Live Discussion: Raw 1/4/2010

[Mr. TM]

I couldnt complain about Raw at all.

Unlike Impact, WWE did not blow everything up tonight.

They worked for long term goals, pushing Sheamus, sending Jericho to Smackdown, putting a bit of tension between Shawn Michaels and Triple H, starting their Diva tournament, and getting close to the breaking up of Legacy. If WWE wanted to, they could have had Legacy break tonight, DX break tonight, Jericho and Big Show win the title, the diva tournament wrap up tonight, Macho man come back and nail Stephanie Mcmahon, and Andre to fight Bret Hart...

Well the last two were just silly. But what does bringing in a bunch of guys to hog the main event do long term? WWE only has Vince/Hart hogging up one segment.

 

[X]

if we wanted to watch TNA and dvr Raw, we wouldve.

We prefer to enjoy prime rib while it's hot, and toss a hot dog in the microwave later.

Right, you're an idiot. I'll take a 20+ minute epic encounter between Kurt Angle and AJ Styles over whatever dull main event Raw has this week.

I just started watching Raw, I'm about 20 minutes into it. Awesome to see Bret again.

 

[goodlay]

Both shows were good, but of course bias comes into play here so we'll have back and forth arguments about which was better. This was easily the most exciting night in wrestling in a long time though. Just being able to switch back and forth from WWE and TNA was just awesome. TNA disappointed me with their opener, but the Angles/Styles match was fantastic. Should be interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks and months in both WWE and TNA.

 

[X]

I couldnt complain about Raw at all.

Unlike Impact, WWE did not blow everything up tonight.

They worked for long term goals, pushing Sheamus, sending Jericho to Smackdown, putting a bit of tension between Shawn Michaels and Triple H, starting their Diva tournament, and getting close to the breaking up of Legacy. If WWE wanted to, they could have had Legacy break tonight, DX break tonight, Jericho and Big Show win the title, the diva tournament wrap up tonight, Macho man come back and nail Stephanie Mcmahon, and Andre to fight Bret Hart...

Well the last two were just silly. But what does bringing in a bunch of guys to hog the main event do long term? WWE only has Vince/Hart hogging up one segment.

Did you watch Impact? No. If you did you would have seen AJ Styles being put over HUGE and Hogan making a big speech about how all the old guys (like the NWO) are out because it's all about the young guys like AJ Styles. Flair is apparently going to be some sort of mentor to Styles. Name me someone better to give a young champion a rub than Ric Flair.

TNA's entire focus right now is on the long-term, it's why Hogan made that speech tonight and why AJ Styles is the TNA champion and TNA's golden boy.

 

[The Champ]

The Bret Hart segments definitely delivered. They felt real and I thought that the emotion shown me all three guys was genuine. The hug between Shawn and Bret was a nice moment, and the ending with Vince taking a shot at his sensitive area set the stage for what I feel will be a compelling storyline leading up to WrestleMania. I was satisfied.

 

[X]

You follow Bret Hart with the fucking Bella Twins?

 

[Mr. TM]

I think I will watch Raw again at 9 on the rerun here. Just to see Bret and HBK again.

Tears of joy.

 

[X]

For some strange reason I really like Maryse. And it's not just because she's so hot. I love her character.

 

[Big Ol' Buckta AIDS]

You people can argue all you want over which one is better, Impact or Raw, but the fact is on RAW we saw hornswoggle get kicked right in the head. Second only to HBK and the Hitman shaking hands.

 

[goodlay]

You follow Bret Hart with the fucking Bella Twins?

Hornswoggle is in the house, so just beware.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

You follow Bret Hart with the fucking Bella Twins?

The way I looked at it was that the crowd needed something like that so they wouldn't be burnt out.

Wouldn't have happened if Melbotcha didn't Welker herself.

And besides, I always approve of Maryse.

 

[Mr. TM]

 

[The Champ]

Did you watch Impact? No. If you did you would have seen AJ Styles being put over HUGE and Hogan making a big speech about how all the old guys (like the NWO) are out because it's all about the young guys like AJ Styles. Flair is apparently going to be some sort of mentor to Styles. Name me someone better to give a young champion a rub than Ric Flair.

TNA's entire focus right now is on the long-term, it's why Hogan made that speech tonight and why AJ Styles is the TNA champion and TNA's golden boy.

