RAW is pier-sixes and sugar t*ts

[Niners Fan in CT]

Good show. Good build to Survivor Series. Goldberg/Lesnar delivered and the main event segment was a lot of fun. 

[hammerva]

So AJ Styles is definitely #1 on the list of celebrities who listen to Between the Sheets podcasts.  

Loved how Orton was trying to look all bad ass in front of Strowman while constantly trying to make himself look taller.  Not really making a convincing argument 

 

 

[Charlie M.]

I liked the Goldberg/Lesnar stuff a lot. Everything they've done has been perfect except for that one week in Minnesota. The match might be a trainwreck but it'll probably be a violent one.

I've been on TEAM BRAUN before it was trendy to be on Team Braun. There's money there for the same reason people still love Goldberg. Listen to the pop when Orton stepped up to Braun.

Was that the first time that Nia and Charlotte have done anything against each other? There was some serious hoss fight potential there, IMO.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

I'll say this for the closing segment: if we didn't live in a world where I pay 10 bucks a month to watch old Nitros anyway, I'd probably be calling my local cable operator to let them know I want to be a part of the action this Sunday

[odessasteps]

5 minutes ago, hammerva said:

So AJ Styles is definitely #1 on the list of celebrities who listen to Between the Sheets podcasts.  

We all know how much AJ must still love young Bix. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

Yeah for as much of a chore as it is to get through these weekly shows sometimes because of all the rematches,  this closing segment was FRESH as fuck and I loved every second of it.  They hadn't been separated too long but a lot of the guys involved hadn't had too much interaction with their current characters even before the draft.

I'm really looking forward to that match now.  The only things I were kinda ehh about were Bray Wyatt wearing the SDL shirt (it just felt out of place) and Seth Rollins being maybe a little too friendly with Owens/Jericho.  Otherwise it was awesome. 

I love the role Ellsworth has, it's still fun.

Goldberg looks in great shape but that match has to go under ten

[Sammo~!]

Sugar Tits is a far better nickname than Sparkle Crotch. I'm just saying.

[Niners Fan in CT]

One more thing, they are starting to play up Sasha and Bayley as best friends now. Sasha pointed to her and smiled when she came out and then Bayley hugged her in the post-match. I hope they continue. That turn will be tremendous.

[Sammo~!]

1 minute ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

One more thing, they are starting to play up Sasha and Bayley as best friends now. Sasha pointed to her and smiled when she came out and then Bayley hugged her in the post-match. I hope they continue.

If Bayley is Sting and Sasha is anyone who ever tagged with Sting, I'm on board.

[Dog]

Ellsworth was crestfallen to find himself on THE LIST.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

Luke Harper needs to be in Shane's spot. There's no good reason why he's not in the match. The "rah rah, brand loyalty" stuff is laid on a little thick for my liking. 

I was hoping Paul E. repeatedly bringing up Goldberg's son was going to lead to another "I don't give a shit about your kid" from Brock. 

I like the entire cruiser division being against Kendrick. 

I feel like the announcers repeatedly beating us over the head with Sami having the chance to bring the IC title home to Raw means that through some kind of loophole, he wins and stays on SD.

[HumanChessgame]

I was pretty indifferent to the SS main event and so far the dissension among team mates felt really forced.  The brand loyalty/feuding shows has felt especially forced, especially since aside from the occasional quip there really hasn't been that much cross-brand shit talking until fairly recently.  However, the ending segment tonight really got me invested in wanting to see the match.  An actual wrestler should be on the Smackdown team instead of Shane, but other than that I have no complaints about how it's shaping up.

The Brock/Goldberg segment seemed to take forever with the way Heyman kept re-starting the thing over and over until it came to its inevitable conclusion of the indy slugs getting destroyed.

Perhaps what I like most about SS is that I really can't see any clear winners.  Obviously they're going to try and keep it even in terms of which brand does the job in each match, but it's going to be interesting to see how the all shake out, especially with where various titles will end up going being at stake.

[Niners Fan in CT]

If you are interested in watching a car crash go watch the State of the WWE Universe on the Network. It was very much how Talking Smack has been with the shots being thrown back and forth, watching Mick and Bryan get at one another while Stephanie tries to keep it focused was pretty amazing.

[Fallacy!]

Mick Foley really needs to be off TV. He's a mess. It's hard to watch him try to string together sentences on the mic.

By the way, is the Superman Punch now the Big Dog Punch? Pretty sure I heard Cole say that tonight.

[John from Cincinnati]

Mick loses the thread easily, but I bought him more than Steph's half-hearted attempts to plug Sunday. Bryan shifting between sullen silence and straight fire tickled me where I like being tickled,

If they lay out the Brock-Goldberg match as smartly as they did that segment, it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm cautiously optimistic.

The tags should be fun, but I'm not super invested. We'll see. The main definitely came off well. Still wish Corbin was in there.

Let's go Sami. 

