Man, why the fuck are the women only getting one match (or two very short ones) per show? This episode fucking dragged - they have room
for more women’s matches, and should be using it!
Having this Raw-centric women’s War Games storyline, have the final big piece on SD.
Really not helping the complaints that Raw feels like the B-show with that one WWE.
Everyone? Sheamus looks like a star again. KO is the prizefighter again. Sami's going to be a mega babyface with a Mankind-level pop whenever the Bloodline implodes. Jimmy fucking Uso was main eventing PPVs and with his brother set a new tag title record. Solo Sikoa is great and moved through NXT quickly as a result of this reign.
Gunther gets to be the #2 guy on SD whereas under a regular title structure he'd barely get TV time.
The US title especially has been elevated now with Seth putting out banger after banger while holding RAW together and Lashley looking the best he's ever looked. Honestly even Austin Theory could come out of this looking less like a joke than if he just held that briefcase for a year the way people were fantasy booking the last couple of weeks.
Even ancillary stuff like keeping Orton out of the main event and giving him RKBro, Riddle too being around but not pushed too hard. You could maybe even argue that one less men's title has allowed the women to shine more. No World Champ regularly on RAW and women main event and/or open that show more than half the time now.
You could maybe argue that it's hurt Drew since would certainly have been champion at some point over the last couple of years but you could perhaps even say that not pushing him down our throats may help him in the long run. Along with Sheamus and KO he's super over on the War Games team.
Even Roman himself is so much more entertaining now than he was a couple years ago.
Whether or not you attribute a lot of that stuff to Roman or the way HHH is running the company is fair, but I honestly haven't been this hyped for WWE in years and it has mostly to do with everything around the Bloodline.
Edit: another big one I forgot, the tag title scene. Both titles used to be a joke, now the Usos have elevated them to new heights and they actually mean something. It's not perfect just yet as they can become an afterthought to other Bloodline business, but look at the huge match they just had on SD with New Day. The Brawling Brutes getting a PPV shot. With other teams forming or solidifying and NXT having some good teams the future looks good for the tag division for the first time in years.
And cena did hurt the quality of the show for a long while, there's a reason people came around to him when they no longer forcefully based the whole company around him. Too much dominance from one charecter for years hinders the watchability and makes it harder for there to be stakes for anyone else.
I think the final hour of Raw is really hurting the show. Drew vs Corbin made no sense 5 days out from war games, especially when Drew had been in the long opening segment. Rhea vs Asuka was a good match but there wasn't much hype for it as the main event throughout the show.
Alpha Academy, Riddle, Elias, Corbin and perhaps Ali just feel like filler content and I don't think they should be getting prioritised over the women's division, especially if there's only one women's match on the show.
I thought this episode was better than many recent episodes but that's because it featured Smackdown Superstars who also went over.
I do like that they're doing with Theory now though.
People throw this word "Filler" around and I don't think they know what it means. Most of the people you mentioned are regular parts of the show. Corbin's been getting a pretty clear push with JBL. Tozawa costing him the match is dumb but I don't understand what problem you have with Drew wrestling on the show, if Drew shows up to RAW people are going to want to see him wrestle. And I don't know what they're doing with Ali losing every week but there's clearly a story there, it seems.
As for the women, there's a huge blowoff match coming up with not much build left to do and they got the main event. What else do you need to hype up that match? I don't see the point in a secondary match when they've all faced each other a million times. After this I think the flow of the women's division should get better as the groups splinter off and start doing other things.
I don't like how Riddle has been used after the feud with Rollins
Dude was one of the most over babyface on the roster and looked ready for a big jump in the main event
He's there.
People overreact. He was hated by everyone then suddenly in 2 weeks he had to be champ.
Look at the other options. Sometimes it's as simple as deduction. Would you see Riddle as a more credible champ over KO, Seth, Zayn, Drew, Lashley...?
Let him do his thing. He has a lot of time.
He has a lot of good work under his belt, good feud with Seth, took on Bloodline with Orton and Roman 1v1 too. He's doing great for a midcarder.
These overreactions fail when people realise the output is none. It happened with Big E too. Great opportunity, but eventually lead to nothing. It's much better that they push people with a plan.
They'd be better off, combining both rosters and trimming the fat. Alot of wrestlers have no need to be there.
Go back to Attitude Era where anybody can show up on any show. I know it means more travel but it doesn't have to if you write in advance.
So many guys are just blah and have no use.
He really is booked more like Hogan than even Cena was. At least Cena would succumb to dirty tactics and lose on occasion, allowing more people to be constantly involved in the main event.
Exactly. When you have a consolidated world title, and the champ doesn’t even defend monthly, it’s going to be harder to build meaningful stakes and stars. The US title shouldn’t be the main belt on a show.
I respectfully disagree. That's exactly what titles like the US and Intercontinental were created for. They were titles to be defended on tv while the world title was rarely on television. Obviously it's a different era, but I don't see what's wrong with having Roman as the final boss that floats over the shows while Gunther and Rollins regularly defend titles that have a lot of prestige now.
Also, US and Intercontinental titles are ones that I feel can be flipped more often than the Universal without devaluing it. IOW, Riddle, Theory, Owens - all those guys could have a run with one of those belts and keep the shows interesting and unpredictable.
Because the fans aren’t buying it. I give them credit for trying with the US/IC belts.
But Roman is like almost never on Raw. When he does appear on TV, it’s almost always on SD. The show cannot help but feel like the B-show and it’s been that way basically all year.
WWE is painting Raw as less important. He’s NOT the final boss who “floats around the shows” when he’s only been on Raw like 4 times since Mania.
At least Brock only tied up ONE belt when he was doing this, the other show still had one.
The roster is filled with great talent, and it feels like everyone is in a weird placeholder spot because their ceiling is limited as long as Reigns is champion. It’s an awkward time in wwe
I agree that the roster is still thin, even after bringing people back. It really makes you wonder - what was Vince doing? Why did he dismantle the roster the way he did? What was the end game there?
We are so fortunate he's no longer in charge.
Asuka’s needed to change that catchphrase for years. It’s practically a bad luck charm for her. That and wrestling blondes, which seem to be super effective against her.
Agreed, I’m sure she has ideas and maybe something will change at some point. But seeing folks like her and Shinsuke and Ziggler have the same exact gimmick they had in 2017 or earlier sucks. It doesn’t have to be a complete revamp but like try to do at least something a little different?
Theory having such a competitive match against a guy who arguably has the lowest spot on RAW's roster, getting color in a match against that guy, while that guy was *injured* no less, was one of the biggest travesties I've seen HHH do ever since he's taken over. It implies that Ali would've won if he wasn't injured. And later Lashley even no sold a goddam chair shot to the back from Theory like he's Hulk Hogan or something, screw this.
Right now I'm certain that this whole Austin Theory angle is one big bait and switch, he's definitely gonna do the job saturday and then it's gonna be back to the enchantment talent hell for him.
If this does happen, which I'm pretty confident that it will, I'm gonna start skipping his segments. At this point, the best career advice anyone could give him would be to get the fuck out of the WWE before they kill his career like they did countless other very talented guys. AEW, NJPW, IMPACT, I'm sure that any of those promotions would treat him better.
Theory is on the same Arc as the young Randy Orton when he was coming up in Evolution. He woud have tough matches against lower card n mid card guys. He would get overconfident after a few wins and then get squashed by Goldberg. Theory is on the same arc.
Man is in a match w/ two of the biggest superstars on Raw , on one of the Big 4 PPVs
He beat the hell out off one and just beat another one today , one which by the way held his own well before against a competitor last Friday, which is an NA, IC & US champion.
He is given promo time in the ring and backstage. How do you watch the show to come out with such a reflection?
