anarchistxx

Well that was tedious. The only interesting part was the arm lock that wouldn't end, and only then because I figured HHH would have booked himself to make Lesnar tap. 'The legendary career of Triple-H goes on,' Michael Cole was gushing at the end. Legend at his own lunch table. Yet again he fails to deliver when given every opportunity. Ah well Brock, you sow what you reap as JBL might say. Wonder where next for Lesnar? Makes you wonder why they gave him another year, they already jobbed him out to the two quintessentially 'WWE guys' in Trips and Cena.

I was wrong about the structure, but there is no heat whatsoever for this match. HHH isn't nearly as over as a face as he thinks he is. Lesnar is looking cool as ever though, even if I think it is going to be a repeat of the Cena match e.g. he kills him for twenty minutes then jobs to a pedigree.

Got a feeling this might be a bit of a train wreck. Looks like they will go thirty minutes, and I'm guessing it will be HHH main event epic style rather than bloody brawl.

I was surprised how much Undertaker did sell. He put Punk across as a real top guy, and he got to kick out of the tombstone. He didn't give as much as he does in the 'Legend' matches, but that is to be expected. The match was harmed by the lack of any suspense, since we knew who was winning, but as Dylan said it worked well as a standalone big event match. A good example of WWE main event style actually, had pretty much everything you might expect from the table spot to the finisher kick outs etc. Paced exactly how you would expect, worked exactly how you'd expect.

Very good match, pretty amazing that Undertaker can still pull it off at his age, with all the injuries, after a year out. Was very surprised at how over CM Punk was, expected the crowd to be firmly against him.

Without wanting to be dramatic and go 'OMG I quit!! Had enough of this shit!!", I think unless these last three matches deliver I'm going to stop watching WWE again for a long time. Everything has just been so underwhelming, so filled with the sense of 'seen it all before'. Getting cable again a while back made me watch it by default, and coincided with Money In The Bank 2011 which was fantastic. Since then it has been diminishing returns, and I have watched Raw more and more sporadically. It isn't a protest at anything in particular, just that everything gets on my nerves now. The constant time wasting with adverts and videos. The constant shilling of how popular they are on Twitter. The commentary that consists of nothing but WWE buzzwords and trademarks. The sameness of the style of wrestlers and match. How far behind popular culture they are. The lack of any compelling storylines. Occasionally something like The Shield will pique my interest but it still doesn't make up for the 80% of the show that is tedious. Raw going three hours kind of killed it for me. There is no sense of 'anything can happen', no excitement, no feeling I will miss anything if I don't tune in. Bit of a pointless post I know but thought I'd get it off my chest...

Don't see how that emphasizes your point - Punk gets made to look like shit by The Rock and Jericho lasts twenty minutes with him? Hardly a ringing endorsement. Jericho is no higher than, say, Damien Sandow on the card. Maybe he isn't the JTTS but he certainly never gets any big wins or comes out of a feud on top. If he lost less often it might mean more.

Bullshit - Jericho jobs nearly ever match - when was the last time he won a feud or a huge match? Rock and Undertaker get protection but that is about it.

WWE still thinking P Diddy is relevant and a star worth paying a lot of money to endorse the product is a perfect example of how far behind popular culture they really are.

Jericho is still a name, and still extremely over. Beating him should mean something, but it doesn't because he is consistently jobbed out to whichever flavour of the month they are pushing. Even if Fandango lasts (and I severely doubt he will in that gimmick), he will be jobbing left right and center himself by the summer as the 'punishment' to getting over. Have to 'test' the new talent, right? Don't want another Lesnar or Batista! All of it means that anyone beating anyone has next to no impact unless it is Cena or Rock jobbing. Maybe have Fandango win clean if it is going to mean something in the future, but it likely isn't. Jericho will still be around in a year, Fandango probably won't. WWE should protect their veterans more. Jericho is just prime bait to lose to a new guy because he stays over whatever.

Way to go, job Jericho out to a character that will be dead in three months when they send him back to developmental to be repackaged. I imagine he is used to it by now, but still. Match itself was alright, but hard to get invested in such an underwhelming character as Fandango. I'm amazed people like the gimmick.

