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Post by Vegas on Jul 16, 2012 15:02:29 GMT -5
I am going to the last 2 hour RAW tonight here in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas was the original planned site for yesterday's Money in the Bank PPV. But once the NBA lockout ended it meant the NBA's Summer League (which takes place here in Las Vegas and they have UNLV's Thomas and Mack booked every year in July) resumed so the WWE moved Money in the Bank to Phoenix and Las Vegas instead gets tonight's RAW at the smaller Mandalay Bay Events Center on the Strip.
Mandalay Bay is one of my personal favorite casinos to visit, but I have never been to the Mandalay Bay Events Center itself. This is also the first WWE show to take place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center which has hosted over 20 UFC shows and which was the site for the boxing match at the end of the movie "Rocky Balboa."
Looking forward to tonight!
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Post by Tournament Master on Jul 16, 2012 15:16:15 GMT -5
Have fun tonight Zeke. I had no doubt you would be at Raw.  I hear Burger bar at mandalay is excellent. There is a line, so you may need to get there early to eat there before the show. |
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Post by Vegas on Jul 16, 2012 15:41:38 GMT -5
Have fun tonight Zeke. I had no doubt you would be at Raw. I hear Burger bar at mandalay is excellent. There is a line, so you may need to get there early to eat there before the show. oh yeah, the Burger Bar is very good! I had lunch there with Tim Dalton several years ago. I think the Burger Bar probably has the best burger (their Black Jack burger) on the entire Strip. |
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Post by Vegas on Jul 17, 2012 1:36:51 GMT -5
I'm back from attending RAW earlier tonight. RAW taking place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center tonight was the first time I saw wrestling on The Strip since ROH had Survival of the Fittest 2007 at the Empire Ballroom (that was the year when Chris Hero- managed by Larry Sweeney- himself made all of the eliminations- Human Tornado, Roderick Strong, Austin Aries, Rocky Romero, and Claudio Castagnoli- in the final match of the show which also included a Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness match and a Briscoes vs Age of the Fall- Jimmy Jacobs and Necro Butcher- match.) Since I know from past concerts at the House of Blues how bad the Mandalay Bay parking garage gets backed up after shows, I instead got off the freeway at Tropicana and parked in the outside lot of the Excalibur and took the free 2 minute tram to Mandalay Bay (which made it very easy to drive out afterward.  ) Because they are known to have a really good Happy Hour, before boarding the tram, I went across the street to the Sporting House at the New York New York for dinner. The Sporting House is in the site of the former ESPN Zone Las Vegas. Matt went there last year and said good things about it- me and Matt actually also tried to go to the Sporting House last year when he was in town but it was late and they were closing at the time so then we went to a regular casino bar instead. It was weird walking into Mandalay Bay and seeing lots of shirts saying "Best in the World" and "You C Me" at the slot machines. The crowd in the line leading into the Events Center did the typical loud "Let's Go Cena!" followed by "Cena Sucks!" chants and also the loud "Yes! Yes! Yes!" chants with their fingers in the air which caused some of the other people in Mandalay Bay who were just there to gamble, vacation, etc to look at them weird like WTF? ;D Although I have lived in Las Vegas since 1999, this was actually my first time in the Events Center. It's OK, but overall I did not like the Events Center as much as the Thomas and Mack. With its much lower seating capacity, I can see why the WWE switched Money in the Bank to Phoenix this year once the NBA resumed operations to make the Thomas and Mack unavailable in July. Also, they actually wanted $12 for a 24 oz can of beer.  At the merchandise table I did buy the new CM Punk shirt which I will probably wear to Summerslam next month. The matches filmed for Superstars prior to RAW were Santino Marella vs Jinder Mahal and Alex Riley vs Cody Rhodes. It was cool how CM Punk mentioned at the start of the show how he likes Las Vegas and that this is where he dropped his infamous pipe bomb last year on RAW. I also liked seeing Rikishi (who I talked to at Wrestle Reunion 6 last January) return and then interact in the ring with his sons the Usos. Rikishi lives here in Las Vegas so it made sense to make him the returning legend tonight. Although he is reportedly about to move to San Diego to be with the Bella he is dating, Daniel Bryan got a good ovation from his hometown crowd tonight too. The dark match main event was a handicap match of John Cena vs the Big Show and Tensai. The end came when Big Show accidentally KO'd Tensai instead of Cena. Cena then gave Big Show the FU and then pinned Tensai. Afterward, John Laurinaitis appeared and hit Cena on the back with a steel chair. Laurinaitis swung the chair again but Cena ducked and gave him the FU too. Although nothing notable happened tonight compared to the last time RAW was in Las Vegas last summer when CM Punk dropped his pipe bomb, I had a good time attending RAW tonight and I am glad I went to the show! |
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Post by swarm on Jul 17, 2012 10:57:38 GMT -5
I thought RAW was pretty awesome. Tons going on with Cena, Punk/AJ and Ziggler/Jericho. My only (minor) complaints are 1) Why do they continue to super push a liability like Rey Mysterio when the fans react just as much to a guy like Zack Ryder, but he keeps getting jobbed? and 2) how come we never got a resolution to Big Show vs. Brodus? Show kicked his ass, then Clay cost Show the match vs. Cena at some PPV. Great build up, no closure. Brodus has advanced past beating guys like JTG on RAW, c'mon. Show vs. Brodus at SS, please. Other than that, the show was great. Must have been fun as hell to be there live. Next week could seriously deliver.
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Post by wildfire on Jul 17, 2012 11:39:40 GMT -5
This was the first Raw I'd watched in a while... really good show.... first time in 2012 I think I was excited for next week.
Ziggler -Jericho should be fantastic... that was deifnitely Ziggler's best promo I've heard. I do wonder, though, how Vickie's tanning went so horribly wrong... she looks like the mother of all Oompa-Loompas. Be interesting if they make one guy of the other a clear face, or if they sorta let the fans decide.
Punk-Cena next week should be really good, I'm sure Show gets involved somehow, which will be annoying, but that's WWE booking for ya. Hopefully they'll have enough time to put on a good match before the Cluster ending.
Glad to see Miz back.. I expect the love triangle to get sorta transferred to him.
No Santino, No Hornswoggle...awesome.
Already sick of Tout... I hope they don't go so overboard with the social media nonsense that it overwhelms the show next week.
Not really very excited about another wrestling wedding, but hey, they sometimes lead to good angles.
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) 
At the merchandise table I did buy the new CM Punk shirt which I will probably wear to Summerslam next month. 
