BRM Reviews the 3/14/2016 Raw

[Big Red Machine]

WWE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The New Day(c) (w/Kofi Kingston) vs. The League of Nations (Alberto Del Rio & Rusev) (w/Wade Barrett & Sheamus)- 6/10
The announcers are completely ignoring the fact that Xavier Woods distracted the referee last night, costing the League of Nations the tag titles.
Michael Cole notes that the New Day are using Freebird Rules and plugs the Freebirds going into the Hall of Fame. Then JBL pointlessly breaks kayfabe by crediting the idea to Ole Anderson and Eddie Graham instead of one of the Freebirds.
And speaking of being furious at JBL, can that motherf*cker PLEASE go JUST ONE WEEK without trying to draw a comparison between the formation of the League of Nations to the formation of the Four Horsemen?
New Day retain when Xavier rolls Rusev up and pins him while grabbing the tights for extra leverage. Then the announcers had the audacity to ask me to feel bad when this cheater got his ass kicked after the match. This is the second time in three nights that the New Day (and Xavier in particular) have screwed the League of Nations out of the WWE Tag Team Titles. He deserves everything he got! More infuriatingly, all three announcers completely ignored Woods cheating… including Byron, who specifically pointed out that Woods was grabbing the tights!
The League of Nations completely obliterated the New Day after the match. Others might feel that this beating dragged on too long, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. You reap what you sew, you cheating bastards! With any luck, New Day will miss Smackdown because they are selling their injuries and thus I won’t have to be subjected to their obnoxious drivel on Thursday.

There is a kid in the front row with his face painted like Stardust. That’s some terrible parenting right there.

DEAN AMBROSE, BROCK LESNAR, & PAUL HEYMAN SEGMENT- okay
Dean and Heyman both cut okay promos. Brock’s tease of fighting Dean now felt like he was trolling us. The announcers did a good job getting over the fact that weapons will act as an equalizer for Dean.

RYBACK vs. SIN CARA (w/Kalisto)- 5.25/10
The Lucha Dragons’ new look is terrible. It makes them look like evil ninjas, but not the cool kind of ninjas. They look like henchman-ninjas. Kalisto not only bumped the top rope on his entrance, but the US Title also fell off of him as he did his roll. I giggled.
Ryback won clean, then challenged Kalisto to a US Title match at WrestleMania.
Also… “Big Guy” Ryback going heel on smaller wrestlers (and the Lucha Dragons in particular)? #BRMBookedItFirst.

STEPH, HUNTER, & DOLPH SEGMENT- SOOOOOOOOOO boring.
Steph barely got a reaction on her entrance. Ah. Now the boos are coming. Steph welcomed us to the show almost an hour in. A little late there, Steph. Then she introduced Hunter, who cuts a promo that we’ve all heard him cut in the past few weeks and it dragged on for WAY too long.
Hunter’s promo mercifully came to an end when Dolph Ziggler interrupted him in a suit and tie. Dolph cut one of his trying too hard Dolph Ziggler babyface promos. Steph snickered at him and buried him and Dolph said “how many times are you going to threaten to fire me” at which point I was just begging for Steph to just fire Dolph so this boring sh*t would end.
Dolph claims to have been “screwed by the system.” I have seen no kayfabe evidence for this whatsoever. In fact, didn’t Steph just give Dolph an IC Title match for no reason a few weeks ago?
Hunter tries to get Dolph to join the Authority but he refuses and calls Steph an idiot so she slaps him. Steph tells Dolph that if he doesn’t win his match tonight, he won’t have a match at WrestleMania. Dolph says fine, so Steph books him against Hunter, non-title. Steph was the only person in this segment who was even close to tolerable.

What the f*ck?! Vince, Shane, and TAKER will all be on tonight’s show, and they didn’t even mention it until over an hour into the show.

SAMI ZAYN vs. THE MIZ- 5.5/10
Kevin Owens is on commentary. Zayn got a good reaction. Miz accidentally got distracted by Owens because I guess we have to force him into this feud, too, instead of just letting Zayn win clean and build to the Zayn vs. Owens match that everyone wants to see.

RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS- they challenge the New Day to a six man tag match at WrestleMania.

