John Pollockand Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring the destruction of Matt Hardy.
Monday’s episode featured the resurrection of Matt Hardy before more impending doom from Randy Orton, a six-man tag with Seth Rollins’ disciples against Kevin Owens & Vikings Raiders following Rollins’ sermon, Becky Lynch goes through withdrawal symptoms, the announcement of the women’s Elimination Chamber match, plus the return of AJ Styles, Rusev, and MVP.
John & Wai share their thoughts on the first episode of the WWE Network’s Ruthless Aggression series as well as NXT TakeOver: Portland.
POST Wrestling LIVE in Tampa: See John & Wai live in Tampa, FL on Sunday April 5th, 12pm ET for their annual WrestleMania Weekend Q&A.
2 mins in and I have an image a Wai sitting in his room waiting for this cable guy like Aleister Black: “I Am waiting for someone to KNOCK on my DOOR to FIX my INTERNET.”
Why do they give specific names to generic moves depending on who does it ? I’ve been thinking about this one. A suplex from Taz is not like a suplex from Brock Lesnar because they are not the same size, they don’t have the same speed, strength, height, impact, etc… Same for Randy’s draping DDT and Ciampa’s Willow’s Bell. Different morphotypes create different moves. I will not feel the same thing if Miz does a frog splash on me compared to the Big Show for example so, I would not call it “frog splash” in both cases. Moreover, I think it adds to the personality of the character to have a set of moves with names related to the character.
R-Truth has been doing Cena moves for quite a while, Wai. There’s a running gag of him saying Cena is his childhood hero.
Also, since you guys reminded me, Aleister Black’s locked in a cage dialogue was a more flowery and convoluted version of some dialogue from Watchmen (the comic and the movie, not the TV show) in which Rorshach told fellow inmates that he’s not locked up with them, they’re locked up with him, implying he’s the bigger threat (the apex predator if you will) within an enclosed, dangerous setting.
After a pretty good run of shows, RAW was pretty bad last night.
The promos are just so brutal. The Rollins stuff is horrendous and kills the crowd. It’s getting worse week by week and this gimmick is going to damage his career.
And that OC/Ricochet interaction was pathetic. Shayna and Becky were also both god awful on the mic. I also don’t know what the hell they’re doing with Liv Morgan but it’s really bad.
The first hour was watchable but the show just went off a cliff after that.
I didn’t have a problem with Shayna and Becky. But the rest was largely a step back from the last several weeks. The Rollins stuff is dull because it feels like the same match every week. Rollins group vs Owens/Joe/Raiders. Nothing is really advancing or happening. Like things escalated, then has kind of trailed off. Then we have Garza/Carillo getting tied up with Lashley and Lana for some reason.
Shayna just acts and talks unlike she did in NXT. Lame ass lines.
And are we just supposed to forget that Garza proposed to his girlfriend on NXT TV? These call ups (along with Street Profits and Riddick Moss) have been poorly done. Not surprising though
I think Garza has been fine he was a back and forth face heel already. Moss is also fine as he was doing nothing in NXT, now he is at least doing something. It isn’t great but it isn’t a step down. Street Profits had one good night on the main roster, and have otherwise been bad.
I just don’t understand doing that whole deal on NXT and then calling him up to be a ladies man character. Why bother? His work is fine and I think he has some potential but clearly there is zero long term planning and it makes NXT and WWE look bad
I mean they let the guy propose on air. He was playing a ladies man almost immediately prior to that. Most people watching the main roster have no idea who he is from NXT anyway. I’m not a huge fan but it is a fine use of him. I also think this was emergency booking with Andrade being out and then wanting to do more with Humberto while he was out and staying with a similar feud with Zelina. I think Garza’s heel persona is a ladies man so it is what it is.
That could have easily been a dark segment, had no reason to be televised.
The Riddick Moss thing is also very odd. He’s been signed since 2014 and hasn’t really had much of a tv role on NXT. It also doesn’t appear he’s improved much or developed at all during his lengthy time in developmental. So what exactly did they develop during his six years in Florida?