Lol, as if being a multi time IC champ meant anything in those days. Zack Ryder won the IC title one time, just gonna put that out there.
Holding a midcard belt doesn't mean anything if your booking is rotten.
Yeah just for one day and give it back to the Miz.
Miz is a 7 Time IC champ , you gonna tell me he was not a good champ ? Because he lost it and win it back 7 times ?
Nope, you're putting words in my mouth. You didn't say anything about the mitb and us title in your earlier comment.
What I meant was that he was a bright prospect who was featured prominently on the shows, and that the WWE completely botched it by constantly feeding him to other guys just like how they're doing with Theory.
I don't put words in your mouth. You're the one who tries to be in bad faith by deliberately taking a bad time when there are many who are successful
We got Reigns , Rollins , Big E , Owens , Kross , Balor , Bryan , Miz , Kingston , Woods , Ziggler , Zayn & more.
I never would have mentioned accomplishments if you hadn't mentioned Wade Barrett.
And how did they feed him to the others ?
How do you expect him to be built or taken for a serious competitor if he's not in a program with two other top stars?
You want him to feud w/Reggie or Cedric Alexander?
Frankly you give the migraine
Wade Barrett had a program against John Cena, the biggest WWE superstar of the last decade and still got buried. The same thing is about to happen with Theory, if it doesn't, I'll come back to this comment chain and admit that I was wrong. How does that sound for bad faith?
> The same thing is about to happen with Theory
Can you please wait for it to happen before you start lamenting it? Why are you pre-sad? Harshing the mellow for no reason dude.
> The same thing is about to happen with Theory.
I didn't know you were a medium to affirm things so easily
Theory is a better wrestler than Wade Barrett , he is more athletic , more attractive & more charismatic , he is also better physically built than Barrett was in his debut. Everyone appreciated the promo he did last week and this week. There are reactions when he is present
So tell me why WWE will bury someone who makes good matches, good promos, and specially young ?
If you want to continue to play the pessimist, perfect but believe me, you will be surprised.
It took around 2 hours and a half damn hours for the 1st, and only, women's match of the night, why is more not being made of Triple H's abysmal handling of the women? Yes Rhea and Mia were on earlier but they had their male stablemates alongside them. Funny how a company coming off very public sexual harassment accusations against their former CEO, with a female co CEO is bungling their female talent so bad.
In no world should Baron charisma vaccum Corbin get more TV time than Bianca Belair, that's plain insulting. We had to see him playing cards, again and then wrestle a guy from Smackdown. Bianca gets a promo, then goes to the back, then a quick brawl to end the show. WTF is that bullshit? Could we have, IDK, maybe gone 1 week without Baron and use that time to further flesh out the women's War Games match?
God forbid a 3 hour long wrestling show booked by a man who's supposedly such a proponent for women's wrestling have more than 1 match. The sky might fall if every woman on the roster wasn't crammed into 1 storyline that gets less focus than the male midcarders. Ronda Rousey is the like the 2nd biggest full-time star after Roman but her title match vs Shotzi is a complete throwaway afterthought in comparison to the US championship 3 way.
NXT is only 2 hours and does waaaay better, Vince for all his faults did better, this is something Triple H really needs to improve on because it just isn't acceptable in this day and age.
Raw's very likely going to branch off into multiple storylines again as soon as Wargames is done, and they definitely have the talent to make it work. Ronda/Shotzi feeling predictable is partly a reflection of no one on Smackdown really feeling like a credible contender.
That doesn't excuse them cramming the women all into 1 segment every week, there are mini feuds among the men's War Games match. KO/Sami, KO/Roman, Sami/Jey, Roman/Jey, Drew and Sheamus' history as frienemies, etc. There are so many defined characters on the men's side of things but what's Alexa's current gimmick? Even she said she doesn't know. I guess her gimmick is woman who crosses arms and os friends with Bianca Belair.
Nikki Cross recently returned to her old Sanity gimmick but there haven't been any promos or character building segments to reintroduce the character to the audience again. It's just Nikki's crazy again and that's it. Imagine if Drew McIntyre all of a sudden had a major repackaging but never got mic time to get the new character over. They'd never do that to him or any guy so why do it with Nikki?
Shotzi not being a credible threat is 100% a fault of the booking. They've done very little to make her look like a genuine challenger for Ronda. They put major effort into making Theory credible again but have done nothing for Shotzi. Really shows where Triple H's priorities lie.
Crazy, on drugs, the point is she's no longer a (almost) superhero but very little has been made of it. Where's her promo to explain why she ditched the ASH persona? As I said if Drew were to change gimmicks, let's say revert back to his cocky heel Chosen One character there'd be multiple segments of him explaining his attitude change.
Trust me, I agree with you. Triple H's booking of the division infuriates me because I expected way better.
Some of the simplest stuff is ridiculous. Rhea and Asuka start the match with no one at ringside then suddenly Damage CTRL appears out of someones ass. What the fuck was that? What the fuck are the producers doing?
I'm also tired of all the women coming out together, and I hope to god that this ends after Survivor Series. It gives the women no individual agency. This is the easiest stuff to fix but they're not even trying
That's a great way of putting it, because of his handling of the women in NXT I expect so much better than him and that's why it's so damn disappointing. If things don't get better after Survivor Series I'm gonna be pissed. Crazy how HBK does more with the women with less airtime then his buddy.
I always see people saying that they're waiting for so and so to come back, why do you have to wait for anyone to come back? That's a lazy crutch. When Bayley left NXT, Asuka was left with one of the worst womens rosters next to NXT 2.0 and had my favorite run among the women in the history of the company, then when she left they had the strongest division and booking we haven't seen since with Dakota, Kairi, Io, Bianca, Tegan, Shayna, Rhea, etc
Exactly that's the lamest excuse in the book, when a male star is injured we don't shrug our shoulders and say the booking will get better when so abd so gets back. The roster has great talent, Becky's the only major Raw female star who has been missing so it's not like the roster is depleted.
And you're right on with being annoyed by the women coming out together in 1 entrance. Asuka coming out for Bianca's music even though she was the 1 wrestling made me roll my eyes so hard.
I miss those NXT days, Triple H needs to stop this garbage and go back to what he did back then. He's shown he's capable of it.
There’s Raquel, but they don’t want her to lose. All the credible challengers on both showd can’t afford losses to Ronda, and Ronda at best would go to a double count out (and more likely dq from a rival) if she had somehow wrestled Bianca for the classic brand vs brand match. Ronda can’t lose to anybody, all the top women can’t afford losses to Ronda.
So I’m guessing after getting embarrassed by Bianca again, Bayley goes to tie up Ronda and get her ass kicked by her for a few months.
If nobody can afford a loss to Ronda, fine, have Ronda, Raquel and someone who can eat a loss like Shotzi in a triple threat. That way we have someone who can believably beat Ronda but she doesn't have to get beat.
>Ronda can’t lose to anybody, all the top women can’t afford losses to Ronda.
Sorry, that's a bullshit excuse. Utami just lost to Syuri on the last Stardom PPV, she's likely going to lose to KAIRI next month as well. Do you know why that works? Because Utami is one of their top stars as is being featured in a prominent spot despite the big losses. Tam Nakano also lost to Syuri a couple months ago, then she lost to Giulia at the 5 Star GP Finals, now she's likely going to lose to Kairi at Wrestle Kingdom. Having your top stars in top positions is a good thing. If Ronda needs credible challengers then either build to them or bring womeb from the other brand over
It doesn't have to be Stardom. I'm giving you examples of universal effective booking. I don't see how booking Top stars to be in prominent positions is exclusive to one promotion. Who is Ronda going to face until Mania? Dana Brooke for 5 months?
