5 Botches, slip ups, and outrageous moments from WWE Raw (January 2nd, 2017)
The first Monday Night Raw of 2017 has been gifted to us and it was a decent way to start the new year. Braun Strowman competed and showed Sami Zayn that he is the last man standing while Roman Reigns and Bill Goldberg introduced the former Wyatt member to an epic double spear. It was an eventful night for big Braun.
It was also an eventful night for a certain WWE fan who dressed up like one of the biggest WWE stars of all time. He even got his own chant when WWE decided that he didn’t need to be visible on screen anymore.
In addition to him, Mick Foley got slightly confused during the opening promo, Cedric Alexander had a momentary scare with the bottom rope, and Kevin Owens gave the world our new favorite prop.
The following 5 entries are some of the more notable botches, slip ups, and outrageous moments from Monday Night Raw. First up is the Raw GM, so let’s get to it...
#5 Hogan got moved
Earlier in this episode of Raw, there was likely one fan in the front row who caught your eye. This individual was dressed up to look just like WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan, which was worth a chuckle.
Considering there was a new show debuting on the Network immediately after Raw that used Hogan’s name in the promo video Raw kept airing, it didn’t seem like a big deal that a fan visible on screen could be seen donning his attire. Apparently, it was.
Briefly during the Titus O’Neil and Xavier Woods matchup, a strange chant for Hogan could be heard among the audience. The ridiculousness of this chant for an expat Superstar over comments tinged with racism while the only match of the entire night that featured two men of colour was underway was at least a tad ironic.
But it was also at that moment that the faux Hulkster was realised to be missing, moved off camera during a commercial break. He was later seen on the opposite side of the ring, still front row but out of view of the home audience. The guy standing in the blue shirt in the above .gif was originally seated next to the fake Hulkster.
This likely had little to do with Hulk Hogan’s recent controversies and simply WWE not wanting anything visible that might distract from the in-ring action, but the guy wasn’t being a nuisance. It seemed silly that they felt the need to move him and only caused a disruption because they took action.