Raw is Filler 6-2-14

[rovert]

I'm absolutely 100% certain the IWC would have bitched about that Survivor Series when The Rock turned and joined The Corporation since "it didn't make sense" because he was beefing with those dudes and getting some major face heat into the tournament. That angle only served to launch him into the stratosphere.

 

Wait there was no IWC in 1998?

 

What?

[SirSmUgly]

I just watched the first hour, but I had two observations:

 

1. Bo Dallas has this great sleazy look that would make him more suited to be a heel-who-thinks-he's-a-face throwback to a member of a 1980s "pretty boy" tag team like the Fabulous Ones. He could do it as a solo act fine, though. 

 

Is Jimmy Del Ray still active? I want to see that dude, one tooth missing, rub his hairy chest while Bo Dallas jiggles his belly seductively.

 

Ew, wait, no I don't. 

[Casey]

Jimmy Jacobs is VERY proud of Rollins.

[piranesi]

In Kayfabe terms:

1) The Shield came out of nowhere and ran roughshod over the entire promotion. Evolution had Ric Flair and HHH -- the Greatest Of All Time and someone else very high on that kayfabe list. They had Orton and Batista, but Orton was a second generation made man from the jump. Batista didn't do much solo wise until after Evolution broke up. The Shield had a lot more to do in order to own the yard. Flair invented the yard. HHH owned it. Then they added young bucks. ADVANTAGE: Shield

 

There's something to this.  The Shield succeeded in a spot where we've seen other perfectly fine groups fail.  A very precarious spot to ask everyone to accept three new NXT guys as top dogs just like that.  So many ways to mess it up with booking, injuries, and the guys not being up to it.

 

Very different than Evolution.  They were built from the top down and no way they weren't going to succeed.  The Shield was an experiment, a third or fourth try at a corrupt stable of newcomers and "rookies."  And as great as their debut was, how many people were thinking "Oh, cool we're going to do Nexus AGAIN! How long until this falls apart.  Hey, maybe we'll see one or two of you guys in a few years when the stink wears off."

 

They get credit vs. Evolution for being much less likely to succeed, let alone become monstrously over and putting three guys in the position to be top of the card on any given night two years later.

[The Man Known as Dan]

In Kayfabe terms:

1) The Shield came out of nowhere and ran roughshod over the entire promotion. Evolution had Ric Flair and HHH -- the Greatest Of All Time and someone else very high on that kayfabe list. They had Orton and Batista, but Orton was a second generation made man from the jump. Batista didn't do much solo wise until after Evolution broke up. The Shield had a lot more to do in order to own the yard. Flair invented the yard. HHH owned it. Then they added young bucks. ADVANTAGE: Shield

 

There's something to this.  The Shield succeeded in a spot where we've seen other perfectly fine groups fail.  A very precarious spot to ask everyone to accept three new NXT guys as top dogs just like that.  So many ways to mess it up with booking, injuries, and the guys not being up to it.

 

Very different than Evolution.  They were built from the top down and no way they weren't going to succeed.  The Shield was an experiment, a third or fourth try at a corrupt stable of newcomers and "rookies."  And as great as their debut was, how many people were thinking "Oh, cool we're going to do Nexus AGAIN! How long until this falls apart.  Hey, maybe we'll see one or two of you guys in a few years when the stink wears off."

 

They get credit vs. Evolution for being much less likely to succeed, let alone become monstrously over and putting three guys in the position to be top of the card on any given night two years later.

Everyone thought Ryback would destroy them. Amusing in hindsight.

[Patrick B.]

"Match quality" means jack shit in the bigger picture.  A person would need to be abysmally bad before that's anywhere close to being a factor.

[piranesi]

Which reminds me, does Rybaxel's music sound to anyone else like the Mike Post background score to an episode of BARNABY JONES?
 

[Greggulator]

"Match quality" means jack shit in the bigger picture.  A person would need to be abysmally bad before that's anywhere close to being a factor.

 

And on the inverse, they also need to be abnormally great for it to serve as a factor. And The Shield are that.

[Personal Jesus]

I know it could end pretty well, but I must say for right now I don't like Rollins turning. I think the timing was off. The way it was done made it seem much less of a bigger deal than it could/should be somehow. I mean, you beat them 3-0, and you have the beautiful moment of them together after the match and then the turn comes the very next night. Why sacrifice yourself for the "cause" like that and dive off a fucking titantron if you're going to turn on them 24 hours later? 

 

Plus, Hunter's been saying all along that "all would be forgiven if they just rejoined the Authority" and Rollins was the leader anyway so he could have left any time.  And then the fact that Batista quit on the same night makes it feel like they only went with Rollins as a last resort and after all he's done in the Shield, the first time Hunter came running he just jumped immediately. Not saying I felt Shield shouldn't have broken up, just this angle devalues their whole run as group IMO.

 

Plus, I feel like Rollins is clearly a better face to the WWE audience. He's what they had in Jeff Hardy before he left. He was the least over member during their heel run, but he got over after the turn because of the 3 he has the best babyface look and moveset. I know he could pull it off in RoH and NXT but I feel for a WWE audience, they won't take him as serious being a dastardly heel the same way he has as a fantastic highspot guy. I feel like there was much better way the book this break-up. Even if they had gone with both Ambrose and Rollins both turning on Reigns and joining Evolution cause they felt Reigns wanted the spotlight too much, I would have loved it. But I don't see just Rollins turning heel working out very well. He was the least likely guy to turn for a reason. Cause his long-term prospects as a hell are the worst IMO>

[JonnyLaw]

I don't remember much about The Evolution 1.0 era. I remember HHH's Thumbs Down to Orton and that's it.

