BRM Reviews the 11/16/2020 Raw

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

BRM Reviews the 11/16/2020 Raw

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 19th, '20, 18:28

OPENING SEGMENT- fine
Drew McIntyre cut a good promo on Roman Reigns and Randy Orton. Orton showed up on the TitanTron and cut a promo on Drew. Miz & Morrison came out and jawed with Drew, with Miz teasing that he would cash in MITB after tonight’s world title match.

NIA JAX, SHAYNA BASZLER, & LANA BACKSTAGE- fine
Lana suggested this match to management so she could earn Nia and Shayna’s respect and prove her win last week wasn’t just a fluke. Nia and Shayna tell her that she is not to tag in under any circumstances. There is a set-up for this to actually be some sort of decent storyline progression here (although it would have worked after just a quarter of the times they’ve put her through a table).

NIA JAX, SHAYNA BASZLER, & LANA vs. MANDY ROSE, DANA BROOKE, & ASUKA- 2.5/10
Baszler injured Mandy Roses’ with Shayna’s arm-shattering stomp.
Stuff happened. Lana tagged herself in and got a nearfall on Lana before immediately being beaten. She was hen dumb enough to be suckered into thinking she had earned Nia and Shayna’s respect, but, of course, was put through a table yet again. The announcers pushed he idea that Team Raw has “no cohesion” and that the captains don’t care one bit for the health of their teammates. They’ve done a fine job of portraying that, but the place where this storyline fails is that I don’t care if they are cohesive or not and I don’t care if Nia and Shayna are working against the team’s best interests or not because I have been given no reason to care if they win or lose.

THE RAW MEN’S TEAM ARGUES BACKSTAGE- bad
Yup. They can’t get along, either. AJ is at least trying to do something about that by giving out Raw t-shirts to try to create a shared sense of purpose. It doesn’t work because they’re still bickering over dumb sh*t like who the fake captain is. AJ has gotten then booked in a tune-up match against Retribution tonight. Aren’t there only four dudes in Retribution? So how is this going to work?
This would have been barely passable if not for that bit at the end where AJ didn’t know that his bodyguard spoke English, and when he asked why the bodyguard never told him this, he responded “because you never ask.” Are you telling me AJ thought it was a good idea to hire/recruit this guy as a bodyguard when he wasn’t even sure he could understand any instructions he was going to give him?

CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS DANA BROOKE- bad
Dana thinks that what Shayna did to Mandy was completely out of line. It was a legal maneuver in the middle of a match, you crybaby!
Fortunately, before Dana could say anything else stupid, she was attacked by Reckoning from Retribution, and had her head kicked into an equipment case. This felt like it happened just so someone else from Team Raw could be injured, rather than Retribution having any sort of real motivation for either attacking Dana or wanting Team Raw to lose. We would soon learn that both Mandy and Dana would not be cleared to wrestle for Survivor Series, so they’re going the mystery partner route. NXT’s roster is a little thin, so I don’t even know who you bring up. This could also be Naomi and Charlotte returning, but none of that makes me care about the storylines because there are no stakes to any of this.

FIREFLY OUTHOUSE- stinky and full of sh*t
(see what I did there?)

HURT BUSINESS & NEW DAY PROMOS- good… which is about two steps down from the usual for the Hurt Business

WWE RAW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The New Day(c) vs. the Hurt Business Shelton Benjamin & Cedric Alexander (w/MVP & Bobby Lashley)- 8/10
That spot where Shelton tagged himself in in the middle of Cedric’s dive was really awkward and made it look like Cedric botched his dive. Other than that, this was awesome, with a finish that looked totally sick. As much as it pains me to say it, the Hurt Business losing here is the right call, as New Day vs. Street Profits is the right match.

DREW MCINTYRE & SHEAMUS BACKSTAGE- Sheamus gives Drew a chest. Sheamus says it has to do with Drew’s Scottish ancestry. It… looks like gear Drew would have worn during his original WWE run, but Drew has something to do with his mother telling him Scottish family stories. Also, Sheamus gave him a Claymore. The sword, not the wrestling move or the landmine.

RETRIBUTION PROMO- great
They’ve got a logo now. Also, Mia Yim was allowed to talk. She said that she “proved that Retribution is always one step ahead of their enemies.” Maybe, but if everyone is confused as to exactly why you consider those people enemies, then that’s a problem with your storytelling.
Ali cut a promo was that pretty damn great… but it’s f*cking Retribution, and we know it’s a dead end, so it’s hard to care.

RETRIBUTION vs. TEAM RAW (Matt Riddle, Keith Lee, Braun Strowman, & Sheamus)-
AJ Styles won on commentary for this match. Retribution won via roll-up after Team Raw fell apart because they bickered. The sad part is that going 50-50 with these guys in this match is probably the strongest Retribution has been allowed to look, and even here, they have to win by roll-up because the other guys are arguing over stupid things.

