Raw 11-17-14

[piranesi]

The best part of Mizdow last night was how much glee Miz had when he immediately tagged Mizdow out after tagging him in.  He was so happy about getting to do that and be such an obivous shitheel he almost broke right there.

[Parties]

I wrote a TL;DR post about the booking, but who cares. There needs to be a five-year ban on heel GMs in wrestling. You can go segment-by-segment and find a hundred lame choices.

 

But the roster is really good right now. In stupid, directionless midcard matches churned to fill TV time, there was a lot of quality wrestling on this show. Ziggler's loss was more smark trolling, but Harper as IC champ is great. Cesaro-Ryback never should have been booked, but was very solid and improved the longer they went. Slater-Rusev was a great squash. Sheamus-Show made zero sense, but was really good! Has Sheamus had a bad match since he returned at the Rumble? The Bellas was a senseless waste of time, but a brief senseless waste of time, in the tradition of Stephen Hawking's A Brief Senseless Waste of Time. Ditto Kidd-Rose. The eight-man tag was arbitrary, but in a bubble it was a ton of fun from nine talented dudes. Overrated Steph verbiage and HHH falling asleep during his own promo led to a fun go-home brawl.

 

The scripted stuff is unwatchable - and worse than usual last night - but if you edited out the hour+ of bad promos and clipped it to the 50-60 minutes of action viewed on mute, you'd think RAW was the UWF Power Hour in '86. The current champions are Brock Lesnar, Luke Harper, Rusev, and Gold/Stardust. What does Jim Ross think of a company headlined by Dustin Rhodes and a bunch of hosses with amateur backgrounds?

[Uncle Coaster]

I only saw the final segment, but I enjoyed it.  Took me a while to notice Harper carrying the IC strap.  Dolph leading the cavalry to support Cena was pretty cool, Big Show was ok, but then I loved the Rowan reveal.  It was a lot like the old random guys thrown into the elimination tags but with an "ah, ok, I guess it makes sense" kind of vibe to it.  Either way, Rowan is different and thus good.  I actually liked the Cesaro tease, too,  Of all the trolling they could do, that was actually kind of funny.  I had the same reaction the crowd did when his music first hit, which was not much of one at all, so was fine with him not joining Team Cena.  And I'm a big Cesaro fan, too.

 

The crowd wanted Ryback and they got him.  I was good with that, too.  I'm glad to see him getting the reactions he has been getting since returning.  We'll see how long they can keep it up this time.

[Phantom Lord]

The best part of Mizdow last night was how much glee Miz had when he immediately tagged Mizdow out after tagging him in.  He was so happy about getting to do that and be such an obivous shitheel he almost broke right there.

 

I hate that they're going with a jealousy angle so quick. At least let it simmer for a while. The Miz/Mizdow showdown at Wrestlemania with Mizdow having his own Miz entrance would be amazing.

[JimBob Skeeter]

 

I need that shirt for Christmas. Seriously, Cesaro had a shirt made of hizzelf as a cat? Catsaro? Brilliant.

Here's a bunch more pics of stars backstage with Grumpy Cat last night:

http://www.cagesideseats.com/ wwe- raw/ 2014/ 11/ 18/ 7239657/ grumpy- cat- pics- wwe- stars- personalities

Betcha we don't see nearly as much pix of stars with Larry next week. GC may have to become a recurring host.

[Gorman]

 

The best part of Mizdow last night was how much glee Miz had when he immediately tagged Mizdow out after tagging him in.  He was so happy about getting to do that and be such an obivous shitheel he almost broke right there.

 

I hate that they're going with a jealousy angle so quick. At least let it simmer for a while. The Miz/Mizdow showdown at Wrestlemania with Mizdow having his own Miz entrance would be amazing.

 

 

I need Mizdow to edit together his own "Hate Me Now" video to go with this match.

[NintendoLogic]

I don't see how anyone can defend that last segment. Even setting aside Cena doing nothing to help his buddies, the show was built around the Authority taking out Cena's teammates so he'd either be left alone or have to scramble to find new ones. So in the end, he brings out...the same guys who got taken out earlier. Well, except for the ginger, who got replaced by a different ginger who's less over and a worse worker. That's just bad storytelling.

