Smackdown Presents Raw - 5/6/2019

[Craig H]

I know EC3 isn't the best wrestler, but I'll never understand calling him up to first do nothing with him and then just make him a jobber on Main Event. The guy is one of the best talkers in WWE and is good enough in the ring. He had to have rubbed someone the wrong way backstage. I can't think of any other explanation. 

[Burgundy LaRue]

Roman being on both shows for a while isn't a surprise. FOX will want him as one of WWE's biggest stars. Hobbs & Shaw is being distributed the NBC Universal-owned Universal Pictures, which obviously owns USA. So he's wanted there for cross-promotion. 

[Matt D]

31 minutes ago, Craig H said:

I know EC3 isn't the best wrestler, but I'll never understand calling him up to first do nothing with him and then just make him a jobber on Main Event. The guy is one of the best talkers in WWE and is good enough in the ring. He had to have rubbed someone the wrong way backstage. I can't think of any other explanation. 

Could it be as simple as Vince not getting him?

"What's an EC3, pal?"

[Craig H]

I honestly don't mind Roman being on both shows as long as they keep booking him as an ass kicker, but Shane getting one over on Roman is really fucking old. I tend to look back at what worked for the top guy and that was something like Stone Cold whooping ass and not getting duped. So if Roman is on both shows, I'm cool with that as long as he's just beating ass when it comes to authority figures and their lackeys, but giving some rope to an adversary here and there so that his opponents aren't always buried.

[Phantom Lord]

So I watched the show later in the night after reading some results and I think had I watched the show live I would have been so angry. But since I watched it with a general idea of what happened, it made the show so much funnier.

For starters me and my friend are convinced that Vince was listening to his own little Great Gazoo. Go back and watch him in the background as everyone else is talking. You see him almost nodding as if someone is talking to him and then he's all "I GOT A GREAT IDEA". I laughed my ass off at the end when he just was all "I'M THE GREATEST".  But wow, this show was so chaotic and not in a good way.

You can pin point everything wrong with the product just by watching last night's show. 

This Wild Card thing. So does this mean more people just show up un-announced. Kofi vs. Bryan would have been a great PPV match and they gave it away with less than two hours build. That's late era WCW right there. Before that was the old trope of opponents must be tag partners. I guess if there's a silver lining it's that they didn't win the tag titles last night. Though there's still two weeks for that to happen.

I will say this though. I'm upset with myself that I laughed so hard at the Revival/Revenge of the Nerds bit. Remember when the Uso's were a serious tag team on Smackdown? Good times.

[Brian Fowler]

I agree on the EC3 thing being strange.

He's a great talker, has exactly the body type Vince over pushes, has the gimmick of arrogant rich prick that Vince always loves... 

[J.T.]

I chose to ski[ Raw and play Destiny 2 last night.  My wisdom exceeds my already long years.

Edited May 7, 2019 by J.T.

[J.T.]

2 hours ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

Bray needs a Cowboy Curtis, and Mojo is right there.

I am sad that Ruby Riott has a stable gimmick and cannot be Miss Yvonne / Sister Abigail.

I am even sadder that Bray's Pee Wee gimmick cannot go the way of the Big Adventure movie and smuggle in EG Daily to work a hybrid gimmick as Dottie and Sex-Head from Rob Zombie's 31.

Edited May 7, 2019 by J.T.

[Godfrey]

I’ve been sliding in this direction for a while now but this is finally the episode that made me think I don’t want to watch Raw anymore. Not lower on the priority list, but pretty much off the list. I was going to skip it last night but my friend had to bail on our plans so I watched and that first hour killed my interest. Two promo segments back to back (just cause Vince didn’t leave the ring doesn’t mean it’s the same promo) and then a looooong tag featuring Crowd Killer Corbin? Bryan/Kofi was enough of a hook to get me to stay but as good as that match was I could’ve watched it the next day without the commercials and been much happier.

I did LOL at the Revival diving head first into these dumb skits and essentially robbing them of their intended purpose. Are we supposed to think less of the Revival from this? Because I only think less of the company for doing that to them.

At any rate, time for me to step away from this show for a while.

[NikoBaltimore]

I normally watch it the next day but reading about what happened has me reconsidering.  I know that Bryan/Kofi was great and all but if I deleted this off the DVR then just as well.  I'm of the mindset that I want Raw's ratings to tank as low as humanly possible and it looks like it's heading that direction.  But I'll be pretty pissed if this wild card stuff mucks up Smackdown which may happen.

