RAW - 31 August 2015

[J.T.]

I hated most of the card and all of that fucking crowd.

 

Poor Sting.  I don't think even he believed the dumb words coming out of his own mouth.  Is HHH really that petty and still holds that big of a grudge with WCW?  His father in law bought the fucking company.

 

Cesaro / Owens and Dudlez / New Day were pretty awesome.  Divas stuff was blah as was Ziggler raiding Shawn Michaels wardrobe for his match with Russev.

 

Speaking of channeling, the unit director for the interview channeled the mongoloid love child of Alfred Hitchcock and John Carpenter in the worst WHAT IS THAT GOING ON IN THE BACKGROUND~? thing I have ever seen although I think I could deal with it if Summer Rae walked in on me while I was in the shower.

 

Rippa and I called all of the screw job finishes for the card fifteen minutes before the broadcast while chatting on Xbox Live.  We have watched wrestling too long.

[Jenalysis]

Sting as Triple H superfan was the worst thing I've seen in a while; wonder if he regrets signing with WWE

 

Those 3 minutes or less Divas matches made the whole division look awful; Sasha getting that treatment after the masterpiece at Takeover is just so sad

 

Never thought I could be bored with Cesaro/Owens but bad crowd + bad announcing + having to sit through the rest of the whole made that the case

 

If Sting really hated it, he could have said no.   Sting has always been too willing to look like an idiot for his own good.  If Sting had a bit more of an ego I think he would have been greater than he was.

[Kyle Casey]

Rollins is going to job so hard at NoC.  Say no to Nazis, ya'll. And can they make him look any more like a prattling brat?  I didn't even disagree with what Cena said about the Authority realizing how easy it was to manipulate Rollins.  It's just the context in which it's being told--and by Cena.  It doesn't benefit anyone.

 

 

 

I always thought Rollins was the Authority's only logical choice of the three Shield members. Dean is too unstable and unpredictable, and Roman is too headstrong to fall in line once the Authority inevitably goes against his interests. So, if only by process of elimination, they had to take Rollins. But how to control/manipulate the Architect of the Shield, presumably the smartest of the three? By playing to his ego, of course, which Rollins has in spades. Fantasy booking dictates a Shield reunion after HHH kicks Rollins to the curb, but I don't really have any faith they'd execute it all that well. 

[J.T.]

 

Sting as Triple H superfan was the worst thing I've seen in a while; wonder if he regrets signing with WWE

 

Those 3 minutes or less Divas matches made the whole division look awful; Sasha getting that treatment after the masterpiece at Takeover is just so sad

 

Never thought I could be bored with Cesaro/Owens but bad crowd + bad announcing + having to sit through the rest of the whole made that the case

 

If Sting really hated it, he could have said no.  

 

Borden is a professional so he wouldn't have said no.  Which made It even worse because he sounded completely unconvincing.

[JonnyLaw]

I guess I'm alone, but I thought Sting showed good fire and intensity in his promo.  The words of the promo were shit and became increasingly unconvincing as he went along, but there were flashes of the old Sting I thought.

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

I didn't think Sting was bad, the material on the other hand was awful.  The Divas stuff is terrible.  That Becky Lynch promo was embarrassing.  Just bad writing, bad delivery.  Braum Stroman is a big goofball.  Nothing scary about him at all.  This show felt like it was 8 hours long.  Thankfully we have a fast forward button.  

[Pete]

Steph's "thinkin'" face is painful...like watching a giraffe try to suppress a sneeze.

 

 

Hmm...

[cwoy2j]

I guess I'm alone, but I thought Sting showed good fire and intensity in his promo.  The words of the promo were shit and became increasingly unconvincing as he went along, but there were flashes of the old Sting I thought.

 

I didn't have a problem with Sting during the promo. I thought his delivery was quite good to be honest. Like you said, the subject matter of the promo was stupid. "You're not half the man as the guy who bashed me in the face with a sledgehammer! Rollins the only reason you have the title is b/c of John Stewart and b/c you're protected by The Authority which is headed up by the man that you're not half the man of."

[Brysynner]

So assuming Charlotte loses to Nikki, the best booked Divas from the Revolution are Becky (who has never really looked weak) and Sasha (who has clean wins over Nikki and Paige). I kind of wonder if Nikki's going to run through the NXT 3 to prove a point.

