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?

It seems that Joe wants the week off, and with my power due to go off at any minute. I’m doing Real-Time this week, for the second week in three.

Stay tuned to BWF, as I watch NCIS.

The search for HBK is on! My guess is, he’s in a  bar having a few brewskis. I know it’s never going to happen, but come on WWE, swerve us will you?

This RAW is from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Where a certain someone was born to wrestle, and bred to win. All rise for the playing of the Canadian National Anthem.

Randy Orton starts us off. He’s been hearing rumours, apparently. Were they rumours, or the Voices in your head Randy? My namesake goes on about how it’s no rumour that he’s gonna beat John Cena at Summerslam, and that seemed to be the lightbulb in the head of the challenger, as Cena comes out. Cena wants Orton to bully him, that right there proves that John Cena is not a ladies man. Johnny boy gets up close and personal with the son of Cowboy Bob, and this brings out JeriShow, with the single worst entrance music in the history of entrance music.

Show finds it amusing that Cena and Orton are up close and personal with each other. Show speaks, but there’s a Canadian in the ring, so the crowd chant for Jericho. Cena makes a Shaq joke, then asks why have the Tag Team champions made their presence. Jericho plugs Canada, then tells Cena he’s got a one-on-one match against him. Randy gets his two bobs in, but Big Show cuts him off, telling RKO that its gonna be Show and Orton one-on-one.

The Sarge sounds like he needs a cough drop to soothe that throat. This brings us to commercial.

Ooh look, there’s a vote. Who did the Sarge beat for the WWE Championship? Savage, Hogan or Warrior. Shouldn’t the question be, which one will be the first to appear on WWE RAW?

MATCH#1: Four-Way Divas – Winner gets a Divas Title shot

Kelly Kelly vs Alicia Fox vs Gail Kim vs Beth Phoenix

If you want to find out what actually happens, in this match, find someone who cares about the WWE Women’s division, I’m off to get food.

As I return from not paying attention to the match. I hear Cole describe Kim as ‘elastic-like’, and I hear more grunting than Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon. You’ve gotta love it don’t you? It has appeared for weeks that Beth Phoenix will face Mickie James for the belt, and yet …

YOUR WINNER: Gail Kim

It’s the first ever TNA KnockOuts champion who gets the victory.

Out comes Slaughter to pretty much zero reaction from the crowd. He starts off by sucking up to Canada, and saluting the C anadian flag? Has the Sarge turned on the U.S. for the second time in his career? Of course not. Sarge turns on his newly made friends, by saying if it wasn’t for the U.S., they would be speaking Russian and French now. Infact, most of them speak French. Now Sarge wants Canadians to pay respect to the United States. Looks like Slaughter’s playing bad guy tonight.

COMMERCIAL

We’re back, and a recap of Triple H announcing he’s reforming DX for SummerSlam, and how trips travelled to Texas to find him. Yip.

MATCH#2: Jack Swagger vs Evan Bourne

The rubber match between the two. This match will go no longer than five minutes. I guarantee it.

Swagger uses his power advantage early on, until Bourne uses his speed advantage to control the match. Swagger with a submission hold, but Bourne escapes and attack with some kicks, ending with a near fall. Swagger looks for the powerbomb, but Evan counters into a roll-up for a near fall. Swagger introduces his opponent to the turnbuckle as hard as he possibly can, and one Gutwrench Powerbomb later, and Dusty Rhodes gets the pin.

YOUR WINNER: Jack Swagger.

Told you the match would be quick. Swagger on the mic, and after he talks. Here comes MVP. He doesn’t care that Dusty is a 2-time All-American, the Canadians don’t care. Nobody cares. MVP challenges Swagger to a match tonight. Swagger wants it next week, but MVP isnt happy and pushes Swagger out of the ring.

Don’t forget. Orton vs Show, Jericho vs Cena and the hunt for the Christian. Still to come.

COMMERCIAL

Back, and we’re hunting Christians. H hits on a guy, and scores. A little girl wants a hamburger, and it’s Texas Chef HBK. H is shocked. I think it’s lame-i-fied.

Here comes the Sarge again. He has bought us Celine Dion to sing the Canadian National Anthem. That’s a lie, as it’s really Jillian. I’d prefer Jillian to Celine Dion.

COMMERCIAL

Why is Vince plugging Monk?

Back from commercial, and it’s a contract on a pole match? Vince Russo IS writing for the WWE.

