RAW 1000

[tigerpride]

Oh, so Meltzer was wrong then. This show was not his reporting forte.

[jdw]

* Opening video package

 

It was okay, but didn't blow me away. Perhaps given they're at 1000 episodes and closing in on 20 years there's just *too much* to try to cram into a package like this, and stuff you'd like to see given more time wasn't. There's a bit of a diminishing returns point in these things, where perhaps 10 years with this much time allotted works better. Of course I liked the first 8 years of Raw a hell of a lot more than that the last 10.

 

* Vince McMahon thank you

 

Nice little spot for Vince, but… you’re going to get Mr. McMahon highlights throughout the show, and this pales in comparison.

 

* DX segement

 

Shawn and Trip sucked. Waltman was given surprisingly nothing to do. Funny that the NAO were the best part of it. Too loooooooooooooooooong, which was an instant reminder of what turned me off of Raw so long ago: the unending egofucking Trip segements. Tonight we were going to be stuck with a second one given that Trip-Brock shit.

 

The stuff with Sandow… eh.

 

 

* Six-man thingy with JR at the announcers’ table

 

Kind of just “there”. Not terribly compelling, solid enough in tossing out action and moving things along… but not terribly interesting.

 

* Charlie Sheen via Skype.

 

Who gives a fuck. A sign of the WWE being out of touch since Sheen’s usefulness was when he was melting down losing his show… not when he has a new show that is declining in the ratings.

 

 

* A.J.& Layla & Crazy Wrestlers

 

The concept was actually good: it’s hard to call AJ nuts when Pro Wrestling has been Nuts for… well… forever, and showing examples of it. There actually is a germ of a funny idea there. As a tie-in to show a few old wrestlers being crackers, that’s not a bad idea. The execution… not super well done. I don’t think it was very funny, and if given more thought probably could have been a longer piece that figure out ways to highlight some of the craziest things in Raw history. That probably would have needed a video package rather than people walking by outside, and they would have needed someone other than Layla there to carry the thing for AJ. My guess is that this would have been the best use of Foley given he’d done so many of the crazy things back in the day.

 

Anyway, germ of an idea, failed execution.

 

 

* Brodus - Swagger with Foley

 

What a fucking waste of Foley. If they’re going to have him be Dude Love, they could have done a reoccurring bit of him being each character. Of course Trip would never let that happen.

 

* Trish & Trip

 

Not funny, and a sad waste of Trish.

 

* AJ-Bryan

 

Not funny. Weak payoff. Felt like something slapped together. A lot of time invested in something that I don’t really care about.

 

* Bryan-Punk-Rock

 

Setting the ball rolling for Rock-Punk at the Rumble works for me. The segment… I guess okay, probably effective. Not really massively memorable.

 

* Miz- Christian

 

You could smell Title Change, which I was happy for since I didn’t want to see Cena win the title in the main. Match? Eh.

 

* Trip-Heyman-Steph-Brock

 

Let’s see here… I hate Trip… I’ve hated Steph’s character since the Triangle Angle wasn’t pulled off correctly… I am on the short list of people who thinks Heyman isn’t all that as a character and on the mic… and Brock’s return means shit to me. Yep, this was going to be painful. Worse than could have been expected. All the “I’m Shooting Now, Brother!” shit bored the hell out of me back in the day, and it’s far worse 16 years since I Respect You Booker Man started all this nonsense. The only positive is that Trip getting to “win” the battle here with Brock means he’s going to get his ass kicked at Summer Slam. Right? Right?

 

 

* Lita-Slater

 

Worked for what it was. They got in and our fairly quickly.

 

* Mooney-Bryan

 

I guess folks who give a shit should be happy by just how much time Bryan was given on the 1000th Raw… it’s a good sign of his push in the company. On the other hand, I don’t give a shit.

 

* Cena-Ryder-Okerlund-Rock

 

The GTV reference was flat. Cena-Rock was perfectly okay, though not great.