 

The biggest problem with current WWE is that the top face (Cena) and the top heel (Stephanie) are both heat vampires. Anyone who starts getting over inevitably gets involved with one or both of them, which causes them to cool off greatly. I suppose Daniel Bryan is the exception, but he's a once-in-a-lifetime talent, and there's no one on the roster anywhere near his level. I know that as a general rule, things get much better during the build to Wrestlemania. But I don't see how that problem gets fixed without some kind of fundamental shakeup.

[scraylo187]

There's a hole in my heart now that can only be filled by Rusev and Harper winning the tag titles together and just killing people weekly to defend all of the midcard straps.

[caley]

I really enjoyed Raw for a third week in a row. Sort of surprised to see how much everyone hated it. Rowan joining team Cena surprised the hell out of me. I like it. Dude is a hard worker and I think he can be a modern day George the Animal Steel.

I see some people talking about Cesaro being on team Authority now. I thought it was just a goof to fuck with Cena and Cesaro wasn't joining either team.

 

Yeah, I thought the Cesaro thing was pretty awesome.  He didn't join Team Authority, he was just being a dick.

 

The Cesaro thing seemed like it was to troll smarks crying about Cesaro's position on the card and lack of face turn post-WrestleMania as much as it was to troll Cena.

 

SWERVE ASSHOLES IT'S ERICK ROWAN. BACK TO THE MIDCARD FOR YOUR BOY.

Except you got the order wrong, Erick Rowan was already out there with Cena.  The Cesaro thing was after Rowan had already joined the team.  So your angry wronged smark rant should be

 

SWERVE ASSHOLES IT'S RYBACK. BACK TO THE MIDCARD FOR YOUR BOY.

 

Also I think people are reading WAY too much into it being Cesaro.  He's simply the biggest heel in WWE not currently involved in an angle.  That's why he was chosen.  It wasn't done to "swerve" internet fans.  It was done to swerve all fans.

 

 

The only thing that matters is that Luke Harper started over with a brand new T-shirt and it's already yellow.

 

No that's his classic yellow stained wife beater that has even been re-sewn after being torn off..  I'm pretty sure he just leaves it out on the top of the semi trucks between shows to season it.

 

Awesome Harper match, congrats to Luke for getting his first title!

 

And yeah that Sandow spot above was fn hilarious, loved that spot

 

In the contract signing the way Cena said "Seth Rollins, the bleached blond brunette, with a FETISH....for leather!"  cracked the fuck up

 

I missed the introduction part and just heard "the bleached blond brunette with a fetish...for leather" and assumed he was talking about Lana and thought "Hmm, I like where this is going..." Imagine my disappointment when the camera panned over to Rollins.

 

 

I need that shirt for Christmas. Seriously, Cesaro had a shirt made of hizzelf as a cat? Catsaro? Brilliant.

Here's a bunch more pics of stars backstage with Grumpy Cat last night:

http://www.cagesideseats.com/ wwe- raw/ 2014/ 11/ 18/ 7239657/ grumpy- cat- pics- wwe- stars- personalities

Betcha we don't see nearly as much pix of stars with Larry next week. GC may have to become a recurring host.

I'm starting to think having Grumpy Cat on was more for the wrestlers than anyone else.  The Divas, in particular, were really excited to take photos with Grumpy Cat.  Renee Young had a tweet that read "I just remembered I get to meet @RealGrumpyCat today!!!! Yessssssss" and Nattie had a bunch of photos with her.

[JonnyLaw]

I see some people talking about Cesaro being on team Authority now. I thought it was just a goof to fuck with Cena and Cesaro wasn't joining either team.

 

He tweeted afterwards "Stay Neutral", so I assume he's still not on either team

[caley]

I don't see how anyone can defend that last segment. Even setting aside Cena doing nothing to help his buddies, the show was built around the Authority taking out Cena's teammates so he'd either be left alone or have to scramble to find new ones. So in the end, he brings out...the same guys who got taken out earlier. Well, except for the ginger, who got replaced by a different ginger who's less over and a worse worker. That's just bad storytelling.

