They tried having Ric Flair be creepy for Randy OrtonOriginally Posted by Badger
They tried having Ric Flair be creepy for Randy Orton
This was the worst Raw in the recent memory.
I think it was Brian Last who said that Vince needs to seriously step down. If not for himself but for his legacy and the legacy of his company.
The only thing I worry about with Vince stepping down is I'm not 100% sold that WWE is the end all be all for Stephanie and Triple H. I worry that the company has become too corporate and decisions will be made the same way they are made in other corporate settings as it pertains to ownership.
Ali is great.
"Well folks, in preparation for his match with Goldberg, Drew McIntyre has decided temporarily to return to his native Scotland for extra training"
Travel into and out of Scotland of prohibited due to a rise in Covid cases, so I don't think that will work, lol.
"Well folks, in preparation for his match with Goldberg, Drew McIntyre has decided to focus on his mental training by isolating himself for the next few weeks"
Dang, this is a bummer.
Hunter boutta make himself champ and show these kids how the magic COVID spray really works
Hunter don’t need no spray, he’ll just no sell it!
Who was the poster who used to really love triple h
It was Just Joe, that’s who I was thinking of
Lucha House Party referring to the Hurt Business: "We hate those guys."
LHP are then nowhere to be seen when Riddle is getting his ass handed to him by said group that they hate.
Lucha House Party's continued employment absolutely baffles me.
They're not bad, but none of them are ever going to be more than an underneath talent. Kalisto had his shot at a solid midcard push and then "gonna do some cool...uhhh...Lucha stuff!" happened.
My question is, why are these three goofs on RAW? If they were tearing it up in NXT's tag-team division, I'd get it. But on the big boy show, they're next to useless.
How fucking crazy is that Covid-19 was on Vince's legendary list of banned words when all this mess first started, but now the company's World Champion is on TV talking about it and basically delivering a PSA?
When Roman Reigns decided to take time off because of Covid health concerns, the WWE basically memory holed him for like two months. But Drew Mac gets TV time to tell people to wear masks and wash their hands.
Huge pop for HHH! The crowd is loving his return!
The "crowd"?
Do you mean the piped in crowd noise or all the Max Headrooms watching from home?
Randy Orton just went up like The Challenger.
Everyone knows its Lexi...
So... uhh... did Triple H just get transported to another dimension there?
Its the thing JR used to say when guys would leave and come back; "Drew Mac went away for a few weeks to learn a new hold."
Piped in crowd noise.
Well, the fake crowd noises are easy to please.
First and foremost, good on them doing the right thing by not beating around the bush or sugarcoating with McIntyre and allowing him to portray the right message with the virus. That was the right move and I'm glad they actually did that.
I wasn't excited by the idea of Triple H and Orton but I must say, they're quite good at hyping things between the two of them. It's a very stale story but they do a good job emoting and conveying the story. That also does speak to the glaring issue with WWE: Vince or whoever believes the audience won't remember shit but if you actually make good on long-term storytelling, it's a service to the story and the audience.
So let me get this straight: WWE felt these stories was the best use of Charlotte? She suddenly came back for tag titles that were cold and instantaneously froze the women's title. On top of that, she's bickering with her father and elevating Lacey Evans (who hasn't been booked worth a damn)? This is the same Charlotte who was booked to be unstoppable for a long time and recently so when she was the NXT champion? What? Is this like Raw's version of the soap opera stuff, like Smackdown's Murphy and the Mysterios?
From last week with Hardy:
Add a loss and another win, again to Elias. Good stuff...
Sheamus and Lee/Miz and Morrison was fine for what it was but it felt like absolutely no progression to the story. At least Lee got a win out of the singles match.
McIntyre's promo in regards to Goldberg was fantastic. Calling him "Billy" was an extra layer of magnificence.
Seems a little odd for them to announce Kingston is out with a broken jaw due to the battles with The Hurt Business and not having any video to support that. New Day is wilting away before our very eyes. Woods being left for fodder for Retribution isn't promising.
Also seems odd WWE wouldn't promote that Lashley was putting his title on the line. Just burning through the freshness of that story as quickly as they can. Also weird that double duty was the theme of the night, as Riddle had to have two matches like Hardy did earlier (and Sheamus, Lee)
Pearce might be holding a grudge against Gulak. Pearce wasn't about Gulak entering himself into the Rumble but Dana and Mandy were able to do that later. Gulak and Styles really didn't get enough time to have a good (for TV) match which is obviously a shame. Seems like it was there for the opportunity since they opted to have dudes wrestle twice on multiple occasions.
Par for the course as they spent the episode hyping an impromptu main event and they really didn't even deliver it in full. They had the crutch of calling this a "fight" yet Triple H was gone for the continuing story with Alexa. I guess she won the fight!
With the amount of folks pulling double duty tonight it makes you wonder if Drew might not be the only one with Covid concerns...
Kalisto is no longer part of LHP. It's just Dorado and Metalik now. Don't you remember the captivating story of their split?
Nope. Not at all.
But that makes them even more irrelevant.
Kalisto had a title match at a Wrestlemania. He's got a little equity built up as a talent. The other two dudes are the kind of luchadores who'd maybe make a WCW Worldwide taping back in the day.
Last edited by Spudz Mackenzie; January 12th, 2021 at 3:08 AM.
Quick hits:
-Second consecutive pedestrian effort by the RAW writing staff to start the year.
-That hoss fight between Lee/Sheamus was the best part of the show.
-What the fuck is with this Flair family soap opera?
-Wasting a rare HHH match on a last minute TV appearance is beyond asinine. Orton v Hunter is something that you advertise for 2+ months because you put it on the Mania card.
