Raw Thread

[ShaneDawg85]

Was at Verizon Center for Raw, and that's they loudest I can ever remember that place being for a wrestling event during the opening Brock-Cena segment. Did it seem that loud on TV?

Not always easy to tell when watching it on tv, but it seemed "okay." Nowhere near as awesome as the crowd in Miami two weeks ago, but still more energetic and into it than a lot of previous Raw crowds.

[Dipper9]

Last night seemed like a water treading episode, but things I liked:

1. Rosa on my TV. That woman has a body that won't quit!
2. Brock interview. Nothing earth shattering, but for the newer fans who don't really know Brock, he came across as an ass kicking machine who cares about nothing or nobody!
3. Mark Henry vs Punk. Good match. Kept Henry looking strong plus the finish was unique and awesome. What do you call that, a flying chair drop?
4. The Card for Extreme Rules is looking better than Mania (or the same anyway):
4a. You got Brock replacing Rock, so Brock vs Cena
4b. WWE Title Rematch Punk vs Jericho, this time in a very heated blood feud.
4c. World Championship rematch Sheamus vs Bryan.
4d. Looking like Rhodes vs Show and Orton vs Kane are also gonna be on there.

Its pretty much WrestleMania rematches, with Brock playing the Rock, and stipulations added to the matches.

Things I didn't like:

1. Jericho vs Punk was the same old stuff. Still good, mind you, but nothing new there. This wasn't so much a dislike as it was more just treading water.
2. Cena promo. He says the same friggin thing every time he talks.
3. Jobbing the tag champs out. WHY? They could easily revive the tag division by repackaging unused guys into tag teams and having an actual tag team division, but instead they choose to job out two very talented wrestlers to the two Giants. Ugh. I love Show and Khali, but this just sucked.
4. What the hell did they do to Dolph? From World Champion to a bumper in less than a year?
5. Glad they built on the Miz's comeback. Oh wait, he wasn't even on the show.
6. The R-Truth skits. WTF was that? Not funny, not clever, not good. Waste of time. Give me Curly back doing his Hogan impression over the crap they served last night.

[ShaneDawg85]

If that Brock interview wasn't a worked shoot, I don't know what is. When he said he's only in it for Brock Lesnar, I guarantee every wrestling fan out there jumped and said, "Tell us something we didn't know." It was hard to decipher what was a work and what was a shoot in there, because it really felt like a full on shoot. That's something that has been missing for a while outside of Cena and Rock and to a lesser extent Punk and Jericho. That's when interviews are good, when they blur the line between kayfabe and reality, real and fake, etc.

[ShaneDawg85]

Read an article on Bleacher Report that David Otunga might be getting a reign as US Champion. Good heaven above I hope not. I get that it would help solidify the heel JL faction, but really, David Otunga? The only thing he brings to the ring is oil, which if he fell in a lake he'd probably kill all the fish, because he has zero in-ring ability. Keep him in the back sipping his coffee and in a sweater, because a guy like that doesn't deserve to be US Champion, and all it will do is make the belt even more irrelevant than it already is.

[Dipper9]

Read an article on Bleacher Report that David Otunga might be getting a reign as US Champion. God heaven above I hope not. I get that it would help solidify the heel JL faction, but really, David Otunga? The only thing he brings to the ring is oil, which if he fell in a lake he'd probably kill all the fish, because he has zero in-ring ability. Keep him in the back sipping his coffee and in a sweater, because a guy like that doesn't deserve to be US Champion, and all it will do is make the belt even more irrelevant than it already is.

Agree 100%. The guy has a great character and can talk, but keep him away from the ring, and for God's sake don't put a belt on him. He could barely take a hip toss from Santino on Monday night.

[Dipper9]

Well, overall I thought RAW stunk last night. There were 3 good things...

1. The opening with Edge addressing Cena was well done.
2. Nikki Bella winning the Diva's title was a nice surprise, considering I thought the Bellas were leaving at the end of the month. This means they either resigned, or else Kharma is gonna return next Monday to kill them and send them away for a very long time.
3. The Punk vs Jericho stuff has been gold.

