Monday Night Raw Live

[forameus]

I'd be interested to see what Wyatt could come up with if he's just left alone to get on with it.  The Fiend was almost always great in the early days, but as soon as they decided he had to win a belt, things rapidly started to unravel, and it ended seemingly with him getting fucked off with the whole thing and punted.  Carve out a section of your show (you've got a fucking lot of it RAW) that's basically Bray time.  Let him f**k about with ideas, bring people in and elevate them, have feuds that don't necessarily revolve around wanting a belt

[djchapsticks]

1 hour ago, forameus said:

I'd be interested to see what Wyatt could come up with if he's just left alone to get on with it.  The Fiend was almost always great in the early days, but as soon as they decided he had to win a belt, things rapidly started to unravel, and it ended seemingly with him getting fucked off with the whole thing and punted.  Carve out a section of your show (you've got a fucking lot of it RAW) that's basically Bray time.  Let him f**k about with ideas, bring people in and elevate them, have feuds that don't necessarily revolve around wanting a belt

He's was in the spot as The Fiend where he never needed the belt but that didn't mean don't ever give him it.

Almost like The Undertaker - he never needed a title to justify how strong he was and as a result, was never in his career a long term champion. Only 2 of his runs were longer than 60 days. The longest was 4 months.

 

[Jeff Venom]

3 hours ago, forameus said:

I'd be interested to see what Wyatt could come up with if he's just left alone to get on with it.  The Fiend was almost always great in the early days, but as soon as they decided he had to win a belt, things rapidly started to unravel, and it ended seemingly with him getting fucked off with the whole thing and punted.  Carve out a section of your show (you've got a fucking lot of it RAW) that's basically Bray time.  Let him f**k about with ideas, bring people in and elevate them, have feuds that don't necessarily revolve around wanting a belt

I was at the London Raw show where he debuted the fiend in the funhouse. I can remember basically nothing else from that show other than that. It was an astonishing bit of theatre, wrestling or otherwise. There were kids and adults around us who were gobsmacked and I'd love him back for his ability to get responses like that alone.

[Jeff Venom]

There're yer Good Brothers back with AJ. Some pop they got as well (assuming it wasn't piped in!). Hopefully they'll be booked better than the utter dweebs they were made into last time.

[djchapsticks]

The bitch slapping of Austin Theory is now complete.

This boy was being streamlined to the top under Vince. Triple H has completely put a stop to that, booked like an absolute chump and it was just a matter of where, when and how they got the case off him.

To lose it cashing in on a midcard title though makes him look shit and like an idiot at the same time.

[DA Baracus]

2 hours ago, djchapsticks said:

The bitch slapping of Austin Theory is now complete.

This boy was being streamlined to the top under Vince. Triple H has completely put a stop to that, booked like an absolute chump and it was just a matter of where, when and how they got the case off him.

To lose it cashing in on a midcard title though makes him look shit and like an idiot at the same time.

I never saw him as a main eventer. Just seems like a bit of a gimp! He comes across as a solid mid carder, but not a guy who should be holding either of the top titles.

[forameus]

He's definitely talented, pretty good in the ring, particularly for his age, but he's just so...unlikeable.  Not that that's necessary a blocker, as a heel you can properly hate is always a good thing to have.  But if you're going to go down the road of putting someone like that at that level, you've already got the Miz who can probably do everything he does just as well.  Given who you've got at the top of the card, I just can't see someone like Theory in that position.  Definitely an asset to have on the midcard though.

[djchapsticks]

1 hour ago, DA Baracus said:

I never saw him as a main eventer. Just seems like a bit of a gimp! He comes across as a solid mid carder, but not a guy who should be holding either of the top titles.

Yup, I'm not disagreeing with him getting the push kaiboshed.

As forameus says though, he just has one of those faces. 

[Christophe]

16 hours ago, djchapsticks said:

The bitch slapping of Austin Theory is now complete.

This boy was being streamlined to the top under Vince. Triple H has completely put a stop to that, booked like an absolute chump and it was just a matter of where, when and how they got the case off him.

