OK, here's an account of my trip.
I left directly from work so I didn't drive with my buddy Tom, who I often attend shows with (we got the tix together, so I met him there).
Got there about an hour before showtime and they opened the doors a little after I walked up. Kind of funny walking past WWE equipment trucks with Prime Time Players, Zack Ryder and other major superstars on the side, haha.
Good crowd, a little sparse on the TV camera side but I'm told they put those tickets on sale at the door for 15 bucks. They had the upper deck of the arena curtained off, so I'm guessing with this setup there were about 7,000 there, give or take.
Our seats were in the lower bowl on the side -- at our angle I couldn't quite see the whole Titantron screen, but enough of it to matter. And we were low enough and close enough that I could see the ring action fine without needing to watching it on the big TV in the arena.
The Fandango silhouette light setup was hanging way above the ring, so I knew we'd get to see him.
This isn't mean to be a match-by-match results account, so just general impressions:
* Lots of 'Yes! Yes! Yes!" chants as the crowd waited for the show to start.
* Dark match was the first I've seen of Tyler Breeze, a new guy who got a decent amount of heat with his male model gimmick. I'll keep my eyes open for him.
* They taped Main Event, then Smackdown. It made for a long evening, about 3 hours total, but with a lot of breaks where the commercials go. The crowd was pretty hot early but less so later in the show -- doesn't help that you see some of the same talent early that you end up seeing later. Cody and his brother got big pops when they came out at the start of the ME taping, not so much when they came out against for SD.
* I was really excited to see Golddust -- someone I have always respected and admired both for his long-term development of his gimmick and his workrate. He had a good match with Rollins.
* I took a smoke break and missed the Real Americans, which was bad but even worse when I came back and the Funkadactyls were in the ring in a tag match against Alicia Fox and Aksana -- so I could have missed that instead. The funky girls can dance, but they should spend at least a little time practicing wrestling.
* Damien Sandow and Dolph had a good match. Sandow has a good bit of charisma live. Dolph got a big pop.
* That was it for Main Event. I'm watching it now as I type this ... but wouldn't be if I wasn't there.
* As for Smackdown, Bryan came out during a HHH interview with Michael Cole and got a HUGE pop. I've seen a lot of people over the years and can't recall ever seeing anyone this over on their way up -- sure Undertaker, Rocky, Cena, etc., were as over or more when already established as long-term main eventers, but the only one I can compare Bryan to in this regard who I have seen live is Jeff Hardy. I thought Hardy was over (saw him at a show maybe 6 months before he finally got his big title win in the HHH-Hardy-Edge threeway) but Bryan is 10 times more over than he was. A really cool thing to behold.
* Really sad to see Khali live for the first time in a long time. He had a match, if you can call it that, with Fandango. The poor man can really barely walk. He came out with Hornswoggle and Natalia and they were dancing to their music for a while (Khali just kind of barely bouncing and swaying) but he couldn't even keep that up for more than about a minute. He needs to retire. Just sad, sad.
* The Real Americans came back to watch the Los Matadors (with their little midget bull thingee) against the Usos (who got a real good pop). Zeb Coulter (I am a big fan, met Dutch Mantel a couple of springs ago when I was in Atlanta for WM, great guy) cut a nice heel promo and Tom and I stood and put hands over heart to say "We The People."
* The Wyatts made an appearance in a tag match with Luke and the other big guy. Their entrance is great, just perfect with the music and lights out, etc. It feels special. It feels creepy. If feels real. I LOVE the Wyatts.
Bray watched form his wheelchair but got sneak-attacked by Miz, took an nice bump. So he is definitely cleared medically. A few minutes later they showed Miz chained up backstage and the Wyatts around him, talking creepy things.
I am really enjoying wherever this is going.
* I got to see Paul Heyman actually wrestle. OK, not really, but he was in a match. Handicap, 2-on-1, with Heyman and Ryback showing us what's going to happen at Hell in a Cell. They took on a jobber with dark hair and a blonde streak down the middle, CM Skunk. I am not making this up.
The guy came out in a hoodie with hands taped to Punk's music, did the same intro as Punk. A lot of people thought it was really him until he took the hood off. Complete squash. Paul got tagged in and since it was no-DQ he went under the ring for a kendo stick (OK, I'm ECW old school so I say it's a Singapore cane) and beat the guy up. Ryback did his Shellshocked and Paul put a foot on the guy's throat (or chest maybe) for the pin.
Cut a classic Heyman promo too. Good to say I have witnessed at least one Heyman promo in person. Crowd reacted as expected.
* Also got to see The Shield live for the first time (well, actually I saw Dean Ambrose live in his Jon Moxley days and I think Seth Rollins when he was Tyler Black, but I don't recall that as clearly) in an eight-man tag match -- them and Roman and Orton against Cody+Golddust+Big E+Bryan, who was still 100 percent over with the crowd (and Orton got some love, too).
First off, I'm a big Ambrose guy and he is amazing. Everything he does has meaning. A moment that was meaningful to me is when he was in the ring and Big E got tagged in -- oftentimes WWE will book heels as chickensquats, and I thought that was what was going to happen when Roman reached out to tag in, but they booked Ambrose to look strong against the monster babyface when they had their time in ring together -- Ambrose shook off Roman with an "I got this" gesture, squared off with Langston and took it to the big guy. He eventually lost the exchange but was still booked very strong in it, which I take as a good sign.
Cody took most of the bumps for his team. Great job as usual. Along with Dolph I think he's the best bump-taker in WWE.
Orton just bored me. As usual.
* Bryan called Orton back out at the end for the dark main event. They gave us a very good 15-minute match (Orton stalled the first 10 minutes) and Bryan got the win. Like I said, he's way over. He circled the ring and slapped hands and such forever after, with hundreds of people 3 and 4 deep hanging down there to be a part of it.
Someone gave him an Alabama Crimson Tide had and he put it on, so I know he's a babyface (haha).
On the way out we walked past the railed-off areas where they had busses and such and I saw Brad Maddox (who did not appear on the show) wearing sweat clothes. Also the Funkadactyls, who weren't dressed too funky (it was 50 degrees or so).
Oh yes, they announced Raw is coming to B'ham for the first time in 5 years in April, couple weeks after Wrestlemania. Tom and I are going to New Orleans for WM, so I'm about to order tix for the B'ham Raw so we can go (they gave a promo code at the match).
Great times.
BE JEALOUS!!!!
Subject: Smackdown taping report 
