BRM Reviews the 11/16/2015 Raw (AWESOME!)

[Big Red Machine]

While hyping Owens vs. Neville, Bryon Saxton describes them as former “rivals” as if they had some sort of big feud when all they had was two matches. I know this isn’t an original observation or anything, but WWE (and to a lesser extent, ROH- and Kevin Kelly in particular) REALLY needs to be careful with how they categorize and hype things. Two matches is not a “rivalry.” In 2002, one of the big storylines was that Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit had a “rivalry.” The Hardys, Dudleys, and E&C were rivals. Owens and Neville were just professional combatants having a professional match, just like they will be tonight. Similarly, they need to stop referring to JBL as “legendary.” He’s just not (and this is coming from someone is a bigger fan of his than most are). Neither is Goldust, who JBL called “legendary” later on in the show. Another man JBL named, Scott Hall, is debatable at best, and neither Hall nor Goldust are even close to being, as JBL described them, “all-time greats.” Calling every retired wrestler and his brother a “legend” just cheapens the term and makes it mean less when you call someone like Nick Bockwinkel a legend (which I assume they will do at some point later tonight). Perhaps more importantly, though, having the announcers say things which are just so completely at odds the perception of the fans destroys their credibility (or in the case of WWE and TNA announcers, makes it impossible to rebuild said credibility), which prevents them from being able to do their jobs of letting us know what is important. I understand that they want their announcers to put things over, but you don’t have to put absolutely everything over to the 1000th degree. For things that weren’t great, it’s okay to bring them up without putting them over so hard.

OPENING SEGMENT- did not like it.
They clearly don’t realize how utterly ridiculous that purple lightning effect looks, because if they did, they would stop showing replays where it features prominently.
Kane & Taker came out and cut a cartoony promo, but G-d damn it these two almost made it sound good. It was a perfect promo in the sense that it fit in with the angle well and the stuff they said sounded awesome, but this whole angle is just so goofy that I can’t get into it.
Bray and his pals showed up and Cole said “Oh my goodness!” as if there was some sort of danger here. I guess he forgot that Kane and Taker kicked all four of these guys’ asses last week. Bray a cut a promo during which Taker looked almost confused. I was confused, too, as Bray declared that Taker’s “creatures of the night” now belonged to him, and couldn’t figure out what Jeff Hardy’s fans had to do with any of this.
Apparently it meant that Taker’s druids are now serving Bray, which must mean that someone in WWE creative reads BotchedSpot:
http://botchedspot.com/blog/comic/backs ... entrances/
Bray did his magical light-blinking trick, and when the lights came back on, the druids all had sheep-masks on. If the druids were serving Bray all of this time, why didn’t they just attack Taker and Kane on their way down to the ring or something? Well… they attacked them now, and all eight druids got their asses kicked in about five seconds. So much for Bray’s new recruits.
The Wyatt Family headed towards the ring, but Bray told them to stop because every single WWE show must contain at least one spot where a heel teases that he/she/they will fight the babyface but then back down.
Kane and Taker’s promos were great for what they were, but everything with the Wyatts was just completely pointless. It really feels like WWE doesn’t know how to tell stories without having some sort of confrontation on every show (or perhaps rather that they think that the only way to tell stories is to have some sort of confrontation on every show). For that reason, the Wyatts had to come out here during this… but of course we couldn’t give away the match just six days before the PPV… but they NEEDED someone to fight someone here dammit, so they came up with this druids turn which
1) doesn’t make any sense when the storyline seems to be that Bray has not eaten Kane and Taker’s souls (as evidenced by them retaining their powers and easily dismantling the Wyatts last week)
and
2) really came across like an idea that was done because they thought it was something everyone would say “WOW! That was so shocking and cool!” and yet wasn’t actually made to be cool or to matter because Kane and Taker just beat the druids up so quickly.
Side rant:
This is a problem that I’m noticing a lot in comics- and Marvel in particular- over the past few years. If I had to peg a date on it, I’d say it was since Avengers vs. X-Men, but in reality, it’s probably been since the end of Siege and the whole “Heroic Age” branding started, and has gotten MUCH worse with the “Marvel NOW!” branding, coming to a head in the utter bullsh*t that has been Secret Wars. They do sh*t just because they want to do things that feel “big” and “shocking” and “cool” but have completely lost any ability to tell good or relatable or non-confusing stories.

