RAW Superthread

My initial reaction was that it was utter nonsense. And it still is but I do have to say at least I'm interested in some way. If only to see WTF they do next.

Not that long ago Mick Foley was talking about how Raw would have a grittier 3rd hour presented in a new way with attitude.
Did that even last a week? This feels like a recooked version of that idea.

Well, thanks to the buzz around Raw yesterday evening I thought id watch Raw this morning. Id hopefully either be happily surprised or SMH in disappointment.

The positives – Drew and Randy was good, as was Ruby/Liv and the Iconics. Apollo vs MVP was fine, considering MVP is well WELL past it.

I don’t mind Sasha / Bayley vs Shayna/ Asuka. Again its not great story telling, but as a feud its fine.

The negatives – As with modern day Raw (or Raw for the past 10 years depending on who you ask), Raw has waaay to many negatives to really keep you tuned in for 3 hours on a weekly basis.

Firstly all the positives above suffer from the lack of real crowd. It still sucks. But that’s not WWE’s fault.

What is WWE’s fault is everything else.

Last night I had a choice to sit up and watch the hype of Raw or go to bed. As I have been burned every time I watch Raw live in the last 5 years at least, I chose to catch up this morning. I had no faith in WWE actually delivering anything good.

The new faction was neutered by announcing it before hand, then acting like they had no clue on commentary. And what did this faction do? Hurl a petrol bomb at a generator. And what did it accomplish? Nothing. It’s a half baked plan at best.

Now when the ratings are down, send in the McMahons…… Shane has to be the most off the wall when it comes to creative ideas and it’s no surprise that he’s not been near creative much over the years compared to his Sis. This idea is the worst of both worlds, it is so awful. From the cheesy music, to the cringe dancers, it’s about 20 years too late. For all the flack Brawl 4 All gets, Id rather that in a heartbeat as it was at least interesting. Ive no desire to watch Raw Underground ever. Shane comes off as respectable as that guy behind the girls gone wild videos. Its utter bollocks.

And what do they use it for, they try get over a big young star and a group of past their prime wrestlers.

This booking is exactly what WWE mocked WCW over years ago, booking on the fly with half baked ideas. Welcome to WCW.

The rest is just as bad. I don’t acre for Dominic Mysterio and I never will at this rate. How is he beating up 2 pro wrestlers. It’s a mess. I don’t wanna cheer for him, it makes Rollins look like a chump.

Fords poisoning was awful too. Just garbage.

Nia Jax is just the worst, get her gone for real please.

WWE need to be gutted creatively before its too late. So much is salvageable, but its not looking good. They cant bring in new viewers, they drive away viewers like me with awful, awful booking.

NXT and AEW aren’t perfect, but its so much better than WWE’s flagship shows.

People can talk about new things and fresh ideas, and I really am glad they enjoyed it, but it is not for me. Fresh ideas aren’t always good ideas, in particular the new ideas in this case seem to be bad idea’s that they use out of desperation.

Chris Jericho cut a promo in 1999, on his debut with WWE about how things were so bad that mediocrity was viewed as excellence. I feel that folk who enjoyed that are so starved for something new, anything, that they will enjoy mediocrity over the drizzling ****s.

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Can Joe tag with or take Dominic's spot against Seth at SS, is he cleared to wrestle?

I doubt it, hes clearly concussed as he loved Raw Underground.

:pac:

It's not even like it's some shiny new idea, Josh Barnett carried out the concept about fifty times better at the Bloodsport events.

RollieFingers wrote: »

It's not even like it's some shiny new idea, Josh Barnett carried out the concept about fifty times better at the Bloodsport events.

But this has Shane McMahon attached. McMahon's make everything better times 10.

And it also has cringe dancers, who look like they are being forced to dance at gun point.

I agree wholeheartedly with people saying they have been burned, I was the one who said it. They have to start somewhere. Hopefully this is it. It is something new and they had a thread going through the show for the first time in ages with the rioters at the end. This is what we want.

Now of course it may go nowhere but this is what we want in a show. A few storylines threaded through the show. Someone said NXT was better than Raw but to me it is just match after match. No storylines. That wont draw in people. The wrestling matches are nearly always fun in WWE but its the storylines that make people and stars.

I get the impression people will just critisise everything WWE do. We wanted new things happening and a few surprises. We got them. They were not earth shattering but thats the idea that we want going forward.

They have a long ways to go but its a start. They have to keep it going though which is the hard part. This is why everyone gets annoyed as we have been burned!

Just look at the posts here. A lot of them today. Thats a good thing which shows they have somewhat improved things. We have to see how it goes though before we can say its actually getting better every week.

J. Marston wrote: »

Is Boards a mess for anyone else?

Yes

Agent Coulson wrote: »

What has Dominic done to justify getting the main event of Summerslam as his first professional match.

That p1sses on a lot of the talent who have broken themselves over the years to just to get to the show.


It's not like Rey is a huge draw anymore and they are doing this to keep him happy if that was the case they would just give him the contract he is looking for however the haven't done that.

Rey might not be a huge draw but Dominik might be. 1.1M views already tho top two were seth rollins segments

The White Wolf wrote: »

Would feel like a waste of Cole to put him from one group where he was the leader to another group where he's the lackey.

I like the idea of Orton having lackeys though, the revival were actually perfect for that.

Cole Orton ultimately feuding then could be good imho

Yous do know you just don’t have to watch wrestling if you hate it this much

I’ve stopped watching raw/smackdown completely and just skim nxt/aew it’s much better

I probably read this forum more than I’m watching stuff lately

So apart from the group blowing up the generator, we're the technical difficulties and poisoning planned? Maybe they were meant as teases with the faction debuting later.