RAW Superthread

PTH2009

PTH2009 wrote: »

This underground thing looks sleazy as feck

But....
........ I seem to like it........

What is this fresh hell?

J. Marston

Shane's midlife crisis.

hynesie08

Was he beaten up by a gang of marines outside a bar in syracuse???

PTH2009

The new stable going round setting fire to generators

Must be some weak security in the PC

Agent Coulson

The ROH and TNA cast offs closing RAW.

Joe is going kill you.

Now I can get behind this.

WWE proving it can make me embarrassed and excite me in equal measures in the space of minutes.

Good stuff

I'm so confused by this underground stuff. But I love it

PTH2009

The new stable is the hurt business (MVP, Lashley and Benjamin). At least its something for Benjamin

I'm guessing they paid guys to wreck the generator earlier in the show or was just the coked out underground audience members that done it ?

Agent Coulson

The RAW Underground set had a total Lucha Underground feel to it.

RollieFingers

Nothing screams underground fight club like the son of a billionaire holding shoot 'fights' in the same location as the weekly professional wrestling show is held in.

So stupid, if I wanted to see a real fight I'd watch MMA not whatever that was supposed to be on a pro-wrestling show. Between that and the other hokey BS like a group of masked men attacking generators, this was some grade A wrestlecrap.

The White Wolf

That Raw Underground is some embarrassing sh1t, where just like the Brawl for All it screams of being ashamed of professional wrestling. If that sh1t increases their ratings I'll eat my fcuking hat.

Agent Coulson

The ratings are the toilet let’s not write good storylines promoting our amazing let’s put a McMahon back front and centre as only the McMahons draw ratings.

LineOfBeauty

The real interesting things this week weren't a fight pit or a new faction but in the how they went about trying to drum up buzz before the show and then what they produced in order to fight the expected lowest rating in history.

There was no hook for this show until hours beforehand. WWE themselves tell us a new faction is debuting, OK but maybe a strange thing to do. Then certain websites report Shane is back tonight with a big idea, some websites have it that it's a Brawl 4 All type thing. WWE feed some mark journalists a few hours before the show to drum up interest.

Then there's the what. The WWE approach all Covid has been something unusual, to gain curiosity interest. All well and good but it's to pop short term numbers and the law of diminishing returns applies here because post Last Ride each attempt at these has created less and less buzz. Obviously they think what they've been producing each week prior to this would be slaughtered in the ratings. Here's the crux, they had no star to spotlight, instead it was Shane McMahon, no big match or angle that they could rely on to draw a number because nothing is hot, instead it's a car crash idea and hope people are interested enough to tune in this week, no long term plan, they're flying by on a week to week basis. All those attempted pushes of young guys at the start of the year? Gone pretty much entirely. The Pritchard approach is rely on the old reliable (in this case the McMahons) and get by with hot shot ideas each week to week. They desperately needed a number this week with increased interest in their declining demos from investors and TV Networks. People talk about Russo and WCW 2000 all the time but make no mistake, what's happening right now with WWE in 2020 is worse. Maybe the rating for last night's show will justify it, but long term there's issues here and there's only so many times you can cry wolf until the village people simply don't care anymore.

Pentecost

If I were the TV people I would be asking serious questions as to WTF that was and what the plan is. Raw Underground was complete nonsense without any purpose. Were Lashley and co the "new faction"?

I hope those dancers aren't wrestlers because that was demeaning as hell if they are.

Lord TSC

As I said last night, that was the first Raw I've watched in months.

I like the Fight Club idea, on paper. It made the trio look great, batting away people so easily. I'd imagine Shane's involvement was just to establish the club and it will become their baby now. Its something fresh and actually put over the three.

What I didn't like about it was the same thing I hated all through the show; the utter over-production. The "sleezy underground" still had the same awful camera cuts, replays and graphics. Even when they try and do something different, it still looks like a Kevin Dunn production.