WORLD TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Adrian Neville vs. Kevin Owens- 7/10
So apparently (all of this is according to Michael Cole) Owens said he would be the first person to hold the IC and WWE World Heavyweight Titles at the same time, and when someone pointed out to him that such a thing has happened before (Warrior, I believe), he responded “I don’t live in the past. History in the WWE started when I arrived.” So I guess this means Kevin Owens got a job on the creative team. Good for him.
They had a great match, but there was a REALLY awkward camera cut in the middle of the pop-up powerbomb.

JBL referred to the “NXT Divas Title.” You may now commence throwing things.

KEVIN OWENS AND TRIPLE H TALK BACKSTAGE- we see them shake hands, but there is no sound, as instead of hearing them, we are hearing Cole talk. One of things Cole said was “I wish we could hear what they are saying,” which just made me wonder why there was no sound in this backstage segment when there is sound in almost all of the others. And now that I think about that, I have to ask how it would possibly make sense for there to be no sound as WWE’s usual policy with backstage segments is that we are supposed to pretend that the camera doesn’t exist and we are being shown things because it’s part of the story like on any other TV show.

R-TRUTH vs. TYLER BREEZE (w/Summer Rae)- 4/10
I thought Truth got in way too much offense (or rather than Breeze didn’t get in anywhere near enough).


WORLD TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Dolph Ziggler vs. Dean Ambrose- 8/10
Byron Saxton started off by telling us how important this match was. Then he, Cole, and JBL proceeded to ignore the action in the ring and instead speculate about what might happen if Dean Ambrose hosted The Tonight Show.
They started off with basic stuff like waist-locks and Greco-Roman knuckle-locks. Wrestling 101. Cole called this stuff “very unique.” They continued with some good old-fashioned wrestling, then built up to bigger stuff before coming to a great finishing sequence. Awesome match!

We got a commercial for this week’s Smackdown pushing the World Title Tournament, which is strange because we were told that all four quarterfinal matches would be tonight, and that the semi-finals would be at Survivor Series. False advertising much?

DEAN AMBROSE PROMO- he cut a promo saying he wanted “less talking, more action.” Then blabbed on about weird sh*t like wanting breakfast for dinner and promising to replace Michael Cole with… I think he said a fish tank, but I could be wrong.

NEW DAY PROMO- they used to be annoying in exactly the right way. Now they just say dumb ridiculous sh*t and they are annoying in the “I wish this f*cking promo was over already” way.

Apparently, during the commercial break, Melissa Joan Hart went on Kevin Owens’ Twitter and called him lazy, so Owens responded thusly: “Sorry, I watched one of your shows a few months ago and it put me in a slumber that has been hard to recover from.” Then he blocked her. The thought of Kevin Steen arguing with Clarissa completely made my night.

THE NEW DAY vs. RYBACK & THE USOS- 2/10
JBL has named New Day’s revolving door of stomps in the corner as the “Unicorn Stampede.” I have despised every last bit of New Day’s unicorn BS, but this is fantastic. We got some heat on an Uso, then Ryback got DQed for tossing the ref. Those New Japan refs could learn a thing or two from watching WWE. I was really excited for this match, and was quite disappointed when it ended so abruptly.

HUNTER & CESARO MEET BACKSTAGE-
There’s sound for this one. Cesaro’s first words were “if you’re going to tell me what you told Kevin Owens, you can save your breath.” I found it a little frustrating that they’re acting like everyone knows what Hunter said to Owens when we actually couldn’t hear it.
Hunter puts Cesaro over and says that he will be sitting in his “own little personal Cesaro section”… which I guess would technically just be a Cesaro seat.

ROMAN REIGNS PROMO- FINALLY someone uses the term “Roman Empire” on TV to describe Roman’s fanbase. Other than that, this was kind of pointless. He didn’t say anything new or interesting, and really just rehashed stuff that we not only saw last week, but that the announcers have been reminding us about all night.

