Raw is John Cena Is Good At His Job - 8/28/2017

[Ryan]

Since you posted twice. Make them face themselves in Fire Pro.

[sydneybrown]

That Cena/Reigns promo. You can hate it for being too insider-y or shooty, I get that.  I literally have no idea if that was his promo or he just did whatever he felt like.  The delivery, the attitude, the cut-to-the-fucking-bone.  That shit FELT real.  Honestly, it's even more savage if you imagine Vince saying Cena's lines.  

"Cena has to be here because you can't DO your FUCKING JOB!"

[caley]

I think everybody's busy celebrating that Cena promo (Which is weird, cuz he's been doing the same promo every time he has a big match for a while now, nobody was cheering him when he tried to do the same thing to AJ Styles or Miz) to notice the best moment of the night: when Elias beat up Pelvis Wesley, knocking his wig off, only for the Memphis fans to break into a spontaneous "He's got kids! He's got kids!" chant.  Boy was that a dumb segment, I might add, because the Memphis crowd was so excited to see Lawler stand up for Memphis, only for King to look like a dope for bringing out a guy in a terrible Elvis costume.

Also, don't look now, but I think Gallows/Anderson will be faces by this time next year if they letting Gallows call his opponents "Nerds" cuz the crowd LOVES it.

[Victator]

2 hours ago, piranesi said:

 

 

He looks like Joseph Parks big brother. 

[Brian Fowler]

Once again, when Cena wants to be, he's the most vicious and untouchable promo ever. This might be his best since the night he left The Rock scrambling for words way back in 2012.

Reigns actually was good after the part where he froze. If he hadn't froze, it would've been his career best promo*. Then he got hit by a car anyway.

*"What's my name babygirl?" still holds the title.

[Niners Fan in CT]

Cena is tremendous but what he did to Roman tonight was on a different level.  He couldn't have done that to AJ or The Miz.  He tried but The Miz is better at the "shooty" shit and AJ as "best wrestler on the planet" outpoints anything Cena can say about him.  "John,  you aren't as good as me" and being 100% right is all he needed. 

[SirSmUgly]

I saw people talking about that promo on another board, and someone posted it. If this isn't a perfect example of why WWE is shitty, I don't know what is. Cena reminding everyone how fake wrestling is and then jumping on a dude who forgot a line, saying, "It's a promo, learn how to do one." Nah, son, real promos aren't scripted.

Then Roman trying to clap back and sound kewl by saying "bitch" was sad. Dude is sub-All-American-Luger. Luger was a natural heel and was all wrong for that gimmick, but at least dude felt authentic. But it isn't Roman's fault that he can't just go out there and cut a promo. Cena going off-script against a guy who isn't sure if he can do the same sucks, but Cena going off-script with "I'm like Kurt Angle because you boo with love, right guys?" pandering comparisons and defending "real wrestling" by reciting a promo he learned from a script and taking breaks to throw in Russoesque reminders that we're all just watching a show was shamefully bad.

What a shitty ten minutes. It was the definition of anti-hype. Truly awful television all around.

[Ryan]

This is why they call you Smelly McUgly. Nothing to do with your post. https://books.google.com/books?id=woVFDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT83&lpg=PT83&dq="Smelly+McUgly"&source=bl&ots=ZDPwqRf_3O&sig=d1MtWoenGRb9sqqIZJE3_hkXIDA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjqyviw6_vVAhVJ0iYKHT4AAu4Q6AEILzAC#v=onepage&q="Smelly McUgly"&f=false

[Brian Fowler]

Did you just criticize him for doing a scripted promo and for going off-script during it?

[SirSmUgly]

2 minutes ago, Brian Fowler said:

Did you just criticize him for doing a scripted promo and for going off-script during it?

No, I criticized him for acting like scripted promos are what prove that you're really THE BIG DOG and also for sounding like he was cutting a '99 WCW promo when he was off-script.

It came together to make for one of the worst promos that I have seen in awhile.

[Brian Fowler]

At no point did either of them ever treat the actual match as anything but a fight. It was a far cry from those WCW promos.

And whether it is scripted or extemporaneous, freezing in the middle of it is bad, and deserves to be called out. 

[Brysynner]

Reigns could've just pulled a Randy Orton and asked Angle to tell him his line.

[Niners Fan in CT]

"Promo" in this day and age isn't really "wrestling is fake!" bullshit because people describe boxing/MMA interviews as promos. It's just someone getting their point across. The segment came close but in my eyes did not cross the line and veer into late WCW this shit is all fake territory. 

[SirSmUgly]

29 minutes ago, Brian Fowler said:

At no point did either of them ever treat the actual match as anything but a fight. It was a far cry from those WCW promos.

And whether it is scripted or extemporaneous, freezing in the middle of it is bad, and deserves to be called out. 

No they did not. They treated the whole thing as commentary on how management portrays them to the fans. The fight was tertiary behind 1) how they are packaged and presented and 2) whether or not Reigns is ready to take over for Cena as the focal point of the company. 

