I guess they don't all have to be names or anything, some can just be fodder. The Nation of Domination was like this at first, you had Farooq. Crush, Savio Vega, PG13, Clarence Mason and D-Lo Brown eventually (Though he started off as a nameless non-character) and a bunch of people who did nothing but stand there or got battered by the likes of Austin or whoever.Originally Posted by PurePlayer
I would suspect that whoever reported these images may also have been a part of putting them out there. Imagine going to all the trouble of putting something like that out there, only to have a million or so people completely miss it?
But I gotta know about the guy eating cereal - was he eating Booty-O's?
Drew has been fantastic on the mic for this entire run, going back to him winning the Rumble. But in this feud with Orton, I would have liked to see him point out that he defeated Brock Lesnar handily, while Lesnar had completely dominated Orton. I get that they wouldn't do that as they don't want to remind folks how Lesnar is not around anymore, but Drew could make this work, and Randy's character is credible enough to be able to withstand some trash talking.
lol. Well, read it again, I was saying we DON'T need them.
Wouldn't it be Fiend and Find?
you said you didn't need them with your words. your heart said otherwise.
Also no. It would be The Friend (they don't want to be overly derivative). But you are accurate in that sometimes that the Fiend would be challenged to Find the Friend.
Last edited by Mazer; August 26th, 2020 at 12:34 PM.
I kinda liked the Oddities, well I liked their entrance and dancing I can’t honestly say I remember anything beyond that.
They weren't terrible. If the idea was literally to have some type of Howard Stern freak show parade, they definitely achieved that goal. To be honest, I was pretty hype about ICP back in the 90's so that was about 99% of the reason I gave a fuck about the group.
I loved Golga (RIP), but they were never going to achieve anything bigger than they did.
Keith Lee + AJ Lee + AJ Styles
Make this a stable WWE.
I'll be honest....I thought his theme song was lame. It was way too relaxed, didn't get me pumped up to see Keith Lee. Hopefully the new new theme will be a banger.
To be honest, I would be shocked if Keith Lee's call up was planned longer than a month. My son pointed out his gear is more akin to his ROH gear. Not sure why they had him change it up because he looks more like a jobber than anything. Just another NXT talent chewed up and spit out.
He already appeared at Survivor Series and in the Royal Rumble in his regular NXT gear. I know he was still part of NXT then, but come the fuck on. His gear on Raw was fooking dire.
Another one of those main roster calls up from NXT where they ignored the phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and they fixed it.
Shayna telling Nia to "leave me alone" on Raw too.
Shayna is an utter pussy, almost overnight.
Nia attacked Shayna a couple weeks ago, attacks here again on Monday, but then quickly decides maybe she should team up with her and Shayna is cool with it. What the fuck is this shit?!!!
If they don't do anything with RETRIBUTION tonight please just drop it. I'm tired of this hurry up and wait shit.
Nah it's just today's culture you need things now now now.
I like the buildup and am excited more and more I have to wait for the reveal.
Did Billie Kay have plastic surgery
So, I turn the show on and the first thing I see is retribution. But for the love of Christ. Stop. The. Quick. Cuts. You miss so many shots by doing this, like Zelina saying fuck it and attacking the people surrounding her.
I rewound to where they were interviewing, and it does look like her face is different. Not as...manish? I thought it was just a good makeup job.
Oh, speaking of, they have them in the underground. I highly doubt they'll mix it up in there. I'd like it if they showed some of that type of fire, though and not just comedy goofs.
Edit. Nevermind...
I can't remember when Lee no longer used the BBC as his finisher. Either way, feels like it was a good move to go with the Spirit Bomb as the finisher. Ziggler got more of the match than I would have liked but he clearly delivered as a bump and feeder for Lee.
