BRM Reviews the 10/10/2016 Raw

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 10/10/2016 Raw

Post by Big Red Machine » Oct 11th, '16, 03:19

10/10/16: a date that only comes once a century.

OPENING SEGMENT- very frustrating
I didn’t like Sasha’s promo at all. I don’t doubt that she meant everything she said, but it felt forced, too. Almost out of place. It feels like she was cutting a “first title victory” promo here after her second tittle victory, and only a few months after her first.
Also, she wants her match with Charlotte at Hell in a Cell to be in Hell in a Cell. Charlotte came out to accept this, but Rusev and Lana stormed out right past her. They buried women’s wrestling and Charlotte and Sasha kept snatching the mic away from them and eventually Lana called them “little girls” and said that Hell in a Cell is only for “real men” so they attacked her and double-dropkicked Rusev out of the ring. This whole thing made Lana and Rusev both look bad and served absolutely no purpose. Well… no purpose other than to create a pretense to be able to present Charlotte and Sasha as standing up to men and sexism, etc. which, as a viewer I found extremely frustrating because it shows that WWE hasn’t learned a f*cking thing. The Women’s Division (and these two in particular) have been the highlight of Raw pretty much every week for the past few months, and they have done that by being great wrestlers putting on great matches and having great segments and cutting great promos- with their gender being completely irrelevant. This feels like that same heavy-handed WWE PR-machine “Divas Revolution” BS or Steph having to say “Women’s Revolution” every time she comes out to the ring because I guess she doesn’t want to tattoo the words “please like me, feminists!” on her forehead. It is a transparent attempt at forcing something on us, which never makes people inclined to like it in the first place, and that they’re throwing a great heel act under the bus to do it makes it even worse. And here it is yet another level worse because they already had a formula they were using that fans were loving, but had to go change things around and do it the same way that has been rejected so often in the past, and it makes them throwing Rusev & Lana under the bus for this even more frustrating because Sasha and Charlotte were already super-over and didn’t need any of this.
Speaking of transparent attempts to make us like something, Rusev stares down the two female wrestlers, but here comes Roman Reigns to make sure that mean old Rusev doesn’t engage in woman-beating.

NEW DAY PROMO- fine
Take note, Vince: When Woods said that the Bay Area has some of the leaders in “sports” [pause for applause] “and entertainment” [pause for applause], the word “sports” got a much bigger pop than the word “entertainment.”

CESARO (w/Sheamus) vs. KOFI KINGSTON (w/the New Day)- 5.75/10
Cole pointed out to us that Sheamus was on Facebook Live instead of watching Cesaro’s match, and even read us the post Sheamus had posted to let the world know. Of course, the only way Cole could have seen this in order to tell us was if Cole himself wasn’t watching the match.
This was the beginnings of a great match that abruptly ended in a stupid finish when Cesaro got distracted by seeing Sheamus walking around with Xavier’s trombone, resulting in Kofi rolling him up for the pin (with the way this all played out, I think Kofi’s “slip” on the rope was probably intentional and well-controlled).

BAYLEY vs. CAMI FIELDS- 0.5/10
This rating doesn’t reflect that the match was “bad” as in unenjoyable. It’s just the rating this match deserves as it was basically something just a little more competitive than a squash.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Dana Brooke jumped Bayley from behind. This got really good heat.

CHRIS JERICHO & R-TRUTH “PAYDAY” JOKE- I won’t lie. I laughed at this.

TONY NESE & DREW GULAK vs. LINCE DORADO & SIN CARA- 4.5/10
Cara has new music. Cara is officially a Cruiserweight now. This was a short match. This division already feels like it has had anything special about it surgically removed.

STEPH & FOLEY BACKSTAGE- a waste of time intended to hype up Foley’s “Hell in a Cell Address.” Because we can’t just have Mick come out here and cut a promo. We’ve got to give it a ridiculous name and a top-of-the-hour segment because Foley and Steph are involved, and we all know they are much more important than the wrestlers.

MICK FOLEY’S “HELL IN A CELL ADDRESS”- fine
Steph drones on about the supposed war going on between Raw and Smackdown that exists only in the minds of herself, her brother, Mick, and Bryan. They confirm that women’s Hell in a Cell match, but of course they won’t let them bleed or do anything else to really sell the stipulation… so the only reason they are doing it is so they can talk about how they “made history.” Also, Owens vs. Rollins is in the cell.
Thankfully, Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho came out to interrupt this. Promos were cut. The heels whined. We wind up with the stipulation added to tonight’s main event where if Jericho beats Rollins, he gets added to the World Heavyweight Title match at Hell in a Cell.

CHARLY INTERVIEWS SETH ROLLINS- is Charly on every show?
Also, Rollins cut a decent promo. He did a very good job of delivering a clearly over-scripted promo.