No they haven't. The last couple months with Vince in charge actually had this happening. All of the 4 Becky/Asuka singles matches were main events, plus some other matches (Bianca/Asuka, multiwomen tag, multiwomen MITB qualifying.) The difference is that he actually had other women's matches besides these on the show while H has booked 1 or 2 very short matches. What's up with that?
Remember a few weeks ago that blink and you miss it Dana Brooke vs Nikki Cross match was the lone women's match of the night and it was in the AEW pre main event death slot? Lol how anyone can defend this shit is beyond me.
Yes and it's usually the 1 match on a 3 hour long show they get, they have zero storylines outside of Bianca and friends (sad that Asuka and Alexa have been reduced to that) vs Damage CTRL. Being the main event isn't the best litmus test for how important something is.
Triple H and Jericho might've main evented WM X8 but we all know Hogan vs Rock was what the show was built around.
.
After last week, I expected the feuds moving forward to be Ali vs. Lashley and Theory vs. Rollins.
Okay. Great!
Here we are one week later and Lashley is back to being a heroic babyface while Rollins is back to being a smarmy heel.
Ummm… WHY?!
Unlike in 2019, I was completely ready to get behind Seth as a face this time around and I’m quite certain the WWE Universe were as well. Not only that… Ruthless, Heel Bobby is simply more entertaining.
Now the roles are back to the way they were whilst Ali continues to lose… just like he has lost in every program he’s been involved in since coming back. Damn.
Same here but judging from their presentation on Monday (Seth’s backstage interview and Bobby posing for the crowd again), it looks like the roles are now back to the way they were.
Maybe Seth wanted this?
So then do you feel Lashley is still a heel and we are getting a Heel vs Heel vs Heel match this Saturday?
Or is he back to being a face but just with a harder edge than before?
Seth’s presentation on Monday read extremely heelish to me.
The backstage interview so that the crowd couldn’t sing along with his theme. No pandering to the audience, a more serious demeanor and finally, bringing up Cody Rhodes…who he did not mention at all the past few weeks during his short-lived face run.
I see. My description about Lashley as heroic may have been inaccurate but I still see him as the face of the Triple Threat whilst Seth is back to being an annoying heel.
Mustafa right now is way less relevant than Theory and pretty much anyone else on the roster. Same goes for Gargano but atleast he's entertaining
If Haitch pushed them like a maniac, like he did with Karrion Kross. It wouldn't have worked. That's being hypocritical. They're not getting reactions, that's also why Karrion is also rightly in the midcard now.
Only a few guys can smash it on debuts. Those guys are special for a reason.
> Only a few guys can smash it on debuts. Those guys are special for a reason.
Interesting thought. Kurt angle is one. Who else had a brilliant rookie year?
Kevin Owens, Kane
Many others if we can count gimmicks. Cause Cena had a good rookie year, but he was still new till he got the rapper gimmick. That was amazing for him.
These last couple raws man
The absolute chasm having basically 1 active champ leaves is startling
It’s just Seth, Bianca doesn’t do much more then stand ringside, and Roman and the Usos are barley here
Forgot B show this is C tier almost
Hadn’t really thought of it that way but you’re right. US title is really the only thing we’ve seen much of. Was the women’s tag stuff a few weeks ago on Raw at least?
It's not because of 1 champ
Raw has consistently done this for the past 7+ years.
They always give Raw the biggest stars from SmackDown and then SmackDown sucks for the first few months
But the 3 hour catches up to them and stories get old very quickly. Wrestlers have to show up on the same show multiple times. SmackDown is always better during this Survivor Series time and then people would be mad because Raw would always win the 5v5
Don’t think they should have taken it off Lashley the way they did. The Brock turn came out of nowhere and was stupid in my opinion, Brock was super over as a face and so was Lashley, having them face each other with the story they did just hurt both of them.
and today they got some help from Drew and the Brawling Brutes. Otherwise the roster is razor thin.
Someone like Riddle is being wasted in a meaningless feud.
Bianca could headline shows as champion like Lashley did, and it would be fine but I do agree. They shot themselves in the foot with the Bloodline. They could be doing everything they're doing now without having all the belts and they'd be fine.
It would be much more tolerable if Bianca didn't feel so blah, Austin Theory gets more character development, segments, matches and mic time than her. Raw is borderline unwatchable at times.
Women's wrestling on both brands is suffering under the new regime. As much of a sleazy bastard Vince was, he seemed to be won over regarding women's wrestling in later years. In his final months booking Raw, women main evented 8 weeks in a row IIRC
And with Vince there'd be multiple women's storylines and feuds not just 90% of them shoved into 1 angle like what's happening on Raw now. There'd be at least 2 women's matches a week on Raw and numerous promos or backstage segments sprinkled throughout. Triple H just lazily has all the women in 1 bland throwaway segment and calls it a day.
You know your booking of women is shit when a notorious sex pest like Vince did better than you.
kinda sad that the fatal four way US champ match never happened… when i saw it wasn’t on the main show, i figured it’d be the dark match after or something (not sure if they do ‘em after, was my first show) but nothing. i know card is subject to change and all but was super hyped for it.
woulda been Bobby vs Riddle vs Theory vs Seth
The low points of the show were Johnny losing to freaking Omos (I have not been impressed with how he and Candice have been used thus far), and Ali getting chumped out once again.
There's a lot of hot prospects with a similar size and style to him in NXT that might be called up. But every promotion needs enhancement talent so they might keep him around for that if they don't want to bury NXT call ups.
I'm gonna keep it honest and I don't have much to elaborate on other than "just look at the past 5 weeks mostly" but it really seems like Vince couldn't help himself and just has his hands all over everything again somehow. Maybe Vince is just in H's brain and is constantly in his ear somehow telling him its all shit. Why the fuck has Gargano lost so much?
Gargano has just arrived on the main roster. He isn't particularly charismatic, at least if you compare him to many other talents there. Nothing physically stands out either. The crowd is kind of lukewarm to him. So it's alright to use him in other capacities for now, it's alright. Others' stories are going quite strong right now anyway. Theory, Bloodline, Brutes, Judgment Day, Kross, Wyatt, etc. Right now, it isn't Gargano's time.
Maybe it's just my NXT brainwashing but he felt like a main eventer from day one for me. It's the same feeling I had with Sareena Deeb in AEW, but that went nowhere. It seems like I'm again in the minority.
Serena Deeb is genuinely too good to be relegated to the place on the card where she is right now. Her work definitely stands out in that roster. She seems the most legit. So I agree with you on that.
With the idea of main eventers, it's like this. You've gotta have a hierarchy. So you ask yourself, okay, here's Gargano. Do I put him above Roman as far as main event potential goes? No? Okay, he's at No. 2. Then, do I put him above, say, KO? And so on. And apart from the top 7-8 guys, I don't think many more should be pushed at the same rate or level. Because you've gotta establish a clear gulf between them, otherwise nobody seems special.
he's new to the desk and hasn't adjusted super quickly. if he's deadset on the job and really wants to improve and push forward, they should keep on with him, but if it's a renee young situation where they've dropped an ambivalent interviewer into the slot to see if it fits... it doesn't, really, so far.
Btw what happened to Shelton Benjamin?
He dropped a fire promo at the main event. Then what is he doing now?
Also if I compare brothers
Ezekiel was actually much better than Elias.
Main event hasn’t mattered since like mid-2014, I don’t know why anyone would think Shelton cutting a good promo on it meant anything.
Shelton’s only hope would be HHH liking The Hurt Business more than Vince did (which I would hope too, I want that shirt)
Wondering if Anderson and Gallows turn on brother AJ at the ppv. AJ kept taking about his real family, but what if they turn and align with the Prinxe?
