Home ▸ RAW ▸ The life of a WWE seat-filler

BWF reader/commenter Gee attended this past Monday’s RAW as a “seat-filler,” which basically means he got to go to RAW and get awesome seats for free just so the camera shows a full crowd at all times.  Here is his experience in his own words, taken straight from the comments from Monday’s RAW.

Well, I did it, was a “seat filler” for RAW in Calgary. And since I was told we were technically WWE employees for the duration of the show, I guess that means that I got future-endeavored at the end. So here’ s my first shoot!

We went to our meeting place and waited around for about 45 minutes (even though we were on time). This guy whose name I never caught told us what our job was (i.e. employee duty). We were to start at the “home-base” seats which were on the floor facing the Trinatron, but at the very back end. The new HD looks awesome live on that screen!

If we got moved, it was to seats that would be on camera to replace no-shows or people getting a beer, etc. We were given special green wristbands with the word “pusher” on it. He told us that we are not given shirts or anything else that distinguished us as staff as to keep this a secret from the audience. If we got into any altercations with returning people who wondered why we were in their seats, security was aware of these bands.

So we go to the home base and watch Morrison and D.H. Smith begin their Superstars match. No spoilers, so no worries. I will say that Smith got some big pops from the crowd.

Our orientation guy comes and takes the entire group of us from home-base after the match. So we moved into a row facing the main ring camera dead-on (basically in perfect view). After a couple matches, we were moved out and ended up in the first row of non-floor seating. That lasted about 20 minutes and into the start of RAW we got to watch the intro up close. Lillian is really hot up close!

The commercial break… Back to home-base. Halfway through the first RAW match we have buddy come to move us back to better seats. He gets interrupted by another headset wearing guy who said something about “Kevin” telling him to get some guy with a ghost mask off camera side view. He said this ghost mask guy could stay at the event, but had to go to the other side of the ring.

We get moved to the best seats we had all night for the rest of the show. I am on TV all night when the main ring angle is used. Never moved again. Best seats I’ve had at a show with a perfect view…. and…. wait for it…… FREE!!! I am one row back, two to the left from your perspective of the guy with the “LESS Big Show, More Gail Kim” sign in a black tee shirt.

The post television match was basically Cena speaking about Bret Hart’s legacy and impact on prowrestling to Orton who was at the entry ramp on his way out. While untelivised, this was not only Cena’s best reaction, the crowd was never louder during his speech on Hart. Cena then told him that while he may not agree with some of Orton’s decisions, he respected him and that next week they would be teammates. Orton came down to shake Cena’s hand (oh really?). This of course turned into a fight which was vastly superior to the main event which was pretty live in person. I’m going to watch myself watch wrestling now and will add bullet points below for anything I might have missed.

My own (Gee’s) “Random thoughts” and points about the live show
—————————————————————————————–
Best sign I saw while there: “Shaq your Sega game sucks”

Honourable mention: “I am not a nugget!” (We are the Hart-land after all. My brother used to see Jericho at a favorite pub on open-mic night often. Had numerous Hart brothers as substitute teachers as a kid including Keith and Bruce for sure. Stampede Wrestling and Ed Whaylon ruled. My best friend’s cousin when I was a kid was “He Who Shall Not Be Named.” He bodyslammed me onto a couch along with my friend and my brother. Yeah that last one sucks now as wrestling topic, but you get the point. The Harts and the Dungeons students were hard to avoid growing up here in the eighties and nineties. Thus, Owen references get the nod).

They may not be selling Jeff Hardy stuff online, but they sure were selling it at the Saddledome

Evan Bourne is awesome live, although the match was very short.

Masters sucks and the crowd yelled a lot of steroid related comments at him (e.g.. Roid monkey).

The crowd was a bit louder for Eugene than the “Calgary Kid” They also booed the referee for this match for some reason. That came across bad with me, I actually think this new dude is good at it.

Santino’s shirts were really popular, almost seemed like every twentieth person was wearing/carrying one on the way out.

MVP is really over up here (probably because he rules).

The was a huge pop for Jerry the King Lawler.

You could hear an almost silence of shame come over the crowd during the Piven recap. Except when Dr. Ken took his bump. They muted the crowd here.

Jillian is more painful to listen to sing live. They had to crank her up so loud, WWE must have really turned the audience booing down for that segment.

Canadians cheered for Y2J regardless of what he said or did. The crowd was VERY divided as the usual kids and women and a bunch of metrosexual-looking types where I was.

The “We Want Bret” chant was VERY loud and reoccurred often after Slaughter’s little sketch.

The fans booed the US Army stuff they put on during commercial breaks. Makes sense, we are Canadians and have OUR OWN troops overseas too fighting alongside the US. Maybe they could have acknowledged that?

I saw a lot of signs taken, but some the guy just to my right, down one row kept his “THIS IS STUPID” sign the whole night. I’ve seen him with it a bunch now just in the Show/Orton match already. HD makes is very easy to read.

Yes, we do call Calgary “Cowtown” as mentioned by Jericho. Our city was settled by ranchers and the beef industry is still huge as is oil.

Peace.

Thanks, Gee, for sharing your experience with us!  RAW is coming back to Buffalo in October, I wonder if I can get in on that?

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