Dolfan in NYC Posted September 23 Posted September 23 It's just one of those days when you don't wanna wake up, everything is fucked, everybody sucks. You don't really know why, but you wanna justify rippin' someone's head off... Last week, we had a true meeting of the minds as former Georgia Tech star Joey Anoai and former theater club geek Cody Runnels met in an empty stadium to talk stuff out. No human contact, and if you interact, your life is on contract. Your best bet is to stay away, motherfucker! It's just one of those days. Tonight on Raw! Bron Breakker vs Jey Uso in a battle for the Intercontinental Championship and my spell checker! It's all about the he says/she says bullshit... I think you better quit lettin' shit slip... Or you'll be leavin' with a fat lip! Also, NXT preps to move to a traveling schedule once again and finally aerate the studio of the funk left by the same 50 Orlando residents that have been going to every show since 2018. Lots to do this week! (My favorite thing ever on VH1 or MTV was when they tried to do a reunion show centered around Limp Bizkit, where all the band members were thrilled to get back together, and when asked, Wes Borland told them to go fuck themselves. lol) Enjoy the week! 1 3
DragonZombie Posted September 23 Posted September 23 WWE adjusted the Wrestlemania 41 logo to have the actual 41 numbers on the logo. 1
HarryArchieGus Posted September 23 Posted September 23 (edited) I missed last week’s thread. I thought the Cody/Roman skit was very funny. The melodramatic score bits'n'pieces played perfectly in lieu of a laugh track. Iyo-Bianca would have fared well in Dean's match of the week. I loved the Strowman-Bronson Reed stuff and Dom making Priest look like a (forget Taker) bisexual Bruiser Brody! Finn/JD v New Day was also pretty terrific. I continue to find lots to enjoy on the Monday show with plenty to ffwdd on Smacksown. Still, god bless Lee Fitting. Edited September 24 by HarryArchieGus
Greggulator Posted September 24 Posted September 24 I only caught the main event because I was watching my Phillies clinch the NL East. But man, that was a fucking great main event. One of those Raw MOTY levels and was not expecting that ending. Bron is going to be fine. 3
Johnny Sorrow Posted September 24 Posted September 24 (edited) I fucking loved that main event. No one saw it coming. All show long they were talking about how Jey can't win the big one. And no one thought he'd beat Bron. It felt like old Vince bullshit where they'd piss off the crowd, or possibly a match with a Bloodline angle finish, since Jey is definitely gonna be in WarGames. But nope! They gave the crowd what they wanted and it was a blast! I like to picture the old price of shit and Dunn watching the shows right now and group texting about how they don't understand why it's so popular and cursing Bruce Prichard for being the Artful Dodger. Edited September 24 by Johnny Sorrow 4
Phantom Lord Posted September 24 Posted September 24 I watched most of RAW tonight. I thought it was pretty good. The main event was a damn good match and I was shocked that Jey actually won the damn title. I'm so used to seeing something happen and when they did the spear through the barricade I figured it would be a double count out since there was only like 2 mins left on the clock before they cut off on USA on 11pm on the dot. Pleasantly surprised to see him win and yeah Bron's gonna be fine. Let them feud over it for a while. Maybe this sets up a ladder match at some point down the road. Also got to love troll master GUNTHER. Him coming down to the ring ready to fight a spent Sami only for him to turn it around be all NO was great. I loved Wade laughing his ass off at that. Joe Tessitore is doing a really good job on play by play and I love when he gets all morally upset. I don't think it's on purpose, but he's kinda channeling Lance Russel which is fine in my book. 5
The Natural Posted September 24 Posted September 24 Surprised Jey Uso won the WWE Intercontinental Championship from Bron Breakker. Breakker only won it last month at SummerSlam.