MATCH#3: Contract on a Pole

Eugene vs Calgary Kid

Eugene channels his inner Rock, and hits the Rock Bottom and the People’s Elbow, but that doesnt affect the Calgary Kid. Calgary Kid knocks Eugene off the ropes and grabs the contract.

YOUR WINNER:  Calg…

Wait a minute, that isn’t the Calgary Kid. He just hit the Stroke!

YOUR WINNER: Jeff Jarr..

Wait a minute, that’s not the Chosen One, it’s …

YOUR WINNER: The Miz

The Miz is back on RAW, so what was the point of last week?

COMMERCIAL

We’re back with the Rewind, Show beating the hell out of Kofi last week.

MATCH#4: Randy Orton vs the Big Show

Big Show has been borrowing John Tenta’s ring attire.

Show gets up close and personal to Orton, but Randy backs away. Maybe Orton only likes it when it’s Cena close to him. Randy Orton has had a grand total of zero offence so far in this match. I’ve been in and out during this match, so I have missed sections. I get back to see RKO looking for just that, the RKO, but Show blocks it. Show connects with the Chokeslam, but Orton is too close to the ropes, and gets his foot on the rope, when Show goes for the fall. Big Show goes for the fist, but Orton ducks under and heads out of the ring, and deliberately gets counted out.

YOUR WINNER VIA COUNTOUT: Big Show

Hunting for Christians Part Two

Shawn gets tater tots thrown in his face. Also, he can’t cook. When I worked in the food industry, I never burned the grill like that. I only saw someone smash  a light globe into the fry vats.

COMMERCIAL

Another pointless Did You Know? from the folks at WWE.

MATCH#5: MVP vs Chris Masters

MVP doesn’t get to fight Swagger, instead he gets the Masterpiece.

Masters with the assualt on MVP in the early going. He continues the advantage until he applies a chinlock-type hold, then MVP gets the momentum. MVP’s jumpsuit is as bright as Mark Henry’s costume last week. Masters goes for the Masterlock, but MVP counters into the Playmaker!!

YOUR WINNER: MVP

Enter the Swagger. The All-American American causes a long enough distraction for the Masterlock to be applied. Once that’s done, Swagger hits his Powerbomb.

A pop for Piven and Dr. Ken and their publicity run last week.

COMMERCIAL: They love these during a broadcast, don’t they?

Back again, and it’s time for …

Hunting for Christians, Part Three

Shawn’s hired Hunter to help him flip burgers. Shawn Sweet Chins his boss. An old lady tells me to suck it, and Shawn Sweet Chin’s a little girl.

Enter the Sarge yet again, and he cues the music of the Hitman. But no, it’s not Bret Hart, it’s Jim Duggan, complete with American flag.

COMMERCIAL

We’re back, with the Slam of the Week. Mark Henry vs Chavo Guerrero from last week.

MATCH#6: Hornswoggle and Mark Henry vs ??

Chavo was meant to be competing, but he is ‘injured’, so he calls on Legacy to take his place.

Henry gets the upper hand, before Legacy start the dissecting. However, that is short lives, as Henry regains control. World’s Strongest Slam on DiBiase, the tag to Hornswoggle for the Splash, but DiBiase gets out of the way and Cody takes out Henry. One Dream Street later, and it’s bye bye to the Woggle.

YOUR WINNERS: Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes.

After the match, Legacy grab mics and book themselves to do the J.O.B to DX at SummerSlam.

We’re back with a rundowm of the SummerSlam card, then Josh Matthews interviews Chris Jericho. Jericho says he’s winning for Calgary, then Show arrives. BIg Show bitches about how Orton ran off on him, Jericho bags out Calgary. Matthews tells Jericho the cameras are still rolling. Jericho feels like a tool.

COMMERCIAL

Next week’s RAW Guest Host. Former WWE writer, Freddie Prinze Jr.

MAIN EVENT: Chris Jericho vs John Cena

Cena gains the early momentum, until Jericho takes over. Cena ends up outside the ring, where Y2J introduces him to the ring steps. Jericho then applies a Camel Clutch, just because Sarge is guest host. Back in the ring, and Cena somehow gains control. He looks for the shuffle, but Jericho rolls him up for the two. Jericho misses with the Lionsault, but doesn’t with the Walls attempt. Cena counters into the STF, but Orton comes and breaks it up before the Ayatollah of Rock ‘n Rollah can tap, causing the DQ.

