Raw 11/01/2016 *Spoilers*

Mr.Nice Guy

Interest really must be low with no one starting a thread. :pac:

So, Brock Lesnar is back. And he will be likely bringing Paul Heyman with him so you may see a rare quality promo. My guess is he will reveal himself as being in the Rumble (Brock that is, not Paul; although with the talent they have left fit these days...).

Also we have an inductee announced for the Hall of Fame:

Sting is going in

Like Kalisto? He looks like he is getting a push (until two weeks from now where they forget about it and job him out to Owens in a squash match).

So...will you be watching?

J. Marston

Steph and Vince to start us off. Bold move.

johnnysmack

Ah no don't give reigns a microphone

den87

Stuff like this makes me feel like I'm done watching WWE wrestling.

Mr.Nice Guy

Looks like a huge chunk of the roster will be used to put over Reigns.

I don't have a huge problem with using guys going nowhere to put over an up-and-comer, but I don't see how it makes sense to do this involving guys who will be in the Rumble match. If you job them out you are effectively saying to fans that most of the Rumble is filled by geek no-hopers.

Stereomaniac

Is Sheamus going to transition into the Intercontinental Championship picture for a while now?

brianregan09

BLOOD !!! on raw what the

ricero

brianregan09 wrote: »

BLOOD !!! on raw what the

I know when was the last time that happened ? Was enjoying that match seamus and ambrose worked a great stiff match

Stereomaniac

There's been blood a few times with Brock Lesnar over the last couple of years in similar ways.

johnnysmack

So winner of the rumble to face lesnar in main event of WrestleMania is what I took from that little interaction.

Professional Griefer

Holy **** Kalisto!!

Professional Griefer

Reigns going over the lot of them?

PucaMama

Professional Griefer wrote: »

Reigns going over the lot of them?

Owens is all.

martyos121

If Vince is at ringside, who's shouting in Cole's ear? :pac:

PucaMama

Great pop for Brock.

martyos121

Reigns smiling like a gobshîte again after taking a beating, not doing himself any favours.

Ageyev

Not a particularly good Raw. Kalisto Del Rio was quite good. Doesn't seem like a good move burying Lesnar in amongst the Rumble match unless he's winning it. Setting up a feud for Mania with the storyline "wah wah wah, you threw me over the top rope" is a bit lame duck.

Rock Lesnar

So after that, it ''looks'' like we have our final 2 in the rumble

SlickRic

Abysmal.

Just fúcking abysmal.

Vince is basically incoherent at this point. While he's a bonus when he's on once every so often, he shouldn't be on TV consistently anymore.

Steph is pure 'turn the channel' heat. And it's not because the character isn't a good character. It is. It's just that I can't handle the emasculating nonsense anymore. I can't handle her being the biggest star in the company. I can't handle the fact she never gets her comeuppance. She could emasculate, shriek, slap all she likes if I thought she'd end up looking stupid in the end. But she never does. So why should I care?

Her intimidation of Heyman just annoyed me.

The booking of the main event was pointless up until Brock. 10 minutes of Owens beating up Reigns? In a 'One Against All'? It sucked all the life out of it. Why not just do what they did when Cena and Orton faced the roster and it worked so well all those years ago? Have Reigns pile through 10 jobbers (getting the crowd excited), the rest of the roster then pile on Roman, then have Brock come out? Instead you kill the crowd first with a pointless 10 minute one on one, thus affecting the reaction to Brock (which was still decent).

They have no idea what they're doing. None. Absolutely none.

A Primal Nut

I didn't watch the show but read a report. So it looks like a given Reigns and Brock rematch will headline WrestleMania with Brock winning the Rumble. Basically they've gone for the most boring option for both guys. There are so many other guys I'd prefer to see Brock fight, and I'd actually rather Reigns fight Triple H, which has a good storyline behind it than Lesnar.

sky88

A Primal Nut wrote: »

I didn't watch the show but read a report. So it looks like a given Reigns and Brock rematch will headline WrestleMania with Brock winning the Rumble. Basically they've gone for the most boring option for both guys. There are so many other guys I'd prefer to see Brock fight, and I'd actually rather Reigns fight Triple H, which has a good storyline behind it than Lesnar.

i think after last night theyll go for reigns in 2 matches just like bryan. has to beat hhh to get in a title match with brock. i would rather reigns vs hhh keep him away from the title let brock wrestle someone else.

Angron

Good for Kalisto, though I hate matches being won with roll ups, and a fecking title match no less.