Tag match was the best of the show so far. Glad DB got his moment, felt like a 'Thanks' after what happened last year. Agree that it should have been the opener.

Well that was pretty ridiculous. Either put one guy over or the other. The way they did it neither come out looking strong. The match itself was nothing to write home about, almost a squash for Henry at times.

Boring opener I thought. The Show turn had no impact either, another to add to his umpteenth face/heel switches. And why the fuck are we watching a Rock/Cena video now? Loads of in ring time is going to be cut for stuff like this, plus a load of adverts and an overlong 'comedy' segment, don't know why they do it. Stadium looks cool though, even if the crowd noise is probably disappearing upwards through the open roof. Still, football matches manage to retain a loud atmosphere despite an open roof, so no excuse really.

When Channel 5 first launched it showed the dying days of Nitro as well. I remember flicking over one night as a ten year old and being surprised to see wrestling on, as until that point I'd assumed only the WWF existed. Needless to say, it didn't impress me much and the next I heard about WCW was the Invasion angle.

WWF was partly terrestrial in the UK from 1999-2002. Channel 4 would show Heat every Sunday night, and also four PPVs a year. Royal Rumble, Backlash, Fully Loaded and Armageddon used to air completely free without the need of even cable, hard as it is to picture now. I recall a ton of parents complaining about the content suring the boom, especially Royal Rumble 2000 withy Mae Young's tits, Cactus v HHH and women getting chucked through tables.

Really hope we get Undertaker/Kane vs Punk/Lesnar before Wrestlemania. Urn on a Pole match anyone? Also looks like they won't be running Henry/Ryback at Wrestlemania, since they've announced it for Smackdown.

Yeah, I get it now. Will be back to normal in a couple of weeks when our clocks change.

Must have aired on time delay in the UK previously. Usually it runs 1AM-4AM, tonight it is midnight to three. Back when it was two hours it used to air 2AM-4AM.

Anyone know why Raw is early this week?

Yeah, I'd probably get sick of Shelley's schtick if subjected to it on a weekly basis. Is he even still with the company? I will say that Shelley v Danielson for the ROH strap in early 2006 is a whole lot better than any Aries match I have seen.

Since I watched him from about 2003. Terrible look as well, which doesn't help. I just never felt any connection with the guy, was amazed when I found out he was the TNA champion, even if it is one of the more meaningless title belts wrestling has seen. Might as well agree to disagree, since our opinions are so polar opposite. Can you point me to one fantastic promo this guy has done? One incredible feud? One defining segment? He is a solid hand, nothing more.

Aries is better in the ring, no doubt, I wouldn't argue against that. Although I don't think he's a top level in ring worker. So I'm told. I only saw a couple of shows, which I wasn't impressed by, but maybe he is better if you tune in week on week. Aries is certainly a solid hand, and very consistent. Though I lean towards preferring people who are hit and miss - would take a 9 out of 10 followed by a 3 out of 10 over two straight 6 out of 10s. I think they are more or less level when it comes to the overall package, although personally I'd rather watch Shelley, and think he is a more versatile part of a show. Aries to me is almost a modern day Greg Valentine - doesn't do anything too bad, but void of charisma and fails to capture my imagination.

Shelley decimates Aries in terms of promos, character, look, versatility. In ring workers like Aries are ten a penny in the indies - you can teach that, but you can't teach charisma like Shelley has. Jack Evans and Shelley always showed up Aries terribly when Generation Next had segments in ROH, and from the bit of TNA I caught a few months back it doesn't seem that AA has improved dramatically. Aries was wearing a horrible button shirt that made him look even shorter and less threatening than he is, and his promo sounded scripted and unnatural. My friend who watches TNA every week is big on him though, so who knows.

'Fandango' is the next auspicious debutant in the WWE. And like most of their 'gimmicks' he is dated, tired and uninteresting. Not to mention his ridiculous name. He'll fail to get over, job out every week for a couple of months and then get sent home to be repackaged in development or just endeavored. Would seriously love to know who comes up with these gimmicks. That ADR comedy segment on Smackdown was awful too, I don't know any major television show whose comedy segments are worse than WWEs. I managed about five minutes of Afterburn before flicking the channel.