Monday Night Raw 28-4-14

Ape Lincoln · 29-04-2014 4:24am

Meltzer lied

He said we were getting Ric Flair and I don't know who that was. Awful promo on the post-game show where he says "to be the man, you gotta beat the man and that is Evolution"

Jester252 · 29-04-2014 4:26am

I hope Evolution isn't back just to be fed to the Shield. Nothing I love more than the classic power heel stable, suits and all.

Ape Lincoln · 29-04-2014 4:52am

Not a great show but strong opening segment with Cena/Wyatt. They teased a Cena heel turn and played up Bray's "brainwashing" of John Cena children fans.

Good Usos/Rybaxl match.

CodyDust are still breaking up.

Barrett/RVD wasn't great but setup an Extreme Rules three way with Swagger, Cesaro and Ziggler. Rob looks way out of his depth. ( Barrett went over)

Bryan/Kane piece was only okay, nothing you haven't seen before. Stephanie made a women's title match between Brie and Paige after Bryan cut a promo on Steph. Kane came through the ring canvas midmatch to attack Brie and Bryan smacked him with a wrench.

Reigns vs Orton turned into a schmoz. Flair had come out to put over The Shield and be a babyface but the post-Raw show had him side with Evolution. I assume it was pre-taped. Flair appeared drunk to some.

Overall a pretty poor 'go-home show'. They shilled the Network as a WWE version of Netflix pretty good and made mention of Dish and DirectTV not carrying Extreme Rules.

tl;dr skip everything but the Cena/Wyatt bit.

the groutch · 29-04-2014 8:42am

how to bury an entire feud in 90 seconds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl6hrtIV_dA

Lord TSC · 29-04-2014 10:44am

Meh.

The Cena/Bray feud revolves around the idea that Cena might turn heel, but there's more chance of Dixie Carter showing up and winning the Diva's title. The premise for the feud is ok, but the fact that it's Cena means there's no tension there really.

The Shield/Evolution feud feels like it would be great on paper, but between Flair's weird promo and then zero crowd reaction to the final brawl, it felt really lackluster. With a different crowd, it would have been a brilliant final segment.

Hornswoggle/Torrito in a WeeLC match excites me more than it should.

Brie's delivery of "Get out, you bitch" made the show. I do fear they are making Bryan come across a bit of a whiny git though. And why no titles for him?

Adding RVD into the Swagger/Cesaro feud/match is weird.

Overall an ok show, but nothing spectacular, and I can't imagine there was anything to convince you to buy Extreme Rules if you weren't already decided.

Omackeral · 29-04-2014 11:47am

An absolutely awful awful crowd. Had that Wyatt segment been in a better town, it would have been quite the spectacle with a participating crowd joining the kids. I'm sure of it. Still some great visuals. Cena's promo was great..... until he undid it an hour later.

Call of the night was defo "3MB wins!!! Barry Horowitz must be spinning in his grave... And he ain't even dead!"

Really dug the Uso's vs RybAxl match. Great old school tag match that built both teams and told a story.

Cody and Goldusts fall from grace has been shocking. Disappointed big time for them.

Deadlie · 29-04-2014 12:01pm

Can't help but feel they could've made the 'Cena Turning' angle a bit better had they not included the video of him being the nicest guy in the company by granting his 404th Make a Wish. It's nice to think about how interesting his turn would be, but it's never going to happen. Which, lets be honest is best for the business. Those kids' faces just lit up when they saw him - Things like that are invaluable to a company that big.

Flair was a shambles. What was the point of it at all? The whole thing just made everyone look bad.

rovert · 29-04-2014 12:06pm

Teamshadowclan wrote: »

Adding RVD into the Swagger/Cesaro feud/match is weird.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported the three way was a match for Extreme Rules in the last issue (last Thursday) for whatever that's worth.

He is still definitely a draw of some description:

But he has slowed down a lot since his last run last year. So it is a clunky Wrestler in a clunky match type.