-Why does nobody show up to at least try to even the odds against Retribution? Such lazy booking. No Ricochet appearance, huh? Cool...
-Ali is trying his best to salvage a terribly booked stable.
-Hardy v Elias and Ryker, Evans, Riddle v Lashley, Gulak, women’s tag match were all boring as shit.
-Imagine if it were Goldberg that gave McIntyre COVID? Holy fuck. How tough do you think it was for Deplorable Vince to admit that his #2 guy has the Rona? It’s been a tough week in the McMahon household, I bet.
It’s like Vince saw that they were up against the CFB National Title game and said “Fuck it, not even going to try.”
Watching Orton react to the fireball triggered memories of Byker Grover
Alexa Bliss could really learn a thing or two about throwing fire from James E, couldn't she?
At least when Corny did it, he didn't have the benefit of multiple takes, special effects, and a closed set. And Ronnie Garvin went up like The Challenger.
My son asked when Bliss learned to fire bend and when will the Fiend stop making people disappear. First Cena at WrestleMania at the end of their match and then Triple H last night.
I watched a few things I missed on Monday. They really have nothing better for Mandy to do than take L's? Without the tag titles involved, this feud with Nia and Shayna is going nowhere, but let's keep beating Mandy.
Dot com has one of the most unintentionally shit hook lines for next week's Raw that I've ever seen.
"WWE Digital has learned that Randy Orton suffered minor burns to the face following the fireball attack by Alexa Bliss on Raw.
The Legend Killer laid down a challenge for Triple H at the beginning of the night and was in a battle with The Game when Bliss emerged from the darkness.
Don't miss Raw next Monday at 8/7 C on USA Network for the latest update on Orton's condition."
An update! Can't wait to see if he needs sudocrem for a couple of scabs. Essential viewing.
Injury updates? Return of the Randy News Network!
If they wanted to play it right, a Randy News Network update beginning with Randy appearing with his entire head covered like a mummy, so we don't know how bad the scars are. Then he should say so he consulted a legendary expert in recovering from burns - and cut to a segment with Kane - who says he's still pissed at Randy so he won't give him any advice...
Randy will probably go on and on about how nobody in the back came to help him out. He had shown mercy to little Miss Bliss, and where does it get him? Never again will he show mercy to anyone.
And somehow, Mercy the Buzzard will appear in the background, make some goofy comment, and Randy will destroy it.
Considering the cut on his face disappeared instantly, I think he should be able to heal up just fine. Although I wouldn't mind him going full-on Kane and wearing a snake mask...
hopefully ending with santino using him as a puppet
I’d mark out for Santino as a surprise entrant in the Rumble though it’ll probably be Diesel again.
It should be Diesel so Nash can promote his new movie.
The only surprise entrant should be Maven
He should announce that he finally feels safe since Undertaker had his final farewell
Although if they need 2 surprise entrants, Kane can come down immediately following Maven
Orton's Mr. Wrestling now?
The 8K cameras are Raw.
What a long ass promo by Mr. Wrestling II for the intro. This is the damn flagship show for WWE. This is the standard bearer for WWE. We saw this nearly eight-minute promo that seemed distractingly fixated on...the Royal Rumble? Yikers. Just do a Firefly Funhouse with The Fiend and Orton. There's enough material in Orton's past to drag out for it. That's the literally the only potential option that keeps me interested.
Good callback in the Ali promo with Kingston's injury and how Ali wants to capitalize on that. At least that's something that makes sense and is something worth building towards. Woods is having to be the fall guy for now but at least he works well in the ring.
Bliss is a pretty good talker but all of her talking segments seem to be really dreadful. Lil' Jimmy versus Alexa's imaginary friend should be on the Rumble card.
Am I seeing things or have they made more of an effort the last several weeks to make Dana a thing. To her and their credit, she's delivered more often that not. Be that as it may, it doesn't seem like they have a vested interested in making the team of Mandy and Dana or Mandy just as credible. Only Dana. I guess the point is they feel Mandy is fine as is so the emphasis is to improve an inferior talent. That's fine, but why not help elevate the two of them?
Pearce views Gulak and Ricochet in the same way in regards to Rumble logic. Can't really fault him for that. Seems right to have Styles/Ricochet as the longest match of the night. Neither of them have anything major going on but at least they got to fill time with quality work in the ring. Great new wrinkle Ricochet has added with the backflip into the German suplex. Really creative way to get to the Styles Clash for the finish. Man, Ricochet is easily one of the most dynamic workers in the ring but he has the charisma of a potted plant. This dude...
More of the same with Miz and Morrison and that's not a good thing. Alexa-syndrome: Good talkers and outright terrible talking segments. The big question from that segment was whether or not that was David Krumholtz or an eerily-similar actor to him?
What atrocious writing, execution, and camera work for the Riddle/Lashley stuff backstage lol. Nothing but time filler to the max with the six-man tag match.
See the six-man assessment and you get the same result for Hardy/Ryker.
So one part of the women's tag champs lost and the other one didn't, against opponents who aren't part of a team. The one who lost (Asuka) is the actual women's champion for the brand and has basically won all of her singles matches that weren't against a champion since June of 2020. She also had to look silly for way too much of the match. The other who won (Charlotte) has been basically been booked like garbage the last few weeks. So damn bizarre. Bizarre also works for what Alexa did over the course of the match with Asuka, but the character work is quite commendable.
I would say Ricochet has charisma, just not very good mic skills
Another pedestrian effort from the RAW writing crew, I thought they were supposed to up their game headed into WrestleMania season. At this point, SmackDown just has to make TV this Friday night to keep their 2021 undefeated streak going.
