TRIPLE X WWE TV! - 1/23 - 1/29/2023

[The Natural]

3 hours ago, DEAN said:

I am sick as a DOG!  I will watch this tomorrow!  FAST FORWARDING!

Get well soon, mate!

[John E. Dynamite]

I actually tried to tune in for the cage match. I really want to catch up with what Bailey's doing. I take no joy in having being an anti-New York hipster smark for most of my life but man, they always find a way to give me the old Manhattan Drop when I turn my head their way. 

Final two in the Rumble, Cody vs. Sami. Sami wins. Fuck it. Just do it. Just pull the trigger and tell the story.

[Casey]

52 minutes ago, Andrew POE! said:

The Bellas legitimately can't wrestle so I'm not sure they should be listened to on anything. The problem is WWE thought that giving Bianca Belair / Sonya Deville a match was worthy and the crowd literally died with both out there (following the Charlotte / Bianca segment). I'm not sure how they could put that in there with the Bloodline segment taking too much time.

 

Nikki Bella has always been serviceable in-ring. I always liked her.

Now Brie… oh boy.

[Eivion]

The Bloodline court segment was good, but ate up way the fuck too much time. That should have been at least 10 minutes shorter.

The following Usos vs. Judgement Day match was good with the injury angle to get Sami in working well too.

Bayley/Becky ending up as a segment sucks, but it was a decent beatdown. That said while the match interested me I'm kind of ok with it not happening tonight because the crowd gave absolutely no fuck about it. The sad truth is the audience has been pretty apathetic to most of the Raw women for a while and its starting to affect even the bigger names like Becky. 

Street Profits/Rollins vs. Imperium was good fun. Dug the little tributes to Angle and how Angle reacted to them.

Bianca/Sonya was solid though felt unnecessary.

Theory/Lashley was fun though i would have preferred no Lesnar.

[Cobra Commander]

They were able to get Waltman on TV on 1/23 (or if you're in another part of the world, 23/1/23). Okay, that might only amuse me for whatever reason.

Clearly Waltman realized he would be syxx feet under if he tried to wrestle Imperium.

Now I could probably find out exactly what happened after the show ended but if there was ever a time to do a dark match cage match that lasted like 5 minutes to send fans home happy, this would be the night considering they cut the advertised cage match. Like feed LA Knight and the Miz to Bray Wyatt and Kevin Owens again, only in a cage match that you won't run anywhere else?

[Johnny Sorrow]

3 hours ago, DreamBroken said:

Hulk opened the show with Jimmy Hart, just a little 2 minute speech from the stage about Raw. 

Surprised they didn't bring up today being 39 years since Hogan's first title win.

Ok, I missed the beginning.

[Johnny Sorrow]

3 hours ago, The Natural said:

 

" Let's go Brandon."

[Johnny Sorrow]

Look, it's a shame they had to make the cage match an angle . But the angle they went with was good.The Bloodline/ Sami angle and match with Judgement Day that went long was fantastic. So, to be honest, I'm happy. Bayley and Becky can take that to a Hell in a Cell match. 
Oh, how great is Dom? He's a heat magnet who gets boos from these modern WWE crowds who love to cheer, but rarely just hate someone.

Edited January 24, 2023 by Johnny Sorrow

[Andrew POE!]

3 hours ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

Look, it's a shame they had to make the cage match an angle . But the angle they went with was good.The Bloodline/ Sami angle and match with Judgement Day that went long was fantastic. So, to be honest, I'm happy. Bayley and Becky can take that to a Hell in a Cell match. 
Oh, how great is Dom? He's a heat magnet who gets boos from these modern WWE crowds who love to cheer, but rarely just hate someone.

Honestly, Dom has really turned into a great wrestler. He realizes he's not quite ready for a singles run so having him in tag matches is great for him. I still think he needs a bit of seasoning in NXT (maybe have him have a run as North American champion once he's ready for a singles title run), but he's gotten better at being a heel.