The way Bayley has cooled off post her last loss to Bianca at Crown Jewel is interesting. Rhea is now the clear number 1 Heel out there and is basically leading the heel team for all practical purposes. Does Bayley just become a background character for the next few months or wonder if they will do some re-packaging soon.
Alexa for example has been a total background character for a while, but perhaps she will finally get some character progression soon based on Corey's commentary tonight.
I noticed Damage Control started cooling even before Extreme Rules. They came in hot but I think Bayley and Iyo were rusty which hurt their first couple segments. They’ve improved since but the damage was done and the crowds weren’t hot on them anymore. I think the point to establish them would have been Bayley winning the title in the ladder match at Extreme Rules with the numbers game costing Bianca. Think maybe HHH saw the lack of reaction to Bayley and couldn’t justify taking it off Bianca who is the most over active female.
Yet again the overreaction
People... You cannot have 5 people be the front at the same time
Bayley will eventually become the champ. That is how logic would work. But things need time to fall into place. And with that you also need to build other interesting rivalries
Just because they focus on War Games and Rhea Ripley for few episodes, suddenly Bianca is cold? She almost beat Bianca. And Bianca is basically booked like Cena right now
Which yet again isn't bad. Womens roster needs a dominant face champ.
Basically Bayley’s last like three feuds have been against Bianca.
And the latter has battered her from pillar to post in all of them.
Bianca REALLY is not the write woman to have someone returning immediately feud with (or to establish newer talent in Iyo and Dakota’s cases).
Then Bayley’s ideas should be ignored from now on. The stable leader’s weakness directly carries over to the subordinates or else the audience wonders why they listen to them.
I know that, but remember at Crown Jewel his symbol popped up while Alexa was being interviewed and then on a Raw it popped up while she was walking to the ring
Look I know Alpha Academy is enhancement talent and are dang good at it. But really do they have to be beaten by a team that just debuted and by logic should have less experience than them ?
And still no Tucker Knight back and I am le big sad for AA because they could be easily one of WWE's top team easily but keep being enhancement talents over and over.
And the Tucker Knight bit is because I still strongly believe that Chad and Otis doesn't work as much as I hoped it would and that Tucker was a casualty from Vince's incoherent booking during the pandemic era (that was rough for everyone released at this period) and he deserves to come back and reform Heavy Machinery with Otis, and would be a big deal if Alpha Academy evolves into a Babyface stable so that Otis can focus on Tag Team with a more suited partner imo while Chad Gable just goes back into solo action where he is a diamond in the rough as a Babyface act.
But I'm loosing hopes about these 2. And I'm a little puzzled because I thought Triple H would pretty much re-hire everyone available that has been fired during the pandemic era.
Solid show
Always happy when Asuka is in the main event and it was a good match.
I like that Akira is no longer a ninja.
Bobby is still over with the crowd.
Gargano's new music sucks.
The biggest problem I see in raw is that there is no clear difference between those who are main eventers and midcarders since there is no longer a world title in the show, at least they could fight for a position to be number 1 contenders but nothing happens, if they want the title they have to go to Smackdown and that doesn't help raw.
the tag team division in raw has also suffered for that, the concept of long reigning champions doesn't bother me much but the double champion does.
Other than the first and last segment, I’m not sure this helped Survivor Series that much. And while I like Corbin and JBL, I didn’t need to a three segment McIntyre/Corbin match.
Corbin getting more time than Bianca is astonishingly stupid imo. He has to have dirt on someone because nobody's checking for his boring ass like that but he's all over the show every week.
As I said at the end of the live thread, anyone added to Bianca's team just feels like overkill. She already solos Damage CTRL regularly, and they just came out even in a 4 on 5 brawl with the only threat being Rhea for a short time.
Which is actually quite sad, Bianca has the charisma to make it big, but her last few storylines have been complete garbage, and this whole DMG Control thing is just sad too
I think that’s why it’s a mistake. But it feels like they’ve put all these women into stables because there isn’t enough airtime for a singles women midcard.
Me too- completely killed the crowd and people got up and started leaving right after that. 2nd crowd buzzkiller of the night after having Rollins “via satellite.” Other than that, was a fun show live.
This would be HORRIBLE. If you don't name who it is on SD, the crowd in Boston is going to be displeased with anyone other than Sasha. If it's Becky just bring her out on SD.
Man, why the fuck are the women only getting one match (or two very short ones) per show? This episode fucking dragged - they have room for more women’s matches, and should be using it!
Raw needs cody and randy to return soon
Having this Raw-centric women’s War Games storyline, have the final big piece on SD. Really not helping the complaints that Raw feels like the B-show with that one WWE.
Are we just forgetting that Candace exists now that Mia and Becky are taking the last two war games spots?
Bigger draws
Dead second half of the show, dead crowd. Oh well, excited for Smackdown.
SD really does have almost all of the hot/exciting stuff right now. Raw feels so cold creatively at the moment.
Who has the Roman run actually helped outside of himself?
Everyone? Sheamus looks like a star again. KO is the prizefighter again. Sami's going to be a mega babyface with a Mankind-level pop whenever the Bloodline implodes. Jimmy fucking Uso was main eventing PPVs and with his brother set a new tag title record. Solo Sikoa is great and moved through NXT quickly as a result of this reign. Gunther gets to be the #2 guy on SD whereas under a regular title structure he'd barely get TV time. The US title especially has been elevated now with Seth putting out banger after banger while holding RAW together and Lashley looking the best he's ever looked. Honestly even Austin Theory could come out of this looking less like a joke than if he just held that briefcase for a year the way people were fantasy booking the last couple of weeks. Even ancillary stuff like keeping Orton out of the main event and giving him RKBro, Riddle too being around but not pushed too hard. You could maybe even argue that one less men's title has allowed the women to shine more. No World Champ regularly on RAW and women main event and/or open that show more than half the time now. You could maybe argue that it's hurt Drew since would certainly have been champion at some point over the last couple of years but you could perhaps even say that not pushing him down our throats may help him in the long run. Along with Sheamus and KO he's super over on the War Games team. Even Roman himself is so much more entertaining now than he was a couple years ago. Whether or not you attribute a lot of that stuff to Roman or the way HHH is running the company is fair, but I honestly haven't been this hyped for WWE in years and it has mostly to do with everything around the Bloodline. Edit: another big one I forgot, the tag title scene. Both titles used to be a joke, now the Usos have elevated them to new heights and they actually mean something. It's not perfect just yet as they can become an afterthought to other Bloodline business, but look at the huge match they just had on SD with New Day. The Brawling Brutes getting a PPV shot. With other teams forming or solidifying and NXT having some good teams the future looks good for the tag division for the first time in years.
☝🏻☝🏽☝🏽☝🏽☝🏽☝🏻
Very very well said
The whole company has benefited from his stardom. People used to say the same about Cena
And cena did hurt the quality of the show for a long while, there's a reason people came around to him when they no longer forcefully based the whole company around him. Too much dominance from one charecter for years hinders the watchability and makes it harder for there to be stakes for anyone else.
The Drunk Drivers.
The first hour was great, but once the filler started happening with Gable, Otis, Corbin etc I skipped through
I'll give you that Corbin / Drew was filler (even though I love them both), but don't you dare disrespect the Academy like that.
I think the final hour of Raw is really hurting the show. Drew vs Corbin made no sense 5 days out from war games, especially when Drew had been in the long opening segment. Rhea vs Asuka was a good match but there wasn't much hype for it as the main event throughout the show. Alpha Academy, Riddle, Elias, Corbin and perhaps Ali just feel like filler content and I don't think they should be getting prioritised over the women's division, especially if there's only one women's match on the show. I thought this episode was better than many recent episodes but that's because it featured Smackdown Superstars who also went over. I do like that they're doing with Theory now though.
