WWE Raw Superthread

J. Marston · 24-03-2021 7:54pm

"Oh hi, Mark" would be the perfect intro for Raw really.

CastorTroy · 25-03-2021 1:28am

Meant to say, I thought Cole was on commentary for a second when Tom said something like "Here comes the brutality" and used the word "brutalised" a couple seconds later. Guess that will be said frequently for Rhea. It's in her entrance and in her gear.
Is "Brutaliser" her version of Empress/Queen? Or have they given her one yet?

J. Marston · 25-03-2021 1:11pm

CastorTroy wrote: »

Meant to say, I thought Cole was on commentary for a second when Tom said something like "Here comes the brutality" and used the word "brutalised" a couple seconds later. Guess that will be said frequently for Rhea. It's in her entrance and in her gear.
Is "Brutaliser" her version of Empress/Queen? Or have they given her one yet?

Not sure but in nickname news, NXT's new signing, Sarray, is being called "Warrior of the Sun."

Does Vince play Dark Souls?

riffmongous · 25-03-2021 3:49pm

Lithium93_ wrote: »

So is The Fiend filling the Denny/creepy bastard role? :pac:

"I just like to watch you guys"

beakerjoe · 25-03-2021 6:02pm

Agent Coulson wrote: »

So Bad Bunny vs the Miz.

No Morrison wrestling.

More importantly no Damian Priest wrestling.

I thought the whole idea of using a celebrity was to get over a WWE Star over and push the hell out of them to make them a real player.

Using Priest as a valet to Bad Bunny is a total disgrace really.

Rock Lesnar wrote: »

I had to look up who bad bunny is, how did Miz end up with this match, good god, he deserves to be in a better match then this

Furious-Red wrote: »

Id be shocked if it doesnt get changed into a tag match either before or during the match.

Im sure as FR says, this match will be changed into a tag match.... Bunny cant do the heavy lifting (unless he's Pat McAfee level of celeb).

Its the perfect match for all parties. Miz gets a big spot on the card against a big celeb. Its a big deal. Its a perfect match for Miz as hes limited in the ring anyway and hes mouth can carry the feud, if its a tag Morrison and Priest can do the heavy lifting and BB can take a backseat in the match until the big finish. Its fine. Miz's face surely will be all across the entertainment news come Monday morning. He will be fine.

Happy for Priest.

The White Wolf wrote: »

Yeah I got the network back for the rumble but I'm starting to wonder will I bother keeping it even for Mania now. It really is awful and I say that as someone not particularly attached to any company right now.

I have no problem in saying WWE is at the bottom currently. At least Impact and NWA wouldn't try to insult your intelligence or condescend.

I usually take the next day off ffrom work, get my goodie sin if Im at home..... Im seriously debating it. I probably will watch it live, but I am not motivated.

Worst build of a Mania in recent times and make no doubt, its been a yearly decline since before WM27... this year is just the worst and its not down to Covid.

No match is grabbing me. Bryan v Reigns v edge would have motivate dme more than Edge and Roman solo, not feeling Edge as a babyface at all.

Drew v Lashley feels so mid card. .... and I like both to an extent.

Sasha v Belair was been so badly mishandled, from Sashas awful scripted promos (not all her fault), to the forced tag team bollox, to how Belair is presented as a dumb babyface. ... its just a huge fumble by WWE.

Everything else is rushed or awful

Braun in his current form has been a train wreck and needs to go away and get character rehab..... a feud with an aged Shane McMahon in a feud that centers around "Stupid" is so god awful.

New Day v AJ and Omos is interesting, but its a short comedy build at best.

IC title hasnt been bad. Apollo needs to go over annd Big E needs to be elevated in defeat. Big E will most likely win and Apollo will be back on Main event.

Asuka v Ripley has zero heat.

Cesaro v Rollins is fine, needs more heat though.

Give me a reason to watch it...... Im more curious to see how they work the stadium with fans than the actual event itself.

CastorTroy wrote: »

Meant to say, I thought Cole was on commentary for a second when Tom said something like "Here comes the brutality" and used the word "brutalised" a couple seconds later. Guess that will be said frequently for Rhea. It's in her entrance and in her gear.
Is "Brutaliser" her version of Empress/Queen? Or have they given her one yet?