 

* Kane-Jobbers-Undertaker

 

This was one of the strangest things from a timing and production standpoint that I’ve ever seen from the pros at the WWE. They had that looooooooooooong shot of the Jobbers outside the ring after Taker came out, where you kind of wanted a shot to see if Taker and Kane were going to shake hands before the jobbers jumped into the ring for the inevitable beat down. Instead, time kind of stood still there. I don’t know if the jobbers were screwing up on their que to jump back in, or if Kane & Taker need the camera off them to cover / set up something… hard to tell, but it was strange. Then after the beat down, it took forever to get a pose, the interaction between Kane and Taker wasn’t great (for a feel good 1000th show)… it was just all fucking strange. It was hardly the only time in the night where WWE Production was far off their game from their late 90s / early 00s peak.

 

* Cena-Punk

 

The work was a lotta “eh” early, then the my turn, your turn stuff down the stretch. They’ve worked together so much that they know how to work the crowd when they finally picked the match up. Can’t say I give a shit about the Show stuff, and the false finish, then the DQ for the finish. The “conflict” of Punk’s decision making didn’t do much for me. Seriously… when it comes to various forms of entertainment, Pro Wrestling does this stuff in an mediocre way. It’s like Shawn’s “conflicted” over kicking Flair in the head being sold as something great. It’s cartoonish, and yes… Punk was cartoonish there.

 

Setting that aside (i.e. the likely masturbatory praising of the Greatness of Punk’s Character/Acting/Existence that we’ll get from Punk Fans), the thing worked for me in the end for a simple reason:

 

Punk hit Rock. Punk left Rock laid out in the ring. Rock’s going to want to kick Punk’s ass. Punk has indicated he’d be happy to take it to Rock.

 

*That* is the conflict I want. Not some conflict within Punk on whether he’ll take advantage of Show coming down to the ring.

 

Same goes for the heel turn. I actually don’t give a shit whether Punk turned or didn’t turn. I care that there’s an issue between Punk and Rock, and it’s a FIGHTING issue.

 

On the show in general…

 

The current guys don’t do it for me like the guys in the past. That always comes across when they do these things, or have some of the older guys back. I suspect that folks will toss that at me: I’m stuck in the past. Oddly enough, Pro Wrestling is one of the few things that’s the case of for me. Folks can see from the posts here that I follow a variety of sports as much as I did “back in the day”. TV? I watch a ton of current TV along with older stuff. Books? I read a mix of stuff published (i) in the past ten years to the present and (ii) booked that go back to the 30s through 80s, and enjoy both. So… it’s not a trait in me of thinking *everything* was better in the past and stuff now isn’t up to snuff. It’s just that I don’t care much for WWE TV, and haven’t for close to a decade. Shows like this only remind me of some of the “whys” for that.

 

Austin… well, they did show a lot of stuff of him and of course put over Austin-McMahon. It sadly drew attention to him not being here. I would have far preferred the opening be a Big Vince & Austin Segment than Vince Intro leading into Unending DX-O-Rama. I get Austin wasn’t going to be there, and he explained in a statement today having the knee done earlier this month. His point on not wanting to be there on crutches is believable, and given that they couldn’t have done a true Austin-Vince moment here. But… you do miss it.

 

The use of Cena was oddly subdued compared to other people getting big moments. His moment with Rock was short, backstage and pretty much a throwaway. He got the main event match, and it furthered Cena-Show. But the point coming out of the match was mostly focused on Punk and Rock. Can’t say I mind it, but he is the “anchor” of the show currently and for a while now, so you’d have thought they’d given him a moment on the mic in the ring… on a night when they gave Trip two big ones.

 

This doesn’t get me into watching Raw anymore than I have in the past few years, i.e. periodically and painfully. But it does look like it will add the Rumble to the list of PPV’s that I’ll want to watch live next year in addition to Mania. Rock-Punk will be interesting.

