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Raw Is Leaving Things Right Where They Are - 5/1/2017


Dolfan in NYC

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47 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

Oh man.  Dean and The Drifter had me rolling. That was great stuff.  I'm a little concerned about the Braun stuff. The next logical opponent for him is a title match with Brock.  But knowing WWEand also how Brock will not wrestle until freaking July,  they will now run this Roman program straight into the ground and nobody will benefit from it.  

Has that been confirmed or explained away?

Like, has Kurt said he is defending the title against Kevin Jong-Un in the North Korean State Capitol Wrestling Alliance so "we aren't allowed to have cameras in there to film it"?

If he isn't wrestling until July then shouldn't someone like Braun, Roman or Miz be jumping up and down about being named interim champion until Brock comes back?

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Love Alexa Bliss promo segments, great way to start the show off and thought the impromptu tag was really fun. Great finishing stretch with Mickie's big dive on Nia and Sasha landing a choice dropkick on Emma before Alexa nails the big finish. Alexa/Emma/Nia/Alicia would make a badass heel stable if they stuck together, loved the closing shot of them standing tall in the ring together. Raw got the better end of the Shakeup on Alexa alone and I've enjoyed Raw way more since after being a consistent believer in SDL is better since the draft.

Felt like a lot of nothing followed, til the 3rd hour picked things up with that super solid Aries/Perkins match. Great selling from Aries all throughout.

Thought the main event was fantastic after not expecting much going in. Crowd got crazy hot for it too. Usually hate "one legged" Seth overcoming the odds as of late but he performed well here. Had forgot about the Finn/Bray setup so I wasn't sure who would win but everyone looked great in it. Nice win for Miz, I dig his matches with Ambrose even if they just feuded a few months ago. Miz & Maryse remain one of the best acts going.

52 minutes ago, Charlie M. said:

Show started well and ended well.

They do seem done with Bayley. Can't blame that on you-know-who, though. Got beat in her home town, beat the next night, will lose the rematch as well and they'll move on to Alexa vs. Sasha.

Sounds great to me! I hope thats how it goes anyways. I haven't cared much for Sasha for awhile, mostly due to her character being dragged down in the best friend nonsense, but I know she still brings it in the ring. Interactions tonight had me wanting to see Sasha vs. Alexa and Emma.

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Poor Finn getting stuck with Bray.

Sasha turning doesn't make sense until some more women get over as faces. Alexa is the most likely to get over, but she's waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better as a heel than she was as a high spot botching barbie babyface in NXT. Sasha's heel ace run in NXT produced the best women's matches in company history, and while she may not be as awesome as a face she's still needed in that role given the lack of over faces they currently have.

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The opening segment with Alexa was perfection. I'm still disappointed Bayley lost her belt, but Alexa's run should be fun as long as they don't overdo it like they did on SDL. As far as what changed in the plans for the division, Alexa is a big part of it, but they also seemed to have finally realized they massively screwed up the timing for a good heel turn with Sasha and how they have built up Bayley. That shit should have been built up last year and happened back in January. Its best to put on the back burner for now and revisit later. I'm still wondering when poor Nia will get her moment.

Shit starter/interviewer Dean was fun.

I dug the hell out of the main event. Probably could have used some better selling, but I loved the Miz's general role and they had some neat set ups. I'm fine with Joe and Bray interfering. Joe leaving Rollins alone after a lucky pin would have felt wrong, and Bray/Finn is fresh. The only thing that bothers me me is that they will still likely push Bray's general "creepy" bs which just hasn't worked well at all. I really want the return of proper cult leader, Bray Wyatt.

Braun and Roman being out is I assume to delay the Brock feuds. I'm kind of ok with that though I do wish they were building at least one title match for Brock before then.