[caley]

I've been watching this stuff pretty religiously and, man, all this nonsensical "We gotta band together to beat the brand that we desperately hate because we're on Raw and/or Smackdown and have been for 3/3.5 months now" stuff is just too much for me to take.  I've basically stopped watching WWE until after Surivor Series.  I know this is a weird hill to die on, but it just drives me nuts to see Ambrose and AJ working together to beat the combined threat of a brand that's not really another brand but for the sake of storyline purposes is.  Maybe if it had been a year - heck, even six months - since they had been interacting on the same show, I could see the justification for them banding together as if they were tackling the NWO.  But it all just feels so...forced.

[AxB]

7 hours ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

I'll say this for the closing segment: if we didn't live in a world where I pay 10 bucks a month to watch old Nitros anyway, I'd probably be calling my local cable operator to let them know I want to be a part of the action this Sunday

There's two and a half months for free for everyone who had a sub and quit it right now. Which is nice.

[RIPPA]

Bray being in a Smackdown shirt was infuriating.

Just as much as everyone who spent 3 hours hating each other suddenly were all buddy buddy

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

Crazy that Goldberg can come back and do 4 appearances and outshine 90% of the roster they have had for the past 10 years.  This was a great run and I hope it ends.  It's special, and it's been fun.  He and Brock are just miles ahead of everyone else when it comes to having "it".  The next segment was so telling after those too literally stood around and had more buzz than anything else on the show.  Damn.....so pumped for that match.  Still more pumped for Joe-Nak, but this match is going to be great. 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

I agree about the buzz and aura surrounding the Brock/Goldberg stuff. Maybe it's today's roster being overexposed (or maybe it's me being a kid when Goldberg was on top) but you're right, it felt way different than anything else on the show. 

[Cristobal]

Bryan being the only guy on the roster who can and will mention TNA with impunity is hilarious.

[Spritenaut 32]

3 hours ago, Playa Shunna Ver 3.0 said:

Crazy that Goldberg can come back and do 4 appearances and outshine 90% of the roster they have had for the past 10 years.  This was a great run and I hope it ends.  It's special, and it's been fun.  He and Brock are just miles ahead of everyone else when it comes to having "it".  The next segment was so telling after those too literally stood around and had more buzz than anything else on the show.  Damn.....so pumped for that match.  Still more pumped for Joe-Nak, but this match is going to be great. 

My opinion is that fewer and fewer guys these days have that "it" factor.  In the 80's, you could throw a rock into a crowd and and hit someone that had "it" to spare - Hennig, Rude, Jake Roberts, Dusty, Ricky Morton, etc.  Hell, there were a lot of undercard guys that were insanely charismatic.  We weren't watching Jimmy Valiant in the 80's to see mat classics!  Every decade since then, the talent pool seems to have gotten progressively thinner.  You still get guys who are good talkers, or who have a good look or can really go in the ring, but we're seeing fewer and fewer guys who can put that all together and really run with it.  Or, on the flip side, can get beyond their limitations and really get over huge.

Granted, a lot of guys could get over better than they do with better booking or consistent pushes.  But I really feel like the talent pool is thinner.  Wrestling was more popular, maybe even more mainstream 30-40 years ago.  You had a lot more charismatic, well-rounded guys getting into the business.  Now, some of those guys look at wrestling and decide MMA might be a better career option.  Or, a guy like Rude looks at the WWE and decides there are easier ways to make a good living than traveling 200-300 days a year in the WWE or flying around the country for $500 indy paydays.  Even 10-15 years ago, I feel like there were a lot more "it" guys around.

Regarding the show, I'm mostly bored by the SummerSlam brand loyalty.  Why the hell AJ would come out to watch Shane's back, or ally himself with Ambrose, is beyond me.  Guys coming out to partner up with people they're feuding with, at the behest of GM's half of them don't like, is a groaner.  Doesn't Rollins think Steph conspired with Triple H to screw him out of the title and that Mick is a puppet?  Why is he on the team?  Why are people like Charlotte saddled with teams full of babyfaces she hates?  I know some of these people will turn on their teammates during the match, but there's no motivation for them to be on the team in the first place.  And, yeah, dudes like Bray showing their loyalty by wearing the team shirt is hilarious.

 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

I haven't been able to watch Smackdown in a while-- was there ever any sort of segment where Bray needed to be convinced to join the team? I mean, that verbiage writes itself (which, to be fair, they did touch on a little bit in that segment with him mentioning Braun turning his back on his brothers)

[Nice Guy Eddie]

21 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

I haven't been able to watch Smackdown in a while-- was there ever any sort of segment where Bray needed to be convinced to join the team? 

There wasn't. It was simply announced that he's on the team, and we're just expected not to question why a cult leader would care about brand loyalty.

[zev]

SD drafted Bray. He appreciates them giving him mic time most weeks, so he's going to do one match for them.

Or he just knows that doing the match gives him another PPV appearance, and thus a chance to convert more Cenationers into Fireflies.

Or he has a tiny bit of respect for Bryan as a result of their previous battles, so he's fighting once because Bryan can't.

Numerous reasons he could be in the blue t-shirt, so of course we get none of them.