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Dave sent this report.
Whenever it comes to sports, it seems that Buffalo gets screwed. So it was no surprise that WWE could have done the right thing, but they didn't.
It was about 90%-95% full
This PPV seemed like an edition of RAW. There was nothing over-the top exciting to see. And a finish that had about 3/4 of the building chanting "bulls***" More on that later.
They had a merchandise truck set up outside which was great as it gave people something to do while waiting to get into the building. (there is a lot of construction in downtown Buffalo and right in front of the arena they are building a hotel and 2 ice rinks and another hotel across the street along with redoing the waterfront area so traffic was a mess)
As people were outside waiting to get in and entering the arena, there were numerous YES chants popping up all over the place.
In the lobby they had Bob Backlund for a photo op. It would have been nice if an email was sent so people could have planned the $30 for the photo op.
The screen size was huge this time, but those 4 scaffolds in the middle made it hard to see the screen from the live audience view.
Michael Cole, JBL and Jerry Lawler came out to the announce desk. Justin Roberts introduced Lillian Garcia who looked amazing....but no national anthem!!
I read Dave's blog on the matches and he was dead on with the audience responses.
Ziggler was way over with the crowd. The finish seemed to come out of nowhere so that is why the crowd was a bit quiet for it.
RVD got a huge pop. Alberto....crickets. He just wasn't over at all with the crowd. The finish left the crowd flat and we were hoping that Sandow would cash in the MITB.
The Real American promo was flat and dull. Yes we have a huge Hispanic population and yes Canada is right across the river. (not even a mile from the arena) and yes about 25% or more of the arena was Canadian. So why piss off your customers? And Buffalo wings....everyone loves them worldwide! The only thing exciting in this match was the swing by Cesaro. It looked great in person and showed real strength. Cesaro got a good reaction when he left the ring because of it.
Axel vs. R.Truth.....even though they tried, the audience wasn't into the match. They were instead into some of the Buffalo Bills who were behind the announcers and Justin Roberts who waved to the crowd when they chanted his name. The JBL chants and Walrus chants were not done as a disrespect to the wrestlers, but to creative. (If I sucked that bad in my job, I would be fired)
Diva's match= bathroom break. The crowd just wasn't into it. You knew that Tamina was going to do something.
The videos of HHH and Steph were booed. Not because of "they're the bad guy" but "get off our tv" way.
The Shield got a good response, but the Rhodes family was way over. Dusty got a huge pop. The crowd was into the match because they cared and some of the moves were great. Golddust and Cody did some things that we never saw before and we loved it. When Dusty got involved, the place went crazy. (not sure how that played out on tv) The reaction from the guys coming out in back was great. This was the best moment of the PPV and the only thing that was special.
Kofi and the Wyatt's. The Wyatt's are way over and would be great in a feud with the Shield. Bray meshed with Kofi great and even though there wasn't much history for this match, the work ethic of the guys made it good.
Ryback and Punk was great for what it could be. The reaction for Punk was huge. It was getting a bit boring with some of the Ryback moves, but the finish of the match made up for it as you knew that Paul was going to get involved somehow.
When the power went out, it was only the Titantron, The arena lights and the WWE lighting grids never went out. Brad Maddox came out and said that there was a power issue and they would be back in a few minutes. They left the crowd with silence. Now they have some great people who can talk on a mic and this was the chance to bring the crowd back. Imagine if Dusty and Heyman went back and forth on the mic for a while....just to stall, etc. WWE really dropped the ball on this one as it let any excitement out of the crowd. Some people actually started to leave.
The next thing we know, Randy Orton's music starts and he comes out to the ring. When Daniel Bryan's music started, it was the loudest pop that I have ever heard at a WWE event in Buffalo. The crowd was way into him.
When the Big Show came out...it let brought the crowd down. When he knocked Daniel out there was a loud "You sold out" chant. When he knocked out Orton, the crowd was silent. Once the announce team got up to leave, about 3/4 of the arena chanted "Bulls***". Yes, even kids with their parents were chanting "bulls***"
The crowd on exit was not pumped up. People were not buying merchandise....just leaving....a very quiet crowd because of the ending.
They announced a return date of January 11(house show) No one cared....
Joe R. sent this report.
I attended the Battleground PPV. The ending sucked. We were chanting bulls***. It was kind of dumb. The WWE called it Battleground. It should of been called No show time. RVD/DelRio was rocking good match. CM Punk/Ryback was good also. The Rhodes match was great, as well.
And then they have the balls to remind us that they will be back Saturday January 11, 2014 for a VIP experience.
WTF.
With this last experience, why would I want to spend another 400 dollars on 2 tickets to see this type of BS?
Why matches end with no result is beyond me. Oh yea, that's right, it's a man's soap opera, written by old soap opera writers.
Now tonight on Raw, we will have 15 minutes of bulls*** talk about why this happened. 15 minutes of Big Show crying or why he did it, 10 minutes of the Bray family, and 15 minutes of the Paulrus. As well as other chat too. Which means probably 55 about minutes of wrestling.
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