Raw is Lost and Found - 10/24/16

[Dolfan in NYC]

So.... did they cut off Brock and Heyman because they utter failed to heel in front of a Minneapolis crowd?  

And yay to ring apron powerbombs!   

[HumanChessgame]

When the Brock segment ended I was surprised that they were actually ending the show a few minutes early for once.  Then remembered there was still the main event 3 way.

Contract signing segments have always needed to stop being a thing and it's even moreso now.  It seems like there's one almost every week and they're always a time suck.

I felt embarrassed for everyone involved in Kendrick's post-match segment with Perkins.

[Peck]

That Bayley/Dana segment was horrific and rightly shat-upon. 

Not sure why they even attempted to get people to boo Brock/chant Goldberg in Minneapolis. Just made zero sense at all. What a flat promo.

Axel promo was great. Sure it was a hometown pop, but it had me believing in him until he jobbed once again. 

Foley did his damnedest to make HIAC sound life-altering, but the two ladies no-sold it more than a punch to The Warlord.

The TJP/Kendrick stuff was curious too. I get the story that Kendrick is questioning himself/career crossroads/ONE MORE MATCH, etc. but I don't think they need to go the Fingerpoke Of Doom route. 

[Nice Guy Eddie]

I got home in time to catch the main event. Sometimes death has really long work days.

Did WWE really expect Brock to get a heel response in Minnesota?

I wanted to reach through my tv and stab Michael Cole in the throat when he said KO's apron powerbomb has taken weeks off superstars careers. Nothing says devestating like a move that takes weeks off of a career.

[Craig H]

Wait...Why does Kendrick still get a title shot when he lost to Swann? WHAT FUCKING SENSE DOES THAT MAKE? Answer: About as much sense as a storyline with Kendrick asking Perkins to lay down for him. 

Why are Cesaro and Sheamus facing the tag champs tonight in a tag match when they're facing them on Sunday?

Regarding the contract signing between Sasha and Charlotte, nothing in the Cell will be as painful as Foley's constant ranting about how painful the Cell is. Maybe if Foley did his spiel once it would have been fine, but he wouldn't shut up about it.

Axel's promo was the shit. 

[The Green Meanie]

The best part of the whole show was the Shining Stars yelling "Dominicans?!", unfortunately the camera moved on before we could see how pissed off they were.

I know the show was 3 hours, but honestly it felt like 6. Man, am I looking forward to SDL tomorrow.

[Burgundy LaRue]

10 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I wanted to reach through my tv and stab Michael Cole in the throat when he said KO's apron powerbomb has taken weeks off superstars careers. Nothing says devestating like a move that takes weeks off of a career.

That was awful.  I was literally screaming MONTHS, MONTHS! at my computer screen. Can Cole take an early retirement?

[Brian Fowler]

Man that Curtis Axel promo was a perfect fired up babyface bit of mic work, backed by a red hot hometown crowd eating it. Tailor made to help relaunch his career with a bit of momentum, or at least put a few smiles on faces in the audience.

So, of course, he jobbed four minutes later.

[NintendoLogic]

It doesn't reflect well on the writers that they thought "I'll see you in hell" was such a good line they had to use it twice.

[zev]

So how much of Machine Gun Kelly's career did KO bomb away? A fortnight's worth or a whole Indian summer?

[Charlie M.]

I know what they were trying to do with the Foley stuff but it comes off so condescending much like most of how WWE handles the "women's revolution." Oh you poor little delicate flowers don't you understand you might get hurt????? Silly women! They should have just told him to shove it.

Jericho's little bits throughout the show were funny and he's not even scheduled to be involved in the show. Him as ref for Owens vs Rollins would be more interesting.

Braun vs Sami was pretty good. I see some people have finally come around on Braun. I was pushing for this a year ago!

[Nice Guy Eddie]

10 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

It doesn't reflect well on the writers that they thought "I'll see you in hell" was such a good line they had to use it twice.

So nice they used it twice

[Niners Fan in CT]

I was very confused by that Heyman and Brock segment. Everyone knew Brock would be cheered in Minnesota. Why did they try to fight that?  Goldberg got a huge response last week. I figured they would let Brock have his moment this week.  What would have been wrong about Brock having his moment? There's not really a heel or face in this, Toronto is just going to cheer both guys.. probably..  I didn't get what they were going for. 

