WWE TV 04/03 - 04/09 Adrenaline in my soul, Roman Reigns pinned Cody Rhodes

[Timbo Slice]

I think there were a lot of assumptions made about Cody getting the run he did (me included) and nobody took a step back to think about whether they’d actually put him over given his status literally one year earlier.

[ButchReedMark]

14 minutes ago, C.S. said:

The same guy who got squashed and concussed by Lesnar?

Orton and Brock aren't even on the same planet status-wise.

When did I say they were on that same level? Thing is, as it’s been booked tonight Cody hasn’t got a friend. Orton is due to return soon. I’m just throwing darts at the board. And regardless of their respective levels, Orton can be easily slipped in at the main event level. Like he has been for nigh on twenty years.

[KawadaSmile]

13 minutes ago, Timbo Slice said:

I think there were a lot of assumptions made about Cody getting the run he did (me included) and nobody took a step back to think about whether they’d actually put him over given his status literally one year earlier.

I mean, he did get two clean PPV wins over Rollins prior to getting his pec torn. That basically never really happens. 

 

[ButchReedMark]

14 minutes ago, C.S. said:

The same guy who got squashed and concussed by Lesnar?

Orton and Brock aren't even on the same planet status-wise.

When did I say they were on that same level?
 

Thing is, as it’s been booked tonight Cody hasn’t got a friend. Orton is due to return soon. I’m just throwing darts at the board. Guesswork, speculation, trying to be excited.

 

And regardless of their respective levels, Orton can be easily slipped in at the main event level. Like he has been for nigh on twenty years.

[ButchReedMark]

14 minutes ago, C.S. said:

The same guy who got squashed and concussed by Lesnar?

Orton and Brock aren't even on the same planet status-wise.

When did I say they were on that same level?
 

Thing is, as it’s been booked tonight Cody hasn’t got a friend. Orton is due to return soon. I’m just throwing darts at the board. Guesswork, speculation, trying to be excited.

 

And regardless of their respective levels, Orton can be easily slipped in at the main event level. Like he has been for nigh on twenty years.

[ButchReedMark]

14 minutes ago, C.S. said:

The same guy who got squashed and concussed by Lesnar?

Orton and Brock aren't even on the same planet status-wise.

When did I say they were on that same level?
 

Thing is, as it’s been booked tonight Cody hasn’t got a friend. Orton is due to return soon. I’m just throwing darts at the board. Guesswork, speculation, trying to be excited.

 

And regardless of their respective levels, Orton can be easily slipped in at the main event level. Like he has been for nigh on twenty years.

[ButchReedMark]

Fucking mobile phone.

[Embrodak]

Laughing to myself at the idea of Cody escaping the Codyverse, only for it to follow him like Michael Myers and merge with the WWE right at the moment when he was supposed to win the big one.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

That was very underwhelming for Raw after Mania.  I hadn’t watched any TV since the Chamber but this might as well have been a random show in June.

[Stiva]

Man, a few months or so of Rhodes and Lesnar as odd buddies brought together by a common enemy is so much more interesting than that swerve last night

[pmo]

Yeah I mean why, it makes no sense why they would be enemies at all.  Let them team up for a bit, maybe do the turn after Cody gets the belt off Roman and Lesnar sees him as easy prey.  This is just Russoesque.

[KawadaSmile]

One of the very few good moments last night. Roman is funny.

Wait. Oh shit the Goodfellas vignette makes even more sense now

[Zoo Enthusiast]

17 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

One of the very few good moments last night. Roman is funny.

Wait. Oh shit the Goodfellas vignette makes even more sense now

The K-9 unit.

[NintendoLogic]

PWInsider reported, and Meltzer confirmed, that Vince was in charge of Raw last night. It begins.

[The Thread Killer]

18 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

PWInsider reported, and Meltzer confirmed, that Vince was in charge of Raw last night. It begins.

That pretty much explains it. Based on how good Wrestlemania was, and based on the fact that the Raw after Wrestlemania usually has something happen, I actually went into that show interested.  That was fucking terrible. It was like they were daring you to keep watching. Over the course of those three hours, I went from intrigued, to impatient, to bored, to frustrated, to praying for the cold embrace of sweet merciful death. That was complete and utter shit.

 

[Zoo Enthusiast]

1 hour ago, NintendoLogic said:

PWInsider reported, and Meltzer confirmed, that Vince was in charge of Raw last night. It begins.

Had been looking forward to going to Summerslam.  Now, on the fence.

[KawadaSmile]

To be honest, I'll start worrying more if SD becomes a fucking slog. 

RAW, even prior to Vince returning, was not always a hit. It had many long matches, yes, and didn't go through last minute rewrites as often, but sometimes it did feel like they were padding things. Last night there was no padding, basically NOTHING happened. You could put every meaningful segment together and it wouldn't fill an hour. 