Seems like they're attempting to go with the Team Hell No approach for the style of angst Nia and Shayna are going to have. That's going to require some good chemistry and sharp comedic timing. *shrug*
No idea why they decided Lana needed to get back into the ring. This was her first televised match sense February of this year. It's also apparent this wasn't thought out very well because she had old Lana Day gear. As for Mickie, I'm not against her having a title shot. In fact, I think it's a pretty good idea because she can go. Further lack of awareness for advanced thinking: If they're going to run with that, they probably should have had a bit more of an exciting return for her than getting counted out against Natalya while the camera focused on Rollins arguing with the announce desk.
I might be willing to give McMahon too much credit if he's got a galaxy brain idea. It's beyond apparent that there's not a steady foundation for the women's tag division. I can see that he might be getting aggressive with breaking up all of the teams are setting them up to be broken up soon so he can ditch the tag titles (which he clearly doesn't care about) and consolidate it to maybe a different title for the women's divisions for each brand. If it's not that, I have no idea what the hell is going on. Sink or swim time for the two of them as they go solo.
I guess I spoke too soon last night about the power of stem cell when it came to Mysterio. A torn triceps doesn't sound fun, especially for a guy as old as he is. Dominik has had a great co-pilot in the ring for the last several weeks in Rollins, but good on the youngster showing subtle signs of improvement each time he's been in there. He's certainly got a bright future.
Whatever they did at the start of the entrance for Street Profits had potential. There was a cool looking drone shot towards the entrance and I was liking it. After that, I didn't have much enthusiasm because we've seen these two teams together for way too long. Good to see Demi Burnett is getting a lot of TV time...#Restoration
Why was Postman Pearce all of the sudden on Raw? Glad to see that didn't matter because Retribution still showed up. Outright hilarious that commentary was scared to death at the sight of them but a commercial break changed things for them, and things were just hunky dory for them. Things could magically be business as usual because...?
They just need to get on with it for whatever is going on with Alexander, Ricochet, and The Hurt Business. This is dragging on with not much development.
Of course the main roster couldn't handle the moment and ruined the lurking Lee shot in the corner. OF COURSE. That match was really fun, though. Rollins' sell of the Spirit Bomb was rad, and Orton's RKO and roll to the pin was smooth. Good on them to protect Lee by making sure he didn't eat the pin.
I got that feeling at Payback and one of the reasons for my big Payback rant because they are nowhere near as sharp as Bryan and Kane.
They had comedic contrast whereas Shayna and Nia are just two big bulls roaring!
Last edited by Badger; September 1st, 2020 at 12:26 AM.
Also Retribution: "Hey what about biggest PPV of the summer and the second biggest PPV of the year, we could chaos!!!....Nah midcard tag match on Raw instead. That'll dae!"
Further making the story ridiculous, the scuttle is that Retribution is going to be a Raw-only storyline.
Would have been cool to see Retribution interfere in the main event.
I agree with some of Donald's thought about enjoying a slow build, but the difficulty is that actions make less sense without a definite purpose. Unless you want them to interfere with or "try" to interfere with nearly every main event, it stops making sense. Once you have them fighting with specific people or groups, it can flow more with the narrative.
RAWtribution.
I chuckled, lol.
I’m not sure creative even know at this point where they’re headed with them seeing as they’re now Rawtribution only. The whole thing has been weird like how they started:
“Tune in this week to see a new faction wreck our show” Kinda defeats the purpose of spontaneous chaos when they advertised it.
I went back and watched the rest of Raw that I had dozed through earlier.
A couple of comments. Dominik is really going to be a star. He has, of course, had the benefit of working with Seth Rollins, but Dominik gives a solid promo and he isn't making the obvious mistakes in the ring that rookies do. His selling is top notch already, and all of his movements appear to work together effortlessly. Is anyone else as high on Dominik's future as I am?
Lana wasn't as terrible as I remembered. It may be a case of her getting carried to a better match than she usually puts forth because Mickie James is as good in the ring as anyone on the current women's active roster not named Asuka. The storyline wasn't helpful to her as they should not have had Mickie challenge Asuka for the match before Lana/Nattie interrupted, and nobody expected Lana to win. She should get new gear that does not say Lana Day. Did they ever officially wrap up her story with Lashley?
I am looking forward to Black vs Owens. They both deserve better than they've had in the past few weeks.
