BRM Reviews the 11/28/2016 Raw (GREAT!)

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

BRM Reviews the 11/28/2016 Raw (GREAT!)

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 29th, '16, 04:10

CHRIS JERICHO’S HIGHLIGHT REEL WITH SPECIAL GUEST KEVIN OWENS- meh
So last week Jericho interferes in a match he was told not to interfere in or else… and this week they let him open up the show with his own talk show. Jericho claims it was really Sin Cara wearing a Chris Jericho mask who interfered in the match. They ramble on for a while and bury the crowd and Jericho does his schtik until Roman Reigns decides to interrupt them. Roman tries to drive a wedge between Owens and Jericho, but does so in a logical way by claiming that Owens needs Jericho, a claim which Owens lashed out at.
Roman wants a match with Owens tonight, and proposes that if he wins, he gets a title shot at Roadblock. I am certain this had already been announced somewhere. Also, apparently the name of the show isn’t just “Roadblock” but rather Roadblock: End of the Line. “Roadblock” is a bad name in the first place, but this “End of the Line” BS takes it to the next level by being painfully cumbersome. I’m already sick of hearing it after just one segment, and I’m pretty sure the only ones who used the full name of the show were Cole and Graves and I think each of them only said it once.

OWENS & JERICHO BACKSTAGE- they argue and it feels like this will actually matter rather than being a stop-and-start like we’ve gotten before. Foley showed up and made the match Roman and Owens wanted official. Jericho says that there is no way he is going to help Owens tonight.

BRAUN STROWMAN vs. R-TRUTH (w/Goldust)- squash
Strowman menaced Truth after the match so Goldust tried to defend him but got squished. Sami Zayn, (who wanted to face Strowman tonight but Foley wouldn’t let him) came out to make the save and did better than the other two but he got beaten up as well. If Foley didn’t want Zayn fighting with Braun tonight why hasn’t he sent anyone out to break this up? Oh. Here they come. Well… good for WWE for having things make sense.

FOLEY & ZAYN ARGUE IN THE RING- Byron Saxton comes over to ask Mick why he keeps stopping “the action between Braun Strowman and Sami Zayn.” Foley said that Sami will never quit and keep getting his ass kicked so he “needs to be saved from himself.” This got Zayn- who was on his way out of the ring- very angry and he yelled at Foley, claiming that Foley is doing Steph’s bidding and has “forgotten who he is and where he’s from.” Foley says that he saved Sami because Steph was going to fire him, all for not winning the IC Title. Yeah, about that…
1. So what? Yes, he didn’t bring the IC Title to Raw but it’s not like anything was on the line for Raw in that match.
2. Why is everyone ignoring the fact that Miz cheated? If this match was so damn important to Steph and Foley why didn’t they march out there last Sunday and demand that the match be restarted? Why even have the cheating if it’s not going to matter to the storyline?

Foley says that Sami cannot possibly beat Strowman. Sami asked Mick how many times someone told him he couldn’t win a match and stormed off, calling Foley a hypocrite.

CHARLOTTE & DANA BACKSTAGE- these two are so great together. I hope they never split up. When I tune in to Old School Raw in eighty years I want to see old Dana pushing old Charlotte around in a wheelchair while Charlotte criticizes her steering, only for it to be revealed that Charlotte doesn’t even need the wheelchair; she just wants Dana to have to push her aroud.

CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. TONY NESE (w/Drew Gulak)- 4.5/10
Michael Cole points out that they follow the Code of Honor before the match. I like how Nese and Gulak have teamed together in so many pointless six man tags that they are now a tag team in a division that doesn’t even have tag titles… or even another tag team for them to feud with. And when I say I “like” that, I mean it makes me think that these writers are extremely lazy.
The match was great for the time it got, but of course being WWE the babyface lost in his home town. The crowd was not happy with that at all.

CHARLY INTERVIEWS CHRIS JERICHO ON HIS WAY OUT OF THE BUILDING- Charly notes that Owens and Jericho had a fake fight last week, so she asks if this one is real, too. Bring that point up was a good idea but if the fight wasn’t real, why would Jericho admit it? I think it would have been better to just have the announcers bring it up on their own.

