Post your thoughts and questions here for Rewind-A-Raw.
What did you think of tonight’s Raw?
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0 voters
Andrew from Cape Breton
These babyface issues with Raw will simply not go away. I’ve been a fan of Ronda Rousey throughout her entire run, even through some of her faults. But tonight may’ve been the worst she’s ever been used, and that’s one reason this show gets a 3 out of 10. She sounded so pathetic begging for forgiveness from Sasha Banks. She’s been presented as this bad ass, and tonight it felt like it was one of those segments they’ll pretend never happened in the future, like Bray Wyatt as Sister Abagail or Sasha Banks’ love of Bayley. And then you have Braun Strowman, who looks scared of what Vince McMahon was going to say or do. This man has had numerous murder attempts during his WWE career, but because Dad was disappointed in him, he backs off? To me, the biggest babyface tonight was Drew McIntyre. He got up in Vince’s face and demanded something. Drew didn’t ask nicely or beg off, he demanded it. He didn’t care that Vince was the owner, and the clear star of the show. Drew believes he’s the big star, and Vince is lucky to have him. At least that’s how it came across to me. I love that confidence, because most babyfaces don’t have that confidence. I guess that’s why Becky Lynch got so popular.
1 Like
Mj
This raw held my attention better than some past episodes and I had a feeling they’d go with Balor. He looked incredible in the UK over the weekend and I can’t help feel like that’s the guy I want to see vs Lesner…instead we get a watered down smiley version who was made to look like John Cena’s kid. There is no way they should pass on doing Beast vs Deamon. Especially in that stadium with an awesome entrance to make Balor feel credible. Which means they probably won’t.
I thought Drew cut the best promo and seemed like a viable heavyweight standing up to Vince. And What the hell was that Bliss segment? I get they ran out of time but why even send Heyman out there if he was scripted to do a long promo. Could have had her just announce the tag title match.
Finally - Renee Young calling Raw has become the equivalent of what the Backyard Football announcers sounded like in the 1999 computer game starring Pablo Sanchez. She sounds like a 12 year old watching saying the most cliché, things while hitting everyone’s nickname. I once predicted Renee would host Sportscenter or some show like it and now she’s been reduced to the Monday Night Raw equivalent of Sunny Day
(Guaranteed to get a pop by some listener out there for the tefetence(
2 Likes
Jalen from Pickering,
Once again, they were clearly trying. Incorporation of basically every nxt call up was either awkward or confusing. Even Nikki’s was muddled by Cole giving a monologue about the call ups.Which was info we could’ve gotten in video packages, instead of seeing the same one every week.
With that being said, commentary is abysmal and I think Renee has made Corey worse than he was already becoming. Somehow these people are friends in real life, talk for a living, are genuinely witty, yet have no chemistry together.
Also with what they’ve been doing with Seth he should’ve been trying to get into that main event even though he already had a match. It’s not a great sign that Roman’s been gone for almost 3 months and no one’s overness on Raw has increased since. Braun and Dean have regressed, and McIntyre and Rollins are treading water.
Question: Is there anyone besides Brock that getting a victory over feels like a big deal? Seems like a hard way to make stars.
A newsworthy show so I guess that was something. I took issue with the way these call-ups were introduced, barring Nikki Cross. Maybe this is some insight into why Lars Sullivan had a panic attack.
I know you guys will probably discuss this on the double shot, but I had a quick question about Nigel McGuiness. I didn’t know much about him before the doc, but was always under the impression he retired due to an injury, similar to Corey Graves. Since it was by choice, do you have any idea if another match, this time in the WWE, could ever be on the cards? Or is there extra info I’m not aware of?
Matt from Kansas City, home of Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs (and unfortunately Baron Corbin)
One of the best RAWs in a while with how everything was paced, I really liked the transitions between segments happening on-air as it reminded me of the ruthless aggression/attitude days where they had much less time to work with and had to fit everything in. However, at the end of the show I was extremely exhausted despite the good pacing.
The Elias transition in the opening was my favorite part of the show because it showed a clear commitment at trying new things, the matches were solid, just OK TV matches that served their purpose in moving the show forward towards the PPV. Vince was a bit overexposed on this and desperately needs someone else to do the promos for him.
Seth Rollins is getting colder and colder and I don’t think it’s wild to say he’s turning into 2008 Matt Hardy with how much of a goober they’re portaying him as, thanks for reminding us for the 100th time what Dean did, and that Roman has leukemia!!! Seth is more of a sad sap than a red-hot hero and I would groan if he won the Rumble this year.
All in all, despite Seth being a lost cause, a good show, Hiro-John Tana-Cena giving Finn the rub at the end was nice, especially the callback to the Fatal 4 Way from last year where Finn lost to the Super AA in the Elimination Chamber qualifier. I will say I wasn’t the biggest fan of any of these NXT acts in the first place so I’m not that all upset that their call-ups were fitting for their position in the company, but if you’re going to try, at least do a good job.
Here’s hoping they don’t have Roman be Shibata for Seth’s Tanahashi at Mania, they’ve ruined any good that moment might’ve had.
Question: How much do you think the call-ups are going to be affected by the aura of not being the talents who could even make it on Takeover cards consistently?