Deadlie wrote: »

Flair was a shambles. What was the point of it at all? The whole thing just made everyone look bad.

And as Wade Keller pointed out he has lose his gravitas in terms of giving the "rub" to people. The last person he endorsed was The Miz who is a) The Miz and b) The Miz went on to have probably the worst year of his career.

Lord TSC · 29-04-2014 12:31pm

Deadlie wrote: »

Can't help but feel they could've made the 'Cena Turning' angle a bit better had they not included the video of him being the nicest guy in the company by granting his 404th Make a Wish. It's nice to think about how interesting his turn would be, but it's never going to happen. Which, lets be honest is best for the business. Those kids' faces just lit up when they saw him - Things like that are invaluable to a company that big.

Actually, I think that Make-a-wish story could have worked well in the context of the feud, showing how much Cena wants to be loved, showing how hard he works....and still people boo him. His turn would affect those kids most of all, so to ignore it would be a mistake.

rovert wrote: »

He is still definitely a draw of some description:

Ah here, that's hardly a stellar list he topped :P A quick scan shows he's the only one on the list who has appeared on WWE TV for years now, whereas the majority wouldn't even be known by a fair chunk of the WWE Universe. I'd fully expect him to top that list given he's the most pushed on WWE TV of them all.

rovert · 29-04-2014 12:45pm

Teamshadowclan wrote: »

Actually, I think that Make-a-wish story could have worked well in the context of the feud, showing how much Cena wants to be loved, showing how hard he works....and still people boo him. His turn would affect those kids most of all, so to ignore it would be a mistake.

Ah here, that's hardly a stellar list he topped :P A quick scan shows he's the only one on the list who has appeared on WWE TV for years now, whereas the majority wouldn't even be known by a fair chunk of the WWE Universe. I'd fully expect him to top that list given he's the most pushed on WWE TV of them all.

Fair point. The Legend House demographic at large:

Moneymaker · 29-04-2014 1:06pm

We were all wondering why Flair's role in Evolution had been downplayed so much.

I think we saw why last night.

That being said it was still cool seeing him endorse the Shield and shake their hands.

I half expected Dean to die of happiness given how he reacted to Jake :pac:

JohnMc1 · 29-04-2014 4:25pm

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

JBL: 'I saw Hornswoggle backstage eating mushrooms, hoping he would grow.'

Was he near RVD's gear by any chance?

Probably more of a Super Mario Bros joke [ala the Super Mushrooms make Mario and Luigi grow] than a pot joke.

Lord TSC · 29-04-2014 5:11pm

Oh. I realise now I forgot to cover the X Men segment. And while I won't quote the quote I want to, I'll post a picture of how I felt watching the segment.

Moneymaker · 29-04-2014 5:31pm

I loved that segment tbh, I know it was stupid and corny but Sandow is so good at it. I was entertained by it.

Incredible he kept a straight face through it all.

CSF · 29-04-2014 7:16pm

Shocked not to see massive amounts of positivity on here. I thought it was immensely entertaining and am immensely excited for Sunday.

Take a bow Raw.

Ape Lincoln · 29-04-2014 7:49pm

Review-A-Raw had me in stitches. Towards the end in the feedback section Wai inputs the text into his phone which then reads it back. Funnier than it sounds.

http://fightnetwork.com/news/47065:april-29-edition-of-review-a-raw/

Soft Falling Rain · 29-04-2014 9:10pm

Was Flair really locked?! Seemed like it, started ok but it quickly became clear that Flair was a sitting duck out there.

Orton looked pissed off before his que came to actually be pissed off. :pac:

JP Liz V1 · 29-04-2014 9:53pm

Moneymaker wrote: »

I loved that segment tbh, I know it was stupid and corny but Sandow is so good at it. I was entertained by it.

Incredible he kept a straight face through it all.

I enjoyed Damien Sandow as Magneto too

He should get his own talk show segment

DM_7 · 29-04-2014 10:06pm

Enjoyed the Wyatt Cena and Evolution Shield parts of RAW.

