Raw 01/02/2016 *Spoilers*

JP Liz V1

Lesnar and Heyman are in Birmingham, Alabama tonight for Raw

Also was it mentioned already why Reigns isn't allowed a one on one title rematch?

Professional Griefer

He is getting it, at Wrestlemania!

Stereomaniac

It would have made more sense to just announce the rematch for WrestleMania straight away!

johnnyryan89

Bray Wyatt, Bo Dallas and their father, WWE producer Mike "IRS" Rotunda have left tonight's WWE RAW in Birmingham, Alabama to be with their grandfather, WWE Hall of Famer Robert "Blackjack Mulligan" Windham in Florida, according to PWInsider. Dallas and Wyatt will not be appearing on RAW tonight unless it's pre-recorded material.

Mulligan has been hospitalized in Florida and his condition is serious enough that the family left RAW to be with him. He was hospitalized in 2015 after suffering a heart attack, and has been dealing with health issues for years

ricero

Would really like to see hhh v reigns v ambrose at mania instead of reigns v hhh

riffmongous

This is awful dialogue

Professional Griefer

Did she say grammy winning? :pac:

ricero

Have to admit i enjoy heel charlotte

J. Marston

riffmongous wrote: »

This is awful dialogue

It was weird. Seemed like it was awkwardly improv-ed or something.

johnnysmack

God I hate the usos

ricero

The miz is class

BMMachine

BREE NEEDED THAT WIN SHES SO GOOD AT THE WRESTLING

J. Marston

Brie in the title picture now? Weird.

Stereomaniac

Yeah, I guess so. Maybe they're holding off on the match with Sasha Banks until WrestleMania.

martyos121

Owens loses clean to Ziggler? Wtf.

Stereomaniac

Wasn't it Dolph Ziggler's turn to win this week? "An exciting rematch.....from last week's Raw."

Professional Griefer

It was his turn alright, Owens beat him all 8 previous times.

Stereomaniac

I'm not losing faith in WWE's handling of Kevin Owens just yet. He's still making Raw each week.

CSF

The opening segment today compared to the recent ****e showed just what we could have had if WWE had picked the right member of the Shield to be the pushed face to Rollins' heel.

Miz was excellent on the mic as per usual. Just for once, I would like if the WWE could even attempt to disguise their plans for future matches and not have Lesnar cut promos about the Wyatts while he's in an upcoming PPV match against Reigns and Ambrose.

To be honest, I think having a PPV between the Rumble and Mania is counterproductive as it kills the momentum of most feuds with them having to find alternative short-term stepping stone feuds in the interim for Fastlane.

Stereomaniac

I think that the February pay per view should feature the main event wrestlers for WrestleMania taking part in a tag team match against each other. For example this year I would have had Roman Reigns & The Usos vs. DeGeneration X. Then there might not be any harm in having the Intercontinental Championship in the main event to make it feel like something is on the line and important about the event. If Brock Lesnar wasn't on about The Wyatt Family people would probably be giving out that they didn't follow through.

Bounty Hunter

Poor Raw. It's the 2nd Raw after the Rumble and yet if I missed it and just watched the following week I don't think it'd have made even the slightest difference.

Road to wrestlemania me arse!

Bounty Hunter

Poor Raw. It's the 2nd Raw after the Rumble and yet if I missed it and just watched the following week I don't think it'd have made even the slightest difference.

Road to wrestlemania me arse!

Lord TSC

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

Poor Raw. It's the 2nd Raw after the Rumble and yet if I missed it and just watched the following week I don't think it'd have made even the slightest difference.

Road to wrestlemania me arse!

Its by-and-large how they book shows now on their monthly schedule.

Week one: Establish the matches for the next PPV.
Weeks 2 & 3: Have the people trade wins, be they in matches, brawls, promos, etc, but in a missable way that doesn't actually advance any stories.
Week 4: Usually, whoever is losing at the PPV gets some sort of moral victory, but basically recap week 1.

For the most part, you could watch week one and then nothing else to the PPV; there's never any twists or turns, rarely any development in plot or character. Just wheels spinning till the PPV match. Nothing of note ever happens in the weeks in between.

Worse, no characters ever develop. Ever. Reigns is your top guy, but he's not had any character development since this time last year. Sure, he's won the title. Twice. And was screwed out of it. Twice. But this week, he's shrugging it off like its' no big deal, so I guess as fans of the show, we should accept it wasn't anything major.

The only stories of note this week that actually progressed were Brie vs Charlotte and Becky/Sasha vs Team BAD. And thats more a case of those two PPV matches were probably only thought of this week in a bid to delay the Charlotte vs Sasha vs Becky build to their Mania match. They'll be back spinning wheels next week.

Stereomaniac

Do you actually think they'll do a triple threat match for the Diva's Championship at WrestleMania? I'd love to see Becky get into the match but I have a feeling it's going to be just Sasha vs. Charlotte. I really hope I'm wrong though. My interest level was really fleeting last night. I was actually looking at other stuff with Raw on in the background for the most part, which usually isn't something I do. I liked Rusev vs. Kalisto last night. The only problem was that that was over within the first hour so everything seemed lesser than. I think they should really have Triple H appearing live on every show between now and WrestleMania, honestly. This absent champion thing isn't just a problem with Brock Lesnar it seems. Still there were a few positives last night, Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar were good together at the start and Titus O'Neil managed to win a match against someone other than Cody Rhodes on an episode of Raw. The Wyatt Family and The Big Show managed fairly well without Bray being there too.