JERICHO GOES TO HIS CAR- he gets accosted by Seth Rollins, who we were told earlier isn’t medically cleared to be here due to injuries he suffered in last week’s match. They had a brawl that ended with Rollins giving Jericho a pedigree on top of a car.

WWE WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Charlotte Flair(c) (w/Dana Brooke) vs. Sasha Banks- no rating, annoying segment. If you’re going to restart the match, restart it now, don’t restart it later. Also, why is Foley making this a No DQs match? Doesn’t that just help Charlotte by allowing Dana to interfere at will? Why not make it a cage match or something? That would ensure that no one gets counted out while preventing Dana from interfering.

RUSEV (w/Lana) vs. ENZO AMORE (w/Colin Cassady)- no rating, bad segment.
Before the match, Enzo & Cass cut a REALLY douchy promo on Lana (and also Rusev, but mostly on Lana). Rusev then kicked him in the nuts for the DQ. I’m not saying that this didn’t make sense but it does feel a little backwards after we got a short match with a clean victory for Rusev last week.
CHARLY CARUSO HAS FOUND MARK HENRY- it turns out he filmed a WWE Studios movie when he was missing. Titus O’Neil shows up and claims he was supposed to have that role. I popped for the Space Jam reference. Titus was a jerk so Mark shoved him.

RICH SWANN vs. NOAM DAR- 3.5/10
Brian Kendrick is on commentary. He also seems to have finally remembered that whole “this is my last chance to make money for my family and I’m desperate to keep this match after having gotten fired seven years ago” gimmick that made his character so interesting. The way he stutters and stumbles and comes off as flustered does a great job of conveying the concern that he feels without him having to say it. His whining also did this very well. The match was short, but it was really just a vehicle for Kendrick’s commentary, which was tremendous.

RICH SWANN PROMO- great. He came off kind of douchy for a babyface, but the reason for that was spelled out in his promo: he was trying to get into Kendrick’s head.

SHEAMUS & CESARO HANG OUT IN A BAR- um… shouldn’t they be at work?
They argue, but wind up coming to the realization that if they actually tried to work together they could win the titles. Then the people in the bar were assholes to them so they beat up an entire bar’s worth of people. This was pretty f*cking great (I’ll just pretend they paid for the drinks they took before leaving).

IF ROMAN WINS HE GETS A WWE UNIVERSAL TITLE MATCH AT ROADBLOCK: END OF THE LINE: Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens- 7.5/10
The only thing that hurt this match was the lack of doubt about the outcome.

CHARLY INTERVIEWS KEVIN OWENS- great stuff by Owens, both burying Charly and making an excuse for his loss. Unfortunately, it seems to lead us back to Owens and Jericho reuniting and everything going back to square one.

MICHAEL COLE INTERVIEWS PAUL HEYMAN- great stuff from Heyman, as always. Brock will also be in the Royal Rumble.

NEW DAY PROMO- It’s already passed 5:00 am. I skipped it.

WWE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The New Day(c) (w/Kofi Kingston) vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson- 4.5/10
New Day cheat to win when Woods pulls the tights. Yes, I know Anderson did it first, but that doesn’t make it not illegal.

BAYLEY & SASHA IN THE LOCKER ROOM- a clumsy segment to set up what will probably result in a swerve that fools absolutely no one in which Ric Flair will show up and tease helping Sasha but will then help Charlotte instead.

FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH FOR THE WWE WOMEN’S TITLE: Charlotte Flair(c) vs. Sasha Banks- 8.5/10
Ummm…. Where is Dana? It’s a No DQs match, so shouldn’t she be out here to interfere on Charlotte’s behalf from the very beginning?
Aside from Dana’s inexplicable absence, this was another awesome match between these two. That being said, this is now the third time we’ve seen Sasha win the belt from Charlotte on Raw in the past five months. It feels old by now. Speaking of old, after the match, Ric Flair came out to raise Sasha’s hand.

Another GREAT episode of Raw. I can’t remember the last time we got back-to-back episodes of Raw as good as these two have been.
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

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 21 guests