WORLD TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Roman Reigns vs. Cesaro- 8.25/10
I was quite shocked that this wasn’t the main event. It’s clear they want Roman to be seen as a main eventer, and the entire reason this match is happening is so Cesaro can carry Roman to the Match of the Night (which he did). The match was quite awesome, but Roman started to forget to sell his arm as time went on.

THE DUDLEY BOYS vs. THE ASCENSION- 3/10

HUNTER TALKS TO ZEB & DEL RIO- so when they did this for Cesaro, they showed us everything backstage just like they normally would. When they did it for Owens, they didn’t give us sound and had Cole build up some mystery about what may have been said. Now, for Del Rio, they do it how you traditionally would on a wrestling show by creating an excuse for the camera to be there in the form of Renee Young conducting an interview. Can they please just be consistent?

WORLD TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Kalisto vs. Alberto Del Rio (w/Zeb Coulter)- 7/10
Someone needs to tell JBL that one upset win doesn’t make you a Cinderella story. You need at least two.

DIVAS TITLE MATCH CONTRACT SIGNING- AWESOME!
So they finally gave the women the main event spot… and they did it on a night where they absolutely shouldn’t have because Roman vs. Cesaro should have been the main event if they want Roman to be the next guy (and I’m also always in favor of having a match as the main event instead of a segment).
That being said, this was totally great and should dispel any fears anyone had that Charlotte can’t hold her own on the mic. And I don’t just mean the crying about Reid part. I mean everything she said. The stuff about being a role model and the stuff about her father and absolutely everything.
Paige said that “this isn’t a sorority house” which made be remember the whole “Submission Sorority” debacle and start giggling. She also called Ric Flair an “old fart” except that with her accent, it really sounded like she called him an “old f*ck.” Don’t get me wrong. She was great here. I just wanted to mention those two moments because they amused me.
If I have one complaint about this, it’s that they should have brought a lot more security out to separate them.

There were a lot of little things that annoyed me on this week’s show, but between the in-ring action and the contract signing (i.e. the BIG stuff), there’s no way I can’t call this show AWESOME!

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Michael Cole said he wanted to take us back “a couple of years ago to April 7, 2014.” That would, of course, be under two years ago, and thus literally cannot qualify it as a “couple.” Yeah, it’s nit-picky, but people who can’t count really bother me.

[cero2k]

WORLD TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Dolph Ziggler vs. Dean Ambrose- 8/10
Byron Saxton started off by telling us how important this match was. Then he, Cole, and JBL proceeded to ignore the action in the ring and instead speculate about what might happen if Dean Ambrose hosted The Tonight Show.
They started off with basic stuff like waist-locks and Greco-Roman knuckle-locks. Wrestling 101. Cole called this stuff “very unique.” They continued with some good old-fashioned wrestling, then built up to bigger stuff before coming to a great finishing sequence. Awesome match!
i swear they were watching ROH in the back, because that was a ROH match if I ever saw one


HUNTER & CESARO MEET BACKSTAGE-
There’s sound for this one. Cesaro’s first words were “if you’re going to tell me what you told Kevin Owens, you can save your breath.” I found it a little frustrating that they’re acting like everyone knows what Hunter said to Owens when we actually couldn’t hear it.
Hunter puts Cesaro over and says that he will be sitting in his “own little personal Cesaro section”… which I guess would technically just be a Cesaro seat.
Cesaro Section VIP?

ROMAN REIGNS PROMO- FINALLY someone uses the term “Roman Empire” on TV to describe Roman’s fanbase. Other than that, this was kind of pointless. He didn’t say anything new or interesting, and really just rehashed stuff that we not only saw last week, but that the announcers have been reminding us about all night.
i hate how every single wrestler is starting to have his little corky name for the fanbase. Roman Empire, Fireflies, Balor Club, Apollo Nation.....it's getting annoying hear the commentary plug these names