People throw this word "Filler" around and I don't think they know what it means. Most of the people you mentioned are regular parts of the show. Corbin's been getting a pretty clear push with JBL. Tozawa costing him the match is dumb but I don't understand what problem you have with Drew wrestling on the show, if Drew shows up to RAW people are going to want to see him wrestle. And I don't know what they're doing with Ali losing every week but there's clearly a story there, it seems. As for the women, there's a huge blowoff match coming up with not much build left to do and they got the main event. What else do you need to hype up that match? I don't see the point in a secondary match when they've all faced each other a million times. After this I think the flow of the women's division should get better as the groups splinter off and start doing other things.
>I think the final hour of Raw is really hurting the show. This statement has been true for the last decade.
I don't like how Riddle has been used after the feud with Rollins Dude was one of the most over babyface on the roster and looked ready for a big jump in the main event
He's there. People overreact. He was hated by everyone then suddenly in 2 weeks he had to be champ. Look at the other options. Sometimes it's as simple as deduction. Would you see Riddle as a more credible champ over KO, Seth, Zayn, Drew, Lashley...? Let him do his thing. He has a lot of time. He has a lot of good work under his belt, good feud with Seth, took on Bloodline with Orton and Roman 1v1 too. He's doing great for a midcarder. These overreactions fail when people realise the output is none. It happened with Big E too. Great opportunity, but eventually lead to nothing. It's much better that they push people with a plan.
There’s really no jump on RAW, unless he’s getting a Brock feud.
Now that you mention it a Brock-Riddle feud could be great
Unfortunately, because Roman is champion, a lot of superstars are in a weird spot on the card where they can only go so far.
They'd be better off, combining both rosters and trimming the fat. Alot of wrestlers have no need to be there. Go back to Attitude Era where anybody can show up on any show. I know it means more travel but it doesn't have to if you write in advance. So many guys are just blah and have no use.
He really is booked more like Hogan than even Cena was. At least Cena would succumb to dirty tactics and lose on occasion, allowing more people to be constantly involved in the main event.
Exactly. When you have a consolidated world title, and the champ doesn’t even defend monthly, it’s going to be harder to build meaningful stakes and stars. The US title shouldn’t be the main belt on a show.
I respectfully disagree. That's exactly what titles like the US and Intercontinental were created for. They were titles to be defended on tv while the world title was rarely on television. Obviously it's a different era, but I don't see what's wrong with having Roman as the final boss that floats over the shows while Gunther and Rollins regularly defend titles that have a lot of prestige now. Also, US and Intercontinental titles are ones that I feel can be flipped more often than the Universal without devaluing it. IOW, Riddle, Theory, Owens - all those guys could have a run with one of those belts and keep the shows interesting and unpredictable.
Because the fans aren’t buying it. I give them credit for trying with the US/IC belts. But Roman is like almost never on Raw. When he does appear on TV, it’s almost always on SD. The show cannot help but feel like the B-show and it’s been that way basically all year. WWE is painting Raw as less important. He’s NOT the final boss who “floats around the shows” when he’s only been on Raw like 4 times since Mania. At least Brock only tied up ONE belt when he was doing this, the other show still had one.
Sounds like someone needs to acknowledge their tribal chief
I knew the unification at mania was a mistake, it was no reason to do it if they weren’t ending the brand split
The roster is filled with great talent, and it feels like everyone is in a weird placeholder spot because their ceiling is limited as long as Reigns is champion. It’s an awkward time in wwe
I think this was Ali's big idea that Vince thought was stupid
Better raw today than last couple of weeks. The roster is quite thin. They got help from Drew and Brutes to fill up the show today.
I agree that the roster is still thin, even after bringing people back. It really makes you wonder - what was Vince doing? Why did he dismantle the roster the way he did? What was the end game there? We are so fortunate he's no longer in charge.
Asuka’s needed to change that catchphrase for years. It’s practically a bad luck charm for her. That and wrestling blondes, which seem to be super effective against her.
Agreed, I’m sure she has ideas and maybe something will change at some point. But seeing folks like her and Shinsuke and Ziggler have the same exact gimmick they had in 2017 or earlier sucks. It doesn’t have to be a complete revamp but like try to do at least something a little different?
They are missing star power so muc, alot of good mid card stuff but it just ends there and their is no figurepoint to the show.
It doesn’t help when both world titles are on one guy, and he hardly ever shows up on Raw.
But Roman winning for all the time without getting any comeuppance is such good sh’t 😆
Didn't expect Drew/Corbin to drag out.
Theory having such a competitive match against a guy who arguably has the lowest spot on RAW's roster, getting color in a match against that guy, while that guy was *injured* no less, was one of the biggest travesties I've seen HHH do ever since he's taken over. It implies that Ali would've won if he wasn't injured. And later Lashley even no sold a goddam chair shot to the back from Theory like he's Hulk Hogan or something, screw this. Right now I'm certain that this whole Austin Theory angle is one big bait and switch, he's definitely gonna do the job saturday and then it's gonna be back to the enchantment talent hell for him. If this does happen, which I'm pretty confident that it will, I'm gonna start skipping his segments. At this point, the best career advice anyone could give him would be to get the fuck out of the WWE before they kill his career like they did countless other very talented guys. AEW, NJPW, IMPACT, I'm sure that any of those promotions would treat him better.
Theory is on the same Arc as the young Randy Orton when he was coming up in Evolution. He woud have tough matches against lower card n mid card guys. He would get overconfident after a few wins and then get squashed by Goldberg. Theory is on the same arc.
I hope that's true, but given the WWE's track record in burying and wasting great talent, I think it's better to keep expectations at rock bottom.
Man is in a match w/ two of the biggest superstars on Raw , on one of the Big 4 PPVs He beat the hell out off one and just beat another one today , one which by the way held his own well before against a competitor last Friday, which is an NA, IC & US champion. He is given promo time in the ring and backstage. How do you watch the show to come out with such a reflection?
Wade Barrett had all those things back in the Nexus days and still got buried, alongside his entire faction I may add.
Wade Barrett won the US title & the MITB contract in his rookie year ? And what the hell do you mean he got buried, he is 5 Times IC champ.
Lol, as if being a multi time IC champ meant anything in those days. Zack Ryder won the IC title one time, just gonna put that out there. Holding a midcard belt doesn't mean anything if your booking is rotten.
Yeah just for one day and give it back to the Miz. Miz is a 7 Time IC champ , you gonna tell me he was not a good champ ? Because he lost it and win it back 7 times ?
Nope, you're putting words in my mouth. You didn't say anything about the mitb and us title in your earlier comment. What I meant was that he was a bright prospect who was featured prominently on the shows, and that the WWE completely botched it by constantly feeding him to other guys just like how they're doing with Theory.
I don't put words in your mouth. You're the one who tries to be in bad faith by deliberately taking a bad time when there are many who are successful We got Reigns , Rollins , Big E , Owens , Kross , Balor , Bryan , Miz , Kingston , Woods , Ziggler , Zayn & more. I never would have mentioned accomplishments if you hadn't mentioned Wade Barrett. And how did they feed him to the others ? How do you expect him to be built or taken for a serious competitor if he's not in a program with two other top stars? You want him to feud w/Reggie or Cedric Alexander? Frankly you give the migraine
Wade Barrett had a program against John Cena, the biggest WWE superstar of the last decade and still got buried. The same thing is about to happen with Theory, if it doesn't, I'll come back to this comment chain and admit that I was wrong. How does that sound for bad faith?
Wassup fam ?
> The same thing is about to happen with Theory Can you please wait for it to happen before you start lamenting it? Why are you pre-sad? Harshing the mellow for no reason dude.
