anarchistxx

I was reviewing the show chronologically as I watched. I said Cena/Rollins was my MOTY and pretty much perfectly laid out. The Divas match was excellent. Everything else was mediocre, and the booking of this company continues to be terrible. If we only praised things what would be the point? There would be zero discussion at all. It isn't as if people are just going "that's fucking terrible", they are explaining why it is terrible, and then people who like it can counterpoint and debate. That is how discussion works. Better than a thread filled with fanboys praising everything. We all love Rob Naylor and his unbridled optimism, but if I am putting my time into watching a product I am going to criticize when it doesn't deliver. Or in simpler, better put terms: This.

Pretty much what I do. Fast forward through Raw every week and watch the PPVs when I can be bothered. Of course, a better 'solution' would be WWE actually making some effort and going beyond worn out tropes to put on a good, innovative, exciting, unpredictable product. Saying "If you don't like it don't watch it" is just a cop out, and excuses them for the dirge they put out every week knowing a lot of people will watch it whatever out of habit/loyalty to the product or in the hope they will see something good. Watching the 'pimped' stuff doesn't always work for me, because the people pimping are either like Dylan who has totally different tastes to me or Johnny Sorrow who pretty much likes anything they put out. The Bella Twins and Titus O'Neill are about my favorite people on the roster and their stuff rarely gets pimped.

Probably the fact that televisions don't just explode like that. Not to mention the fact they had a television randomly turned on under the ring, and Ambrose decides to use it as a weapon even though it is a fairly harmless object and obviously plugged in. The spot was therefore dumb, contrived and unrealistic.

Doubt it. That had blow off written all over it. The only reason they did the hokey television spot was so Ambrose didn't look as bad. Since Ambrose/ Wyatt is co-headlining the house show run that starts in February that I'll be seeing, umm...no. If that is true WWE Creative really is the drizzling shits. The same feuds running for month after month, and they barely even change up the segments or the promo content week and week. It never gets elevated or they never add any leftfield slant to it. The epitome of lazy booking. They just did a major gimmick match with tons of huge bumps and a fairly clean finish, there is no point carrying the feud on especially since it is getting no real reaction. Maybe a Cage Match on Raw to kill time until the RR. I will be amazed if they run that feud for another few months though. Surely they will just use the matches on the house show run and have them do something else on television?

They will have to put in a strong effort to be even more missable than the last few weeks of television. I managed to fast forward through Smackdown watching only five minutes or so. The whole thing was just recaps, boring promos and pointless matches. Raw is much the same. Such a stale product again, although no doubt the WM build will draw me back in.

Doubt it. That had blow off written all over it. The only reason they did the hokey television spot was so Ambrose didn't look as bad.

Because they think he will still be over regardless. The Jericho Curse.

What a cop out finish. Obviously going for the Ambrose as the architect of his own downfall angle. Can't we have a clean, decisive end to a feud for once without exploding flat screen televisions and lantern holograms?

Well this is a tedious end to a tedious feud. Just a stream of spots and bumps sequenced together with little thought. The contrast with Cena/Rollins is massive, that match had rhyme and rhythm and everything flowed into everything else perfectly. Whereas these is stop-start and awkward, and feels overly cute with stuff like the TV Monitor. Bumps means nothing without the correct build, without drawing out the tension and setting up to it nicely. That is/was why WWE main events were so terrible for ages - they would have this final ten minutes of endless false finishes and back and forth and it meant nothing because the first half of the match was so plodding and pointless, just time to fill before they moved onto the finishers. Three massive ladder dives into tables in one match? Zero need for it. One would have meant so much more had it been teased properly.

Should have been a major star and the spectacular, good looking, exciting white meat babyface of his era. Great at selling, incredible athleticism, spectacular offense and a brilliant bumper. Always knew how to time his comebacks and pace his matches. Connected with the crowd. A tragedy that he didn't become the heir to Rey Mysterio and Jeff Hardy as the WWE main event flyer. His ROH match with Jimmy Rave in 2005 was as close to Rey vs Eddie as you can get working that type of match.