DIVAS TITLE MATCH CONTRACT SIGNING- AWESOME!
So they finally gave the women the main event spot… and they did it on a night where they absolutely shouldn’t have because Roman vs. Cesaro should have been the main event if they want Roman to be the next guy (and I’m also always in favor of having a match as the main event instead of a segment).
That being said, this was totally great and should dispel any fears anyone had that Charlotte can’t hold her own on the mic. And I don’t just mean the crying about Reid part. I mean everything she said. The stuff about being a role model and the stuff about her father and absolutely everything.
Paige said that “this isn’t a sorority house” which made be remember the whole “Submission Sorority” debacle and start giggling. She also called Ric Flair an “old fart” except that with her accent, it really sounded like she called him an “old f*ck.” Don’t get me wrong. She was great here. I just wanted to mention those two moments because they amused me.
If I have one complaint about this, it’s that they should have brought a lot more security out to separate them.
i'm surprised that Cole wasn't wetting himself over how the girls in WWE are the closing part of the show jist like Holm and Rousey had closed out yesterday's UFC show because women's revolution and we copy everything mainstream. I wan't a big fan of this, Charlotte really sucks on a long mic segment, and i hated the whole Reid stuff, i felt it was cheap sympathy, almost as bad as Orton's "Eddie is in hell" line.

[Big Red Machine]

WORLD TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Dolph Ziggler vs. Dean Ambrose- 8/10
Byron Saxton started off by telling us how important this match was. Then he, Cole, and JBL proceeded to ignore the action in the ring and instead speculate about what might happen if Dean Ambrose hosted The Tonight Show.
They started off with basic stuff like waist-locks and Greco-Roman knuckle-locks. Wrestling 101. Cole called this stuff “very unique.” They continued with some good old-fashioned wrestling, then built up to bigger stuff before coming to a great finishing sequence. Awesome match!
i swear they were watching ROH in the back, because that was a ROH match if I ever saw one


HUNTER & CESARO MEET BACKSTAGE-
There’s sound for this one. Cesaro’s first words were “if you’re going to tell me what you told Kevin Owens, you can save your breath.” I found it a little frustrating that they’re acting like everyone knows what Hunter said to Owens when we actually couldn’t hear it.
Hunter puts Cesaro over and says that he will be sitting in his “own little personal Cesaro section”… which I guess would technically just be a Cesaro seat.
Cesaro Section VIP?

ROMAN REIGNS PROMO- FINALLY someone uses the term “Roman Empire” on TV to describe Roman’s fanbase. Other than that, this was kind of pointless. He didn’t say anything new or interesting, and really just rehashed stuff that we not only saw last week, but that the announcers have been reminding us about all night.
i hate how every single wrestler is starting to have his little corky name for the fanbase. Roman Empire, Fireflies, Balor Club, Apollo Nation.....it's getting annoying hear the commentary plug these names
I don't think Finn or the announcers have ever said "Balor Club" on the air, the announcers almost never call Bray's fans "fireflies," and Apollo Nation has rarely been used. It's nowhere near as rampant as you're making it out to be.

DIVAS TITLE MATCH CONTRACT SIGNING- AWESOME!
So they finally gave the women the main event spot… and they did it on a night where they absolutely shouldn’t have because Roman vs. Cesaro should have been the main event if they want Roman to be the next guy (and I’m also always in favor of having a match as the main event instead of a segment).
That being said, this was totally great and should dispel any fears anyone had that Charlotte can’t hold her own on the mic. And I don’t just mean the crying about Reid part. I mean everything she said. The stuff about being a role model and the stuff about her father and absolutely everything.
Paige said that “this isn’t a sorority house” which made be remember the whole “Submission Sorority” debacle and start giggling. She also called Ric Flair an “old fart” except that with her accent, it really sounded like she called him an “old f*ck.” Don’t get me wrong. She was great here. I just wanted to mention those two moments because they amused me.
If I have one complaint about this, it’s that they should have brought a lot more security out to separate them.
i'm surprised that Cole wasn't wetting himself over how the girls in WWE are the closing part of the show jist like Holm and Rousey had closed out yesterday's UFC show because women's revolution and we copy everything mainstream. I wan't a big fan of this, Charlotte really sucks on a long mic segment, and i hated the whole Reid stuff, i felt it was cheap sympathy, almost as bad as Orton's "Eddie is in hell" line.
I was quite pleasantly surprised that they didn't use the term "Divas Revolution" even once. Gong in, I was certain that this was going to be them arguing over "who started the Divas Revolution?"
As for the bad taste thing... I seem to be in the minority on this, but it didn't come off that way to me at all, and as with Paul Bearer, I can't believe that they didn't run it by both Charlotte and Ric to see if they were okay with it first. I also seem to be in the minority on Charlotte's performance here because I thought she completely kicked ass on the mic.

