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RAW tonight


sek69

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(don't wanna spoil for west coast people).

I think anyone who clicks on a thread called "Raw tonight" not expecting to find out what happened on Raw tonight gets what they deserve. :)

 

It was pretty cool to see the kind of chaotic, "this isn't supposed to happen" angle that we so rarely see in wrestling today, but I don't think it will go anywhere. They can't push the NXT guys as outsiders because we've already seen them interact with the WWE wrestlers for the past three months. They laid out Cena, but can you see Cena vs Barrett headlining a PPV this early? They also laid out Punk, so are they supposed to be faces or heels? Plus is a group of rookies really going to last in the "he can't work," "he can't draw money," "he hasn't paid his dues" WWE environment?

 

Sorry to play the role of the super cynical internet wrestling fan, but I don't think WWE's track record makes such a standpoint unreasonable.

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I think that's why it's smart to put them in a group. Individually they wouldn't have a prayer of getting over (well a few would, but most wouldn't or at best get their legs cut off), but as a united group beating down established guys they can get something going.

 

By beating up Cena and Punk (not to mention anyone else in the ringside area) they had the same "us vs them" vibe the nWo had in the early days where the heels and faces in WCW had a common enemy.

 

 

I also get not having faith in WWE to follow through on this, but remember all these guys have been in developmental for a while and as such have already passed the "can he work" test for the most part. These are also guys WWE can take credit for creating so there won't be what happened with the Invasion angle where they wouldn't put anyone over who wasn't made by them.

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Guest Slickster

Perhaps the segment was written under the assumption that Rey Mysterio would win the poll, thus allowing the NXT guys to lay out WWE's two top babyfaces in one fell swoop.

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CM Punk was one of the "Pros", so it still works with him.

 

 

Actually looking at who the choices were, it would have worked no matter who won. You have the top babyface of the company vs either the #2 face, the World Champion, or one of the NXT Pros. You could make a case for them wanting to beat up any of them.

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Guest Cobra Commander

I love reading the Cena Facebook. These people fund our sad addiction and I thank them for doing so. We're all Mad At Hell

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That was exactly what WWE needed. Everything feels so formulaic and safe nowadays. I've thought that they needed to recapture the sense of danger that the NWO brought to WCW, or that was prevalant in the Attitude era. This was perfect.

 

I have no idea how they'll follow it up or if the NXT guys are up for this. Vince doesn't have a great history with invasion angles. But he is a genius when he's motivated and the best promoter ever, so there is a chance for success. It's not like this is TNA.

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LOL at the TNA mark at DVDVR coming in the RAW thread and being all like "it wasn't that good" "It's not as good as the NWO" and "it didn't make any sense"(coming from a guy who routinely praises and defends TNA booking)

 

and then Todd Martin's all "almost all the NXT guys suck so we shouldn't get that excited"

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Best angle on WWE tv since Mayweather jumped the barricade and even that wasn't half this good. So much good shit from the initial shot of Tarver as Terrorist in the crowd, to Heath Slater actually looking vicious, to Darren Young having to deadlift the "out of it Cena" to Bryan choking out Roberts with his tie and channelling his inner-89 Funk with the "you aren't better than me shit," to Justin fuckin Gabriel of all people looking like a real badass, to Lawler getting his ass kicked and the table turned over on him, to Cena getting up and everything thinking he was going to make a comeback and then bam Tarver drops him with one punch, to the post brawl scene with the whole area wrecked and looking like a bomb went off. Just a great and awesome angle.

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I'm way past the point of even batching an eye at a WWE program, but it's funny to see the reaction of people following what looks like a nWo redux with people from the NXT show. It's telling of how dull the product has been for years, no matter how current WWE fans want to like it. Something unpredictable happens like in a 96 edition of Nitro, and all of a sudden "wrestling is back".;)

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It was an awesome angle that felt like something different and unpredictable compared to the years of formulaic monotony we've seen in wrestling (as a whole, not just WWE) over the last decade or so. It may very well turn to shit in a few weeks and not live up to the hype promised by last night's show, but for the time being it's great to see something like this which breaks up the beyond dull dynamic of endless Cena/Orton/HHH/Edge/Taker/Batista/Jericho/whoever predictability in terms of endless repetition of matches and feuds and strict adherence to a certain format of presentation. Seeing a bunch of new guys in an intense main event angle was great, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next before proceeding with the snarky comparisons to [insert reference to past faction].

 

Rather than dwell on the 'glory days' of the past forever, I'm happy to see something new that (even if just momentarily) breaks up the rigid formula of recent years and gets me interested in where things are heading.

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I'm not quite sure I go along with the logic of Raw being "consciously bad and goofy" prior to that angle to further make it stand out. It was well done, but how many people had they turned off by that point? I mean even by the worst of current Raw standards that was fucking awful for the first 2 3/4 hours.

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I'm not quite sure I go along with the logic of Raw being "consciously bad and goofy" prior to that angle to further make it stand out. It was well done, but how many people had they turned off by that point? I mean even by the worst of current Raw standards that was fucking awful for the first 2 3/4 hours.

I do in the sense that if TNA did this there would be blood, heel turns, chair shots, swerves etc before the NXT angle.

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The guys from NXT are considered as "rookies" right ? If so, I just can't see how they will compete with the established stars. The NWO was about two of the biggest stars of the opposite company showing up, and being joined by the biggest superstar ever. Is the WWE audience supposed to believe that guys that haven't done shit will kick the ass of the megastars of RAW now ? I know, I'm playing the devil's advocate, as I really don't watch WWE at all at this point, nor care, but reading the whole thing, there's just something that doesn't work for me. Indeed it sounds like Natural Born Thrillers redux rather than NWO redux. Then again, what do I know.

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Perception is reality, and these 'rookies' DID kick the ass of the biggest megastar in the company in a very strong visual manner, assaulting not only the face of the company but also one of the top heels as well as trashing the ringside area and anyone who happened to be in the vicinity.

 

If you book someone as a big deal, and book them well, then they are a big deal. Conversely, if someone was a big deal like Goldberg, and you put a blonde wig on him, then they quickly cease to be perceived as a big deal.

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It's a bit of a numbers game too. There's 8 of them. The biggest faction in the WWE right now has three guys (and Serena) in it. I don't think there's been a WWE faction consisting of more than four guys in ages (spirit squad maybe, which again, were a numbers game), and even four is rare. They can just walk down the halls crushing mid-carders.

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Guest Slickster

Plus, each of the NXT rookies is in kayfabe terms an unknown entity.

None of them has been steamrolled by a WWE Superstar yet so they can still be seen as threats.

Physically, most of them are as big or bigger than other Superstars so it doesn't look unrealistic.

You could have Skip Sheffield cleanly pin Mark Henry and it would be an upset but not unrealistic.

 

Compare to the Sprit Squad, most of whom were around 6'0 and were built like cruiserweights.

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