>>13476197It was bad. the WWE used to run Portland Oregon four, maybe five, times a year and I always go. By 2019 they only ran three shows (a Raw, a Smackdown, and an NXT) and it was insanely bad. The Raw I went to in 2019 was 1/4 capacity, but capacity wasn't full capacity for the Moda Center where the event happened. They had closed off about half of the venue and still could only fill what was left to 1/4.
In 2020 the WWE only ran one NXT show in Portland the entire year. It was a Takeover and it had an okay crowd, a couple thousand at least.
In 2021 the WWE ran no shows in Portand and I thought that the end was finally here.
In 2022 we got one Raw. The card was kind meh, and no Codemeister, but when Dakota Sky pinned Aliyah and Dakota and Iyo were crowned tag team champs the place erupted. Place was pretty full, not sold out but way better than in 2019
In 2023 we got one Smack. The Brawling Brutes vs Imperium was pretty fucking based, NGL. Judgment Day going over LWO got huge pops. About the same as in 2022 attendance wise
The 2024 Raw last month was insane. When CM Punk's music hit the crowd lost it, every single person in the crowd was either cheering or booing. But that was nothing compare to the pop when Cody . The crowd was so loud when Cody came out that it made my heart feel like it was rattling inside my chest and my brain was vibrating in my skull. People were legit marking out.
Everything changed once Cody returned. Even for shows when Cody wasn't even on the card the vibe has massively changed. People at the shows are invested in the stories, not bored and trying to get themselves over. TV doesn't really get across how different things are now. WWE sweetens the audio for television so much that you can't tell when the crowd is cheering or booing (neither of which they were actually doing in the dark days of 2019), but live and in person it is like the shows are completely different.
