LIVE following WWE Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting:
The New Day angle was one of the most captivating WWE segments I have seen in a long time. All day long I had theories running through my mind at what might happen tonight during this, but THIS… did not cross my mind whatsoever—beautifully done. I was so curious about this, that it caused me to watch Raw live for the first time in a very long time (it feels so odd watching WWE not in 2x speed)
Question; if the endgame was the same, how do you think Odyssey Jones would have fit into the story?
1 Like
I love, love, loved the New Day anniversary segment. And the Punk, Rollins, Zayn and Jet USO segment was gold as well.
The story build leveraging history and leveraging continuity to actually express character motivations and logic is something obvious in so many other mediums. But has bee rare throughout WWE, especially with a diffusion that reaches back 10+years.
It was so good.
I think he might have played the part that Woods needed Carrion Cross for in his recent motivations, but for Kofi, being a subtle Devil’s advocate. Seemingly going along for the ride but hinting at a bias for rejecting Big E.
Brian in New Jersey
The big in-ring highlights of this episode were two stellar promo segments. The New Day segment was outstanding and surprising. Big E did a heck of a job uniting his two friends against him, and now I think we should expect Kofi & Woods are due for a major makeover. Likewise, Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn were fantastic together towards the start of the show, weaving in a lot of history, and it led to what I thought was a good main event - the best match on the show - and a surprising and welcome return from Drew McIntyre. Sami & Rollins’ story tonight felt like the kind of story that could only be told within a tight two-hour show like this.
Nice to see Dakota Kai outside of a tag team match for the first time in forever. I have no guesses as to who wins both secondary women’s titles.
Andrew from Cape Breton
I definitely feel like I’m in the minority about the New Day segment. I thought it was fine in general, but something seemed off. One positive about WWE with their storytelling is their attempts to have heels justify their actions, whether it’s Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens and even recently, Xavier Woods trying to justify his more heelish tendencies. So when Xavier and Kofi started turning on Big E, it didn’t make much sense. They’re just bad guys now. What are they going to do next, tie women to train tracks and kill bambi’s mother? They would know Big E’s injury and why he couldn’t come back. Woods even said he’ll never get cleared. And then them coming together in their villiany seemed to take away from the friction they’ve had for the past number of months.
I understand it does set up some new direction for them, but this just seems odd for WWE to go from crafting justifications for their heels, to having an act that had a lot of story built into it become cartoonish supervillians. At least Christian Cage was already a heel before he started mocking people’s dead parents. But yes, the show was pretty notable. Punk might need to be made purposely angry next time he wants to get into a scrap with someone, those shots didn’t look the best. A generally great, story progressing Raw tonight.
Mannie from Pacoima
A great edition of Raw
We got an extra 10 minutes commercial free than what was advertised. The Punk and Rollins segment was great. The Balor attack on Gunther was done well!!
But that New day segment!!! Its not a new day, no its not. I found myself tearing up when Big E was on the mic. Then excited to hear Big E would be their manager, only to get my heart stomped on by Woods and Kofi. “You broke your neck, so what?”
Dawg!!! How could they??? Wai imagine if john said “you stepped on a lego so what?” Or John what if Wai said “you stubbed your typing fingers, so what?” That has to be up there with “you’re in my way, you’re in my way…in life”
This segment was amazing and what I thought would be a kofi heel turn ended up being woods and Kofi turning on Big E.
Amazing episode overall and the card for Saturday night’s main event is looking good as well!
Jordan from the Bronx
The New Day segment was emotionally deep, nuanced and rewarding. Those are not words that I’d use to describe WWE booking in recently, but that segment was incredible. They’ve built this break up angle for months and at times felt like nothing was going to happen. But it kept building until that amazing promo last week. Add in Big E’s Player’s Tribune article that came out today, and everyone’s emotions were at a fever pitch.
The Big E rally speech was fucking brilliant, and I was actually excited for his managerial return… Until Kofi and Woods dropped the hammer on it. I did not expect the lows that they went to in this, and I actually felt bad for watching this. We know that these emotions were very real and complicated to speak about in real life, and they used them brilliantly to encapsulate us all.
New Day has went from being a seemingly washed up act to the most compelling thing in the company in a matter of months. I’m curious to see how soon Big E is able to come back, because this can only end with him returning… Right?
I usually care more about the storylines on a weekly show and this was one of my favorite episodes of wrestling TV all year. This show was a testament to focusing on continuity, carefully curating character arcs and overlapping them with flair.
The mix of Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins, Jey Uso, CM Punk and Drew McIntyre have well-defined interpersonal dynamics which spin-off from the Bloodline and it couldn’t be more compelling. So many permutations to explore. Eventually, you have to believe Kevin Owens will interact with some of these characters, too, as it overlaps with his motivations.
After reading Big E’s Player’s Tribune piece, I was incredibly excited for the New Day. The segment had me at the edge of my seat. This story has been nuanced, layered and built very well. The loss of Big E left a massive void that sent Woods and Kofi’s careers into a tailspin. A growing frustration at Big E’s implied lack of support, moral or otherwise, felt entirely justified.
This was an excellent subversion of my expectations and one that has me irrationally hoping that we might see Big E wrestle again.
Luk from Quebec!
Two incredible promo segments on RAW tonight, I thought the exchange between Sami and Seth was AMAZING. This is the greatest strength of this new WWE. They plant seeds for the future, but also remember and address decade-old stories and feuds that make all the current ones feel that much deeper. The characters are tweeners in the best way, they are nuanced and you understand their motivations and perspectives. I’m glad they’re reminding us that Roman has NOT changed, not apologized, and is still the same, there’s more story to tell there. To me, the Bloodline is way more interesting for how it affects the other wrestlers in the company than when it’s just its own members feuding with each other.
The New Day segment was a bit more on the nose, but I love how instead of going with the idea of Big E reconciling the group, or Kofi and Woods continuing to feud with each other, they went with a secret 3rd option we weren’t even thinking of: keeping the team going but as hateful and selfish heels. The Power of Negativity! It was especially painful to watch after the INCREDIBLE Player’s Tribune from Big E which I hope you guys will discuss.
Alexander from Portland
The New Day segment was peak WWE. Crazy that it’s arguably not the best promo on the show either. I’m curious how they’ll interact with Cena.
ANTHONY!
When Kofi was using Austin and Angle as examples of wrestlers who returned to the ring with a broken neck, I wish Big E responded with, “… and how did their in ring careers turned out?”
Sad man tears where shed on this day. Sad tears.
Nas from NYC
Just to add the Big E written piece that John was reading, I would highly recommend The New Day Feel The Power podcast Episodes 1 & 2 where the three of them go into the formation of the New Day and how nonchalantly the three of them talk about how much harder they had to work just to be relevant to WWE creative. Incredibly powerful episodes. Highly recommended.