-Not a single face wrestler on the RAW roster willing to back up whichever dude gets fed to Retribution, eh?
-LOL at Ali/Retribution acting like superheroes when it’s been 4 or 5 on 1 since forever. I feel so bad for these superstars, who are trying so hard to make chicken salad out of the chicken shit that the writing staff gives them to work with. Time to pull the plug, let these cats sit at home for a while until they can be rebranded.
-Alexa Bliss has been killing it, tonight’s Playground was a small hiccup.
-Miz and Morrison deserve way better, especially if Miz plans on cashing in his briefcase.
-This Flair family soap opera is boring as fuck.
-Orton’s promo was pedestrian.
-AJ v Ricochet was awesome, I’d love to watch those two go for 25-30 minutes; Ricochet really needs a Heyman-type mouthpiece.
-Alexa v Asuka, in-ring, was pretty entertaining; those two at Mania, with Bliss winning the RAW Woman’s title, would be fun.
-The other matches were sleep-inducing.
-I miss Drew McIntyre; these past two weeks have shown exactly how much he means to the red brand, his progression over the past year has been remarkable.
This company airing a Dr. King tribute was legit eyeroll material, the McMahons spent the past five years pumping the tires of the antithesis of MLK.
Randy Orton enters the 2021 RR:
I love how they made Charlotte a tag champion and then proceed to have her feud with her Father. Such fantastic booking. Clearly no one else needed those belts.
Did Alexa forget to put her contacts in during the main event? I thought her eyes turn white when she's channeling the Fiend's power. I guess she substituted black lipstick, lol.
Alexa/Asuka and AJ/Ricochet were the definite highlights. Ricochet’s code breaker counter of the forearm and the transition into the Styles Clash were things of beauty.
Commentary team made a good point actually. Based on last year, Ricochet shouldn’t have had to try and earn his way in.
This show needs more of retribution
Where is Keith Lee?
Good to see McIntyre back. I thought McIntyre, Goldberg, Miz, and Morrison all did fine enough with the opening segment. The issue that they run into is that they like to extend Miz/Morrison talking segments so the fact their part was short was a wise decision.
The stuff with Charlotte and her father just really isn't gaining any momentum. Nice to see a very stupid finish because Shayna couldn't get in the ring prior to the 10 count. Not so good to see Nia is still out here doing nasty bumps. It looks like she tried to pull off a variation of Raquel's finisher in NXT but it looked gnarly. Dana sold the hell out of it but it wasn't close to clean.
Ali continues to kill it when he has time to talk. It's a shame that Kingston isn't going to be in the Rumble because it would be epic to see him go for his save spots to see Ali just snuff them out. Kingston, himself, had a hell of a retort on social media. I'm looking forward to seeing those two square off.
Also good to see that Truth kills it when he has time on TV. He's got the right level of absurdity to fit this program. I don't know why Styles is the gatekeeper for guys being able to enter the Rumble. It doesn't necessarily help him other than getting time to look good on TV.
Did Benjamin legit forget to take his mask off when he came to the ring? Lol. The gauntlet match felt way too contrived and out of sorts because so much of this story has already been played out. He won the gauntlet but why am I supposed to be excited to see Lashley and Riddle fo the third time in less than a month's time?
Edge was certainly a surprise for the evening. Not announcing that prior because...? Double down. They're announcing No. 1 and 2 for the Women's Rumble and No. 30 for the Men's Rumble on Saturday night because...? Come on, WWE.
Like he did when he came back after the Rumble last year, Edge delivered a heck of a promo. I enjoyed the message but I'm disappointed in it in some ways. Don't get me wrong, they can correct course but they absolutely veered away from what they presented last year. The last time we saw Edge, he talked about how he was going to make Orton's life a living hell and torment him for how things went at Backlash. Welp...I guess Edge's vision has changed to where he wants to recapture what he lost when he had to retire and the Rumble is the means to do it. If Orton and Wyatt are likely meshed together for a while, I guess Edge does need something new. Just an interesting route to take for those who remember.
Alexa was fine again in her role this week. They clearly went over the top with Asuka being scared last week. It wasn't addressed at all on Friday and she was perfectly fine during the tag title match. It was dialed back a healthy amount tonight and felt more natural. What a surprise, though. No finish to a main event match lol. How does the same company do what they do on Monday and then turn around and produce a much better product on Friday?
Last edited by BGMaverick; January 26th, 2021 at 2:19 AM.
Another Nia tally. Seriously, she's gotta go.
Quick hits:
-Way to ruin a great main event, WWE.
-Alexa Bliss is killing it.
-Loving this Cedric Alexander progression. They sent him to Hurt Business school and now he’s pushing it too far? LOLz.
-Ali is doing the best that he can to try and carry a poorly booked stable.
-Still not a single face wrestler in the back willing to team up with the Retribution victim-du-jour, huh?
-Like how they’re building up Sheamus as the fighting face, it’s going to make his eventual turn on Drew actually meaningful.
-Miz and Morrison deserve better.
-Love me some Drew Mac, but he’ll be in tough Sunday trying to carry that old man to a passable match.
-Edge was one of my favourite wrestlers back in the day, am super pumped to see him healthy again. Did he just become the favourite to win the Men’s Rumble?
-The rest of the show was boring, particularly the continued Flair family drama.
A good episode, it only took them four tries to get one that wasn’t absolute shit. Watch Smackdown blow it out of the water on the go-home episode...
The Alexa Bliss whatever you wish to call it is some of the worst garbage I have ever seen on wrestling in 46 years now.
