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What’s the story?
The WWE aired RAW 25 from two venues last night, namely the Manhattan Center and the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The Manhattan Center—the venue which hosted the very first episode of RAW—saw fans post mixed reactions of their experience online. While the majority of fans praised the WWE’s show at the Manhattan Center, a few others asserted their grievances with the event on social media platforms such as Reddit.
In case you didn’t know…
The 25th-anniversary episode of Monday Night RAW aired from the Barclays Center—a modern-day arena suitable for the WWE’s packed shows in this day and age.
On the other hand, several segments on RAW 25 also transpired at the Manhattan Center—just a brief distance from the Barclays Center in NYC—as WWE legends such as The Undertaker, Scott Hall, Ric Flair, D-Generation X (Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn & X-Pac) showed up at the Manhattan Center.
The heart of the matter
Per Reddit user RealRobRose, the primary issue fans experienced at the Manhattan Center was that they had to watch a better part of the action unfold on a couple of 60 inch flat-screen televisions which were hidden during the Manhattan’s Center’s live segments, and rolled out during the dark segments and when the RAW episode aired segments from the Barclays Center.
The user added that the Cruiserweight matchups accentuated the Manhattan crowd’s anger, as Mustafa Ali beat Lince Dorado in a brief match, while Bray Wyatt defeated Matt Hardy in another short matchup—with the latter match being cheered. It was also noted that Drew Gulak & Tony Nese vs. Akira Tozawa & Hideo Itami saw the teams brawl and go backstage, only to come out after another segment, and end the matchup with Tozawa & Itami winning.
Furthermore, it was noted that the segment between the aforementioned matchup saw The Miz come out at the Manhattan Center after his match with Roman Reigns which took place at the Barclays Center. The fans expected Reigns and Miz to rematch right there at the Manhattan Center, however, he simply cut a promo.
Following which, The Balor Club and DX beat down The Revival, and the live action shifted back to the Barclays Center. While Ric Flair delivered a great promo to uplift the fans’ spirits at the Manhattan Center, the fans were spent by then. However, they did cheer for Flair, as well as Seth Rollins and The Miz who came out again only to be hit with Rollins’ finisher.
What’s next?
A few fans at the Manhattan Center reacted in a negative manner; while also demanding refunds and booing viciously.
Nevertheless, several fans who were at the venue for RAW did affirm that the fan-reaction was largely positive, with the crowd mainly booing the Cruiserweight action.
Author’s take
Honestly speaking, I thoroughly enjoyed RAW 25.
The event in both venues was awesome, and here’s hoping for 25 more great years of Monday Night RAW.
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