TEAM BELLA (Brie Bella & Alicia Fox) vs. TEAM B.A.D. (Naomi & Tamina)- 1.5/10
NOOOOO! I thought we were done with these teams and the whole Divas Revolution. Stay dead, G-d dammit!
Lana is out to watch the match and sit on the announcers’ table again. Once again, she distracted Brie and cost her the match. This feud has been going on for weeks and has gone nowhere. Fox got double superkicked after the match just because.

SOCIAL OUTCASTS PROMO- Product placement.
According to Axel, Burger King specifically chose Suckzuki-Gun to plug this product, which I assume must mean that the hot dog in question tastes like sh*t. The brave and valiant director tried to cut this short but the idiots in the production truck kept the picture on them, thwarting the directors attempts to save us all from prolonged exposure to Tons of F*cked.

JOJO INTERVIEWS PAIGE- JoJo starts to ask Paige about Total Divas but Paige immediately interrupted her by saying “it’s WRESTLEMANIA SEASON, JOJO!” and I popped so huge for someone actually wanting to talk about wrestling instead of Total Divas.
Then Lana showed up and tried to both insult Paige AND talk about Total Divas. Paige refuted all of Lana’s points and completely put her in her place (“you haven’t even had a match let alone a championship”). As it just so happened, Team B.A.D. was walking by right at that very moment, and for some inexplicable reason they took offense to Paige burying Lana.

RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS CHARLOTTE & RIC FLAIR- GREAT!
Also, apparently they are going to have some sort of face-to-face-to-face on Smackdown.

THE USOS vs. BO DALLAS & ADAM ROSE (w/Heath Slater & Curtis Axel)- 2/10
The Dudley Boys are on commentary to remind us that they are feuding with the Usos. Bubba was great. The Usos threw a Superkick Celebration™ and beat Meh-volution clean.

MICK FOLEY & DEAN AMBROSE BACKSTAGE- awesome.
Foley bequeaths upon Dean his famed barbed-wire-covered baseball bat.

IF DOLPH WINS HE GETS ANY MATCH HE WANTS AT WRESTLEMANIA: Dolph Ziggler vs. Triple H (w/Stephanie McMahon)- 7.5/10
Great match with Hunter working over Dolph’s arm. I was kind of hoping they’d go another ten or fifteen minutes.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Roman Reigns’ music plays and is met with about a 50/50 reaction. Hunter looks for him in the crowd by Roman comes out from backstage instead. Roman looks angry. Hunter looks, to quote Michael Cole, “like he’s seen a ghost,” referencing his famous segment with Mick Foley. Roman assaults Hunter after the match, getting about 90% boos. Roman smashes Hunter’s face into the announcers’ table. Referees try to stop him, but Roman attacks one of the refs. Hunter hit Roman in the face with a soda can but Roman quickly came back and beat him up some more. Doesn’t the Authority have any friends who will come and save Hunter? Like the League of Nations, maybe?
They fought by the big black equipment boxes and then into the backstage area. Hunter was bleeding a lot from the side of his head. Security was hilariously impotent, standing there and just telling Roman “don’t you do that!” rather than actually doing their jobs and trying to stop him. Finally some babyfaces (The Usos, Mark Henry, and… Jack Swagger?) showed up to talk Roman down.

JACQUELINE IS GOING INTO THE HALL OF FAME- I’ve said it other places and I’ll say it here, too. This is the year that Hall of Fame becomes a complete and total joke.

TRUTH & GOLDUST BACKSTAGE- the people actually seem to be into this angle.

CHRIS JERICHO vs. NEVILLE- 3/10
Neville hurt his knee on a sliding dropkick. Rather than just have Jericho pin Neville, they did something a little different here and had Jericho roll Neville up, Neville kick out, then Jericho get angry and shove the ref, resulting in a DQ. It was very nice of Jericho to give Neville the win there, and makes a lot more sense than Jericho beating Neville if they want to put Neville in the IC Title match (which rumor has it that they do).
After the match, Jericho started to cut a promo, but AJ Styles came out and laid Jericho out with “the Phenomenal Forearm.”

They showed a graphic for the Vince-Shane-Taker confrontation and Byron Saxton said “we’ve been talking about this all night long” at which point I shouted “NO YOU HAVEN’T!” This was only the second time this had been mentioned. Obviously it should be mentioned more, but what good is lying about how often you’ve mentioned it. It doesn’t help in any way. All it does is irritate fans who have already had it with the infuriating exaggerations we get from the announcers every few sentences.

