[4/4] WWE Monday Night RAW: Third Time's The Charm

[Swiggy]

One thing I like about AJ getting the nod is just him getting a little bit of shine, knowing full well he's not getting the belt. NO ONE is getting the belt from Reigns anytime soon, especially after just beating Hunter. It's gonna be him on his bootleg Bret Hart, taking on face and heel alike for a minute. At least Styles gets some love for his career, even if the program is brief, or becomes laden in fukkery.

"AJ Style is the #1 contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship" is something I never thought I'd hear...

 

[Playaz Eyez]

I'm sure someone already said this or maybe someone didn't and if you did, i apologize. But there are simple things that they're not doing to make the show really pop and I enjoyed the hell out of raw last night. If you know you're going to do an angle with Shane in charge for the night, don't announce any matches beforehand, like the dudleys vs the boring ass Usos. Just announce your champs will be there and keep the rest of it under wraps to give the illusion that this is the guy making the card up as he goes along.

2ndly, there should've been more backstage segments showing Shane in charge and showing him making decisions or interacting with more of the talent to really show the difference between him running the show and Trips and Steph running the show or Vince running the show. That's the simplest shyt that they used to nail with ease and now they're forgetting it and I don't understand how or why

Couldn't agree more with this. They totally forgot how valuable simple things like backstage segments can be. You don't even need those wrestlers actually wrestling every week. Some can just have backstage segments or vignettes to progress a story. The WWE for years has reminded me of when teams can be rolling over another team by doing a certain thing, then get conservative and safe and start blowing a lead. Sometimes you just need to stick with what got you success in the first place. I can't pinpoint exactly when the WWE lost it's smile, but it's been a very long time.

 

[Rarely-Wrong Liggins]

Well the crowd already despises him so if he continues this slow turn with arrogance and starts using heel tactics his heat will be at a level weve seen few times.

Nah. People don't despise him because of his character, they despise his push as the top face. Once you turn him heel, you lose that source of heat and he becomes Edge pre Matt Hardy scandal. Acting smug and cocky is something Tyler Breeze can do. Reigns doesn't have enough charisma to turn heel and retain his X-Pac heat like the Rock or New Day. He'll just be a boring, paint by the numbers heel.

 

[R=G]

Finally watching the Miz/Ryder segment...Miz is the ONLY fukkER getting the reaction he's supposed to get

 

[WOAHMYGOODNESS]

Finally watching the Miz/Ryder segment...Miz is the ONLY fukkER getting the reaction he's supposed to get

Good to see h back on the miz bandwagon when its convenient

 

[R=G]

When have I ever spoken against Miz? That post doesn't exist.

 

[GunRanger]

One thing I like about AJ getting the nod is just him getting a little bit of shine, knowing full well he's not getting the belt. NO ONE is getting the belt from Reigns anytime soon, especially after just beating Hunter. It's gonna be him on his bootleg Bret Hart, taking on face and heel alike for a minute. At least Styles gets some love for his career, even if the program is brief, or becomes laden in fukkery.

"AJ Style is the #1 contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship" is something I never thought I'd hear...

didnt he just lose to jericho? what sense does this make?

 

[TheAlbionist]

This was a great Raw... and I normally like a smark crowd (hell, I was in the Takeover London crowd wiling out), but these guys were WAY out of line a few times.

Hilarious when it was Vince on stage, but the noise during Charlotte was straight up fukking ignorance it was the booker's fault though. Why the fukk did they give Charlotte the win with heel tactics and then book her to make that babyface thank you speech the next night? Give the damn mic to Lita for the tear-jerking then let Charlotte heel it the fukk up once they've put the belt on her. I'm glad they didn't debut Bayley... I'm hoping the belt goes to face Becky, then Sasha turns and gets the belt leaving it open for Bayley to come through crushing buildings. If they've got any sense, they draw it out for the best part of a year leading to some sort of stip match at WM33 between Sasha and Bayley, but it'll probably be stale by Summerslam at this rate.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Charlotte and The Miz are the most over heels in the company until they turn Roman and Sasha. Actual KAYFABE heat for both of them. I don't get people who don't appreciate The Miz.

Xavier dropping "lit". We see you, X.

IC Champ match was the result that should've happened last night. Giving the strap to Ryder is one of the most embarrassing pieces of pandering I've EVER seen from McMahon. He knew that Wrestlemania is a smarkish crowd and that WM Raw is a smark cauldron so he consulted his 2013 Smark Almanac and gave the crowd what they were asking for years ago. For a cheap pop at WM, ZERO pop when he appeared at Raw and then the most disingenuous "You Deserve It WOO WOO WOO" chant I've ever heard. Nice bit of fukkery, Maryse and Miz at the end. Ryder's Dad looks like a fukking lame.

Roman Vs AJ will be lit as fukk is they turn Roman. He's already got the facial expressions... he NEEDS that Corporate Rock run.

 

[TheAlbionist]

Michael Cole should volunteer to be thrown around a car park by Jason Jordan for that "They're chanting Get The Tables!" bullshyt.