The final segment with Brock and the contract signing was about as bad as you can get. Brock needs to just kill people, and not talk. This segment was awful and ruined any chances of late PPV buys. Its also sad that whenever Rock, Edge, Austin, Foley, Piper, etc come in for cameo runs, that you can see the talent difference between them and about 95% of the current roster in terms of promos and telling a story. The only ones who are any good now are Triple H (one of the best if you ask me), Jericho, Punk, Christian to a point, and Daniel Bryan. The rest of the roster pretty much stinks, and just recites their scripted promos.

As for this PPV on Sunday, it looks REALLY good, but I gotta say it kind of pisses me off that every match is a Mania rematch except for Brock replacing Rock. It pisses me off because I feel like I spent money on Mania for nothing, and also it means the WWE writers are treading water again, now that Mania is over. Its just a waste!

[ShaneDawg85]

Apparently Beth Phoenix suffered a legitimate injury to her foot during her match last night: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...s-championship

I don't know if it was written for her to lose the title last night from the get go, but if it wasn't, and it happened because she legitimately got hurt, that really sucks. I'm highly critical of the diva's division because of what it has become, but it always sucks when the outcome of a match has to change because of an injury. As for Nikki Bella I think she's a transitional champion at best, and if they really are leaving it was a way of sending Nikki and Brie tied in Diva's title reigns. I've no doubt that Kelly Kelly, Natalya, Eve, or Kharma will take the belt back very soon.

I only saw the "signing" with Lesnar at the very end. By and large it was very boring, but I will say that with Lesnar and his personality and stories of how he is, everything he says comes off more like a shoot than a worked promo. The problem is it just comes out sounding boring and nondescript, not that I'd say it to the guy because just watching him on television scares the crap out of me. Playing up the Cena is afraid part is fine, but if you were looking to accomplish anything heading into your first post-Mania PPV, that wasn't the way to do it. When there's a contract signing somebody gets pummeled or put through the table, and last night we got neither.

[Dipper9]

Apparently Beth Phoenix suffered a legitimate injury to her foot during her match last night: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...s-championship

I don't know if it was written for her to lose the title last night from the get go, but if it wasn't, and it happened because she legitimately got hurt, that really sucks. I'm highly critical of the diva's division because of what it has become, but it always sucks when the outcome of a match has to change because of an injury. As for Nikki Bella I think she's a transitional champion at best, and if they really are leaving it was a way of sending Nikki and Brie tied in Diva's title reigns. I've no doubt that Kelly Kelly, Natalya, Eve, or Kharma will take the belt back very soon.

I only saw the "signing" with Lesnar at the very end. By and large it was very boring, but I will say that with Lesnar and his personality and stories of how he is, everything he says comes off more like a shoot than a worked promo. The problem is it just comes out sounding boring and nondescript, not that I'd say it to the guy because just watching him on television scares the crap out of me. Playing up the Cena is afraid part is fine, but if you were looking to accomplish anything heading into your first post-Mania PPV, that wasn't the way to do it. When there's a contract signing somebody gets pummeled or put through the table, and last night we got neither.

It just made no sense. You have Edge come out at 8PM and threaten Cena that he HAS to show some passion and win this match. 3 hours later Cena comes out and basically, without using words, shows that he is in fact scared of Lesnar. I guess because he was wearing his chain and lock that was supposed to mean that he means business now? This match SHOULD be huge, but instead they blew it big time with this go home show.

I hope Lesnar just destroys Cena on Sunday and sends him away until SummerSlam!

[DuffMan]

Caught the first half hour or so of Raw, I agree with Dipp it was great seeing Edge again and the talent gap is definitely noticeable between these older guys and most of what the WWE has right now.

[ShaneDawg85]

Naturally there is some debate as to whether Beth Phoenix actually was injured on Monday night: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...nday-night-raw

All I will say is if that was a work and she was in fact not injured, every person in the WWE, starting with the diva's, should take acting lessons from Beth on how to actually sell something. If that was faking an injury, that was one of the best sells of a faked injury I've ever seen. Not like when Big Show rammed into AJ months ago and everyone in the crowd was yelling "She's Okay!"

