By Greg Parks, Torch specialist

A Tale of Two Tapings
By Greg Parks, Torch specialist

Attending both Raw and Smackdown in the same week was quite the experience. I've always wanted to do the back-to-back tapings, and I finally had a chance to this year. What struck me most when looking back and comparing the events is how different the crowds were.

I will say, though, that both crowds were hot throughout the events. The Raw crowd was good, and the Smackdown crowd was better, I thought. At least, until ECW. One small difference, as I wrote in my Smackdown spoilers, was the attitude of the crowd toward the dark matches. I actually felt sorry for Atlas DaBone and Drew McIntyre at the Raw taping. The crowd was all over them, even chanting "boring" less than a minute in. But at the Smackdown taping, the crowd loved Kofi Kingston (despite him not actually being on TV yet, aside from vignettes) and they hated Dave Taylor, who got some of the most heel heat of the night.

The other thing that I noticed was the make-up of the crowd. I saw many more families and kids at the Smackdown taping. This was one of the reasons the fans started filing out during ECW, as it was a school night and the kids needed to get home. Despite Raw running pretty much the same time the night before, there wasn't a mass exodus like there was Tuesday. Add in the half-hour delay between Smackdown ending and ECW beginning, and some kids became restless, leading their parents to head home.

Those who did stick around for ECW seemed to be a lot harsher than they were for Smackdown. Just the people around me started yelling and making cat-calls at the wrestlers during ECW, which didn't happen during Smackdown. Combine that with the rush to the exits, and I think it's pretty clear that if WWE is serious about the brand, they need to think about taping ECW differently.

The atmosphere was different as well. There's something about being in the crowd for a live Raw taping that's just different than sitting in the stands for a taping of Smackdown. It's more electric and I think there's more of an "anything-can-happen" feel.

It was a fun two-day experience, which was helped by two pretty good shows. Even a non-wrestling fan (who was with me for Smackdown) has to be impressed by WWE live. If you've never been to a show live, even an independent card for that matter, I urge you to check it out next time an organization comes around. There really is nothing like being in the arena.

Greg Parks is a regular contributor to PWTorch.com. Listen to him every other Monday night in the VIP audio section with Torch columnist James Caldwell for the Raw post-game audio analysis.

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