But hey, at least we had Giannis being awesome (I'm Greek so color me biased) and what looked like a pretty fun Warriors/Rockets game before I went to bed. 

[MORELOCK]

2 hours ago, RIPPA said:

And Mojo yelled at shit on YouTube 

Some things:

1. What is this look even supposed to be?
2. This is essentially just another version of the "Sami Zayn shits on the crowd" stuff, right?
3. They're sending him out to die in front of a crowd that doesn't care about him, and putting it on a YouTube exclusive video that no one will see, ensuring that no one ever WILL care about him.

But hey, at least we know where Titus is now.
 

 

[LoneWolf&Subs]

4 minutes ago, MORELOCK said:

Some things:

1. What is this look even supposed to be?
2. This is essentially just another version of the "Sami Zayn shits on the crowd" stuff, right?
3. They're sending him out to die in front of a crowd that doesn't care about him, and putting it on a YouTube exclusive video that no one will see, ensuring that no one ever WILL care about him.

But hey, at least we know where Titus is now.
 

 

He sort of reminds me of Evil Crush.

Another thing with this heel turn is Mojo was barely a thing on TV. Hardly any fans remember that Mojo won the Andre The Giant trophy. So why should it matter that he turned heel? He would’ve been better off getting an old school repackaging, and make us forget he played Mojo.

[MORELOCK]

It wasn't a turn - Mojo has been working heel since 2017.

[LoneWolf&Subs]

4 minutes ago, MORELOCK said:

It wasn't a turn - Mojo has been working heel since 2017.

 That’s right I forgot about the Hype Bros break-up.

Edited May 7, 2019 by LoneWolf&Subs

[Niners Fan in CT]

I'm not longing for the days of Eric Bischoff run sports entertainment but I almost find some of that shit more watchable because of how they took risks and did a bunch of crazy shit. These RAW programs are so damn boring..   I'd rather watch something that's terrible but insane than watch something that's terrible and boring.  

[For Great Justice]

2 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I'm not longing for the days of Eric Bischoff run sports entertainment but I almost find some of that shit more watchable because of how they took risks and did a bunch of crazy shit. These RAW programs are so damn boring..   I'd rather watch something that's terrible but insane than watch something that's terrible and boring.  

I can agree with this. They did a lot of unique things with the production of the show. The outdoor Disney lot, the two sets of commentators and having announcers with “specialties” such as women’s wrestling expert Stagger Lee Marshall. 

Not that it was always good. Nothing exemplifies that more than that one Nitro whose first hour was nothing but video packages. I think that was a Nash thing? I assume it still outdrew recent Raws.

Edited May 7, 2019 by For Great Justice

[RIShane]

6 hours ago, Phantom Lord said:

So I watched the show later in the night after reading some results and I think had I watched the show live I would have been so angry. But since I watched it with a general idea of what happened, it made the show so much funnier.

For starters me and my friend are convinced that Vince was listening to his own little Great Gazoo. Go back and watch him in the background as everyone else is talking. You see him almost nodding as if someone is talking to him and then he's all "I GOT A GREAT IDEA". I laughed my ass off at the end when he just was all "I'M THE GREATEST".  But wow, this show was so chaotic and not in a good way.

I like it. 

[Dog]

5 hours ago, MORELOCK said:

Some things:

1. What is this look even supposed to be?

[RRR]

12 hours ago, Matt D said:

Could it be as simple as Vince not getting him?

"What's an EC3, pal?"

Or it really could be as simple as someone explaining the whole Ethan Carter the 3rd origin and him being like yea so I’m suppose to push this ladies fake nephew now? 

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

12 minutes ago, Zartan said:

Or it really could be as simple as someone explaining the whole Ethan Carter the 3rd origin and him being like yea so I’m suppose to push this ladies fake nephew now? 

I think that was always a major problem with the gimmick. He would have been better off returning as Bateman. At least that way, he kind of had some backstory with Daniel Bryan.

Tbh at this point, being additional muscle for Bryan might be something to throw at creative if he hasn't already.

[The Natural]

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

20 hours ago, MORELOCK said:

Some things:

1. What is this look even supposed to be?

He kind of looks like a meme, but he basically could be the 3rd Ascension member.

And yes, The Ascension are still employed. 

[The Natural]

[The Natural]

[TheVileOne]

End the brand split and go from there. 

Would it really kill WWE live event business if they stopped stretching the roster so thin on two touring sets of house shows? Have less house shows and load them up with more names. 

Edited May 12, 2019 by TheVileOne