[MonteCarl]

They could always say that Sting put in that stuff about HHH being better than Rollins purposely to get in the heads of both Rollins and HHH to get them in-fighting. I agree that it was over the top and maybe one stuble reference to it should've been enough, but they built his whole promo around that, basically. If he had just done one brief mention that he thinks HHH is better than Rollins and then continued on with the promo, then Rollins focued on that one little bit instead of the rest of what Sting said, that would continue to build on how Rollins is insecure about his place in WWE History. But this is WWE and they have to bash us over the head with everything. Nothing can be subtle.

 

And the Diva's Beat The Clock matches should've had a different order to build the tension a little more. Becking winning in less than 4 minutes in the first match was good. It was somewhat surprising and a great kayfabe time to get in a challenge like that. The announcers even put that over at the end of the match. But they then shouldve switched up the Paige/Sasha and Charlotte/Brie matches. Paige/Sasha can still end with Paige not being able to Beat The Clock, which puts over Becky's initial victory and how hard it is to win a match in less than 4 minutes. Then, when Charlotte DOES win in less than 4 minutes in the last match, it means more and puts Charlotte over even stronger. As it was, Becky's win immediately meant nothing because Charlotte then won her match in less than 2 minutes, and then Paige/Sasha had a really flat ending. Nobody got over this way. Such a little change in how that all went down would've gone a long way in getting over the story they were trying to tell so much better.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

Nothing to see here. Stupid phone

Edited September 1, 2015 by Nice Guy Eddie

[Nice Guy Eddie]

 

I guess I'm alone, but I thought Sting showed good fire and intensity in his promo.  The words of the promo were shit and became increasingly unconvincing as he went along, but there were flashes of the old Sting I thought.

 

I didn't have a problem with Sting during the promo. I thought his delivery was quite good to be honest. Like you said, the subject matter of the promo was stupid. "You're not half the man as the guy who bashed me in the face with a sledgehammer! Rollins the only reason you have the title is b/c of John Stewart and b/c you're protected by The Authority which is headed up by the man that you're not half the man of."

 

There should be a video package set to Stone Temple Pilots "Creep" for all this HHH/Rollins/Sting/Cena half the man nonsense.

[Spritenaut 32]

I want Br

 

 Braum Stroman is a big goofball.  Nothing scary about him at all.  

 

He reminds me a lot of Mike Shaw.  We're supposed to regard him as a monster because of his size, but he doesn't have the look or aura.  Big goofball sums it up for me so far.  Actually, Shaw had an awesome run in Stampede as Makhan Singh, and i'm a little skeptical Stroman has that in him.  We'll see.  He did like two wrestling moves last night so that didn't really convince me I want to see him in the ring.  The head/arm choke looks impressive but a little odd,  That last move he hit looked like a sloppy version of Big E's finisher, so I'm not sure if it's supposed to look that brutal or last night was just sloppy.

[J.T.]

Brom should not be using that stupid drop thingie as his finisher.  He needs to standing arm triangle choke the crap out of a guy like he did to Reigns. 

 

That shit looked hurty and awesome, especially if they sell it like Brom is burly enough to keep someone upright long after the victim has passed out from the hold and is just dead weight.

[Dolfan in NYC]

Wasn't the drop thing Test's like 2nd or 3rd finisher?  

 

They did repeat the spot that I absolutely love with the "Guy hitting Andre the Giant with a chair to zero reaction".   I did love seeing the mask had actually indented Braun's beard. 

[J.T.]

Wasn't the drop thing Test's like 2nd or 3rd finisher?  

 

They did repeat the spot that I absolutely love with the "Guy hitting Andre the Giant with a chair to zero reaction".   I did love seeing the mask had actually indented Braun's beard. 

 

It was supposed to be a TKO aka that rolling cutter thing that Mero used as his WWE finisher but Test rarely caught the guy and ended up just flapjacking dudes on their faces.

[Eivion]

Brom should not be using that stupid drop thingie as his finisher.  He needs to standing arm triangle choke the crap out of a guy like he did to Reigns. 

 

That shit looked hurty and awesome, especially if they sell it like Brom is burly enough to keep someone upright long after he has passed out from the hold and is just dead weight.

Aren't both moves his finishers? The drop move is fine. Its just that the standing triangle choke looks so much better when you have guys Reigns size being lifted off their feet.

