The Sasha Banks-Bayley saga continues with a confession of love, Paul Heyman answers Kurt Angle’s threat to strip Brock Lesnar of his title, Ronda Rousey attacks, triple threat eliminators take place to determine Lesnar’s next challenger.
Wai & John review Being The Elite (Ep. 111) featuring the announcement of the Chris Jericho Cruise main event and notable appearances from Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro and Juice Robinson.
We discuss the ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden and its implications for The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega.
Wai reviews Total Bellas (Season 3 Episode 8) asthe cast heads to Paris for Nikki’s incredibly uneventful bacheloretteparty.
There were parts of this review where I was laughing so hard I had to pause it for a moment. If you listened to this and had never seen RAW before, you would assume this review was a joke. I mean no show could possibly be this stupid right? But those of us who have suffered through WWE programming (particularly RAW) know better. But still, the recent weeks have been a special kind of suck.
Immediately after listening to the opening scene from Raw, that heads this podcast, the obvious thing that popped into my head, after Sasha declares she loves Bayley, is that they should have kissed.
That’s not me being a dirty-old-man. The dialogue just came off as the beginning of a show based on a relationship between Sasha and Bayley.
Do you see this as a way for Sasha to sucker Bayley in just so she can be the clear heel in this program? I’m only asking as I have no clue what they’re doing with them. They’re either going with this love storyline or it’s to get cheap heat.
I’m also with John, why do Lashley/Reigns at Extreme Rules if you’re doing it again? I feel they’ll have Reigns get the win back but what’s the point? I don’t want Reigns/Lesnar again.
After last night’s PPV going with Ziggler vs Rollins in the main even and having Drew McIntyre constantly interfering and helping Ziggler I thought for sure this was leading to Dean Ambrose making his return to save and help Rollins setting up a tag match at Summerslam. That didn’t happen though but at the very end of the PPV they show Rollins in the ring with the look on his face of not being able to contend with both men making mw think that Dean’s return was now going to happen on Raw instead. Nope they decided to an entirely different ridiculous route where that feud doesn’t even exist at all. So starting with the opening segment 2 really stupid things. First when Lashley hears that he has to compete in a triple threat match and whoever wins has to fight one more time against the winner in the second triple threat match He actually is happy about it. You think he’d be furious! Didn’t beating Reigns just make him the number 1 contender? How are these other guys even up for any kind of debate over who gets a shot at the title. The second dumb part was when Reigns just happens to conveniently come out to the ring clearly seeing there is an argument over who should get a shot at the title says he has no excuses he just wants a match. Yeah right. He obviously was hoping to get another shot at the title. This made Reigns look so stupid. So anyways we have the 2 triple threat matches which were enjoyable just to get the same match we got at Extreme Rules all over again. Why just so that you didn’t bury Bobby at Extra Rules by giving him a victory but ultimately Reigns gets another opportunity to face Lashley and is victorious this time so he can get the shot at Summerslam. It’s like Roman has an unlimited amount of title opportunities. The only thing that could make things right is have Ambrose interfere in the match with Reigns and Lashley and turn on Reigns costing him the match setting up a match and feud at Summerslam and Allowing Lashley to get a one on one match at Summerslam giving us a fresh match. The other to go is have Reigns get the title shot at Summerslam finally win the title but then have it taken from him by Braun cashing in and winning the title finally making Reigns snap and turn heel. They could even have all of the shield members turn heel again. As far as the Sasha and Bailey situation I think it’s going to lead to a women’s tag dive instead of a match because there’s no value in the match. No title or title shot is at stake.
Braun Strowman has said (more than once) that he’s cashing in the next time he sees Brock Lesnar. But I guess every cash-in has to be treated like a huge surprise, even though it would be totally out of character for Braun to sneak attack somebody instead of just demanding his contractually-guaranteed match?
And if they have somebody else beat Brock and then immediately lose to Braun via cash-in instead of just giving Braun the win over Brock in a straight one-on-one match, that’s a blown call on so many levels. A clean win over Brock is one of the few things left that’s still meaningful.
Didn’t watch the show but going by what people are saying, Raw is still absolute trash. I might have to check out Rhonda beating up Alexa Bliss though. That sounds very satisfying.
As for Bobby Lashley, he sucked in his feud against Sami Zayn and hasn’t shown anything good since his return but now he’s a main event fixture…? The guy is much, much worse than Roman Reigns. If he needs to have a featured spot then they should’ve just had him feud with Ziggler after Zayn and moved Rollins into the main event and built towards Rollins taking the belt off Lesnar at Summer Slam. This whole “big guy vs. big guy matches are exciting” mentality that Vince has is so out dated. People actually have standards when wanting to be entertained now.
Just throwing it out there, but this turn in the Sasha-Bayley angle may not be a confession of romance, but simply a reaffirmation of their friendship, as friends can still say they love one another. The first thought doesn’t always have to be homosexuality, though by next week I could easily be wrong about this. Either route they take, WWE better be careful.
I do agree with you but I think the little line of “There I said it” that Sasha had at the end makes it come off as romantic rather than just a friendship. Plus seeing the reaction this has created, my guess is WWE may take it the romantic route because they know it has people talking.
This is WWE we’re talking about here. The same company ran by a guy that has done, or wanted to do Necrophilia and Incest angles. It is not so much of a stretch to believe this is where they are leading.
Me expecting an old white guy to change is like expecting a millenial to see things from the other side of their political rivals.
Just base things off what I see this company do over the years and being controversial isn’t something they court anymore, and haven’t for a long time. Unless it’s that one time when an Asian was mocking another Asian.
Exactly, there was a movie several years ago called I Love You Man that pretty much presented the same message of friendship.
There was talk a week or two ago that Paul Heyman has begun working with the creative team again. Is it possible this turn (course correction?) could be his work? He’s at least more in tune with modern storytelling than Vince, I would think.
I honestly think critics and naysayers will immediately reverse their opinions on Raw’s quality by simply finding out Paul Heyman and Sapolsky are on the creative team.
Just say Vince McMahon stepped down and watch everyone who doesn’t have stock celebrate.
Until proven wrong, I don’t have any faith in the WWE brain-trust to present compelling/complex stories centered around topics like sexuality, race, or religion. This just feels like someone gave Vince the Cliff Notes’ version of the Golden Lovers story & he wanted to put his spin on it…“With Hot Chicks!!!”.
IF Heyman indeed has a hand in the writing, perhaps it could be good; but I’m not holding my breath.
