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NO MERCY PPV HOLT REPORT (Happenings Off Live TV)
SEPTEMBER 24, 2017
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. AT STAPLES CENTER
LIVE ON WWE NETWORK
REPORT BY TYSON NELSON, PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT
9/24/17 – Downtown Los Angeles
3:15 p.m.: They opened the doors and a loud “Yes!” chant broke out. They had announced the doors would open at 3 so there were long lines at the doors.
When going through security, they carefully looked over all the poster signs the kid in front of me had made. They stated they were checking to make sure nothing profane was written on them.
Attendance: It was a sell out. They did not have much tarped off on camera side. Just the lines of the camera. The seats where mostly full by the time Apollo and Elias wrestled. I always judge attendance by seeing how full the partial view seats are, and they were packed full in those sections.
4:30 p.m.: Announcers make entrance. Cole first. Huge pop of boos. Booker T gets huge pop. Corey Graves gets nice pop, but not as big as Booker’s. Soon thereafter the lights go out and Elias walks to ring in dark. I guess he doesn’t have an entrance theme anymore?
Elias vs. Apollo
He sat in ring a good minute or two while the announcers did entrance. The crowd ate him up. The sound quality was not good. You could only understand him when he was yelling at crowd, or does he speak with a lisp? Not sure. I didn’t understand one word he sang.
Apollo got a decent reaction. Better than I thought. I really enjoy Apollo in ring. Wish he had more NXT time to develop his character before coming up.
Crowd was responsive and reactionary to the match. They really got into Apollo hulking up and Elias’s kick out. They appeared to have good chemistry. I really like Elias’s finisher.
It appeared they are setting up Titus vs. Elias with post match angle with Elias leaving ring as soon as Titus appeared. Crews got nice reception when leaving ring.
I’d like for them to add Darren Young to Titus’s group. At least gives him something to do now that he’s recovered from his injury. I hope they drop the Bob Backland thing.
They played a Total Divas commercial to no reception from crowd.
They announced Raw will be at Staples on Dec. 4 with a promo code for early tickets for those in attendance. (LAVIP is the code.)
5:00 p.m.: The intro video got huge reactions from crowd. Boos for Roman on video. Cheers for Braun and Brock. The ending roar by Braun got a huge reaction with the crowd roaring back. It was a cool moment.
Balor vs. Bray
During the intro video, the crew changed a tile in the stage. I thought during intro video, when is this feud going to end?
It is a super cool scene when Bray’s music starts and the crowd turns in their flashlights. It really lights up whole stadium. It appears WWE turns off all their lights yet you see Bray really well with all the lights from the crowd.
While Bray climbed into the ring, WWE started pumping smoke out of the tile they replaced in stage to get it ready for Finn.
Hmm, I thought Finn was going to be the Demon again. The crowd really played along with Finn’s entrance.
Thought when refs were checking on Finn, oh no this means the feud will continue.
The crowd really liked the injury angle and thinking we weren’t getting a match. I guess they suckered us into wanting to watch this match.
I liked the ring apron move by Finn and the crowd really popped for it.
“Let’s go Balor” breaks out for a bit.
The spear kick into corner by Finn looked really cool. Crowd woke up when Balor went for his finish.
Tag Match
Dean’s pop was bigger than Seth’s but not too much. Of the four, the loudest pop was when they shined the bright light on Sheamus. Or maybe it’s the crowds shouting in blindness from the reflection off Sheamus.
The crowd grew restless as you could tell they were doing the announcers around the world introductions. Sheamus’s music just played and played.
The swing of Dean into the steps by Cesaro really popped the crowd.
After Cesaro tagged out with the bloody mouth from losing his teeth, a WWE doc attended to his nose and cleaned up blood. They seemed to try and do this outside camera range because no camera was pointed to this.
I wonder if Dean popped his shoulder out during suicide dive or before because he was pounding his shoulder into the side railing after the dive. But you’d think he would be in too much pain to do as much as he did on that shoulder through match if that were the case. Maybe the pounding of shoulder is part of his “unstable” gimmick.
A “This is Awesome” chant broke out for a bit.
That sequence with Sheamus and Dean then Cesaro throwing Seth on Dean was really cool to watch and the kick out by dean erupted that crowd for louder pop of night so far by a large margin. Loud his is a”Awesome!” broke out.
The Brogue kick sequence into the finish had the crowd really chanting along. I really enjoyed the story the guys told with the ups and downs of math.
Note: The crowd didn’t know what happened to cause blood. It looked like bloody nose until they showed it on reply after match. He got bloodied from a stupid sling shot move by over selling it. Why do they still do that move? It’s dumb. But props to cCesaro. The pain had to be crazy and it happened early in match.
During the women’s match video, they changed ring with all the crew wearing plastic gloves and they cleaned the mat where all the blood dropped with the crew on their hands and knees with towels
Women’s Match
Bayley got a pop when her music started, then it kind of turned to boos. Then the inflated wavey guys came out and the crowd cheered. Sadly for Bailey, the flappy wavey inflatable men are more over. When she pointed to crowd, there were boos and cheers competing with each other.
Emma didn’t get much of a reaction.
Sasha’s pop was decent. But I saw her get a bigger pop last time I saw WWE at Staples Center last year.
