Why I'm Skipping This Week's Raw

Tell it to the world!!
Post Reply
User avatar
Big Red Machine
Posts: 27378
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:12

Why I'm Skipping This Week's Raw

Post by Big Red Machine » Dec 2nd, '18, 21:56

I have watched pretty much every single episode of Monday Night Raw for the past nine years. The only ones I have skipped were episodes that I knew would be 99% irrelevant for storyline purposes, like this year’s Raw 25th Anniversary Show. Last summer I was in the middle of watching Raw when my grandmother died. After going to my grandparents’ house and spending about eight or nine hours getting affairs in order, I came back home, went to my DVR, and still fished through to find the segments with the characters I cared about the most and made sure to watch those. The next night I stayed up until 3 am to finish watching Smackdown, even though Grandma’s funeral was 10 am the next morning. That’s how dedicated I have been to watching WWE programming.
This week my house is getting painted, which means I won’t have access to a TV. Normally in a situation like this I’d find Raw posted on the internet or watch on Hulu or do something like that, and on Wednesday I will definitely do just that to watch Smackdown. But I am going to make no such effort to watch Raw this week unless I hear that the show is actually worth watching.
Why? Because, quite simply, watching WWE (and especially Raw) over the past month has just plain not been a fun experience.
It all started with Crown Jewel. Even if we leave politics and morality out of this, that show was impossible for me to enjoy. I spent a year and a half slogging through a main event picture all built around absentee champion Brock Lesnar showing up once every few months and beating someone in under ten minutes because of the eventual promise that it would f*cking END at some point… and now here we are, back with Brock Lesnar as the absentee champion, beating someone in five minutes. Then we got weeks of build to Survivor Series- the same terrible build we get every year where everyone tells me that your brand losing at Survivor Series is worse than Hitler getting his hands on all six Infinity Gems- and then someone loses and nothing f*cking happens. They did the same tired build they do every year and built to a card full of completely pointless matches.
This year, though, there somehow managed to be one match that I actually cared about, all because Becky Lynch has become such a fantastic promo and turned her verbal cannon on Ronda Rousey… and then Nia Jax- who has already put my favorite wrestler on Raw (Alexa Bliss!) out with a concussion so bad that she hasn’t been able to wrestle in a month- has to come along and suck at her job badly enough to punch Becky right in the face and concuss her, too, killing the match. It finally seemed like WWE was actually going to be able to make chicken salad out of the chicken sh*t they had been handed for once (instead of doing it the other way around like they usually do), by creating a segment that would allow Becky to turn fully babyface and allow more traditionally-minded fans like myself to cheer this wonderful antihero… and then on Smackdown they just turned that on its head and put her right back into a storyline where she and Charlotte are bickering again.
Meanwhile, they took my all-time favorite wrestler, Daniel Bryan, who is coming back off of missing almost three years due to concussion problems and did what they should have spent this entire Mania-to-Mania year doing and put the world title on him… but they turned him heel in the process so I can’t even enjoy it.
And then there was last week’s Raw.
Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline has been going on for months about how frustrating he finds watching WWE programming because they book everything for heat. I’ve disagreed with Bryan about this, because I like a lot of heat in my angles to really make me want to see the babyfaces get revenge (though I have found WWE programming frustrating for other reasons). Last week, though, I finally came around to Mr. Alvarez’s point of view. A week after Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, and Baron Corbin combined to beat Braun Strowman down and cause him a major injury (a storyline necessity to write Braun out, as he needs elbow surgery), they did the same thing to Elias, and no one came out to help him. Then, later in the show, they did the same thing to Finn Balor, and no one came out to help Finn, either. Getting heat is one thing, but you have to give me hope that next time will be different, or else what’s the point of me tuning in? Nothing. So I’m not going to.
I could go on about my frustrations with Raw’s women’s and tag team divisions as well, but just typing this up is getting me angry, so I’m not going to. Perhaps some brave volunteer will be willing to cover Raw tomorrow night, but it’s not going to be me.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

User avatar
cero2k
Site Admin
Posts: 20950
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 11:32

Re: Why I'm Skipping This Week's Raw

Post by cero2k » Dec 3rd, '18, 08:58

Red, we all need a break sometimes, and if it sticks, then so be it, we rather have a mentally sane BRM than not.


Dozer this is your chance, I think you're the last RAW survivor
Image

User avatar
KILLdozer
Posts: 5930
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 22:54

Re: Why I'm Skipping This Week's Raw

Post by KILLdozer » Dec 3rd, '18, 10:21

cero2k wrote: Dec 3rd, '18, 08:58 Red, we all need a break sometimes, and if it sticks, then so be it, we rather have a mentally sane BRM than not.


Dozer this is your chance, I think you're the last RAW survivor
Sure, but keep in mind I'll be seeing it on Hulu tommorow with half the unnecessary jobber shit cut out because of the Hulu editing lol.
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

User avatar
Big Red Machine
Posts: 27378
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:12

Re: Why I'm Skipping This Week's Raw

Post by Big Red Machine » Dec 24th, '18, 13:54

I'm skipping this week's, too. It occurs to me that I would much rather spend my night catching up on wXw than watching Raw.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

User avatar
cero2k
Site Admin
Posts: 20950
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 11:32

Re: Why I'm Skipping This Week's Raw

Post by cero2k » Dec 24th, '18, 17:51

Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 24th, '18, 13:54 I'm skipping this week's, too. It occurs to me that I would much rather spend my night catching up on wXw than watching Raw.
it helps that you already have spoilers to all this week
Image

User avatar
Big Red Machine
Posts: 27378
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:12

Re: Why I'm Skipping This Week's Raw

Post by Big Red Machine » Dec 24th, '18, 18:06

cero2k wrote: Dec 24th, '18, 17:51
Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 24th, '18, 13:54 I'm skipping this week's, too. It occurs to me that I would much rather spend my night catching up on wXw than watching Raw.
it helps that you already have spoilers to all this week
Yeah. I'm going to skip Raw, watch SD, and almost certainly skip next week's Raw, too (I haven't seen spoilers for it yet, though).
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

User avatar
KILLdozer
Posts: 5930
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 22:54

Re: Why I'm Skipping This Week's Raw

Post by KILLdozer » Dec 24th, '18, 22:39

Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 24th, '18, 13:54 I'm skipping this week's, too. It occurs to me that I would much rather spend my night catching up on wXw than watching Raw.
Weirdly Xenophobic Wrestling?
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

User avatar
KILLdozer
Posts: 5930
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 22:54

Re: Why I'm Skipping This Week's Raw

Post by KILLdozer » Dec 26th, '18, 11:00

That was a pretty good Damn Lesnar V Strowman song from Heyman on Raw though. Silent night never sounded so good.
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 31 guests