Raw 12-29-14 - Edge and Christian Host

[Cobra Commander]

One more Devil's Advocate point: Why should Bryan have to enter the Rumble to get a shot a title that he never lost in the ring?

 

Although if they re-run the Bryan/Authority angle from last January with the Authority refusing to let Bryan in the Rumble for health reasons... well..

[Big Fresh]

 

 you sexist fucks

 

Surefire sign that the argument is not going your way.

[A Guy Named Tracy]

I wasn't paying attention. What happened to Christian at the end there?

Seth hit him with the brief case and then he disappeared like a dead character fades out in a video game.

I swear I saw a bunch of coins bouncing in the ring in Christian's place after the briefcase shot.

[Dewar]

I still want a reason why Triple H and Steph just hung around backstage, seemingly waiting to be put back into power. It was established in kayfabe land that they were out of power and we saw Rollins backstage on his own a lot with J&J Security. 

 

Why the fuck were they backstage? That makes no sense. Why not just advertise next week as "The Return of The Authority?" 

 

They knew what Seth was "masterminding" that night with E&C. That's going to be the reason they were backstage.

[Cobra Commander]

 

Wrestling riot, we'd probably get this:

 

 

If the image that WWE wants to close the Rumble with is trash flying at Reigns then more power to them. 

 

have we had much trash throwing since WCW crushed the interest of their fans in 1999? Trash throwing always seemed like more of a Southern WCW crowd thing than a thing that happens in WWE shows or amongst European Wrestling tourist fans

[Eivion]

Thought the show was good up until the ending segment. That thing just went way too long, especially with a crowd that could not give a fuck about it. The idea of it was nice, but they needed at least five less minutes and a hotter crowd to make it work. Bryan's announcement would have made for a better ending.

[Cobra Commander]

as for the Rumble: Bryan enters at #2, final four of Bryan, Reigns, Ambrose (or Ziggler) and maybe Rusev. Ambrose gets eliminated, then the Rumble 92 ending that I mentioned. Having Bryan work an hour is either batshit crazy, or just a better overall story than having him return off of 6 months off, drawing #27 and working 13 minutes, and losing. Have Bryan make a run at the Mysterio record in the process, especially if you think they'll want him to work 25-30 minutes soon.

 

Ok, short of having a Rumble winner who loses his shot in February, there's not exactly a great heel option to win in Philly.

[Fallacy!]

With The Authority back, Cena sort of feuding with them and sort of feuding with Brock Lesnar, Big Show randomly involved and Daniel Bryan now back to most likely feud with them in some way, we are on track to completely rewind the clock and be exactly where we were at with WWE about six months ago.

 

Let's get Kane back into the fold next week and it will really be a home run.

[Rehabilitated Rick]

Am I wrong in thinking we're not supposed to want the authority on TV? Like could it be they're actually doing a tremendous job in being effective heels? Seth was damn good in the closing segment, hitting every line perfectly and some form of suspense had to be generated in order to get over the angle, you can't have Cena bring them back 5 seconds after Show grabbed Edge. It was executed well and the dead ass crowd reacted huge when Seth eventually laid out what he actually wanted.

 

The whole show was pretty fucking fun as a whole.

 

Ryback summarizing his podcast with Jericho in 5 minutes was.. odd.

 

Ascension were put in the absolute worst spot imaginable though and why would you have them both squash Mizdow of all people, are these guys heels? I know they were in NXT, who knows. But seriously, Miz looked genuinely pissed off sitting on his ass at ringside.

 

Cesaro pretty much sucks, physical charisma is one thing, but he completely bombed his one real chance at showcasing some form of ability on the stick. I could almost hear the groin groan and envision the ''I told you so'' look on Vince's face backstage seeping through the Laptop.

[Rev Ray]

 

 

I wasn't paying attention. What happened to Christian at the end there?

Seth hit him with the brief case and then he disappeared like a dead character fades out in a video game.

I swear I saw a bunch of coins bouncing in the ring in Christian's place after the briefcase shot.

 

 

Quick, someone get WrasslorMonkey to work...

[JonnyLaw]

I still want a reason why Triple H and Steph just hung around backstage, seemingly waiting to be put back into power. It was established in kayfabe land that they were out of power and we saw Rollins backstage on his own a lot with J&J Security.

Why the fuck were they backstage? That makes no sense. Why not just advertise next week as "The Return of The Authority?"

