BRM Reviews the 7/13/2015 Raw (NXT Divas Debut)

[Big Red Machine]

Why is the destroyed car at Raw this week?
WAIT! I’ve got it! Brock is carrying it around (and I mean literally carrying it) from town to town as warning to all those who oppose him. How badass would that be?!

And while I’m having thoughts like that: I wonder if there is a Smackdown Hotel in Suplex City?

OPENING SEGMENT- Everyone was good, but I really don’t want to see a contract signing.


RANDY ORTON & RYBACK vs. BIG SHOW & SHEAMUS- 5.75/10
Because the MLB All-Star Game is tomorrow night, Michael Cole referred to this, a random tag team match with no stipulations at all as “WWE’s version of the all-star game.” There’s such a thing as trying too hard to be topical, and while WWE is guilty of this rather often, I found this one to be particularly egregious.
Miz was on commentary and also grabbed a mic to annoy Ryback and Big Show.

Apparently Orton and Sheamus will be a having a regular old singles match at Battleground. Good to see that their weeks of fighting including trading DQ finishes will lead to a match in which they can still get DQed. Because that’s good booking.

KANE & ROLLINS BACKSTAGE- bad.
Kane has a plan… but of course he won’t share it with Seth because that would make sense.

BRAY WYATT vs. DEAN AMBROSE- no rating. Good segment.
Roman jumps Bray from behind… and even though Roman is the babyface, I really like this because it feels like Bray has put Roman through enough to warrant this, and the idea that Bray is getting into Roman’s head and causing him to act differently than he normally would is the story they are going for. That being said, Roman winning this brawl means we should get a good heat segment on Smackdown (maybe Bray lays Roman out from behind with a shot with the lantern).

DIVAS SEGMENT- TERRIBLE.
Yes. You read that right. I thought think was quite bad.
The way they did this made Steph a total babyface, which she shouldn’t be, and I think it totally ruined this segment. What they should have done was have Nikki come out and challenge Paige to find some friends in a six woman tag team match… if she can find any, of course. Hahahaha. Then Paige comes out and says that she has actually brought some friends along… then Becky and Charlotte come out and they beat up the heels to set up a six woman tag team match at the PPV.
Wait what the f*ck?! What are Naomi and Tamina doing out here? Sasha too? That’s too many new faces. If you have just two of them and they’re on the same side you can focus on them, but with three new faces spread across two teams it’s going to be WAY too hard to give them all the focus they need.
Oh. And now we’re getting Naomi and Tamina and Sasha acting like babyfaces, too?
Then we got a big schmoz that didn’t work at all. The ending of the brawl was nice and all except that it didn’t wrap up Paige’s story with the Bellas in a satisfying way, and at the end of the day, we had the three new girls standing there with an equal number of old girls.

NEW DAY PROMO- good.

THE NEW DAY vs. MARK HENRY & THE PRIME TIME PLAYERS- 5/10
But very fun.

R-TRUTH vs. WADE BARRETT- 3.25/10
WHY IS THIS FEUD STILL HAPPENING?! And now Truth is putting his moronic “king” gear back on! This feud isn’t just interminable. IT’S ACTUALLY MOVING BACKWARDS! GAAAAHHHHH!

WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: John Cena(c) vs. Rusev (w/Summer Rae)-
Now Owens comes out and says he wants his title shot tonight, so he is acting like a babyface against Rusev… then Cesaro shows up and we wind up with a short schmoz between the three heels and now we have a…
TRIPLE THREAT MATCH TO DETERMINE WHO WILL FACE CENA LATER TONIGHT: Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro vs. Rusev (w/Summer Rae)- 8.5/10
When Owens walked out half way through, I was CERTAIN he was going to come back and steal the pin, then get DQed on purpose in the Cena match via low blow and destroy Cena to set up for Battleground.
GRR! Rope breaks should totally count in triple threat matches. You can’t be DQed for not breaking the hold, but the hold itself should remain an invalid ending to the match.


WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: John Cena(c) vs. Rusev (w/Summer Rae)- 5/10
For real this time!
Yeah… I don’t like the fresh babyface facing the heel who just wrestled a grueling match. This is straight out of the Delirious School of Lazy Booking. Speaking of lazy booking, the finish to this match was Owens once again ruining the match and laying guys out. A smart promotion would put the belt on Owens and use this as justification to set up Rusev as a challenger to the US Title, but this is WWE so that won’t happen (and seriously… this is exactly what should have happened with Cesaro after last week’s show).

KANE & ROLLINS BACKSTAGE- same as their earlier segment.

TOUGH ENOUGH CRAP- I fast forwarded through it. You will not get me to watch your stupid reality show. I didn’t even stop to hear Lita cut a promo. Not even for the eye candy. It’s a post-Alexa Bliss world now, ladies and gentlemen. Other Divas just don’t seem as hot.