No, it was more along the lines of "Will anyone be left to help Cena?"  Two of the guys who got taken out earlier return (Which is a callback to Swagger getting taken out last week and not being able to return and shows how STRONG and how much FIGHTING SPIRT Big Show and Ziggler have, so it's putting them both over), Sheamus is replaced with  Erick Rowan which is Cena adding a guy to directly counteract The Authority's new guy (I mean who better to stop the new unstoppable monster than the unstoppable monster's old partner? That's wrestling storytelling 101), then he adds the big free agent that both teams have been clamoring for.

 

I get the Cena doing nothing to help his buddies problem, that whole element to the story is just baffling, they should have thrown in a "Cena will be suspended if he comes out to the ring before the main event because we're still in power" line, but the rest of the main event (After Cena's jokefest) was perfect pro wrestling booking, except it should have been Cena about go hit Triple H who turned around and ran into Ryback and Ryback to put him through the table (But I honestly feel like we're headed toward a Cena-Triple H WM match so that's why they did that, I think).

[Big Fresh]

I know Nikki has always been the, uh, curvier Bella, but lately... daaaamn.

 

There was a part where she gave Brie a backbreaker, then picked her back up, and gave her another one where I swear one was gonna pop out.

[The Z]

So nobody thinks Rowan will turn on Team Cena?

In one of those post break-up vignettes Bray Wyatt literally said he's going to send Rowan and Harper out to live as wolves amongst sheeps.

 

This Survivor Series match-up might be the biggest mess since the 2001 Team WWF vs. Alliance debacle.

[scraylo187]

So nobody thinks Rowan will turn on Team Cena?

In one of those post break-up vignettes Bray Wyatt literally said he's going to send Rowan and Harper out to live as wolves amongst sheeps.

 

If not, wouldn't it have had a bigger impact for this to be what broke up the Wyatts, not random vignettes? 

[SLKerAaron]

I was at this show live last night and had a blast. Surprised to hear all the negativity towards the show, but maybe I just enjoyed it better because I was there. I don't know if they didn't mic us properly or my section was the loudest, but I thought the crowd was pretty good. They didn't draw as well as the last time they were here for TV back in May 2013 because more than half of the hard cam side was tarpped off, but this was a lot louder crowd than the last one. The only thing we were noticablly dead for was the backstage segments, but that seems to be a recurring thing for live WWE TV. They really need to stop piping in crowd noises for them on Smackdown, because it ain't fooling anyone. On that note, it's probably a good thing they muted us during the first Larry The Cable Guy vignette because that got one of the biggest pops of the night and by pop I mean mass collection of groans.

 

Anyway, here's few tidbits:

 

Why did they hold a PPV go home show in such a small city like Roanoke?

 

The funniest thing about the whole night was that nobody in my section, including myself, had no idea that it was Brie dressed as AJ until AJ came out.

 

Matches are much, much better live than they are TV. The commerical breaks during matches can really take the steam out of them. I'm saying this because I thought Ryback/Cesaro was great. Even matches like Show/Sheamus are easier to get through when you don't have to watch ads in between. This is something Lucha Underground apparently understands.

 

Speaking of commericals, it's really awkward when they have someone make an entrance before a break and then they stand there doing nothing in the dark while ads for the WWE Network play on the tron. Big Show was the only one that had fun with the crowd while they were at break.

 

The funnest match on the card was the 8 man tag. The Mizdow teases were pheonomal live. Didn't feel like we really got a payoff from them though. Such weird booking if you ask me.

 

That's it from me for now. If I think of anything else I'll bring it up then.

[hammerva]

[nofuture]

So nobody thinks Rowan will turn on Team Cena?

In one of those post break-up vignettes Bray Wyatt literally said he's going to send Rowan and Harper out to live as wolves amongst sheeps.

 

This Survivor Series match-up might be the biggest mess since the 2001 Team WWF vs. Alliance debacle.

 

I bet Orton shows up and RKOs Rowan and joins Team Cena. 

[offspring515]

I like the idea that Harper and Rowan, having been set free by Bray, would have different philosophies. Harper always seemed aware of the destruction the Wyatt Family was causing. Rowan seemed more like a simpleton who followed along.

A little time away from Bray's influence reveals Harper as being a mean dude who likes hurting people, and who is willing to follow a leader (Bray or The Authority) with questionable ethics.

