BRM Reviews the 9/5/2016 Raw

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 9/5/2016 Raw

Post by Big Red Machine » Sep 6th, '16, 19:50

OPENING VIDEO PACKAGE- I didn’t like all of this Twitter feedback in the opening. It feels like a bad commercial instead of what it should be, which is a recap video package. They’re not selling the replay of Raw, so telling people how crazy/awesome/unexpected the finish to last week’s main event was doesn’t actually do anything for them. It feels like a desperate attempt to convince the doubters that this was, in fact, a good finish (because random schmoes on Twitter are saying so) without actually addressing any of the reasons why some people have been down on said finish- so AT BEST it doesn’t do anything for anyone, and at worst it will either aggravate those who didn’t like the finish, or perhaps alienate them by making them feel like WWE doesn’t understand why they are unhappy with it (and in this case that’s a pretty big, overarching issue with the company). My fervent belief when it comes to hyping a wrestling show is that random comments from random schmoes on Twitter is not good hype. If you REALLY want to include praise from critics on something, then fine (the way the New Japan on AXS commercial that has been airing on ROH does this is a perfect example), but the work should really speak for itself. If you want to address any concerns someone may have about your angle, then do it within the context of the angle by showing them that their fears were misplaced, or do it in some other medium like an article on a website or an interview.
All of that aside, I actually did like the production on all of this and thought that was very good. It would have been perfect if instead of the Twitter crap they had started the show with a blank screen and clips of the announcers freaking out and going “OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING! I NEVER THOUGHT I’D SEE THIS!” (or, as Cole actually said “this may be the most shocking moment in Monday Night Raw history!”)

STEPH & FOLEY BACKSTAGE- this was fine until Foley started talking about 1998 and pre-heel Steph. There must have been a better way to transition to get from A to B.

Okay… what’s with the C*C logos everywhere?
Edit: apparently it’s for Conor’s Cure. It’s great that they’re doing this, but putting the big cartoony graphic on the ramp takes away from atmosphere to me.

KEVIN OWENS CHAMPIONSHIP CELEBRATION-
We’ve got Steph and Foley in the ring, and they bring out Owens, who immediately heels on the crowd. He was quite good. Rollins comes out and yells at Owens, saying “this isn’t about you!” Then he yells at Steph, accusing her of betraying him. Owens comes back at him, so Rollins responds in a fantastically dismissive manner, telling Owens “I don’t have a problem with you right now. I understand that you’re just a puppet.” That was a brilliant line.
He yells at Steph some more. She tells Rollins that she didn’t know what Hunter was going to do, but he doesn’t believe her. Foley steps up and gets in Rollins’ face, so Rollins accuses him of being in on it, too. Then he claims that Owens has always been Triple H’s “chosen one” and that from the moment he arrived in NXT “he has had his hand held the entire way.” I don’t think there is any evidence of this at all, and it sounds like the sort of thing heel Rollins would say, so now they have me kind of confused.
Owens calls Rollins a failure so Rollins jumps him, and Steph suspends Rollins. Then Foley unsuspends him, and I had a terrible flashback to Bischoff and Austin firing and rehiring Jim Ross about eighteen times over the course of a single minute. Apparently there was a deal between Steph and Foley that Mick would be the one booking the matches? Has that really been the case? Because it doesn’t feel like it.
Foley books Owens vs. Rollins for Clash of the Champions because Rollins got screwed out of the title. Okay… then shouldn’t Roman be in the match, too? Didn’t get screwed just as much?

FOLEY & STEPH ARE ARGUING BACKSTAGE- Then Owens shows up and yells at Foley, so Foley books him against Sami Zayn tonight… which just seems to prove Owens’ point: Rollins is rewarded for bad behavior while Owens is now being punished for the same thing. Mick IS playing favorites.
Then Jericho shows up and yells at Foley for disrespecting his best buddy Owens and calls him a stupid idiot, so Steph then yells at Jericho and Foley books Jericho vs. Roman. Then Byron infuriated me by saying “Foley’s on a match-making roll tonight.” Is he? Well if it’s his job to make the matches then maybe should HAVE THE WHOLE SHOW BOOKED BEFORE IT GOES ON THE AIR! Mic is sure lucky people decided to scream at each other a lot so far, otherwise he would have no idea what to do.