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You know what was the most frustrating moment of the night? Not the No Braun, not the Hardyz not coming out "Broken", not the lack of explanation why Brock isn't around or defending his title.  The most disappointing part of the night was Apollo Crews, managed by Titus O'Neill -that's so obviously leading to a Titus-Apollo feud that it's painful to watch- and seeing him go over a guy who gets a genuine reaction and appreciation from fans like Heath Slater (The spontaneous "He's got kids!" chant), or watching Apollo go outside the ring and the crowd pop for Rhyno to gore him (And Rhyno who seemed genuinely appreciative of the "Gore!" chant) and instead it was just snuffed out by a boring Apollo win.  The crowd absolutely turned on poor Crews and the whole booking of the match did him and the feud no favors.  All they had to do was have Titus go after Rhyno, Slater get distracted by it and Crews win it, seemingly oblivious to Titus' shenanigans and then you have furthering of the storyline: is Crews being swayed by Titus' bad influence or was he unaware of Titus' shenanigans?  But, instead, we got "Beat that guy we absolutely have no plans for after he accidentally got over on his own clean as a sheet so he doesn't accidentally get over again."  It kinda made me tune out on the show, I didn't even really watch the main event after that, just caught the ending.

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I don't know if it was just me, but this show felt like it was going on FOREVER. I kept looking at the clock on the cable box and was shocked at how little time had passed by during certain points of the show. I agree with the groundhog day sentiment. This show just had so much stuff that was repeating from before in it.

Alexa starting off the show was a nice touch. Poor Emma, just background fodder. She could be on Smackdown, but nope. Sasha needs to be heel so badly...but why they are keeping her good in all this I don't know. A mean girls stable of Sasha/Alexa/Emma and Nia as the enforcer would be pretty damn amazing. I was honestly surprised the 8 man tag got as much time as it did, but it was nice to see Alexa actually win the match in dominant form.

Mean Dean Ambrose sounds so much more fun than The Lunatic Fringe. Hell, I'm sure he would love to change his character too if he could.

I love the possibility of Miz vs. Brock Lesnar at GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!!! Miz going full Daniel Bryan in the match with submissions galore would probably put him over the top for Wrestler of the Year.

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5 hours ago, caley said:

the Hardyz not coming out "Broken"

Why would it make any sense for them to suddenly come out in full "Broken" gimmick for no reason when they've been working the nostalgia run angle since they came in? "Hey, WWE Universe, thanks to a settlement we can show you who we really are!"

 

I don't know if them going with "TJP" and dropping Perkins just happened, but it's already really fucking annoying.

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9 hours ago, Matt788 said:

Bad News Banks and Enforcer Nia are coming in a few months and Bailey has a bank statement in her future. 

That will never happen because it is too much like right. I would love to see Nia and Sasha form a tag team and kill chicks with the old Hart Attack spot.

Alexa is awesome and bitchy, but she's going to hurt someone some night with that fucking right hand.  I can't figure out if she's still green, needlessly stiff, or a combination of both.

9 hours ago, mattdangerously said:

Oh good, another Miz vs Ambrose feud.  It's only been, what, two months since the last one?

I am good with the feud so long as Miz comes away with the belt.

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I'll never understand why WWE would rather drive a matchup into the ground instead of giving us a break from watching the same match over and over and over. 

After that main event at Payback, Braun should absolutely be fighting Brock sooner rather than later. But, if not, leave Roman on the shelf, and use someone else to heat up Braun for Lesnar. 

It makes no sense to keep Braun off TV for a kayfabe injury when he's the hottest star they've got right now. Or are we still trying to pretend that Braun is a heel and Roman is a face?

Have Miz talk shit to Braun and we have a month of Braun chasing after him. Braun can show a modicum of honor by having him not murder Maryse when she slaps him, and Dean can call out Miz for his cowardice which he faces when he finally accepts his match against Braun. And then Braun can bear attack Miz and the crowd can feast on a slow beat down of the second most hateable guy on the Raw roster. 

And then Brock can show up the next night and not be impressed because who cares if you beat up Miz.

Roman can have training montages, Samoan funerals, and tea time with his daughter in the mean time to try and rehab his baby face status, or start recruiting the shield back to help him fight Braun.

My tentative plan for WM34 would be to headline Brock v Braun, and have Braun beat Brock in a war, but have Roman cash in Money in the Bank. Maybe do that SummerSlam instead.

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8 hours ago, L_W_P said:

Has that been confirmed or explained away?

Like, has Kurt said he is defending the title against Kevin Jong-Un in the North Korean State Capitol Wrestling Alliance so "we aren't allowed to have cameras in there to film it"?