I imagine if Eddie Guerrero was still alive, he would be teaming with Guerrero or feuding with him too along with Edge and his father Rey Mysterio (although Dom could play into "Eddie is my real dad" angle from years ago).

[hammerva]

I have no problem with the Bloodline stuff going over time because of how important it is not only for the Royal Rumble but Wrestlemania.   The biggest issue is that there are too many "legends segment" that we have seen in all the other special RAW shows.   We don't need another D-X reunion we had one 4 months ago.  Not sure why we need an APA reunion.   And nobody is asking for Hulk Hogan.  

[Dolfan in NYC]

Something I didn't know until just now... Both the Undertaker and LA Knight had the same manager

 

[hammerva]

Always weird to see Brian Cage before his body was transformed thanks to the finest Mexican pharmacies and back alleys

 

[AxB]

1 hour ago, Andrew POE! said:

Honestly, Dom has really turned into a great wrestler. He realizes he's not quite ready for a singles run so having him in tag matches is great for him. I still think he needs a bit of seasoning in NXT (maybe have him have a run as North American champion once he's ready for a singles title run), but he's gotten better at being a heel.

I imagine if Eddie Guerrero was still alive, he would be teaming with Guerrero or feuding with him too along with Edge and his father Rey Mysterio (although Dom could play into "Eddie is my real dad" angle from years ago).

If Eddie Guerero was alive, he'd be 55 years old. And considering how broken down he was towards the end of his life, hopefully he'd be long retired.

[DEAN]

8 hours ago, The Natural said:

Get well soon, mate!

Thanks!  I had a blister on my foot and it got infected and my body WENT HARD!  I went to a podiatrist yesterday and she was like, "Well, the infection didn't get to the bone so we won't need to saw off your legs."  They gave me Doxocyclin to fight the infection and it was ROUGH.  I got the worst chills of my life, which I guess was a residual of my body dealing with the infection and maybe the drug heightened it.  IT WAS FUN!  So now I'm a load for a little while!  OLD!  HEY, LET'S WATCH LAST NIGHT'S PRO WRESTLING!  The Usos- Jimmy,Jey, take on Judgement Day- Damien Priest, Dominick Mysterio.  First thing one notices is that that is a LOT of black leather pants.  How cows gave up their hides for these dudes to look cool?  Jimmy is our Ricky Morton in this and Damien Priest is our one man Midnight Express.  That change in dynamic is fun.  Damien Priest looks better than he has ever looked in this.  He is fucking on fire in this.  Dominick is an in-ring afterthought in this because Priest is so all over this match.  Jimmy hurts his knee!  Sami Zayn takes his place!  Zani goes full El Generico mode and Dominick becomes more of the forefront of the match, as we get some GREAT nearfalls, as Sami appears that he going to lose the titles.  Then Jey gets in a great nearfall but Sami makes the save.  Sami and Jey hit the Dudley Deathdrop on Dominick and THAT was a GREAT Freebirds rules match.  So Damian Priest is now completely awesome.  They OPT to have angle en lieu of a two minute cage match between DMG CNTRL and Big Time Becks!  To mirror the sentiment of wrestling twitter last night, Jesus Christ, you got THREE fucking hours.  It's the Street Profits- Angelo Dawkins, Montez Ford, tagging with Seth Rollins.  It's Imperium- Ludwig Kaiser, Giovanni Vinci and MOTHERFUCKING GUNTHER!  They work towards Seth Rollins and GUNTHER facing off and they do and it's good!  Rollins avoids GUNTHER for a minute and then he doesn't and he is a babyface imperiled by the ass stomping of Imperium.  Montez Ford is great making the hot tag. Dueling Ankle Locks to the delight of special referee Kurt Angle.  Angle and GUNTHER get up each other's stuff!  Street Profits get all spectacular to allow Seth Rollins and GUNTHER to preview a singles match down the line.  Kaiser gets Doomsday Deviced but borrowing from Top Flight.  GUNTHER gets Pedigreed and Vinci gets stomped on the head by Rollins who then pins him!  That was fun.  Rollins vs GUNTHER will be good.  Bianca Belair takes on Sonya Deville! Sonya takes another ass beating.  Sonya Deville is the Jay Lethal of the WWE women's division.  Austin Theory and Bobby Lashley battle for the US title!  Man, Theory bumps like Darby Allin bumping for Samoa Joe.  This match is a LOT like Samoa Joe vs Darby Allin!  So this is great!  This is Joe/Darby with a reversed heel/babyface thingy.  So Darby getting beaten to death is horrifying, this same ass beating is celebrated by us!  WHAT IS WRONG WITH US?  Austin gets in a higher grade of offense than Allin but he goes back to bumping gigantic as Lashley makes a comeback.  Austin goes through a table!  Brock Lesnar shows up.  He F-5s Lashley and then F-5's Theory onto him for the win!  That was a no DQ match so I got no beef with it.  That was a good batch of wrestling between oodles of shit to fast forward though!

