Good morning, good afternoon and good evening and welcome back to the latest article of the 10 ‘Things you might have missed out’ series. As you may or may not already know, we here at Sportskeeda were in Orlando, Florida throughout WrestleMania week and as such, we attended all of the main shows.
Some were good, some weren't so good and some were great - but one way or another they got fans talking.
In this entry, we're going to discuss all things Raw, with the red brand looking to kick off the "new season" of WWE in style. As always, we got a few NXT standouts in addition to some returning Superstars, with the crowd living up to their reputation as being one of the wildest and most unpredictable audiences all year round.
In terms of going up against SmackDown Live, they probably just edged out their counterparts but that doesn't mean there isn't still a whole host of things that need to be analysed. After all, one of the things that we as fans are best at is moaning about the product - so why not provide a different perspective from someone who was in the crowd that night?
With that being said, here are 10 observations from attending the Raw after Mania.
#1 Beach balls suck
If you pay thousands of pounds to travel around the world and attend WrestleMania week, it seems obvious that you'd want to sit and watch the wrestling right? Wrong. You see, a small contingent of fans year in and year out seem to be fascinated with one thing and one thing only - beach balls.
Yup, that's right, we're going to address the elephant in the room.
Why on earth would you actively try and go out of your way to distract the performers in the ring who are there to entertain you? It's understandable if it's during an ad break or something like that, but doing it when the King of the Cruiserweights is performing? Get in the bin.
Time to burst some more bubbles - pun not intended.
#2 Emma spoiler
It seemed fairly obvious to a lot of fans that the woman formerly known as Emmalina would be making her big return on the Raw after WrestleMania. In fact, viewers watching at home were actually informed before she even came out that Emma would be a part of the upcoming six woman tag team match - something that wasn't told to the fans in attendance.
Which makes sense really, as WWE probably wanted to get an organic reaction to her reaction. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case as on two or three different occasions throughout the night, they displayed Emma's graphic across the titantron for all of the fans in attendance to see. Why WWE, why?
Back to the man who lives for purple ropes.
#3 Neville is God
Neville is the best performer in the WWE right now and the only human being alive who can even try to debate that is Charlotte Flair. The former NXT Champion has been an absolute revelation since turning heel and joining the Cruiserweight division, rising straight to the top of 205 Live through a delightful combination of character work and in-ring ability.
So when fans started whacking a bunch of beach balls around the arena, there was only one thing left for Neville to do: shut them up. The Champion, alongside Mustafa Ali, put on an absolute clinic to the point where fans were slowly starting to turn their attention away from the ridiculous objects and back onto what was happening in the ring.
#4 Sing-a-long
In spite of what we've said throughout this article thus far, there were times during the show that the fans in attendance really stepped up when it comes to getting the actual competitors over. It's not all too surprising either, as having a good old fashioned sing-a-long is a cultural tidbit that can only be provided by us Europeans. You're welcome.
Over the course of the three-hour extravaganza, the likes of The Revival, Sami Zayn, Sheamus & Cesaro and many more garnered monstrous reactions from the crowd. The latter in particular was enjoyable, with the makeshift tag team getting more over than they could have ever dreamed of.
One, two..
#5 Too Sweet Takeover
Beginning at the What Culture Pro Wrestling show on Saturday (or, at least, from our point of view) fans started to put a little twist on the every day pinfall attempt. After the referee had counted the two and the Superstar in question had kicked out, fans would proceed to say "sweet". Get it? Too sweet? The Kliq? Bullet Club? You get the picture.
Anyway, this started to seep into all of the other events and by the time Monday Night Raw rolled around, it was happening during every single pinfall. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as it's helping to get Gallows & Anderson that little bit more over. Now that may just be us clutching at straws, but still.
Now onto the crowd itself.
#6 Lived up to the hype
Every single year the Raw after ‘Mania is seen as the craziest night on the WWE calendar, with all of the European fans collaborating with the hardcore Americans to make for one hell of an atmosphere. It's so big that the company even created a WWE 24 special in its honour, meaning that it had more hype behind it than usual.
Of course, as you'd expect, the crowd absolutely knocked it out of the park with three hours of non-stop chanting from the passionate contingent at the Amway Center. No matter what match was being presented to them, there was always something for the fans to sink their teeth into, and it certainly puts a lot of pressure on next year's edition in New Orleans.
Go, away, go, away.
#7 Vince is spiteful
Roman gets booked in a big match, we all hope for a heel turn, Roman wins clean and carries on as a babyface. Lather rinse repeat. At this point, we as a fanbase are just numb to the idea of Roman Reigns because his character is just so unbelievably boring and there's really no way around it.
So why, in that case, has Vince decided to go down this route yet again? Because he's a spiteful old man. There, we said it.
The main event of WrestleMania was changed due to the fans rebelling two years in a row and he's just not going to stand for it anymore. Starting last year in Dallas, Vince has positioned Roman as "the guy" in the WWE and he doesn't care how many people call for change - The Big Dog is going to come out on top no matter how much the WWE Universe boos. It's sad, really.
What? No seriously, what?!
#8 Backstage clarity
When you're watching backstage segments on the TV, you can hear what's going on pretty clearly, which is to be expected. Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily translate all too well to the live viewing experience, as on a number of occasions throughout the night, some fans were having problems when it came to hearing what Kurt and company actually had to say.
The speakers were loud enough, but the sheer volume in the actual arena was quite overwhelming at times, and it created something of a 50-50 success rate in terms of what we could actually listen to. More often than not, we got the general gist of what was being said, including Angle's amusing segment with Enzo & Cass, but it was still a tad frustrating.
Now for something a little more behind the scenes.
#9 Ad break excitement
Fans hate when wrestling goes to a commercial break, especially when it comes to Raw as it seems as if they have a five minutes on and five minutes off kind of policy. Interestingly enough, though, the actual action that goes on during an ad break is pretty good as competitors seem to see it as a way to test themselves in order to please the crowd.
It was quite fascinating to see how they know that an ad break is coming up too, with the lights being dimmed and a technician signalling to the referee in the ring that the downtime had begun. It's one of the many interesting traits associated with the weird world of WWE, and going forward it'd be great to see a couple more tidbits like this be uncovered.
It's time for The Demon King.
#10 Balor's return
If you're even remotely up to date with what's been going on in wrestling over the last six months or so, then you'll be fully aware of the fact that Finn Balor has been cleared to return for a long time now. In fact, he probably could've come back in time for WrestleMania 33 itself but WWE decided against that in favour of saving him for the Raw after ‘Mania.
It's not the worst idea in the world, but the second that Jericho was assaulted by Owens and Joe, it became painfully obvious that the former NXT Champion was going to return as Seth Rollins' surprise partner. There's obviously nothing wrong with him coming back, but the fact that the crowd were chanting Finn all night long tells you all you need to know when it comes to this being a secret.
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