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WWE News
2/18 WWE Raw HOLT Report: Mike Roe's in-person report on what the crowd in Anaheim saw that TV viewers didn't Feb 19, 2008 - 1:38:29 AM
The incomparable Mike Roe sent in the following live report from the site of Monday's Raw in Anaheim, California.
- I was sitting right behind the pyro booth. One of the more interesting things I saw was one of the guys looking on his laptop at some wireframes of the setup for WrestleMania in Orlando. It showed a sort of elevated canopy over the ring, likely in case of rain, though the fans would be out of luck in that situation. I also found it funny that they had a control board for pyro, but it still had the names of several former wrestlers, including King Booker, Chris Masters, and Lashley. They had taped on stickers for the pyro of Big Show and Rey Mysterio. It was also fun to see them flipping through their rundowns of the show and mentioning things like that Big Show was up next.
- The fans hated Floyd Mayweather, as the largely Hispanic fanbase were huge Oscar de la Hoya fans, at least from what I heard in my section.
- The Hornswoggle/Vince/Finlay/JBL angle came off a lot better when I caught it on TV than it did live, as even in the lower level where I was sitting, you couldn't hear Finlay losing his mind in the ring, which is what really made the angle come to life.
- Off television during the commercial break after the opening promo, Triple H did the Cena "you can't see me" hand gesture followed by the "suck it" sign. After the main event, he did that again, and also did the Orton arms up pose, and again, the suck it crotch chop.
- The advertised main event of DX versus Randy Orton and Mr. Kennedy didn't take place.
***
Dark match (announced as a "special bonus match"): Jim Duggan pinned Robbie of the Highlanders after hitting his three point tackle.
Heat results:
(1) Hardcore Holly pinned Charlie Haas after taking off Haas's lucha mask, putting it on, and hitting the Alabama slam.
(2) Mickie James beat Melina.
(3) Cody Rhodes beat Carlito. After the match, Carlito chucked his apple into the crowd, leading me to duck.
(4) Lance Cade (w/Trevor Murdoch) defeated Brian Kendrick (w/Paul London dressed in the goofiest outfit ever that made him look like a geeky fan).
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