[odessasteps]

Quote

The only thing the 'Trial of Sami Zayn' needed was Afa being in the ring to mouth the words "not guilty" to the jury

 

[Dolfan in NYC]

12 hours ago, ChesterCopperpot said:

Nice to see Undertaker needed help from someone in the front row to help restart the motorbike. 

Best part of this whole thing is clearly the guy he parks in front of has quite the vested interest in the motorcycle.  I'm gonna wage dollars to donuts that's the guy they rented the bike from for the day. 

[The Comedian]

13 hours ago, The Natural said:

Unfortunately not. Even the broken microphone didn't want to work with fucking Hulk Hogan.

"Hey Vince, me and that microphone just doesn't work for me brother. I just don't see it being a main event-level mic."

[Phantom Lord]

I thought last night was a fun episode of RAW. The trial was really good. I loved how Heyman went all in as the prosecution. I didn't expect Jay to save Sami like he did but it was perfect.

It sucked that the trial went too long though and we didn't get the cage match. But i think they saved themselves nicely with the beatdown and that hopefully will keep this feud going.

Was surprised to see BROCK return at the end. I'm all for more Brock vs. Lashely so lets see where this goes.

[S.K.o.S.]

2.3 million viewers, 0.70 demo. Good lord!

[Greggulator]

They could have run that Bloodline segment for the entire 3 hours and I would not mind. The whole thing was absolutely magnificent and one of the most enjoyable segments and matches and set-ups in memory.

The whole “Tribal Court” itself was so fun. It is just great wrestling camp stupidity. Roman taking the whole thing with the utmost seriousness in his mob boss character made the whole thing work. It does not work as a goof. It works as a goofy thing taken seriously.

Then it got even better with the whole Law and Order type of stuff with Heyman - the ultimate sleaze - going over his conspiracy theory with Sami, who is of course the conspiracy theorist. And as I was watching, I was completely convinced they put in all of these red herrings throughout. And I thought for sure it was going to be execution time for Sami after he provided no defense and Solo was about to spike him. They got me!

I literally gasped when Jey made the save. Jey has been great for years but he has really become an all-timer since The Bloodline arc began. It takes someone really good to do the initial stuff with Roman and get beaten into submission but still be able to have credibility. He went from being incredibly sympathetic to becoming a great henchman. He and Jimmy just have bangers with absolutely everyone (I really think the New Day’s Last Stand match was one of the best matches of the century when you consider the rivalry and organic stakes). And Jey really hit an iconic level with the Doubting Thomas story with Sami where we saw his motivation - part legitimate skepticism, bigger parts jealousy - without having it told to us. Wrestling is not a “Show But Tell” type of narrative but Jey nailed it that entire time and I am not sure anyone else could do it. 

I popped so hard when he made the save for Sami with his own footage. It left us with an awesome cliffhanger.