> The same thing is about to happen with Theory. I didn't know you were a medium to affirm things so easily Theory is a better wrestler than Wade Barrett , he is more athletic , more attractive & more charismatic , he is also better physically built than Barrett was in his debut. Everyone appreciated the promo he did last week and this week. There are reactions when he is present So tell me why WWE will bury someone who makes good matches, good promos, and specially young ? If you want to continue to play the pessimist, perfect but believe me, you will be surprised.
It took around 2 hours and a half damn hours for the 1st, and only, women's match of the night, why is more not being made of Triple H's abysmal handling of the women? Yes Rhea and Mia were on earlier but they had their male stablemates alongside them. Funny how a company coming off very public sexual harassment accusations against their former CEO, with a female co CEO is bungling their female talent so bad. In no world should Baron charisma vaccum Corbin get more TV time than Bianca Belair, that's plain insulting. We had to see him playing cards, again and then wrestle a guy from Smackdown. Bianca gets a promo, then goes to the back, then a quick brawl to end the show. WTF is that bullshit? Could we have, IDK, maybe gone 1 week without Baron and use that time to further flesh out the women's War Games match? God forbid a 3 hour long wrestling show booked by a man who's supposedly such a proponent for women's wrestling have more than 1 match. The sky might fall if every woman on the roster wasn't crammed into 1 storyline that gets less focus than the male midcarders. Ronda Rousey is the like the 2nd biggest full-time star after Roman but her title match vs Shotzi is a complete throwaway afterthought in comparison to the US championship 3 way. NXT is only 2 hours and does waaaay better, Vince for all his faults did better, this is something Triple H really needs to improve on because it just isn't acceptable in this day and age.
Raw's very likely going to branch off into multiple storylines again as soon as Wargames is done, and they definitely have the talent to make it work. Ronda/Shotzi feeling predictable is partly a reflection of no one on Smackdown really feeling like a credible contender.
That doesn't excuse them cramming the women all into 1 segment every week, there are mini feuds among the men's War Games match. KO/Sami, KO/Roman, Sami/Jey, Roman/Jey, Drew and Sheamus' history as frienemies, etc. There are so many defined characters on the men's side of things but what's Alexa's current gimmick? Even she said she doesn't know. I guess her gimmick is woman who crosses arms and os friends with Bianca Belair. Nikki Cross recently returned to her old Sanity gimmick but there haven't been any promos or character building segments to reintroduce the character to the audience again. It's just Nikki's crazy again and that's it. Imagine if Drew McIntyre all of a sudden had a major repackaging but never got mic time to get the new character over. They'd never do that to him or any guy so why do it with Nikki? Shotzi not being a credible threat is 100% a fault of the booking. They've done very little to make her look like a genuine challenger for Ronda. They put major effort into making Theory credible again but have done nothing for Shotzi. Really shows where Triple H's priorities lie.
Nikki is not even crazy. That's an overstatement. She's looks like she's on drugs
Crazy, on drugs, the point is she's no longer a (almost) superhero but very little has been made of it. Where's her promo to explain why she ditched the ASH persona? As I said if Drew were to change gimmicks, let's say revert back to his cocky heel Chosen One character there'd be multiple segments of him explaining his attitude change.
Trust me, I agree with you. Triple H's booking of the division infuriates me because I expected way better. Some of the simplest stuff is ridiculous. Rhea and Asuka start the match with no one at ringside then suddenly Damage CTRL appears out of someones ass. What the fuck was that? What the fuck are the producers doing? I'm also tired of all the women coming out together, and I hope to god that this ends after Survivor Series. It gives the women no individual agency. This is the easiest stuff to fix but they're not even trying
That's a great way of putting it, because of his handling of the women in NXT I expect so much better than him and that's why it's so damn disappointing. If things don't get better after Survivor Series I'm gonna be pissed. Crazy how HBK does more with the women with less airtime then his buddy.
I always see people saying that they're waiting for so and so to come back, why do you have to wait for anyone to come back? That's a lazy crutch. When Bayley left NXT, Asuka was left with one of the worst womens rosters next to NXT 2.0 and had my favorite run among the women in the history of the company, then when she left they had the strongest division and booking we haven't seen since with Dakota, Kairi, Io, Bianca, Tegan, Shayna, Rhea, etc
Exactly that's the lamest excuse in the book, when a male star is injured we don't shrug our shoulders and say the booking will get better when so abd so gets back. The roster has great talent, Becky's the only major Raw female star who has been missing so it's not like the roster is depleted. And you're right on with being annoyed by the women coming out together in 1 entrance. Asuka coming out for Bianca's music even though she was the 1 wrestling made me roll my eyes so hard. I miss those NXT days, Triple H needs to stop this garbage and go back to what he did back then. He's shown he's capable of it.
There’s Raquel, but they don’t want her to lose. All the credible challengers on both showd can’t afford losses to Ronda, and Ronda at best would go to a double count out (and more likely dq from a rival) if she had somehow wrestled Bianca for the classic brand vs brand match. Ronda can’t lose to anybody, all the top women can’t afford losses to Ronda. So I’m guessing after getting embarrassed by Bianca again, Bayley goes to tie up Ronda and get her ass kicked by her for a few months.
Ronda literally lost to Liv a little while ago so I don't think she's untouchable.
If nobody can afford a loss to Ronda, fine, have Ronda, Raquel and someone who can eat a loss like Shotzi in a triple threat. That way we have someone who can believably beat Ronda but she doesn't have to get beat.
>Ronda can’t lose to anybody, all the top women can’t afford losses to Ronda. Sorry, that's a bullshit excuse. Utami just lost to Syuri on the last Stardom PPV, she's likely going to lose to KAIRI next month as well. Do you know why that works? Because Utami is one of their top stars as is being featured in a prominent spot despite the big losses. Tam Nakano also lost to Syuri a couple months ago, then she lost to Giulia at the 5 Star GP Finals, now she's likely going to lose to Kairi at Wrestle Kingdom. Having your top stars in top positions is a good thing. If Ronda needs credible challengers then either build to them or bring womeb from the other brand over
WWE isn’t Stardom.
It doesn't have to be Stardom. I'm giving you examples of universal effective booking. I don't see how booking Top stars to be in prominent positions is exclusive to one promotion. Who is Ronda going to face until Mania? Dana Brooke for 5 months?
Women have literally main evented damn near every RAW since HHH took over…
No they haven't. The last couple months with Vince in charge actually had this happening. All of the 4 Becky/Asuka singles matches were main events, plus some other matches (Bianca/Asuka, multiwomen tag, multiwomen MITB qualifying.) The difference is that he actually had other women's matches besides these on the show while H has booked 1 or 2 very short matches. What's up with that?
Remember a few weeks ago that blink and you miss it Dana Brooke vs Nikki Cross match was the lone women's match of the night and it was in the AEW pre main event death slot? Lol how anyone can defend this shit is beyond me.
Or on the DX reunion there was like 10 minutes total dedicated to women. Just Candice vs Bayley and the promo beforehand
Yes and it's usually the 1 match on a 3 hour long show they get, they have zero storylines outside of Bianca and friends (sad that Asuka and Alexa have been reduced to that) vs Damage CTRL. Being the main event isn't the best litmus test for how important something is. Triple H and Jericho might've main evented WM X8 but we all know Hogan vs Rock was what the show was built around. .
I wonder who wrestle less, Roman or MJF
MJF
Mjf because of his break.
I guess Ali's become a jobber during the Triple H era.
Implying he wasn't under Vince
The tough part for some fans will be finding out someone they like is someone Vince *and* HHH see little in.
So why not release him when he asked for it?