Her incredibly bad acting skills are so insufferably awful, I find myself disingaged the moment she comes out each week and by part way through I'm so disgusted, I just fast forward to the next segment, or like tonight, I just hit delete, missed the end, did not give a care.
theyre definitely going to put the title on her, if they didn't tonight, which only means many more months of bad acting and awful plots.
Add in Orton droning on in the mask with the fake burns, just a real home run there by creative.
Oh man, Edge is going to win the Rumble and they're going to make one of the world title feuds about the fucking spear aren't they.
For some one who doesn't care, you care a lot.The Alexa Bliss whatever you wish to call it is some of the worst garbage I have ever seen on wrestling in 46 years now.
Her incredibly bad acting skills are so insufferably awful, I find myself disingaged the moment she comes out each week and by part way through I'm so disgusted, I just fast forward to the next segment, or like tonight, I just hit delete, missed the end, did not give a care.
theyre definitely going to put the title on her, if they didn't tonight, which only means many more months of bad acting and awful plots.
Add in Orton droning on in the mask with the fake burns, just a real home run there by creative.
Im critiquing the product that I still watch for some reason.
Try sticking with the program, Griffin.
Where did I ever say that I didn't care about the angle or what they're doing with Bliss?
i said it was so bad, it drove me to not caring who won., that's all. And that is not a good thing. It's bad. It's on the verge of losing another viewer.....
Randy should have kept the mask on. That red paint on his face looked terrible.
I was hoping they would eventually address Kofi and Ali's history and fate stepped in again. I hope Kofi's ready by 'Mania because that's the perfect place to settle everything.
Riddle and Truth had so much chemistry. They should forget about the Hardy Bros. and team those two up instead.
I don't know how I feel about Edge winning. I feel like the Rumble should be given to younger talent as away to christen them as a main event star. On top of that, with Edge not wrestling that much and potentially getting injured again I'd advise caution on WWE's part. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on DB finally getting the win, but I really don't have a guess as to who will ultimately prevail.
It was either him or Goldberg it seems
So looks like Edge is going for Reigns? Since Sheamus declared his want for the WWE Title?
There's a ppv or two before WrestleMania for Sheamus vs mcintyre
Oh yea duh. They have fastlane at least cause thats the premiere of Peacock.
A lot going on in the opening segment but it ultimately led to what they've slowly teased for months with Sheamus turning on his friend. Keith Lee was right all along. The problem is there's heat there for Sheamus because of this but he hasn't really been heated up in terms of momentum. He's basically been the running buddy but he hasn't had a lot of wins. That's frustrating from a long-term perspective. It makes even less sense that Gulak was Sheamus' lackey lol. I get what McIntyre was trying to convey with his promo later in the show but I could have done without him being on the verge of tears.
They're running Riddle/Lashley the hell into the ground lol. It would be nice if a really deep run in the Rumble amounted to a lot for Riddle. Remains to be seen if that will be the case but my hopes aren't high right now.
The Fiend isn't around and Orton seems to have more logic and plays off his character from earlier in 2020. Go figure!
Kingston/Ali has a backstory that makes sense and plays on reality. I like it. Ali continues to make the most of his promo time and Kingston can react accordingly. Nice counter by Woods for the finish.
I could really go without the Bad Bunny continuation but I like what ultimately came of it. It's a shame that Priest didn't get more time to display what he can do for the actual match. I mean, it's not like they're pressed for time or that Miz is a terrible performer to be in the ring with. That said, Priest comes in on night one and beats a former world champ, and the owner of the MITB briefcase. That's one night after eliminating Kane and getting the rub from that. Then gets some respect from Edge? Maybe he gets a better string of opening moments on the main roster than Lee. If anything, they need to capitalize on Priest since he's older.
I'm glad NXT LHP rather than pre-NXT LHP showed up. That was a pretty good match. I'm curious what they anticipate is the end game for Alexander and Benjamin. Alexander appears to be the option for more momentum, but it seems shaky for one of them to break off from the pack in the end.
The hell is Lana talking about by saying this time she's not alone? She had Asuka backing her up before she bounced off TV, lol. I guess Lana and Naomi winning is fine? Dana and Mandy certainly had time battling with the current champs. They were made to look like chumps at time but they're probably more credible. Mandy has really lost a ton of momentum over the last year. Shame. What the hell was the booking with Charlotte? She came off like a sore loser or a sad kid, kicking invisible rocks as she tagged out. Weird stuff across the board.
Carlito getting a hot tag in 2021 is wild. He looked fine, other than when he was working with Ryker. Man, Ryker isn't very good. This might harken back to last year with MVP and the Rumble. Seemed like a one-off appearance but it amounts to much more for Carlito. We'll see.
Pretty good video package for Edge and Orton. Edge's promo felt more like a WWE-style promo than an Edge promo we've seen. That said, it was a good promo. He makes the most of his minutes where he can talk and the passion present comes across extremely authentic.
Alexa/Nikki did very little for me.
Edge was playing the hits with his go-to moves lol. I didn't have any real expectations for what Edge would do in the ring, especially coming off a long night in the Rumble the night before. He was fine, and Orton was his usual self. It worked but..it's a shame the booking took the stupid way out with the finish. Did they really feel like Edge didn't need a clean win in a blood feud or that Orton couldn't afford a clean loss? Just get a clean result then get the shenanigans with Alexa after the match. It's not that damn hard.
This stuff is unwatchable. It's not the talents fault. The production is so beyond awful, between the camera cuts and the commentary, and the persistence of bad angles continuing. I feel bad for the lot of them. Was going to continue watching til 'Mania but what a giant waste of time that would be.
