Official Raw/Smackdown Aftermath, Ratings and Review Thread

[ztwhite]

I posted this in the live Raw discussion thread, but I couldn't possibly put anymore passion into another post, so I'm copying it over in here. If a mod wants to delete my live Raw discussion post, that would be great. If not, please don't hit me up for double posting.

I purposely stayed away during the show so no one took away my giddiness about seeing what happened. Now that it's over....

THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't give two shits what anyone says... except NorCal and Shafe... but Vince and the boys delivered for the first time in a long time.

Yeah, it was predictable that HHH was coming back, but they did it flair (and I don't mean Ric). That was one the best beatdowns we've seen in several months. Sure, it made Orton look weak, but I challenge you to find a single wrestler who wouldn't have looked weak against a returning, pissed off and fired up HHH.

How about a surprise appearance by the Rated R Superstar ??!! The old Edge is back... thank you Lord !!! Plus, even though I like her in the role, I didn't see that one coming with Vicki throwing in the towel. Phenomenal segment worth every single minute of the 12 it took up.

If I could sing and you all could hear me, I would be singing the praises of the Miz at the top of my lungs. HE IS THE MIZ AND HE IS AWESOME !!!!! I swear to God I have never purchased a wrestling product in my entire life outside of tickets, but if that shirt becomes available, I'm buying three !!!! His work is beyond a shadow of a doubt the best in the company right now and the sky is the limit for my Ohio counterpart.

Sure, Kelly Kelly can't wrestle, but very few Divas can, so why not stick the two hottest in the ring together. I could watch Maryse and my future wife all day long. I only wish Kelly wore a little less ring attire Plus, we get an oh so hot Micke James coming down to the ring in a very nice dress. Since I didn't have the pleasure of seeing Becka in her dress today, I was pretty happy that Mickie donned her Sunday best !!!

Yes, the filler matches were shit... but I don't care. That was the best Raw we've seen in a long, long time. Hell, that's the best wrestling show we've seen in a long time. Thank you Vince and thank you creative for delivering after a shocking PPV.


Edit note - NorCal and Shafe were the only ones I saw praising the show before I posted this, so please don't harrass me about how you thought it was good too. A lot of you should think it was good.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

Bottom line...This Raw turned it up a notch. I was honestly impressed with this episode for numerous reasons. And I'll name them.

1. Vickie's gone and Edge could be face

The fact that Vickie quit and that Edge pretty much made a turn to the good side made the entire show better. The segment with Vickie going on and on about how she was disrespected by the fans and how much she screamed during Edge's tirade on her was priceless. Also, Edge can seriously work the mic. There's very few in the biz today that can tear it up on the stick like Edge. And he showed it tonight. It's good they're splitting this sham up and hopefully, Edge can skyrocket to Legend status.

2. Batista gets his arm owned

This was a different way of going with an injury angle. Instead of just saying Batista injured the arm during the Main Event at Extreme Rules, they have Orton and Priceless fuck it up. Why not? I mean, you have to give them SOME credibility as a faction. This did that. Until...

3. HHH Returns and murders Randy Orton. Charges pending.

This was an outright attempted murder by HHH on Orton. I mean, there's no feasible way to think that Orton can ever compete with HHH after that beating. It wasn't good in that HHH completely annihilated RKO, but it was good to see HHH back. The roster needs a boost and HHH can deliver that. You can boo all you want about how HHH owns Orton or whatever. You can't dispute the affect that HHH has on the quality of show that's produced on Raw.

 

[Slyfox696]

I find it funny that some people thought this show was great...and I thought it made no sense.


So, Batista is injured which means that they have a 7 minute cage match at the PPV...and Batista wins. And just so, the next night, they can have Batista's arm broken. I know that you can't ever judge a storyline without knowing the whole storyline, but I'm confuzzled by that one.

And then, let's move on to this whole "Batista being counted out" thing. First of all, if Batista was counted out, why would he lose the WWE Title? I admit I wasn't paying 100% the entire show, but I don't remember them saying that Batista could lose his title on a count out. So, unless I missed it, if Batista got counted out, wouldn't he STILL keep his title, and Orton would be out of his rematch clause? That didn't make sense to me.

Then, let's move on to Triple H. Did Triple H hijack an ambulance? Was he the driver who picked Batista up? Just how in the hell did Triple H show up in the arena in an ambulance? I couldn't figure that one out.

More criticisms.

1) They've turned MVP face and Hardy heel...and now neither one of them gets a reaction. That couldn't have worked out the way they wanted.

2) Why the fuck do the Colons have jobs? They have got to be the worst two wrestlers in the WWE, now that Kennedy got his ass canned.

3) Someone should try and get Michael Cole to learn the difference between the Divas title and the Women's title. He shouldn't have to rely on Mickie James to correct him.

4) I like putting Miz in with the big boys of Raw...but isn't it time we finally had a legit Cena/Miz match? This reminds me too much of WCW's storyline with Jericho, right down to the fact that Jericho never actually took on Goldberg (at least not that I can remember).

5) Maybe I just wasn't used to the size TV I was watching tonight (not at my place, at my g/f's), but doesn't Randy Orton look like he's lost a lot of body mass since Wrestlemania? He looked SOOO thin tonight. He has a tendency to do that.

