WWE Raw live event
Hartford, Conn.
Report by Dot Net Member Zim

The whole floor and lower bowl were pretty packed. The upper bowl was about 1/3 full. My rough attendance estimate is 6,000. Pretty solid crowd.

Howard Finkel was handling the ring announcing! Well worth the price of admission alone.

The Miz came out to ridiculous heat but he demanded more. He cut a promo about how he will be the man of 2012 and how he's gonna beat C.M. Punk tonight. He talked smack about R-Truth, who came through the crowd and beat Miz down.

Truth cut a good promo, incorporating the 'what!' chants to actually get the crowd really hyped up. He told Miz to take his beating and "Be a man about it!" 'WHAT' "Be a man about it!!!" 'WHAT' "Be a man about it!!!!!!!" 'WHAT' "BE A MAN ABOUT IT!!!!!!" and the crowd pops real big. He asked the crowd to go along with the 'got' in 'gon get got' as a face now too. This may really work out well. Johnny Ace came out with David Otunga and made an impromptu match.

1. R-Truth pinned David Otunga (w/John Laurinaitis). Otunga beat down truth after John Laurinaitis distracted Truth. However, Truth came back with his finisher and won about a minute in.

The Fink announced Bella's as ref and timekeeper.

2. Beth Phoenix beat Eve in about eight minutes. The Bella's beat Eve down until Kelly made the save. Huge pop for Kelly. They cleared the twins from the ring.

The Fink can announce the hell out of any entrance, but when it comes to pimping merch he really stumbles. Among other awkward wordings, he told us to call our pay-per-view providers for upcoming Royal Rumble availability... Really? Is this 1995?

The Fink announced Mick Foley! Foley got his cheap pops until Jack Swagger interrupted. Swagger wanted a match and Foley brought out Jerry Lawler.

3. Jerry Lawler beat Jack Swagger. Swagger attacked foley on the outside and when he got back in the ring Lawler rolled him up. Swagger beat down the King afterwards until Mr. Socko made the save.

4. Alex Riley, Mason Ryan, and Leo Kreuger defeated Curt Hawkins, Tyler Reks, and JTG. The crowd was into one guy and one guy only - Mason Ryan. Every kid was yelling his name and there were huge 'we want Mason' and 'Mason' chants all match! Surprising. Ryan won with his full Nelson slam. Kruger looks like Al Snow but has a good body and look. He was a big time heel in FCW, but he worked a decent face match when he was in.

5. Santino over Michael McGillicutty. Michael McGillicutty made his entrance looking like a tool in his backwards hat. Santino beat him with The Cobra. He brought in two kids and made them do the trombone and Cobra.

Dolph hit Santino from behind when they passed each other on the ramp area. Dolph got good heat by himself but was soon followed by Vickie's deafening heat. Good to see they let Dolph go out on his own though so he wasn't 100 percent getting Vickie's heat. Props to a fan with a 'Vickie has swine flu' sign.

6. Zack Ryder defeated Dolph Ziggler (w/Vickie Guerrero) to retain the United States Title. Vickie was ejected to big pop. They did the Dusty finish ten minutes in. Ryder hit the Rough Ryder for the win a second after the restart.

7. John Cena beat Kane by DQ. Cena came out to 70-30 in favor. Those 30 percent were vocal though and turned part of the crowd against Cena to make it a solid 50-50 about two minutes in. Even got the people in Cena shirts behind me chanting 'Cena sucks' during the battle chant.

Good pop for Kane and good reaction all match (almost like a respectful reaction, not wanting to boo the popular masked monster). The DQ occurred when Kane used a chair. He chokeslammed Cena after the match and then came back for a tombstone, but he took an AA instead. A mixed reaction the whole time. It was very hard to analyze, but people seem to care one way or the other regardless.

Intermission for the cage setup.

8. C.M. Punk beat The Miz in a cage match to retain the WWE Championship. Good 10-15 minutes that ended with a crowd pleasing GTS. Punk continues to be just a delight to watch live if you know what to watch for. An example, when he was hanging over the cage trying to escape, he would reach to the front row and try to get them to help out while Miz tried to pull him back. He was also having fun messing with Miz as ring general. You could tell he was calling the match and it made for a great time.

There was one guy with a camera taping all of the entrances, some spots, and superstars interacting with the crowd.

It was hard to place Cena below because of the crowd split so excluding him...

Biggest pops:
Zack Ryder
C.M. Punk
Mason Ryan
R-Truth's promo

Jeers of the night:
Vickie Guerrero
The Miz
Dolph Ziggler
Johnny Ace

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