Don't be so negative.
I am excited to see Edge back and able to go, and it's obvious he hasn't last anything. He's among the best on the mic right now, so hopefully some of the younger talent can learn from him.
Randy Orton crushed another promo, and he and Edge delivered on another solid match.
I like how they have booked Lashley lately - he is dominant, and it will definitely give someone a rub when they defeat him. I am hoping it will be Keith Lee.
Sheamus finally giving us what we all knew was going to happen.
Naomi is back - that's a huge positive. Feel the Glow. While I will admit I wasn't thrilled with her teaming with Lana, at least Lana wasn't terribly embarrassing in their tag match (the embarrassing part is the Ric/Lacey/Charlotte stuff). They may be actually trying to build on a story with Lana/Nia here - but if they use this to make something with Naomi/Shayna then I am all on board.
The Alexa / Nikki stuff was, well, a rather lame attempt to do something with their ability to use pre-taping since the audience isn't live in front of them. When Alexa threw the fireball at Randy a little while back, they had a win with pre-taping. Using it to change Alexa's characters into different versions of herself while she's in a match, just reeked of trying to catch lightning twice, running something that worked once into the ground. But I do like them trying to take advantage of a unique situation.
I saw the end of that last week. The only problem I have with them doing that, is that commentary sold it as it happened in real time with them sitting out there. What, did she just change in an instant like the Flash or something? If you're going to do the costume changes in the ring, at least either turn out the lights, or have her underneath the ring (then do your edits), otherwise it's hocus pocus nonsense, which degrades the believability.
I've popped in on the show now and then tonight, so I figured I'd give some thoughts on some of the things I've seen so far:
I like Lacey's mannerisms. She's gotten better on the mic, but has also added an intangible with her arm and hand movements, stances, and jaw jacking when you can't hear what she's saying due to commentary talking over everything.
So is this Charlotte trying to be a face again for the 10th time? I don't hate it, but it's too blatant. Everyone is just waiting for the moment she turns on her new apparent best friend in Asuka.
Bianca had a few flubs, but since she didn't stumble over them, they were not too noticeable. I've wondered why Asuka is still doing up her face with the green paint when she can't do the mist anymore. Maybe she should move on from that. I do like her still doing the silly clown dance, but can turn on the seriousness when required. Although I doubt we'll see that famed Kana persona I've heard so much about any time soon.
Edge and Miz promo was good. I like that Edge said he's done the awesome thing ten years ago and he's been there and done that and he's thinking on a whole other level than Miz's puny strategery brain. Although I had this pretty fun idea for Elimination Chamber they could do if they really wanted to get to Edge/Orton for the title, but at the same time not hurting Drew or even MITB.
Miz, seeing the folly of revealing his plan, decides to cash in during the EC match. Drew is down due to shenanigans, Miz cashes in, Drew still kicks out. But brass knucks or some object comes into play (hell, use one of his kids' toys or something. Get Madison started in the biz early), he defeats Drew. This "technically" makes him interim champion because reasons, and he thinks he can leave the chamber. But he can't and he has to fight more people. He manages to avoid one guy, but then Orton is the last one in. He takes out the other guy. Then he destroys Miz. Orton is WWE champion again, he gets revenge for when Miz cashed in on him years ago, and later Edge will face Orton for the title, as it should have been. MITB still has credibility, it adds replay value to the PPV, Miz can still crow about being a 2-time WWE champion, and I don't think many people would be too miffed at Drew losing the title in that fashion. I say all this because I would be disappointed if through all the nonsense of MITB from last year with Otis, then Miz finagling getting it, "losing" it, only to get it back, for it to end with a joke cash in.
Shane might as well not have been there for the announcement in the opening segment lol. He said one thing but Pearce did the heavy lifting. The booking really could have done a favor to the competitors for the Chamber, mainly Hardy, Sheamus, and The Miz. Those three have either done a lot of losing or look like fools. Oh well, they can't think more than a day in advance.
Man. Ali was angry as hell on commentary during the New Day/Retribution match. Kingston cheesing for the camera after he did the dive to the outside was hilarious. The dive actually looked like an homage to Beast Mode and Darren Sharper. I appreciated that haha. Pretty good tag match and I'm looking forward to when they pull the trigger on Ali/Kingston.
While I do appreciate that they put the energy in providing motivation for Flair to do what he's doing for Lacey and how it's reflecting on Charlotte, this is like several weeks late and not that interesting. The finish was silly, shocking no one. On top of that, the fact that commentary implied there was doubt that Lacey was honest about potentially earning a title shot with a win and then Lacey subsequently earning said shot because she won BY DQ doesn't do anyone involved, commentary and Lacey, any favors.
Edge was completely fine with his promo. He's consistently showing awareness of the landscape and more importantly, showing urgency in trying to become champion again. Don't dislike any of that. Angel Garza suddenly being paired with Miz and Morrison is absolutely random but maybe there's some hope there. He's talented and has charisma but he needs time to show that in the ring and doesn't need to do it on the mic. Pairing him with two guys who can do all of the talking is fine.
Bad Bunny being a trojan horse to get Priest over works for me as long as they remain invested in getting Priest over. The only negative I see with Bad Bunny being involved and this possibly culminating at Mania in a tag match is I don't have a lot of faith in the booking to keep things fresh by the time we get to Mania. He looks like he's having a good time as he's there and genuinely looks like he's invested so that definitely helps him look good and keep potential interest of the viewing audience. The dude isn't playing to the camera and actually showing understanding of how he needs to portray his actions. I appreciate that. That said, it doesn't make Miz and Morison look good that they can consistently get outsmarted by him haha.