6) I thought it was funny that people refused to get on Vickie's side, and so when they kept chanting "Na Na Goodbye", the WWE had to blast Edge's theme song over the speakers to drown it out. The sympathy play, and the evil Edge thing didn't play out quite as well as they wanted, I don't believe.

7) Festus has got to be the stupidest gimmick ever.

8) I still feel that Dustin Rhodes is one of the most under appreciated wrestling talents in modern history.


Just some things. Usually I like Raw, but tonight's...I give it a big "meh".

 

[Blizz]

I find it funny that some people thought this show was great...and I thought it made no sense.

It was great. I thought it made sense. Allow me to explain.

So, Batista is injured which means that they have a 7 minute cage match at the PPV...and Batista wins. And just so, the next night, they can have Batista's arm broken.

Okay, what if Orton retained the title? Batista comes to beat up on Orton, gets his arm broken, and HHH returns to challenge Orton for the title.
having Batista win the title made you want to watch raw to find out what would happen. It also left most EXCITED for next weeks raw as we don't really know who is champion now. When's is the last time anyone actually felt excited to see an episode of Raw? Pshh.

I know that you can't ever judge a storyline without knowing the whole storyline

Then don't.

And then, let's move on to this whole "Batista being counted out" thing. First of all, if Batista was counted out, why would he lose the WWE Title? I admit I wasn't paying 100% the entire show, but I don't remember them saying that Batista could lose his title on a count out. So, unless I missed it, if Batista got counted out, wouldn't he STILL keep his title, and Orton would be out of his rematch clause? That didn't make sense to me

. This wasn't the standard countout. This has happened numerous times with the rule that if the wrestler did not answer to the count of ten, then they FORFEIT. It's been done before and I'm not sure how this confuses you. It makes perfect sense to me. Batista forfeited so he had to drop the title. Simple, really.

Then, let's move on to Triple H. Did Triple H hijack an ambulance? Was he the driver who picked Batista up? Just how in the hell did Triple H show up in the arena in an ambulance?

I know. Awsome, right?

I couldn't figure that one out.

Who gives a shit? It was awsome.

More criticisms.

Yay.

2) Why the fuck do the Colons have jobs? They have got to be the worst two wrestlers in the WWE, now that Kennedy got his ass canned.

Really? I mean, really? I could name a hell of lot of wrestlers worse then the colons.

3) Someone should try and get Michael Cole to learn the difference between the Divas title and the Women's title. He shouldn't have to rely on Mickie James to correct him.

Agreed.

6) I thought it was funny that people refused to get on Vickie's side, and so when they kept chanting "Na Na Goodbye", the WWE had to blast Edge's theme song over the speakers to drown it out. The sympathy play, and the evil Edge thing didn't play out quite as well as they wanted, I don't believe.

You really believe that the WWE wanted us to be on Vickie's side? Come on man. It was fairly obvious that we are supposed to be on the side of Edge. Not sure if this means a face turn.

7) Festus has got to be the stupidest gimmick ever.

Not quite.

8) I still feel that Dustin Rhodes is one of the most under appreciated wrestling talents in modern history.

Who cares?

Just some things. Usually I like Raw, but tonight's...I give it a big "meh".

I give it a thumbs up.

 

[Y4J]

JUST when it seems like WWE could do something... They DON'T...

Orton should be AWAY from ANYONE associated with evolution. I mean, look at Cena.. He's feuding with Show and Miz and the same damn time.. AWAY from the title. So why can't HHH and Batista..

Batista should have either A. TURNED HEEL or B. get in another feud.. From there have Orton feud with MVP for a few months, maybe even a SMALL feud with HBK, and then Cena around Summerslam or something.. The fact is, Raw has no other faces other than Cena, so they need to rebuild. And MVP could do that.. We SAW a few months back about how he interrupted Randy's promo, and how we saw some great chemistry. They should have ran with it.

But to get to RAW tonight.. I'm sorry, but HHH can't ALWAYS be in the title picture.. And not just that, i'm REALLY tired of him being the dominant guy ALL the time.. It's JUST as tiring as Cena getting his ASS beat and then coming back to win.. You look at ANY FACE out there, and NO FACE is that dominant than HHH. HELL, even look at ANY HEEL. NO HEEL is as dominant as HHH. If you switched roles, and HHH was booting people and Orton came back, BET YOUR ASS HHH would not get his assed kicked like that..

Raw isn't good right now because Orton has no one to feud with.. And it sucks.. But HHH and Batista have been going on for HOW many months? When Orton was champion before, he was feuding with Jericho, HBK, Jeff Hardy (Which was a GREAT FEUD) Cena (Which Cena has MEGA chemistry with Orton, as you can tell at NWO a few years ago) and then it all ended with HHH. But at least it was a great run.. Now, its HHH HHH HHH BATISTA FLAIR HHH.. ITS OLD. I'm starting to get the feeling also that Legacy is hurting Orton's character and its making him stale..

HHH returning.. Eh.. I have no idea what they are going to do.. I have high hopes for SD.