DANA & CHARLOTTE SEGMENT FROM EARLIER TODAY- tired of Dana’s constant failures, Charlotte says that tonight she will do what Dana failed to do both last week and two weeks ago and dispose of Bayley… and she wants Dana to sit at ringside with a clipboard and take notes so she can learn how not to be a failure. Then she patronized Dana with Dana’s own patting on the head gimmick. At some point down the line, Dana Brooke is going to turn babyface and I am going to pop SO HUGE.

BAYLEY vs. CHARLOTTE (w/Dana Brooke)- 7/10
Dana? Lesson one: If you taking notes in a part of the storyline, FACE THE HARD CAMERA SO WE CAN SEE YOU DOING IT (without the production truck having to cut away from the match to show us).
Charlotte worked Bayley’s knee over and Bayley sold it well. The finish saw Charlotte accidentally bump into Dana (the execution could have gone smoother), allowing Bayley to hit the Bayley-to-Belly for the win.

CHARLOTTE YELLS AT DANA BACKSTAGE- and slaps her, too. This makes Dana very sad.

BO DALLAS vs. A JOBBER- no rating. Odd squash.
Bo has a big sign that says “Bo-lieve in Bo” and is designed to look like a campaign sign (the specific coloring this time around has is being used by Trump). What is the point of Bo bringing this sign? Do they really think that this will get a laugh, or make us thing that they’re clever? Do they really think we’ll see the sign and go “Oh! It’s a campaign sign! And there’s a presidential election going on! Hahahaha”? Because that’s the extent of what they have done here.
The Bo got a mean look on his face and told the jobber the following:
“Don’t you know?
You reap what you sow.
There’s nowhere to go.
Bo-lieve in Bo.”
So… yeah. We had Bo Dallas trying cut an angry promo, except that it was impossible to take seriously because:
1. He said the word “Bo-lieve.”
2. It rhymed
3. It came off like a short poem rather than something intimidating
4. HE’S BO DALLAS. He has been a comedy jobber for two years now. He’s such a comedy jobber that he is still wearing his Social Outcasts gear!
So Bo completely beat the sh*t out of the jobber and looked good doing it. This would have been SOOOO much better if they hadn’t just made him do a bunch of things that made him come off like a joke. He should have had new music and a new gimmick to match his new demeanor. Instead we’ve got this guy who is serious during a match, but is a total joke before and afterwards.

OWENS & JERICHO WASTE TIME BACKSTAGE- a waste of time that was written specifically so they could get Jericho’s stupid “it” line in. Because G-d forbid we go an entire show without making the same unfunny joke we’ve made on every show for the past two months.

CHRIS JERICHO vs. SETH ROLLINS- 7.5/10

MATCH #3 IN THEIR BEST OF 7 SERIES: Cesaro(0) vs. Sheamus(2)- 3.75/10
Pre-match in-set promos from both guys. Cesaro was meh. Sheamus was a bit better but not by much. They made a big deal out of Cesaro’s back being injured and how the fourth match would be in just two days at a house show in London, and this match was rather short (just over four minutes)… which is why it baffles me that Sheamus didn’t win with the Cloverleaf instead of the Brogue Kick, as this would further the story by having Cesaro tap out quickly to preserve his back for his big stand in London.

COLIN CASSADY & ENZO AMORE vs. THE SHINING STARS- 3.75/10
The pre-match stuff from Enzo and Cass was quite lame.
Byron doesn’t remember Mae Young giving birth to a hand. Why was he even hired, again?
I’m pretty sure this is the Shining Stars first win since the night the debuted.

SAMI ZAYN PROMO- good.
Then Kevin Owens showed up and talked about his and Sami’s long history together... and he says that “this has always been the finish line,” while indicating a championship that is LESS THAN A MONTH OLD. Sami then told us that their battle would never be over… which he said about three seconds after mentioning that he beat Owens in the match that was billed as the end of their feud.
Don’t get me wrong: the stuff that they said all came across well, but these little bits really bothered me.

NIA JAX vs. ANN ESPOSITO- squash.

GALLOWS & ANDERSON BRING IN “THE OLD DAY”- Terrible.
Then New Day came out and it didn’t get any better. F*cking Kofi Kingston has no conception of how time travel works. Yes, you can’t be occupying the same at the same time, but that’s because such a thing is physically impossible, not because of time travel. Also, you don’t cause a f*cking explosion by touching a future or past version of yourself. It’s matter and anti-matter!

