Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…
I didn’t think RAW was all that bad John, I thought that it was a bit up and down John but that overall it was better than some previous ones John
I rather enjoyed Ryback’s personal journey piece, thought it spoke a lot to his character and made him even more face. I thought the talk-y segments were less annoying than in recent weeks (probably because no Wyatt) and the talking they did do was face-to-face which is always better than a pipe bomb or a video. They focused on wrestling more this show than ones in previous weeks too. My girlfriend kept saying that this seemed like an oddly paced house show.
Bad things? The tag title is just completely meaningless now, which makes me sad because I love tag teams. Rusev is annoying and pointless and booked so poorly that now someone big has to beat him to end his streak, but whomever does that will be to big for the title they win. It really sucks because Rusev is 100% perfect for Reigns, but they can’t do it because Reigns is too big for the US title. Ryback is fine I guess. The divas storyline now is about TWO couples cheating? You have the Naomi/Miz thing and the Nikki/Tyson thing? Are they still keeping Divas and Total Divas separate? Lord who’s left??
I’m probably in the minority in thinking that the ending segment was actually pretty cool. I wasn’t a fan of the “well I’m gonna kill him anyway” and lolcenawins, but I liked the tension it created and Rollins was PERFECT during that whole thing. It’s kinda dumb that The Authority Out of Power angle lasted so short and ultimately meant nothing, but I like The Authority and these last couple RAWs have felt empty to me without them John.
Not this shit again. :smack:
/lana: Vnimaniye, vnimaniye…
In America, you will be celebrating new year with champagne, party streamers, fireworks, and apples dropping from sky. Such extravagant waste. No wonder USA is trillions in debt. In Russia, we recycle. We clean vomit from gutters and on next New Year’s day, we use it again.
RAW wasn’t all that interesting to start. It was easy to predict that Rusev vs Zig wasn’t going to end in a way that would make either opponent look bad, and the Out-Of-Ring Rusev loss card was already played. So, no suspense here.
Edge and Christian had their heyday, but it just seems like such a stretch to squeeze any more heat out of them because Edge looks so broken. It did work for the end segment, though. Rollins was evil incarnate. It made up for all those times he had to job to Super Cena. At least until the next time.
The Ryback promo was good for him to connect to the audience, I guess. Maybe. Don’t really care.
Miz/Mizdow is back in the toilet, jobbing twice tonight. Will the stunt double angle finally die? Please? Good way to debut the Ascension, but I’m still tepid with them. They don’t look like the Road Warriors as much as they do Dorito-eating fans who dress up like the Road Warriors.
OK, DB’s promo had me worried that he was going to announce his retirement, and I was glad to hear he’s returning. BUT… I can’t help but think it’s another bait-and-switch. He said he’s returning to the Royal Rumble, but does that mean he’s going to be in the match, or is he going to be one of the pre-show panel personalities? He had a match with Seth Rollins on RAW last year that I still think was the best match I’ve EVER seen, PPVs included.
Why have Cesaro give a promo before his match to build up his image a bit and then lose to the returning Wade Barrett? It makes him look like a chump and Barrett look like he’s getting the Batista treatment.
Rollins vs Reigns was better than expected mainly because of Rollins, and Big Show was showing some pizzazz on the mike. Joey and Jamie are seeing more work now than in their previous careers, but this just didn’t feel as intense a match as it could have been. They didn’t capitalize on any of the Shield break-up drama like they did with Ambrose. This was just a way to maintain Reign’s feud with BS and Seth just happened to be his opponent. I would think Reigns would want Seth’s head on a stick, but they don’t seem to want to develop that kind of angle.
This seemed to be the kind of RAW that had a lot of last-minute changes and hardly for the better.
Why does WWE hate wrestling? They seem to be intent on losing fans, at some point it’s not even worth nine ninety nine. And Ascension? Lame, a rehash of the Eliminators dressed like Demolition. It will attract some new teen-agers who will quickly lose interest when they see old men repeating the same act over and over again. If this finally gets Cena to do a heel turn maybe there’s a ray of light here, but even then I doubt he can do it right.
I actually more or less enjoyed last night’s Raw–they worked us good with Bryan’s tweet, and he had me on the edge of my seat during his actual promo, even though, by then, I was pretty sure from how it’d been treated in the show that I was being worked.
Sadly, it pretty much ensured that the Ascension’s debut would go over like a fart in church. All the worse because they had the perfect opportunity to give them a strong debut earlier in the night. [del]Lawler[/del] Renee is out there interviewing the Usos (who were decent speakers for a change, if not exactly electrifying). They get halfway into the interview, Ascension’s music hits and they run out and anniYAHlate everyone. The Usos, Miz/dow–hell, if they can anniYAHlate the announce table and Renee, even better. Let them cut a short but sweet promo with no more references to businesses or the doctors being in (TAKE TWO DESTRUCTIONS AND CALL ME IN THE MORNING!!!) and boom! they’re in strong, making an impact on the tag scene from the beginning. How they actually handled it was just a complete botch.
