put on a match that was expected to be average but turned out to be good. Fandango was at ringside, which explains the man in a hoodie that was sneaked into the area and slipped underneath the ring during a commercial break, because he didn’t come out before the match or anything. He just appeared at ringside when the match started. The crowd enjoyed Fandango dancing and we all sang along and did the finger poke dance but amidst our joy, Ziggler lost his match, and the crowd booed. Then Fandango’s theme started up again and we all forgot about Ziggler and sang along again.
Backstage, we see Star Dust talking to a wig. The crowd pops for him and Goldust arrives shortly later, engaging in a bizarre conversation. The oddest part was when Goldust accidentally spit on his brother, which drew some laughs from my section and an “EWWWW, gross!” from my wife.
Next, Fandango explains to Layla that what he did out there was in no way reflecting his feelings for Summer. He ensures her that there is nothing left, just as Summer Rae appears and twists her body around just enough to tease Fandango. The crowd, specifically the male demographic, cheered and whistled.
The moment I was waiting for came next; Bret Hart returns. Jerry Lawler was out first to a thunderous round of cheers. He gave thanks to the Royal Victoria Hospital and their doctors and nurses for taking care of him (remember the heart-attack he suffered the last time Raw was in Montreal?) which got the crowd cheering louder, including myself, due to the fact that all three of my children were born in that hospital. Jerry got a generous “Lawler” chant which he appreciated very much and then, the moment came…
Guitar screech, and the fans all stood and cheered. Bret and Montreal have this bond that will never die. After Bret talks about the goosebumps and how Montreal is the greatest crowd in the world (seriously, thank you Bret) he is interrupted by… Damien Sandhart. Dressed in the Hitman’s attire and dawning a grey wig, Sandhart addressed the Shawn Michaels screwjob incident to get heat on himself but was quickly stopped by Bret, who delivered a punch, knocking Sandhart to the outside.
This set up for a Sheamus vs. Sandow match. There wasn’t much to write home and the crowd appeared to be out of it. Nobody really cared outside of Sandow’s nip-up and Sheamus’ Brogue Kick. Besides that, pretty standard filler match.
Backstage, Miz reads a letter and nobody cares. The guy sitting to my right commented on the “fan” who wrote the letter, how his last name was Russo. “Typical. All things Russo are awful,” he said. I laughed.
Chris Jericho got a nice ovation despite the fact that we were pretty drained. Miz came out to little reaction and these two fought a pretty decent match. I enjoyed the little story of how Miz did not want to get hit in the face and someone near me yelled, “BREAK HIS F’N NOSE!” Miz taps out quickly and then the fun begins… Bray Wyatt appears and to my surprise, the arena doesn’t go Undertaker pitch black. We saw the stage crew bringing out the rocking chair and Bray Wyatt quickly walking out and sitting in the chair. Doesn’t matter, he’s out and cuts a great promo as us fans rush to bring out our cell phones to put up a light. It truly is a beautiful sight to see. I took a moment to look around the arena and I encourage everyone reading this to attend even a WWE Live event, just to witness this moment.
The Funkadactyls lost but who cares? We got to see AJ Lee AND Paige! At the same time, no less! The match itself was nothing to write home about but AJ and Paige were great. Afterwards, we got a break-up catfight between Cameron and Naomi. A few gentlemen were captivated by how real the hair-pulling and soft punches to the back of the head were, while my wife sat there, signaling a gun with her hand and pointing it to her head.
Cesaro and Kofi Kingston put on a very average performance but it was Cesaro’s pre-match speech, followed by the crowd reaction that really made this fun. A “Tu est pourri” chant broke out, which if French for “You are garbage” or rotten, depending on how you look at it. The chant came to fruition after Cesaro declared the people of Québec weren’t really French and referred to them as “pourri”. After the match, Big E came out to absolutely no reaction, to save Kofi from another beatdown at the hands of Cesaro. A kid behind me yelled, “WHY HIM?”
John Cena is in his dressing room, getting ready for his match against Seth Rollins when, GASP! Rollins enters. He sticks to cliché by reminding Cena that he holds the briefcase and that he can cash it in at any time. Cena says he’s always ready, sticking to equally mind-numbing cliché chit-chat.
In what was quite possibly the most inspirational thing I have ever seen at a wrestling event, Bo Dalls defeated his toughest opponent yet in El Torito. The match itself was comedy gold. Bo yelling “NOT COOL!” at Torito, Torito hitting a spinning heel kick to the groin of Bo without the referee noticing despite the fact that he was right there, Bo’s Bo-dog, using the middle rope instead of the top rope because fo Torito’s size, and the victory lap that saw Bo knock over Torito. I couldn’t help myself. I laughed hysterically at it all. You have to see it to believe it but there is a reason his cheers have increased on televised events. It seems like the only way they can get the crowd against him is to have him interrupt Daniel Bryan every week.
John Cena and Seth Rollins put on an okay match, where the crowd woke up and engaged in the usual battle of Cena supporters and Cena haters. The three Cena fans next to my wife started chanting along to the Fruity Pebbles chant, which confused me because this isn’t a positive chant for Cena. Anyways, my mind quickly wandered and once again… THIS KID ON HIS PHONE. My wife told me I shouldn’t care, but it’s the principle. What if my kid did this? I buy him a ticket, he goes to a show and plays on his phone for three hours. Seriously guys, put the phones away and enjoy the show. Nobody cares about your poor-quality photos taken from your equally poor-quality phone. You want to know what captures the image before you better than your phone? YOUR EYES!
Oh yeah, the match! Well out comes Kane, just as Rollins was getting ready to tap out to Cena’s STF. I noticed Orton running through the crowd and sat back, ready to watch a beatdown. Reigns came out to make the save, Superman punching both Kane and Orton, before taking a briefcase to the back. Cena took a briefcase to the head* (*hands, actually) and Rollins teased a cash in before Ambrose came out to attack Rollins, which the crowd enjoyed. As the cameras faded out, the remaining picture you got was Cena and Reigns raising each other’s arms.
WHAT YOU DIDN’T SEE: After the show went off the air, Cena and Reigns continued the battle of raising each other’s arms, getting the crowd to cheer for Reigns and boo Cena. They then took part in a turnbuckle climbing contest, to get the crowd on their side and of course, the result remained the same. The Wyatt family came out to ambush Reigns and Cena but their attempts fell short. Bray fled from the scene quickly and Rowan and Harper ate Attitude Adjustments and Spears to send the crowd home happy. Cena left and Reigns stayed behind to sign autographs, slap fives and fist bump, much to the enjoyment of the fans in the front row. My wife also loved the gesture.
As someone who has attended pretty much every live show in Montreal of the last decade, this one was a lot of fun. Not the greatest card and the crowd got drained pretty quickly but the good out-weighed the bad and I got to party with the rest of the Bell Centre. Because when Adam Rose arrives, it’s party time all the time!
Sign of the Night: A tie between “Emma Stole my Ipad!” and “AJ, where is he?”
Special honor: The Juicy Drop commercial. Senor Sour’s “UNO MAS!” slogan was said about a million times after the commercials ended. The crowd had a lot of fun with it.
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Main Photo via wwe.com
