Labor Day Raw (2 September Raw for everyone else)

[DreamBroken]

Love the HHH 20 minute opening promos being back with the Reign of Terror on Raw and SD. Triple H was full of greatness on this show. Popping in on Heyman/Maddox cause someone said his phrase "best for business" like he just shows up whenever he hears it. "BEHOLD THE KING" hitting immediately when Big Show dared to leave the ring was classic. Awesome heel run already. Still not used to Steph's theme. Big Show crying so easily again after his last heel run is definitely over the top.

 

Orton/Cody ruled. The RKO countered into Crossrhodes nearfall was killer. Definitely hope Cody becomes a major player out of this angle, fantastic promo too as has been mentioned. 

[MGFanJay]

This version of the WWE Championship on RAW looked different to me. If so, I like it more than the old one as its shinier, the red on the WWE logo is darker than the last one matching the actual WWE logo and Champion can be seen clearer as it stands out more. Always had an interest in wrestling championship titles.

 

Spotted the fan dressed as Randy Savage with trunks made me smile.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who noticed the title. I think they went with a darker shade of red for the stones because the belt really pops more now than it did before.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Oh, I gave up a long time ago, it's not my problem anymore. I just like to see what others are saying sometimes. My point stands though.

What point? Cause " it must stink cause it disappointed me in the past and I'm reading Internet curmudgeons and instant Jay Shermans" doesn't replace watching for yourself

[Go2Sleep]

Anyone have a screencap of that tweet that was total gibberish during the Orton/Cody match? Not sure how that one got selected.

 

AJ storyline is probably being shot for Total Divas 2 more than it is for Raw. If the current season is any indication, they're probably going to make this whole thing look like a shoot on Total Divas. Hence shouting over the "pipe bomb" promo last week, the more shooty looking beatdown this week with one girl holding AJ's legs while the other two stomp her and no wrestling moves, and finally Nattie's look of remorse as she's heading back up the ramp.

 

The only thing I wanna say about Bryan is I'm not 100% convinced he's losing at NOC. I agree a clusterfuck ending with Orton retaining is the most likely answer, but I could see some faces taking some gold to give them leverage against Evolution Inc. Cody and Ziggler winning the tag straps as the Matadores would be perfect (great idea whoever started that one), and Bryan could get the WWE title off Orton as his big comeback moment. With at least those three holding major titles, they can hold them hostage and threaten to walk out, which gives everyone else some courage to fight back against HHH. Then you have the grounds for a more even stable war that can go back and forth ad infinitum. 

[Jenalysis]

I like the general idea- my issue is really, Bryan is being booked as really stupid.  The burn is slow, and I don't know if that plays out well today, but as long as things change soon, I think we're ok. Show being booked as a whiny sellout is ok, even if the fans won't have any sympathy- they shouldn't- Show has been booked as a loser mostly, and he shouldn't be the cavalry, it should be someone newer.

 

Bryan needs to be outsmarting them every now and then.  He can pay for it later, but he needs to get one of them once in a while.

Bryan should be booked like Lawler vs a large stable, not Sting.

 

 

I'm ok with the roster not helping Bryan- it's established that most of them are cowards that the fans don't give a crap about.  Would be nice if a heel broke ranks and aided Bryan.

[LooseCannon]

I think it would make sense for Daniel Bryan to beg for a rematch next week with Big Show, with an amused HHH granting that request.  Then Bryan wins cleanly and avoids a beatdown going into Night of Champions, where he is poised for victory only to be screwed.  NoC might be the perfect spot to go with a "Dusty finish".  And then the angle can hit phase II.

[Bustronaut]

[Phantom Lord]

Cody being part of Los Matadores would actually be brilliant. Uno (since I don't know if they even have names yet) hits the Disaster kick or Cross Rhoades and all hell breaks loose with Triple H.

 

I can admit I am wrong. We just might be living in a new golden age.

[Overly Critical Man]

This storyline is like a 20-course meal(no one eats that much, but lets all assume we're of the giant species as according to Steph), where the first six courses have been soup and we keep sitting here drinking it because the soup isnt bad and we were promised an awesome as hell dessert...but man, you better believe some of us are gonna complain if we get soup again. Yeah, this time the soup was saltier and came with some crackers, but really, give me a damn salad or something.

In other words...come up with a different ending than..

