Raw Is The Inexpicable Push of Big Cass - 7/31/2017

[Eivion]

24 minutes ago, nofuture said:

Jordan needs to show at least a little bit of fire.  He's too soft spoken.

Its odd. He can totally show it in the ring, but he has never really been there talking wise. He is best with a partner to play off of like he did with Gable in NXT.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

10 minutes ago, Victator said:

Why was Bayley running from a midget?

because it was chanting "gooble gobble, gooble gobble...one of us"

[Niners Fan in CT]

Bring it to the Table continues to be the worst show in WWE Network history.  

"What do you think about Brock Lesnar and Jon Jones?" 

JBL: "Brock is a huge draw,  UFC only has McGregor left." 

Corey: "Who wouldn't want to see Jones and Lesnar?" 

"How about this real life heat between Sasha and Alexa?  Why can't we see them finish this at SummerSlam?"  

Corey: "Who cares if Alexa doesn't like wrestling" 

JBL: "Their real heat makes for great matches!  I'm excited for it but why do we need to see it now?" 

"Talking Smack was a great show,  why cancel it?" 

Corey: "Renee is her own worst enemy. I liked the show but it's still around." 

JBL: "It's still around for PPVs. I liked the outlet for wrestlers to go off script and develop their characters.  But my show got canceled.  I'm not Jack Tunney. Don't ask me." 

[Rev Ray]

I was kind of half paying attention to Raw, trying to catalog the templates I downloaded for Fire Pro World to figure out who's out of whack with everyone else.

 

- Kris Zellner pointed out that Anderson was dressed like Chono tonight.  I look forward to his Hashimoto cosplay to complete his 3 Musketeers theme.

- I didn't think the Revival came off well on the commentary.

- I guess Renee is a free agent now too.  Heck of a job, Shane-o.

- They didn't bother to put up purple tape tonight.  Odds that someone said "They were out of purple tape" at a production meeting and some janitor gets buried in an avalanche of purple tape rolls when he opens his closet tomorrow.

- Jason Jordon's theme sounds like something from an NES video game.  His promo, also not so bueno.

- Did the ghost of Chris Warren show up to yell "BURN IT DOWN!" in Rollins theme?

- The 3 way main event was fun.  I was really shocked and then immediately frightened when I realized I had over an hour of show still to go (because we need an overrun....).  Remember at the clash when they'd say "We have an hour time limit, we've got some stand by matches in case this ends before that."  That was tonight.  This was very much that Al Perez stand by match they were promising.

- Pour a 40 for Elias' last name and nickname.  I like that his finisher is now the Drift Away.  Who knew all that time the NXT fans were actually cheering on Drifter and calling for him to hit his move Toney!

 

[Phantom Lord]

Instead of having the chaos of the triple threat in the main event, they have a stinker of Big Cass (who yay got new music) vs. The Big Show to close out the show.

Now that Roman got his win over Joe, can we get Joe and Braun in a King Kong/Godzilla match next week.

[caley]

You guys are all sleeping on the highlight of the night: Booker T having a stroke early on with his "Two thousand seventeen...two thousand...two thousand seventeen. Tuh...Two Thousand Eighteen.  Two Thousand Twenty." followed by Graves asking "Booker, do you smell toast?"

It's weird that WWE is still semi-convinced that Braun isn't the most popular wrestler going right now, still saying his name first when referring to the 3-way or 4-way, which means the biggest pop comes first then kind of peters out as they announce the hated Reigns, the heel Samoa Joe and the possibly leaving so starting to lose steam Lesnar.

I'm glad Tajiri didn't come around in this era, as they would have him doing interviews and promo-driven angles all the time, like they are doing with Nakamura and Tozawa.  Tozawa completely connected with the crowd by just shouting "Ah! Ah! Ah!"  Why mess with that by having him repeatedly having to say "No I am okay" and doing promos and the like.  Not everyone has to talk WWE.

[caley]

PS: This show was a SLOG.  I watched the first half on DVR and was just LEANING on that fast-forward: "Seth Rollins promo (FF).  Bray Wyatt promo (FF).  Seth Rollins match (FF)."  I watched the last hour on live TV and kept instinctively reaching for the remote and pressing FF and forgot it wouldn't work.

Also Jason Jordan shouldn't call his dad Kurt.  It just sounds weird.

[Victator]

12 minutes ago, caley said:

PS: This show was a SLOG.  I watched the first half on DVR and was just LEANING on that fast-forward: "Seth Rollins promo (FF).  Bray Wyatt promo (FF).  Seth Rollins match (FF)."  I watched the last hour on live TV and kept instinctively reaching for the remote and pressing FF and forgot it wouldn't work.

Also Jason Jordan shouldn't call his dad Kurt.  It just sounds weird.

I think they were doing this since in story Kurt did not raise him. 

The Jason Jordan thing is not working. I think the big reason is everyone knows it is bullshit. I think fans will buy a lot unless it is something that blatantly fractures reality. 

