WWE: Analysis of Raw and The Rock's Return to Boston by a Fan in Attendance

When the tickets for the Monday Night Raw Supershow live in Boston, Massachusetts went on sale earlier this year, I quickly deemed that this was something I couldn't miss. When they announced that Raw would be "Rocked," that was the icing on the cake. I purchased tickets and eagerly waited until the day finally came. This was the first live event that I'd ever been to, so I was definitely very pumped.

Being a rookie to live shows, I made the mistake of showing up for the matches that were being recorded for "WWE Superstars." What an awful waste of time. 

The show kicked off with the Cole, JR segment. Boy am I sick of seeing JR embarrassed every single time he comes on the telecast. The saving grace was CM Punk making an appearance early on in the show, and putting Cole in his place. The prize for most heat on the night has to go to Cole, followed by Vickie Guerrero. Punk was great on the mic as usual, and putting Cole in the Anaconda Vise was an added bonus in this segment.

Mick Foley's first appearance got a huge pop from the crowd. At least I thought so.

The Sin Cara and Kofi Kingston match vs. Cody Rhodes and Hunico match didn't draw too much interest from the crowd. Tonight it was going to take a fantastic effort by the superstars to struggle any interest away from The Rock's segment, which everyone was eagerly awaiting. On a personal note, I'm happy that Rhodes finally ditched the mask, changed his music and got the pin.

That was followed by the quick Santino segment with the WWE '12 plug, which I definitely laughed at. I'm a big Santino fan. 

My biggest surprise of the night, aside from the bomb of a segment Mick Foley burdened the crowd with, was the great promo by Dolph Ziggler. During the commercial break, he was actually pretty funny too, as he was kissing Laurinaitis' rear the whole time.

The brass takes another opportunity to embarrass JR AGAIN, and remove him from his commentary position. Great. Cole is back.

The Ziggler vs. Mason Ryan match was ehhhhhh for me, since I don't particularly enjoy watching Mason Ryan, the jolly "green" giant (see what I did there?) wrestle. One thing I took away from this match is that Ziggler does a fantastic job of selling his opponents moves. That's a good quality to see, as it shows that he can carry others in his matches, one sign of a good wrestler.

Next we have the number one waste of time of the night. This is My Life: John Cena Edition. It wasn't funny, too long and awkward. The Boston crowd, Cena's home crowd, is quite venomous towards him, which is expected. We're an old school crowd. I did think that John Cena Sr. did a good job working the crowd near the end of his part though. The Rock brings this segment to a merciful end by giving Foley a rock bottom.

The next match, which pitted Sheamus against Jack Swagger was nice, short and sweet. Not much of a reaction from the crowd until the Brogue Kick though.

Natalya vs. Kelly Kelly for the 10,000th time.

Waste...Of...My...Time.

Kelly Kelly got some cheap pop by showing up in a Tom Brady jersey. That was the second cheapest pop of the night, after Mick Foley mentioning Boston and getting his pop. On a positive note, Eve Torres looked stunning tonight, in my opinion.

Didn't pay much attention to Laurinaitis talking on the phone, so I missed what he said about Brodus Clay. Del Rio bores us with the same old crap as always, and attacks Punk backstage.

I thought the Del Rio, Mark Henry vs. CM Punk, Big Show match was pretty good. The faces lost, which was pretty surprising to me. At one point Del Rio kicked Mark Henry, which we all thought would turn into something, but it never did.

Next was the most predictable thing of the night, which was Santino getting kicked and jackknife powerbombed by Kevin Nash. Of course that's what was going to happen.

The match between Orton and Barrett was sort of a mess, but that was to be expected with both teams at ringside. The match never really gets started, and after a quick scuffle, the faces clear the ring with the exception of Hunico, who gets unceremoniously RKO'd and military pressed and tossed from the ring by Batista...err...Mason Ryan.

Next up was the moment that the millions had been waiting for, Rocky's return to Boston. He comes to the ring to a thunderous ovation, and it is clear from the get-go that he has the city of Boston in his palm.

I will say that the crowd was initially disappointed with Rocky not going with his...finally...thing immediately.

However, the Rock redeems himself by mentioning the North End and it's delicious food, a security guard with a very Bostonian accent and comment for "The Great One," followed by a hilarious comment about having great aim, and then finally the moment came that I had been waiting my whole life to see live, which was when Rocky said: "Finally...The Rock has come back to Boston!"

What a moment for myself and the home crowd.

The Rock then explains his actions in regards to the rock bottom to Mick Foley, which elicits a "Thank You, Rock" chant from the crowd. Then he plugs his twitter and #bootstoasses, which he tells us is trending. The crowd then starts to chant this, which draws gratitude from "the great one." A little later The Rock tells us that he would rather live in the moment rather than wait six days until Survivor Series. He then calls out Awesome Truth, which show up with no real intention to fight.

After some back and forth between Awesome Truth and Rocky, Awesome Truth turns to leave, but are stopped by John Cena, who comes down the ramp to a chorus of boos.

The Rock and Cena banter back and forth, exchanging insults about "fictional manginas" and "Cena's Lady Parts," which of course elicits a "Cena Lady Parts" cheer which is sure to trend as well. THIS SEGMENT IS GOLD UP TO THIS POINT.

Oddly enough, however, Cena is definitely holding his own against The Rock. Finally, the time for talk is over, and they start to fight. They beat down Awesome Truth, and R-Truth gets rock bottomed. Just as Cena goes to give The Miz the attitude adjustment, Rocky pulls Miz off of Cena's shoulders and gives him the rock bottom as well, effectively one-upping Cena. He walks up the ramp, and waves his hands in front of his face, "you can't see me style," and that's a wrap, at least for Monday Night Raw on USA. 

This isn't the end though for those of us in the crowd. We get an additional main event, which is initially CM Punk, John Cena and Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry and Awesome Truth. The crowd then starts to chant Zack Ryder's name quite loudly, and CM Punk scampers backstage, and a few seconds later, Ryder's music hits. The match becomes a four on three handicap match. The faces win the match at the end, on a pin by Zack Ryder.

Following the match, Zack Ryder thanks the crowd for their support, and tells us that we are all his "Broski's of the Week." It was a nice moment, especially with Randy Orton sitting ringside applauding Ryder.

This was Monday Night Raw from the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts from my eyes. In my opinion, this was a five-star show, and an especially necessary show going into Survivor Series. I will say that just having Rocky in the building carried a lot of the show. His rock bottom to Foley brought necessary closure to that awful segment, and then his final segment was easily the best half hour of the night.

This was also my first live show ever, so I may seem a bit partial, for which I apologize. What better first show to go to than Monday Night Raw, in Boston, an event that featured the returns of two icons in the business, The Rock and Mick Foley.

What were your favorite segments of the night? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment? Let me know. Thanks for the read!