If he isn't wrestling until July then shouldn't someone like Braun, Roman or Miz be jumping up and down about being named interim champion until Brock comes back?

Nothing official has been said yet

I think Niners is making the assumption because Brock is advertised for Great Balls of Fire and it is clear that he isn't defending on every show as they drag this out for a fucking year

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Really enjoyed the main and Miz winning it COMPLETELY CLEAN, BY HIMSELF.  He might be the last true chickenshit heel and he's glorious to watch.

Alexa kissing up to Nia because Nia could literally eat her in one bite was hilarious.  Dana Brooke trying to wrestle, less so.

The best part of Titus as a manager is that it leads to far less of Titus as a wrestler, and that makes it a win for everyone.

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I love Meltzer being all "BROCK IS GOING TO BE AROUND MORE DATES THIS TITLE REIGN!!!! JULY, AUGUST AND NOVEMBER!!!!"

Quite the fighting champ

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They don't need to explain why Brock isn't defending the title. We all know Brock's situation. If you don't, you haven't been paying attention since 2012 obviously. It's no secret, even to the "regular" fans, that he's a special attraction and doesn't appear at every RAW and PPV. I get why people find it annoying, but I can't believe we're still bitching about this kind of stuff. It happened with his last title run, it happened with The Rock, Goldberg... I mean, at some point, you have to just accept it and move on and stop wanting WWE to come up with kayfabe reasons why he didn't defend his title at Payback or appeared on any shows since WrestleMania.

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I think it was somewhat more acceptable before he got clowned by Goldberg twice, though. Even the third time, he only won because he managed to jump out of the way. The aura of no one being able to beat Brock anyway so him not really having to defend the title is marred a bit.

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1 hour ago, Michael Sweetser said:

Dana Brooke trying to wrestle, less so.

Dana Brooke has like star quality fitness model muscular development especially in her arms and shoulders. I am becoming a mark for her Jesse The Body double bicep pose.

It is a shame she can barely wrestle one whit.  I am always afraid she will cripple somebody.

1 hour ago, Michael Sweetser said:

The best part of Titus as a manager is that it leads to far less of Titus as a wrestler, and that makes it a win for everyone.

This could lead to Titus talking more often.  Are you sure you want this to happen?

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Nobody's talking about the Cruserweight six-man match?  How can you ignore such a fun match that had three umbrellas, faces posing and having fun, and some damn fine wrestling to boot?  We loved everything about it and I figured there'd be at gifs by now of Gallagher's entrance.  Great stuff.

Also liked Dean going old school with the interview style, especially throwing it back to Gorilla or whoever else.  It was kind of absurd but it was funny nonetheless.

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6 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

Nobody's talking about the Cruserweight six-man match?  How can you ignore such a fun match that had three umbrellas, faces posing and having fun

Sounds like you just answered your own question.

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7 minutes ago, MORELOCK said:

Sounds like you just answered your own question.

I tend to overuse words, but even without the umbrellas and posing it was still a pretty great match.  It was a good setup for #205Live tonight with some big matches going on.

I hopefully am not the only guy looking forward to Bray/Finn.  It would give Finn a reason to go Demon and could lead to some cool segments leading up their match.

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Brock as the champ does nothing for me. Suplex City killed any desire I had to see his matches, and if he's going to show up once every three months then he doesn't need the belt. If you can't be bothered to work one match a month then fuck off. If Braun took the belt off Lesnar at Summer Slam it would elevate him to superstar status. That's a guy who's going to be at every Raw and every house show, but hey why would we want any full time guys being stars. That's the only good use I can see Brock having right now. Roman beating him is going to get more "Roman is overpushed" groans from the crowd. Braun as champ and Roman chasing is what they should be doing in the second half of the year.

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1 minute ago, Kyuubi said:

So wait. Bray is not WWE champion?

Nope, match was Non-title, Bray "won" the fued, Orton is still WWE Champ, and is now fueding with Jinder.

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2 minutes ago, Kyuubi said:

So wait. Bray is not WWE champion?

It was a non-title match, though that wasn't made 100% clear like it should have been.

EDIT:  Whoops, got Ninja'd by Raziel403.

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