You can't please everyone. I don't like sci-fi and don't watch many horror movies either, so maybe the character just isn't made for me. It has been deathly boring. This isn't Lesnar destroying people in 2002 and being in different feuds every month, proper angles that have a storyline and mean something. This is week after week of tedious, predictable squash matches and a smattering of solid PPV bouts worked around the dated Anti-America angle. Ambrose/Wyatt starting out strong, not sure the fans buy it as the main event though.

Not saying this to be snarky at all but hasn't it already had significant shelf life compared to a lot of shit they do? They haven't actually done anything with him yet. Months of squash matches, and then another few months of him facing patriots. The same boring promos every week. He has had a shelf life in terms of being on television, but once they move beyond the reductionist, lazy Russia vs America stuff there isn't much left for him. It astonishes me how little movement they make with people in such a long period of time. The dude with the bunny was the same, doing the same shtick every week literally for months.

This Bray Wyatt promo is truly terrible. Embarrassing stuff. The cheesy statements about ascending to heaven, the forced delivery, the pretend laughter. He seriously has to be one of the worst promos in company history when you consider the amount of microphone time given. What an awful, awful character. People like him are the reason I can't watch Raw live - sitting through his rambling, cringe worthy promos turned me off the product again a few months ago.

Literally zero reason for that match to have taken place, the feud ended months ago. The match itself was suitably unmemorable.

I can't stand Kane as a heel, but he just had a great tag title reign a year and a half ago, settle down. He was the Brendan Rogers to Daniel Bryan's Luis Suarez though.

I still can't get into Rusev at all. The whole act seems so cheap and dated to me, and there is no shelf life in it,

Kane vs Ryback was pointless and terrible in every way, but still fun. Basically just them repeatedly hitting each other with chairs for a few minutes. They totally had me on the chokeslam near fall.

Woah, 51 users reading the topic. When did this place get so popular?

Never ceases to amaze me that Kane it still on the roster. He hasn't had a memorable feud in over fifteen years, and you can count on one hand the amount of quality matches he has had during that period.

Divas match was solid, should have got longer. Ending was spot on, Nicki has a fantastic finisher. Both characters are strong. Brie & Nicki Bella have a case to be top five WWE workers this year, if you take into account character, feuds, charisma. Solid in the ring and consistently some of the most memorable characters on the show. Hope they get something decent at Wrestemania.

No way. It was brilliantly booked, had a ton of big bumps, loads of twists and turns, was constantly exciting, was long and dramatic and unpredictable. None of those things apply to most Raw main events.

'Fancy' by Iggy Azaelia should be the Nikki Bella theme music. They should play up the whole arrogant cheerleader Mean Girls/Clueless angle with her, it fits with what she wears and her character.

I don't see it like that. They are both former wrestlers so it shouldn't be too unbelievable for them to get the upper hand when double teaming and sneakily attacking from behind. Not like they are going toe to toe with top guys.

Big downside is Cena vs Lesnar yet again. What a waste of Brock with his limited schedule to have him working the same guy every time. The Royal Rumble is the perfect time to put him in there with Ziggler or Sheamus, because the Battle Royal is the main attraction anyway.

A late match of the year contender there. Perfect execution of the overbooked, dramatic WWE style. It was exciting, brilliantly laid out, the pacing was perfect. The bumps to take out Mercury & Noble were superbly done and looked violent as fuck. The initial stretch up to the referee bump and the the brilliant sequence to the top rope AA were absolutely top draw. The subsequent J&J Security double table bump was fantastic. The match never dragged, it was all action, all the twists and turns worked and were believable. Everyone played their role superbly, Rollins as the sleazy, cocky heel and Cena as the eternal underdog. The commentary was the best I’ve heard all year. The false finishes added drama and didn’t feel forced. The Big Show and Roman Reigns run ins amped it up even further. Whoever laid out this match deserves an absolute ton of credit, it played out like a masterpiece, ebbing and flowing back and forth, the crowd were riveted. Just little things like the announce table not breaking. You never knew who was going to win. That is how to work a overbooked, exciting gimmick match full of props and run ins. Couldn’t have been much better. Best match I have seen this year.