Detailed fan report from this week's RAW

Thanks to Scott & Lori of PWInsider.com for the following live notes from RAW last night:

The weather was cold, but the crowd was HOT and looking forward to a great evening of wrestling. Unlike the last WWE event we attended here, the place was packed. If I had to rate it, I'd give it a thumbs-in-the-middle. It wasn't a bad show (goodness knows we've seen a few of those lately), but WWE needed to knock it out of the park last night and they got a single.

Brian Danielson defeated Chavo Guerrero in a Superstars dark match. came out to a huge pop when they announced his name and there were lots of "Lets go dragon." chants throughout the match. He looked much like he did when he was here in May. We didn't make the September ROH show as the Air Force Marathon was the next morning.

As already reported, Superstars saw Gail Kim defeat Jillian in the Divas Championship Tournament. Not sure if it will come through, but the crowd was way into Gail Kim and just crapped on Jillian. She was just lousy. Her singing was pretty bad too.

Michael Cole came out to polite applause but Jerry Lawler hot a good pop.

We've been to several WWE events at the Nutter Center before, but I must admit I don't think I've heard a louder audience when Bret Hart's music hit and he came out.

I've got to be honest, several weeks of teasing and hyping and I thought the Bret/Shawn segment fell flat like the Nevada Salt Flats. The crowd wanted a fight or a confrontation as least and they got a love fest. I thought it was interesting that WWE was removing signs critical of Cena, DX and the like that were across from the hard cameras, but allowed anti Bret signs to stay.

Maryse and Brie Bella had as good a match as they could. Couldn't see too much as some jackass on the floor had a 4'x4' sign blocking my view throughout the match. From out vantage point, Maryse's facials when the Bellas attempted their switcharoo was great. Wish her ring work was as good.

Jack Swagger, MVP, Carlito and Mark Henry and what I thought was a really fun match. I really think Mark Henry is hugely overlooked as he carried the match and made it work. I would have preferred Mark going over, but MVP was fine. Jack Swagger and MVP looked good, but I think Carlito was phoning home or something. He didn't seem as crisp and didn't react to much of anything. Might just be our vantage point.

The Jericho/Big Show and Jericho/Bret Hart segments just didn't work well. The crowd didn't react much, until Jericho came out later; then he got his heat.

I don't understand why the crowd loves Hornswoggle, but they did. Big pop for DX, Hornswoggle and Santino. Nice way to bring out the new Mattel stuff, but seriously, throw Hornswoggle into the lake behind the Nutter Center and leave him there.

Jerisho versus DX wasn't a bad match, but it was predictable. Jericho got a lot heat from the crowd. DX got a huge a pop from the crowd. The crowd got into the match and there were a few chants for Big Show to turn on Jericho. After the match everyone started signing "HEY HEY HEY" and then DX tried to start it. Good timing folks. I'm sure we'll get blamed for not taking our cues better.

You could tell all the Vince pretapes were exactly that as in the background, you can see the arena floor all lit up. Did Vince really just blow off Orton? And Orton took it without comment? Really? More importantly, did Legacy just grow a pair?

I feel sorry for Evan Bourne. He looks amazing when he's allow to. But this was a squash and it was. With the number of Dayton indy guys in attendance, WWE could have used any of them to achieve the same effect. Be afraid Brian Danielson, be very afraid.

On to the main event. Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton. Kofi came out huge. Orton got a lot of heat, but there were a few Orton chants through the match. The match was fine I guess. 4' sign guy blocked a lot of my sight throughout. There were more Orton chants throughout.

More love-fest. Again, the crowd wanted something and they got a cheap shot by Vince. I suspect he came across as heat, but the crowd was not happy with the ending. A LOT of people started to leave during this segment.

Afterwards, all the the wrestlers lead by the Hart Dynasty came out and spent a little time in the ring with Bret. The crowd that was left loved this. After that all of the Wrestlers left the ring and stage while the Hart Dynasty waiting on stage. Bret walked around the ring area, shook hands, took pictures and signed stuff for a good 20 minutes. Finally he got to the stage with waiting Hart Dynasty and they took a final bow.