Is this the end of the IIconics as a team? The forced breakup was surprising, but the rumblings that Peyton Royce is going to get a serious singles push. I would think this is probably an attempt to have someone else Asuka can defeat, but hopefully Billie will become Peyton's manager. Peyton's act only works with Billie to bounce lines off of each other, and it could be a fun slap at the "powers that be" if she debuts next week as "The Iiconic Peyton Royce"
R-Truth still manages to entertain me - so congrats on his 39th 24/7 title run.
At first, I wondered why is Demi Burnett appearing on my TV? Then the stuff with Angel Garza explained it. He was only concerned with her safety, that is, until he left her alone to deal with Retribution. I was amused, but of course I am closer to Vince's age than Demi's.
I am glad Keith Lee was protected, and I want to see more of him. But with Orton facing Drew next, where does Lee go?
Dom: Yes, he's got plenty of upside, but it'll be interesting to see how he fits in as he's weighted down with bad booking.
Lana: A presumed divorce.
IIconics: Imagine Peyton gets a push and Billie becomes a comedy jobber, and they're split during the draft.
Lee: Probably Rollins.
I think Dominik has a lot of potential. Not impressed with his mic work but he's a dang kid so he's got lots of time to get better. Ring work already impresses and he's already less annoying than his dad.
Word on the street is Lee will be mixing it up with Orton/McIntyre over the title over the next few months.
The only way I see Dominick even on the main roster still is if Rey is coming to the ring with him. He's too green and they already have a better version of him with his older brother Humberto on the main roster already. I say they put him back in developmental, he can put on the mask he talked about and the whole "Prince Mysterio" gimmick.
Lana is done. I told people years ago she was great in one role and they were going to fuck it up. They did and here we are, no Rusev, no 80's stereotype Lana, and they probably lost a good chunk of viewers with the bullshit on Raw last winter.
I was talking to my son about the split of Peyton and Billie Kaye. Anyone who really pays attention to my posts knows that I've said Peyton will be a mega star. Honestly, I see this a lot like Edge and Christian's break up. People thought Christian was fucked, and look how that turned out. The guy was magnificent, he was definitely the better of the two when they first split. I think Billie will surprise the hell out of us. She'll be someone that can do it all; comedy, serious, she'll probably change looks and gimmick at least once.
Keith Lee. I hope it's Rollins. Right now Raw has some seriously good pairings at the top. Drew/Orton, Black/Owens, and if Lee/Rollins is there, oh man that's incredible. The midcard is getting fleshed out and then you have Raw Underground for what it is lol. Now they just need to figure out the tag scene. I'm not a fan of Andrade being a tag guy especially with no gold. Break him away, and let's find AOP and get them back in the fucking ring.
Saw aybar do the X sign when he did that move hope he is ok
Aybar!
I hope Aybar is ok after that
They call him the Viking Raider!
I'm not sure why McIntyre needed to show up in an ambulance. Was it because he escaped the hospital due to the injury? He kind of looked like an idiot later. His last few appearances have featured him being attacked from behind and being punted three times...but he should go ahead and walk around with his head buried in his phone lol.
Thank goodness they finally moved things forward with Alexander and The Hurt Business. Looks like Alexander held up decent enough on the mic with his moment. What a hell of a mess with the finish of the eight-man tag.
What a hell of a callback to the Brand-to-Brand Invitational by Cole with Cesaro and Nakamura showing up. That tells me Raw doesn't have any teams to work with and Smackdown doesn't want to invest in a tag story so they're consolidating things for the time being. That's lazy but at least two good teams are working together. Good on Cesaro throwing out Uno references for #DaParty.
The match between the two formerly known as The IIconics was fine. Not terrible, not great. It was kind of odd to see a friendship there after the fact. I guess WWE has been laying it on thick that duos are disbanding so you kind of expected that here. If they're going to be sincere about the two of them breaking apart, you probably need to go all the way with a split during the draft.