Bianca did a hell of a job of getting over all of the potential options for her at Mania. I cringe at the idea of Asuka having to lose to Lacey to set up Charlotte/Lacey at Mania for the Raw title. Ugh...
I throughly enjoyed Riddle/Lee while it lasted. They needed something for the US title picture because running it straight up between Lashley and Riddle had been played out. I imagine we are not supposed to remember worth a damn but Lee does have a win over Lashley (not surprisingly via DQ) back in November. Lee held his own there and was pretty much on the precipice of beating Lashley before MVP interfered. That triple threat is going to be good. I'd probably have much more interest in that for the Mania match but getting it now is fine.
I still don't understand why Lana is scared of Nia. Yes, she was put through the table a lot but she's gotten over on Nia since then AND she has support (not that she didn't before) in the form of Naomi. Dumb stuff. It's like they wanted to go ahead and follow through with the finish they wanted to do (Nia going through a table) but it's beyond the expiration date and it wasn't that impactful. This match...wasn't that good. I did chuckle when Nia exclaimed, "My butt. Oh, my hole" as she missed the leg drop on the apron.
Naomi/Shayna is something I would certainly enjoy seeing more of. I think they could produce some quality stuff together.
I enjoyed McIntyre's fire earlier in the night with his promo, basically calling everyone out in the Chamber match. I did not enjoy the main event match because of the multiple shenanigans. Orton sure has a lot of BS that happens at the end of his matches.
And WWE has already scrubbed this from their YouTube and Hulu versions.
Been thinking the same thing about Asuka for a while. On top of not doing the mist anymore, the face paint signaled her heel turn. She's been face for at least a year, so if she's going to keep doing it, at least change the color.
I'd love to see Edge win at the EC and then have Miz come out and Cash In on him as an homage to the first one. Miz should be the first to be Eliminated so he can come back fresh at the end.
*How did I forget Edge won the Rumble and already has his match at 'Mania?
As soon as they announced the match, I got a bad feeling
Last edited by Sasori; February 9th, 2021 at 5:54 PM.
Hindsight is making me think they jumped the gun on turning Sheamus. There could have been a guise that Sheamus was going to be there for McIntyre during the Chamber. Still try to win, of course, but make it to where they were the last two or something. Sheamus gets eliminated by someone, McIntyre tries to console him but then Sheamus gives him a Brogue Kick. Possibly could have been more impactful to do that there.
Or Sheamus doesn't get in the Chamber at all. It was very much a rushed angle, unless that's a Fast Lane match and they're doing something else at 'Mania. I'm thinking Brock's signed for one match and puts Drew over again, otherwise you surely build to a logical and cohesive McIntyre/Sheamus match. Though I guess Sheamus could win the Chamber and run the 1 on 1 with Drew chasing.
They've been building toward a Sheamus turn since him and Drew started blowing each other when Sheamus was still a heel. I love it and I'm shocked they took this long to turn him. Props to WWE for building up to this and it was a perfect time to turn. Edge saying what he said, and then boom, turn. Beautiful filler feud to hold Drew over until Mania. Hell, I wouldn't mind seeing them at Mania. Great story, hard hitting wrestlers, they won't be the closer of night 2 but they can close night 1.
Since they plan to do 'Mania in front of a live audience, it will probably go back to one day.
This year's Mania is two nights. It's set to go back to one night next year.
Must have missed that. I thought it was still up in the air considering they're holding it in a stadium and not the ThunderDome.
Yeah Stephanie just did an interview a week or two ago talking about the 2 night aspect and honestly, I think they should keep with it.
Highlights from show? Got it recorded haven't had a sec to go back and watch.
This is all you need to watch.
So I'm back to watching Raw on Hulu after severing ties with cable and I shit you not they cut this match lol. No Lana v. Nia Jax so I was spared but the memes are hilarious.
I don't know when it was, but I hit my expiration date at some point with Miz and the briefcase. We've just hit the point in the WWE calendar where I shouldn't be interested or outright thinking about the holder of the briefcase. They either should have been really coy with Miz or had him execute the usage of the briefcase. Meh. Having him take himself out of the EC is a philosophical decision that probably is divisive from a kayfabe decision. If you have the briefcase, would you want to keep getting opportunities at the title without using it or would you rather just save yourself and avoid the grind and be opportunistic?
Holy moly, the camera work/cuts for when Lashley had Riddle in the Hurt Lock was absolutely terrible. I can't believe a director thought that cut after cut was really going to hammer home the ferocity of the move and not cause motion sickness. Where was the other challenger for the US title during this skirmish?
The 24/7 championship is clearly stupid but if you're going to use it, it's smart to utilize Bad Bunny in this scenario considering he's about to be on SNL. It's a crossover opportunity so you need to put yourself in a position to put yourself in a spotlight on SNL. It's a not a given that NBC is going to play ball and use their show to hook you up but it's always possible.
So much stupidity with the Lacey promo prior to the match. The promo wasn't that good, you zoomed up on the candy heart and said it had 'Bite Me' on it and it clearly didn't have that on there lol. It hit the next level of absurdity and stupidity with Lacy saying she was pregnant. One week after easing up on the romantic undertones between Ric Flair and Lacey, then you spring this up and Ric saying "call me daddy." This is a wild, wild ruse to set up for a very underhanded win at the PPV or wild timing.
I know Pearce made the decision but I don't get why Morrison would want the opportunity for himself. Yes, Morrison and Miz are extremely close but I would think Morrison wants to actually control his destiny by competing for the spot if it's actually in play. All in all, I like the wrinkle created because you can continue to tease KofiMania 2 and it's clearly setting up for Ali and Retribution to spoil that and lead to the next chapter for them.
