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WWE Raw 4-4-16 - Post-WrestleMania Raw


MGFanJay

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3 minutes ago, Patrick B. said:

Mr. Make-A-Wish II is not turning heel.

No, but that was a *very* odd promo to give as a new champ.  Sure the crowd was absolutely hostile, but if you're going to be the mega-face champion, your first promo can't be "anytime, anywhere" and then instantly being completely dismissive of either face that came out to challenge you. 

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3 hours ago, MADCAP said:

Miz should NEVER call somebody's dad "goofy looking" 

If this whole thing doesn't pay off with Zack/Emma/Papa Zack vs Miz/Maryse/Papa Miz then this is not a world I want to live in.

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So they have Shane "run" RAW, but then nothing that happens on RAW is because of Shane besides the main event. At least have him do a promo backstage or have the announcers mention that Shane said RAW needs some new talent, which would explain all the NXT debuts. As it was, this was like any other RAW and Shane "running" it meant nothing.

 

That said, dug the debut of Enzo/Cass. For those who hadn't seen them before and immediately hated Enzo, they were originally a heel team in NXT because Enzo has that little shit-talker gimmick down solid and you'd think that the hate would be immediate. However, he's so charismatic and good on the mic, that there's no way to keep somebody like him heel. And his in-ring wrestling ability has improved leaps and bounds over the last year, along with Cass. They will be stars, and putting them against the Dudleys is a good start for them.

 

As others have said, Crews is perfect for the main roster. He floundered a bit in NXT where character work is a bit more important, but on RAW where he'll do 5-8 minute matches full of impressive athletic moves and flash his smile, he'll be gangbusters. His flashy moves will get him over without him having to say much, much like Neville did.

 

Did NOT see The Vaudvillians getting the call up. That just does not seem like a main roster act, but like somebody else said, there's nothing more for them to do in NXT, so might as well see how they do on the big show. And I mentioned this in the NXT Thread, but with these new call-ups and the return of the Colons, the main roster tag division is as big as it's ever been, even counting the heyday of the late 80s. By my count, there are 12 possible tag teams on the roster right now:


New Day
League of Nations
Usos
Dudleys
Wyatts
Social Outcasts
Lucha Dragons
Ascension
Vaudvillians
Enzo/Cass
Golden Truth
Colons

 

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From WON's Raw Recapper Jeff Hamlin:

 

They held up the last flake of the giant box of "Booty-O's," and Woods held it up and sang in tongues last he was Indiana Jones holding the prized grail from "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

 

Glad to see that Bryan Alvarez is screening people's pop culture reference depth. 

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Bryan Alvarez didn't get the Texas Chainsaw Massacre thing from Finn's entrance.  Take his pop culture knowledge the same way you listen to Meltzer's match reviews.

Don't.

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If they did go heel with Roman it could be interesting in one sense.  Most of their heels keep their heat up by throwing a tantrum in response to the crowd and that gets tedious over and over show after show.  Roman showed last night he doesn't need to do that to keep that heat.  He can just smile and ignore them or throw it back in their face with a casual brushoff and they will still be ballistic hating him.  And the more he just goes out and cuts tough guy babyface promos the more they boo.

 

Like line-for-line everything he said last night was a workhorse babyface "I'm not a bad guy or a good guy.  I'm the guy."  "I;ll take on anyone." "i'm here to kick ass."  they didn't change the script really.  He changed the look on his face and rushed through it a bit but the words were basically "tough guy babyface" talk.

That could be interesting unless the smarks decide now that's cool and stop booing him. 

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He clearly has some good ammunition for his critics. That tweet a while back about the guy smashing his hands with a hammer not having a sex life was really funny. He could get nuclear heat if he started being dismissive towards his haters like that on TV in PG mode. I won't watch but I'll be interested to read about the reaction he gets from "regular" fans next week.

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So, this show was...fine? I'm not going to get annoyed that some of the booking contradicted what happened the previous night because the previous night sucked. It's best to just move on even if it makes some of those results irrelevant. 

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They need to stop playing to that post-Mania crowd. 

They basically booked a Crash TV Raw. They threw more shit out there than they do for the entirety of the fall. It's such an odd disconnect. 