Cole seemed really pissed off with the crowd all night actually... JBL was cornily trying to put a good face on it "They're havin' fun and we LOVE IT!", but Cole just seemed pissed for the whole thing. Almost as if he resented the lack of pops/heat for established Raw names (that he's entirely failed to put over for years) and the enormous pops for the properly built names from NXT. I think it might be professional jealousy. He knows that his AWFUL commentary team is as much to blame for the lack of connection to Raw as the booking and talent. Give us Mauro on Raw and PPV. Either fire Cole or put him on Smackdown or even in the back room somewhere. He was never any better at this than Todd Pettengill anyway.

Even worse was Jerry's reactions to Mauro on the WM preshow though - Mauro absolutely knocked it out the park, naming every move, throwing in the context references and even using some polysyllabic words. EVERY time he broke the 2 syllable barrier, named a move or referenced a wrestler King gives it the as if he's the dumb cool kid in school that wants to make the clever kids feel lame.

"Beautiful modified Michinoku driver..."

"Michinoku Driver?! "

"Modified...."


"Paying homage to the late Hayabusa..."
"Hayabusa?! "

fukk off and die already, Jerry. The fukking disrespect.

 

[MartyMcFly]

Couldn't agree more with this. They totally forgot how valuable simple things like backstage segments can be. You don't even need those wrestlers actually wrestling every week. Some can just have backstage segments or vignettes to progress a story. The WWE for years has reminded me of when teams can be rolling over another team by doing a certain thing, then get conservative and safe and start blowing a lead. Sometimes you just need to stick with what got you success in the first place. I can't pinpoint exactly when the WWE lost it's smile, but it's been a very long time.

Shyt is insane to me breh. Like they've failed to understand story and character and feel like everyone has to have a damn match. They don't. Some cats can come out and talk, some can have backstage segments, some can have a match that gets cut short due to fukkery. I hate to get all Russo, but he's 100% right when he points that out and says its a huge flaw of theirs. Shane is in charge of the show, show me Shane being in charge. Show me Shane tending to Sami and being flustered because his main event just blew up in his face. So now you've got double the drama because Shane needs this main event to go off without a hitch so what is he going to do? In fact, show him being pissed off at KO and being tempted to pull him from the match but knows that he can't because he's between a rock and a hard place. And then show him get the lightbulb, make a phone call to someone and then it turns out that someone is Cesaro. If that's your A plot for the show and your overarching story, it needs to be the spine of the entire three hours and the audience needs to see it develop

 

[TheAlbionist]

Shyt is insane to me breh. Like they've failed to understand story and character and feel like everyone has to have a damn match. They don't. Some cats can come out and talk, some can have backstage segments, some can have a match that gets cut short due to fukkery. I hate to get all Russo, but he's 100% right when he points that out and says its a huge flaw of theirs. Shane is in charge of the show, show me Shane being in charge. Show me Shane tending to Sami and being flustered because his main event just blew up in his face. So now you've got double the drama because Shane needs this main event to go off without a hitch so what is he going to do? In fact, show him being pissed off at KO and being tempted to pull him from the match but knows that he can't because he's between a rock and a hard place. And then show him get the lightbulb, make a phone call to someone and then it turns out that someone is Cesaro. If that's your A plot for the show and your overarching story, it needs to be the spine of the entire three hours and the audience needs to see it develop

All of what you both said, shoutout @Playaz Eyez - the more over a talent is (or the higher on the roster they're sitting) the LESS they should wrestle tbh. You've got to build anticipation and heat. Roman Reigns should only be wrestling PPVs and cutting backstage promos unless it's a SQUASH on Raw or Smackdown. Warrior wasn't wrestling Rick Martel to fill dead space on WWF Challenge, he was either destroying jobbers or shouting into the promocam... that's how you build anticipation for Name Vs Name matches. This bullshyt of having PPV opponents face each other twice and each take a result going into a PPV is just predictable bullshyt - when I see Roman face off against AJ I want it to be a fukking wildcard... "What are these two going to produce?!" not a "Ok, we're going to see a good match because we've seen what they can do on Raw... it'll be all those same spots, we just don't know the result".

Make the people BEG for the opening bell.

 

[MartyMcFly]

All of what you both said, shoutout @Playaz Eyez - the more over a talent is (or the higher on the roster they're sitting) the LESS they should wrestle tbh. You've got to build anticipation and heat. Roman Reigns should only be wrestling PPVs and cutting backstage promos unless it's a SQUASH on Raw or Smackdown. Warrior wasn't wrestling Rick Martel to fill dead space on WWF Challenge, he was either destroying jobbers or shouting into the promocam... that's how you build anticipation for Name Vs Name matches. This bullshyt of having PPV opponents face each other twice and each take a result going into a PPV is just predictable bullshyt - when I see Roman face off against AJ I want it to be a fukking wildcard... "What are these two going to produce?!" not a "Ok, we're going to see a good match because we've seen what they can do on Raw... it'll be all those same spots, we just don't know the result".

Make the people BEG for the opening bell.

Yup. Keep them away from each other save for talking and a couple segments to build some heat

 

[whyanother]

I'm late with these...

 

[NoMorePie]

Wrong topic

 

[basketball reasons]

anyone have a video of enzo's debut rep if you do