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WWE News
3/24 WWE Raw HOLT report: What the live crowd saw that the TV viewers didn't Mar 25, 2008 - 2:22:53 AM
WWE Raw HOLT report
March 24, 2008
Columbia, S.C.
Report by Brian Oglesby, PWTorch.com reader
There were only three sections in the upper level tarped off. Still dissapointing that it wasn't a sellout seeing as this may be Ric Flair's last Raw as an active wrestler.
I didn't arrive in the arena until J.R. and Jerry Lawler were making their introductions; each one got a nice pop.
Real good opening segment to get the crowd into the show. Biggest pops were for John Cena, Triple H, and for Flair's name being announced for the main event.
Besides one "Y2J" chant, there was no crowd heat for the opening tag match.
Crowd gave a nice ovation to the video on the career of Flair.
Speaking of Flair, huge pops for him all night long as you could tell this was Flair country. Flair and HBK had the crowd in the palm of their hand as you could just about hear a pin drop in the arena during their segment due to everyone not wanting to miss a word. Good heat for HBK after telling Flair he would "put him out of his misery."
I couldn't believe how over Jerry Lawler was. You would have thought this show was taking place in Memphis. He got a big pop when entering the ring during the Divas match. During the commercial break a loud "Jerry Jerry" chant broke out as well as a "Let's Go Jerry" chant when the show came back on the air.
During the main event it seemed as if the crowd was waiting on HBK to turn on Flair and several people were yelling at Flair to watch his back because HBK always turns on his partners. Good to see the crowd remembered this.
Massive pop for Flair getting the win with the figure-four. When the show went off the air, Flair went to the top of the ramp and said God Bless Columbia and then ended with about 15 woooos.
Then to finish off the night and I guess for HBK to save face, Michaels ran back down to the ring and delivered Sweet Chin Music to Randy Orton. Orton then recovered and held up the belt one more time before leaving to his music.
Really fun show and energetic crowd for most of the night. If WrestleMania was being held right down the street at the 80,000 seat Williams Brice Stadium, I can only imagine what the heat would be like for the HBK-Flair match.
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