10 Live Observations From Glasgow's WWE TV Tapings
2. Noam Star
And in terms of a creating a great relationship, the die was cast within the first hour of Raw. The exact right man in the exact right place at the exact right time with the exact right booking. Wrestling is great!
Something WWE has been pretty good at in 2016 is the type of fan service that seemed to completely evaporate in the confused mid-2000s where they seemed to revel in alienating their core audience, not particularly in the punching-itself-in-the-face way they push Roman Reigns or the continued resistance with Daniel Bryan's push, more just how they didn't really give a toss about how small things would make an audience feel. Old tropes that had always worked forever because that's how wrestling works became an enemy of Vince because they were even slightly predictable. Heel and face turns lost punch through being too late to really count, surprise returns were botched or abandoned in place of grossly underwhelming replacements, and it became company practice to bury folk in their hometown, which in turn reduced future expectation, and ultimately just caused indifference when folk showed up on home soil. It was why there was an unsettled air of sadness to the Charlotte/Sasha Banks result at Hell in a Cell. There were lots of reasons for that sort of result, but it will have given some sections of the audience a worry that the bad old days may make a return.
Not so on Monday night in Glasgow though! Fresh off a pleasing display in the Cruiserweight Classic, Noam Dar had been awaiting his Raw call up, and with WWE firmly entrenched in ICW territory, everybody got everything they could have dreamed of from his introduction to the main roster.
The crowd, hopeful of his arrival all night up to this point, exploded as his name splashed across the Titantron, and came alive with his every move, exactly how it should be. In punking out the always terrific Brian Kendrick in the closing segment, he was even allowed to leave looking strong and a future threat. It was a wonderful moment and on another day, would have been the biggest reaction of what was already a pretty hot show. Now regardless of how he fares in WWE's choppy Cruiserweight waters, Noam Dar can look back on his maiden voyage with tremendous pride.