Brock should win the Rumble, yet I'm still not particularly enthused by the match. WWE.com said Sheamus got a few licks in on Lesnar, so it could even happen that Brock loses and he'll feud with Sheamus or something. While that has the potential to be entertaining, seeing the two of them knock lumps out of each other, I don't want Reigns to be champ ;-;

Lord TSC

I wouldn't be too tied to it being "obvious" who is winning the Rumble yet. Things can change quickly, and it could be a case that Brock and Reigns are red herrings.

Personally, I don't see Reigns walking out as champ at all; HHH will return and cost him the title. How that happens and when in the match are not as obvious, but it will happen imo.

As for Brock, while he looked like the favorite tonight, they could easily have someone eliminate him as a surprise feud set up. Imagine if Brock is clearing house and then Rock shows up, the two eliminate each other, and you've got Brock vs Rock for the title.

Even if they go the obvious route of Brock winning, you can't say he's not the most credible and over guy they have going into the biggest show of the year. A Brock win wouldn't be **** on like the last two results.

As for the show, had ok moments, had some dull moments, but nothing I outright hated. Kalisto winning was great; near the end, I found myself thinking "Even when he loses, he's looked incredible in this, and a loss won't hurt him". But to win on Raw was a great moment, and he's showing a lot of signs that he could be a big star in a Rey Mysterio role.

I'll never not be pleased to see Becky Lynch getting to feud with Ric Flair in 2016. I'd imagine it must be fun for her too, and I think its a testament to her that she's getting people to boo Flair, someone I would have thought had reached the point where he'd be cheered no matter what.

Wyatt's role on this show was so weird; appears at ringside in the opening segment for no reason, a no contest with JOB Squad 2016, in the One vs All match, but seemingly never participates and outright vanishes once the final beatdown/Lesnar appearance starts.

But I didn't hate the show. It set up feuds going forward, if a little heavy-handedly.

Angron

Yeah, I was kinda thinking WWE might swerve, which is why the website mentioning Sheamus got a few licks in might be a subtle lead to a Sheamus-Brock feud (subtle by WWE's standards anyway).

I really like Kalisto, so I do hope he has a good reign as champ, I'd rather he be the WWE's Latin American star than Del Rio, who I still find to be insufferably dull.

I really hope the Becky feud leads to her winning the title (though she probably won't at Wrestlemania, I only remember one match for the title there, and it was that multi-Diva match two years ago). She never got the chance to win the nXt title because of the call up, but she deserves to win the main roster belt at some point.

sky88

Angron wrote: »

Yeah, I was kinda thinking WWE might swerve, which is why the website mentioning Sheamus got a few licks in might be a subtle lead to a Sheamus-Brock feud (subtle by WWE's standards anyway).

I really like Kalisto, so I do hope he has a good reign as champ, I'd rather he be the WWE's Latin American star than Del Rio, who I still find to be insufferably dull.

I really hope the Becky feud leads to her winning the title (though she probably won't at Wrestlemania, I only remember one match for the title there, and it was that multi-Diva match two years ago). She never got the chance to win the nXt title because of the call up, but she deserves to win the main roster belt at some point.

The crowd seemed to be really behind becky as well i thought which was great to see

Stereomaniac

I think they should just put the championship on her at Royal Rumble, make Charlotte tap out.

brianregan09

Did anyone else cringe like hell when Kalisto mentioned Eddie Guerrero felt like it was a reach for a cheap pop and its not like we've not seen other small masked people ride eddie's coat tails before....Was pretty happy with him beating Del Rio though

Bounty Hunter

Angron wrote: »

Yeah, I was kinda thinking WWE might swerve, which is why the website mentioning Sheamus got a few licks in might be a subtle lead to a Sheamus-Brock feud (subtle by WWE's standards anyway).

Maybe that'll happen at fast lane, I believe Brock is advertised for that PPV this year.

Still think it'll be HHH vs Reigns at mania and despite the lack of big names atm doubt they would go the Bryan (2 matches at mania) route for Reigns just yet as it'd potentially mean the fans (Mania attracts smarks) could sh!t on two mania matches. Even Reigns vs Brock would be ok if they didn't have another Reigns match on the card cos him doing double duty would just make it seem like they are ramming him down our throats and even if they are doing so they really need to stop highlighting it.