JINDER MAHAL vs. DARREN YOUNG (w/Bob Backlund)- 0.75/10
Titus O’Neil is on commentary and completely buries Backlund and Darren. Jobber Mahal can’t even get a win when his opponent is distracted. Titus jumps Darren after the match but Darren quickly got the better of him. Darren kept going after Titus even when Tiutus would try to retreat. It took the referees quite a while to tear him off. The only thing I would have changed here was to have Titus basically run for his life up the ramp once the referees finally got them separated.

NIA JAX AND ALICIA FOX IN A HALLWAY- holy crap! That random comment from Michael Cole about Nia’s squashee being a friend of Alicia Fox’s is actually paying off! And Nia is getting to interact with non-jobbers! And speak words!
I laughed at the “Ratchetty Anne” line. Puns are fun!
This looked to actually be good for a while, but it would have been a lot better if they didn’t keep trying to talk about “reality.” I was totally confused as to what that was supposed to mean. In this context, though, it sounded like the idea was that kayfabe is a shoot, but Total Divas is a work.
Wait. Never mind. I spoke too soon. Dear G-d Alicia Fox was terrible here. She came off like such a cartoon character. Also, if Nia is such a mean nasty jerk that she is going to make fun of Fox after beating up her friend, and she’s such a scary monster beating people up every week, I just can’t see her responding to Fox accidentally hitting her in the head with something while yelling at her in any way other than brutal violence. This should have ended with Alicia Fox going through that table she knocked that stuff off of.
(Then they could do an injury angle with Fox to set up Fox returning for revenge at the PPV in Nia’s first main-roster match against a non-jobber, in which Nia would squash Fox, to show that she is now moving up in the ranks.)

BRAUN STROWMAN vs. SIN CARA- no rating, good segment.
Cara also gets an interview, but he gets his backstage with Tom Phillips. He has requested this match to get revenge on Strowman for disrespecting his Lucha Libre heritage last week by ribbing off last week’s jobber- Americo-‘s mask. EXCELLENT!
As if the outcome of this match wasn’t obvious already, one of the announcers let slip that today is Sin Cara’s birthday. Cara is a babyface and this is WWE, so…
Strowman had a big more trouble than usual, but still picked up the win with relative ease. He won by count-out, but it was a really decisive one, where it was clear that he could have gotten the pinfall, but was just too lazy to bring Cara back into the ring. Cara got up after the match but Strowman laid him out again. Remember what I said about Nia needing to show that she is progressing up the kayfabe ranks? Well this was Strowman doing that.