Bounty Hunter

yep that about sums it up but I guess I foolishly hoped "The Road to Wrestlemania"TM would be a little bit different. In years gone by we would have had Undertakers return this week or The Rumble winner announcing which title he would go for (obviously thats dated but you get what I mean). It really is just the meh build to fastlane with the Wrestlemania sign looming in the background reminding everyone this PPV is a filler PPV... before we move into the fastlane of the road to wrestlemania ugh

dont mind those womens matches at the PPV though as it would ensure that Becky should get her Mania match as the face in the face, heel, tweener - Becky, Charlotte, Sasha match

Stereomaniac

I certainly hope that ends up being the case because Becky deserves to be in the title match on the biggest show of the year. She's helped carry a good few matches for the other women. At one stage during the Royal Rumble match Charlotte just looked totally lost. I don't think The Undertaker has come back on this side of the February pay per view in about 4 years. I'm open to correction on that. Last year he didn't even come back before WrestleMania at all. The whole build to the event was carried by Bray Wyatt's promos.

Lord TSC

Stereomaniac wrote: »

Do you actually think they'll do a triple threat match for the Diva's Championship at WrestleMania? I'd love to see Becky get into the match but I have a feeling it's going to be just Sasha vs. Charlotte.

The booking, imo, is for a triple threat. More specifically the last two Raws than the Rumble.

Charlotte attacked BOTH women last week, not just Sasha. If they were doing a 1 vs 1, the obvious direction to take would have been to build to a match between Sasha and Becky at Fastlane, with the same gimmick as the main event (winner gets a title shot). But given the direction now looks to be teaming Sasha and Becky up, I'd imagine the plan is for Becky and Sasha to go over Team Bad, and then probably have Sasha and Becky go towards Charlotte. A tag match, as teased this week, is cause you want BOTH women to look strong going into Mania.

Its also the very obvious way to "prove the women's movement was a success"; have all three be the main women's match for Mania, since all three came up together, a fact they've been pushing very hard the last two weeks.

sky88

Lord TSC wrote: »

The booking, imo, is for a triple threat. More specifically the last two Raws than the Rumble.

Charlotte attacked BOTH women last week, not just Sasha. If they were doing a 1 vs 1, the obvious direction to take would have been to build to a match between Sasha and Becky at Fastlane, with the same gimmick as the main event (winner gets a title shot). But given the direction now looks to be teaming Sasha and Becky up, I'd imagine the plan is for Becky and Sasha to go over Team Bad, and then probably have Sasha and Becky go towards Charlotte. A tag match, as teased this week, is cause you want BOTH women to look strong going into Mania.

Its also the very obvious way to "prove the women's movement was a success"; have all three be the main women's match for Mania, since all three came up together, a fact they've been pushing very hard the last two weeks.

i think its going to be a fatal 4 way with the 3 and paige. theyll have to get in a total diva and paige makes the most sense

CastorTroy

I know Lillian messed up calling them Grammy winners, but did they really have to point it out?

I enjoyed Miz's segment, but I was trying to remember who was it he was trying to recruit before?

brianregan09

Loved Ambrose's interaction with Lesnar aswelll

aaaaaaaahhhhhh

Titus getting some TV time lately

CastorTroy

Because he's the greatest dad in the world or something

Stereomaniac

Lord TSC wrote: »

The booking, imo, is for a triple threat. More specifically the last two Raws than the Rumble.

Charlotte attacked BOTH women last week, not just Sasha. If they were doing a 1 vs 1, the obvious direction to take would have been to build to a match between Sasha and Becky at Fastlane, with the same gimmick as the main event (winner gets a title shot). But given the direction now looks to be teaming Sasha and Becky up, I'd imagine the plan is for Becky and Sasha to go over Team Bad, and then probably have Sasha and Becky go towards Charlotte. A tag match, as teased this week, is cause you want BOTH women to look strong going into Mania.

Its also the very obvious way to "prove the women's movement was a success"; have all three be the main women's match for Mania, since all three came up together, a fact they've been pushing very hard the last two weeks.

It turned into a success for me lately, the matches have been pretty good I think.

ERG89

Found it pretty funny how dead the crowd do be for Erik Rowan always get a kick out of it at my brothers expense.
He's a mat technician compared to Strowman tho. The worst developmental call up in a loooong time.

SureYWouldntYa

ERG89 wrote: »

Found it pretty funny how dead the crowd do be for Erik Rowan always get a kick out of it at my brothers expense.
He's a mat technician compared to Strowman tho. The worst developmental call up in a loooong time.

Was he ever on NXT? Can't remember him ever being on it since it was on the network

CastorTroy

Don't think he ever had a match. I only knew him as being a Rosebud

Bounty Hunter

He had non televised NXT matches but not many

johnnysmack

Strowmans wiki page said he was in nxt for a year or two. Beat chad gable is the only point of note of the few matches he had.