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Smackdown Presents Raw - 5/6/2019


Dolfan in NYC

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18 minutes ago, sydneybrown said:

 

It was actually Jericho and Christian.  I only remember because Jericho tells the story of how he and Christian came out in towels because the Dudleys stole their gear and then Spike removed their towels, leaving them "naked". And Vince WANTED THEM TO BE NAKED.  To which Jericho said "Fuck no."  Pretty sure if Vince asked the Revival to do the same, they'd do it.

Maybe that insubordination could have gotten fired (freed). 

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Wildcard Rule
Kofi Kingston's Magical Ride
Loved Cole's excitement in getting to once again scream "Here Comes The BIG Dog!!!"

Hysterical way to open the show with what so many people hate, a legit 25 minute opening promo seg followed by a 19 minute Baron Corbin match. Though I did think the tag was pretty good. Vince's excitement over the legendary Partners Who Can't Get Along trope, brilliant! Roman/Drew later was also very good.

Vince on the phone emphasizing it can only be 3 stars in the wildcard rule, changing it to 4 when Lars comes in, moments after Cole just pointed out that there had been 5 SDL talents on the show was classic.

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This was...this was just dire.  

Really really bad.  Like so bad that you could foresee it being taught in classes in the future after USA/Fox find ways to cancel their TV deals and WWE is reduced to a small touring brand that can only run shows on their own network with Vince having to wrestle his son in the main events every night to save on costs as what NOT to do with your billion dollar company.  

It’s honestly baffling.  You could quite literally hire someone off the street who had never watched wrestling before and ask them to write the show and it wouldn’t be as bad as this was.   I guarantee said random person would not script something as straight butt as that Revival segment.  The only reason to watch that segment is to experience the sound of thousands of people NOT laughing at something being presented to them as humour. You could have had the Usos come out and read the dictionary entry for comedy and elicited more laughter than that “funny” segment.  

I think that’s it for me for a while.  Might check back in a month or so but might not

 

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The opening segment is the perfect example of something going for too long. The crowd was hot for Vince/Roman, stayed interested when Bryan and Kofi appeared, but started to die when Drew showed up. Get to the point and move on to the next thing.

 

Seth/AJ vs Lashley/Corbin was solid, if predictable.

 

Samoa Joe walking behind Dominick was scary.

 

The women's reaction to Lacey's peach cobbler-scented stationery was pretty funny.

 

Firefly Funhouse got even darker. Dead bunnies and possibly sedated children, oh no!

 

Roman vs Drew was good, expected the Shane/Elias interference. Charly chasing after Shane for an interview made me chuckle. The Miz getting a few licks on Shane was nicely done.

 

Kofi vs Bryan was another good match.

 

Ricochet vs Roode was fine, and they did try to patch the hole of Ricochet getting into the MITB match so soon after a loss.

 

LHP and Viking Raiders/Hawkins & Ryder matches were just there.

 

Mixed feelings on the Revival/Usos bit. On one hand, it was childish and demeaning. But it's in keeping with Attitude Era-style skits, and some fans want to see that sort of thing return to WWE. The Revival doing the dog poop slide should have been funnier, but they're not selling this as well as they should. I can appreciate if they rather not do this, but they're hurting the Usos in the process, who like the Revival, are just doing their jobs.

 

I thought this show had good content, but it felt all over the place, no doubt because of the hub-bub surrounding it. Which has been Raw's biggest problem IMO. Individual segments are often very good. But the overall show has an outdated, slapdash presentation that weighs down everything.

 

 

Edited by Burgundy LaRue
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36 minutes ago, DreamBroken said:

Hysterical way to open the show with what so many people hate, a legit 25 minute opening promo seg followed by a 19 minute Baron Corbin match.

That almost makes me want to seek out and watch this shit. It's like trainwreck WCW or something.

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The biggest takeaway from the opening segment is how much more important the three SDL stars felt. Roman, Bryan, and Kofi came across as big deals. Drew, AJ, and Seth felt like the Teen Titans chasing after the Justice League. Seth especially felt like an afterthought.

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All this focus on the Wildcard Rule to try and stem the bleeding, and they probably did more to help lessen the ratings fall by actually starting a wrestling feud for Sami Zayn this week.

If you're really dedicated to stemming the bleeding, a good baby step to start with is "maybe we shouldn't focus 10 or so minutes every week to telling our fanbase how much we absolutely loathe every single one of them".

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3 minutes ago, El Dragon said:

Let's b real, you can watch this for 3 hours or you can watch Firefly Fun House clips on YouTube for 3 minutes. Everyone knows the correct option.

Neither?

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I didn't watch much of Raw. Once it started with Vince, I changed the channel and would occasionally flip back on just to make sure I wasn't missing something worthwhile. I'm glad I flipped back for the Firefly Funhouse. You know what I mean?