SASHA BANKS PROMO-
I’m sure these words were given to her, seeing as how WWE always feels the need to mention this legacy of women wrestlers to try to connect it to the “Divas Revolution” and they always mention the same specific women (Moolah, Mae Young, Alundra Blayze, Luna, Trish, Lita etc.), but she essentially said that they “broke the mold” and were part of this “Women’s/Diva’s Revolution,” and that REALLY pissed me off for the following reason: When most of those women were doing what they were doing, them being treated as athletes wasn’t revolutionary. That was the standard! The only reason there was the need for this stupid “revolution” that WWE is doing their best to push on all of us is that WWE themselves stopped treating their female wrestlers as athletes and started treating them strictly as T&A. It’s not male-dominated society that is the oppressive villain here. Society was even more male-dominated in the 1980’s than it was in 2010. WWE are the oppressive villains here! What they’re doing is like a dictator seizing power of a democratic country in a coup, being oppressive for twenty years and then deciding to become a democracy again (due to substantial internal and external pressure), and then expecting everyone to hail him as the bringer of democracy.
At this point I was so annoyed so I started skipping forward, but I heard the words “stupid butterfly title,” which is something fans were saying since the thing first debuted… but no. It was WWE who valiantly decided to get rid of it, flying in the face off… what, exactly? Obviously not pressure from the fans, because we’ve all been calling for women’s wrestling to be treated with the respect it deserves for a whole damn decade at this point. Clearly not societal pressures, because society has been moving away from the idea that girls must like pink and butterflies for even longer than that. Clearly not tradition because tradition would have been keeping with the more traditional-looking Women’s Title, which looked like a wrestling championship and not something designed to look as demeaning as possible while still retaining some plausibility of being a championship belt.
Does anyone remember why they decided to dump the Women’s Title but keep the Divas Title? That’s right: Branding. Because just like male WWE competitors are “Superstars™,” and not “wrestlers” female WWE competitors are “Divas™,” so their title must reflect that. And that’s what this is all really about: Branding. If it wasn’t, WWE would have made their new “women’s title” not look like a palette-swapped version of the men’s title, and the Smackdown belts wouldn’t look the same as the Raw ones: all with their big, new WWE logo right on the front and NOTHING ELSE.
That’s why they’ve got to work the term “Women’s/Divas’ Revolution” into every sentence they can (it’s funny how easily the women all got over in NXT, and yet never once was the phrase “Divas Revolution” uttered). Because for WWE, it’s all about appearances, and no about actual change. Don’t get me wrong: there HAS been change. The Women’s Title does mean something now, and at least Sasha and Charlotte are treated as stars and given time. But no one else is. On Smackdown they’ve put more thought into creative ways to have Eva Marie not wrestle than they have put into what they are doing with pretty much the entire rest of the division (Cena’s girlfriend gets an angle, though). There have been two women’s matches on Smackdown since the draft that have gotten more than five minutes. Only one has gotten more than ten, and that was Nattie and Becky going 10:21 on the very first post-draft SD. On the Raw side, aside from the two stars, we’ve got Charlotte’s personal jobber-lackey in Dana Brooke, Alicia Fox, who I completely forgot was on Raw until that segment in the hallway earlier, and Summer Rae, who I had to think very hard before even remembering which brand she was on. But they’ll tell you there is a “revolution” going on…and don’t forget that it’s all thanks to Stephanie, because WWE thinks it is best for them to portray she with the girl-parts as spearheading this “revolution” (got to make sure you don’t accidentally say the wrong branding slogan like Heyman did last week) even though anyone who does a smidgen of research on the topic will know that it’s her fully 100% male, non-vagina-having husband who has really been behind it, and that when someone does even that smidgen of research they will know that they are completely full of sh*t, and being exposed like this will actually hurt them with researchers/activists/whoever the hell they are trying to please with this MUCH more than having a man be the one advocating for better treatment for the women (*GASP!*). But just like with this on-screen Revolution, they want you to believe their BS so badly that they will keep shouting it at you in the hopes that this dissuades you from looking through their smokescreen, because they think that putting up a smokescreen and hoping no one tries too hard to look behind it is better than actually doing what they claim they are doing and making the smokescreen unnecessary.

Okay. Rant over.

After the bullsh*t, Sasha’s speech (you know, the part of it that was her own words, spoken from the heart?) was pretty damn great. They tease a retirement, but before Sasha can actually announce anything other than having gotten some “bad news” from a doctor, Dana Brooke comes out to interrupt her. Dana tries to attack Sasha, but was immediately punked out. It turns out that the “bad news” that Sasha had was for Charlotte, which is that Sasha will be getting her rematch at Night of Champions. This whole thing was a waste of time. Why do this big pointless swerve when a simple promo and/or announcement would have sufficed? Hell… at least hold off on this for next week so that Bayley doesn’t become a complete and total afterthought. Hype up that Sasha will appear next week and that Bayley will get a title match for pinning Charlotte. Have Charlotte beat Bayley and then have Sasha save Bayley after the match and announce that she is getting a title shot then, when you’ve had time to hype up the announcement.
I also didn’t like this because it made Dana look like even more of a loser. She has already been completely humiliated tonight. Did we really have to pile on even more? Dana had better hope her birthday isn’t on a Monday. I know she’s a heel, but they’ll still probably have her get insulted, squashed, covered in pig slop, bitten on the ass by the Hornswowggle (brought back just for this purpose), resulting in her being forced to beg Charlotte to please be gentle tonight with Artificial Space Mountain, and then finally reveal some sort of embarrassing sexual fetish involving either farm animals or Braun Strowman.