 

There was the point when Batista teamed with Flair, and they got his clothesline over as a killer move. I remember that, and Batista improving relatively quickly while teaming with Flair every night.

[OSJ]

Well, if nothing else it seems that FSW and ebbie are forming a stable. Sadly, it's like watching two senescent chimpanzees at a cut-rate zoo that have nothing to do but attempt to masturbate and throw feces at the glass of their enclosure. Sad, impotent and unlovely creatures; euthanasia would be a kindness.

[piranesi]

How dare you. 

 

 

DVDVR is a perfectly average zoo.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

Well, if nothing else it seems that FSW and ebbie are forming a stable. Sadly, it's like watching two senescent chimpanzees at a cut-rate zoo that have nothing to do but attempt to masturbate and throw feces at the glass of their enclosure. Sad, impotent and unlovely creatures; euthanasia would be a kindness.

Tell us again how Roman Reigns is going to end up looking like a toothless hobo when he's in his 50s?

[piranesi]

[sunday night HBO]CAN WE PLEASE AVOID TALK ABOUT TOOTHLESSNESS FOR AWHILE, GUYS???[/Traumatized]

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

In Kayfabe terms:

Evolution won every available title. At once. Explain to me how that is less impressive than a barely defended US title and the tag belts? Evolution had two world champions and spawned two more. Between the four of them there must be close to 40 world title reigns career-wise, right? Shield have none.

nWo changed the business. DX were a pop culture phenomenon. Shield had some good six man tags. Hardly compares does it?

[JohnnyJ]

In kayfabe terms it's pretty easy to put the Shield over Evolution. I mean, how many times do you have the chance to see how factions from different eras would do against each other? We saw it twice and Shield are definitively better.

 

Not only that, but all of the crap Shield put Batista through led him to take his crap back to craptown. 

[Dolfan in NYC]

[sunday night HBO]CAN WE PLEASE AVOID TALK ABOUT TOOTHLESSNESS FOR AWHILE, GUYS???[/Traumatized]

[Sky Blue Sam]

This isn't Evolution in their prime though. This is semi-retired CEO Triple H and aging, out-of-shape Batista era Evolution, not dominant world champion Triple H and up-and-coming fucking beast Batista. Two-thirds of Evolution v2 are past their prime, it's like saying WM18 proved Rock was better than Hogan, when the mid-80's prime Hulkamania Hogan would have handily beaten him.

I even hated Evolution in their day, but kayfabe he Shield don't compete.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

In kayfabe terms it's pretty easy to put the Shield over Evolution. I mean, how many times do you have the chance to see how factions from different eras would do against each other? We saw it twice and Shield are definitively better.

Not only that, but all of the crap Shield put Batista through led him to take his crap back to craptown.

Most dominant heel in company history, plus the greatest of all time plus two young hungry guys probably would put up more of a fight than a COO, a movie star and...Randy Orton hahaha

[Greggulator]

Orton was the World Champion until WrestleMania. That's just a few months ago. He's still in his prime and got run.

Also, Flair gave his full endorsement to The Shield. The elder statesman of Evolution said the young bucks were better. The Greatest Of All Time gave them the thumbs up and not his running mates.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

Orton was the World Champion until WrestleMania. That's just a few months ago. He's still in his prime and got run.

Also, Flair gave his full endorsement to The Shield. The elder statesman of Evolution said the young bucks were better. The Greatest Of All Time gave them the thumbs up and not his running mates.

Flair is not the best judge of... anything.

[scraylo187]

Watched the turn again and I dug it. I don't think it was Russo-esque at all. 

 

Actually I think we should check that word a bit. Russo booking is senseless and pointless. Triple swerves to finish main event matches and garbage like that. Shruggable shit that no one cares about.

 

Last night, people cared. The air got sucked out of the arena. The look on the Titty Master's face before Rollins decimated him was some Red Wedding level shit. Loved it. 

 

I think we complain a lot about booking coming out of no where because we don't see a lot of the in between in wrestling. We get what's in the ring and we get promos and we're left to connect dots for ourselves. We didn't get the scenes of Fredo actually selling out in The Godfather. Not trying to say this was The Godfather of angles, but we've been told that Seth is the Architect, seen him struggle to hold the group together, and seen the group talk about being the best in the business no matter what enough to see a reasonable motive to accept a ton of cash and turn.

 

And to echo who ever said it earlier, hell yeah that segment needed JR.

[Cristobal]

nWo changed the business. DX were a pop culture phenomenon. Shield had some good six man tags. Hardly compares does it?

When the Shield broke up, people are arguing over whether it was done well.

When DX broke up, people barely cared.

When the nWo broke up, people had stopped watching.

[Victator]

I felt bad for Stephanie last night, she really wants the fans to like her. 

[Hagan]

You gotta figure that Rollins will be able to get one hell of a singles match out of Roman. I think it's pretty cool that after everyone assumed Rollins would just be the worker of the group, and be overshadowed by the others, that he was positioned as the leader, mouthpiece, and, now, has the big heel run out of it.