NIKKI IS LOOKING FOR ALEXA BLISS! BACKSTAGE- Nikki’s promo was good, but the fact that they had this start by having the camera running around following Nikki, but then Nikki just ran into an interviewer with a microphone really bugs me. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you start off a segment in “pretend the camera isn’t here” mode, you can’t then transition into an interview, because where is the camera that they are talking into?
That being sad, I do think that you can go from “this is an interview” to “pretend the camera isn’t here” mode because the best and easiest way to show an interview is the way it’s meant to be filmed, but I do think you need to change perspective or pull back or something first to make a differentiation (wXw does a good job of this).

JEFF HARDY INTERVIEW- meh
After Nikki left, the interviewer (she’s new and I don’t know her name) stumbled across Jeff Hardy. This dumbass interviewer asked Jeff if a flyer calling him wanted for the hit-and-run on Elias that he was cleared of by the police is “causing him distress.” NO SH*T, SHERLOCK! Jeff’s promo was… very Jeff Hardy.

JEFF HARDY CONFRONTS ELIAS BACKSTAGE- great!
I loved that Jeff didn’t just attack Elias here, but rather confronted him, and only attacked him after being verbally provoked, and even then, his attack was only what was necessary to drive his point home. That sort of thing is what makes a story feel more human than just the generic two guys arguing and one is a good guy and the other is a bad guy.

PRE-MATCH SEGMENT- bad
Miz cuts a promo in which he tries to smooth things over so that he doesn’t have to fight Bray. Morrison was a goof. Alexa Bliss! comes out to tell Miz that Bray says no. Why didn’t Bray do this himself, you ask? Because we needed him not to be there so we could have a segment where Nikki Cross tries to snap Alexa out of it and convince her that Bray/The Fiend is bad for her and she needs to stop associating with him. Alexa punches Nikki, and they brawl. They’re trained fighters, but it took just two WWE officials to break them up, neither of who have ever been portrayed as if they had at any point in their lives been wrestlers. Shouldn’t the trained wrestlers be able to break free?
Also… I’m sorry, but at this point, Nikki is coming off as kind of pathetic. It’s clear to everyone but her that whatever hold The Fiend has over Alexa is magical. Shouldn’t be asking for help from The Undertaker or Mayor Kane, or asking Randy Orton if she can borrow his Crucyx to see if hitting Alexa with that will banish Bray Wyatt from her? You’ve got to fight magic with magic.
Bray came out and Alexa got all happy. He gave Nikki a stern look and then smiled at Alexa, who Adam Pearce had inexplicably let go even though Nikki was still being restrained.

BRAY WYATT (w/Alexa Bliss!) vs. THE MIZ (w/John Morrison)- 4.5/10
They did stuff. Alexa got to do a big dive to take out Morrison after he tried to interfere… which is a total babyface spot. As Alexa and Bray went to leave The Fiend appeared on the screen and things went black.

DREW MCINTYRE VS. RANDY ORTON VIDEO PACKAGE- decent

CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEES ADAM PEARCE- Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke are bring replaced at Survivor Series by Peyton Royce and Lacey Evans. One thing I will say for this is that Team Raw is now four heels and one loser jobber, while all three members of Team Smackdown so far are babyfaces, so at least we have some reason to care who will win.

CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS ASUKA- She said nothing useful.

CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS RANDY ORTON- very good

ANGEL GARZA PROMO- He’s been on TV since March, and they’re still doing an introductory promo.

SHAYNA BASZLER & NIA JAX ARE BOTHERED BY PEYTON ROYCE & LACEY EVANS BACKSTAGE- unbearable
Lacey tried to stand up to them while Peyton is a suck-up.

NO DQ’S, NO COUNT-OUTS MATCH FOR THE WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Randy Orton(c) vs. Drew McIntyre- 8/10
This started as a normal match, but Randy tried to get himself counted out early on, so Adam Pearce came out and changed the rules. They didn’t really do too much with the rule-change, which makes me wonder why they did it in the first place. Randy worked over Drew’s back and they did some nice callback spots. Drew eventually won the title back… which is utterly baffling.
I realize everyone has already said this, but:
1. If you wanted to do Drew vs. Roman, why did you take the belt off of Drew at all?
2. Drew vs. Roman is a WrestleMania match. Don’t give it away at Survivor Series where it’s meaningless.
3. If you’re going to give us a f*ck finish (which is almost certainly what will happen, courtesy of either Orton or The Fiend), it would have been better to leave the belt on Orton and just not do this.


This show as a mixed bag. The built to Survivor Series was, as always, utter sh*t, but we did get two matches better than anything we’ve seen on Raw in a long time.
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

User avatar
KILLdozer
Posts: 5930
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 22:54

Re: BRM Reviews the 11/16/2020 Raw

Post by KILLdozer » Nov 20th, '20, 10:40

Is it just me or does it somehow feel like it's always Survivor Series time in WWE? Lol is it really time again already?
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 20 guests