By Jason Powell, Prowrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Dot Net reader Mike Balena attended the WWE Smackdown event in Montreal, Quebec at Bell Centre on Tuesday and sent the following report.
-Bell Centre was about 3/4 sold out. The upper area on one side was tarped off.
-The crowd popped huge for The Miz when he came out but it wasn’t on TV. He was already taunting the crowd and got them going before the camera started. There was a very loud “on veut Maryse” chant in French which means “we want Maryse” only to have Miz respond, “You do know I took her to Hollywood, right?” Funny stuff.
-Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton got nice reactions from the crowd, while Shelton Benjamin got none at all.
-At the start of the tag match, Miz grabbed the mic and started telling the crowd, “There will be NO chanting during my match.” When rewatched on TV, this was timed perfectly since the commercial break ended and you saw Miz getting back on the apron and the nonstop chanting started and continues for the whole match. Everything from “ole” to “on veut Maryse” to “Brother Nero” and “RKO”. The crowd pleasing match that had a lot of energy.
-New Day and Rusev Day got big reactions when shown onscreen for their backstage promos. There was a huge “Lana” chant when she appeared beside Rusev.
-The Big Cass segment was a little weird. He came out to massive heat in the beginning as the crowd was chanting in French “on s’en calisse” which basically means “ we don’t give a f—”. The crowd popped huge for Daniel Bryan’s music but once the they saw it wasn’t him, half the crowd booed while the other half was still doing “yes”… then once Big Cass said the little person was from Montreal and plugged his stuff, the crowd didn’t know how to react because they wanted Daniel, so some cheered anyways for the hometown pop, only to have Big Cass take him out to draw some “asshole” chants to end the segment. All around that was just a confusing ride for the crowd.
-AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and Shinsuke Nakamura all got really good loud reactions. There was a loud “TNA” chant when Joe started talking to AJ. Seeing those three interact together for the title could be a very fun story going forward.
-Charlotte got the biggest reaction from the main event and there were a lot of wooos all throughout the match. It was a good match and the crowd was into it the whole way.
-Once Smackdown ended and they were setting up 205 Live, literally half the crowd left. As everyone was leaving they announced over the system that Daniel Bryan has just showed up to the building and he would fight Shinsuke in the main event after 205 Live. A lot of people decided to stay because of that.
-The 205 matches really come off dead live. The crowd is so drained and not invested in all the wrestlers so it seems no one pays attention. I was looking around and most people were on their phones and some kids even sleeping. Maybe if they recorded it before Smackdown they would get different reactions.
-When Daniel Bryan came out after 205 Live the crowd went nuts. It literally woke everyone back up. There were huge “yes” and “oui” chants. The match with Nakamura was good. Short and sweet. They both got some good offense at the beginning then Daniel started doing all his signature spots to please the crowd. Nakamura ducked the “yes” kicks and low blowed Daniel for a DQ finish. He stomped Daniel on the floor then left. He came back out and tried to ambush Daniel again, but Bryan ducked the Kinshasa and hit the kicks and running knee to send the crowd home happy.
-Daniel then grabbed the mic and addressed the crowd. He said he loves coming here but he said he’s confused what we were doing to his chant as he laughed (referencing the oui instead of yes). He asked if we could help him out with it. He asked the crowd to spell out for him. The crowd spelled it out loudly.. Daniel asked again as if he couldn’t understand and they spelt it again. Then he said “ok I think I got it… o…u…i?” The crowd went nuts then Daniel started his own “oui” chant which lasted about two minutes before he left to close the show. Very cool moment for the crowd.
-Overall, a good Smackdown with good energy again from the crowd.
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