[MORELOCK]

Los Matadores is clearly intended to be Epico and Primo, though I wouldn't be surprised if they ran some sort of angle with someone else under the masks. How long has it been? Mr. America?

 

Can we at least all agree that Big Show needs to stop fucking crying?

[Jenalysis]

I'm ok with Crying show- he needs to look like a bitch to not overshadow Bryan.

 

Last thing you need is the fans clamoring for Show.  (no offense to show intended- I like him, but he shouldn't be in the title hunt at this point in his career- he should be basically Big Daddy without the suck)

[Matt D]

Not unlike Dylan, I thought the most important thing about the feud was to keep Bryan away from Orton for a number of months. If they had Austin vs Rock the PPV after Survivor Series 98, the whole thing would have lost meaning. The difference is that there's more time between Summerslam and Mania though, so I can still see this working if someone interesting screws Bryan in some interesting way (Show doing it in a swerve is not so interesting since it's been done already in the last year and a half) to set up a program to keep him busy through fall so that he can start his quest to regain the title in winter (I still say the money here is HHH at the december PPV for a spot in the Rumble and so on).

[Ace]

Still, the fact that the "Internet written" versions of HHH and Stephanie being done as TV characters pisses off the Internet is just delicious.

 

Not when it gets people to stop watching.

[Patrick B.]

I saw a few Jeremy Wyatt signs on Raw.  I like Jeremy Wyatt.  Really good wrestler.

[Buy Me a Burrito]

When FSW is one of the voices of reason in a Raw thread, you know that cunts are overreacting.

[Kyle Casey]

The roster is clearly getting emasculated to the point where I don't see how you can argue against it.  In fact it seems to me that is the whole point - HHH/Steph/Vince are putting their collective nuts in a jar because they can.  That's why Bryan's dig about HHH not being a man had resonance - it's a roster filled with cowards, led by the corporate sellout.  

 

 

It's a lot harder for that one person to step forward against the machine if they're the only one in the crowd to do it. Basic mob psychology, and HHH knows it, which is why he's had the roster out as a group whenever he decides to take Daniel Bryan down a peg. 

[odessasteps]

Instead of son of midnight rider, cody should come bsck as goldust.

[Cristobal]

So I'll ask the question I asked last night to no effect:

 

How did that match get Daniel Bryan over as the top face in the company? He looked WEAK against Show. And he looked weaker hanging around in Reigns' clutches while Trips and Steph and Show had their little Shakespearean interlude on the ramp.

[Hoffman]

This show could have ended with Daniel Bryan singlehandedly taking out The Shield, Randy Orton, HHH, and Stephanie, with Big Show crying tears of joy, and Fandango and the Funkadactyls joining forces to lead the whole WWE roster in an impromptu celebratory dance.  All that, and someone on here would have complained that the episode was irrevocably ruined because HHH called Big Show "Paul" once during the closing segment.

 

I'm still looking forward to Daniel Bryan getting his revenge on that dastardly Randy Orton, so they haven't turned me off, at least.

[Ace]

Because patience. But ignore how WWE has botched almost every other push of new talent for the past several years. 

[JohnnyJ]

I really wanted to like Raw but this did not make me want to tune in next week or order the pay per view.

 

There is no hook to the angle. I have no interest in seeing what dastardly act HHH is going to do next. And the heels have stomped out hope. When Ziggler comes out, you know he is about to get destroyed. When Bryan comes out, you know he is going to be humiliated. After what we've seen, what reason is their to think that Bryan wont just be beat down by the Shield prior to his match at Night of Champions. It wasn’t just coincidental that the crowd died during the beatdown at the end of Raw. The beatdown was inevitable so there was nothing to care about.

 

The fact that no member of the roster will get involved in this makes the whole roster look pathetic.

 

Where is Punk in this angle? Punks whole gimmick is that he is anti-authority. His character is one who would get fired over principle. Unfortunately for Bryan, Punk lives in a vacuum with Heyman and Curtis Axel and is seemingly unaware that any of this is happening. That’s what I tell myself to explain why Punk is not involved and why he is the only wrestler not required to show up on the stage during the main event.

[Kaptain Kayfabe]

Thoughts: 

 

I don't understand how people can compare this to the NWO angle. The NWO angle would have been great had Sting won cleanly at the end of '97 - a YEAR AND A HALF after it started. Then they could have started the fractures of the NWO and gotten another year or so out of the angle. Instead it got stupid with nobody wanted to do a clean job ever, the Wolfpac/Hollywood nonsense, and the bums like Stevie Ray being involved. Until the Corporation starts adding guys like Mason Ryan or Jack Swagger or until this angle lasts past Wrestlemania, shut up.

