Thanks to reader Bradley W for sending this along…
The building was about 50% full with 60% of the area taken up. They had almost a whole side not used except for the TV cameras.
This was my first live wrestling event attended and I will say it’s definitely a different experience than watching it on TV.
The crowd was hot for the first taping and not so much for the second.
For the opening segment, we ripped the hell out of Dixie. The person beside me called her a “Tennessee Tramp/Whore.” The crowd was so loud, I couldn’t hear anything she said. A lot of ‘WE WANT HOGAN!’ chants. Then of course Bully Ray was out to a shit load of heat. Everytime he said “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” A lot of people said “WE DON’T CARE!” Then Mr. Anderson’s music hits and a loud pop for him too.
Also note there were a few ECW chants for Bully and Taz (who even got cheered for).
Knockouts turn and Velvet’s ass is so much nicer in person. Got a good view from where I was too. Brooke’s ass is pretty good too. Crowd loved to shit on Gail. A lot of ODB chants.
The Bro Mans are next. Shouts of ‘GAY’ and ‘GO BACK TO JERSEY!’ and then someone says ‘JERSEY DON’T WANT THEM BACK!’ and of course the ‘YOU CAN’T WRESTLE!’
Ethan Carter III. When the opponent came out, we yelled ‘JOBBER!’ I was also yelling ‘DERRICK!’, but I don’t know if anyone caught that one.
Loud pop for Kurt Angle. Mixed reception for Bobby Roode (especially since I like Bobby). Angle’s not medically cleared to wrestle (I find it funny as SPOILER ALERT: he wrestles later on).
Loud pop for Storm. Boos for Bad Influence. Loud pop for Eric Young (and I suppose Joseph Park). Kinda fun to watch Park try to hide a blading to go into the ABYSS MODE.
Main Event: AJ/Bully. Damn fine match. I hate the ref bumps. I would have been ready to start a riot if they hot shotted the title back to Bully. I’m glad they didn’t. Anderson returning wasn’t a big surprise and I’m glad Styles won.
Oh and you’re welcome for this… ‘I also give credit to the Salt Lake crowd for making it feel like a bigger deal than the San Diego crowd did.’
And we change for the Halloween edition….(SPOILER ALERT:)
Christy tramped up a bit…but we loved it.
Tag team title match first. Not bad, but the ending was kind of expected.
Knockouts title match. Pretty much the same kind of heat and cheers as the prior knockouts match.
Gauntlet/Battle Royal/Mini-Rumble – whatever you want to call it. It was all right. They made several mistakes with the time clock entrances and it will be interesting to see how they fix that as the crowd counted down with it. OK finish with Magnus tossing Sting and Daniels (I believe) to set up a slow heel turn for Magnus.
Angle and Roode next (MOTN with Styles/Bully). Good close back and forth submissions. Some of the crowd were puzzled by the ending.
Segment with Bad Influence coming out in Sherlock Holmes attire, which was quite amusing. Then the crowd went nuts for Abyss (well mostly).
The loudest pops for the night would definitely be for Angle and Sting followed by AJ, Eric Young, Jeff Hardy, James Storm, Abyss and Manik (which surprised me) and the most heat was for Bully Ray followed by Dixie Carter.
Overall good show with JB hyping the crowd.