Why does AJ Styles need a mentor if he is the golden boy? Shouldn't he have been established as a major star by now? Knowing the history of TNA, it could potentially turn into yet another feud between the older guys, eventually doing nothing for anyone. Remember the Main Event Mafia vs. Frontline storyline? What a bust that was, and the Frontline didn't even exist by the end of it. It was essentially the Mafia feuding with themselves. So now supposedly they're gonna try again to give the young guys the focus, but while bringing in these "legends" to try and "help" them. If they can figure out a way to involve Hogan and Flair while making sure the spotlight isn't primarily on them, then I suppose their plan may end up working. But something tells me that's probably not going to be the case.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

For fuck's sake, I thought this was going to be fans of each show appreciating their respective shows. Not fans crossing over to the competition's LD to bitch as if it's your fucking product. Some of you are just being immature.

Granted some of you are giving legitimate criticisms to each show, but others are just taking stupid shots simply because you think the fans are at war, not the products. We're fucking wrestling fans, not a cheesy, across-the-pond lake.

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

Right, you're an idiot. I'll take a 20+ minute epic encounter between Kurt Angle and AJ Styles over whatever dull main event Raw has this week.

I just started watching Raw, I'm about 20 minutes into it. Awesome to see Bret again.

I can't believe people seriously are calling WWE Prime Rib for putting on Orton vs Kingston and their dull match ... against a 4 1/2- 5 star match we witnessed between Kurt Angle vs AJ Styles ... while Orton put Kofi in headlocks all night.

And people wonder why I use the "Shareholder term", which I am going to try to stop using. I think I am just going to refer to them as the "WWE Universe fans" from now on.

 

[The Champ]

For fuck's sake, I thought this was going to be fans of each show appreciating their respective shows. Not fans crossing over to the competition's LD to bitch as if it's your fucking product. Some of you are just being immature.

Granted some of you are giving legitimate criticisms to each show, but others are just taking stupid shots simply because you think the fans are at war, not the products. We're fucking wrestling fans, not a cheesy, across-the-pond lake.

I agree with this to an extent, but I think most people have given each show its fair chance. I did watch TNA for the first hour, and the debuts of Jeff Hardy and Ric Flair did have me somewhat interested. But at the end of the day, I feel that they will be once again using the older superstars way too much, which will ultimately be to the detriment of the company.

 

[Kenny Powers]

The Hart segments were good, but the last one was totally predictable. Actually I'm glad Vince retaliated against Bret, because I didn't want to see another boring hug fest like we saw between Bret and Michaels.

The matches were good, at least MVP has a purpose now. I'm not sure why they didn't have more diva matches, but after that mediocre match with The Bella Twins I could of understand why.

It's pretty much the same thing we have seen every week except with Bret Hart involved. It would of been interesting to see The Hart Dynasty on the show since they were there and not used on Raw. DX are now the only tag team on Raw. It was good to see the WWE champion on television more than 5 minutes. Too bad Sheamus' challenger has terrible mic skills.

We have a storyline brewing between Vince and Bret, but we probably won't see Bret on television again for weeks. It wasn't a bad Raw but nothing what I expected. I'm sure they will get monster ratings though.

 

[JayBriscoe2010]

Raw was...Raw lol. The begining and end were cool buuuuuuuuuuut that's about it "from what I saw" I found Bourne letting it be known Shameless is where he is because of "having friends in high places" amusing.

 

[The Champ]

I actually think that tonight set a nice trend for the idea of pushing new stars. Bourne had a decent showing against Sheamus, Kofi's push continues, the Legacy breakup storyline is well underway, and we now have a new US championship feud with MVP and the Miz. Also, Miz's new music is, pun totally intended, AWESOME.

 

[simpsons_fanatic742]

Just seeing Bret Hart walk out from the back when his music hit was emotional for me. That scene will be with me forever. I never thought I'd see him in a WWE ring again and the encounter with Shawn Michaels was one of the best segments and moments I have ever witnessed. I'm with TM, watching Hart come back and bury the hatchet was something that I can't explain and it was truly an emotional moment.

 

[The Champ]

The emotion behind those segments definitely made the show for me.

 

[hatehabsforever]

I could have quoted KLUNDERBUNKER numerous times in reading these posts, because I agreed with almost everything he said.

Does anyone on this site know the story of the tortoise and the hare? Where the hare expends all of its energy at the beginning of the race, while the tortoise plods along, with the slow and steady winning the race?

Or is anyone familiar with the concept of blowing your load all at once? Because this is how I saw tonight's shows.

WWE put on a great, albeit not outstanding show. The Bret/HBK I couldn't have enjoyed more, putting the Screwjob to rest in a superb combination of realism and kayfabe. I much preferred this rather than have Hart interfere in HBK's match, or attack him, or do anything to stop the hatchet from being buried.

Hart/McMahon was a little disappointing, not the intensity I expected. But predictable, setting up the weeks leading up to an encounter at WM26.