I didn't mind the contract signing.  I didn't think Mick was being condescending. Hasn't Foley done this before?  The whole "you have no idea about the cell!!" stuff and tried to put over how career altering the structure is?  It was fine...

[Eivion]

I like how they are doing Sami vs. Braun so far.

Charlotte/Sasha needed less Foley, less great moment for women talk, and more the two talking of wanting to cripple each other.

The Lesnar/Heyman segment just felt weird.

 

[nofuture]

Wait, so one week Foley is rewarding the women with putting them in the first ever HITC match because they "earned" it, then the next week Foley is hesitant because it apparently ruins your life?

[username]

2 minutes ago, nofuture said:

Wait, so one week Foley is rewarding the women with putting them in the first ever HITC match because they "earned" it, then the next week Foley is hesitant because it apparently ruins your life?

I mean, he has had a lot of concussions...

[zev]

"Will somebody stop the damn co-GM?" doesn't have quite the ring to it, but someone needs to say it next time Foley has a live mic.

[odessasteps]

I still wonder just how violent the women will be. Obviously, they cant get color and presumably wont do anything to get hardway juice. Will we see the always funny modern wwe spot with cage raking that does no visible damage?

That said, i wonder how the general audience would react if Charlotte did emulate her father and got color. Presumably, red <> green. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

The finishing sequence to Sasha/Bayley was pretty violent with the limb work and the stomping on the fingers, maybe they will go that route and work over body parts

[Phantom Lord]

Normally I like Mick when he's doing his thing, but tonight he felt so patronizing (I know he was only working with the material he was handed). The WWE keeps saying "oh yeah women will main event someday and they'll be treated as equals" and then you have Mick basically cut this promo where the whole thing was "you shouldn't do this match because you'll get hurt really bad because it's the cell and you know...you're girls". They weren't saying that outright, but they might as well have. I honestly was waiting for Charlotte just to say "Shut up you old cripple and give me the damn contract". I mean they tried to make some fire out of this, but Mick standing there being all "you're gonna be me in 10 years" just ruined it.

Brock standing in the ring not giving a shit but smirking knowing he was getting a nice paycheck while Paul did his damnedest to keep the train on the tracks was very amusing. By the end even Heyman was like the hell with it. If they think Brock is going to be a mega heel and Goldberg is going to be a super face in bizzaro world Canada...hahahaha.

[RIPPA]

And again - Rusev cuts an amazing babyface promo that the writer's clearly thought was a heel promo

God this show fucking sucked and that isn't counting the hour I didn't watch

[PetrolCB]

3 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:

The best part of the whole show was the Shining Stars yelling "Dominicans?!", unfortunately the camera moved on before we could see how pissed off they were.

I thought his line to Titus was better... 

"Hey, nice scarf." 

"Thanks, it's 'Titus Brand'." 

"'Dummy Brand'."

[Go2Sleep]

1 hour ago, Phantom Lord said:

Normally I like Mick when he's doing his thing, but tonight he felt so patronizing (I know he was only working with the material he was handed). The WWE keeps saying "oh yeah women will main event someday and they'll be treated as equals" and then you have Mick basically cut this promo where the whole thing was "you shouldn't do this match because you'll get hurt really bad because it's the cell and you know...you're girls". They weren't saying that outright, but they might as well have.

Yeah, that was the epitome of tone deaf. I guess it goes along with "triple main event" in the spirit of subtle burials that the (undoubtedly male) writers think are good rubs.

Cole's line about the apron powerbomb taking "weeks off careers" reminded me of his timely "getting a finger caught in the cell" quote. On the subject of bad announcer lines, who thought of "Imbraunable Strow-man?" Corey should go on the list just for saying it.

Normally the talent of the Raw roster overcomes the shitty writing for a few segments a week, but this week that didn't happen, and boy was the show hard to watch. Jericho has to be writing his slow burn face turn himself, because his segments are the only competent ones week after week.

[Phantom Lord]

The worst segment by far that I saw (I missed most of the first hour) was Bayley and Dana. They got the crowd to boo a Bayley segment. Do you know how bad it must be for anyone to boo Bayley? Bayley is pure joy and happiness. Even I, someone who is practically always miserable will smile because of her. And they made those people boo her. Well, mostly Dana and the stupid arm wrestling but still.

I knew this would happen when they called her up. They have no idea how to use her. It can't simply be she's just a really good wrestler or even God help us the female John Cena when it comes to the kids. They're managing to screw that up all ready.

[BurningBeard]

Big Sexy