Seems dumb to have a women's championship match with your presumed No. 1 contender two weeks before the PPV but what do I know. Sounds like it's leading to Natalya getting added at the PPV and that doesn't sound like an improvement.
He certainly doesn't *need* to be as giving as he has been but Orton has been really helpful in getting over how impressive and imposing Lee can be in the ring. I'm not sure it made sense that McIntyre was supposed to be the one with the jaw fracture but Orton was selling his jaw way more than McIntyre has. Not sure it's ideal that McIntyre has cost Lee two matches, either. At least the beatdowns McIntyre gave to Orton were solid.
I think I like what they did with the stupid premise of the handicap matches. Liv and Ruby should win in those scenarios and it should be a great probability with the champs bickering amongst themselves.
So a long fight between Owens and Black in Raw Underground led to...Dabba Kato winning?
At least we finally heard from Retribution and heard a mission statement, of sorts. The message? Awfully verbose but dumb.
The street fight was pretty good and Dominik showed out again. The sunset bomb onto the table was awesome! The Mysterios whooped the shit out of Murphy after the match lol.
That sunset flip bomb spot was awesome
Is he the first wrestler to ever throw up a personal x sign?
No.
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to mth again.
No.
very unbecoming of an admin telling me to suck it.
REPORTED
Fair enough. No worries, I'm quite good at handling myself...
So... tonight's episode of RAW is apparently RAW -- In Your Face?
Should I wear a mask? Should I socially distance myself from my TV? Are we still in The Thunderdome?
Last edited by Spudz Mackenzie; September 14th, 2020 at 8:08 PM.
Wonder if Joe was the superstar rumored to not have resigned.
I'd love to see Samoa Joe roll into AEW just in time for Christmas.
He's fat enough to play Santa
He debuts, dressed as Santa, for a Make-A-Wish segment at the end of the last episode of Dynamite before Christmas, where he strangles Cody Rhodes with The Cochida Clutch in front of 15 cancer kids.
That's how you debut and get some heat.
Just read that Joe and Todd phillips have the week off
Nakamura out tonight, dressed like a Super Sentai (Power Rangers, if you're an American) character, without the helmet.
- - - Updated - - -
Has anyone ever seen The Street Profits and Private Party in the same place at the same time?
... makes you think.
Can we get the entire WWE Thunderdome to chant "you've still got it!" at Mickie tonight?
Remember Sanity? Sanity were cool.
I wish this were Sanity and not Retribution.
Man, Mickie went up like a lead balloon for that first "hip toss into the knee to the face" spot Asuka tried to call. Pretty sure Mickie wants to call this one. She got right in Asuka's ear, called something, and then went up light as a feather for the next one.
Its funny how Mickie went from trying to force Trish Stratus into lesbianism, but now that she's a babyface, Trish doesn't seem to mind.
MILF-y James!
I want Mickie to win. I'm not John Canton
Mickie with the flying muff dive.
I don't know what else to call it. Asuka attacks people with her ass, Mickie attacks people with an Arby's sandwich.
Mickie does Dino Douche's "Tail Whip" kick better than he does. And she only uses it as a transition.
What the fuck was that?
Awkward finish.
I guess it gives Mickie an "out", but she doesn't really need it, if they're moving onto Asuka/Zelina Vega.
Asuka's built gaming chairs bigger than Zelina Vega.
Anyone else think we'll get a Mickie/Asuka rematch at Night of Champions? Mickie has a bitch, she can say she never tapped out or gave up, and Asuka can grant her a rematch.
Zelina "Smaller Than Some Gaming Chairs" Vega can be lined up as the challenger of the winner.
Really the best they have for asuka is no talent zelina Vega ugh
That was one of the first Kana videos I saw way back when. I wonder if she'll revisit it to prove the point
They always said Ric Flair could have a 5 star match with a broom stick. Asuka can have one with a game chair. Or a Zelina Vega. Potato, potahto.
I've only seen Vega doing some moves. Is she really that bad?
Also, considering there aren't any more women for her to face, not a bad idea to just have her maul someone.
Its nice to see they're give Viking Erik a shot at some singles action with Ivar out.
