10/23 WWE Raw in East Rutherford: A stream of consciousness report on the live Raw with notes on how the crowd reacted to matches, and what happened after Raw went off the air

WWE Raw taping in East Rutherford, NJ
Report by Dot Net reader Jon.

Cole came out to a frank Sinatra song and hugged some fans in the front. Got a mixed reaction. JR got the usual great ovation.

Sin Cara got polite applause. I think the people have a feeling Rhodes Scholars are winning. A lot of cheers for them as they came out. Solid match. Crowd was really into Sandow. A "Let's go Sandow" chant broke out multiple times in my section.

Crowd was dead for most of the Kofi Kingston vs. Michael McGillicutty match. There's something about him that just doesn't click. He gets a polite applause, but he needs to be more edgy. By the way, lots of empty seats still in the lower level. Surprising. Not sure if it's coming out like that on TV.

The crowd was hot during the John Cena and CM Punk exchange. Mixed reactions for both, but clearly more boos for Punk. Tons of Cena haters as well. As soon as Gabriel came out a lot of people high tailed it to the bathroom. His match with Antonio Cesaro was a complete snooze. Crowd just was not into it. I'm hoping that the Gabriel win will get him a little push, but the fans just don't care about him right now.

Biggest heat of the night by far was for Vikki Guerrero. Not even close. We couldn't even hear what she was saying over all the boos. Dolph Ziggler vs. Daniel Bryan was great. That was by far the match of the night. Many fans were cheering for Ziggler as he was walking up the ramp and not even paying attention to Kane and Bryan in the ring. Ziggler will be a great champion. He connects with the fans and sells every move to a t.

I was sitting even with the jumbo-tron and the refs were tending to Matt striker behind the curtain. An excellent sell job because 90 percent of the crowd couldn't even see it. The Big Show vs. Kane match put the crowd to sleep. We're into the second hour so that doesn't help. Bryan tried so hard to get the crowd involved, but he was out there for almost 45 minutes straight.

Alberto Del Rio was tremendous with the live crowd. He pumped his fist a he was getting into his car behind the curtain and tons of people came down to take pictures. He played it up nicely. He drove the car thru the curtain and during Cena's promo he revved the engine and the crowd went nuts and started chanting "One more time!" One of my favorite moments of the night, very well played. After the match Del Rio came back over to our section and got cheered by most of the section and he was hamming it up. Ricardo Rodriguez held him back and brushed the fans off as to say don't bother with them. Nice work by those two. For a squash match that was great work outside the ring by ADR.

Sheamus called out Big Show after the show ended for a falls count anywhere match for the tile. Big Show came out and declined and Sheamus kept egging him on, calling him yellow and a wannabe. Show finally agreed to fight. Sheamus gave him white noise. It was sick how he picked him up as held him there. Sheamus then gave him a brogue kick for the ten count. Match was about two minutes and the crowd went home happy.

Biggest pops
Ryback
Cena
Punk
Yes chants for Bryan
Vince McMahon

Biggest heat
Vikki (by far)
Cena
Punk
Big show