WWE Raw: Being Part Of A Legendary Crowd
Last night's Monday Night Raw had one of the most incredible crowds in WWE history. I was lucky enough to be there. Whether it was the crowds response to an overall average WrestleMania or the electricity of the post-Mania show, this crowd was buzzing throughout the entire night. To be a part of it is something I'll remember the rest of my life. It all started right from the very beginning. John Cena came out to open the show and was met with relentless boos ad chants telling him he sucked and should maybe try some new things. Not in those nice of words though I'm afraid. Cena though, to his credit, has embraced the hatred from fans recently and has fun with it only adding the crowds fire. Cena challenged anyone in the back to a WWE Championship match and Mark Henry came strolling out, the crowd almost immediately burst into a chant of 'Sexual Chocolate'. A nickname Henry hasn't been known by in quite some time. This was the kind of crowd I was a part of, and I was just as much a part of it as anyone. When Wade Barrett retook the IC belt from The Miz the place went crazy as my friend and I ran along the aisle ways of the arena giving to high fives to anyone who would take them. That wasn't supposed to happen. Barrett is a heel and The Miz is supposed to be loved, that wasn't the case here and that was a pretty good trend setter for how the rest of the night would go. By the time Alberto Del Rio had beaten Jack Swagger but was clearly left injured in the middle of the ring the crowd was chanting for Ziggler and ready to explode. When his music hit the crowd erupted into a deafening roar and when Ziggler got the pin fall I thought the building was going to come crumbling to the ground. You would've thought Ziggler was the most admired wrestler of all time the way he was backed and not a bad guy as he is supposed to be. A truly great moment in WWE history that I was lucky enough to be a part of. Things got all out wacky during the Sheamus-Randy Orton match up, but my God was it a truly beautiful segment for the crowd. Largely uninterested in the lackluster match between these two, we in the crowd decided to take things into our own hands. Chanting anything an everything that came to mind, the crowd may have had the most fun of the whole night during what was the most boring and uninspired match of the night. Here is the full list of chants that took place during that match, courtesy of Bleacher Report. Chioda, Ole, RVD, Big Show, JBL, Jerry, Cole, Justin Roberts, CM Punk, Y2J, Austin, XPac, ECW, Savage, HBK They must have forgotten about the Michael Cole chant because yes, that also happened. What happened a little later on in the show was truly amazing and it's something I hope continues to be done throughout arenas all over the country. After the Fandango segment where he was attacked by Chris Jericho and still said his name even though being badly beaten, the crowd started humming the Fandango theme song. A chant that happened every 5 minutes from there on out and didn't cease until the crowd dispersed and went its separate ways in the parking lot. I can't describe the feeling of the 17,000 people humming da-da, da-da-da-da-da, da-da, etc. Even the wrestlers themselves began to acknowledge it. In the beginning of his match with Mark Henry, John Cena began dancing along with the crowd as we hummed the theme. Eventually, when Ryback gave his so called heel-turn, the crowd was so loud and behind him that you would've thought he just became the number one guy in the company. After Raw went off the air and Cena got up from his Shellshock, he thanked the fans for giving Dolph Ziggler the kind of moment that we did. He seemed befuddled and amused all at once that our chant of preference for the night was the Fandango theme song and once again gave a little dance. He then went on to say how we were one of the better crowds and instead of the night ending with a WWE superstar's theme song, he said we would be the last thing heard from the night, and as he walked out the entire crowd once again hummed the Fandango theme song. I know it won't translate to TV but Cena really won a lot of the New Jersey crowd over with his post show comments. He was really incredible about the whole night. I'm what is already being talked about all over the Internet, last night's crowd was one of the greatest of all time. I had friends texting me throughout the entire show telling me how the announcers kept saying what a crowd it was. I was lucky to be there and it is definitely a night I won't forget.