 

[JGlass]

That was a damn fine RAW, damn fine. I have to admit, when The Big Show came to the ring and locked Cena in his camel clutch, I was about to turn it off, I was mad and disgusted, but then RAW's Savior, The Miz, saved the show by whacking Big Show with a steel chair. He pretty much personified the feelings of the IWC right there. "Fuck this, nobody wants to see you put John Cena in your shitty submission move Big Show, if anyone's going to take him out, it's going to be me." God bless you Miz, you seriously saved the show.

From there on out, the show was good. The Edge and Vickie segment was great. There was a lot of clamoring in the LD that maybe Edge was going face. I can kind of see that happening, but I sincerely doubt that he's going face just quite yet. But none the less, the dude went back to his days of being hilarious, and was just that. Vickie may have been a little over dramatic there, but who didn't want to see her fall that hard?

The other two matches of the night that happened after the Chair Shot from Heaven were actually pretty good, especially the tag team match. It's a shame that the Carlitos weren't able to do more with the belt, but this legitimizes Legacy a little bit. They should be beaten up by guys like Batista, Cena, and HHH, but they should also be able to beat guys like The Colons.

MVP vs. Matt Hardy has been done before, a few times actually, but that just means that they'll put on a better match. They know each other pretty well in the ring, so they can play of each other great. MVP still deserves more of a pop that what the people are giving him, but I think right now he's being overshaddowed by the events of Batista and Cena, and now...

HHH! He's back and wetter than ever! Now I don't know about you, maybe I was being dumb, but I was pleasantly surprised when HHH stepped out of the ambulance. And if you will allow me to pull a Cole, that was a vintage beat down, courtesy of HHH. I don't care if he buried Orton, that was entertaining as hell, and a great way to cap off RAW.

 

[Slyfox696]

It was great. I thought it made sense. Allow me to explain.

OK...

Okay, what if Orton retained the title? Batista comes to beat up on Orton, gets his arm broken, and HHH returns to challenge Orton for the title.
having Batista win the title made you want to watch raw to find out what would happen. It also left most EXCITED for next weeks raw as we don't really know who is champion now. When's is the last time anyone actually felt excited to see an episode of Raw? Pshh.

Why was I excited to see Raw? Because Batista won the World Title again? That didn't make me excited to see Raw. And I know who the champion is now...Batista is. He didn't lose the match, unless it was by DQ, in which he doesn't lose the title.

Although, if he can lose the title by count-out, then maybe he can lose by DQ. Who knows anymore.

Then don't.

I didn't. I said I was confused. Surely your level of reading comprehension can extend longer than 10 words. Try reading a whole sentence.

Thanks.

This wasn't the standard countout.

It wasn't? There was a match, the bell rang and the referee began counting to 10. That seems pretty standard to me...

This has happened numerous times with the rule that if the wrestler did not answer to the count of ten, then they FORFEIT.

It has? Please direct me to the last time a wrestler lost their title by count-out when it wasn't a stipulation of the match.

It's been done before

I await your example of losing a title by count-out when it's not a stip of the match.

and I'm not sure how this confuses you.

Easy. The rule says titles can't change hands on a countout. Perhaps you should watch wrestling more often.

Batista forfeited so he had to drop the title.

Batista didn't forfeit, he just didn't get into the ring by the count of 10. A forfeit only happens when there is no contest. Once the contest started, then it became an official match...and a 10 count shouldn't cost you a title.

I know. Awsome, right?

I was leaning more towards "illogical". And obviously you agree it makes no sense, because you don't even attempt to defend it.

So, thanks for agreeing with me that Triple H showing up in an ambulance made no sense.

Who gives a shit?

Well, I guess anyone who likes to think there is some semblance of logic to wrestling....

It was awsome.

How was it awesome? Ooh, Triple H is a badass because he shows up in an infirmary vehicle. Next he might drink his tea with his pinky extended. A true bad ass.

Really? I mean, really? I could name a hell of lot of wrestlers worse then the colons.

I doubt it since Kennedy was already fired.

You really believe that the WWE wanted us to be on Vickie's side? Come on man. It was fairly obvious that we are supposed to be on the side of Edge. Not sure if this means a face turn.

A guy tells a woman he was using her, and manipulated her feelings, and you think we're supposed to be on his side? Not a chance.

Maybe the WWE didn't want us to side with Vickie, but they CERTAINLY didn't want us to side with Edge.

Not quite.

Close to it.

Who cares?

Me? And the people who have enjoyed a stupid gimmick for over a decade?

 

[Mighty NorCal]

Then, let's move on to Triple H. Did Triple H hijack an ambulance? Was he the driver who picked Batista up? Just how in the hell did Triple H show up in the arena in an ambulance? I couldn't figure that one out.

I dont think they couldve possibly fucked this up worse. The ambulance, the lack of the music hitting, just cutting to his face.

Holy fucking crap man. Once you get passed that though, it was awesome.

I

1) They've turned MVP face and Hardy heel...and now neither one of them gets a reaction. That couldn't have worked out the way they wanted.

Hardy gets sorta booed. I dont get why the WWE notices potential for a face turn, then strips the character of everything that made people like him in the first place. MVP used to get bigger face pops when he was a fucking heel.