Now before anyone mentions things like various Undertaker and Kane angles. I think fans views that as "How did he do that?",  Or as part of the wrestling world. 

That Jordan has the charisma of a wooden log does not help. 

[Phantom Lord]

I am getting visions of Rocky Maivia with Jason Jordan right now. Right now he's the happy go lucky blue chipper son of Kurt Angle (who the crowds probably aren't latching on to). I can eventually see a moment where he snaps and beats up dear old dad. I'm not saying they're gonna have him turn into The Rock circa 1998. But the push way too fast with him winning a title and no one caring is coming right up the turnpike.

[L_W_P]

Curtis Axel has been in WWE for a decade. Let that sink in. He has been there for 10 years... I just... wow...

[Victator]

I was really wrong about Sheamus and Cesaro. Them as two totally together dudes is really entertaining. 

[quackhell]

2 hours ago, Phantom Lord said:

I am getting visions of Rocky Maivia with Jason Jordan right now. Right now he's the happy go lucky blue chipper son of Kurt Angle (who the crowds probably aren't latching on to). I can eventually see a moment where he snaps and beats up dear old dad. I'm not saying they're gonna have him turn into The Rock circa 1998. But the push way too fast with him winning a title and no one caring is coming right up the turnpike.

This just seems like the natural way to go. Having him become more and more arrogant "My Dad is an Olympic gold medalist!!" and bullying Kurt into getting him title matches etc. Then Gable comes in via shake-up, to talk sense to him and instant midcard feud. 

[Casey]

3 hours ago, L_W_P said:

Curtis Axel has been in WWE for a decade. Let that sink in. He has been there for 10 years... I just... wow...

He's been on WWE television for 7, since he debuted on the main roster in 2010. But, yeah, employed by WWE for a decade.

[Jamal]

7 hours ago, Victator said:

Why was Bayley running from a midget?

In my mind, it's because she saw Nia coming up behind Alexa and knew it would be a double team. 

[RIPPA]

Meltzer said on the radio show that the Enzo and Cass segments do well in the ratings so that is why they had enough confidence to put it on last

[RIPPA]

I also haven't double checked the math but the claim is that last night was the 13th time Bayley and Nia Jax have wrestled just on RAW this calendar year

[MORELOCK]

9 hours ago, Eivion said:

The crowd was weak tonight. Everything felt less than it actually was.

Nia/Bayley was good even with the dead crowd.

Why is it the crowd's fault that WWE is consistently putting on shitty, slapdash shows? Why would the crowd react as they "should" when WWE goes out of their way to give them terrible shows?

[J.T.]

10 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Also Lesnar-Jones is confirmed for UFC 217. 

Please don't put that evil on what is shaping up to be a spectacular card at MSG.

57 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Meltzer said on the radio show that the Enzo and Cass segments do well in the ratings so that is why they had enough confidence to put it on last

If I tune into RAW and Enzo is on my television, he'd better be getting kicked in the face really soon or I am changing the channel.

[Dolfan in NYC]

This kid is all of us.

[Curt McGirt]

Like I said in the July discussion thread, I came home from work thinking "awesome, I got an hour left, surely the three-way is gonna end the show", turn on the TV, and all three guys are covered in sweat as the match is already over. And then they announce Show vs. Cass for the main? I just about threw the remote. 

Good lord was that crowd dead for Nia/Bayley. I felt bad for 'em. No matter how good they both are they get put in the death spot. 

Also: THAT is Kurt's wife?

[Charlie M.]

So clearly they're hinting at Sasha turning on Bayley because she's jealous (a classic WWE women's storyline!) which is exactly what they were doing before the shakeup. They basically just gave Alexa the same verbiage they were giving to Charlotte back then.

I think that means Nia is going to go face out of all of this and they're going to do the dreaded Alexa vs Nia feud after SummerSlam.

[MORELOCK]

2 minutes ago, Charlie M. said:

So clearly they're hinting at Sasha turning on Bayley because she's jealous (a classic WWE women's storyline!)

 

As someone who is sometimes viewed as the board's "SJW" lightning rod - there is absolutely nothing about this angle that is sexist, and it's been run numerous times with males.

[Charlie M.]

They should focus more on the ego part and less on the jealousy, IMO. Also, Bayley's not over anymore so everyone is going to cheer when Sasha turns because heel turns of "misused" favorites are the new face turns.

[JCM]

2 hours ago, RIPPA said:

I also haven't double checked the math but the claim is that last night was the 13th time Bayley and Nia Jax have wrestled just on RAW this calendar year

Yay for divisions with four people in them.

I made sure to catch the triple threat, and it was good not great. I really don't know why they had that match with a clean finish and no post match angle so close to Summer Slam though. That felt like a setup to a Roman/Brock singles match.

[MORELOCK]

22 minutes ago, Charlie M. said:

Bayley's not over anymore so everyone is going to cheer when Sasha turns because heel turns of "misused" favorites are the new face turns.

Yeah, the main issue with turning Sasha at this point is that she's the only over face in the division - nobody cares enough about Bayley to be sympathetic when her friend turns on her.