Its way to over produced. Cole or Phillips are not the problem, they are just the vessels of WWE corporate shilling. Look at Coles work in the NXT UK PPV 4 years ago...excellent without Vince or Dunn in his ear. He just does what hes told on SD.

Necro · 25-03-2021 6:06pm

beakerjoe wrote: »

No match is grabbing me. Bryan v Reigns v edge would have motivate dme more than Edge and Roman solo, not feeling Edge as a babyface at all.

I think that's where they're going anyways tbh, so fear not. Why else would they have Reigns tap. The Smackdown part of the card is much better for the most part anyways, despite them making a mess of the Bianca/Sasha feud.

I think Lashley and McIntyre will be decent, looks like Sheamus is getting Riddle as well which might be ok, loved him smashing that scooter I have to say

beakerjoe · 25-03-2021 7:04pm

Necro wrote: »

I think that's where they're going anyways tbh, so fear not. Why else would they have Reigns tap. The Smackdown part of the card is much better for the most part anyways, despite them making a mess of the Bianca/Sasha feud.

I think Lashley and McIntyre will be decent, looks like Sheamus is getting Riddle as well which might be ok, loved him smashing that scooter I have to say

Smackdown has been much better than Raw, but its not perfect either.

I enjoy the Main Event scene on SD. I do hope Bryan is added. Hes the best pure babyface around. Edge sadly is much better as a heel and the nostalgia pop has worn off.

Rollins v Cesaro has 3 weeks to add more heat, its been a decent mid card build....its been nothing exciting though, it hasnt grabbed me yet. Id like to see more character from Cesaro here. Their match could steal the show.

Tag team scene is a mess though. Dolph and Roode need to fcuk off, as dose Rocky Mavia Jnr Dominick. Hes way to green and bland. Decent worker considering hes been pushed into the WWE deep end, much still looks too much like a kid pretending to be a wrestler.

Owens and Zayn does very little too me as its been done to death. I think a multi man match with them and Nakamura would be ok. I imagine Corbin will be there somehow too.

Big E v Apollo has been great so far, though I hated the finish to their last match. Apollo needs to go over here IMO, Big E can take a defeat in the right way and move up the card.

In contrast Raw is awful. Raw has so much talent, Keith Lee, Andrade (well not now), Riddle, Sheamus, New Day, Garza, Tozowa (I second LOB's man love for him, utterly charismatic and extremely great worker), Drew Gulak, Ricochet, Priest.... how they cant book a watchable show is a disgrace.

CastorTroy · 26-03-2021 12:07am

Was looking at Walking Dead's wiki page and after going through some actors, I saw this page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Hilker

This someone messing with her wiki page or does she actually appear in Raw and I can't remember?

Rock Lesnar · 26-03-2021 12:59pm

I got it very wrong regarding Miz, i was disappointed they had him champion for less then a month, to be given a Celeb to face a Mania, but after researching more, this is a huge deal for Miz, he will get great mainstream publicity and its also a tip from the company that they trust him to do it

What can i say, except i got it awsomely wrong

beakerjoe · 26-03-2021 1:23pm

Rock Lesnar wrote: »

I got it very wrong regarding Miz, i was disappointed they had him champion for less then a month, to be given a Celeb to face a Mania, but after researching more, this is a huge deal for Miz, he will get great mainstream publicity and its also a tip from the company that they trust him to do it

What can i say, except i got it awsomely wrong

Only trusted guys get to share the ring with a big celeb/McMahon at Mania...

CastorTroy · 26-03-2021 3:34pm

Yep, which is why they won't be putting a celeb in with Nia, unless it's a celeb people dislike

J. Marston · 26-03-2021 3:57pm

riffmongous wrote: »

"I just like to watch you guys"

That checks out :pac:

JP Liz V1 · 29-03-2021 6:44pm

Rhea and Asuka contract signing tonight

CastorTroy · 29-03-2021 8:10pm

I'd be surprised if Asuka keeps the title since it's obvious they don't know what to do with her.

PTH2009 · 29-03-2021 8:21pm

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Rhea and Asuka contract signing tonight

That will go uninterrupted no doubt

Lithium93_ · 29-03-2021 8:35pm

According to Fightful, via Mike Johnson of PWInsider

Charlotte Flair

is backstage for RAW tonight.