2) Why the fuck do the Colons have jobs? They have got to be the worst two wrestlers in the WWE, now that Kennedy got his ass canned.

that match was truly abysmal wasnt it? Honestly, a frontrunner for worst match of the year.


I found inconsistencies in the show as well, and have been questioning putting the title on Tista since it happened, myself. However, I felt this show was FAR better than what we HAVE been seeing, other than Cena-Big Show turning into the new age "Batista-JBL" feud (on every single fucking week, boring combination, no good matches to even remotely justify it) Also felt Kofi and Regal shouldve went a bit longer. Fuck knows they couldve used some of the time given to that slogging shit fest between The Colons and Priceless.

Thought it was a damn fine show though. There was intrigue, which is something you very rarely get out of RAW. True, nothing played out in a logical manner, but still, highly eventfull, and intriguing right up til the end.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

1. I was looking forward to the Miz/Cena match on RAW until Big Show interrupted. I expect Miz to cost Cena the title next week and they can have their match at The Bash.

2. Edge got some pretty good cheers when he told Vickie that he used her for her power. The casual wrestling fan would probably think that Vickie deserves a lot of sympathy in that situation. But since she is hated, the die-hard wrestling fan sides with Edge. It just seems like Edge is heading towards a tweener role rather than a face role.

 

[LokiCobain]

After 2 hours of this "special" 3-hour wrong, I'm very close to pulling a Benoit. It seems like the only reason they have this longer Raw is so they could pull off having no commercials next week without losing too much money. Donald Trump? The highlight of my night so far was thinking of all the possible people that would actually benefit something. What does Donald Trump bring to the table? Absolutely nothing. When it was the GM position (which hasn't actually been filled), it would've been nice to give Flair a job back and have a whole "screw Legacy" thing go on. Once Vince announced a new owner, you can bring Bischoff in because he's entertaining and it would be a nice ironic storyline. Or, to further storylines, how about Ted DiBiase Sr?

Besides that, these matches are awful, if they can even be called matches. I'm tired of the same Rey vs Jericho matches. I'm tired of ECW getting shafted with 30 second joke matches. The fatal 4-way was a tornado tag match until the end, and obviously the heel pins the other heel haha. I went two hours before being entertained, and that was due to Goldust being fed the unfortunate truth behind his career, and a midget getting shot.

Next is the Punk/Hardy/Edge match, and then the 10-man battle royal with the remaining (not actually 10 remaining, since HHH is in it, and probably Cena and Big Show). Maybe this final hour will pick up, but I highly doubt it. There was nothing special about this episode and if I wasn't already pot committed I'd watch The Soup or The Jeffersons for the final hour. I'll probably write a follow up to this after this final hour. Hopefully it redeems itself.

Any thoughts or comments on tonight's Raw?

 

[JGlass]

Jericho vs. Mysterio Intercontinental Championship Match

Jericho pulling out all the familiar stops, I love when he calls us manatees. I was surprised to see Jericho come out wearing a mask, I really expected them to play up the unmasking angle more. I was also surprised to find out that the WWE championship math was going to be contested so early in the show. As for the match itself, it started out real quickly and stayed fast paced throughout. The crowd was SUPER into it. Jericho used the same spinning backbreaker type thing that he counters the 619 with. A lot of good spots and great ring work by these two guys. Great ending with Rey hitting the 619, but then getting countered with a code breaker. Overall, a great match to open the show with.

I loved the call and response with Vince and the announcers. OMG RAW'S BEING SOLD? TO WHO? Well, I'll let the person I sold it to tell you. I'm writing this review as I watch the show right now, and I gotta say I'm a little taken aback by this, and I'm interested to see who the hell this might be.

Tommy Dreamer vs Christian ECW Championship Match

Christian looked pretty good from the start, it took Dreamer a while to get going. I'm surprised the match ended with a roll up, but I suppose they needed a quick way to end the match so they could start the WWE Championship match on time. I wonder what's going to be in the future for Christian and Dreamer, and if Dreamer will drop the belt back to Christian soon.

I'm not liking how serious this show's atmosphere has been. The announcers are all very serious, and the superstars have also been serious.

Fatal Four Way For the WWE Championship Match

Not surprising, Cena and Show started working on each other, and HHH and Orton started going at each other. This match is going well. It's obviously got a lot of star power, and that's a big plus, plus there was always a certain level of intensity going on. I can't say I'm surprised that Randy Orton won, let's just hope that his character is going to be more interesting this title run. Redemption time.

New owner announcement time. This is either going to be very interesting or just plain ridiculous. With the way RAW has been going tonight, it should be pretty good. Based on his little speech, I'd venture to guess either Flair or Austin. And the winner is... TRUMP??? Annnnnd it's ridiculous. I hope to GOD we don't see Trump vs. McMahon round 2. This just seems like a way to build McMahon up as a heel (or face?). Commercial free does sound pretty good though...

Vince seems pretty content with Orton being champion, even after he punted him, his son, his daughter, and is son in-law.

I'm really surprised with how fast this show is moving. Four title matches in the first hour and a half? I guess they're trying to separate it from a PPV, but still, besides the 10 man battle royal, what's left?

