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3/30 WWE WrestleMania HOLT report: What the live crowd saw that the TV viewers didn't Apr 2, 2008 - 5:00:35 PM
WWE WrestleMania 24 HOLT report
March 30, 2008
Columbia, S.C.
Report by Alan Stretton of Northern Ireland, PWTorch.com reader
I was at the show live and what a show it was.
-Some empty seats at the start because people were only arriving as I went for a toilet break just before the show and the food stands were packed.
-You couldn't get a taxi in Orlando after 5 p.m. apparently. After the show you couldn't get a taxi at all. Crowd was mad for the show, but I watched it at home and it didn't translate well over on TV.
-Lots of "Finlay" chants in the opener, but also a lot of people supporting JBL. Crowd popped big for Finlay's dive. Good opener with decent action. MITB was fantastic live. Loads of very loud "holy sh--" and "this is awesome" chants which also could be barely heard on TV.
-I would argue that Matt Hardy got the biggest appearance pop of the night. Certainly louder than the opening bars of the music for any other wrestler on the show. Crowd was very into this, I think it was the best MITB yet.
-Batista and Umaga was a waste of time, with more people taking toilet breaks here than at any other point. Less said about it the better.
-Flair vs Michaels. Well, what can I say other than it was one of the best pro wrestling matches I have ever seen - from a storyline perspective. Everything just clicked here and it was brilliant. So emotional. Michaels's dive was one of the most worrying things I have ever seen. I thought he had broke his sternum. Massive "Thank You Ric" chants from the whole audience. The crowd loved this match, and really gave Flair a good sendoff.
The crowd was actually pretty into Kane as well and liked that it didn't last long, and also liked the winner.
-The Divas match was carried completely by Beth Phoenix, who did all the work for the other team. May I just say I met Melina and she is very nice and an absolute knockout in person. Ashley, however, is not.
-The lights going out was a disgrace. The whole lighting rig above the ring went out, apart from the emrgency spotlights. The lights didn't all come back on until after the triple threat match. They all steadily went down to a point during the hype video for the triple threat match, not one light was working, with the screens above the ring even not working for the whole match, forcing me to try to watch it past some arsehole standing on his seat. This match was good but too short, possibly because of the lighting, possibly because of the ring entrances taking so long and possibly because John Cena could still be injured. Massive "Tap" chants when Cena was in submissions, and "please don't tap" chants when Triple H was. Randy Orton's win didn't help the crowd, but a lot of people were glad Cena took the pinfall. A guy in the bleachers had a sign saying if Cena wins we jump.
-Mayweather and Big Show was better than expected.
-The main event was fantastic, but the crowd was sort of burnt out for the first few minutes. But then the duelling chants started after Taker's dive. Going into the match everyone knew Taker was winning, but the match was that good that after that second spear, the crowd believed Edge had a chance. To be able to do that is what pro wrestling is all about.
-Great show and I'm proud to say I was there. Minus one point for the power failure, and Batista and Umaga. But a 9.0 score from me.
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