Ryback’s promo was an absolute disaster, not to mention a ten-minute recap of his Y2J interview. The Secret? Seriously, Ryback, you’re putting over THE SECRET on Raw? The crowd couldn’t even muster a decent WHAT chant, and mostly seemed confused or bored in reaction shots. Ultimately, the entire thing could’ve been cut up to the point where he actually delivers a standard babyface call-out promo to Rusev.
Legit marked out for Cesaro, then deflated somewhat when I realized he was just going to job out to #BNB. I love #BNB, but Cesaro deserves so much more. Still, loved hearing him “shoot” on his whole situation in 2014. Worth noting that Vince Russo tweeted that letting him give that promo then job out was a statement directly to the IWC. Not the only one, I thought–Show’s commentary on Reigns*, Cena’s backstage promo with E&C both seemed to be reacting to comments/criticism since the Vince/Austin podcast.
Nice to see a title change on TV, though I have no idea why they had Lawler do that interview. Also, did I mention this would’ve been the time for The Ascension to debut? FFS.
I’m not bothered by the Authority being back–it gives Bryan his old foil to feud with. What’s troubling about it is that they seem to’ve had absolutely no plan for what to do with a post-Authority world, and are now just going back for lack of better ideas. Maybe that was the point.
TriPolar: Vince and Kevin Dunn (especially the latter) really do seem to have some negative-to-mixed attitudes about wrestling. It’s weird. All we can do is wait and hope for the rise of HHH.
Don Frye makes some hilarious comments about CM Punk and Brock Lesnar.
Those comments make no sense whatsoever.
Brock left the WWE and immediately became a force in UFC, won their championship, successfully defended it until he eventually lost it (as fighters are want to do).
Sure his CM Punk stuff makes sense, but he lost me as soon as Lesnar came up
Heads up: THE BO$$ Sasha [del]“Ratchet”[/del] Banks and Charlotte worked what, from all reports, was a nice little six-minute match on Main Event last night.
My sources* have told me that this is also true
*bored girlfriend who watched it
Got tired of watching Oregon slaughter FSU, so I watched a couple of Network specials.
First was Rivalries: Edge & Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz. Chee Wow! I had forgotten how good their matches were. They mainly did stunts and took really sick bumps. You can see why Edge had to retire early. Michael Hayes does some commentary. He was close to both teams at the time, and you can definitely see his influence on their body language. Those guys kept topping themselves so often, they had to seriously curb their adrenalyne craving or die young.
Next, I pulled up ECW: Barely Legal from 1997. Speaking of nearly destroying themselves, that was apparently the way ECW stars worked in every match. The Dudleys took on The Eliminators (Saturn and Kronos) and basically performed double-team body breakers on each other. Rob Van Dam was a heel taking on Lance Storm and completely pwned the entire PPV by himself. Think of how Paul Heyman was calling all the shots and producing shitloads of awesome back then. You can definitely tell his influence in some of WWE’s matches today.
Time to switch to NXT. Dang, didn’t expect such a good episode so soon after ®Evolution! I’m all the sudden interested in Bull Dempsey! I thought he was kind of a slob before, but he’s abandoned the greaseball look and cleaned up, and now he’s got an actual personality. I like this result! He and Baron Corbin are going to work well with each other. Corbin’s definitely got that Undertaker-like presence, and there’s going to be some noise when those two lock horns.
Renee Young is definitely growing on me. She maintains the role of selling the faces, but works in some comments that break the “Miss Sweetness and Light” mold. Riley asked if she were attracted to any of the guys, and she replied “Yes Alex, I’m likin’ what I’m lookin’ at. What’d you expect?”
Charlotte channeled her Dad’s cockiness tonight. Wonder if Natalya will turn on her next week?
Finn Balor is still a rock star, but he managed not to eclipse Hideo this time. He’s a lot more subtle about being an alien than Cody Rhodes is. Good Swan Song for the Ascension. Their debut on Smackdown was kind of underwhelming, but they looked good tonight.
Now I’m wondering if the Sugar Bowl is scripted.
Man, you forgot the highlight of the NXT night: Ol’ Blue Pants got the victory over Carmella! Also, her theme song is literally a recording of Big Cass doing the Price is Right theme song. It’s amazing how over she’s gotten (or maybe not–this is Full Sail, after all).
I’m still worried they’re gonna break Enzo and Big Cass up, with that witch Carmella as Yoko Ono, but we’ll see.
Yes, I totally forgot about Enzo, Cass, Carmella and Blue Pants. Too much new year’s champagne I guess.
OK, so granted Enzo is a horny spazz and completely mental, but I’m kind of mystified as to what he was trying to convey to Carmella when he caused the distract. Was he trying to get her to dance around Blue Pants’ prone form? When he was prematurely celebrating? Was he prematurely ejaculating?