blitzkrieg Posted September 24 Posted September 24 The great thing about establishing things that they do every week on the show is that it allows them to subvert things. "Oh hey it's the beginning of the show where we show everyone arriving, let's have Bronson and Braun crash it." I thought they might go with Rhea vs. Dom/Liv for the title but hanging Dom from the ceiling allows Rhea and Liv to have a regular match with all the (Latino) heat that Dom brings anyway. Corey is also going have a field day bringing back all his jail references. Sami and Ludwig had a really good match that did a lot to establish Ludwig while showing the heat of Sami. Ludwig shoving Sami into Samantha's chair when he went for the barricade moonsault was a great spot to go into the break and Tessitore sold it well on commentary. Troll Gunther is the best Gunther. Dragon Lee is going make so much money off action figure sales when they release one with his new gear. Liked the extra fire from Dragon Lee and think Carlito has kinda found his groove in matches now. Rey popping up was a nice surprise and Dragon Lee picking up the win keeps the LWO/JD business open. Kross in the digital exclusive interviews tried to do the Devil's Advocate stuff on Smackdown but it was pretty much ignored on the actual shows, so at least they're leaning into it on Raw. Will it ever actually succeed or go anywhere? Who knows but it gives him something to do. The crowd never really organically picked up on chanting "Butch" at Dunne, so it's smart of them to have Sheamus setup the crowd to chant it. Reed/Miz disintegrating into a crazy Reed/Strowman brawl was great. Loved the security guards getting heat by preventing the superplex spot and then Reed getting cowardly heel heat by running off when Strowman looked like he wanted to dive to the floor. Poor Miz. Drew's rebuttal promo was good but was hurt by the crowd doing the "What" chants during it. Did like that Drew delivered it very much like it was a direct message to Punk instead of a promo for the crowd. Like the slow build of Damage CTRL vs. Bianca and Jade. Iyo and Kairi do such a good job of getting the crowd into their matches which paired well with Unholy Union being such a great old-school heel tag team. Look forward to Alba and Isla eventually getting an angle they can really sink their teeth into. New Day and the Creeds tag match felt like a really good showcase for both teams. The Creeds seem to be still work shopping some stuff but with their athletic gifts I think they'll be great once they get the character stuff down path. Crowd was super into this and loved Tessitore losing his mind at both the ref being distracted last week and the ref missing Wood's hot tag this week. Woods wanting the tag but then losing focus and costing them the match was a great little seed for Woods. The power bomb setup for the Brutus Ball is interesting though I still find myself always having to look to see how Brutus lands. Thought the backstage promo with Priest was great. Losing the title really might be the best thing to happen to Priest. Liked the continuity of Rey coming to apologize to the New Day for last week, only for Xavier's insecurity about never holding a singles title to spring up again. Also the small details part of Rey saying that he had a match scheduled with Finn for next week but him scrapping it to face Xavier instead. To echo everyone else, the main event was really good. Bron is getting so good at working his spots into his character work and that shined with a dance partner that is so over with the crowd like Jey. Jey hitting the spear and the Uso Splash for a two count was so cruel to the crowd. I thought that there was no way that Jey walked out with the IC Title, so it was such a pleasant surprise when he picked up the win. Assuming that Jey drops the title back to Bron before Survivor Series but least Jey finally gets his single title reign. Minor note: Really great night of vignettes. Had no clue what the flaming logo vignette was about but Twitter seems to suggest that it's a return of The Viking Raiders. No clue what the Wyatt Sicks promo is leading to but I love how much work they put into them. The PFC one wasn't anything amazing but it helps to get over their vibe and keeps them in people's minds despite them not wrestling on the show. Lastly loved the Godzilla/King Kong promo for the "Last Monster Standing" match next week, I hope we get more like that in the future. 5
Eivion Posted September 24 Posted September 24 The opening with Rhea, Liv, & Dom was good and a nice setup for the Dom in shark cage announcement. Enjoyed Dom and Liv trying to weasel out of it with Pearce later on. Sami/Kaiser was pretty good. Its been nice seeing Kaiser build up a good string of singles performances this year. Dragon/Carlito was fine while it lasted. Served more as segment for LWO getting one over on Judgement Day with Rey's return. Miz/Reed never happened since Braun restarted his brawl with Reed from the opening during Reed's entrance. Another fun brawl between these two with security just getting massacred. Io/Kairi vs. Alba/Isla was pretty solid. Was good seeing the match get the time to breathe and the crowd gradually drawn in as it went on. This was a good win for Damage CTRL to further set up a title match with Bianca & Jade down the line. Creeds vs. New Day was good. Dug the backstage scene used to set this one up and how it eventually blew up in Creed's face with him losing control at the