Alexa got the best pop of the women. The crowd loved when she put belt behind her head like she does.
When Jo Jo did announcements, Bayley got loud boos. Emma booed. Nia Jax was first booed then cheered loudly. Sasha got mixed boos and cheers. Alexa cheers. Are these the reactions WWE is going for?
I think Sasha was the leader of the match. At one pint when she was thrown out of ring she crawled around to where Alexa was and appeared to tap Alexa when it was her turn to go into ring.
Crowd ate up Nia Jax as a beast. Loved double Samoan drop with Alexa and Sasha.
Crowd would boo when the women ganged up on Nia. Alexa isn’t the best wrestler by far of the five women, but she is the best character by far and plays it 100 percent and the crowd responds, including pushing Emma off so she could do the pin at one point and slapping Emma.
The spot with Nia being slammed off apron got a “holy shit” chant.
All throughout match the crowd was really into the match. Ooos and ahhs all throughout.
When Nia came in late after multi pin tries by the women, the crowd erupted thinking she might win.
Crowd liked Alexa’s win.
This was a very well-planned match and the women all had good timing. No one was super late for their spots and pin breakups like happens sometimes in multi-person matches.
Crowd cheered and booed Alexa’s promo. A ref walked with Bailey to the back.
Cena vs. Roman
Crowded erupted for Cena. After the music ended, a “Cena” chant broke out.
Loud boos when Roman’s music started, then louder when he came out on stage. I found it interesting that Jo Jo did introductions when they came out. Felt this moment called for both men in ring and then she announces them. But that would be super loud boos for Roman so Vince probably nixed it.
When Roman stepped on apron the boos were louder. Then again, when he raised arms from turnbuckles the boos really loud.
Lots of yelling from crowd before bell. Couldn’t understand any of it.
Not sure if the chant was “You both suck” or “You will suck.” Cena played up to the chants. Roman seemed hog tied by booking and couldn’t play with crowd.
“Let’s go Cena” / “Cena sucks” broke out.
Then a “Roman sucks” chant started and Roman played to the crowd finally and got huge boos.
“F— you, Roman!” broke out. At that moment Cena threw Roman into steps. The crowd loved it.
Cool spear kick by Roman and landing on apron when they were working outside the ring.
A “C.M. Punk” chant broke out. Imagine if he came back and interfered in this? It’d be a different company overnight with the wrestling fan buzz. But that’s not the social media buzz Vince wants from a person that is too hard to control, unlike Roman.
The match really slowed down with the headlocks mid-ring. At this point the crowd was chanting stuff but nothing uniform.
Crowd chanted “You can’t see me” along with Cena. That drew the crowd right back into match. Good job by Cena sensing crowd was getting restless.
The crowd loved the missed Superman Punch into STF.
Great move of Cena catching Roman. That’s a feat. The crowd almost grew violent when Roman kicked out of the finisher.
The move of Cena off top rope into a pin by Roman looked weird, as if Cena didn’t have enough height on jump.
Crowd loved the missed spear. You could hear the smack of the ringpost by Roman.
The two count after move off ropes by Cena grew lots of boos when Roman kicked out. Crowd was eating up the match.
A “One more time!” chant broke out. Very loudly.
When Cena went to the announce table, the crowd loved it.
The spear through table grew cheers then a “You still” suck chant.
The crowd loved a big screen the shot of Cena after Roman kicked out of two finishers with crowd member shocked in background.
Cheers for finish of match. Then loud boos. The audience clapped for finish after match. Yet everyone wanted to see what Cena would do.
Crowd chanted “No!” when Cena stood by Roman. Then booed when he held up his hand.
Crowd seemed disappointed or let down. With Roman matches the finishes come up so quickly there’s not a build up where crowd is exploding as it is happening.
The cowd clapped for Cena at end. “Thank you, Cena!” broke out. He ate up cheers. The way they played it seems like Cena is going away for awhile.
Neville vs. Enzo
Enzo’s reaction was weak compared to last time I saw Enzo and Cass in L.A. The crowd sang along with his intro tho.
Crowd laughed at Enzo’s comments.
Crowd stayed in seats overall at beginning of match. Did see one beach ball come out, but didn’t see it for long.
Neville deserved a quick squash of Enzo. The match was boring and the crowd started getting up for restroom etc. before Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman.
“This is boring” chant broke out. The crowd needs to stop cheering for Enzo; otherwise they better get used to his boring matches.
Crowd cheered when Enzo won. Horribly booked match in my opinion. Putting Enzo over is one thing; booking a slow boring match without making Neville look strong (even when losing) undermines the whole Cruiserweight Division.
They changed ring apron again after match. And they put together the Spanish announce table completely.
Braun vs. Stroman
Loudest time for crowd was singing along with Paul Heyman.
What a start to match.
Everytime Braun was slammed the ring looked like it slid a few inches!
The crowd wasn’t ready for finish. Similar to Samoa Joe finish.
Jo Jo thanked us and said good night. Braun then got up from ringside, his music played, and he walked up the ramp.
Was this guy at the same show, or just pushing his agenda? Read more like a “here are my wish fulfillment versions of wrestlers crowd reactions that have little basis in reality”.
WWE might sweeten the audio, but they don’t adjust it that much