YOUR WINNER BY DQ: John Cena

Cena gets in Orton’s face, but eats a CodeBreaker from Jericho. Jericho shoves Orton, so Jericho gets knocked down. Enter Show. Chokeslam to Orton. Sarge comes out and announces JeriShow vs Cena and Orton for next week, as we end.

There, even though the servers for BWF crashed during this broadcast, I did my best to bring you the action.

Well it’s been awhile but I’m back to do what it is I do here each and every week so without further ado, let’s get the ball rolling: (Note- this is being written without me viewing Smackdown on on 7/31 & 8/7 and Superstars on 8/6) (more…)

Alright my peeps.  I’m here.  I’m not dead.  I finally have a chance to watch the show from Thursday night.  Lets go.

Match 1:  Its-a-he Santino vs the Masterpiece Chris Masters

Santino’s face when Masters came out was priceless!  Santino tried to go Karate Kid on Masters, then did an acrabatic roll to the other side of the ring.  Once Masters got ahold of Santino, it was downhill from there for him.  For a little bit of humor (what else is Santino good for) he tried to apply the Masterlock on Chris Masters, only to get dominated again.  Masters wins with the Masterlock after Santino attempted to “Hulk-up.”

Match 2:  William Regal and Paul Burchill vs Tyler Reks and Yoshi Tatsu

My fiance totally marked out for Yoshi when he came out.  Match started out with Yoshi and Burchill.  Wouldn’t Burchill have fit better in ECW 3 years ago when he was Pirate Paul and when ECW was mainly a gimmick show?  Regal flips over an attempted springboard splash pin for the win over Tyler Reks.  Tyler Reks is awkward.  He looks like he has something stuck in his butt when he walks.

Video package with John Cena throwing out the first pitch at a Cubs game. 

Main Event :  Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio vs Mike Knox

Mike Knox is severely under-utilized!  Dude is massive and burly.  Special guest commentator is Dolph Ziggler.  This is the typical Rey Mysterio match. He gets dominated the whole match by the much bigger opponent and then gets the win.  Rey hits the 619 and goes for the splash, only to have Dolph Ziggler pull him off the mat.  Rey gets the win via disqualification.

Santino was the only reason to watch this show, much like Raw.  There is a reason this show is on WGN…nobody wants to watch it.  Sometimes its good, sometimes its terrible, most of the time its random.  See ya next week.

I’ve been neglecting my duties as host of ThinkSoJoE’s Thoughts as of late, but I’m going to make a quick go at it this week.

We just launched all new forums here at BoredWrestlingFan (and I will fix any remaining links to the old forums soon), and we kicked them off in grand fashion with a discussion of this past Thursday’s iMPACT!  Big things are brewing in TNA, with Jeff Jarrett being sent home by Dixie Carter and a couple of his buddies being sent to the unemployment line.  This could be the spark that sets off the powder keg that is professional wrestling.  A hot angle from a fresh writing staff can be the catalyst TNA needs to make themselves truly look like a credible threat to the WWE – which, in turn, will cause WWE to fight back.  That’s what started the Attitude Era, competition from WCW.

Speaking of WCW, Kevin Nash used to work there.  So did Rey Mysterio.  Now they work for TNA and WWE, respectively.  Mysterio mentioned Nash by name last night on SmackDown.  Now, if I were Mr. McMahon, even if I am friends with Nash, I’m not going to let Mysterio mention Nash by name when he works for TNA, no matter how minuscule of a threat I thought they were.  People who aren’t aware of the TNA product could hear Nash’s name, remember him from WCW (or even his last WWE run), think, “I wonder what ever happened to that guy,” look him up on the internet, and see that he’s working in TNA, as part of a group with other well known wrestling names like Booker T, Scott Steiner, and Kurt Angle, and decide to tune in next Thursday night.  Then again, maybe Mr. McMahon wants to help the competition, maybe he thinks what I think – that strong competition will inspire the WWE product to become much better.

This is the last time these names will be typed by me here on BWF – Jeremy Piven & Dr. Ken.  I wish I had one of those Men In Black style mind wipe devices and could erase this past Monday’s RAW from my memory.  If this week’s show sucks nearly as bad as the last one, I might have to stop watching RAW entirely.