[cero2k]

ROMAN REIGNS PROMO- FINALLY someone uses the term “Roman Empire” on TV to describe Roman’s fanbase. Other than that, this was kind of pointless. He didn’t say anything new or interesting, and really just rehashed stuff that we not only saw last week, but that the announcers have been reminding us about all night.
i hate how every single wrestler is starting to have his little corky name for the fanbase. Roman Empire, Fireflies, Balor Club, Apollo Nation.....it's getting annoying hear the commentary plug these names
I don't think Finn or the announcers have ever said "Balor Club" on the air, the announcers almost never call Bray's fans "fireflies," and Apollo Nation has rarely been used. It's nowhere near as rampant as you're making it out to be.
Everytime Wyatt has a big enough entrance with the lights, JBL always calls them fireflies. Balor's titantron is a huge image of the Balor Club logo (which i also hate because it's a rip off from the bullet club. The Apollo Nation one I started hearing a lot since he won the battle royal, so i'm guessing we'll get more of it in the coming weeks.

DIVAS TITLE MATCH CONTRACT SIGNING- AWESOME!
So they finally gave the women the main event spot… and they did it on a night where they absolutely shouldn’t have because Roman vs. Cesaro should have been the main event if they want Roman to be the next guy (and I’m also always in favor of having a match as the main event instead of a segment).
That being said, this was totally great and should dispel any fears anyone had that Charlotte can’t hold her own on the mic. And I don’t just mean the crying about Reid part. I mean everything she said. The stuff about being a role model and the stuff about her father and absolutely everything.
Paige said that “this isn’t a sorority house” which made be remember the whole “Submission Sorority” debacle and start giggling. She also called Ric Flair an “old fart” except that with her accent, it really sounded like she called him an “old f*ck.” Don’t get me wrong. She was great here. I just wanted to mention those two moments because they amused me.
If I have one complaint about this, it’s that they should have brought a lot more security out to separate them.
i'm surprised that Cole wasn't wetting himself over how the girls in WWE are the closing part of the show jist like Holm and Rousey had closed out yesterday's UFC show because women's revolution and we copy everything mainstream. I wan't a big fan of this, Charlotte really sucks on a long mic segment, and i hated the whole Reid stuff, i felt it was cheap sympathy, almost as bad as Orton's "Eddie is in hell" line.
I was quite pleasantly surprised that they didn't use the term "Divas Revolution" even once. Gong in, I was certain that this was going to be them arguing over "who started the Divas Revolution?"
As for the bad taste thing... I seem to be in the minority on this, but it didn't come off that way to me at all, and as with Paul Bearer, I can't believe that they didn't run it by both Charlotte and Ric to see if they were okay with it first. I also seem to be in the minority on Charlotte's performance here because I thought she completely kicked ass on the mic.

i'm sure that for the bearer and eddie thing, they had the green light from both parties, and i'm a fan of crossing the line when it comes to getting heel heat, but i just think this is lazy cheap heat, every time i see this or when someone messes with someone's wife or kids, i just feel that your booking is so poor that you can't come up with a good heel moment and argument to get heat out of the story and you need to introduce these things

[Big Red Machine]

ROMAN REIGNS PROMO- FINALLY someone uses the term “Roman Empire” on TV to describe Roman’s fanbase. Other than that, this was kind of pointless. He didn’t say anything new or interesting, and really just rehashed stuff that we not only saw last week, but that the announcers have been reminding us about all night.
i hate how every single wrestler is starting to have his little corky name for the fanbase. Roman Empire, Fireflies, Balor Club, Apollo Nation.....it's getting annoying hear the commentary plug these names
I don't think Finn or the announcers have ever said "Balor Club" on the air, the announcers almost never call Bray's fans "fireflies," and Apollo Nation has rarely been used. It's nowhere near as rampant as you're making it out to be.
Everytime Wyatt has a big enough entrance with the lights, JBL always calls them fireflies. Balor's titantron is a huge image of the Balor Club logo (which i also hate because it's a rip off from the bullet club. The Apollo Nation one I started hearing a lot since he won the battle royal, so i'm guessing we'll get more of it in the coming weeks.