I'm expecting a Lesnar Rumble win and have been since the get go (especially since Cenas injury) but would love a surprise 3rd option like Owens but don't expect that.

dont expect this: Wildcard could be HHH eliminates Reigns, someone else lets say Sheamus eliminates Brock (2 mania feuds started) and then Taker makes a surprise entrance and wins the title for a last run before a retirement / title match.

That said if there isn't talk of a retirement byt the Raw or two after the rumble I'll start to think we are getting more years of Taker returns

riffmongous

I hope Brock doesn't win the title at least, I thought having the champ absent for almost all of the wrestlemania build up last year took a lot out of it.

A Rogue Hobo

This was definitely the type of Raw you could just see the highlights of on YouTube the next day. Brock and Kalisto were really the only things worth watching. The dead crowd didn't help either. Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come over the next few months.

Lithium93_

I watched it this morning after Sky+ it, and boy it was brutal to watch, skipped through most of it, bar Y2J/New Day Segment, Becky attacking Charlotte, Kalisto beating Del Rio for the U.S Championship, Brock showing up towards the end.. Starting to get annoying now seeing Vince on tv, and god damn it, will someone ever give Stephanie the comeuppance she bloody deserves..

CastorTroy

Good to see Kalisto win. Prefer him over Del Rio.

Also happy to see the Social Outcasts being made to look pretty good, relatively speaking. They confront the Wyatts and come away from it okay, though with help from Ryback.

I take pity on whoever eliminates Lesnar from the Rumble. If anything I hope it's a double elimination of Lesnar and Reigns to have that feud, if they want it, separate from the title. Though a feud with Lesnar guarantees Reigns being booed, I think.

I was saying to my brother today how Becky is the only face diva at the moment, since Nattie is rarely there. But the fact she stated how she's alone could lead to either a Paige turn (again) or a Bayley debut.

At least Owens didn't get pinned in that main event, though you'd think the others would act as lumberjacks.

As to Steph's comeuppance, I think since she claimed responsibility for the Divas division, they need her involved in those storylines and make her the authority figure there where they can hit back.

Lithium93_

I found the One against All to be poorly done..

Agent Coulson

It really wasn't a One vs All.

Lithium93_

Agent Coulson wrote: »

It really wasn't a One vs All.

Damn it, left out the rest of what I meant to say :pac:

CastorTroy

So are we meant to have forgotten about the League of Nations by now?

Angron

CastorTroy wrote: »

So are we meant to have forgotten about the League of Nations by now?

Who?

:pac:

Loughc

CastorTroy wrote: »

So are we meant to have forgotten about the League of Nations by now?

If it Happened more than two weeks ago. It never happened.

JP Liz V1

Is Lesnar in the rumble?

Rock Lesnar

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Is Lesnar in the rumble?

Yes

Mr.Nice Guy

Brock was the best thing on the show and I loved watching him throw guys around. It was scary but brilliant. He really is one of the very few guys around who can keep you on the edge of your seat whenever he appears.

Mick Murdock

The fact that he appears so rarely is a positive for me. His appearances are must see every time. Before he's finished he'll be one of the best of all time.

Stereomaniac

He certainly makes his appearances count every time he's on, leaves you clamouring for more.

DM_7

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Brock was the best thing on the show and I loved watching him throw guys around. It was scary but brilliant. He really is one of the very few guys around who can keep you on the edge of your seat whenever he appears.

Bizarrely the things he does are predictable, yet he seems unpredictable.

Mick Murdock

He has a presence that so few guys in history have had. I don't think WCW Goldberg would be anywhere near as effective in 2015.

Also a very underrated promo. There's no questioning Heymans contribution but Brock could work well without him too.

Stereomaniac

He's nowhere near as compelling without Paul Heyman doing his talking for him, in my opinion. Having said that, I doubt he'd suddenly become less over if he came without him suddenly.

Lithium93_

You can't have Lesnar without Heyman, it's like peanut butter without jelly, wouldn't be the same, they compliment each other so well.

Mick Murdock

I think everything has a shelf life and Heyman could work with well with a younger guy (Not Reigns).

That said its not played out yet.

A Rogue Hobo

Stereomaniac wrote:

He's nowhere near as compelling without Paul Heyman doing his talking for him, in my opinion. Having said that, I doubt he'd suddenly become less over if he came without him suddenly.

Excellent point! Remember the weeks after when Lesnar came back and started the feud with Cena and they had a contract signing and he was really exposed on the Mic. What he was saying just didn't match up with his actions in the ring. Heyman really adds a different element to his character.