end. The later backstage scene with Rey trying to apologize on LWO's behalf an Creed losing his temper was good. Looking forward to their singles next week. The PFC promo vid was solid but feels a couple of months late, especially with the group's recent losses. Jey/Bron built into a damn good match with some great false finishes that made you question if the big win would finally happen for Jey after the last year of losses. Sadly learned on Jey's win just a bit before catching the actual match due to twitter, but they still did a fine job drawing me in. Bron will be fine, especially since he will likely win it back via Bloodline shenanigans later on. It was time to finally give the crowd what they have been waiting the past 12-14 months for. The 3 hour time frame will always be too long, but this was a good show. 4 out of the 5 matches were well worth catching and all of the segments delivered, pushing various stories forward. Jey/Bron was MOTN for me, but Sami/kaiser was not far behind. Braun & Bronson continue to to deliver on the battle of monsters vibes and will finally be coming to a head next week. Hope they get the main event because it will be hard to follow them if they are doing the type of stuff they have been doing to each other the past month. 4
The Natural Posted September 24 Posted September 24 Dominik Mysterio: "I can't go back!" LOL at Con Dom. Damnit Natural! 3
For Great Justice Posted September 24 Posted September 24 It really is amazing just how much more fun and joyous WWE TV is than it was 3-4 years ago. Obviously Jey embodies this, but even the evil foreign heel Raw world champion is smiling through the character and clearly having a blast. They all are. Its infectious. I don’t want to make this into a wrestling show pissing contest, but I think it’s that 2019-2022 lack of joy that AEW really filled the gap on, let by Best Friends, OC and Dark Order. Correlation doesn’t equal causation, but AEW attendance has dipped as it has taken on a darker, more serious presentation. Really feels like WWE has turned the nose up in this regard. Everyone in the arena - fans, wrestlers, announcers, staff - are clearly having a great time. It’s great to see. 5
The Natural Posted September 24 Posted September 24 17 minutes ago, For Great Justice said: It really is amazing just how much more fun and joyous WWE TV is than it was 3-4 years ago. Obviously Jey embodies this, but even the evil foreign heel Raw world champion is smiling through the character and clearly having a blast. They all are. Its infectious. I don’t want to make this into a wrestling show pissing contest, but I think it’s that 2019-2022 lack of joy that AEW really filled the gap on, let by Best Friends, OC and Dark Order. Correlation doesn’t equal causation, but AEW attendance has dipped as it has taken on a darker, more serious presentation. Really feels like WWE has turned the nose up in this regard. Everyone in the arena - fans, wrestlers, announcers, staff - are clearly having a great time. It’s great to see. Hell of a turnaround for WWE thanks to Triple H and the exiled evil Vince McMahon. 1
Dolfan in NYC Posted September 24 Author Posted September 24 I was not prepared for the rise of Dominik Mysterio, National Treasure: 1 4
Greggulator Posted September 24 Posted September 24 2 hours ago, For Great Justice said: It really is amazing just how much more fun and joyous WWE TV is than it was 3-4 years ago. Obviously Jey embodies this, but even the evil foreign heel Raw world champion is smiling through the character and clearly having a blast. They all are. Its infectious. I don’t want to make this into a wrestling show pissing contest, but I think it’s that 2019-2022 lack of joy that AEW really filled the gap on, let by Best Friends, OC and Dark Order. Correlation doesn’t equal causation, but AEW attendance has dipped as it has taken on a darker, more serious presentation. Really feels like WWE has turned the nose up in this regard. Everyone in the arena - fans, wrestlers, announcers, staff - are clearly having a great time. It’s great to see. The new production has really been used for all of this. The entrances from the hallways through the crowd really help make Raw look like the most fun thing in the world to possibly see live. It really exemplifies the joy that should come from watching something as inherently dumb as wrestling. Jey Uso has been one of the best parts of the show for four years now. He really got to show what he could do in the early Bloodline days during the pandemic. Then he really stepped up with his complicated relationship with Sami and then through the rest of his story arc with Roman. I get that people have been down on his in-ring work, but he’s connecting at such a high level right now. He’s also such a fantastic tag worker that he was bound to start having high end matches and he just had one of the best Raw matches in a really long time with a still relatively green (but awesome) Bron Breakker. But all of this really boils down to a lot of the production being awesome. 5
Dolfan in NYC Posted September 24 Author Posted September 24 Co-signing with everyone btw. This ruled: 6
username Posted September 25 Posted September 25 When Braun and Bronson crashed through the merch area at the start of the show Liv pointed out an action figure still standing on the table she didn't care for, so Dom "slyly" leaned in and knocked it off the table into the rest of the mess. Probably the funniest show long effort from him.
