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The Raw 12/19/11 Thread: WHAT IS GOING ONNNNNNNNNN?


Bix

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So WWE suddenly has a clear direction pushing younger, fresher guys all show long with Punk/Bryan/Ryder presented as the clear top faces in the company, Cena was relegated to an odd segment with Kane where it looked like he was going to be sexually assaulted before being smothered that was impressively produced in terms of time management, the tag team division is suddenly supposed to be very important, they're clearly giving guys more latitude stylistically...what the hell happened and why didn't it happen at some other point in the last 5 months?

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Yeah, I couldn't tell if by putting his hand over Cena's nose/mouth if he was trying to murder him or rape him. Also Punk's been tweeting since the PPV how this is the change he's been talking about and posted a pic of all the current WWE champions (himself, Bryan, Ryder, Cody, Air Boom, and Beth) saying this is what he was trying to do in the WWE.

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So WWE suddenly has a clear direction pushing younger, fresher guys all show long with Punk/Bryan/Ryder presented as the clear top faces in the company, Cena was relegated to an odd segment with Kane where it looked like he was going to be sexually assaulted before being smothered that was impressively produced in terms of time management, the tag team division is suddenly supposed to be very important, they're clearly giving guys more latitude stylistically...what the hell happened and why didn't it happen at some other point in the last 5 months?

Ill give it a week :P

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It's always fun when you watch someone go through the various stages in life and make it, whether it's a low baseball draft pick who makes it through the system to the big league club and is successful or this situation, seeing both Punk and Danielson work their way through the lower echelon of wrestling to WWE champions.

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Nice of them to do this since the Last Raw Of December is always one I end up being forced to watch by Cheetah and/or Hombre. Though who knows... they could pull a 180 on that show. :)

What's making me look at this more glass half full is how a bunch of little things were different from how WWE has been running for a while, in addition to the Punk/Bryan/Ryder as the new faces of WWE push:

 

- Wade Barrett being booked to get his heat back against Orton.

- They're breaking up the ridiculous monotony in the women's division by starting an Alicia Fox push that started with her getting a clean non-title win over the champion (treated as a bigger deal than most WWE non-title match wins).

- There was only one comedy segment and it was actually very funny.

- The Cena/Henry/Kane angle was noticeably shorter and tighter than the usual in ring interview -> angle segment, especially for one involving Cena.

- They were suddenly pushing the tag division as a big deal on commentary, with talk about how it's heating up and Air Boom needs to scout the Usos and Primo/Epico.

- Cody and Sheamus were both kept strong with squash wins.

- The babyfaces making their entrances through the crowd as they were being mobbed was a great touch to make them look like stars.

- A Raw main event had a dive train from the face team.

 

I might be forgetting other things, but in general, it felt like a much different promotion with a different person booking the TV which was paced much better than Raw usually is.

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They do have the opportunity with the NFL / MNF coming to an end to get some focus on storylines.

 

They are up against college football those first two weeks of January.

 

They are somewhat unlucky that Stanford-OSU is on 1/2. Stanford and OSU aren't exactly big national draws, but it is one of the few interesting match ups on what is a pretty dire slate. It also has one of the other interesting match ups leading in: Quack Attack vs Badgers in the Rose Bowl. The WWE would have preferred one of the more traditional night caps to "New Years" bowl games: Sugar Bowl (MI-VA Tech) or Orange Bowl (WVU-Clemson), which are match ups of interest to mostly fans of those teams.

 

The following Monday will have Raw up against Bama-LSU in one of the more hyped games in a while. Will be more interesting to see what the game draws rather than what the WWE draws.

 

John

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Loved RAW this week. I'm starting to think WWE is aware of some of the mistakes they've been making and are making an effort to have patience with putting new guys on TV and giving them time to build some momentum.

 

Also loved Punk/Bryan/Ryder coming in through the crowd like they were the Von Erich boys in Dallas circa 1983.

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I thought the show was remarkably boring. I actually fell asleep during the main event which never happens. The concept of the show I liked and it reminded me of the SD years ago with Cena, Edge and Rey standing tall in the Cage at the end of the broadcast signaling the beginning of a new era. But as a show there was absolutely nothing that grabbed me, stood out or even bordered on sustaining my interest.

 

On paper the main event looked great and I will go back and give it a watch. Other than that the only think I really liked was the crazy Uso bump and Mark Henry being awesome on the mic

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