 

John

[jdw]

Not sure who the "shocking" person was either that MKJ was talking about.

So no answer on this one yet?

 

John

[Coffey]

It had to have been Sean Mooney, right? Everyone else that was on the show we've seen recently. Even Slick has made a Wrestlemania cameo in the past.

[flyonthewall2983]

There were late rumors going around that Flair & Batista were going to be there.

Considering his placement in a few spots on that retrospective video, I thought Flair would have showed up too.

[Loss]

The most positive thing I can say about the show is that they concluded with an angle that I might follow. Most people here should know that's pretty big for me. Punk as a heel with a 5-6 month build to a Rock match at the Rumble has lots of potential. I also think Punk's days as a second-tier world champ are over now. If the show accomplished nothing else, it accomplished that.

 

I do agree that Daniel Bryan is not really being used in a way that maximizes his strengths. I think he has taken Jericho's old spot -- the guy who they see as someone who can do infinite jobs and be on the butt end of jokes in all the big segments but stay over. Punk is a step above that, but it is interesting that they are the top two heels at this point. (I guess Show is in the mix too and at the moment will be higher on the card than Bryan, but he floats around so much that I don't see him having much staying power as a top guy. He never really does.)

[jdw]

I forgot to mention, and think that only Bob did earlier in the thread:

 

The Waltman-Trish thing was creepy.

 

If scripted, it's pretty bad because it really calls for Trish to get the upper hand to "win" the spot while Waltman stooges at the end.

 

If unscripted... really creepy.

 

The only way I could see the first being the case and Trish not instantly getting the upper hand is if they she and Waltman are back for a short storyline where Waltman stooges in the end. Otherwise... ugh.

 

John

[Coffey]

Well Waltman looked like he was fucked-up on something, either booze, pills or whatever, so it can really go either way.

[jdw]

Yeah, there was something up that they kept him off mic in the Opening Segment, and didn't even let him do the bronco buster. Seemed like they were protecting themselves from him doing anything.

 

On the other hand, the camera stayed on when Waltman made him move on Trish, so perhaps an aspect of it was in the script, but Waltman took it too far.

[Cox]

The segment with Trish was almost definitely a pre-tape, so I tend to think any creepiness was probably intended. Either that, or they got a kick out of Waltman acting creepy on his own and left it in there.

[Bix]

It was really obviously scripted.

 

Waltman not really doing anything in the opening segment was a bit weird, though, unless he's still not cleared in Missouri.

[Cox]

Yeah, something tells me it's not exactly a stretch for Waltman to play "scuzzy, creepy, possibly stoned guy."

[Strummer]

Rating was a 3.8 according to Powell

[Loss]

Waltman always seemed like a nice guy to me, outside of the addiction stuff.

[jdw]

Jun-Jul

9-10: 4.625M viewers

10-11: 4.785 viewers

 

Last night:

 

8-9: 5.439M

9-10: 6.318M

10-11: 6.300M

 

Safe to say that the viewers will fall back next week, especially in the 1st hour (it was 3.9M / 4.9M / 5.1M splits on the three hour show back on 6/11).

 

John

[jdw]

Waltman always seemed like a nice guy to me, outside of the addiction stuff.

I think Sean is a bit of a split: there is a nice guy in him, a prick, and a sad junky. I think so many people have seen the nice guy side of him that it's hard to accept the other parts when they pop up.

 

John

[Johnny Sorrow]

It was really obviously scripted.

Yeah. The joke was "X-Pac is a greasy haired skeevy degenerate trying to hit on Trish." That's all there was to it.

 

And I absolutely loved the show, minus the Charlie Sheen stuff. Then again, to cross reference another thread, I was rather drunk and stoned.

[Coffey]

And I absolutely loved the show, minus the Charlie Sheen stuff. Then again, to cross reference another thread, I was rather drunk and stoned.

Ha! After reading your long-ass, positive & glowing review of the show on DVDVR I said to myself "he's drunk." You really were!

