Kenco12 sent this in:
So myself and Ghetto Dan went to our first Smackdown taping ever this past weekend, and would like to share our experience. We took the one hour drive from Detroit to Toledo, and when we hit downtown Toledo, we got confused as to where the arena was. Turns out Huntington Arena is a very small but very nice arena right by 5/3 Park (Toledo Mudhens play there). It takes us about 2 minutes of waiting in line to get in (we’ve waited in lines of 1+ hours trying to get into Joe Louis Arena for Raw or The Royal Rumble). We get in, walk right to the beer, and find our seats. We are sitting 4 rows behind where the anon. Raw GM stand typically is, and the show begins with NXT and a dark match. The crowd was pretty dead for the entire NXT show, with a few “Regal” chants going on, but nothing to write home about. Same with Superstars except Daniel Bryan got a decent reaction when he came out to face Tyson Kidd. We then move to Smackdown which actually moved pretty fast. It would be like watching an episode of smackdown with no commercials. The biggest pop of the night easily was Zack Ryder. Randy Orton had a few as well as Sin Cara and Air Boom.
The show seemed like a glorified house show to be honest, and you can tell it’s the “B” show, based on location, talent, and the way things were ran. It was a lackluster Smackdown but still fun. Beer was only a 20 second walk, there weren’t long lines for food or the bathrooms, and again the arena was very nice and clean. It ended with a post-smackdown dark match between Mark Henry & Randy Orton which ended in a DQ when Christian came out and attacked Orton. Sheamus made the save and then continued to high five the crowd while the rest of the crowd began to filter out.
Not worth the money I spent, BUT still a great show.