SD was the better show, it has been so for several years now. If that also becomes a slog, I might watch less frequently. God knows I nearly stopped watching altogether during that period where every single RAW episode ended with Drew, Lashley, Braun and Corbin standing tall.

[ButchReedMark]

13 hours ago, Embrodak said:

Laughing to myself at the idea of Cody escaping the Codyverse, only for it to follow him like Michael Myers and merge with the WWE right at the moment when he was supposed to win the big one.

Quoted this by accident but I don’t know how to delete it.

10 hours ago, Stiva said:

Man, a few months or so of Rhodes and Lesnar as odd buddies brought together by a common enemy is so much more interesting than that swerve last night

Exactly. If there is one thing I fucking hate about wrestling booking these days is that no one is just friends anymore. And the thing is everyone watching has mates, doesn’t that make it more personable for the viewer. “So and so wouldn’t normally get on but they do and they are good mates”. The only example recently I can think of was RK Bro and they got over like gang busters and were a great act.

 

Edit: Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross too. Which got over. 

[Jmare007]

21 hours ago, Timbo Slice said:

I think there were a lot of assumptions made about Cody getting the run he did (me included) and nobody took a step back to think about whether they’d actually put him over given his status literally one year earlier.

 

21 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

I mean, he did get two clean PPV wins over Rollins prior to getting his pec torn. That basically never really happens. 

 

He got THREE clean PPV wins over Rollins. The last one with a torn pec and a main event of a PLE. And all of that was with Vince as head of creative. By that time people thought he was the one to beat Roman because he was treated like a big returning star and was organically over as a pure babyface. Not a lot of people were doubting Cody was probably the one to dethrone Roman back in May-June 2022.

[Timbo Slice]

Yeah, but in that time, what blew up? The Bloodline story. More than likely Cody was getting groomed for SummerSlam, where he’d lose, but the Bloodline changed everything. 

[Microstatistics]

So I was browsing r/squaredcircle and, based on the recent news and the quality of raw, now the prevailing theory is that HHH booked WM Night 1 and Vince booked (or at least interfered in) WM Night 2. I guess it's plausible and reasonable since it would explain the large discrepancy in quality (barring the IC title match), though you can still potentially implicate HHH for the main event ending based on his track record booking heel champions.

[KawadaSmile]

46 minutes ago, Jmare007 said:

 

He got THREE clean PPV wins over Rollins. The last one with a torn pec and a main event of a PLE. And all of that was with Vince as head of creative. By that time people thought he was the one to beat Roman because he was treated like a big returning star and was organically over as a pure babyface. Not a lot of people were doubting Cody was probably the one to dethrone Roman back in May-June 2022.

The moment he had that HiaC match, I didn't have a single doubt that him beating Roman at WM was the move to make. Would've been dope, but alas.

 

37 minutes ago, Timbo Slice said:

Yeah, but in that time, what blew up? The Bloodline story. More than likely Cody was getting groomed for SummerSlam, where he’d lose, but the Bloodline changed everything. 

Still, when he came back, some thought he was gonna get booed, as Sami was getting white-hot as an overall act, but Cody got even bigger reactions. Sami as part of the Bloodline started in May 2022, when Cody was still around, so I believe both things got over by design. The "what if" here, to me, is when does Cody meet Roman if he doesn't tear his pec? Would they give him a Summerslam title match? If so, then who is the WM challenger?

 

33 minutes ago, Microstatistics said:

So I was browsing r/squaredcircle and, based on the recent news and the quality of raw, now the prevailing theory is that HHH booked WM Night 1 and Vince booked (or at least interfered in) WM Night 2. I guess it's plausible and reasonable since it would explain the large discrepancy in quality (barring the IC title match), though you can still potentially implicate HHH for the main event ending based on his track record booking heel champions.

Not sure if I buy that. I've read that the Night 2 main event result was decided weeks prior - I think it was Fightful that reported so -, and unless we then are led to believe Vince has had input on creative back then, how much of the past shows has he been responsible for? 

And even so, other than the main event I don't think the booking decisions in N2 were bad at all. 

[Embrodak]

I really think people are overthinking this. I just listened to that Tim Hornbaker “Death of the Territories” book and JCP, at the height of its powers, put off massive payoffs for the sake of stringing the audience along and trying, fruitlessly, to get bigger returns by extending stories beyond their natural life cycle. Trips is a JCP mark, this is just him letting his inner Dusty run wild, if it’s not Vince being a weirdo.

[ButchReedMark]

And eventually people stop watching when they get constantly disappointed 

[Champagne]

1 hour ago, ButchReedMark said:

And eventually people stop watching when they get constantly disappointed 

Yep. JCP kept riding the Four Horsemen past this point, as did WCW with the NWO. We may look back on Sunday's main event result like we do with Tully & Arn vs. Road Warriors at Starrcade '87, or Hogan vs. Sting at Starrcade '97.