They knew what Seth was "masterminding" that night with E&C. That's going to be the reason they were backstage.

Yeah, I don't see what is so hard to figure out about that.

Also, I love how Bryan threw in how he wished he could have been there when they lost. Combined with the fact he was basically the one to kick them out Inc RAW the next night, I doubt him returning the same night the Authority did is a coincidence.

Did anyone else notice how they had to cut away a few times in the last segment to not show someone putting on their coat and leaving?

[Phantom Lord]

 

 

Wrestling riot, we'd probably get this:

 

 

If the image that WWE wants to close the Rumble with is trash flying at Reigns then more power to them. 

 

have we had much trash throwing since WCW crushed the interest of their fans in 1999? Trash throwing always seemed like more of a Southern WCW crowd thing than a thing that happens in WWE shows or amongst European Wrestling tourist fans

 

 

I can't remember the last time trash was thrown in mass at the ring like it was during the birth of the NWO. Philly is the kinda town the riots in their sporting venues. I could see a gassed Roman Reigns winning the rumble and someone hurls a chair from the fifth row into the ring while Roman tries to do the stupid point to the WM sign thing.

 

This was a great show until the end. Daniel Bryan's announcement should have closed the show. It would have gotten some positive press for the WWE. Instead the show goes right off a cliff with The Acension debut falling flat and then the whole cutting edge thing. I figured Edge was going to use the one last bump he had in him so he could finally go away and never have to come back (it would be like when Tully beat up a crippled Magnum T.A.). Instead we get Cena with his bullshit "well he's a friend but let me just see how far they're willing to go to hurt him" act. I did laugh at Seth taking a shot at Cena being Mr. Make A Wish.

 

I knew The Authority had to come back. But they could have at least milked it for a little while longer. Well I guess its better they come back next week rather than against the Football National Championship game on the 12th.

 

I'd personally would have loved to of seen the WWE spin with them thinking the solution to low ratings is The Authority and they come back and get killed against the National Title game.

[Reed]

I want a kayfabe reason for why Triple H and Stephanie were just hanging out backstage. 

 

As soon as Cena announced he'd bring them back they ran all the way from their house to the arena.

 

They ARE fitness fanatics, after all.

[TheVileOne]

If WWE is smart, we have our Rumble winner and we have our WrestleMania 31 main event.  It's Daniel Bryan.  

 

Face it.  Roman Reigns main event turn sucks.  Fans aren't biting.  

 

Daniel Bryan has the best built-in storyline to win the Rumble match.  Name one WrestleMania main event that would be more dramatic than Lesnar vs. Bryan.  It would be David vs. Goliath in WrestleMania form.  Fans would eat it up.  Fans relate to Daniel Bryan unlike with Cena and Roman Reigns.  

 

WWE Creative by trying to turn Reigns into a main eventer have ruined him.  Give him someone like Rusev instead as a consolation prize.  

 

At least when Batista had his first main event run, fans wanted to see it.  Fans wanted to see him get out from under Triple H and destroy him.  In fact, fans basically turned to Batista over Randy Orton after his initial main event run failed.

[Cobra Commander]

 

 

 

Wrestling riot, we'd probably get this:

 

 

If the image that WWE wants to close the Rumble with is trash flying at Reigns then more power to them. 

 

have we had much trash throwing since WCW crushed the interest of their fans in 1999? Trash throwing always seemed like more of a Southern WCW crowd thing than a thing that happens in WWE shows or amongst European Wrestling tourist fans

 

 

I can't remember the last time trash was thrown in mass at the ring like it was during the birth of the NWO. Philly is the kinda town the riots in their sporting venues. I could see a gassed Roman Reigns winning the rumble and someone hurls a chair from the fifth row into the ring while Roman tries to do the stupid point to the WM sign thing.

 

WCW fans ended shows throwing garbage pretty consistently thru 1999.

 

Plus this is the Rumble, the good seats have been bought by dudes from England, not actual ECW fans

[Curt McGirt]

Yeah I totally caught the people putting their shit on right behind Rollins in closeups. 

 

Forgot to mention Ryback. I liked him getting his airtime, they are obviously going with the big push. But then sadly, Cesaro has the chance to do the same right after and that comes out

[Skelemania]

WWE made Edge into a bigger star than Christian. When they were tag team partners, for the most part, they were pretty equal. After they went solo, they weren't. WWE made sure that you knew that tonight, that's for sure.