The replays overall were crazy, not just in fight club but all over. I'm not sure if they've gotten worse or I was just used to them before. But there was 15 camera cuts between the bell ringing and the first lock up between MVP and Lashley. I get the cuts when it's to hide a move not connecting, but they cant let a camera shot hold for more than 1 second. It's nauseating.

Not sure how I feel about the whole "new stable" stuff either. Again, over-produced. You've advertised a new stable, and instead it's 15 seconds of 5 people in hoods throwing a petrol bomb, and apparently one of them standing beside a light switch flicking it on and off. How do they know this is a "new stable" and not some genuine looters? The commentators sold it as if it was so mundane. The scripting of the introduction was so "This is quite typical for us", so it didn't feel special. And why advertise a new stable when it's such a short clip that tells us so little. AND the fact they stressed it wasn't political makes it very clear that it is; that this is them doing some weird ANTIFA angle.

Love Joe though. When Seth was going after Phillips, you know Joe wasn't going to let it go. Even in such a short time, he just has such a genuine bad-ass vibe. You believe he could kill you, even though he's not actually backed it up with actions in forever.

J. Marston

Nia won't be around for a while. 10/10 Raw.

ricero

So much potential with this underground fight club.

Great innovation again from WWE.

The mystery vandals all points to the underground but I am hoping its the undisputed era.

Great Raw.

Loughc

PTH2009 wrote: »

The new stable is the hurt business (MVP, Lashley and Benjamin). At least its something for Benjamin

I'm guessing they paid guys to wreck the generator earlier in the show or was just the coked out underground audience members that done it ?

The Hurt Business (AWFUL Name) are so bland... the smell of mid-card off all 3 won't go away...

Let's break down this stable....

Benjamin... great in the ring but so damn bland... remember when they hired an actress to play his Momma to get him over... christ.

MVP... looked completely out of shape in his match and can no longer go in the ring, deffo suited as a manager can talk on the mic but thats it.

And Booby (typo intended) Lashley... is as bland as his eyebrow less expressions....

I honestly couldn't care less about the 3 of them...


And then the RAW Underground.... LOL, you did it again Vince, this will make another fantastic chapter on the rise and fall of the WWE.

The rate these lads are spiraling is something else... remember the last ratings crisis when all 4 McMahons showed up and promised us they're listening to the fans and will make big changes and give us the match ups we want to see.... that did last.

Or when RAW's 3rd hour was going dark, different theme, etc, introduced by Foley.... another week...

The underground is the same cheap gimmick they'll use to get people to tune in for a second watch it and go... MEH.

At this stage lets hope either USA or FOX have the balls to pull the plug on Raw/Smackdown and just pull it from the schedule....

Loughc

J. Marston wrote: »

Nia won't be around for a while. 10/10 Raw.

She's deffo behind the new faction... that's why they're rioting... it's the Free Nia movement.

Furious-Red

Loughc wrote: »

The Hurt Business (AWFUL Name) are so bland... the smell of mid-card off all 3 won't go away...

Let's break down this stable....

Benjamin... great in the ring but so damn bland... remember when they hired an actress to play his Momma to get him over... christ.

MVP... looked completely out of shape in his match and can no longer go in the ring, deffo suited as a manager can talk on the mic but thats it.

And Booby (typo intended) Lashley... is as bland as his eyebrow less expressions....

I honestly couldn't care less about the 3 of them...


And then the RAW Underground.... LOL, you did it again Vince, this will make another fantastic chapter on the rise and fall of the WWE.

The rate these lads are spiraling is something else... remember the last ratings crisis when all 4 McMahons showed up and promised us they're listening to the fans and will make big changes and give us the match ups we want to see.... that did last.

Or when RAW's 3rd hour was going dark, different theme, etc, introduced by Foley.... another week...

The underground is the same cheap gimmick they'll use to get people to tune in for a second watch it and go... MEH.