They are hyping Smackdown by asking “will Roman Reigns show up to Smackdown?” I should f*cking hope so! It’s his f*cking job! And if the point they were trying to get across was “will the Authority suspend Roman?” then they should have said that.

VINCE, TAKER, & SHANE SEGMENT- meh.
Vince and Taker have a fun interaction. Then Shane came out and cut a decent promo (including one bad botch) in which he just gave away his game plan. That seems like a bad idea. In case all of that jumping off the TitanTron didn’t convince you that Shane has a death-wish, he called Taker a bitch.
Shane managed to dodge Taker’s offense, but Vince shoved him into Taker and Taker chokeslammed him. Then, for some reason, Taker decided to go after Vince, but then gave up when Vince made it under the bottom rope.

A decent episode of Raw.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. When Kofi was facing off against Barrett and Sheamus during the opener, JBL described this as “numbers game vs. numbers game on the outside.”
That doesn’t make any sense! The “numbers game” is the advantage of having more guys! Only one side can employ the “numbers game” at a time, and even if both somehow could, the “numbers game” is not some sort of physical thing that can face off against something else on the outside!

[XIV]

Ric Flairs line where he said Charlotte called him and said "Dad, there are two Girls here who are going to be great, I need to be better".

Brilliant line. Brilliant. Putting over the girls AND Charlotte. It was a brilliant promo and I'm more psyched about the Divas Triple Threat after it, so it did its job.

[XIV]

Dean and Mick were incredible. Bringing the subtle comparison between these two together was genius.

[XIV]

Jericho is giving AJ such a rub it's unbelievable. He's doing the best possible job of putting him over.

[Big Red Machine]

Jericho is giving AJ such a rub it's unbelievable. He's doing the best possible job of putting him over.

This. And I'm sure Jericho is thrilled to finally be able to play a heel and have the fans actually boo him.

[XIV]

Jericho is giving AJ such a rub it's unbelievable. He's doing the best possible job of putting him over.

This. And I'm sure Jericho is thrilled to finally be able to play a heel and have the fans actually boo him.

Just the way he was taking about AJ, getting the crowd to chant his name, he's getting fans behind him (they were already but he's clever about making them extra loud and vocal).

Jericho was a top professional on Raw. How he handled the Neville injury situation and gave Neville the win as well (leaving a potential story arc for Neville's return) then he filled time with a little improvisation which lead to AJ coming out (which I assume he was originall probably going distract Y2J for a Neville roll-up or something anyway).

Very impressed with Jericho right now. Always have been because he does what's right but it's really showing what a class act this man is at the minute PLUS like you say, he's finally getting another real Heel run complete with boos which he is probably loving right now as this will most likely be his last real heel run

[Bulletclubfan2014]

New Day retain when Xavier rolls Rusev up and pins him while grabbing the tights for extra leverage. Then the announcers had the audacity to ask me to feel bad when this cheater got his ass kicked after the match. This is the second time in three nights that the New Day (and Xavier in particular) have screwed the League of Nations out of the WWE Tag Team Titles. He deserves everything he got! More infuriatingly, all three announcers completely ignored Woods cheating… including Byron, who specifically pointed out that Woods was grabbing the tights!
The League of Nations completely obliterated the New Day after the match. Others might feel that this beating dragged on too long, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. You reap what you sew, you cheating bastards! With any luck, New Day will miss Smackdown because they are selling their injuries and thus I won’t have to be subjected to their obnoxious drivel on Thursday.

I've been watching a lot of old NWA shows on the Network so this may be why I didn't get pissed by this but The New Day were just doing what it took to win (IE Eddie Guerrero) while what the League Of Nations did was an all out assault.

[Big Red Machine]

New Day retain when Xavier rolls Rusev up and pins him while grabbing the tights for extra leverage. Then the announcers had the audacity to ask me to feel bad when this cheater got his ass kicked after the match. This is the second time in three nights that the New Day (and Xavier in particular) have screwed the League of Nations out of the WWE Tag Team Titles. He deserves everything he got! More infuriatingly, all three announcers completely ignored Woods cheating… including Byron, who specifically pointed out that Woods was grabbing the tights!
The League of Nations completely obliterated the New Day after the match. Others might feel that this beating dragged on too long, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. You reap what you sew, you cheating bastards! With any luck, New Day will miss Smackdown because they are selling their injuries and thus I won’t have to be subjected to their obnoxious drivel on Thursday.