Mickie vs Rosa

It's nice to see Rosa get some ring action, even if it's mostly to job to Mickie. For the first time in a while, the diva's division is going to be interesting with Mickie and Maryse.

And we have a The Miz siting! The real savior of RAW has come! He is great. Goldust did pretty well for himself too, a very enjoyable segment. Great use of the T-Shirt gun, hilarious.

CM Punk's interview is interesting. They blew a chance at an interesting heel turn, but seeing that side of CM Punk was definitely interesting.

Triple Threat Match for the World Heavyweight Championship

Call me crazy, but did I hear a relatively warm reception for Edge? I mean, sure he didn't get the pop that Jeff Hardy did, but I think that bit with Vickie did get him a little support. The most interesting entrance of the night was CM Punks, and he still seems to get a fairly good reception, but still mixed. Both the triple threat and the fatal four way matches were very very good tonight, I'm extremely impressed. Lots of good action in this match,
I think what's making this match great is all three men have beef with each other, so two guys will be focusing all their attention on the last guy. The injury to CM Punk actually had me questioning who's going to win this match, but in the end, he came up on time in true opportunist fashion. I really enjoyed this match.

The Colons vs The Hart Dynasty

I don't understand why Legacy jumped the Colons. There's no point. That ship has sailed. After the inevitable rematch, I hope they find a new tag team to feud with.

10 Man Battle Royal

I'm very excited for this. Lots and lots of rivalries brewing within this match. John Cena Big Show and The Miz, HHH and Legacy, MVP Kofi Matt Hardy and Regal, everyone has some sort of rivalry going here. It's hard to keep track of good action, but, I do see The Miz and Hardy teaming up on Cena, which is definitely exciting, but I still doubt Miz is going to get much time with Cena in this match until they get their one on one match up somewhere down the road. And Matt Hardy is our first elimination at the hands of The Big Show, with MVP following, pretty much eliminating himself. And then Big Show is eliminated by... everyone, gotta love when they pick on the big guy. And it loks like Miz is gone after commercial break, so we're down to Cena, Legacy, HHH, Kofi, and Regal. Cena is getting bullied right now, but Legacy has turned their attention to HHH. Kofi saved Cena, I guess there is lots of faces helping faces here, as well as heels helping heels. Finally Cena and HHH have found each other, but after a short battle, take each other out of action, but not out of the match. Kofi does some creative work to get out of a jam with legacy, and then mounted some offense before getting eliminated. Legacy is looking tough in this match as they eliminated both Kofi and Regal back to back. But Cena takes out DiBiase, but not Rhodes, but HHH took care of that. No surprise as HHH and Cena are the last two men left... oh wait! THE MIZ IS BACK! But not for long as Cena and HHH take him out, and then HHH takes Cena out shortly after. No surprise that HHH wins, but it was a fun ride.

Overall, tonight's RAW seemed to be the WWE flexing it's muscles. All the superstars came out for big matches. Not only that, but they really captured my interest to watch next week. Tonight's RAW was pretty damn good, I'll give it an 8.9/10

 

[Adel_hamra]

i think raw without commercials will be hell where they will treat us with these match-long promos by the miz...i don't mind miz bashing cena, it seems like he's reading cena hate on the forums. they will definately shove trump down out throats as well

is it only me or is lawler such a robot and doesn't know how to call a move even though it's botched?the rko is suppose to hit the opponent's face on the mat and when they showed on the replay, it was clear that big show landed on his side, hell, his head didn't even touch the mat and lawler "big show landed face first"...oh yeah, and cole had to disappoint us again by making a mistake when big show chokeslammed miz on the battle royale, cole said "big show in trouble"....

maryse, mickie and rosa mendes just became my dream threesome...the santino/vince segment was funny as hell

i missed the jericho/mysterio match so i can't really say much about it...

ECW title match: it was pretty good, it ended up pretty good...i don't know if christian's leg injury was legit, but it looked ally bad on tv...funny thing, on tv, they showed some fans holding letters to form "PEEPS" but the second "P" wasn't showing so it spelled "PEES"

WHC match: my favourite one...so many near falls, and good spots. punk's injury looked legit...i liked the triple clothesline. edge's spear to hardy after punk jumped was pretty strong. in fact, it is the strongest spear by edge i've seen in a while.

WWE title mach: pretty good action there, in the first 5 seconds, cena is already diying. i think bigshow botched the block from the punt coz it looked horrible...i know there isn't much to bothc about but i think it would look better if bigshow just got on his knees and hit orton or smg...and big show did a spear??hell, that ain't a spear, that's a damn mini van driving towards you.the end was pretty nice with everyone hitting their finishers and was it big show or randy who botched the RKO? big show's counter to the first RKO was pretty nice and cena just made the 485 pound world's largest athlete look like he's just another guy ont he roster...he lifted him with ease...trips' spinebuster on cena was funny, he was barely touching him

the divas match: ummmm....maryse, mickie and rosa just made my day...'nuff said

the miz/golddust segment: you know, i think that the miz is really reading the cena hate on forums for all his promos coz it's exactely what we post here.

the tag match: did tyson kidd wrestle? i didn't see it...primo is so damn flexible he can roll on his back and sell a broken back pretty well but why did legacy attack them?it would be a good win but they had to get involved

the santino/vince segment was pretty funny

the battle royale was boring at the time where there was kofi, regal, legacy, trips and cena...it was obvious that kofi and regal would get eliminated but it took a while.miz popping out from under and trying to eliminate trips and cena was funny.

