RAW 4/28

[odessasteps]

But Fresh is the lesser of two evils, at least in that above thread.

[Goodear]

Can we please stop referring to it as a 'rape hole'?

[piranesi]

 

 

-Piranesi, were you there yesterday? Because there was a drunk guy screaming that Dean Ambrose was better then Taker and handsome, and I just assumed it was you.

I can vouch that last night Piranesi was attempting to learn Twitter with me and FSW as his tutors. As far as I know, he's still screaming "Computer! Locate: Ambrose, Dean! Awaiting response!" at his monitor.

 

 

I have been identified on Twitter as "Big Fresh's friend".  This may be a sign that I have made terrible life decisions(as opposed to a number of other things I could think of).

 

 

I'm now followers with a Swedish woman named tittymaster and a dermatology clinic that specializes in facials.

 

NEITHER OF THESE THINGS WERE THE PLAN, COMPUTER!!!!

[Ramsey]

I'm @drnickredbone on Twitter. It's my radio handle and I can't be bothered to start another account for my real name.

[piranesi]

-Piranesi, were you there yesterday? Because there was a drunk guy screaming that Dean Ambrose was better then Taker and handsome, and I just assumed it was you.

 

That was the Dean of St. Louis University.  He gets himself confused sometimes with other things called Dean.

[Ace]

The show has really been dull the past couple of weeks. They made a few tone deaf creative decisions and are sticking with them.  

 

There is no reason why Kane is getting a title shot. He hasn't been particularly dominant lately. You can make a list of a dozen wrestlers more deserving than him.

 

Kane is always one of the early contenders that gets a shot against an "weaker" champion. See: Benoit, Rey, Punk.

[The Man Known as Dan]

Oh, and I was stuck next to two people who didn't make a sound all night. Why couldn't I have been next to the Brits 2 rows in front of me who were incredibly into everything.

[The Natural]

I slept through most of the show, but woke up right in time to see the Shield no sell a 10 minute beat down and get their revenge.  Seth Rollins' springboard flying knee is just so awesome.  Ambrose is pretty amazing.  Reigns showed lots of fire.  I hope they go over big on Sunday.    

 

Echo all this. Outta likes.

 

Here's Rollins' springboard flying knee...and playing leapfrog at the same time.

 

[piranesi]

Orton, HHH, and Batista in that photo are demonstrating the three stages of body shame.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

Can we please stop referring to it as a 'rape hole'?

How about Kane's glory hole?

[Dolfan in NYC]

Can we please stop referring to it as a 'rape hole'?

Only if you stop reminding us every time you post that Dean Malenko eats dogs.

[Ramsey]

 

Can we please stop referring to it as a 'rape hole'?

Only if you stop reminding us every time you post that Dean Malenko eats dogs.

 

That's tough but fair.

[Goodear]

 

Can we please stop referring to it as a 'rape hole'?

Only if you stop reminding us every time you post that Dean Malenko eats dogs.

 

 

Now look at him.  All angry with no dogs to eat.

[Patrick B.]

@patrickab7.  Follow for STL-area indy results on the weekends and lame joke attempts and life observations otherwise.

[Curt McGirt]

You guys are missing the children's choir as a possible True Detective steal and realizing how TRULY creepy it is.

[Bustronaut]

 

 

-Piranesi, were you there yesterday? Because there was a drunk guy screaming that Dean Ambrose was better then Taker and handsome, and I just assumed it was you.

I can vouch that last night Piranesi was attempting to learn Twitter with me and FSW as his tutors. As far as I know, he's still screaming "Computer! Locate: Ambrose, Dean! Awaiting response!" at his monitor.

 

 

I have been identified on Twitter as "Big Fresh's friend".  This may be a sign that I have made terrible life decisions(as opposed to a number of other things I could think of).

 

It's because you both talk about the Loo's wrestling scene all the time!  My brain works in weird ways

[Dolfan in NYC]

 

 

Can we please stop referring to it as a 'rape hole'?

Only if you stop reminding us every time you post that Dean Malenko eats dogs.

 

 

Now look at him.  All angry with no dogs to eat.

 

All posters... Henceforth, please refer to Kane's 'rape hole' as Kane's 'love hole'.   

 

Thank you. 

[Greggulator]

One thing I love about THE CHOIR is the escalation of the arc.

It first starts with a lone voice singing The Whole World. Then more voices join in with "little biddy babies" in his hand. Then the lights reveal the kid's chorus with "you and me brother/you and me sister" in his hands. Then it's "everybody here" in his hands. That's how Bray's plot is working -- it's one person first and it spreads. And like Cena said, he Bray wins then it's Bray versus the entire world, and the world's not going to win.

