It’s night one of the 2018 Superstar Shake-Up as wrestlers from SmackDown Live jump over to Raw. Join us as we dissect an evening of game-changing roster changes featuring the likes of Jinder Mahal, Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler and Breezango! Also, Jeff Hardy becomes a Grand Slam champ and a former NXT champion makes his return.
We also discuss the John Cena-Nikki Bella break-up and on-again-off-again relationship status of Rusev and The Undertaker.
In January 2005, during a house show in Winnipeg, current champions Eugene & Regal were scheduled to face La Resistance in a tag title match. Eugene was injured at the New Year’s Revolution PPV shortly before this. Coach came out to announce a replacement for Eugene, revealing it to be himself. The match was only like a minute long, Coach just screwed and distracted Regal, allowing La Res to capitalize and win easily.
I’m not sure if the Coach is officially recognized as a tag team champion, but he did hold the title for that one match.
One of the few house shows I attended so that’s why I remember this.
I said out loud “Wai! No!” when he said he liked the dual brand commercial. Jesus I hated that spot. I am with John, I HATED this episode. Especially coming off an amazing show last week. And the commentary actually made me mute the tv a couple of times it was so aggravating.
In defense of Coach:
As a commentator he gets to play the role of the new fan who has not been exposed to regular Raw/Smackdown. I know people are giving him a hard time but if you are a new viewer to a show it could be helpful to have someone asking seemingly silly questions like “What exactly is The Bar?”.
I say this in defense of Coach but the fact that everyone turns on him and yells at him means that WWE is sending the impression that new fans of wrestling deserved to be shunned and exiled. The execution is horrendous…I don’t have a problem with the silly/simple character questions on commentary though.
Regarding the Draft:
Jinder:
As someone who is STILL a big Jinder Mahal fan I’m definitely eager to see what they do with him on Raw. I’m hoping they give him the Kane treatment in that he evolves into a secondary mid-card monster heel rather than the highly questionable racist/cowardly heel we had on Smackdown. Jinder has the build, the facials and intimidation down…book him in a way that fits his look and charisma…its a crime they’ve dropped the ball on him.
Roode:
Why? This guy had like 3 feuds on Smackdown with the vast majority of the roster still open for opportunities. The guy could have helped define Smackdown as an exclusive talent much like AJ and Daniel Bryan. I’m not a fan of Roode at all…I think he’s as dull as Randy Ortan but with a worse finisher and less charisma. But the fans got behind him and he had a ton of potential where he was including the heel turn we all look forward to. Going to Raw feels like a step backwards for his career because I just can’t see the man fitting among the top of the card or really standing out among the talent.
Ziggler:
I’m one of 5 people who is still actively a fan of Ziggler and a lot of this has to do with the fact that I missed his first run entirely. In my eyes this guy is an amazing wrestler and I want to see him get a push. Ziggler to me right now is what Rusev is to everyone else right now, lol. Here’s hoping WWE can find a way to make Ziggler feel relevant on Raw. I doubt it will work out but this fan still has hope.
In regards to Raw:
A nothing episode that couldn’t tell any stories or feuds because it was too busy doing news worthy things. 2 weeks in a row of this stuff. It makes for GREAT podcasts and post show discussions but if you wanted to tune in and watch some Wrestling…forget about it. No time for that garbage. I guess what I’m saying is that I feel like the Raw after WM and the Draft probably shouldn’t be back to back. It takes something that should be exciting and waters it down due to excess. It would be far more exciting to keep these things separated and to build up to them. Introduce a max of 2 stars on Raw after mania. Draft after Backlash using the swaps to immediately build fresh feuds or new goals.
I feel like Drew is already in a death spot being paired with Dolph. Like John said, it’s a groan when we see Dolph now. Would have preferred Drew to be by himself at first.
Great Podcast I hope that I can do a show with you guys sometimes so we can be the dream commentary team of Bobby, Gorrilla and Jesse and if there is a 4th member J.R. and a 5th Macho Man. Now that’s an all star commentary team. Anyways my opinions of Raw and the Superstar shake up are pretty simple. Very disappointing and didn’t make a lot of sense. A lot of the roster that was moved from Smack down wasn’t even getting over on Smackdown which is the less lively show. Now if they were having trouble on the less lively show why would they get over on the more exciting show Raw. They are going to be completely buried now. No one cares for Bobby Roode. He mine as well come out to his theme song and then as soon as the bell rings just go back to the dressing room. Jinder can’t wrestle himself our of a paper bag so how far is he really going to go? Really to some this shake up up is basically a bunch of wrestlers that weren’t really getting anywhere or have been stale on Smackdown were just transferred over to Raw. The thing is they are going to be completely butchered now. The WWE had to understand that if there are people on the roster that aren’t really getting anywhere or that they no intentions pushing then It’s time to just let them go period. I mean why waste money and peoples interest. No one should be bored for any program or match. You should only keep wrestlers that have potential. I like Chad gable getting drafted but WWE better do something with him. He’s got so much talent but if your going to keep making him lose people are going to give up like with Dolph where they have pretended multiple times to promote but really had intention to really get him over. As far as wrestlers that should of been drafted and that’s what it needs to be called the draft lottery like it used to be. Anyways I think the Uso’ s should of came to Raw and they could have them team with Roman finally setting up a big heel turn and a new heel faction that would get Roman over. AJ should of definitely come over because he’s become so popular and thst’ s the way it should be. The wrestlers that have graduated off of Smackdown should get drafted to Raw. I’m fine with most of the other guys on Smackdown just the guys they moved to Raw should of stayed on Smackdown giving more depth to the show with the guy’s drafted to Smackdown. So those are my issues that the smackdown drafts to Raw make No sense. All of those guys should of stayed on Smackdown or drafted to NXT or let go.