As boring, as it is predictable which part of the show that'll be crashed by the individual hidden behind the spoiler tag...

PTH2009 · 29-03-2021 9:57pm

Lithium93_ wrote: »

According to Fightful, via Mike Johnson of PWInsider
Charlotte Flair
is backstage for RAW tonight.

As boring, as it is predictable which part of the show that'll be crashed by the individual hidden behind the spoiler tag...

whoopie

Furious-Red · 29-03-2021 10:51pm

Lithium93_ wrote: »

According to Fightful, via Mike Johnson of PWInsider
Charlotte Flair
is backstage for RAW tonight.

As boring, as it is predictable which part of the show that'll be crashed by the individual hidden behind the spoiler tag...

Oh goodie

Maybe she will do the HBK WM20 scenario where she signs the contract instead of Rhea? Either way once again they put Flair into a match where she doesn't need to be

CastorTroy · 29-03-2021 11:21pm

Lithium93_ wrote: »

According to Fightful, via Mike Johnson of PWInsider
Charlotte Flair
is backstage for RAW tonight.

As boring, as it is predictable which part of the show that'll be crashed by the individual hidden behind the spoiler tag...

Who was it that said

She was going to be on Smackdown?

J. Marston · 29-03-2021 11:22pm

I hope

they put her in and it's a triple threat and she wins. Then the next night she inserts herself into Sasha/Bianca and wins that too!

I want the internet to burn.

PTH2009 · 30-03-2021 1:07am

Lashley and the hurt business are one of the best things about Raw nowadays

Hard not to see Drew taking out anyone who goes after him and then going on to beat Bobby for the title at mania. Typical Vince booking

PTH2009 · 30-03-2021 1:53am

That Braun Strowman train noise is both extreme wrestlecrap and embarrassingly cool at the same time

JP Liz V1 · 30-03-2021 2:26am

PTH2009 wrote: »

Lashley and the hurt business are one of the best things about Raw nowadays

Hard not to see Drew taking out anyone who goes after him and then going on to beat Bobby for the title at mania. Typical Vince booking

Hurt Business completely over or new recruiting, one of the better stables

Lord TSC · 30-03-2021 7:13am

they broke up the Hurt Business, probably their most successful stable in years.

And instead put Corbin into the story.

A guy who, last week on Smackdown, had a video package about how no one cares about him, a video package which actively buried him as unwatchable...

....and they’ve injected him into their Mania main event story as a major player.

I can only presume they are worried about Bobby being cheered over Drew.

RollieFingers · 30-03-2021 7:35am

Surprised to read that they split up Hurt Business, considering I read on here only a few weeks ago that apparently that group was the best stable in all of wrestling!

Also read that the Shane and Miz bunny video segments were horrible, had a quick look and indeed horrific, but considering most of WM is built to these days by people declaring themselves as championship contenders or by pointing at a sign or playing on a swing with a fiend in the box, maybe not too bad.

LineOfBeauty · 30-03-2021 9:22am

I (not by choice) just got a Shelton Benjamin Hurt Business shirt for Christmas...I feel betrayed.

https://twitter.com/TheCiaranJames/status/1376807779420241926?s=20

This is doing the rounds. Riddle forgetting his lines and openly admitting it is pretty funny on the face of it. But look a bit deeper and there's so much wrong here. It's a typical WWE backstage segment, you see like 15+ of these a week but they're incredibly off putting.
The acting is atrocious, that's not a dig at Riddle or Asuka, it's a par performance, everyone is taught to act that way. If you saw it at your local Christmas panto you'd probably say it was a bit hammy.
The dialogue, nobody speaks that way. No 2 humans have ever interacted in the way that Asuka and Riddle (or anyone else in these WWE segments) did outside of the confines of WWE.
The WWE hidden camera is so stupid. I've always hated the hidden camera, it makes literally no sense at all.
The scripted dialogue is inane and stifling. If Riddle were not a programmed robot that had briefly short-circuited maybe he could have improvised something dumb to say, but instead the fear of going off script is greater than the ramifications of a segment gone awry. If these real people were allowed to actually speak like people, maybe some of them would get over. Any time someone does one of their worked shoot interviews on Smacktalk or in a WWE Network doc, their fanbase eats that stuff up, so why not have their talent speak like human beings all the time?
Cole's cover for it is just cringe. I have no doubt in his headpiece Vince might be congratulating him on a job well done but to anyone who may have been watching this that isn't indoctrinated into the universe of WWE speak it just came across as weird.