I've been watching a lot of old NWA shows on the Network so this may be why I didn't get pissed by this but The New Day were just doing what it took to win (IE Eddie Guerrero) while what the League Of Nations did was an all out assault.

I was never that big a fan of it when Eddie did it, but the reason Eddie was able to do it was that he was already over as a babyface when he started doing it (and he had started doing it as a heel). It's like why Rock or Austin would get a pass or being a huge dick to someone who totally didn't deserve it. The New Day are neither over to anywhere near that level as actual babyfaces (as opposed to being heels who some people find entertaining) nor did they ever turn babyface, so there is no reason why them cheating to win should be okay in this instance when it was frowned upon in every other instance (especially in the case of the Roadblock match). If these matches were intended to turn New Day babyface, and THESE were the finishes WWE thought were best, then that is a staggering level on incompetence (even for WWE).
To me, "doing whatever it takes to win" is a heel attitude. The ends don't always justify the means. Playing fair and honest should be more important than winning. Yes, the League of Nations assaulted them, but in my mind, the New Day pretty much deserved it. You can certainly argue that the League handed out too severe a beating for the crime perpetrated against them, but the fact that New Day committed said wrong in the first place completely kills the sympathy that I should theoretically now have for them.

[Bulletclubfan2014]

JACQUELINE IS GOING INTO THE HALL OF FAME- I’ve said it other places and I’ll say it here, too. This is the year that Hall of Fame becomes a complete and total joke.

You know if you actually did some research Jacqueline is pretty much just as deserving in terms of accomplishments as Chyna and a million times more deserving than Chyna if in ring ability played a part in who gets in

[Big Red Machine]

JACQUELINE IS GOING INTO THE HALL OF FAME- I’ve said it other places and I’ll say it here, too. This is the year that Hall of Fame becomes a complete and total joke.

You know if you actually did some research Jacqueline is pretty much just as deserving in terms of accomplishments as Chyna and a million times more deserving than Chyna if in ring ability played a part in who gets in

Jackie was never big a star and never felt revolutionary in the way that a Chyna or a Lita did. She might have been hitting moves on dudes before Chyna did, but she never felt like she was the same level of star that Chyna was while Chyna was doing it.
And USWA titles don't count. They're like Halloween candy. Everybody who comes by gets a whole lot.


I'm not disputing that Jackie was great. I'm just disputing that she is Hall of Fame-worthy.

[Bulletclubfan2014]

JACQUELINE IS GOING INTO THE HALL OF FAME- I’ve said it other places and I’ll say it here, too. This is the year that Hall of Fame becomes a complete and total joke.

You know if you actually did some research Jacqueline is pretty much just as deserving in terms of accomplishments as Chyna and a million times more deserving than Chyna if in ring ability played a part in who gets in

Jackie was never big a star and never felt revolutionary in the way that a Chyna or a Lita did. She might have been hitting moves on dudes before Chyna did, but she never felt like she was the same level of star that Chyna was while Chyna was doing it.
And USWA titles don't count. They're like Halloween candy. Everybody who comes by gets a whole lot.


I'm not disputing that Jackie was great. I'm just disputing that she is Hall of Fame-worthy.

Well Chyna's 2 biggest claims are she beat up men and won the IC Title. Jackie was in WCW as Kevin Sullivan's body guard and she was doing it a few weeks before Chyna did. Also in 1999 when Chyna won the IC Title it didn't mean a damn thing it was just a belt at the time so Jackie winning the Cruiserweight Belt is on equal footing with Chyna winning the IC Title

[Big Red Machine]

You know if you actually did some research Jacqueline is pretty much just as deserving in terms of accomplishments as Chyna and a million times more deserving than Chyna if in ring ability played a part in who gets in

Jackie was never big a star and never felt revolutionary in the way that a Chyna or a Lita did. She might have been hitting moves on dudes before Chyna did, but she never felt like she was the same level of star that Chyna was while Chyna was doing it.
And USWA titles don't count. They're like Halloween candy. Everybody who comes by gets a whole lot.


I'm not disputing that Jackie was great. I'm just disputing that she is Hall of Fame-worthy.

