Non-Raw notes from Des Moines

By Ryan Droste

I attended WWE RAW last night in Des Moines, Iowa. Here are some live notes that would not be evident from watching the show on television

Superstars Taping

—Jack Swagger defeated Adam Rose

—Lucha Dragons defeated Ascension

Post RAW Dark Match

—John Cena & Roman Reigns defeated Seth Rollins & Rusev

Other Live Notes

—The building was pretty much full where it appeared tickets were sold. About half of the 300 level upper deck (camera side) was tarped off. The rest of the arena was filled to capacity.

—There were several guys in the front row, opposite the hard camera, who were dressed up as old school wrestlers such as Ric Flair, Randy Savage, I.R.S., Jake Roberts, Ultimate Warrior. I saw them at a restaurant just down the road from the arena prior to the event, and they had people chanting and taking pictures with them. At the event, during the first hour, security approached them and told them they needed to change or leave the event. They were given shirts to put over the tops of their costumes. After RAW went off the air, during the dark match, they put their costumes back on. This prompted memes such as this to circulate online…

—The first two hours of the show dragged live, with hardly any wrestling and way too much talking. Lots of commercial breaks and seeing the same stuff play on the titantron. Some fans were noticeably becoming agitated with all the stops in the action, but the last hour of the show was excellent and brought the crowd back into it.

—Sting received easily the loudest pop of the night when he appeared at the end of the main event. I’ve attended WrestleMania before, and this was right up there with the loudest pop I have heard at a wrestling show.

—Seth Rollins was over from the start with the crowd, since he is from the state of Iowa (Davenport, which is a couple hours east of Des Moines). He did a pretty good job turning the crowd on him in his opening promo, though, and was loudly boo’ed for the remainder of the event.

—Cena had a mixed reaction, as can be expected.

—Far more people boo’ed Reigns than cheered him

—The crowd was highly disappointed that Lana wasn’t there. Lots of comments in the crowd wondering where she was.

—Just before the main event, a group of security dressed in black made their way down to the ring and looked underneath. One of them was wearing a hoody, so this is where Sting went under the ring to prepare for his post match appearance.

—There was a funny moment during the post RAW dark match where some fans in the front row were chanting “Lesnars Gonna Kill You!” at Reigns. He turned at the fans, gave them a smile and smirk, and said “maybe.”