One of these days I’ll start watching ECW again.  It’s not that it’s a bad show, I just don’t get around to watching it.  This past Tuesday I forgot to set my DVR when I went to see “Funny People” starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen.  A lot of dick and fart jokes, but it wasn’t bad.

WWE MSG Classics used to be a good show, but then they started showing the same 6 episodes over and over and over again.

I got nothing else, really.  Stay tuned, somebody might do a Random Randomness at some point (maybe), and tharvey1’s WWE Superstars review will be up sometime tomorrow-ish (he’s running a bit late this week, but we forgive him.)

We’ve got ourselves another World Heavyweight Championship match tonight as Jeff Hardy defends against former champion CM Punk.  Why waste any more time with an introduction, let’s get started!

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It’s chaotic! It’s crazy! It’s RAW!

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Don’t forget!

If you haven’t already, sign up on the BWF forums and join us tonight as we run our weekly “Impact” thread right here! Considering how it usually goes with the Triumvirate of TNA-wesomeness, you don’t want to miss this. If we can get enough action going on the forums here, show threads will become a regular occurrence. See you tonight at 8:00 pm Central time (and whatever the hell time it is that New York people use)! 

Drowgoddess

(I’ve installed new forums. Unfortunately your current BWF usernames and passwords won’t automatically work and you’ll have to re-register for the forums, but I think they’ll give you a better user experience than the old forums. Click here to go to the new forums! – ThinkSoJoE)

Weclome to the War for another week, were we dwelve into the happenings of the week that was.

For those who watched Monday Night Raw this week, I’m sorry you had to sit through that. For those who didn’t, well it’s a good thing you did.

Jeremy Piven was guest host this week, andwas entertaining at times. Whereas his co-host, Dr. Ken, was not. He was just, awful. The highlight of RAW was Chris Jericho, during the match between Kofi Kingston, and Jericho Tag Team partner, the Big Show. Jericho’s commentary provided the lone highlight for this viewer, in an otherwise dull show. I might just have to start boycotting WWE programming.

However, also on that same broadcast, John Cena defeated the Miz. That may not seem a shock, however, the stipulations for the match, were plentiful. Because the Miz lost, he is banned from the SummerSlam, the Staples Center and Monday Night Raw. That means, the former reality show star does not offically have a show yet, according to these stipulations. Let’s just hope that he isnt in TNA in four months.

Jeff Hardy should not be World Champion.

Does Legacy really mean that much to the company, if they have to do the J.O.B to the returning D-Generation X at SummerSlam?

TNA are having a clearout. No, you can’t buy t-shirts at half price. You can buy, genuine supporters of Jeff Jarrett. That’s right! Dutch Mantel, and Savio Vega have been given the boot, and they can be yours to own for only $49.95. Not even Billy Mays could get you a better deal. Act now, and Dixie Carter may throw in the added bonus of one Vince Russo. Might I also suggest buying TNA stock. That’s if, TNA actually have a stock option.

Did anyone else notice Kaz during the recap of Comic-Con ’09 on iMPACT last week? That would mean that Kaz, Daniels and Suicide, were in the same place at the same time. That means … who the hell is Suicide? (NOTE: Suicide is Nicole Bass)

Who has dodgier facial hair? Carlito, Primo or Kurt Angle?

Time to step outside the realms of the wrestling world for a moment here.

Watch Code Monkeys on G4! and buy the DVD! You will be entertained. I promise.

Has anyone ever had their Tom Selleck BlackJacked?

It seems that Vanessa Hudgens is at it again. You’d have thought that after the first time she posed nude for her phone, that she wouldnt do it again. Well, she did it again. This just shows you what exactly High School Musical brings to the world. Underage Porn.

Short and sweet. Just the way I can be bothered writing it. I shall go back to Guitar Hero.

For what it’s worth, I’d rather be doing ANYTHING than watching RAW tonight. I’d rather watch a marathon of Sasha Baron Cohen movies. I’d rather watch Grease and Grease 2. I’d rather watch all 200 episodes of iMPACT! Hell, I’d rather play the iMPACT video game. But alas, I sit through the boring crap that is RAW because it’s been my Monday routine for the last 15 1/2 years.  Don’t get me wrong, I still love professional wrestling, I’m just so bored with RAW right now, which is why I slept through the show last week (and thank you to Legend Killer for filling in for me.)  Anyways, tonight’s show is hosted by Jeremy Piven of Entourage, and we’ve got a handicapped match featuring Triple H burying taking on Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes.

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