Bray then emerges from the darkness carrying his lantern. IMO, the lantern has always had two meanings. In John 8:12, Jesus says ""I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." Bray has never outright said he believes himself to be Jesus (for obvious reasons), but he's used some religious imagery -- especially in his first entrance promos, and how he poses like he's on the cross -- before. Harper and Rowan follow Bray and the light while everyone else is clad in darkness. Of course, Bray's detractors can point out that moths -- truly mindless insects -- are also drawn to lights, too.

The juxtaposition of Bray's work started even in his beginning promo. What does he say here? Does he say "This is the everyday working class, people like me. They whisper these little lies and secrets in their ears. BUT I HAVE A SECRET OF MY OWN!" Or is it "This is the everyday working class. People like me, they whisper these little lies and secrets in their ears BUT I HAVE A SECRET OF MY OWN!"

Is he here to liberate the working class and everyday people -- you can definitely make interpretations that Jesus was a socialist radical, and Bray's Twitter account and other references he makes reference others cast as radicals in history. Or is he a con man, here to lure us into his web and use us for his own personal quest for power?

Back to THE CHOIR. Bray starts by singing The Whole World by himself. Then he commands the children to sing "Little Biddy Babies" as they follow him at his behest. The lights go from dark, with only Bray and Harper/Rowan visible into a slow reveal of the choir literally following him. Then it becomes "The Whole Cenation" in his hands -- Bray using these kids as a way to personally taunt his enemy. It ends with "The Big Bad Monster" in his hands. That's how Bray's cast Cena, who he's trying to defeat. He's cast Cena as the true monster in the feud, the walking corporate mission statement with his empty tenants of Hustle, Loyalty and Respect. Cena's a false idol -- The Golden Calf, as Bray dubbed him earlier in their feud.

Bray also said in his second entrance video: "Parents, I want you to stop lying to your children and telling them monsters aren't real. I swear, man. Monsters ARE real." It's up to you to decide: Is Bray here to save the children from monsters like Cena, or is he the monster under the bed?
 

THE CHOIR then ends once again with Bray sitting in his chair, holding the light, the only thing visible. He blows out the candle and it reveals the children in sheep's masks.

Rowan's sheep's mask represents a lot. Is he mocking the sheep that make up the unenlightened who don't follow Bray? Or is Bray using him as a sheep? (In NXT, Bray briefly wore butcher's gear to the ring. Is he leading the lamb's to the slaughter?) Are the kids wearing sheep's masks mocking the Cenation who blindly follow Cena? Or are they now Bray's sheep?

As Bray said: "Fear not the army of wolves led by the sheep. Fear the army of sheep led by the wolves."

This is why I love Bray and have from the start. This isn't just a really talented guy doing great lunatic heel work. It IS that. But there's also an insane amount of artistry and poignancy and juxtaposition in everything he says.

 

Bray's stuff is just otherworldly. His promo work is spellbinding. The WWE's production work has always been it's best aspect and they've merged his words with imagery. His theme song is also more than a terrific power-pop song. The first line "Catching flies in his mouth" references someone who captures, a predator. But then the title of the song is "Broken Out In Love." All of those early promos conclude with that phrase before Bray does his evil laugh. Bray also frequently blows out the candle once the chorus ends (although the timing isn't always there). As Bray said recently, love is what inspires him. He says he loves us and wants to provide us a new path by following his light. Again, that's open to interpretation. (And also, Mark Crozier was also in The Jesus & Mary Chain, an amazing coincidence.)

 

He and whoever else have come up with all of these insanely great ideas and it's like nothing we've ever seen before.

[Newb82]

Didn't care for most of this show.

 

The opening was great, as was Cena's promo. Sandow was great in his spot, even if it was 100% against his character. Just when I thought "WTF is Evolution doing beating The Shield in a fair fight?" The Shield make their comeback.

 

Some ass-backwards booking on this show. Brie saving herself from Kane after Bryan failed. R-Truth & Xavier are supposed to be faces after jumping on a guy who had the temerity to kick both their asses in fair fights, with Xavier talking shit after getting squash in 30 seconds. The "new" Titus getting off to an awesome start...before getting his head kicked off and losing after taking literally one moves.

 

Too many jobber intros and video packages. The triple threat at the PPV/special event is probably going to be a trainwreck unless it's Cesaro just killing both opponents.

 

But hey, Heath Slater won a tag match that turned into a singles match, so there's that.