[Dipper9]

Naturally there is some debate as to whether Beth Phoenix actually was injured on Monday night: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...nday-night-raw

All I will say is if that was a work and she was in fact not injured, every person in the WWE, starting with the diva's, should take acting lessons from Beth on how to actually sell something. If that was faking an injury, that was one of the best sells of a faked injury I've ever seen. Not like when Big Show rammed into AJ months ago and everyone in the crowd was yelling "She's Okay!"

Its a work. Beth just sold it really well.

This has been the plan all along, to have the Bella win the strap, Kharma will destroy them (based on last year's comments by them about her) and send them out of the WWE, so in effect Kharma can win the belt without beating Beth, setting them up for a big match sometime down the line.

Good to see the WWE actually paying attention and remembering the Bella's vs Kharma story from last year, but I still wish the Bella's weren't leaving. They are hot, they have a different act than the other women (kinda like the old Killer Bees routine) and they actually didn't get boob jobs.

That said...maybe they will leave, get boob jobs, and return.

[ShaneDawg85]

Tonight they held a fastest time challenge to determine who will face Punk at the next PPV, and Daniel Bryan won. I love it. Unequivocally love it. Bryan is over as much as anyone right now, and from a technical standpoint, you can't get much better. I honestly think there's a good chance Punk could lose, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[Dipper9]

Tonight they held a fastest time challenge to determine who will face Punk at the next PPV, and Daniel Bryan won. I love it. Unequivocally love it. Bryan is over as much as anyone right now, and from a technical standpoint, you can't get much better. I honestly think there's a good chance Punk could lose, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I agree, this is great. However, we are once again saddled with a Crooked GM vs the company's top face. I swear, Vince vs Austin struck gold 15 years ago, but now Vince keeps trying to recreate it for a decade and a half with others, and its just stale and boring. I guess one way to get the fans to stop booing Cena is to throw him in the ring with Johnny Ace! Ugh...terrible terrible decision!

[ShaneDawg85]

I agree, this is great. However, we are once again saddled with a Crooked GM vs the company's top face. I swear, Vince vs Austin struck gold 15 years ago, but now Vince keeps trying to recreate it for a decade and a half with others, and its just stale and boring. I guess one way to get the fans to stop booing Cena is to throw him in the ring with Johnny Ace! Ugh...terrible terrible decision!

I honestly think that WWE is trying to turn the fans back onto Cena. They've been booing him more and more for months, so he loses cleanly to Rock so the fans don't riot and it brings him down, then he gets the living snot beaten out of him by Lesnar for weeks and in their match, yet he somehow finds the strength to win. Not only that, the fans cheer him in the process because they didn't like Lesnar. Now, they stick him in a stupid feud with the only person the fans hate more than Cena, and even the biggest Cena haters aren't going to want JL to win, so that means they're going to root for Cena.

It's more pandering to the star, making him the face at the expense of guys like Punk, Orton, and Sheamus, and it sucks. The reality is that Cena is the guy, has been and will continue to be, and Vince will pander to him every single time, and the WWE is essentially giving the fans a big middle finger and saying deal with it.

[Dipper9]

I honestly think that WWE is trying to turn the fans back onto Cena. They've been booing him more and more for months, so he loses cleanly to Rock so the fans don't riot and it brings him down, then he gets the living snot beaten out of him by Lesnar for weeks and in their match, yet he somehow finds the strength to win. Not only that, the fans cheer him in the process because they didn't like Lesnar. Now, they stick him in a stupid feud with the only person the fans hate more than Cena, and even the biggest Cena haters aren't going to want JL to win, so that means they're going to root for Cena.

It's more pandering to the star, making him the face at the expense of guys like Punk, Orton, and Sheamus, and it sucks. The reality is that Cena is the guy, has been and will continue to be, and Vince will pander to him every single time, and the WWE is essentially giving the fans a big middle finger and saying deal with it.

And the fans are talking by not buying their PPV's and not watching their product.