blitzkrieg Posted September 25 Posted September 25 Thought that Kelani/Wren was one of Kelani's better matches recently and a really good showcase for Wren and made her look like a great fit for the NQCC. Was great seeing Myles and Tavion get excited and the crowd being pretty vocal in support for Wren. Not surprised that Kelani went over here but I do feel like Kelani's title reign has been pretty ho-hum. Maybe getting more directly involved with Toxic Influence could heat things up. Grayson Waller Effect segment was certainly a segment. Waller and Theory insinuating that Fraxiom was over with seemed a little bit odd with there being no friction the last few weeks but guess that paid off later in the show. The Good Brothers/Hank and Tank match wasn't as good as their last match. Was nice to see Hank and Tank pick up a win as I just keep wondering if the Good Brothers are just in limbo till AJ Styles comes back. The backstage segment with King and Oro leading to King not cheating to beat Oro...only for Oro to cheat to beat him was certainly an interesting direction to take things. Will wait and see where things go with this. I'm a sucker for training montages so I dug The Family segment, I also dug Oba just casually dismissing Tony. Riley got to get to show off some offense and fire before ultimately falling to Holland. Wasn't super crazy about Riley being back up and fighting so quickly after the finish but don't hate the idea of them potentially running this back. Congrats to Zac and Gigi, must have missed that news. Do look forward to what Zac and Wes bring next week. Choo/Rosemary vs. Karmen/Brinley was more of an angle than a match but it was nice to see Choo and Rosemary pick up a win on NXT at least. Adonis has been consistently entertaining and maybe this could lead to Petrovic getting a little bit more character development. Don't feel like A-Town Down Under vs. Je'Von/Cedric really ever clicked, it wasn't bad but it also wasn't anything memorable. I wouldn't have minded something backstage to kinda build to Fraxiom coming out and reintroducing tension between the two. Also was a bit surprised that Je'Von was the one from his team to take the fall. Most of the press conference segments were just kinda there and and Roxanne/Giulia wasn't really any different. That one answer by Giulia was...really long. Was surprised by the ending with Stephanie Vaquer but probably didn't come off as well as they hoped it to be. Wouldn't say that NXT ends the run on USA with a bang but they have a pretty packed show for the first episode on CW. 1
Eivion Posted September 25 Posted September 25 Kelani/Wren was good. Thought this was Wren's best match on NXT so far and one of Kelani's better showings just due to Wren making her work a bit harder for some of her usual spots. The Waller Effect was just kind of there though I guess it set the stage of neither team being quite perfect at the moment with their issues in recent months. Hank & Tank vs. Good Brothers was fun though not as good as their last outing. Still happy to see Hank & Tank walk away with the win once again. Lexis/Oro was decent and felt like one of King's better outings. Kind of dug King being legit on trying to be the better man only for it to work against him at the end. Ridge/Riley was a fun spurt with Riley showing some good fire. Dug that he wasn't just destroyed by Ridge like Chase and Duke. Wendy/Rosemary vs. Karmen/Brinley was alright though the ending felt weird with Ashantee's appearance distracting Karmen. A-Town Down Under vs. Cedric/Je'Von was solid. The Fraxiom appearance screwing things up for Evans and Cedric worked for me. I like how Axiom is the calm one of the two. The final segment with Giulia and Roxanne's press conference was ok as a setup for Vaquer's on screen appearance and declaration. I do think the could have cut this one question short. I do love Giulia's confidence shining so strong through when speaking Japanese. Hopefully the same eventually happens when she speaks English. I do think it is growing bit by bit. Weaker show in terms of quality wrestling. Nothing was bad, but only the Women's NA title match really stood out. Not strong segment wise either though I did like how much was focused on building up the CW debut shows. Those feel like real events, particularly with Punk's appearances and how they are building the Women's title match. I dug the idea of press conferences happening throughout though I think only Fatal Influences' worked particularly well. Appreciated the vid celebrating NXT's time on USA. Overall decent show building towards the network change though not a strong one to leave the network on aside from that celebration vid. 2
hammerva Posted September 25 Posted September 25 I guess Ashante gimmick is that he is a walking sexual harassments lawsuit waiting to happen. This is a gimmick that would be a lot more offensive in another era
Ramo2653 Posted September 25 Posted September 25 As pointed out on the Twitter/X machine, in kayfabe, consider who's in charge in NXT and his past and those harassment claims might not go anywhere.
odessasteps Posted September 25 Posted September 25 Debuting (?) A sexual harassment character the day the Vince doc comes is a bold move, Cotton.
southofheavy Posted September 26 Posted September 26 That Jey/Bron match fucking RIPPED. Late to the party, but damn, that was great. 3
Cliff Hanger Posted September 26 Posted September 26 6 hours ago, odessasteps said: Debuting (?) A sexual harassment character the day the Vince doc comes is a bold move, Cotton. Ashante has been doing this gimmick for the 3 months or so that he's been on NXT. It still sucks, but it was in place when the doc was still "well it all got shot but who the fuck knows if it'll come out" territory
Peck Posted September 26 Posted September 26 Raw was fun but why the fuck was there a full merchandise stand set up in the bowels of the arena where zero fans have access to it? lol 1
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