DIVAS TITLE MATCH CONTRACT SIGNING- AWESOME!
So they finally gave the women the main event spot… and they did it on a night where they absolutely shouldn’t have because Roman vs. Cesaro should have been the main event if they want Roman to be the next guy (and I’m also always in favor of having a match as the main event instead of a segment).
That being said, this was totally great and should dispel any fears anyone had that Charlotte can’t hold her own on the mic. And I don’t just mean the crying about Reid part. I mean everything she said. The stuff about being a role model and the stuff about her father and absolutely everything.
Paige said that “this isn’t a sorority house” which made be remember the whole “Submission Sorority” debacle and start giggling. She also called Ric Flair an “old fart” except that with her accent, it really sounded like she called him an “old f*ck.” Don’t get me wrong. She was great here. I just wanted to mention those two moments because they amused me.
If I have one complaint about this, it’s that they should have brought a lot more security out to separate them.
i'm surprised that Cole wasn't wetting himself over how the girls in WWE are the closing part of the show jist like Holm and Rousey had closed out yesterday's UFC show because women's revolution and we copy everything mainstream. I wan't a big fan of this, Charlotte really sucks on a long mic segment, and i hated the whole Reid stuff, i felt it was cheap sympathy, almost as bad as Orton's "Eddie is in hell" line.
I was quite pleasantly surprised that they didn't use the term "Divas Revolution" even once. Gong in, I was certain that this was going to be them arguing over "who started the Divas Revolution?"
As for the bad taste thing... I seem to be in the minority on this, but it didn't come off that way to me at all, and as with Paul Bearer, I can't believe that they didn't run it by both Charlotte and Ric to see if they were okay with it first. I also seem to be in the minority on Charlotte's performance here because I thought she completely kicked ass on the mic.

i'm sure that for the bearer and eddie thing, they had the green light from both parties, and i'm a fan of crossing the line when it comes to getting heel heat, but i just think this is lazy cheap heat, every time i see this or when someone messes with someone's wife or kids, i just feel that your booking is so poor that you can't come up with a good heel moment and argument to get heat out of the story and you need to introduce these things
It all played into Charlotte's comments about how PCB was family and Paige broke it up, and it showed that Paige will say anything, no matter how tasteless or mean, to get an edge on Charlotte.

[Serujuunin]

Have you watched the Nov. 18th Smackdown yet? I liked the Wyatt/Brothers of Destruction segment much better there than the one on RAW. The bit with the mask and the druids was especially cool, IMO. Not too over the top, but still true to the spirit of both of the Brothers.

[Big Red Machine]

Have you watched the Nov. 18th Smackdown yet? I liked the Wyatt/Brothers of Destruction segment much better there than the one on RAW. The bit with the mask and the druids was especially cool, IMO. Not too over the top, but still true to the spirit of both of the Brothers.

It's the Nov. 19th Smackdown here, so not yet. I have it set to record, but between finishing up Evolve 52, watching Glory By Honor, and watching NXT, plus two Rangers games, I doubt I'll have time to get to it before Survivor Series.

Did they at least do something that actually got some heat on the Wyatts?

[Serujuunin]

Have you watched the Nov. 18th Smackdown yet? I liked the Wyatt/Brothers of Destruction segment much better there than the one on RAW. The bit with the mask and the druids was especially cool, IMO. Not too over the top, but still true to the spirit of both of the Brothers.

It's the Nov. 19th Smackdown here, so not yet. I have it set to record, but between finishing up Evolve 52, watching Glory By Honor, and watching NXT, plus two Rangers games, I doubt I'll have time to get to it before Survivor Series.

Did they at least do something that actually got some heat on the Wyatts?

No... Nothing like that. Which actually makes me feel like the Wyatts are going into Survivor Series as more "faces" than they should be. But it was still kinda spooky without being campy and silly, which has been missing in this whole angle.

[KILLdozer]

Wyatts fuckin' suck and they ain't scary. End of.