Rowan, however, seems to have woken up to the world around him. No longer concerned with "saving" people he can focus on the important things...pretty girls, stuffed cats and balancing the scales of justice by joining a squad that's short a man or two. The chance to get some vengeance on Harper (who used to slap him and push him around in their matches) might just be the icing on the cake.

[Curt McGirt]

After the '13 Year of the Shield/Bryan/Wyatts, I wonder what any of us would be thinking if back then we knew that by Survivor Series of next year the thing we'd love most about the go-home show is Damien Sandow taking bumps in imitation of the Miz. I love the fact that he didn't get in the ring legit the whole time and still stole the match. 

[Nice Guy Eddie]

 

I see some people talking about Cesaro being on team Authority now. I thought it was just a goof to fuck with Cena and Cesaro wasn't joining either team.

 

He tweeted afterwards "Stay Neutral", so I assume he's still not on either team

 

He is from Switzerland afterall. I'd love it if he came out after the match and celebrated with the winners.

[MORELOCK]

 

The Cesaro thing seemed like it was to troll smarks crying about Cesaro's position on the card and lack of face turn post-WrestleMania as much as it was to troll Cena.

 

SWERVE ASSHOLES IT'S ERICK ROWAN. BACK TO THE MIDCARD FOR YOUR BOY.

Except you got the order wrong, Erick Rowan was already out there with Cena.  The Cesaro thing was after Rowan had already joined the team.  So your angry wronged smark rant should be

 

SWERVE ASSHOLES IT'S RYBACK. BACK TO THE MIDCARD FOR YOUR BOY.

 

Also I think people are reading WAY too much into it being Cesaro.  He's simply the biggest heel in WWE not currently involved in an angle.  That's why he was chosen.  It wasn't done to "swerve" internet fans.  It was done to swerve all fans.

 

It just doesn't make any logical sense to swerve "all fans" that way - the casual fans don't care about Cesaro one bit.

 

Cena wasn't the only face that came off looking like a self-centered jerk - what really killed that main event segment for me was that Cena's entire team needed their respective individual entrance music to very, very slowly even the odds and save their teammates. That kind of shit is what makes me contemplate why I'm watching every week - not Creative pushing wrestlers that aren't my favorites.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

 

 

The Cesaro thing seemed like it was to troll smarks crying about Cesaro's position on the card and lack of face turn post-WrestleMania as much as it was to troll Cena.

 

SWERVE ASSHOLES IT'S ERICK ROWAN. BACK TO THE MIDCARD FOR YOUR BOY.

Except you got the order wrong, Erick Rowan was already out there with Cena.  The Cesaro thing was after Rowan had already joined the team.  So your angry wronged smark rant should be

 

SWERVE ASSHOLES IT'S RYBACK. BACK TO THE MIDCARD FOR YOUR BOY.

 

Also I think people are reading WAY too much into it being Cesaro.  He's simply the biggest heel in WWE not currently involved in an angle.  That's why he was chosen.  It wasn't done to "swerve" internet fans.  It was done to swerve all fans.

 

It just doesn't make any logical sense to swerve "all fans" that way - the casual fans don't care about Cesaro one bit.

 

Cena wasn't the only face that came off looking like a self-centered jerk - what really killed that main event segment for me was that Cena's entire team needed their respective individual entrance music to very, very slowly even the odds and save their teammates. That kind of shit is what makes me contemplate why I'm watching every week - not Creative pushing wrestlers that aren't my favorites.

 

The simple answer is that Cena's theme sucks. I'd want to come out to my own music, too.

[MORELOCK]

I mean, heaven forbid someone run to the ring without any music playing. Is that really not a thing that can happen anymore? It ties into the suspension of disbelief issues I have with the overall product right now.

[_MJ_]

So, Sheamus has a completely legitimate reason for turning on Cena when he comes back, right?

 

Took a beatdown for Team Cena with no backup from Cena himself, and he was replaced on the team in less than a hour.

[scraylo187]

I mean, heaven forbid someone run to the ring without any music playing. Is that really not a thing that can happen anymore? It ties into the suspension of disbelief issues I have with the overall product right now.

 

On one hand, I totally get that, but on the other hand, it's a convention of the reality. It'd be like watching 'Disney on Ice' and getting annoyed that the rogue keeps twirling and landing double axles instead of just skating directly towards the princess to save her from the witch.