Enhancement talent are a nessesaary part of every promotion.
WWE doesn't have a ton of potential enchancement talent?
After last week, I expected the feuds moving forward to be Ali vs. Lashley and Theory vs. Rollins. Okay. Great! Here we are one week later and Lashley is back to being a heroic babyface while Rollins is back to being a smarmy heel. Ummm… WHY?! Unlike in 2019, I was completely ready to get behind Seth as a face this time around and I’m quite certain the WWE Universe were as well. Not only that… Ruthless, Heel Bobby is simply more entertaining. Now the roles are back to the way they were whilst Ali continues to lose… just like he has lost in every program he’s been involved in since coming back. Damn.
Wait, what? I thought they were definitely doing that double turn.
Same here but judging from their presentation on Monday (Seth’s backstage interview and Bobby posing for the crowd again), it looks like the roles are now back to the way they were. Maybe Seth wanted this?
Heroic babyface Lashley utterly destroys Ali because Ali was angry about being tossed at Lashley. ...yeah...sure....
So then do you feel Lashley is still a heel and we are getting a Heel vs Heel vs Heel match this Saturday? Or is he back to being a face but just with a harder edge than before?
Seth isn't a smarmy heel, he's a smarmy face. I think he will gradually be less annoying.
Seth’s presentation on Monday read extremely heelish to me. The backstage interview so that the crowd couldn’t sing along with his theme. No pandering to the audience, a more serious demeanor and finally, bringing up Cody Rhodes…who he did not mention at all the past few weeks during his short-lived face run.
I would say it's a Heel vs Heel vs Heel match, although Seth probably is more of a Tweener-leaning-Face
I see. My description about Lashley as heroic may have been inaccurate but I still see him as the face of the Triple Threat whilst Seth is back to being an annoying heel.
Mustafa Ali is jobbing to Austin Theory and Johnny Gargano is jobbing to Omos. We're sure Vince left, right?
Mustafa right now is way less relevant than Theory and pretty much anyone else on the roster. Same goes for Gargano but atleast he's entertaining If Haitch pushed them like a maniac, like he did with Karrion Kross. It wouldn't have worked. That's being hypocritical. They're not getting reactions, that's also why Karrion is also rightly in the midcard now. Only a few guys can smash it on debuts. Those guys are special for a reason.
> Only a few guys can smash it on debuts. Those guys are special for a reason. Interesting thought. Kurt angle is one. Who else had a brilliant rookie year?
Kevin Owens, Kane Many others if we can count gimmicks. Cause Cena had a good rookie year, but he was still new till he got the rapper gimmick. That was amazing for him.
These last couple raws man The absolute chasm having basically 1 active champ leaves is startling It’s just Seth, Bianca doesn’t do much more then stand ringside, and Roman and the Usos are barley here Forgot B show this is C tier almost
Hadn’t really thought of it that way but you’re right. US title is really the only thing we’ve seen much of. Was the women’s tag stuff a few weeks ago on Raw at least?
It's not because of 1 champ Raw has consistently done this for the past 7+ years. They always give Raw the biggest stars from SmackDown and then SmackDown sucks for the first few months But the 3 hour catches up to them and stories get old very quickly. Wrestlers have to show up on the same show multiple times. SmackDown is always better during this Survivor Series time and then people would be mad because Raw would always win the 5v5
I dont know why the US title doesn't seem to have the same prestige as the IC title currently does. When the title was on Lashley it felt prestigious
Don’t think they should have taken it off Lashley the way they did. The Brock turn came out of nowhere and was stupid in my opinion, Brock was super over as a face and so was Lashley, having them face each other with the story they did just hurt both of them.
The US title hasn’t had IC’s prestige for decades.
and today they got some help from Drew and the Brawling Brutes. Otherwise the roster is razor thin. Someone like Riddle is being wasted in a meaningless feud.
Bianca could headline shows as champion like Lashley did, and it would be fine but I do agree. They shot themselves in the foot with the Bloodline. They could be doing everything they're doing now without having all the belts and they'd be fine.
It would be much more tolerable if Bianca didn't feel so blah, Austin Theory gets more character development, segments, matches and mic time than her. Raw is borderline unwatchable at times.
Women's wrestling on both brands is suffering under the new regime. As much of a sleazy bastard Vince was, he seemed to be won over regarding women's wrestling in later years. In his final months booking Raw, women main evented 8 weeks in a row IIRC
And with Vince there'd be multiple women's storylines and feuds not just 90% of them shoved into 1 angle like what's happening on Raw now. There'd be at least 2 women's matches a week on Raw and numerous promos or backstage segments sprinkled throughout. Triple H just lazily has all the women in 1 bland throwaway segment and calls it a day. You know your booking of women is shit when a notorious sex pest like Vince did better than you.
kinda sad that the fatal four way US champ match never happened… when i saw it wasn’t on the main show, i figured it’d be the dark match after or something (not sure if they do ‘em after, was my first show) but nothing. i know card is subject to change and all but was super hyped for it. woulda been Bobby vs Riddle vs Theory vs Seth
I’m so in and out of raw during football season that when Elias came out I was shocked, then remembered he came back awhile ago.
Feel like it has to be either The Man or Chelsea Green as the fifth Woman
Becky or maybe Sasha.
It's Becky ...no way it's not a huge name
Chelsea [had a funny tweet about it](https://twitter.com/ImChelseaGreen/status/1594881360329859072) earlier.
That's 3 shitty Raw's in a row. Nice job HHH. You suck.
Lol, not at all. But ok
>Akira Tozawa is no longer a ninja #YEEEEEEEEEEAH
The low points of the show were Johnny losing to freaking Omos (I have not been impressed with how he and Candice have been used thus far), and Ali getting chumped out once again.
I was waiting for Ciampa to return yesterday, only to be disappointed when Omos came out.
It was almost amusing how relentlessly Ali got beat down. And I don't think Candice has been used terribly, it just depends on what's next for her.
Ali gonna be release soon imo
There's a lot of hot prospects with a similar size and style to him in NXT that might be called up. But every promotion needs enhancement talent so they might keep him around for that if they don't want to bury NXT call ups.
I'm gonna keep it honest and I don't have much to elaborate on other than "just look at the past 5 weeks mostly" but it really seems like Vince couldn't help himself and just has his hands all over everything again somehow. Maybe Vince is just in H's brain and is constantly in his ear somehow telling him its all shit. Why the fuck has Gargano lost so much?
Gargano has just arrived on the main roster. He isn't particularly charismatic, at least if you compare him to many other talents there. Nothing physically stands out either. The crowd is kind of lukewarm to him. So it's alright to use him in other capacities for now, it's alright. Others' stories are going quite strong right now anyway. Theory, Bloodline, Brutes, Judgment Day, Kross, Wyatt, etc. Right now, it isn't Gargano's time.
Maybe it's just my NXT brainwashing but he felt like a main eventer from day one for me. It's the same feeling I had with Sareena Deeb in AEW, but that went nowhere. It seems like I'm again in the minority.
Serena Deeb is genuinely too good to be relegated to the place on the card where she is right now. Her work definitely stands out in that roster. She seems the most legit. So I agree with you on that. With the idea of main eventers, it's like this. You've gotta have a hierarchy. So you ask yourself, okay, here's Gargano. Do I put him above Roman as far as main event potential goes? No? Okay, he's at No. 2. Then, do I put him above, say, KO? And so on. And apart from the top 7-8 guys, I don't think many more should be pushed at the same rate or level. Because you've gotta establish a clear gulf between them, otherwise nobody seems special.