I guess you may hit some potential for redundancy if The Fiend were to do that to Orton but it's happen eventually. It does kind of feel like there's a small chance that there could be reimagining The Fiend this time around. That would be an interesting proposition.
It was a passing line but I'm glad someone on the writing team wasn't outright lazy and mentioned that Dakota and Raquel are now eligible to get a title shot at Shayna and Nia. I have to give her credit, Lana was pretty serviceable in the match with Shayna. Low bar to clear but that's where we are at with her. It does say something that a face got a distraction in her favor and still couldn't cash in with a victory lol.
What a weird moment of creating a technicality by Pearce. So Morrison was okay to get a chance as a former ECW champion but Pearce said Strowman wasn't eligible despite being a former Universal champion? So bizarre.
WWE can usually book a Gauntlet Match to get someone new over. Hell, that's supposed to be the intention of every match but they clearly fail there, however they are usually pretty good about utilizing the Gauntlet Match as a means to tell a good story. I'm not sure if it told a good singular story or got someone new over but it at least produced multiple quality matches.
- It wasn't as egregious as the Hurt Lock earlier but it was kind of dumb to have the low-ass camera view for Omos toss Woods over the barricade. We get it, Omos is tall lol. Made sense that Kingston was out quick. Dude was't even anticipating being in this spot and had his leg worked over all night.
- Styles and McIntyre had a heck of a match. That helped scratch the itch from the TLC PPV. They had a good match there but Miz got involved and it was filled with weapons. I knew those two could have a good one together so it was good to actually see it.
- That was easily the most credible Hardy has looked in months.
- Orton looked like an idiot by getting distracted but oh well.
- Of course the negative of the match was that you clearly take some of the bloom off the rose when it comes to McIntyre/Sheamus. You set up a grudge match and it's given away in portions. Made sense for Sheamus to win but it did come at a price. McIntyre very rarely gets pinned and while the match lent itself to where he had to, I'm not sure if it was worth it to have him pinned here. The alternative is to come up with a better means for structuring the last entrant but that's probably asking too much for them to structure a series of events to accomplish the same task.
Some sites are reporting Lacey’s pregnancy is real. If that’s the case then congrats to her but still this has been a dumb, dumb storyline to use to announce it. If it is a ruse then the storyline is still dumb, dumb.
Good on the writers for getting a little bit of mileage out of Jax's "hole" comment last week lol
That final kick by Shaemus on McIntyre missed by a mile. Shitty camerawork.
Think it's great Badger. I can only hope in 8-9 months that Lacey brings the baby onto RAW, and Lacey tells Charlotte to say hello to her sister/brother.
Someone needs to tell Tom Phillips that Puerto Rico isn't a country.
Jesus, Lashley is getting a huge push!
Miz was annoying to start the night but that was intentional. Once that was over and done with, I liked the rest of the segment. It was logical and revealing as to what was going on with MVP/Lashley. I kind of forgot about it but Morrison (thought MVP was just as culpable) was pretty much the catalyst for Lashley losing his title
Didn't seem like Riddle and Morrison were holding back much in their match, which I'm a fan of. It made sense, and was quite necessary, to have Riddle have a solid and credible first defense. Good to see Morrison get more shine along the way.
Rhea is Raw. At least they figured out what band Rhea is going to be on. That division on Raw needed motivation to push things along so her inclusion should force their hand. I guess they were just waiting for EC stories (though there really that many from a female perspective going on) to finish up and now they're just getting her ready for Mania.
We've certainly hit 'Please end this group' territory with Retribution. It's certainly time for them to figure out what's going on. At this rate, implosion and starting from square one with everyone sounds fine by me.
McMahon's bit now seems to be showing up, dancing, not saying much but getting the final word to make it seem like he set things into motion. The positive out of the segment (making a WWE championship match next week) still doesn't sound promising. Now it seems like Miz will hold the championship until Fastlane. The scary thing is that this is slowly setting up a scenario with Strowman/McMahon could be in play for Mania. My line of thinking used to be that a McMahon match was a sign of respect but this one feels like they're grasping at straws. Again, if this is where they go, this is another Mania where Strowman essentially gets a "special" treatment for a match.
Tornado matches can be quite fun and THB/LHP was a fun one. I'm glad someone wasn't asleep at the wheel and recognized it's not a bad idea to actually have the tag champs, you know, win a match.
That association with Miz and Morrison a few weeks back doesn't appear to be doing anything for Garza lol. It looks like someone finally figured out that a performer and finisher shared the same name. Retribution's gain is Priest's "Hit the Lights". At this rate, Priest has a chance to really have huge momentum behind him after Mania.
Orton seems like a guy who wouldn't be like "sure, whatever" but this guy has done some pretty zany stuff over the last year. The guy had his face burned and now he's coughing up goo. Hell of an attempt to transition out of that by Phillips lol. "We're going to do our best to refocus...coming up, scheduled competition..."
I haven't seen Asuka visually and audibly in as much trouble as she was in this tag match. That was kind of jarring. The kick she took from Shayna as she was breaking up the armbar on Nia looked rough. The implosion for Asuka/Charlotte seems to be timing out for a match at Fastlane. After the Reginald mess on Friday, they're correcting course and giving the champs wins. That might be promising for Dakota/Raquel in a week and a half. Nia has pinned both Sasha and Asuka via tag matches in less than a week lol.
It remains to be seen if they really tried to retcon the Lacey stuff but it's awfully confusing on how you're supposed to sympathize with either of the Flairs. Charlotte did a nice job with her delivery, though.