 

I'm not getting the whole Daniel Bryan getting buried thing. He ran through the Shield last week and if it wasn't 3 on 1, would have beaten all three of them. He was very competitive with and easily knocked down (multiple times) Big Show WHO IS TWICE HIS HEIGHT AND WEIGHT and one of the most heavily pushed killers of the past 17 years. You can't book Bryan as a kick ass babyface like Austin - you book him as this crazy dude who doesn't know when to quit and is either going to do it all by himself or die trying. Early on he is going to show reckless abandon and just charge head on into the brick wall hoping to knock it down. Eventually he is going stop and regroup and find a way to get to the other side of the wall. 

 

To me, it totally makes sense for Daniel Bryan to have Orton in the yes lock at NoC until something screwy happens (lights go out, ref is attacked by the Shield, whatever). No way in hell should DB be winning the title. But he does need to look like he is capable of winning the title. I'd put a rematch on RAW about two weeks later with Big Show at ringside. Finish would be Big Show being forced to KO punch DB, but he "misses" and nails Orton. DB pins Orton only to have HHH come out and say DB has been disqualified for outside interference. They can bring 'em back at Hell in a Cell where Orton again wins in some crazy fashion. By this point, DB should have his army of guys to run against the Corporation - Show, Cody?, Dolph, etc. 

 

Random fantasy booking part 2: I would have Dolph be the next one to get fired. Finally the night you are ready to do the big "their fighting back" angle, you have Los Matadores work some meaningless undercard squash. Then suddenly they show up in the big angle as the guys saving DB. They unmask and - by God that's Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler! I mean, WWE has to know there is no longevity in Epico and Primo pretending to be bullfighters, right?

[The Natural]

 

This version of the WWE Championship on RAW looked different to me. If so, I like it more than the old one as its shinier, the red on the WWE logo is darker than the last one matching the actual WWE logo and Champion can be seen clearer as it stands out more. Always had an interest in wrestling championship titles.

 

Spotted the fan dressed as Randy Savage with trunks made me smile.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who noticed the title. I think they went with a darker shade of red for the stones because the belt really pops more now than it did before.

 

 

I'm also glad I'm not alone in thinking the WWE Championship was different. I agree it looks like they went with a darker red for the stones. The word Champion stands out more on this one and it's shinier.

 

Original:

 

 

RAW last night:

 

[Cristobal]

He was very competitive with and easily knocked down (multiple times) Big Show WHO IS TWICE HIS HEIGHT AND WEIGHT and one of the most heavily pushed killers of the past 17 years.

 

Which match were you watching? Bryan was going all-out against Show who spent half the match yelling "I don't want to do this to you" and when he finally pisses Show off enough, Show dominates him and, after the obligatory fight-back, leaves him laying, presumably beaten, then starts to leave, at which point Shield pick the bones.

[w. josh]

 

You guys know how a movie or serialized TV works. Even the smallest things that don't look like they matter...they get mentioned because it usually means something big in the end. Nothing gets mentioned if it's not going to matter to the story.

 

To be fair, that's how GOOD serialized TV works. Bad serialized TV works (or doesn't) by writers throwing a ton of crap at the wall and ignoring anything that doesn't stick, or taking their one decent idea and trotting it out every single week with no nuance or progression until they have to panic and then Steven Urkel has a suave alter ego and the daughter becomes a porn star.

 

That's my problem with everyone lecturing people who don't like the execution of the angle so far. Yes, it's a slow burn. Yes, it's being booked right now toward a logical conclusion of Bryan beating Orton for the title on a big PPV. EVERYONE SEES THAT. Some people, however, also see WWE's track record with this sort of thing. Slow burn only works if the writers and management themselves have the patience to see the angle through without panicking the first time ratings dip and hitting the SuperCena button, and I don't know that "patience and consistency are virtues" is exactly embroidered on the pillows in the writing room. As much as WWE loves to tell everyone that they're accomplished storytellers whose real competition is dramatic shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones...they aren't, and it isn't. They tend to tell good stories poorly and poor stories often, and that's why people throw shit fits when a really great angle comes along and the warning signs start coming that it's all going to go off the rails any minute now.