[The Natural]

Brom should not be using that stupid drop thingie as his finisher.  He needs to standing arm triangle choke the crap out of a guy like he did to Reigns. 

 

That shit looked hurty and awesome, especially if they sell it like Brom is burly enough to keep someone upright long after he has passed out from the hold and is just dead weight.

 

Outta likes so I'll say that we're in agreement the arm triangle should be the main finish.

[J.T.]

 

Brom should not be using that stupid drop thingie as his finisher.  He needs to standing arm triangle choke the crap out of a guy like he did to Reigns. 

 

That shit looked hurty and awesome, especially if they sell it like Brom is burly enough to keep someone upright long after he has passed out from the hold and is just dead weight.

 

Aren't both moves his finishers? The drop move is fine. Its just that the standing triangle choke looks so much better when you have guys Reigns size being lifted off their feet.

 

The drop move looks really sloppy and I think he will end up legit injuring someone.   The STC is the perfect finisher for Brom because it shows how freakishly strong he is and all he has to do is keep someone standing up.  He can work snug to sell the pressure and still not snap anyone's collarbone.

[JCM]

Can a promotion be given best booking (NXT) and worst booking (main show) at the same time?

Owens was the best character in WWE while in NXT. On the main roster he's dude that has random matches #84.

 

Would it have killed them to hold off on Stroman and the Dudleys wrestling their rivals until a ppv? Did they really have to do it one week after debuting/returning?

 

I'm just going to pretend the announcers trying to sell Paige having Sasha Banks beat in 90 seconds wasn't a thing.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

I want Br

 

 Braum Stroman is a big goofball.  Nothing scary about him at all.  

 

He reminds me a lot of Mike Shaw.  We're supposed to regard him as a monster because of his size, but he doesn't have the look or aura.  Big goofball sums it up for me so far.  Actually, Shaw had an awesome run in Stampede as Makhan Singh, and i'm a little skeptical Stroman has that in him.  We'll see.  He did like two wrestling moves last night so that didn't really convince me I want to see him in the ring.  The head/arm choke looks impressive but a little odd,  That last move he hit looked like a sloppy version of Big E's finisher, so I'm not sure if it's supposed to look that brutal or last night was just sloppy.

He shouldn't be speaking either. Let Bray do all the talking for him. 

[Spritenaut 32]

Anyone think they'll get the divas revolution back on track?  It's going badly so far, and I don't really think the company will have the patience to invest in it long-term.  I'm not a huge fan of divas matches, but it's depressing to think Sasha and Becky are going to be limited to 5 min matches with Brie and pretending to be insane on Total Divas.

[J.T.]

Anyone think they'll get the divas revolution back on track?  It's going badly so far, and I don't really think the company will have the patience to invest in it long-term.  I'm not a huge fan of divas matches, but it's depressing to think Sasha and Becky are going to be limited to 5 min matches with Brie and pretending to be insane on Total Divas.

 

It's going badly because the Bella Army is being overbooked.  PCB and BAD need to be booked much stronger, especially BAD because they are being punked out right now.

[bink_winkleman]

I don't wanna sound like Gregg here (no offense Gregg!) but the last segment had Rollins raving about how he was better than HHH and Stephanie telling Rollins that Sting was getting in his head.  Sting's "ass kiss" promo was meant to fuck with Rollins and set up a match with HHH down the road.

 

I was drinking whiskey and playing Clash of Clans during the entire thing, too, so it's not like I'm just making this up because I'm looking too deeply into things.  It was obvious.

 

Sting's promo was bad because Sting is bad at promos. 

 

This was a decent show.  Still better than that stretch they had from after Mania through Battleground.

 

Rusev is amazing.  The rest of that angle is not, but he's been good enough to carry it so far. 

 

New Day is unreal.  Xavier Woods' brushing his hair was fantastic, and I'm glad they're feuding with the Dudleys right now because they'd totally be the faces against PTP and I don't want that.

 

Also, the Dudleys look great.  I loved how they no-sold the stupid fucking "whassup!" thing but the idiot announcers yelled it anyway.

 

The Hair Extension Division stuff was fine, but of course the Bellas are just plaguing the fucking thing.

[Go2Sleep]

To settle the "Where have I seen this before" question regarding Braun Strowman's finisher: It was Chuck Palumbo's finisher (Full Throttle) during his brief 07 run.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WygkfHIipto