I guess Sheamus got his heat back with a win, but getting a win over Hardy isn't saying much.
I do like that there's been more of an emphasis on the women's tag division but BOTH tag teams got jobber entrances. That felt uncalled for lol. Made sense for Naomi and Lana to get the win, since they're due for a title match. Mandy and Dana just don't have any kind of momentum. They're probably worse off than The Riott Squad on Smackdown and that's saying something.
Styles and Ricochet could really crank out a banger if they had decent time and weren't messing around with a silly storyline. I don't think he's hit Lashley's tier of protection, but Styles seems to be on a level where he's being built for someone who is going to look awfully good against Styles. Curious to see who it is.
Big men bumping meat in the main event. It was actually a big deal when Lashley kicked out of the running powerslam. That's a highly-protected finisher, and Lashley just finished Strowman of after that. Quite impressive and emphatic that Lashley won that clean. Big night for him. Notably absent tonight was McIntyre. Could be a spoiler for that championship match next week.
Rhea/Asuka for Mania, please.
Yep, that's what I'd want to see too. Guessing that'll only happen if Charlotte is involved too though.
Shane goes on about the Eliminaton Chamber being former WWE Champions only, yet last week Adam Pearce was fine putting John Morrison up for a chance to be in it, even though he was never a WWE Champion. Yet they all make fun of Strowman when he wanted to be in the match.
Triple threat with them would be ok, too.
I'd want to see Rhea have to face both of them, one each night. Win the title the first night and defend it the next night. Rights a lot of wrongs and gets her going in dominating fashion to start.
That'd be interesting but I can't see them have anyone pulling double duty. At the very least, I'd like to see her get her redemptive win over Charlotte. If they do the triple threat, she could pin Charlotte to win, and then go on to a one-on-one with Asuka post-Mania since she wasn't involved in the decision.
I have no faith in them booking Rhea properly. She'll probably end up facing Bliss in some kind of playground match
I would have loved Miz to clock Shane with the belt as payback for the last time they were in the ring together.
There's no longer much doubt that Miz is a transitional champion, and Lashley is getting a well deserved push. I think they kept McIntyre away last night instead of reinforcing the fact that he already made Lashley look terrible last year.
I expect Miz to retain next week on Raw due to shenanigans like getting himself counted out, but he will finally lose at Fastlane. Interestingly enough, Lashley got treated much more like a face this week, certainly more than Miz.
Are they building to a Shane vs. Braun match at Mania? If not, why was Braun jobbing so quickly in his first singles match since October?
I enjoyed most of the Morrison/Riddle match but they seemed like they weren't in synch for a few spots. Riddle needed a credible win as he's been booked more like a pretender than a champ for most of his run. Sheamus also needed a win, but a win over Jeff Hardy means about as much as a win over Angel Garza. The audience was mostly dead for Priest, but Bad Bunny is over. Not only did we get a backstage bit with Truth, but we saw Tozawa and Gulak. as well. Was that a Humberto Carillo sighting - I thought Seth Rollins gave him the curb stomp and destroyed his career. Is it too soon to expect Bad Bunny to eclipse Gronk's record as the longest 24/7 title holder?
The Tornado tag match was fun, and it's nice to see the tag champs win a non-title match. MVP has really shined this most recent run, and it was good to have him on commentary for this match.
Did anybody else watch the Strowman/Lashley match last night and feel like Braun failed to kick out in time?
He definitely did the kickout after the 3 count, but it just overall looked bad. Strowman looked geenric and more green than before almost like he's lost a lot of step in his wrestling. It's crazy to see how far he's fallen after being the main attraction in WWE for a time. Looking at him now yeah he's still huge, but he looks unimposing in comparison to before.
By the time they got round to putting the title on him, it was too late. He was white hot years earlier like this when they had him go through everyone in that the Chamber match except Roman but then they did dumb things like make him look weak to Lesnar a few times and stick him in dumb comedy segments in Elias. Also got stuck in that long feud with Wyatt. His heat’s gone now (sorry Donald).
I've moved on from Strowman. He's a shell of his former self. He comes out on RAW last night and I'm just like "Woah those eyebrows bro". Has he always had those gnarly things? Never noticed them before.
Why'd he have to shave his head. Ugh!
Like Nia on Friday, just thought it was the old trick of someone trying to keep their heat by showing they were close to kicking out.
I’m on record as being a big Braun Strowman mark; like Badger said, the company completely failed to strike when he was whitehot.
He looked like a dude who hasn’t wrestled a meaningful singles match since early-to-mid-November. Dude got banged up at Survivor Series, had a brief appearance at the Rumble, recently struggled with some potentially serious health problems; it wouldn’t surprise me that he’s a little rusty. A singles #1 contenders match for one of the two big straps probably, in hindsight, wasn’t the best idea for his first match back.
I’m very impressed with the slimmed down look, it’s undoubtedly better for him health-wise. Would love to see him either go full-heel and get a mouth piece manager or stay face and let him showcase more of the Adam Scherr/IG personality.
All said, it wouldn’t surprise me if the company pigeonholes Strowman into the Big Show trap. They don’t know how to book an under-rated and talented monster like him without making the rest of the roster look like shit, but can always crack the glass if they need some short term heel heat that ultimately puts over the next big up-and-coming face.
And yes, the eyebrows have to go...
Last edited by Tyson; February 23rd, 2021 at 10:49 PM.
I'm surprised they haven't gone the Bray Wyatt rout hijacking the Thunderdome screens with hundreds of Ric Flair faces when Charlotte is in the ring
At least Miz held the title till March, lol.
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