At the end I wasnt expecting to see the Shield come back at Evolution and even more surpised to see Triple H happy, again to look silly.

Really enjoyed both feuds.

Meanwhile, Bryan is stuck with Kane while Sheamus is getting attacked from behind by Titus.

JP Liz V1 · 29-04-2014 10:11pm

I might be on my own here but I find Bray and Cena's feud boring and think it should have ended at WM

CSF · 29-04-2014 10:59pm

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

I might be on my own here but I find Bray and Cena's feud boring and think it should have ended at WM

Alternatively, this should have been their Wrestlemania feud. That one was very boring. This one has alot more intrigue to it. I genuinely don't know what happens on Sunday now, if Bray wins, Cena almost has to turn heel. If Cena wins again, Bray isn't such a legitimate threat anymore.

JP Liz V1 · 29-04-2014 11:02pm

CSF wrote: »

Alternatively, this should have been their Wrestlemania feud. That one was very boring. This one has alot more intrigue to it. I genuinely don't know what happens on Sunday now, if Bray wins, Cena almost has to turn heel. If Cena wins again, Bray isn't such a legitimate threat anymore.

I expect Bray to win on Sunday but I still find the feud boring and safe to say there is no way Cena is turning heel

CSF · 29-04-2014 11:06pm

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

I expect Bray to win on Sunday but I still find the feud boring and safe to say there is no way Cena is turning heel

Bray winning on Sunday, and Cena carrying on as if he is same old Cena would be ridiculous.

I understand why Cena turning heel is improbable and I completely agree with the reasoning, but this storyline is definitely putting doubts in my head. I mean it definitely seemed as though the Cena boos were put alot higher in the mix than usual.

They're intentionally building the whole 'the crowd have turned on Cena' thing. Barely even trying to show all the kids that love him. That goes 2 ways following Extreme Rules, first way, Cena finally puts Bray and his 'message' away once and for all, being Supercena for the kids once again, or alternatively Bray's 'message' wins the day and where exactly does Supercena go from there?

krudler · 30-04-2014 1:47am

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

I expect Bray to win on Sunday but I still find the feud boring and safe to say there is no way Cena is turning heel

there was no way Brock was winning, look what happened there :pac:

colmufc · 30-04-2014 1:50am

Soft Falling Rain wrote: »

Was Flair really locked?! Seemed like it, started ok but it quickly became clear that Flair was a sitting duck out there.

Orton looked pissed off before his que came to actually be pissed off. :pac:

I don't think he was i genuinely belive he just can't speak anymore he's got a speech problem that's been getting worse every time he comes back to cut a promo , not surprised he backed the shield but genuinely surprised they turned the beat down around at the end , hhh won't stay competitive for lo g and Batista is off after extreme rules so EVO either won't last or it will just sit on the back burner til it's time Batista gets his title shot

IvySlayer · 30-04-2014 11:14pm

You've got the whole world in your hands

Cannot get it out of my fecking head

dirkmeister · 01-05-2014 10:47pm

This Wyatt segment is top notch, pity they went to an ad break during this bit Monday.

rovert · 01-05-2014 10:56pm

dirkmeister wrote: »

This Wyatt segment is top notch, pity they went to an ad break during this bit Monday.

Lots of joyless pundits/podcasters/newsletter fumed about WWE never explaining how Wyatt got all those kids. Part of his Cult or did Bray print out a load of permission slips and went to the local primary school?

jaykhunter · 02-05-2014 1:19am

Yeah, Alvarez came across like such a smarky IWC douche finding reasons to not enjoy that awesome segment. He must be trolling!

rovert · 02-05-2014 1:37am

jaykhunter wrote: »

Yeah, Alvarez came across like such a smarky IWC douche finding reasons to not enjoy that awesome segment. He must be trolling!

In fairness it wasn't just Alvarez, Comes from the same ethic that "why doesn't Cena/babyface locker room hope out and save babyface x" does from. All things need to be explained for some.

Monday Night Raw 28-4-14

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