Jay from Colorado
Raw to me is the literal definition of taking one step forward and two steps back.
First of all the good things of course Balor getting a Universal title shot, the shakeup in the IC title with Lashley winning, and the introduction of the amazing looking women’s titles.
Too much Vince both in quantity and attitude. He’s just Trump light to me, and I honestly don’t care for it anymore. Why the hell is he ok with AJ Styles showing some animal instinct and punching him in the jaw, but Braun does the same and it’s hell to pay? The only thing consistent between the two brands is the inconsistentency.
Last week when I said EC3 and Lacey Evans deserved better than a Main Event debut, I never in a million years imagined they would find a worse way to debut them. Here’s EC3, in ring gear, smiling in a line and saying absolutely nothing. Lacey Evans is just hanging out and her debut is getting an awkward acknowledgement from Finn Balor. And holy balls, what the hell are they trying to pull with Colorado’s own Otis Dozovic? Is he possessed or having a stroke? What’s going on here? And hey let’s have everyone also debut on smackdown too, because why not? At least Nikki wrestled, but it should be a no brainier to put her with Sanity on Smackdown.
And while I’m thrilled that the women’s titles are coming, and they look freaking fantastic, I thought they really deserved their own segment. They want to make the women’s tag belts important but they still play second fiddle to Paul Heyman speaking for an absentee Universal Champion.
And we are back to doing this bursting in on women in the locker room crap? They want people to take the women’s division seriously but we are still resorting to cheap attitude era tactics for cheap thrills. That segment served ZERO purpose. Same thing with the Mandy Rose storyline on Smackdown. No reason for it.
This Raw had Vinces paws all over it, lots of newsworthy stuff, but feels like it’s written by a middle schooler.
2 Likes
Joey from Queens,
This show was weird, the first two hours were a mixture of some of the things I hate the most about the current product and just stuff that straight up baffled me. The opener, while a better showing for Braun than last week, confused me. I’m not sure if Vince has either soured on Braun after that what i refer to loosely as a segment last week or he wasn’t cleared to return, we will probably know more tomorrow or in the week to come but as an opener it was better than last week. The Ronda and Banks program took a nose dive for me this week. The tag match was a complete turd, after a horrible showing from Banks and Nia last week, what is creatives next great idea? Basically book another singles match between them and throw in the uselessness of Tamina. This tag team of Nia and Tamina is the equivalent of Harlem Heat from WCW if Harlem Heat was a team of two Stevie Rays. The Revival match was whatever, Im just waiting for their inevitable call up to AEW because WWE has 0 clue how to use them properly, so i just stopped caring. All the stuff with the NXT call ups with the exception of Nikki Cross was again just weird, I’m not expecting big things from this class at this rate. Aside for a potential worst segment of the year contender from A Moment of Bliss, the final hour broght me back into the show. I was probably too harsh on the Ambrose Rollins match last week and this match has changed my mind on their in ring chemistry, and im pleased Lashly won. The fatal four shocked me with how good it was, I still refuse to believe that they are reinserting Finn back into the Main Event scene. Finally I don’t know if I was the only one this week but the advertising and the picture and picture stuff really annoyed me this week, I was convinced Kevin Dunn was experiencing an episode of ADHD because the cutting to back stage during matches and the constant advertisement of the movie glass made me want to jab a shard of glass in my neck. Also there were 7000 ads for progressive. I’m not old enough to have anything worth insuring but I can tell you which agency I won’t be using in the future.
Overall Score: 4 out of 10
P.S
I did ask my grandmother to watch Raw with me again, however she tapped out after the first hour and a half. From what i gathered she hated the show just as much as she did last week. At least we suffered through it together.
3 Likes
Dave from Sydney
In the same breath we had a topless Alexa Bliss, women tag belts announced and Otis gawking at Bliss. How could seriously mess up something like the women’s tag belts so badly? How could they take such a step back with women’s wrestling
Glad to see Balor go over, really hoping he defeats Brock and we finally see the end to this pointless reign
Jeremy from Kentucky
Overall a descent show. I like how they’re trying to weave real life (Vinces thoughts on Finn) into the programs, but hopefully they don’t over do it. And most of the show and matches seemed to actually have storylines to support them. How revolutionary! And I don’t mind seeing the a little edginess like what we got with Alexa backstage.
Wasn’t a huge fan of the way they introduced the Women’s Tag titles. It came off almost like an after thought they had to shove into that segment. But I do like the design (simple and yet eligent), though the more I see them, the more I just see the two triangles on top as cat ears. But overall, I gave it 8 destroyed limos out of 10.
Tyler from Orlando,
Have you guys heard of a movie called Glass? Just making sure you got the memo…
When I saw Lucha House Party against the Revival again I groaned, glad Lashley got the IC title, it makes him seem somewhat important finally. He seemed genuinely happy about it.
I thought the fatal 4 way was good, glad to see a Balor push, do you think he pulls out the demon for the Rumble?
Matt in the 604
Is Bruan still hurt and this new angle is to get him to the rumble and then win it? The segment with the walk in on Alexa was cringe worthy, thought they were done with those spots. Stoked about Finn though.