Was something wrong with Corey’s broadcast partner? Guy kept cutting out, missing cues, stuttering and shit.
he's new to the desk and hasn't adjusted super quickly. if he's deadset on the job and really wants to improve and push forward, they should keep on with him, but if it's a renee young situation where they've dropped an ambivalent interviewer into the slot to see if it fits... it doesn't, really, so far.
Btw what happened to Shelton Benjamin? He dropped a fire promo at the main event. Then what is he doing now? Also if I compare brothers Ezekiel was actually much better than Elias.
He jobbed to Austin Theory last week on RAW and that was it.
Main event hasn’t mattered since like mid-2014, I don’t know why anyone would think Shelton cutting a good promo on it meant anything. Shelton’s only hope would be HHH liking The Hurt Business more than Vince did (which I would hope too, I want that shirt)
Why would you script a fire promo if you're not capitalizing on it?
Ezekiel looked more like a wrestler and was more athletic as well.
Being younger than Elias helped a lot.
Wondering if Anderson and Gallows turn on brother AJ at the ppv. AJ kept taking about his real family, but what if they turn and align with the Prinxe?
Nah. They don't need to join Judgment Day. It's fine as it is. Finn and Rhea as top stars.. Priest as the heater and Dom eats shit. It's perfect
The way Bayley has cooled off post her last loss to Bianca at Crown Jewel is interesting. Rhea is now the clear number 1 Heel out there and is basically leading the heel team for all practical purposes. Does Bayley just become a background character for the next few months or wonder if they will do some re-packaging soon. Alexa for example has been a total background character for a while, but perhaps she will finally get some character progression soon based on Corey's commentary tonight.
I noticed Damage Control started cooling even before Extreme Rules. They came in hot but I think Bayley and Iyo were rusty which hurt their first couple segments. They’ve improved since but the damage was done and the crowds weren’t hot on them anymore. I think the point to establish them would have been Bayley winning the title in the ladder match at Extreme Rules with the numbers game costing Bianca. Think maybe HHH saw the lack of reaction to Bayley and couldn’t justify taking it off Bianca who is the most over active female.
Yet again the overreaction People... You cannot have 5 people be the front at the same time Bayley will eventually become the champ. That is how logic would work. But things need time to fall into place. And with that you also need to build other interesting rivalries Just because they focus on War Games and Rhea Ripley for few episodes, suddenly Bianca is cold? She almost beat Bianca. And Bianca is basically booked like Cena right now Which yet again isn't bad. Womens roster needs a dominant face champ.
I was only wondering on what future booking could look like. I didn't even criticize what they are doing currently.
It was certainly a choice to bring Bayley back and have her lose every notable singles match in her first feud
To the same person she lost every notable match against in their feud last year, before she got hurt.
Basically Bayley’s last like three feuds have been against Bianca. And the latter has battered her from pillar to post in all of them. Bianca REALLY is not the write woman to have someone returning immediately feud with (or to establish newer talent in Iyo and Dakota’s cases).
The past couple weeks Bayley has sorta become a background character in her own stable with Dakota & IYO getting more prominence and focus.
I think that was her goal with the faction was to try and get Iyo and Dakota over.
Then Bayley’s ideas should be ignored from now on. The stable leader’s weakness directly carries over to the subordinates or else the audience wonders why they listen to them.
Anyone saw that Luke gallows kick on to Priest? that looked stiff af
Good height from the big man too. Looked like his leg whipped right into it.
Were there any Bray pop-ups during the show?
He's SmackDown exclusive.
I know that, but remember at Crown Jewel his symbol popped up while Alexa was being interviewed and then on a Raw it popped up while she was walking to the ring
It might just be horrible timing on my part, because I'm literally away from on my TV when those happened.
I was dropping into Warzone when that happened
the original is still better, but the new rebel heart remix isn't bad at all, probably a hot take
Look I know Alpha Academy is enhancement talent and are dang good at it. But really do they have to be beaten by a team that just debuted and by logic should have less experience than them ? And still no Tucker Knight back and I am le big sad for AA because they could be easily one of WWE's top team easily but keep being enhancement talents over and over. And the Tucker Knight bit is because I still strongly believe that Chad and Otis doesn't work as much as I hoped it would and that Tucker was a casualty from Vince's incoherent booking during the pandemic era (that was rough for everyone released at this period) and he deserves to come back and reform Heavy Machinery with Otis, and would be a big deal if Alpha Academy evolves into a Babyface stable so that Otis can focus on Tag Team with a more suited partner imo while Chad Gable just goes back into solo action where he is a diamond in the rough as a Babyface act. But I'm loosing hopes about these 2. And I'm a little puzzled because I thought Triple H would pretty much re-hire everyone available that has been fired during the pandemic era.
Solid show Always happy when Asuka is in the main event and it was a good match. I like that Akira is no longer a ninja. Bobby is still over with the crowd. Gargano's new music sucks. The biggest problem I see in raw is that there is no clear difference between those who are main eventers and midcarders since there is no longer a world title in the show, at least they could fight for a position to be number 1 contenders but nothing happens, if they want the title they have to go to Smackdown and that doesn't help raw. the tag team division in raw has also suffered for that, the concept of long reigning champions doesn't bother me much but the double champion does.
I know it won’t happen, but it’s legitimately sad they couldn’t get Sasha for Wargames in Boston
[удалено]
Other than the first and last segment, I’m not sure this helped Survivor Series that much. And while I like Corbin and JBL, I didn’t need to a three segment McIntyre/Corbin match.
Corbin getting more time than Bianca is astonishingly stupid imo. He has to have dirt on someone because nobody's checking for his boring ass like that but he's all over the show every week.
I'll take that Balor vs Sheamus match that got teased tonight eventually
What is Mia Yim's name now? The website changed it to Michin, but they still called her Mia on TV.
I think it's "Michin" Mia Yim.
They changed it back to Mia Yim already
Where? It still says Michin on her roster profile
Bruh it still is Michin. Man
IT DOESNT MATTER WHAT HER NAME IS. …but seriously it doesn’t she’s terrible.
How is she terrible?
Extremely tepid go-home episode
As I said at the end of the live thread, anyone added to Bianca's team just feels like overkill. She already solos Damage CTRL regularly, and they just came out even in a 4 on 5 brawl with the only threat being Rhea for a short time.
Bliss and Bianca were winning a 4v2 until Rhea got involved
But but How about Beth? They basically just ran a promo last week about Beth and Rhea
She could cost Rhea the title when we eventually see Rhea/Bianca maybe?
Her coming out to trumpets at Mania really spelled out how she would be
Which is actually quite sad, Bianca has the charisma to make it big, but her last few storylines have been complete garbage, and this whole DMG Control thing is just sad too
Damage Control has been a mistake from the very beginning.
Which really sucks given how good Iyo and Dakota can be
I think that’s why it’s a mistake. But it feels like they’ve put all these women into stables because there isn’t enough airtime for a singles women midcard.
Getting Bianca to announce that the fith member will be revealed on....Smackdown, was completely idiotic.
I don't blame Bianca for taking some advice from our Tribal Chief
Even moreso since this is an entirely RAW-based feud
lol i was there and everyone around me booed when she said that
Yup, was there as well. Guy next to me said fuck it im getting a beer.
Smart man
Me too- completely killed the crowd and people got up and started leaving right after that. 2nd crowd buzzkiller of the night after having Rollins “via satellite.” Other than that, was a fun show live.
Like if it's Becky Lynch, you might as well just keep it a surprise and save it for War Games like what Team Ciampa did with Kevin Owens in 2019.
This would be HORRIBLE. If you don't name who it is on SD, the crowd in Boston is going to be displeased with anyone other than Sasha. If it's Becky just bring her out on SD.
Exactly this. If it's not Sasha don't have it be a surprise at WarGames.
Gotta save it for the A show, brother. That said, I agree with you.