To lose it cashing in on a midcard title though makes him look shit and like an idiot at the same time.

Was it also during an open-challenge? Didn't watch just been listening to a mate ranting!

[djchapsticks]

6 hours ago, Christophe said:

Was it also during an open-challenge? Didn't watch just been listening to a mate ranting!

Yeah but Rollins had already had the utter shit kicked out of him by Bobby Lashley and the match never got going.

[Jeff Venom]

Not really Theory's fault the auld shagger decided to strap the future of the company onto his back. I hope he can sort of reset and find his own way, as has been mentioned, he is talented and is naturally heelish. 

At least he got to go out getting absolutely battered by a guy who has been booked to be a monster lately and concluded the arc of him failing in his cash in attempts and not, say, in some comedy 24/7 segment with R-Truth and Goldberg's son.

Edited November 9, 2022 by Jeff Venom

[DA Baracus]

Talking of the 24/7, I heard it was Medusa'd.

[Shuggie_Murray7]

So Theory had the chance to cash in on ANY title of his choice - and he picked the US title. So is his new gimmick that he's as think as fucking mince? There was no way he was ever going to successfully cash it in. But what possible rationale could they come up with for him challenging for not onlky a midcard title, but the secondary midcard title? It makes not one single bit of sense.

[forameus]

Wasn't Rollins offering an open challenge too?  So kayfabe wise, you could've just taken up that challenge rather than cashing in?

Anyway, best characters are always your own personality ramped up to 11.  He seems pretty fucking thick, so I guess it follows.

[DA Baracus]

1 hour ago, forameus said:

Wasn't Rollins offering an open challenge too?  So kayfabe wise, you could've just taken up that challenge rather than cashing in?

Anyway, best characters are always your own personality ramped up to 11.  He seems pretty fucking thick, so I guess it follows.

He was but it was actually Lashley who took the challenge, although he just kicked f**k out of Rollins and not sure there was a match. Then Theory ran down to cash in, but Lashley stopped the pin.

[Ludo*1]

Raw posted their worst ever viewing figures in its history last week. Bizarre considering WWE has been getting lot's of positive reviews online.

Then I noticed what the card was. Oft.

WWE just going all in with Smackdown and relegating Raw to Sunday Night Heat status?

[DA Baracus]

They've been posting worst ever ratings regularly for the past while.

I don't think it's completely a reflection on the product. Obviously much of it is, but there is also the fact that less and less folk watch things live and also that it takes a while to win back fans they've lost.

[forameus]

There's just no real reason to watch week-to-week, and hasn't been for some time.  I watch Dynamite most weeks now on catch-up because it feels like there's an actual reason to.  Of course, ultimately that doesn't matter either, but they've managed to put on cards that you actually want to see.  RAW/Smackdown generally only manages to put on something that you can easily catch up on with the youtube snippets they put up.  And once the PPV/PLE comes around, you know they'll put together a very good video package that sums up the previous 4 weeks well enough.  Why bother?

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

I listned to a Raw review podcast this morning (the always excellent John Pollock and Wai Ting) and that storyline with Gargano, Lumis and Miz sounds like the absolute pits. It seems like some of Vince's bad booking habits are still lingering.

Hopefully things pick up as they head into Rumble and Mania season.

Edited December 13, 2022 by Sherrif John Bunnell

[Lyle Lanley]

23 hours ago, forameus said:

There's just no real reason to watch week-to-week, and hasn't been for some time.  I watch Dynamite most weeks now on catch-up because it feels like there's an actual reason to.  Of course, ultimately that doesn't matter either, but they've managed to put on cards that you actually want to see.  RAW/Smackdown generally only manages to put on something that you can easily catch up on with the youtube snippets they put up.  And once the PPV/PLE comes around, you know they'll put together a very good video package that sums up the previous 4 weeks well enough.  Why bother?

The running order for Raw is usually leaked online before the start. Had one look at it last night and the only that interested me this week was Rollins/Lashley.