At this stage lets hope either USA or FOX have the balls to pull the plug on Raw/Smackdown and just pull it from the schedule....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgXLC0Opzr0

ShaneU

Wow can't believe this is real, what the hell are they thinking. A fake fight club? It's like something out of a parody. If they weren't constantly ruining their biggest stars on a regular basis with their terrible booking and story-lines they wouldn't be in this mess. They've buried Ricochet, ruined the Fiend, gave Rollins a terrible gimmick he didn't need, just a few examples of guys who should be much bigger stars that they keep holding back. Maybe focus on building stars and feuds that people care about instead of desperate stuff like this.

ThePott

That was the absolute drizzles.

So the faction seem to be a bunch of rioters, great time to debut that WWE. For all their efforts they managed to dim the lights for a couple of seconds. Half wondering if this is going to be people that were fired during the Pandemic. Meanwhile Charly Caruso is investigating a box hitting the floor filled with nebulous equipment. Fascinating stuff.

I have no idea how people enjoyed Raw Underground. I honestly think it was more overproduced than the actual show and I'm not one to complain about camera cuts or production side of things cause it sounds nitpicky and is an easy complaint but to present your grittier, underground show. You had more camera cuts than ever before, great production value and lighting. If you want this to have some realism, strip it down to basics. People are used to seeing fights on the internet now, make it look less polished. I'm not even joking, these segments gave me a headache to look at. There was one point where they cut to the dancers for about a second. It also had the worst stock music I've ever heard. I won't even comment on the 'fighting', again in the age of UFC this needs to look more believable. It just came off as try-hard cringe to me. They need to strip it back, less is more at times and if this is to succeed then it needs a production overhaul. I don't get it at all.

Am I crazy or did Nia only come back like a week ago and now they're writing her off again? Zelina poisoned Montez, right then. Joe getting up from commentary was good but that was only cause Seth want after Tom, it didn't have anything to do with Dominic or anything, right? So why is he going to get involved beyond that unless Seth goes after him?

Sorry for the rant, this was one of those shows that made me question why I watch wrestling, awful, still have a headache tbh.

JP Liz V1

So no new faction?

JP Liz V1

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

So no new faction?

At the end. Rioters. Yet to be revealed who they are.

The White Wolf

That was a very good promo from Ruby. Could of easily fallen into cringe territory but she did great.

Lord TSC

The first Underground segment lasted 2:45.

It had 76 camera cuts. That's a camera cut every 2.2 seconds.

The White Feather

First Raw that I enjoyed in a few weeks. At least new things are happening.

MVP has been very good on the mic lately and just what Lashley and Benjamin need. I like the name The Hurt Business.

I liked the Raw Underground as it was new and fun. The only problem is what now? Where does it go from here? Introduce an Underground title?

Raw actually held my attention as there was a good bit going on. The production issues actually led somewhere. Hopefully they are introducing a storyline with the rioters. At least it meant something. Have to see where it goes but the problem is that we have been burnt so many times, we are all cynical now. Is it related to the hacker? Where did he go? Thats the problem with WWE. They need to keep going with things.

Make this Underground mean something. Get dancers even more raunchy or something. I worry it goes nowhere but they at least got my attention with it. The only downside was the camera shaking up and down. I liked the "real fighting" aspect of it though.

The main thing is there was something to talk about. People ranting about it want new things but then when WWE do a new thing its slated. At least give it a few weeks to see what happens. I know we have all been burned but at least there seems to be people posting about what happened on Raw today. Its a whole lot better than nothing at all happening.

CastorTroy

Not even sure how matches work in Underground. Seems Shane just stops the match when he wants.

Speaking of stopping matches, anyone figure out why the Sasha/Shayna match was stopped?

I'm assuming the rioters also poisoned Montez.

Agent Coulson

Bitter sacked talent

https://twitter.com/ToBeMiro/status/1290385907858542592?s=20

CastorTroy

Was it me or did Ruby's skin look yellowish?