Anyway clearly this isn't just about that one particular segment, largely this was aimed at all WWE backstage segments.

JP Liz V1 · 30-03-2021 11:47am

Corbin leaves Smackdown for The Hurt Business or once off?

ThePott · 30-03-2021 11:53am

Not a good Raw.
Why break-up the Hurt Business in general but why do that storyline less than two weeks till Mania?
If they had to do it there's a much better story to be told post-Mania. If Lashley loses he can blame Cedric/Shelton. If he wins he sees he doesn't need them anymore. This was just pretty pointless. They could have spent the time making Drew/Lashley a better feud instead. Yet they're going to bring Corbin in, someone who the openly acknowledge that nobody likes. I seriously don't understand how they consistently find something for him and not the talented people in catering.
This was a really formulaic Raw, opponents in a tag match, how will they co-exist?
As for the Riddle thing, it was never going to be a good segment but at least it sort of works in character.

Raw is probably at it's worst at the moment and saying that this close to Mania is pretty bad.

CastorTroy · 30-03-2021 12:59pm

So now Shayna/Nia against another team made of the Mania opponents.
Imagine Reginald, possibly having a thing for Carmella, then Sasha and ending up with Nia.
So who fights for the tag titles?
And in another case of moves not being consistent, I wish they would make a decision on Shayna's arm stomp. They even said on commentary about it putting Dana out for weeks and has done the same to Dakota and others, yet Naomi's arm was grand not long after.
Same with that double arm snap move Penta does. In Lucha Underground he would break people's arms with it sometimes, but not always. Even outside Lucha, when it's done by Penta or anyone, sometimes it's apparently got the same effect or at least so bad the match is over almost right away after, while other times, it's shrugged off quickly.

Anyway, that Hey Hey Hop Hop video was not good. the bunny costumes didn't help.

Wonder if last night means future Riddle segments will be pretaped.

And as for the Hurt Business, dunno why they split them up. At least we know Retribution was a disaster but THB were actually good.
Did Cedric and Shelton even get a title rematch?

TheLocalMan · 30-03-2021 1:41pm

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

I (not by choice) just got a Shelton Benjamin Hurt Business shirt for Christmas...I feel betrayed.

https://twitter.com/TheCiaranJames/status/1376807779420241926?s=20

This is doing the rounds. Riddle forgetting his lines and openly admitting it is pretty funny on the face of it. But look a bit deeper and there's so much wrong here. It's a typical WWE backstage segment, you see like 15+ of these a week but they're incredibly off putting.
The acting is atrocious, that's not a dig at Riddle or Asuka, it's a par performance, everyone is taught to act that way. If you saw it at your local Christmas panto you'd probably say it was a bit hammy.
The dialogue, nobody speaks that way. No 2 humans have ever interacted in the way that Asuka and Riddle (or anyone else in these WWE segments) did outside of the confines of WWE.
The WWE hidden camera is so stupid. I've always hated the hidden camera, it makes literally no sense at all.
The scripted dialogue is inane and stifling. If Riddle were not a programmed robot that had briefly short-circuited maybe he could have improvised something dumb to say, but instead the fear of going off script is greater than the ramifications of a segment gone awry. If these real people were allowed to actually speak like people, maybe some of them would get over. Any time someone does one of their worked shoot interviews on Smacktalk or in a WWE Network doc, their fanbase eats that stuff up, so why not have their talent speak like human beings all the time?
Cole's cover for it is just cringe. I have no doubt in his headpiece Vince might be congratulating him on a job well done but to anyone who may have been watching this that isn't indoctrinated into the universe of WWE speak it just came across as weird.

Anyway clearly this isn't just about that one particular segment, largely this was aimed at all WWE backstage segments.

Anything that buries Riddle is fine by me. The guy's an insufferable prick.

WWE Raw Superthread

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