[Patrick B.]

 

It's because you both talk about the Loo's wrestling scene all the time!  My brain works in weird ways

 

 

Hey, it's a fun scene and worth talking about.  Good times.

 

It occurs to me that I haven't really talked about Raw.  I didn't go to the show and one of the highlights was spotting some of the DJs from an area radio station in the front row.  My rationalization is that I'll see the noteworthy stuff on TV anyway and I don't sit still too well, so being in the same seat for three-plus hours would be rough.

 

The dark match main was initially advertised as Cena/Batista/Bryan vs. Orton/Wyatt/Kane, then Cena/Bryan vs. Orton/Wyatt, then(within the past week) Bryan/Cena/Shield vs. Orton/Batista/Wyatt Family.  From the sound of things, it turned out to just be Cena-Wyatt with a DQ finish.

[Zheroen]

Does anyone else want to read the glowing review that Gregg would most assuredly give a film like Borderline Cult?

[Greggulator]

I also love that Rollins is the one who started the rally against Evolution. Usually Reigns is in that spot but Rollins saving the day works even better. He's just an absolutely fantastic professional wrestler.

[Goodear]

So I wonder if I am the only one who turned off RAW during the super long Evolution beating assuming that was that and missed the Shield coming back?  I had to check it out on WWE.com just now because it was getting late and I have work and dogs and stuff to do in the morning.  Is that poor pacing or a deliberate lesson to me not to turn off the show until the logo rolls?  In other news, I thought the crowd was quiet most of the night but based off the people here that were in attendance I kept an eye on them during the Shield segment and darned if they weren't standing up the whole time.  Usually disinterested crowds just sort of mill, but these folks were keeping a close eye on the proceedings.

 

This Kane thing is a great example of how great a character Glen made out of this guy.  They are going to have him rebuilt in about 4 weeks from a complete corporate lackey back into his moster personae in no time flat.  The bad news Barrett is that they had to do this so fast since they didn't have an upper midcard heel ready to feed to Daniel with Evolution giving The Shield the rub rub.  I wouldn't want to waste Brock, Bray or Cesaro as challengers here either so I get the reasoning.  Its also why Bryan has had to come up on the short end the last couple shows, there is no other way to do this right now than to put all the heat on Kane every show.  I would actually like to see him sans mask maybe once or twice coming up to the case but I might be looking for too much implicit imagery.

 

This Cody Rhodes thing isn't working which is clearly evident by no one mentioning it in 8 pages of comments.

 

Barrett looks ready.  

 

RVD looks like hot stinky garbage.

 

They need to stop this Swagger-Cesaro thing like yesterday.  One match and move on would have been ideal but now its this mess of heel guy feuding with another heel guy while both attack each other and ugh.  Its a shame really because Swagger (yes Swagger) actually deserves better at this point than being the guy who gets beat up every week.  They could have totally moved on by now and no one would be sad.

 

Heath Slater's leaping DDT looked like the bee's pajamas.  I really wished he and the rest of the band actually got to do stuff rather than being jokes.

 

The Shield backstage promo was really good, I especially liked Dean backing down the hallway, he is doing way better than I would have anticipated as a lunatic face.

[Greggulator]

Does anyone else want to read the glowing review that Gregg would most assuredly give a film like Borderline Cult?

 

HA! The thing is that I hate horror movies for the most part, beyond the obvious classics. I also haven't seen True Detective so I don't know any potential Bray references there.

However, I studied religious cults a lot in college. They were one of my favorite topics -- how does a charismatic leader like Jim Jones or the Hale Bopp guy or David Koresh get people to bring themselves to the point of dedication where they're willing to kill themselves?

I'm also very much into Christianity. I recently switched from being Catholic to Episcopalian (and please oh please let's not get into a religious discussion here) and had to study a lot of material in order to be officially received in my new church. I also like watching and hearing evangelicals, even though I'm far from that personally. This new interest timed out well with the Wyatt Family's debut and reign of terror.

 

[LooseCannon]

RVD looks like hot stinky garbage.

 

They need to stop this Swagger-Cesaro thing like yesterday.  One match and move on would have been ideal but now its this mess of heel guy feuding with another heel guy while both attack each other and ugh.  Its a shame really because Swagger (yes Swagger) actually deserves better at this point than being the guy who gets beat up every week.  They could have totally moved on by now and no one would be sad.

 

If RVD looks like hot stinky garbage, would you rather see Swagger-Cesaro drawn out or Cesaro moving on to an extended feud with RVD?