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Raw is Tales From the Underground - 8/3/2020


Dolfan in NYC

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28 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Yeah, and maybe this is hyperbolic, but this is easily the best use of Lashley in his entire WWE run. Both his first run and this current one.

It really isn't that hyperbolic. Outside of the occasional big marquee match against a physically large main eventer (Cena, Reigns, Braun, etc), I think it's been difficult to buy into Lashley in WWE. He's never gotten to play fast and loose and get comfortable with the best aspects of his personality like he did in Impact. Instead, he's been saddled with creative that at best has made him seem boring as paint drying, and at worst has been undermining (see: Bobby Lashley talking about his sisters).

His pairing with Lio Rush felt like they were leaning in the right direction. But he was also sitting in the middle of the card at that point, being exposed doing nothing of value and losing any sense of aura or importance. Say what you will about putting too much emphasis on look, but I feel you lose a lot when a guy like Bobby Lashley is floundering aimlessly in the middle of the card. Some of his latest main event experience came in a slap-dash group with Drew and Corbin that should have been wearing Washington Generals jerseys for their matches against The Shield, so there goes a bit more aura. And the less said about the Lana stuff, the better. 

Right now, being seen all over Raw's three hours as part of a group that calls back to the time when TNA found the winning formula with him is really a best-case scenario. 

Edited by Andy in Kansas
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I didn't watch, only read the snarky as fuck breakdown on f4.  However! my first thoughts upon reading about the shenanigans of the underground, was Brock as the final boss and champ to give him a belt that he can keep a stranglehold on and only show up to defend once a quarter.

 

Lashley and the Hurt Business work better as the final boss though

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9 hours ago, AxB said:

The WWE obsessives on the social medias saying "You're never satisfied! You said you wanted something new and different, and now you get something new and different and you don't like it!". Well the thing is, it's not new. It's not different. And we didn't specifically ask for something "New and Different", we asked for something Good. And didn't get it.

99% of the time I read your takes on WWE, it's mostly just your dislike of it and that's fine, but why bother watching you clearly don't like? Don't tell there isn't something better to for three hours than watch programming you don't like.

I know you like indy wrestling and other stuff, so why not devote your time watching that instead?

I honestly don't and never will understand the folks on here who just endlessly hate watch stuff and just continuously complain about it. ?‍♂️

5 hours ago, Craig H said:

This actually sums up the underground shit well:

 

 

So these folks don't like shoot style pro-wrestling?

I don't usually watch RAW, but I thought I watched the last 2 hours last night and I thought it was pretty good. I def. enjoyed the Raw Underground. It wasn't presented as Bloodsport or any of the stuff, but I thought it was unique and entertaining, even though I could have done without the endless camera cuts, but aside from that and the matches being way to short are the only 2 major complaints of it from me.

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RAW Ratings were up slightly to a shade over 1.8 million viewers.  Second hour was actually stronger than the first before the usual third hour decline.  

The hour also included Raw Champion Drew McIntyre's confrontation with Randy Orton, Nia Jax's confrontation with Pat Buck, a 24/7 title match with Akira Tozawa vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. R-Truth, Raw Women's Champion Sasha Banks vs. Shayna Baszler, and the first Underground segment.

This will make @MavsFan77 happy ?

Women 18-49 grew 22% in hour two before falling nine percent in hour three.

For those wondering,  RAW finished the night 4th in the all important 18-49 demo. They got crushed by 90 Day Fiance. 

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4 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

RAW Ratings were up slightly to a shade over 1.8 million viewers.  Second hour was actually stronger than the first before the usual third hour decline.  

 

This will make @MavsFan77 happy ?

 

 

For those wondering,  RAW finished the night 4th in the all important 18-49 demo. They got crushed by 90 Day Fiance. 