Maybe they can do something with this guy?
... or not.
Zelina wrestled the fat chick from NXT UK, Piper Nevan, on one of those "When Worlds Collide" Network specials. She isn't bad. She just needs some ring time. She hasn't worked in a while, so she's probably rusty.That was one of the first Kana videos I saw way back when. I wonder if she'll revisit it to prove the point
They always said Ric Flair could have a 5 star match with a broom stick. Asuka can have one with a game chair. Or a Zelina Vega. Potato, potahto.
I've only seen Vega doing some moves. Is she really that bad?
Also, considering there aren't any more women for her to face, not a bad idea to just have her maul someone.
Braun on raw now?
I still don't know who the Raw Underground door guy is, but if he makes Braun look small...I'd be kinda scared of him.
To be fair, he made him look short, not small.
Good point.
Also, that sunset flip into powerbomb though the table is something I've never seen before. Murphy is a trooper. And Dominic still impresses.
I don't know many grizzly bears who'd make Braun Strowman look "small".
Little Mysterio child showed Murphy compassion. Now he will see the folly of his ways and find solace with a true family?
RAW Underground is how they should re-debut Samoa Joe.
Have him show up and just wreck everybody in the room.
The next week, the door's boarded up and somebody asks Shane what's going on. He just says, "There's nobody left." and walks away.
What the fuck was Braun doing from the time he went into the underground to the time he got in the ring? It was easily 30 minutes. Pooping?
Weird thought, does WWE only hire Stepford Wives announcers to make all their wrestlers look that much bigger by comparison?
- - - Updated - - -
Why is Keith Lee not looking at Drew Mac when he's talking to him?
Keith Lee doesn't do "promos", he does Ted Talks.
Jim Cornette is so right about Alestier Black. So far in his main roster run, he's only some Danish kung-fu guy who's vaguely like a Hot Topic goth. Remember all that "Left Hand Path" bullshit?
Black should be in the back chanting Satanic incantations and worshiping The Infernal Maker, not being a blind monk randomly attacking Kevin Owens. Black should be the modern day Raven. Instead he's basically the modern day Jerry Flynn.
Owens is the leader of Retribution.
Confirmed.
Now that the IIconics are forced to split up, Nattie and Lana have to be the annoying tag-team that holds hands.
And they call themselves The Best Friends? Well, they're better than Chuck Taylor, at any rate.
I've seen arguments on Reddit about whether or not Lana has sexy feet that lasted longer than that match.
That’s punishment for Lana because of rusev said last week
Having to watch Lana do anything besides stand there and look pretty is punishment for anyone watching.
Its kinda cool to see Keith Lee getting thrown right into the title picture. I'm not crazy about him losing in a high profile match on pay-per-view. But at least it won't be by pin, if he does.
Its good to see they had Keith Lee stop wearing that Tennis skirt.
Random thought: Anyone else think MVP sounds like Fred Sanford from "Sanford And Son"?
Retri-bullshit!
This Retribution crap needs a big "Kane moment" where somebody we haven't seen on TV in ages hits the ring to huge ovation from the Zoom callers at home and cleans the jobber ninjas out.
But there's nobody like that who can really pull that off right now.
I haven't been watching every week, but have the ninja job squad attacked RAW Underground yet?
Of course they're doing an ambulance match for Orton and McIntyre.
I'm fairly surprised they went with a clean finish for the champions versus champions match. It was a huge breath of fresh air to see Street Profits face someone else for a change. Those two teams meshed together really well. It was a surprising finish but it was booked in a way where Cesaro got caught and the story could have been different if it didn't go that way.
That Lumbar Check from Alexander to Ricochet was fierce and sold incredibly well by Ricochet.
Mickie/Asuka was really good but that finish didn't make a lick of sense. I thought Mickie had a pretty good promo prior to the match. Feels like she's held her own really well in that department since she came back. Zelina stepping up after the fact added more confusion since it was rather random.
Rollins is a really great heel when he gets to be a shitbag. The trash talking to the Mysterio women was a great touch. I really don't know how much milage is left in this grouping together.