SAMI ZAYN vs. KEVIN OWENS- 8/10
Awesome match. Sami’s ankle gives out again. That right there is the story in WWE I am most interested in, simply because, as I have documented in the past, stories that are not about mutual conflict are not the sort of stories WWE usually tells.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it.
Roman Reigns shows up to get booed while having a stare-down with Kevin Owens. Jericho also comes out. Michael is all like “think about it, guys! Roman Reign is in the same situation as Seth Rollins because Triple H screwed him out of the title last week, two.” The problem with this is that this was the very first thing that came to my mind during the opening segment, and I’m sure a lot of others were also asking it because it is a completely natural question to ask. Instead of coming up with any sort of good answer, WWE just decided to have it not be mentioned in any way all night up until now so Michael Cole could present it to us as this supposedly intriguing extra wrinkle in the storyline. Unfortunately, their choice to do this makes the announcers, Steph, and Foley all look dumb for not even thinking of it when I’m sure most people watching the show did.
Speaking of things that need a good explanation, Mick Foley then came out and said that next week Roman would face Kevin Owens, and if Roman won, he would be added to the main event at Clash of the Champions. Well that hardly seems fair to Roman. As Cole pointed out, he got screwed just as much as Rollins did, so why should Roman have to win a match to get a title shot that Rollins is just being handed?
And because Roman has to end the show on top, Jericho tries to attack him from behind but Roman beats him up and lays him out with the spear.

There was some great wrestling on this show, but a lot of the other stuff was crap. Also, the fact that Triple H didn’t even appear was pretty disappointing, as his reasoning for turning on Owens was probably the thing most people were hoping for on this show.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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Bulletclubfan2014
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Re: BRM Reviews the 9/5/2016 Raw

Post by Bulletclubfan2014 » Sep 6th, '16, 21:41

Given that wins and losses don't matter in WWE when I can find a way to make them matter I do so my argument for why Seth got a title shot and Roman only got a chance at a title shot is because the last time Roman and Seth wrestled 1 on 1 and we got a clear winner Seth was the one who got his hand raised so for that reason he is slightly more deserving of being Owens first challenger than Roman
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Big Red Machine
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Re: BRM Reviews the 9/5/2016 Raw

Post by Big Red Machine » Sep 6th, '16, 22:38

Bulletclubfan2014 wrote:Given that wins and losses don't matter in WWE when I can find a way to make them matter I do so my argument for why Seth got a title shot and Roman only got a chance at a title shot is because the last time Roman and Seth wrestled 1 on 1 and we got a clear winner Seth was the one who got his hand raised so for that reason he is slightly more deserving of being Owens first challenger than Roman
That was way too long ago to matter, IMO, but I can see your argument. However, that doesn't address my criticism. What you are saying would make perfect sense if Seth was being given his title shot first and Roman was scheduled to face the winner. The situation here is that Seth is being given a title shot while Roman must prove he is worthy to receive one at all (similar to Ziggler on Smackdown two weeks ago).
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Re: BRM Reviews the 9/5/2016 Raw

Post by NWK2000 » Sep 7th, '16, 10:46

I have a feeling they're saving for the next act in the HHH/Owens allegiance storyline for Clash of Champions but that's just me.
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Big Red Machine
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Re: BRM Reviews the 9/5/2016 Raw

Post by Big Red Machine » Sep 7th, '16, 10:53

NWK2000 wrote:I have a feeling they're saving for the next act in the HHH/Owens allegiance storyline for Clash of Champions but that's just me.
You're probably right, but that doesn't make it a little frustrating. How long can they possibly stall by just saying "Hunter isn't talking to Steph or Foley?"
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Re: BRM Reviews the 9/5/2016 Raw

Post by KILLdozer » Sep 7th, '16, 11:40

As long as he possibly doesn't talk.
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

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NWK2000
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Re: BRM Reviews the 9/5/2016 Raw

Post by NWK2000 » Sep 7th, '16, 13:50

Big Red Machine wrote:
NWK2000 wrote:I have a feeling they're saving for the next act in the HHH/Owens allegiance storyline for Clash of Champions but that's just me.
You're probably right, but that doesn't make it a little frustrating. How long can they possibly stall by just saying "Hunter isn't talking to Steph or Foley?"
Have Hunter come out and say "I'm not going to be in a place where I'm not welcome by my own wife, but I will be in Owens' corner at Clash of Champions."

Literally a five minute segments that explains Hunter's absence and builds to Clash of the Champions
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Re: BRM Reviews the 9/5/2016 Raw

Post by KILLdozer » Sep 12th, '16, 22:48

Am I the only one waiting for Charlotte to start calling people fat boys and telling them to shut up?
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

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