My thought on the NXT call-ups is that they're bringing people up that aren't big enough draws in NXT to be useful/or have been in developmental so long you kind of need to shit or get off the pot with them. 

Clearly, they have a pretty low bar for tag-teams call-up. Honestly, if I was an NXT guy and not being pushed I would try to get into a tag. 

AJ winning was cool because it seemed like Owens was the obvious choice. It kind of reinforces my idea that AJ is sliding into that Bryan spot. He's the over babyface that you can throw out anywhere on the card and have a main-event level match. It *seems* like this is where you bring in Guns/Gallows but with Finn still NXT champion the question has to be if they're going to be paired with a called-up Finn or with AJ and whether Finn and AJ are going to have an on-camera relationship. Do they see AJ and Finn as heels? 

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I personally love the Miz/Maryse angle.

Remember that time ages ago on Raw when he was desperately attempting to date her and she wasn't so keen about it? And that story went nowhere and was forgotten about?

Well, you know, it did have a pay-off. Only off-screen. He did win her over, eventually. 

WWE creative knows about long-term planning guys, Despite what we've been told. 

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Hagan said:

They need to stop playing to that post-Mania crowd. 

They basically booked a Crash TV Raw. They threw more shit out there than they do for the entirety of the fall. It's such an odd disconnect. 

My thought on the NXT call-ups is that they're bringing people up that aren't big enough draws in NXT to be useful/or have been in developmental so long you kind of need to shit or get off the pot with them.

They can't really avoid the post-Mania crowd unless they decide to take Raw to another city which would be a bit much.

I don't think this was remotely crash tv. It was a pretty blatant beginning of a new season/year for WWE.

As far as the NXT call ups go I would guess it has more to with them hiring a bunch of new people more than anything else.

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It was so obvious Vince and the writers were stressing about Reigns being booed and the general contrarian nature of the post-Mania Raw audience.  TWICE I had to listen to the "this is a different crowd than normal but we LOVE their passion!" spiel.  It really goes hand in hand with how obviously scripted this show is.  NOBODY talks like a normal human being and they all overuse $5 words, making it so clear the show is driven by an insecure hick desperate to sound highfalutin.

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There was nothing insulting like on Crash TV, I just think that maybe you spread all the debuts over the next month and perhaps have one big angle.

This show had a title change, a return (Maryse), heels turning on their partner, a injury angle (Zayn), four new faces (not even counting the adverisements of the Vaudes and Colon), another return in Cesaro etc.

Just a bit overstuffed for a company that has guys wrestle four straight weeks before a blowoff on a PPV.

Now, if they're speeding up their booking a tad then that is great. But I think because of the 'Mania crowd factor' they think they have to overbook.

I mean, when next week the big angle is a main event tag of AJ and Roman not getting along while going 25 against ADR ans Sheamus there's gonna be a letdown.

 

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I know, I know - but four acts in a week is a little much. I like Banter Corbin but he went 50/50 with Dolph and Apollo comes slotted in as Black Neville. They'll both be fine but their debuts are a lesser deal with the 30 other things that happen.

I also find it interesting how the company sees guys like Dolph, Dudleys, Miz and Jericho as the veterans to be gatekeepers for the new guys. 

Segue: Miz and Maryse could really be a hot act. There hasn't been a fun couple act since Dolph and AJ. Miz has been under the radar great for a while now. 

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I wanna think Ryder has gotten over the hump, finally. He gets the rematch on Smackdown and hopefully will get something at the PPV, either with Miz or someone else. 

Enzo is such a star. Big Cass has all the tools, and they should just let Enzo lead/talk for him.

The Miz is such a smarmy dickbag. Great heel. 

I like Sami Zayn. A lot. Kevin Owens, not so much.

And Cesaro's return was dope.

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I fell asleep midway through the Miz/Ryder match. I joked earlier in the day "they wouldn't have Zack lose it in a day would they". Turns out they would. I hate this Wrestlemania moment 50/50 booking shit. If Steamboat/Savage happened on sunday, Honky would have won the title last night.

I have to watch the rest of the show later but I can't believe The Vaudevillians are getting called up. I mean they are great characters, but much like Tyler Breeze that just is something doomed to fail once Vince or someone else sees it and is like "what the hell is this shit".

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