And the absurdity of knocking a guy for forgetting a line to a promo when the promos being scripted in the first place is a fucking stupid practice is too much for me. I am calling Cena out for reminding us all that Vince and his writers are imposing a terrible script on pro wrestlers when pro wrestling is at it's best as an improvisational act (Macho and DDP 4*+ matches aside).

If Cena is the big dog because he remembers a bunch of poorly-written lines and the best of his off-the-cuff material is more Vince Russo shoot shit, then Cena really isn't the guy to give lectures about what it takes to be great. The whole thing was shit, a reminder that WWE is about marketing and scripting the charisma out of its top guys and an increasing dependence on manufacturing "moments" that they hope get enough hits on YouTube and Twitter to trend and thus make them look like a hot company.

[Ryan]

When Reigns lies down for Cena at No Mercy and Jimmy Jacobs comes out and cuts a "shoot" on Cena firing him from the company, we'll know something is up.

[Phantom Lord]

The last two weeks, Cena's been all zero fuck's and it's been amazing. Tonight we saw everything that was wrong with the WWE machine producing stars from the ground up. Roman got lost for one second and he was thrown off and Cena had him and Roman had no idea how to improvise all that. Sure, Roman has the mechanics in the ring to be a great star. But man, Cena absolutely toasted him last night.

Also all this stuff with him name dropping Taker has to be leading to something. Maybe the return of Booger Red. He can take over as GM when Angle eventually gets fired whenever they do the annual GM must be fired angle on RAW.

Poor Sasha. How hard is it just to let someone keep the belt for a while. So Nia/Alexa is the feud they want? I guess in context we'll get to see how it affects them six or seven months from now on next season of Total Divas.

[Jrag]

It seems obvious to me that Cena is about to retire. For a while, at least.

No other reason to burn through this and the Nak match on a small scale.  He looks banged up and his neck is probably still hurting from that bump in the Nak match.

In that context, "I'm still here because you can't do your job" is an all-timer line and also a bit sad.  Amazing promo. One of the best of Cena's career.

 

[Beech27]

While I realize that "turn Roman heel!" is the new "turn Cena heel!", I think he can come back from this just fine with one triple-powerbomb write-off of Cena. All three have plenty of ammunition to cut angry, aggrieved promos, but Roman probably most of all. And if no one person draws or sells merch like Cena does, well, perhaps it doesn't need to be one person. (And of course, this would actually be a de facto face turn, but whatever.) 

[Craig H]

Just noticed that Sheamus wears a Notre Dame patch on his jacket.

[Jamal]

9 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

They trust Sasha to get great matches out of people but they don't want her to run with the ball and I'll never understand why.  She has the most crossover appeal right now in the whole division.  I hate this 50/50 booking shit, it's worse in the women's division than any other division and it's happening on both RAW and SDL. 

Seriously. Sasha's over and can go in the ring. So, I'm not sure why they won't just give her the ball and let her run with it.  

[Spritenaut 32]

Just watched the Cena promo.  Whoever said "best 'bad for business' promo ever" had it right.  Hugely entertaining, but doesn't really help anyone and I'm not sure pointing out yet another way Cena is better than Roman is a good idea.   I feel bad for Roman because he's not on Cena's level as a promo so he's being set up to fail.  When Cena delivered the "I''m still here because you can't do your damn job" line, I imagined people in the booth screaming "Go to commercial!  Go to commercial!" and running around frantically like they were in a Mel Brooks film.  But, nope, they kept going.  And going.  And going.

I dunno what Vince is thinking, unless he thinks Cena is going to retire/get neck surgery/go Hollywood before the next WrestleMania.  Stacking No Mercy with a couple potential WM matches and giving away Nak/Cena's first meeting on SDL is kinda odd.  I'm amused by the idea that he's panicking about the start of football season and trying desperately to draw eyeballs since I had to watch the Cena-Roman promo on the internet this morning..... because I watched Sharapova's US Open match instead of RAW. Tanahsih, Okada, and Omega could debut next week and I still wouldn't be watching Raw on Monday nights for the next six months.

[ChesterCopperpot]

27 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Just noticed that Sheamus wears a Notre Dame patch on his jacket.

He's a big fan - he's visited with the team a number of times

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2015/11/14/wwes-sheamus-presents-notre-dame-with-its-own-championship-belt-hangs-out-on-sideline/?utm_term=.61fcbe1d8979

[Craig H]

Yeah I know. He was out tailgating once, but not near the lot I'm usually at.

Although I suppose Dean Norris stealing drinks and food from us is just as cool as meeting Sheamus.

[MarcosLoura]

I don't even watch this show, but all the buzz made me watch the damn promo.

Why are you setting up your top guy (that has been pushed to the moon and people don't like) to fail and get buried like that? What's with all this breaking the 4th wall, meta, worked shoot bullshit? This shit kinda worked on the Cena vs Rock feud but now is just sad.

This company is run by a moron.

[Rehabilitated Rick]

I saw it more as Cena showing tough love rather than it not helping anyone, sure it was business exposing and probably went off script, but Roman will learn from it and it won't matter in 4 weeks when Cena puts Roman over clean. I figure Cena is pissed that he's willingly given up his spot on top of the card only for Roman to spill the ball time and time again.