But yes, the replay of Cass’s singing the Price is Right ditty was a fitting end to the match, and Renee’s comment that BP was going to thwart the evil intentions of Magneto showed a true cynical nerd layer of her personality. It was an unconventional way of getting Blue Pants over (still can’t remember her real name), but one day Enzo & Cass might be in charge of booking, and that’s a scary thought.
I’ll have to check with the other half (her memory is WAY better than mine) but I think I saw Blue-Pants at my house show
We called her “random stripper bitch”. She was paired with Sasha and faced Bayley and Alexa Bliss
Her name is Blue Pants, duh! It’s right there on her chyron. (Seriously, her name is Leda Bates–indie wrestler.) I suspect (but can’t be sure) that this has been organic–it’s the Enzo and Big Cass rub that no one was planning on and just sort of happened.
I hope not. As I’ve said, Enzo is money in the ‘pay to see this guy get his comeupance’ way, and that means, like Jimmy Hart and Bobby Heenan, he needs to be paired with someone who can protect him until the time for the payoff arrives. Hell, I could even see him moving into that kind of managerial role as his wrestling time runs down.
And the smile on Cass’ face at the beginning of the intros was pretty genuine.
Just getting around to NXT now:
If they call up Ascension, do you think they can shoehorn in Lucha Dragons, break up some of the stupid tag teams in the big show and maybe have a tag team division worth something
I love the love for Blue Pants, and I want her to stay forever
No Bayley this week so obviously the show suuuuucccckkkkkeeedddd (but at least she wasn’t shit on)
I like the Hideo Scorpion was back, the look suits him. I gotta say, it’s too bad Finn Balor is his name, because Prince Devitt sounds so much cooler and so much more evil.
No mention of NXT moving to wednesdays? So now RAW on mondays, NXT on wednesdays, and Smackdown on [Ryback] THURSDAYS [/Ryback]
Given that I have no life I’m gonna miss Smackdown on Fridays, it always gave me something to watch
Not a bad Smackdown tonight. Erik Rowan served as fodder for Bray’s push, but Bray managed to make a story out of it, and hopefully this will lead to a Wyatt family reunion. Not to say that Luke Harper can’t make it on his own, but these three weirdos need to coalesce once more and provide heat support for Bray’s eventual WM matchup with Undertaker (so the rumors say).
Cesaro and Kidd showed some chemistry, and they got a bromance thing going with Natalya performing beard duty. Looks like Ascension’s going to squash nameless jobber teams like they did in NXT for the next few months. We’re probably going to have Rusev & Big Show vs Reigns & Ryback next week in a slug battle, but maybe we’ll have some Hurrica-Ranas to liven things up. [Foghorn]That was a joke, son.[/Foghorn]
Welcome back to TV, Axel Hennig. You were just a fly hitting a windshield for Dean Ambrose’s push, but the former Jonathan Good (he got the H out) got a funny promo out of it. “Just thought I’d show you what the ambulance is going to look like to you, Wyatt. This windshield is going to be all cracked when I smash your stupid fat face into it!” For somebody whose idol is Bret Hart, Ambrose sure acts more like ECW’s Sandman.
Bray and Rowan did a hell of a job–Bray took the lead in telling the story, but Rowan was a perfectly credible dance partner. If it were done well, I would absolutely love a good six month program with Bray and his former family members, regardless of how it turned out–there are good stories to be told in which he gets the band back together, in which one or both have a definite break, in which new family members are recruited… just so much potential. Cynical asshole my year of watching WWE main roster has left me, I do not expect this to be followed up on.
Cesaro and Kidd did have a nice little match, and I love the bromance; I’d rather they handled the Nattie part of it a little bit differently, but whatever. Aside from the nice swing-into-dropkick maneuver, I liked the teamwork in Cesaro protecting the pin. Get these guys a better theme (it’s not like we’re setting the bar high here) and a tag team name that isn’t “Masters of the WWE Universe”, because how long before they wind up with Skeletor and Battle Cat gimmicks with a name like that? Catsaro? Swingin’ Cats?
I’m not happy with how Ambrose has been treated after the feud with Rollins (temporarily, I hope) wrapped up, but the man knows how to make chicken salad out of chicken shit, I’ll give him that. As to Axel, I guess he had to go out on his back before he got promoted up to NXT next week, so there’s that. 
Minor note, I appreciated that they made some more chicken salad out of Ryback’s promo by having Show focus on the weak body parts. That right there is classic pro-graps storytelling, and all the more remarkable because 90% of the time, WWE is lucky to remember something that happened in the last five minutes of the current match, much less something that happened four days ago.
Reigns and Rusev were OK. Maybe we can give Reigns a nice long US title run before letting him main event Mania 32, eh? Heh.
I was passing right the hell out, what shenanegans ensued to have Reigns lose the match/Have Russie DQd?