But then it got even better with that fantastic tag match. I thought Judgment Day would have petered out months ago. Instead, they have been maybe the second best part of the show for months. What a fun stable. They do a great job of being a collective of awful people but they come off like they actually like each other and are friends. And while they definitely roll their eyes at Dom, it seems like they actually like him as well and enjoy him as a little brother who they can pick on but nobody else can. 

So many awesome things can be said about Dom. One of the things I really love about Ruby Riott and Britt Baker is that they have limitations athletically but lean into the character aspects fantastically well to make them upper tier wrestlers. Dom was set up to fail as a green chubby kid without a lot of athleticism against his dad, one of the most athletic wrestlers ever and arguably the greatest babyface in history. Dom has really arrived by doing the same things as Ruby and Britt — making his limitations his strength, playing off of the relationships of his alliance, and leaning into the material he is given and “making it work” as Regal said all the time on his podcast.

Damian Priest is also fantastic. He has been such a great glue guy for Judgment Day — really good muscle who juxtaposes well with Finn’s flashy leadership and a good promo. Unsung worker of the year.

As soon as Jimmy went down, and it was clear Sami was going to replace him, my investment in what was already a very good match just went up. I really had no idea what they were going to do — is Sami was going to cost them the match accidentally or intentionally with Dom getting the win. I know what the end game is going to be but they made me think otherwise.

That was an absolutely spectacular block of professional wrestling: Sublime, ridiculous, emotional that incorporated one hell of a match and still gives us the cliffhanger for Saturday.

A+.

[Ziggy]

I watched the Sami Trail segment and it really delivered. Although I wonder what they originally had planned for Roman's Acknowledgement ceremony mainly because of who they would have had appeared with the 3 Generations of the Bloodline would have been better than the same legends we see come out on these Raw specials 2 to 3 times a year anyway.

That segment was one of the best from the Bloodline not only because it was good but it helped add my interest in the Rumble. I don't expect Sami to win but just his interactions with the rest on the Bloodline got me hyped to see how it plays out. Also the fact that each of the Bloodline respectively have been booked strong so its going to be interesting to see how these guys are booked in the match itself. 

I'm ready for Roman to drop the title but part of me isn't because I'm sure we'll see much less of him after he drops the titles. It's a shame he didn't get this heel run before the pandemic era and before he reduced his schedule. I know he's broken down physically but imagine if he got to be like this 5 , 6 years before.

[Jamal]

22 hours ago, Casey said:

Nikki Bella has always been serviceable in-ring. I always liked her.

Now Brie… oh boy.

Right before her injury, after, and then the 2016 Smackdown run and beyond, Nikki was perfectly fine hanging with the new roster of women. 

Brie was alright but was always her best as a second, IMO.

Tonight's NXT was pretty decent. Glad they stopped with this Toxic Attraction "break up" that no one was buying. 

Elektra Lopez slowly bringing Valentina to the darkside has been fun.

Speaking of which, if we get Alba Fyre seduced into witchcraft, it will all be worth it. 

[Eivion]

Missed most of NXT for my DVR since I was without power for around 7 hours. Anyone know when it hits Peacock?

[clintthecrippler]

Loving Waltman's sarcastic dig at what had become the pattern for these legends reunion shows over the years. It was awesome finally seeing some legends return to Raw and not having it end with someone being buried. Even the Undertaker merely fed LA Knight to Bray Wyatt for the final blow. The way these segments ended up playing out actually made me think that "huh, maybe Hunter still has final creative say after all". 

But on the other hand, no sign of Gargano, Candice, Lumis, or Bronson on the big 30th anniversary edition of Raw, so?

[worldcupfever]

3 hours ago, clintthecrippler said:

But on the other hand, no sign of Gargano, Candice, Lumis, or Bronson on the big 30th anniversary edition of Raw, so?

Gargano, Candice, and Lumis were visible in the background of the poker game.