The Natural Posted January 2, 2023 Posted January 2, 2023 (edited) First week of a brand new year, 2023. Let's hope WWE keeps the momentum it built when Triple H replaced Vince McMahon. Edited January 3, 2023 by The Natural
DEAN Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 Alexa Bliss and Bianca Belair have a title match! Bliss is fun countering the overwhelming power of Belair. Bliss doesn't lay it in. They work for a Vertical Suplex and that Suplex starts Belair to beating the crud out of Bliss. This is kind of like Sting versus Vader but not as intense. Bliss gets distracted by a dude in a mask! Now she's CRAZY and attacks the ref! THEN she beats up Bianca Belair! Needed blood. WAIT! THERE IS BLOOD! AWRIGHT! Alexa Bliss is now fun! Solo Sikoa and Elias have a wrestling match! It's a Battle At Guitar Center! WWE weapons matches are so lame. ECW weapons matches were lame. FREEDOMS~! weapons matches are lame. I would say that weapons matches are lame. This is perfectly fine for a weapons match. The problem is that you have to have a really spectacular finish to make them seem worthwhile. Urinagi onto a baby grand piano was a big enough finish. That was okay. Jey Uso, Sami Zayn, Jimmy Uso, Angelo Dawkins, Montez Ford and Kevin Owens have a six-man match! Angelo Dawkins is a TOTAL Body Dude now! He is our suddenly buff face in peril! Owens makes the hot tag! Montez Ford is turning on WRESTLING ITSELF? Owens tags him finally and Ford goes crazy! Like Alexa Bliss! I like how this ties in with the match his wife was in. (POUNCE on Jey by Dawkins!) Ford hits an ENORMOUS Tope Con Hilo! Sami kicks Ford in the head and gets the pin! POSTMATCH! Owens is going to get murdered by Sami with a chair! BUT! Sheamus and Drew McIntyre runs in and saves Owens! That was neat! Chad Gable and Dexter Lumis are having a wrestling match! I think Lumis is good in the ring but the crowd was not into this. Otis is a great weirdo at ringside. Gable is our Pocket Steiner. Lumis is so strange. I dig him. Gable loses! Gable loses! Gable loses! Oh wait. He actually loses a lot. That was fine. Big Time Becks takes on IYO SKY and Dakota Kia in a handicap match! Becky beats the crap out of the tag champions early. THEN numbers take over and Lynch is Ricky Morton and SKY and Kai are Arn and Tully. If only she had a bad shoulder. Mia Yim shows up to make the hot tag! IYO SKY makes Yim look like a killer! The crowd gets behind Yim's struggle to make the tag to Becky Lynch! They do a VARIATION on the heel pulling the face on the apron to the floor as Becky makes the tag as Kai has her ankle! Becky goes back to beating the crap out of SKY and Kai! Gnarly Superplex on Kai! Kai takes a Rana straight on her face! Dakota Kai is a freak! Becky beats on Bayley! IYO SKY hits a SURPRISE Moonsault for the win! That match was completely awesome. Austin Theory and Seth Rollins wrestle for the US title! Seth Rollins is the Adam Cole of the WWE, in that he is over like a babyface but he hasn't actually acknowledged that he a babyface. Maybe he has, I fast forward over all the dramatic readings that permeate WWE programming. Life is too short. Theory looks great in this. And Rollins is making Theory look great. Rollins is bumping all over the ring and floor for Theory. Rollins makes a comeback! It is a Backbreaker-intensive comeback! Rollins ruins his knee! THEN he hits a Superplex! Theory then immediately counters a Falcon Arrow! They do a bunch of stuff and Rollins goes back to selling the knee! GREAT NEARFALL on a Love Machine Splash by Rollins! REF BUMP! PEDIGREE! NEW OFFICIAL! FOR TWO! This match is GLORIOUSLY overbooked. LOWBLOW! CHOP BLOCK! Whatever Austin Theory's finisher is called! That was great! That was bunch of good wrestling. YAY! RAW! 4
Rev Ray Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 Please oh please do Dom Mysterio doing a scared straight gimmick, but where he is yelling at grade schoolers like the Double J MMA dojo skit. 2 2 4
Eivion Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 Bianca/Bliss was mostly solid up until the finish. skipped around the beating which seemed fine enough. I'm ok with Bliss going full heel again, but I just can't buy into as being close to Bianca's level. Kind of hope she joins forces with Nikki Cross again. Solo/Elias was a decent brawl/plunder match. Dug the finish. Usos/Sami vs. Owens/Profis was good. Dug the post match save by Drew and Sheamus. Lumis/Gable was fun while it lasted. The two have surprisingly decent chemistry, and AA play well into Lumis's gimmick. Becky/Yim vs. Dakota/Io built into something pretty solid by the end. Finish was a neat idea though could have been done a smidgen better. Seth/Theory was good stuff. The screwy finish was done well. The final segment before with Dom doing a scared straight/street cred promo over his night or two in jail was terrible in the best of ways, and I hope they lean into even more for another few weeks. 1
Peck Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 Laughed at the security guard not being clued in to the first man-in-the-mask distracting Bliss and trying to tell him to sit down. 1 1
Rev Ray Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 Hear me out, newest member of judgment day. Dom vouches for him. He knows he is cool because he met him in jail.
