Post by saintpat on Jan 12, 2011 0:25:35 GMT -5
Went to the SD taping tonight in Birmingham. For those who don't know, the weather in the South the last few days has been brutal -- a lot of roads, including interstates, shut down by ice storms that swept through Sunday and Monday.
The weather definitely hurt the walk-up gate and attendance. The upper deck of the arena, which I have seen more than half-full for house shows, was curtained off on the side opposite the TV camera and no-access all the way around. They moved some fans over to the side opposite the camera area to give the appearance of a bigger crowd, but I'd say maybe 6,000 or so max when normally WWE draws closer to 8-10,000 in B'ham.
Outside temps were below 20 degrees and wind chill had to be single digits at the start of the show and after.
So after the dark (non-TV) main event (Edge and Mysterio vs. ADR and Kane -- but not with special ref Big Show as advertised), Edge cut a nice promo: he explained that he and Rey had driven all day, 11 or 12 hours due to weather and road outages, from North Carolina to make it, and he understood what the people who showed up had gone through to make it. He took time to thank everyone who came, because he said they weren't sure if anybody would be there for the show, and how much everyone in the locker room appreciated the crowd and its enthusiasm.
On the way out, Kofi Kingston was working the line along an area that had been blocked off, signing autographs and thanking people for coming in such trying conditions.
Just thought I'd pass that along.
The weather definitely hurt the walk-up gate and attendance. The upper deck of the arena, which I have seen more than half-full for house shows, was curtained off on the side opposite the TV camera and no-access all the way around. They moved some fans over to the side opposite the camera area to give the appearance of a bigger crowd, but I'd say maybe 6,000 or so max when normally WWE draws closer to 8-10,000 in B'ham.
Outside temps were below 20 degrees and wind chill had to be single digits at the start of the show and after.
So after the dark (non-TV) main event (Edge and Mysterio vs. ADR and Kane -- but not with special ref Big Show as advertised), Edge cut a nice promo: he explained that he and Rey had driven all day, 11 or 12 hours due to weather and road outages, from North Carolina to make it, and he understood what the people who showed up had gone through to make it. He took time to thank everyone who came, because he said they weren't sure if anybody would be there for the show, and how much everyone in the locker room appreciated the crowd and its enthusiasm.
On the way out, Kofi Kingston was working the line along an area that had been blocked off, signing autographs and thanking people for coming in such trying conditions.
Just thought I'd pass that along.