[Johnny Sorrow]

And I absolutely loved the show, minus the Charlie Sheen stuff. Then again, to cross reference another thread, I was rather drunk and stoned.

Ha! After reading your long-ass, positive & glowing review of the show on DVDVR I said to myself "he's drunk." You really were!

 

hey doesn't mean I was wrong!

[Coffey]

No, not at all. And better a happy drunk than a mean one. :-)

[Negro Suave]

I loved Slick. Daniel Bryan continues to impress. AJ plays the role of a Puerto Rican girl very well (just ask Jay Lethal).

 

I dislike CM Punk as a person however I do believe he is looking like he belongs out tthere and held his own against the Rock. If he can handle a promo battle with the Rock he'll be on his way.

 

Heath Slater is like the indy guy who pays names to work him except he never goes over. Seriously has this done anything for him other than solidify him as a job guy? Seeing Bradshaw means seeing a Clothesline From Hell and my god do I love watching that. Lita's whale tail was a casualty of TV PG, but she made up for it in boob volume.

 

6 man match was just there. Needed more ziggler eating offense.

 

Sandow held his own out there against DX which was a pleasant surprise.

 

Seems like they don't trust Brodus anymore. His squash matches are getting less interesting and less interactive.

 

Every Indy Wrestler on Twitter: "OMG Steph your are SOOO HOT pleaseogodbookmeisignedupontout"

 

I felt like Heyman rushed his promo. He could have let it sit before he said no but it was likely he was worried about the segment running long.

 

Punk knows how to work around Cena... Big Show? What a surprise I wasn't expecting #BigShow to #runin after you #mentioned him in the god damn #survey before he was shown on screen.

 

I'm calling next wrestlemania now Taker's streak get's broken by his hood.

 

And that's all I can think of right now.

[Loss]

Dave thought Stephanie's comments toward Heyman were fascinating because they had nothing to do with the angle, and she seemed to take so much joy in saying them. I'll just say this. It's Paul Heyman. Stephanie probably has good reasons to feel however she feels about him. I would imagine it's deserved.

[Negro Suave]

Dave thought Stephanie's comments toward Heyman were fascinating because they had nothing to do with the angle, and she seemed to take so much joy in saying them. I'll just say this. It's Paul Heyman. Stephanie probably has good reasons to feel however she feels about him. I would imagine it's deserved.

I dont even think her presence had much to do with the angle. I half expected Sable to come out and cat fight with Steph, that woould have made sense in this worked shoot they are trying to do.

 

Right when he was entering had sable come in from the crowd wail on steph get a pull apart happening and not have brock run off by Trips instead having him escorted out by security.

[Cox]

Dave thought Stephanie's comments toward Heyman were fascinating because they had nothing to do with the angle, and she seemed to take so much joy in saying them. I'll just say this. It's Paul Heyman. Stephanie probably has good reasons to feel however she feels about him. I would imagine it's deserved.

I also thought it was interesting that they booked the segment so Stephanie got to outsmart Heyman, and Heyman had to admit he was outsmarted by Stephanie, and then kinda got his ass kicked by Stephanie too. Somebody took more than a little joy in scripting that out.

[Sean Liska]

* Kane-Jobbers-Undertaker

 

This was one of the strangest things from a timing and production standpoint that I’ve ever seen from the pros at the WWE. They had that looooooooooooong shot of the Jobbers outside the ring after Taker came out, where you kind of wanted a shot to see if Taker and Kane were going to shake hands before the jobbers jumped into the ring for the inevitable beat down. Instead, time kind of stood still there. I don’t know if the jobbers were screwing up on their que to jump back in, or if Kane & Taker need the camera off them to cover / set up something… hard to tell, but it was strange.

I was at the show. The problem was that Undertaker could not get his jacket off. I don't know if his gloves got caught on the sleeves, but he literally went to the side of the ring and had several people working to rip the thing off of him.