DragonZombie Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 Catched the Bliss parts. Happy Theory won. The US title is the main belt of Raw these days. Fans noticed in the background that Hurt biz may come back, so MVP, Omos and those two. WWE's been doing those stuff happening in the background, started since Triple H's takeover of creative.
Phantom Lord Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 I caught the last two hours of the show. it was all right. The Becky thing made no sense with them just turning it into a tag match. Usually they bullshit something a dq or whatever to turn it into one. Here we got nothing. I hope the little thing before this match with Shelton, MVP, and Cedric all together does lead to The Hurt Business coming back. Theory vs. Rollins was an all right match. Rollins seem to get hurt but powered through it. Theory won just as you suspected he would and that was fine.
For Great Justice Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 Has anyone ever seen 2022 Sami Zayn and 1983 Buck Robley in the same place? It’s uncanny. Someone go to Academy and get that dude a cheap arm brace.
Gorman Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 9 hours ago, DEAN said: Whatever Austin Theory's finisher is called! You've certainly taught me a lot of move names, so ... A-TOWN DOWN! 1
Curt McGirt Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 12 hours ago, DEAN said: Needed blood. WAIT! THERE IS BLOOD! AWRIGHT! I thought it was blood too but when she was walking up the ramp it was clear that her lipstick had smeared. Anyway, it was purple, not red. Boooooo
J.T. Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 28 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said: I thought it was blood too but when she was walking up the ramp it was clear that her lipstick had smeared. Anyway, it was purple, not red. Boooooo Quite a few media outlets are reporting that Bianca bled hardway out of the corner of her mouth and Alexa also had a bit of crimson under her nose. If it was lipstick rather than blood, I sure was fooled.
Greggulator Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 I caught the first match and the last match. I really liked Alexa/Bianca. I think they did a great job establishing hierarchy. Bianca is well above and beyond Alexa. But that does not mean Alexa is bad at wrestling. Bianca slipped up as even the GOATs do. Alexa’s strength was always being a cheap shot artist and opportunist, and that is when she took advantage. If it was a match scored on points, Bianca would have been in the lead in a decisive fashion but Alexa came close to stealing the win. The hokey ending is great wrestling nonsense and I am on board. Alexa’s strength has always been her facial expressions, selling and connecting with the audience as both a face and a heel. Her prissy snob stuff was really great. I also liked how she delivered her Manipulated By Bray’s Dark act even if it wasn’t fully for me. Alexa doesn’t have the size of other women on the roster. And while she is plenty athletic she does not have the same skill set as Bianca or Asuka or Becky or Sasha or Charlotte. She is a lot like Ruby Soho in that she understands how to use her shtick to be an effective wrestler. She really is a world class performer in a really unique way. That was a really great main event. Austin Theory rules. Great sleazebag heel. Him not cashing in but becoming a sneaky underserving champion in a new way really was a good choice. 1
Eivion Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 https://twitter.com/WhoisVindictive/status/1610099945389834243
John from Cincinnati Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 14 hours ago, The Natural said: @John from Cincinnati. Do I allow myself to get excited just to have Dwayne pull the rug out from under me?
Infinit Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 Watched the Bliss heel turn/"re-possession" and you could hear a pin drop throught the whole beat down of Bianca. Not even a smattering of boos.
Dog Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 6 hours ago, RIPPA said: Sami is a national treasure True, but Byron was the star of this one. 1
Eivion Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 5 minutes ago, Dog said: True, but Byron was the star of this one. Byron is much better used as an interviewer and general character than commentator. If you haven't yet I suggest checking out his MMM adution. 3
Peck Posted January 4, 2023 Posted January 4, 2023 3 hours ago, Infinit said: Watched the Bliss heel turn/"re-possession" and you could hear a pin drop throught the whole beat down of Bianca. Not even a smattering of boos. She actually got cheered. Pretty sure I heard a “one more time” chant after the 2nd DDT.
Eivion Posted January 4, 2023 Posted January 4, 2023 38 minutes ago, Peck said: She actually got cheered. Pretty sure I heard a “one more time” chant after the 2nd DDT. You did. Its weird seeing that they didn't exactly dislike Bianca during the match itself.
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