[evilwaldo]

I still don't understand the whole concept of Rollins needing The Authority.  He has Big Show, J&J, and is a Paul Heyman guy.  He comes off now as incredibly weak whereas before he was a swarmy, conniving heel.  He needs six people around him, seven i you count Kane, to win the WWE title?

 

The whole angle now becomes a piling on rather than character growth.  You could have saved this for after Rollins cashes, has a title reign, loses and cannot regain the title so he turns to harassing Cena until he forces Cena to make that decision.  In other words, this would have worked better nine months down the road.

[Hollywood Cibernetico]

I still want a reason why Triple H and Steph just hung around backstage, seemingly waiting to be put back into power. It was established in kayfabe land that they were out of power and we saw Rollins backstage on his own a lot with J&J Security. 

 

Why the fuck were they backstage? That makes no sense. Why not just advertise next week as "The Return of The Authority?" 

 

Its not too hard to fill in the blanks. The Authority wants back in power and they want it back asap. They know that Cena is a good man at heart and will not let people suffer without reason and decided to use that against him. So on Sunday (or whenever) Rollins, Show, J&J, and The Authority all got on a conference call and laid out a plan to put Edge in a comprising position that will force Cena to make a decision. The Authority decided to hold out in a nearby hotel (or limo in the parking garage) watching the show. For the last 30 minutes of Raw The Authority entered the building as the plan came into action.

 

HHH tells the guys in the truck to hit his music and the rest is history. The fact that there was champagne confirms this was a planned occurrence and not something that happened by chance and good mastery by Rollins.

[Johnny Sorrow]

This idea that Philly WWE crowds are 15,000 ECW fans from 1996 is so wacky .

[Rehabilitated Rick]

Bryan's music hitting at the #30 spot in the Rumble in front of a Philly crowd would have been crazy, especially considering we really didn't know if Bryan was ever coming back, someone said he was looking at a Michaels 4 year lay off. Like no one knew and Bryan himself wasn't handing out updates, I can understand in 2014 it's next to impossible for leaks not to get out, but damn, would have topped the Cena comeback in 2008 probably..

 

and then Reigns throws him out, even better.

[evilwaldo]

This idea that Philly WWE crowds are 15,000 ECW fans from 1996 is so wacky .

 

You underestimate the Philly mindset.  Go to any sports game and you can easily get 15,000 loons.

[sydneybrown]

 

Cesaro pretty much sucks, physical charisma is one thing, but he completely bombed his one real chance at showcasing some form of ability on the stick. I could almost hear the groin...

 

Thanks for that gross visual.  Of all the words to misspell...

[Hollywood Cibernetico]

 

 

I still want a reason why Triple H and Steph just hung around backstage, seemingly waiting to be put back into power. It was established in kayfabe land that they were out of power and we saw Rollins backstage on his own a lot with J&J Security.

Why the fuck were they backstage? That makes no sense. Why not just advertise next week as "The Return of The Authority?"

They knew what Seth was "masterminding" that night with E&C. That's going to be the reason they were backstage.

Also, I love how Bryan threw in how he wished he could have been there when they lost. Combined with the fact he was basically the one to kick them out Inc RAW the next night, I doubt him returning the same night the Authority did is a coincidence.

 

What a twist that would be. Deadly Games 98 all over again and it would be HUGE. It would be very interesting to see if they can pull it of (if they are even going in that direction- and all signs point to NO ).

[Ligerbusa]

 

 

 

 

 

Fuck all of you. That end ruled.

Dude, that was boring as hell.  If Seth was better at scripted promos, Cena wasn't a dick, it didn't drag, and the crowd wasn't dead as hell, it might've worked.

 

 

Seth looked like a total slimebag. So did Show. Cena wasn't a dick. He gave into the heel demands to save someone he respected -- someone who tormented him for years, but ultimately respected.

 

 

You failed to address the worst part: the fucking Authority is back.

 

 

Steph was the best performer of the last year. HHH was really great, too.

 

 

Meh, the Bellas, Paige, and AJ were all better.

 

 

No way, Steph was legit great. Bellas had a number of awful segments and AJ is such a bad imitation of her husband on promos now. It's really annoying.

 

Also, Stephanie should be commended on getting pregnant and giving birth within a month.