Well Chyna's 2 biggest claims are she beat up men and won the IC Title. Jackie was in WCW as Kevin Sullivan's body guard and she was doing it a few weeks before Chyna did. Also in 1999 when Chyna won the IC Title it didn't mean a damn thing it was just a belt at the time so Jackie winning the Cruiserweight Belt is on equal footing with Chyna winning the IC Title

Totally disagree. It's about portrayal. Chyna was portrayed as being equal to the men- equal enough that they didn't mind men hurting her. Jackie might have been doing those things, but (like Lita or any time they stuck Beth Phoenix in a Royal Rumble) she was never portrayed as being equal.
When Chyna won the IC Title it meant a lot more than the Cruiserweight Title did when Jackie won it. When Chyna won the belt, her opponent took her seriously. When Jackie won the belt, her opponent did not (if I remember correctly).

[Bulletclubfan2014]

Jackie was never big a star and never felt revolutionary in the way that a Chyna or a Lita did. She might have been hitting moves on dudes before Chyna did, but she never felt like she was the same level of star that Chyna was while Chyna was doing it.
And USWA titles don't count. They're like Halloween candy. Everybody who comes by gets a whole lot.


I'm not disputing that Jackie was great. I'm just disputing that she is Hall of Fame-worthy.

Well Chyna's 2 biggest claims are she beat up men and won the IC Title. Jackie was in WCW as Kevin Sullivan's body guard and she was doing it a few weeks before Chyna did. Also in 1999 when Chyna won the IC Title it didn't mean a damn thing it was just a belt at the time so Jackie winning the Cruiserweight Belt is on equal footing with Chyna winning the IC Title

Totally disagree. It's about portrayal. Chyna was portrayed as being equal to the men- equal enough that they didn't mind men hurting her. Jackie might have been doing those things, but (like Lita or any time they stuck Beth Phoenix in a Royal Rumble) she was never portrayed as being equal.
When Chyna won the IC Title it meant a lot more than the Cruiserweight Title did when Jackie won it. When Chyna won the belt, her opponent took her seriously. When Jackie won the belt, her opponent did not (if I remember correctly).

If I remember correctly wasn't the angle that Jeff Jarrett believed women didn't belong in wrestling and he was going to prove that by easily beating Chyna (which BTW given how every other woman in WWE was portrayed at the time how the hell was Chyna the babyface when with every other woman in the company the message was "if she won't get naked she's a bitch") Also the IC title didn't mean anything from the time it was vacated in the summer of 1998 and when guys like Guerrero, Benoit, Jericho, Angle etc started fighting for it which wasn't until after Chyna won it just like the Cruiserweight belt when Jackie won it

[Big Red Machine]

Well Chyna's 2 biggest claims are she beat up men and won the IC Title. Jackie was in WCW as Kevin Sullivan's body guard and she was doing it a few weeks before Chyna did. Also in 1999 when Chyna won the IC Title it didn't mean a damn thing it was just a belt at the time so Jackie winning the Cruiserweight Belt is on equal footing with Chyna winning the IC Title

Totally disagree. It's about portrayal. Chyna was portrayed as being equal to the men- equal enough that they didn't mind men hurting her. Jackie might have been doing those things, but (like Lita or any time they stuck Beth Phoenix in a Royal Rumble) she was never portrayed as being equal.
When Chyna won the IC Title it meant a lot more than the Cruiserweight Title did when Jackie won it. When Chyna won the belt, her opponent took her seriously. When Jackie won the belt, her opponent did not (if I remember correctly).

If I remember correctly wasn't the angle that Jeff Jarrett believed women didn't belong in wrestling and he was going to prove that by easily beating Chyna (which BTW given how every other woman in WWE was portrayed at the time how the hell was Chyna the babyface when with every other woman in the company the message was "if she won't get naked she's a bitch") Also the IC title didn't mean anything from the time it was vacated in the summer of 1998 and when guys like Guerrero, Benoit, Jericho, Angle etc started fighting for it which wasn't until after Chyna won it just like the Cruiserweight belt when Jackie won it

The angle was Chyna fighting against the misogynistic Jarrett. She then went on to have real feuds with Jericho and Holly.
Jacqueline had the belt for two weeks before she lost it in a match where her opponent didn't take her seriously going in. There is a HUGE difference.
I agree that the IC Title didn't mean as much in the winter/spring of 1999, but Jarrett and D'Lo brought it back up.