The rest of the show was solid but not spectacular. Pushing their younger talent and not deviating from their status quo, whether you approve of it or not.

Whereas TNA had lots of surprises and swerves and drama, but they'll never be able to sustain it. Hardy was a big surprise to me. I don't know what he's thinking, going from a main eventer on the "A" show, to a glorified midcarder on the "B" show. Career death for himself and his brother, I'll miss them both. Flair, the nWo cronies, all compelling television for tonight, it'll be interesting to see where they go from here.

I found it ironic that Hogan went on and on and on and on about the young talent backstage, but with the exception of Styles, Angle (not really that young anymore) and Wolfe we didn't see any of it. In Hogan's opening promo he went on forever about all the young guys in the back having so much to offer. But what did we see for the whole show? Flair. Hall. Nash. Waltman. Bischoff. Foley. Jarrett. Morley. The show closing with the not so young Foley getting an old-fashioned nWo beatdown.

iMPACT was actually a little better than I expected. And RAW was not quite as good as I expected. But TNA will not have the vision or the resources to sustain tonight, while WWE hasn't even begun the fight yet. Good job by TNA, I'll watch again based upon tonight, for nostalgic reasons if nothing else. But if I were Vince McMahon, I wouldn't be losing any sleep over tonight's results.

Remember the tortoise and the hare. And remember WCW vs WWF.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

I agree with this to an extent, but I think most people have given each show its fair chance. I did watch TNA for the first hour, and the debuts of Jeff Hardy and Ric Flair did have me somewhat interested. But at the end of the day, I feel that they will be once again using the older superstars way too much, which will ultimately be to the detriment of the company.

The people who did give the show a fair chance aren't the people I was referring to. I'm talking about the people who came into this LD 10 minutes after the show started with "COME TO THE TNA LD, BECAUSE THIS SHOW SUCKS," and "DUUULLLLLL".

The selling point of that show was Jeff Hardy in my opinion, but otherwise the only debuts/returns I saw were people that I'm not quite at the point of being excited for a return (Hogan), or people I was never really interested in in the first place (Val Venis). That ending segment with Foley and Bischoff was very rushed, and I'm honestly not that inclined to watch TNA next week.

If the entire point was to get WWE fans to jump ship over to TNA, then I'm not sold. Sure, I love a good shocker, and tonight was full of them, but the opening Bret Hart segment with HBK > Hogan's opening segment with Bischoff.

 

[realblackhart]

I kinda surprised at the posts on this LD compared to the TNA one. Of course the guys on the Impact LD say that their show was better but I cannot consider Imact the better show tonight although their main Event was better. However they bring in this huge red friking cage and then you finish the match by DQ or No contest, ataway to start it off. You fix it by bringing in Jeff Hardy. I look foward to Punks new promo on Smackdown after this if he even addresses it. That's their first hour, I'm wondering if a 3 hour RAW makes a difference. Ric Flair blew me away n was very hard 2 ignore. I hope he doesn't go in the ring, (even though he wrestled Hogan in Australia) that would make his retirement insignificant. I knew hed be there, seeing him there blew me away though. Then you have an overweight Raven with Stevie, not too crazy about that. NWO is passe, they don't draw anymore. Sting watching from the rafters was cool, seeing Hogan in the ring was as well. Back to RAW, Marysse is definately worth the TV time she gets. Carlitos getting more TV time again but Id like to see some building for his character but the Miz is always "awesome". The tag team match on RAW was pretty good. The Bishoff Hogan dialogue reminded me of WCW and not in a good way. Don't know how I feel about Hogan/Jarret. Hogans buddies the Nasty Boys come in and trash the Dudleys locker room, are you kidding, they aren't relevant, they've been outta big time whether WWE TNA or even WCW for a long time. Bring back Demoition and the Steiners why don't you, how about the Quebeckers. So Im not marking out for the Nasty Boys. Am I supposed to get exited for Orlando frikin Jordan. AJ vs Angle reminded me of Angle/Benoit great match; it was better than Orton/Kingston. Then you end the show with NWO jumping Foley, Same old NWO jumping the Horesmen or Flair. NWO "Nomore Wrestling 4 Old people" Hall and Waltman and Nash aren't "too sweet" anymore. All in all Brets open and close was not average, the matches in between might have been. I think that opening the show with Bret took TNA fans off of the elite NWO in the ring, and they (TNA) definately could have ended the show differently. They tried to do too much tonight. RAW was a better show. A comeback that might have made a difference woulda benn Heyman!

 

[justinsayne]

Why the fuck would a multi time world champion need a fucking mentor?!