 

[X]

Despite the usual pitfallings RAW goes into every Monday, I overall was very entertained this week. The four-way for the WWE title was rather predictable and by-the-books. The battle royal was about as good as you could expect a battle royal to be. I did however really enjoy the triple threat with Punk, Edge & Hardy, though the ending of that one was pretty predictable as well.

The whole Donald Trump thing is bad, but really I think we've seen much worse from Vince before. I'll atleast give this a chance because it's likely only going to be used to set up either a new GM, a feud with Vince, or a combination of the two. We might be seeing the beginning of a Summerslam feud. That said obviously the less Trump is on television, the better.

Enjoyable show though. I know it's cool to hate Triple H but I found myself genuinely looking forward to watching him work for the first time in a while. Pretty good show by today's standards, and I'm looking forward to see what happens next week without commercials.

 

[Slim Pickns]

RAW has been horrible since Wrestlemania and this three hour show was no exception.

I enjoyed the Smackdown Title Match but that was a one time thing and had nothing to do with RAW. The ECW match needed some Swagger but it was still good.

The Fatal Four way worked out ok though I think HHH should have won the belt. He has been gone for over a month now and has given Randy the belt long enough. Its time for him to take his spot as mediorce leader of RAW back while the companys biggest name sits in a shit feud with Big Show. That way HHH can have mediorce main events with Orton while anyone who could make the main event scene interesting will be on the midcard. Luckily, he won the battle royal and all is well with Monday Night Raw. If they were to have mixed it up my head probably would have exploded. Who wants Cena back in the main event when we can see Orton vs HHH for the third time since their Mania encounter anyway?

 

[Paradox]

I thought last night's raw was the best raw in a long time. It was a solid show all around, if you didn't think so what the hell do you want them to do?

Jericho vs. Rey was another good match, great way to open up the show, and continue the story of Jericho take the mask. Which in the end cost Rey the match as he tried to protect the mask. Great way to end the match.

The ECW championship match was the one spot I thought was lacking. It was a short match, but it served it's purpose in letting Dreamer retain.

The Fatal Four way for the WWE championship match, was a good match. The star of the match was the Big Show. This was the first match in almost 4 months that he has looked great in. Overall the match was great, but the one thing leaves me clueless is Orton winning. Why did he lose in the first place? He has now become a 4 time wwe champ in little over a year in half. he's on a pace to beat Edge's fast pace...

The divas match was... well a normal divas match now days.

Punks promo was amazing! He made blasted both Hardys.

WHC match: Best match of the night, it was a great match all around. Punk was out of his mind. It was the hardest I've seen him work in a match in his time in the wwe, and it showed. All three men looked great. It was a fast pace, and had some great spots.
Set up for Hardy vs. Punk at the Bash. One question though, I thought Hardy's contract was up the middle of this month? I guess that means that he has resigned.

The Miz is becoming more and more of a star. His promo's have been great in the last couple of weeks. And he had the funniest moments of the night when he shot Horny! I laughed so hard!

I loved Priceless commentating on the tag match!

Ten Man Battle Royal was solid. Big Show once again look strong. Best part of the match was when the Miz came back in the ring. I was going nuts I really wanted him to win at that point. That and everyone would have been pissed. Trips winning was predictable.

On top of all of that we now have a new owner of raw. I'm not sure what I think about this right now. It was defiantly not what anyone was expecting. Right now I think I like it. It's something deferent, and that's what we've been asking for.

Overall it was a great show, from top to bottom, it had everything that you could want from a show, great wrestling, comedy, and furthered all of the storylines.

 

[Melina]

Last two Raw's have been fantastic compared to previous shows. WHC match was fantastic, I really like Punk's character. WWE Title Match was a little predictable, but entertaining nonetheless. ECW Title match was a little disappointing. Jericho vs. Mysterio was good but not great. Divas match was good and the battle royal was entertaining. The Miz has been the brightest spot on Raw for some time now. At first I thought they made a mistake putting Miz on Raw and Morrison on Smackdown. But now I think they got it right. Great show overall, better than several PPV's this year.

However I am not looking forward to Raw as much now with the whole Donald Trump thing. Is the man in charge just going to operate from pre taped segments after next week. I am going to laugh when someone messes up trying to "talk" to the Donald.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

NorCal NightCap

RAW fuckin rocked my socks on Monday. Awesome show. Funny that the best matches came from SD, but y'know, oh well and shit.

No horrible time wasting promos, or skits. The Trump thing was uninspiring, but fuck it, everyone was on the edge of their seats, and thats how its supposed to be.

Good matches, intriguing promos. Not sure what more you all can expect from a weekly wrestling show.

A

 

[tehblogger]

Terrific promos from Edge and Morrison before a very good match. That was Morrison's best mic work in a while: he started off his usual understated, play-it-cool self, but got gradually more worked up. The crowd were well into it, as they should be. Particularly, judging from the pitch of the pops, the ladies.

