7 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (July 9)

5. A Hot Crowd In Beantown

Seth Rollins Raw
WWE

A fired-up fanbase can make a huge difference in how live television is perceived. When fans are yelling and cheering along, you as a viewer instantly become more invested and interested in what’s happening. Conversely, a stone-quiet crowd can kill the show, even when the action is red-hot.

Monday, we got a loud audience in Boston, Massachusetts that heartily endorsed the brawl between Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley, which really kicked the show off strongly. They exploded for Nia Jax’s hot tag. They were way into anything Seth Rollins did or said. They gave Elias a fair amount of grief for insulting them. And most interestingly, they weren’t into themselves.

The crowd didn’t toss beachballs or get super-snarky with chants. Sometimes a fired-up audience can turn that corner and churn things in the opposite direction, but this had to be a dream crowd for WWE, making Raw that much more enjoyable.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.