 

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3 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

There's a basic, simple reason why it can't work. WWE has no incentive to compete with itself. It'd be bad for business.

Look where we are this week. They've formed an arbitrary rule so they can bring big stars on both shows in direct reaction to the ratings drop last week. It doesn't work. They want freedom for this that a true brand split doesn't allow.

Realistically, the only way it can create enough space for the massive roster they have to work is to have a roster split of some kind. Given that they already have a bunch of guys chomping at the bit to go to AEW or wherever getting rid of the roster split is not really viable. Besides a Smackdown where nothing of consequence happens (like we had pre-roster split happens) is not viable either given the move to FOX.

This is wrestling; things don't have to be 100% cut and dried - most wrestling fans can tolerate a bit of arbitrariness. But there are limits, and they clearly overstepped those last night.

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Early on in the original brand split, Vince actually really did try to foster a real sense of competition between the two brands for real, even backstage.

It... Didn't really work.

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Saw this on the Reddits and it made me realise partly why I don't watch this show anymore. If WWE truly does listen to the fans of the show (that are still watching), surely they can fix it. It needs a revamp from the ground up. Small "fixes" like THE BIG DAWG showing up isn't going to do anything. He's been on the show doing the same thing for 5 years. You can say "WWE are fine, they make millions and millions every year", but if their ratings are going to tank every week that huge TV deal won't be there next time. So what are they going to do?

 

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1 hour ago, Brian Fowler said:

Early on in the original brand split, Vince actually really did try to foster a real sense of competition between the two brands for real, even backstage.

It... Didn't really work.

What's happening now is not working either.

Quote

 

Realistically, the only way it can create enough space for the massive roster they have to work is to have a roster split of some kind. Given that they already have a bunch of guys chomping at the bit to go to AEW or wherever getting rid of the roster split is not really viable. Besides a Smackdown where nothing of consequence happens (like we had pre-roster split happens) is not viable either given the move to FOX.

This is wrestling; things don't have to be 100% cut and dried - most wrestling fans can tolerate a bit of arbitrariness. But there are limits, and they clearly overstepped those last night.

 

You say not viable, but it's not working now either and it's completely eroding at the seams. First they got rid of brand only PPVs. Now they are doing this wildcard nonsense. 

Edited by TheVileOne
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8 hours ago, ComingToAmerica said:

I think Bischoff said some time ago that the move to Fox would affect the brand split. In a way they do need to have wildcards so that they can bend to TV Exec demands, especially when ratings are tanking as they are right now. But ending the brand split, or essentially doing so, is Vince pissing in his pants to keep warm in cold weather.

Honestly, if they were going to pull someone out of mothballs to help with creative, Bischoff was a better choice than Prichard. For all his failings, with twenty years of hindsight, there are certain things he's dogmatic about like stakes. He's gone at length about how they did tons of consumer testing at the start of Nitro and discovered how well people responded to being surprised. 

Pulling someone out of mothballs probably isn't the answer though. I'm not sure there even is an answer at his point.

Anyway, I've retreated more and more into old footage over the last couple of years. I'm pretty sure we'll be watching a Piper/Mulligan vs Inoki/Choshu match from 77 for New Footage Friday this week, so I'm good at least.

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23 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Honestly, if they were going to pull someone out of mothballs to help with creative, Bischoff was a better choice than Prichard. For all his failings, with twenty years of hindsight, there are certain things he's dogmatic about like stakes. He's gone at length about how they did tons of consumer testing at the start of Nitro and discovered how well people responded to being surprised. 

I did too. I always bring up John Nord Vs. Barbarian as the peak of this. It was a super sloppy random match, but the surprise of seeing it, and the improvised clobbering was a real treat. Regardless putting Bischoff in there will do diddley with Vince at the head. Which has been a good thing, and a bad thing.

The good thing being that they ensure that WWE for its lifespan since the late 80’s has had a consistent quality control. If you watched Superstars, you’d know you’d get the same quality presentation on All-American, and so on, and so on... WCW was infamously the “Too many cooks...” problem. Each angle, and program was super inconsistent from each other to the point you felt you didn’t know which era of wrestling you were watching. But that brief period in the mid to late 90’s they had something in that “Too many cooks...” problem where it somehow created an incredible 5-star meal. 

WWE’s problem for the last 19 years has been a lack of quality in that control. They desperately need to drop the control to get that quality back.I mean you see that with NXT, but they need that to be done on the main roster too.

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The idea that Prichard or any writer is responsible for these horrible shows is just not true. We all know where the buck stops, and who's rewriting the shows every week at 7:30.

Everyone seems to still be responding well to the Bray Wyatt stuff, to which I ask: How the hell is any of this going to translate to Bray Wyatt as a semi-main event level wrestler? I don't care about any of this Adult Swim Lite garbage if it doesn't lead to anything in the ring.

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