The match itself was highly entertaining and very clean. The spear getting countered with the springboard spinning kick was a nice touch, the Edgecution looked as impactful as ever, and Morrison's round-the-world DDT is truly quite something. Edge won cleanly without Morrison looking at all weak.

Not seen all the show, but I did catch Rey/Punk. Punk looks to have been turned full heel now, or certainly the crowd seem to think so. He's getting decent heat and there were quite a lot of boos when Edge mentioned his name earlier. His wrestling style also appears more heel and less face now: slower working, fewer flashy moves, taking advantage of opportunity, rolling out of the ring to recuperate, etc. The match itself was essentially an extended Rey squash, without Rey quite being able to finish it off. Punk got in a few nice counters, including a lovely heel kick and a dramatic throw to the outside, which Jericho the chance to pounce. Punk took the chance with a good GTS.

Speaking of Jericho, he was absolutely hypnotic on the mic. Brilliant in the segment with Rey and even better on commentary afterwards. His putdown to Grisham was priceless (not that I particularly agree, but it was still great). Has he ever been this good? It's something special to hear, and certainly one of the No.1 reasons to watch smackdown right now.

 

[X]

RAW was pretty awful this week, but I guess it wasn't worse then usual. The Cena-Miz segment was good. The six-man tag was okay, nothing great, but any match involving the Great Khali just sucks all entertainment and excitement out of it for me personally. I'd rather watch 10,000 Dominic Denucci matches (anyone who's seen him wrestle knows what I mean) then one Khali match. It's like watching someone fight a giant stiff piece of wood.

The LMS match...was pure shit. I can't believe some of the rave reviews I'm reading about it online so far...was I the only one watching that match? Had to be the absolute worst LMS match I've ever seen. Sloppy, predictable and not very exciting spots, incredibly lame attempts at being "hardcore", no pace to the match-up and the ultra-predictable "Draw" ending that made the match about as exciting to watch as paint dry. Will someone PLEASE tell me what was so special about that shitfest?

The Trump-McMahon angle has been handled pretty well so far though. Trump is awful to watch (who the fuck thinks Trump is a good face? The man screams "I'm a DOUCHEBAG!" with everything he says/does).

And the main event was lackluster. So, all in all, a typically boring episode of RAW. I've pretty much stopped expecting to see a good episode of RAW at this point. How could you give that shitfest an A Norcal? You're telling me that episode was among the best RAW has ever had? Seriously?

 

[Nev]

LOL!! I love you for being so brutally honest.

Yeah, RAW was average. It was a treat for the temporarily exciting with the Donald Trump hype.

RAW should post a 4.0-4.2 rating due to it being after The Bash I guess.

 

[tyler1995blue]

RAW was pretty awful this week, but I guess it wasn't worse then usual. The Cena-Miz segment was good. The six-man tag was okay, nothing great, but any match involving the Great Khali just sucks all entertainment and excitement out of it for me personally. I'd rather watch 10,000 Dominic Denucci matches (anyone who's seen him wrestle knows what I mean) then one Khali match. It's like watching someone fight a giant stiff piece of wood.

The LMS match...was pure shit. I can't believe some of the rave reviews I'm reading about it online so far...was I the only one watching that match? Had to be the absolute worst LMS match I've ever seen. Sloppy, predictable and not very exciting spots, incredibly lame attempts at being "hardcore", no pace to the match-up and the ultra-predictable "Draw" ending that made the match about as exciting to watch as paint dry. Will someone PLEASE tell me what was so special about that shitfest?

The Trump-McMahon angle has been handled pretty well so far though. Trump is awful to watch (who the fuck thinks Trump is a good face? The man screams "I'm a DOUCHEBAG!" with everything he says/does).

And the main event was lackluster. So, all in all, a typically boring episode of RAW. I've pretty much stopped expecting to see a good episode of RAW at this point. How could you give that shitfest an A Norcal? You're telling me that episode was among the best RAW has ever had? Seriously?

OK, I am going to comment on all the aspects of this post, basically giving my own review.

The Cena and Miz match will be excellent this Sunday, it has all the makings of a good feud, something the WWE and Raw especially needed, it has a little trash talk, good selling of the guys really hating each other, and some cheap moves from the heel on the face, ex. costing him matches. So, we see eye-to-eye on that part.

I enjoyed the six man tag match, but like you said, Kali is just annoying to watch. I mean yea, Undertaker doesn't sell ALL the moves against him, but at least he sells some. That big freak is just weird. 2-for-2 on us.

This is where I draw the line. How do you call that LMS match a shitfest? I do agree, it was not what I expected: a little predictable, too much horrible attempts at being "hardcore", but atleast they went out there and put on a decent fight. Just wait for Sunday, if you are buying the PPV. so 2-for-3.

The Trump-McMahon angle did one thing. IT PISSED ME OFF! How in the hell are you going to end the feud that quickly? I was expecting Battle of the Billionaires part two.(Loved the first one tbh.) And yes, Trump's every move does scream "I'm a douchebag!" 3-for-4.

I actually missed the main event. Lol, but since we have mostly the same feelings toward WWE, it was probably nothing spectacular.

So, my only issue is what you said about the LMS match.