The potential for an Owens/Black program has definitely been squandered to this point. It's had random mic time, an exorbitant amount of time in Raw Underground with both of them on their back, and then a match that finished due to distraction by Retribution.
That Samoan drop by Nia on Lana was pretty awesome. Certainly left it up to interpretation that Lana took it, and took a combo finisher for the quick squash lol.
Beats me why Strowman was randomly eager to show up for Raw Underground but it makes sense for him to move to Raw since he served his purpose on Smackdown and doesn't fit there anymore.
Retribution has been booked so bizarrely to me. They looked like kids getting kicks off being vandals initially. They're take over the show in very random ways, didn't give their mission statement until several weeks later, and the locker room doesn't seem that phased by them. The only people who seem to be concerned are a heel faction. Why? It's just very scattered and confusing. At least the visual of McIntyre and Lee doing dual dives was cool
Last edited by BGMaverick; September 15th, 2020 at 9:30 AM. Reason: I'm an idiot
I just can't see Retribution amounting to much. They feel like they exist purely to fill time. And I had a hard time believing Drew and Keith couldn't handle them on their own. You typically see a guy the size of Keith throw off 8 guys in the Rumble. I know this is classic WWE, but where was the rest of the roster? Why weren't they out there defending their brand? The show's being invaded, but I guess they were too busy fucking around in RAW Underground
Last edited by Sasori; September 15th, 2020 at 2:27 AM.
Given the "optics" of it, maybe having someone choke out a black guy with a move and then watching his lifeless body drop to the floor isn't the best thing to show on TV right now?
Poor Titus.
On the Mickie finish, It seems like a possible legit shoulder injury.
Stevie Wonder is dead?
IN. YOUR. FACE.
Why is WWE trying to rebrand on the fly like this? "On this week's episode of WWE In Your Underground Raw Thunderdome Face...."
So fucking random. In your face. Up your ass. Under your mom's skirt. "You'll never see it coming". How hard did the marketing staff get hit by layoffs that these catchphrases and slogans are making it through the vetting process?
Stevie Wonder didn't see it coming.
Sure didn't! lol
It really feels like the collective booking for Raw has been flying by the seat of its pants for quite some time. It also feels like that despite whatever bells and whistles they want to use for promoting (IN YOUR FACE), the viewer has to have very little confidence that stuff they actually advertise is going to pan out.
A couple of RAW thoughts this week. It was rather obvious that the Drew/Keith match would not end clean. Given the stip, I am expecting they may have Keith replace Randy and get put by Drew in the ambulance, but it will turn out that the ambulance won't drive away - as Randy will be the ambulance driver, and he will then put Drew in the ambulance as well. I liked Drew's throwaway line to Pearce "Who put you in charge anyway?"
For all the good that Lana looked last week against Mickie James, she has reverted to form. She is still plenty hot, and I am glad she got a new outfit that did not say Lana Day, but she was smiling too much after getting destroyed. Since Nattie is the winningest woman in WWE history - is she also the losingest? The WWE used to play up Moolah having the longest winning streak, holding her title 40 years, so I guess Nattie has a way to go. Lana's backstage comments with Garza was a waste of time - perhaps they were simply trying to remind us who Lana was, so we'd recognize her going through the table later.
Her performance was terrible as she was smiling before taking the final bump in the Riott Squad match, and smiling after getting the Samoan Drop through the table. We finally got the Garza/Andrade split, and it leads to....Vega getting a women's title shot? So is Andrade on his own now?
Strowman being tossed to the Raw Underground is just more evidence that he needs a real live crowd to perform in front of.
A few weeks ago I was exited about Owens v. Black. They've squandered this, and I am not sure why. The fact that Black doesn't talk hurts, but I think their Raw Underground segment made me care even less.
Champs vs Champs tag match showed me that Street Profits really do work better with quality opponents to work with. I really like combining Cesaro's giant swing into a hard kick by Nakamura.
@mth add “In Your Face” to the thread title if you want!
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