COLIN CASSADY & ENZO AMORE vs. BO DALLAS & CURTIS AXEL- no rating, fine segment.
The Nega-Powers Reunite! Only for all four guys to be jumped by Gallows and Anderson, who lay out Enzo and Cass with their big moves.


When we come back from commercial, the Legion of Doomed still want a match. We wind up getting…

BO DALLAS & CURTIS AXEL vs. SAMI ZAYN & NEVILLE- 2/10

LANA & CHARLOTTE BACKSTAGE- dumb. Also, apparently Charlotte and Rusev are teaming up tonight. WHY? Why would they be on the same team after what happened earlier. Do Steph and Foley think there is some sort of rule in place that requires wrestlers to be in the same match if they appeared in a segment together earlier in the night?

WACKY BACKSTAGE SEGMENT WITH THE COLONS, GOLDEN TRUTH, & TITUS O’NEIL- You know what? I really like the fact that they made the Payday thing relevant in a different segment, and used it to set up an issue between Truth and Titus in a way that also gets over Titus’ new gimmick. That is making good use of your resources.

TITUS O’NEIL vs. R-TRUTH (w/Goldust)- 0.25/10
Titus loses clean again.

TJ PERKINS & BRIAN KENDRICK BACKSTAGE- this was FANTASTIC. And it involved TJP TALKING! Between TJP and Tyler Black, WWE must have some sort of magical elixir of promos +10 or something.

They showed us the Oakland Raiders in the crowd… and sitting right next to them was some f*cker in a Dolphins hat. I laughed.

HANDICAP MATCH: Braun Strowman vs. The Splash Brothers- good squash.
The Splash Brothers were goofiest jobbers we’ve seen yet, and that includes that “Milkman” guy from Smackdown a few weeks ago.
HOLY F*CK STROWMAN THREW A DROPKICK! He also cut a promo similar to his promo last week, which was once again pretty darn great.

SASHA BANKS & ROMAN REIGNS BACKSTAGE- THEY WANT Roman cheered so they throw him in there with Sasha. Bad dialogue, and Roman lecturing Sasha about Hell in a Cell made him come off like crap.

MIXED TAG TEAM MATCH: Sasha Banks & Roman Reigns vs. Charlotte & Rusev (w/Lana)- 6/10
No explanation for why Dana isn’t out here with Charlotte, which she really should be if they are trying to push the idea that Charlotte feels that Dana not being out there with her cost her the title last week.
Charlotte tapping was definitely the wrong finish here. The right finishes would have been some sort of distraction by Lana leading to Rusev beating Roman.

TOM PHILLIPS INTERVIEWS OWENS & JERICHO- I will admit to laughing my ass off at Jericho’s “stupid idiom” line.

GOLDBERG SPORTSCENTER INTERVIEW- I didn’t think this was very good.

PAUL HEYMAN PROMO- GREAT!

EMMALINA VIDEO- you know what? “Video” is too nice. This was a slideshow of Emma pictures.

TJ PERKINS vs. ARIYA DAIVARI- 6.25/10
Kendrick is on commentary. Daivari got to cut an in-set promo in which he spoke Farsi in an angry tone. You know… that same thing that got his brother nowhere for years in WWE. I’ve seen a handful of Ariya Daivari matches before this, and this was the first time he looked better than mediocre.

STEPH & JERICHO BACKSTAGE- stupid, annoying waste of time.

IF JERICHO WINS, HE GETS ADDED TO THE WWE UNIVERSAL TITLE MATCH AT HELL IN A CELL: Chris Jericho vs. Seth Rollins- 8/10
Owens came out to help Jericho. The match was awesome, ending with Rollins getting the win via roll-up. Owens attacked Rollins afterwards. Rollins made his own comeback but Jericho joined in the fight, only to wind up laid out by a Pedigree. I was shocked they didn’t have Sami Zayn come out to make the save, setting up a match that I am amazed they haven’t booked yet.


A fine episode of Raw.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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NWK2000
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Re: BRM Reviews the 10/10/2016 Raw

Post by NWK2000 » Oct 11th, '16, 08:11

Now, if memory serves me correct, wasn't "The Nega-Powers" your nickname for Curtis Axel and Macho Mandow?
NWK Reviews is closed for business for now.

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Big Red Machine
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Re: BRM Reviews the 10/10/2016 Raw

Post by Big Red Machine » Oct 11th, '16, 09:01

NWK2000 wrote:Now, if memory serves me correct, wasn't "The Nega-Powers" your nickname for Curtis Axel and Macho Mandow?
Nope. It was one of my rotating nicknames for the Social Outcasts.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
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ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
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cero2k
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Re: BRM Reviews the 10/10/2016 Raw

Post by cero2k » Oct 11th, '16, 09:31

Big Red Machine wrote:
NWK2000 wrote:Now, if memory serves me correct, wasn't "The Nega-Powers" your nickname for Curtis Axel and Macho Mandow?
Nope. It was one of my rotating nicknames for the Social Outcasts.
you're thinking of the Meta Powers
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