 

[X]

This is where I draw the line. How do you call that LMS match a shitfest? I do agree, it was not what I expected: a little predictable, too much horrible attempts at being "hardcore", but atleast they went out there and put on a decent fight. Just wait for Sunday, if you are buying the PPV. so 2-for-3.

'Cause it was just that man. Definately the absolute worst LMS match I've ever seen. I get that it's free TV and that now-a-days the WWE almost never tries to give away great matches on free TV like they used to, but that match was just an insult to all the people who were excitedly tuning in to see it. Some of the sloppiest spots I have ever seen, they looked like neither had wrestled in months. I can understand some of Triple H's rust, but that match was awful. There was not one moment where I was even slightly entertained. The "hardcore" moments were only hardcore if you're an eight year old who's never seen a hardcore match before. And what was the point of bringing out the ladder if they're barely going to use it? Did you see that atrocious "hit" they used the ladder for? He hit him with a quarter of a bottom rung! What the hell was the point of that?!

Uber-lame. If that's a sign of what to expect from these two, then I'll be avoiding their matches from now on. We've seen them fight 10,000 times already anyways.

The Trump-McMahon angle did one thing. IT PISSED ME OFF! How in the hell are you going to end the feud that quickly? I was expecting Battle of the Billionaires part two.(Loved the first one tbh.) And yes, Trump's every move does scream "I'm a douchebag!" 3-for-4.

I'm sure that the angle isn't over yet, I read somewhere that he's going to be on RAW again next week. Expect to see more of Trump.

 

[tyler1995blue]

'Cause it was just that man. Definately the absolute worst LMS match I've ever seen. I get that it's free TV and that now-a-days the WWE almost never tries to give away great matches on free TV like they used to, but that match was just an insult to all the people who were excitedly tuning in to see it. Some of the sloppiest spots I have ever seen, they looked like neither had wrestled in months. I can understand some of Triple H's rust, but that match was awful. There was not one moment where I was even slightly entertained. The "hardcore" moments were only hardcore if you're an eight year old who's never seen a hardcore match before. And what was the point of bringing out the ladder if they're barely going to use it? Did you see that atrocious "hit" they used the ladder for? He hit him with a quarter of a bottom rung! What the hell was the point of that?!

Uber-lame. If that's a sign of what to expect from these two, then I'll be avoiding their matches from now on. We've seen them fight 10,000 times already anyways.



I'm sure that the angle isn't over yet, I read somewhere that he's going to be on RAW again next week. Expect to see more of Trump.

OK, I agree, WWE needs to start showing matches that are great for free. Just because you cannot buy the PPV does not mean that all they ever see are 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, and the occasional 3 v 3. It is quite upsetting, I mean hell, I got my new Hell in a Cell DVD recently, and there were two matches on there off of RAW! where did that go? And, I recorded RAW like I do every week, and rewatched it. I agree, the "Hardcore" moments were not that. So, I apologize.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

I thought it was fair enough. No commercials was pretty sweet. The spot with Mcmahon and the limo driver was pretty funny I thought. The LMS match was bland, but I mean shit, it was a last man standing match. I dont think ive ever seen one that was particularly entertaining. Edge Vs Cena was pretty sweet, but other than that..yea no. ESPECIALLY out of Orton and HHH, I didnt really expect much else.

Fucking LOVED the Cena-Miz promo, the six man was fun, the diva match also wasnt an absolute atroctiy. All in all, I found it to be pretty solid, and build things wel for TEH BASSH!!!11!!!

B

 

[gd]

Not review after a pretty good show yesterday?

Batista as GM was somewhat interesting. Even though he's still atrocious on the mic the first segment was somewhat entertaining.

HHH vs. MVP pretty much sucked. Not because HHH didn't put MVP over, but because MVP is horrible as a face and should turn heel immeadiately. HHH should've went over but this match was not entertaining at all, but that was to be expected.

The tag match was great. Fans were really into it and I actually thought Carlito and Primo would win a couple of times. I really like Edge and Jericho with the belts as it should bring some interest to the belts.

Cena/Miz was a really good match. Nothing spectacular but solid. I'm glad they gave it time and I really like the way they're going with the Miz, who is actually interesting to watch unlike MVP.

Average Diva's match, nothing spectacular. Maryse and Michael Cole arguing was annoying at best, I can't stand to hear her talk. I'm glad Mickie won, she's by far my favorite Diva.

Kofi vs. Big Show was alright. They didn't squash Kofi but still made Big Show look strong with a fluke countout. Not sure if this is leading somewhere but it could be interesting.

The gauntlet match fucking owned! I genuinely had no idea who the 3 guys would be and was on the edge of my seat going into the match. Bourne was decent, can't expect much more from him. He gave Orton a semi beating until Orton hit a sick RKO of the top rope on him.

When Swagger came out next I completely marked out. He is the future face of the company and my favorite wrestler right now. Him joining forces is interesting and I'm happy they did that insted of him losing to Orton there.

Mark Henry was freaking awesome at the end. He's been really underrated recently and him kickig Orton's ass was really fun to watch. The crowd loved and Henry could actually be a successful face now.

Overall, I liked Raw this week. 3 really good matches and the future looks intersting with Ted Dibiase as GM next week.

B+