90 Day Fiance, like WWE, is trying to change things up a bit.  Unlike WWE, they're doing stuff people want to see (The way they're now simply re-showing clips from the most recent season, but with people from the show watching it and commenting and responding to fan tweets is so stupid, so cheap, and such a ratings-draw that WWE should fire everyone in production for not coming up with the exact same format earlier.  I would thoroughly enjoy watching Owens riffing on WWE or watching Seth try to respond to mean tweets).

Edited by caley
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1 hour ago, Edwin said:

99% of the time I read your takes on WWE, it's mostly just your dislike of it and that's fine, but why bother watching you clearly don't like? Don't tell there isn't something better to for three hours than watch programming you don't like.

I know you like indy wrestling and other stuff, so why not devote your time watching that instead?

That was the first time I've watched RAW in... it's been awhile. I used to watch a one hour RAW recap show on Sunday mornings, but I stopped in 2018. Last night, I watched the last 75 minutes of RAW, but it took about half an hour because I was skipping a lot. But I watched the Underground stuff because I like shootstyle wrestling. But the Underground stuff, it was not good.

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3 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I haven't seen more than a few minutes at a time of 90 Day Fiance my ex used to watch it but the writers must be onto something.  

It's viewers boil to down to a) romantics who want to see love win out a la 'The Bachelor' b) cynical a-holes who are in it to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all and for the memes.

So, pretty much Raw's viewers, just replace 'love' with 'pro wrestling'.

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4 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I haven't seen more than a few minutes at a time of 90 Day Fiance my ex used to watch it but the writers must be onto something.  

 

4 hours ago, Morganti said:

Some of my coworkers love that show tbh.  It has lots of train wreck watching from their conversations

I love 90 Day Fiance. It's an entertaining trianwreck. The best part of 90 Day Fiance is Pillow Talk, where previous cast members watch and riff on the episode that just aired.

Edited by Nice Guy Eddie
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6 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I love 90 Day Fiance. It's an entertaining trianwreck. The best part of 90 Day Fiance is Pillow Talk, where prevoius cast members watch and riff on the episode that just aired.

Pillow Talk didn't quite beat RAW but it did okay for itself. 

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10 hours ago, Craig H said:

This actually sums up the underground shit well:

 

 

I mean... I could see this being an argument a decade ago. In 2020 we're running stuff like the Stadium Stampede match, the worries about wrestling seeming unrealistic are way out of the barn by now.

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I checked out The Underground for the same reason I bought a bag of ranch Cheetos -- deep in my heart, I'm sucker for novelty.

I don't mind it in concept (I also dig it as a "second location" for things to occur at, like someone else said), but it's not like I am dying to see The Underground Week 2 (or Weeks 3 - 7 or however long before they get bored of it). I don't remember who tweeted it, but I agree, there's something about WWE for the last I-don't-even-know-how-many years, where they're just happy to pop a quick rating and not looking to sustain anything. I think the year Shinsuke and Asuka won at the Royal Rumble and then both lost at Wrestlemania was about when I realized that any gesture towards actual long-term change was always just to create A Moment. 

For me, when I think about What I Wish The Company Would Do, it's not that I need my favorite wrestlers to be the face of the WWE, it's more about -- "What would the WWE look like with continuous effort and money put behind their most over acts while they're still hot? How would that change how they presented themselves as a company? How would allowing space for younger wrestlers to bring their own attitudes and styles to their presentation change the tone of what's on TV and better engage with their young fanbase? What if instead of having wrestlers mould themselves to the company, the company were adapting to them (even cynically! In hopes of making fat wads of cash!)?"

Instead, everything interesting or exciting is understood to be a fleeting novelty that seems superficially different while nothing about the core of the show itself ever changes.

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So, looking at the ratings, the idea of RAW Underground got people's attention and they started turning the show on.

The reality of it lost their attention and they went away.

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I think WWE should try more experimenting again and see what sticks. Factions wars, maybe hotshot belts, bikini matches, more gimmicks etc. If none of that stuff works, then put them in the doesn't work files in their heads and scrap that stuff.
 

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