STARDUST PROMO- yes, Stardust.
The obvious thing to do would be to let Cody cut an emotional promo talking about how his father’s death has caused him to rethink the things he said back in February and now he wants to live up to his father’s legacy and become the world champion and BAM! Instant super-over babyface.
Instead they had Cody do the same sh*t that have turned him from a solid upper-midcarder into a jobber over the past year, with no sign of his father’s death having affected him at all. This SUCKED
We then got comic book illustration as the graphic for this match, which is something that TNA tried earlier this year, and like when TNA tried it, it just didn’t look as good as the regular graphics. If you’re going to do this, why not cut out Cody’s promo and air a Wrestlelicious Heroines segment of these two instead?

STARDUST vs. NEVILLE- 5.25/10
Stardust cheats to win and the people cheer. Why? Because no one wants to boo a man whose father just died!

CONTRACT SIGNING- effective, I guess.
I was actually board during the talking part but the brawl was good, and Brock got to take out Seth’s last ally, ensuring a one-on-one match at the PPV.

SETH ROLLINS PROMO- great!

A decent show from WWE, but it would have been quite bad without the triple threat match. Thank G-d this was the go-home show because it feels like we haven’t gone anywhere in about three weeks.

[cero2k]

DIVAS SEGMENT- TERRIBLE.
Yes. You read that right. I thought think was quite bad.
The way they did this made Steph a total babyface, which she shouldn’t be, and I think it totally ruined this segment. What they should have done was have Nikki come out and challenge Paige to find some friends in a six woman tag team match… if she can find any, of course. Hahahaha. Then Paige comes out and says that she has actually brought some friends along… then Becky and Charlotte come out and they beat up the heels to set up a six woman tag team match at the PPV.
Wait what the f*ck?! What are Naomi and Tamina doing out here? Sasha too? That’s too many new faces. If you have just two of them and they’re on the same side you can focus on them, but with three new faces spread across two teams it’s going to be WAY too hard to give them all the focus they need.
Oh. And now we’re getting Naomi and Tamina and Sasha acting like babyfaces, too?
Then we got a big schmoz that didn’t work at all. The ending of the brawl was nice and all except that it didn’t wrap up Paige’s story with the Bellas in a satisfying way, and at the end of the day, we had the three new girls standing there with an equal number of old girls.
you're not the only one, i hated it, I have a new contender for a 'throw the controller to the tv' award. leave it to WWE to completely fuck up the debut of not one, but the 3 best women's wrestlers they've had in years. And while i'm not super hyped about Sasha not being in the team with Charlotte and Becky, I can take it, but what really pissed me off was that Steph, out of nowhere since she hasn't been on TV in a while, HAD to come back, belittle the champ and try to take the spotlight and give her hypocrite bullshit that she cares about the divas and givedivasachance.

WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: John Cena(c) vs. Rusev (w/Summer Rae)- 5/10
For real this time!
Yeah… I don’t like the fresh babyface facing the heel who just wrestled a grueling match.
especially with Cena, I can understand some big guy then facing a smaller guy, but this is freaking Cena

We then got comic book illustration as the graphic for this match, which is something that TNA tried earlier this year, and like when TNA tried it, it just didn’t look as good as the regular graphics.
when was this?

[Big Red Machine]

DIVAS SEGMENT- TERRIBLE.
Yes. You read that right. I thought think was quite bad.
The way they did this made Steph a total babyface, which she shouldn’t be, and I think it totally ruined this segment. What they should have done was have Nikki come out and challenge Paige to find some friends in a six woman tag team match… if she can find any, of course. Hahahaha. Then Paige comes out and says that she has actually brought some friends along… then Becky and Charlotte come out and they beat up the heels to set up a six woman tag team match at the PPV.
Wait what the f*ck?! What are Naomi and Tamina doing out here? Sasha too? That’s too many new faces. If you have just two of them and they’re on the same side you can focus on them, but with three new faces spread across two teams it’s going to be WAY too hard to give them all the focus they need.
Oh. And now we’re getting Naomi and Tamina and Sasha acting like babyfaces, too?
Then we got a big schmoz that didn’t work at all. The ending of the brawl was nice and all except that it didn’t wrap up Paige’s story with the Bellas in a satisfying way, and at the end of the day, we had the three new girls standing there with an equal number of old girls.
you're not the only one, i hated it, I have a new contender for a 'throw the controller to the tv' award. leave it to WWE to completely fuck up the debut of not one, but the 3 best women's wrestlers they've had in years. And while i'm not super hyped about Sasha not being in the team with Charlotte and Becky, I can take it, but what really pissed me off was that Steph, out of nowhere since she hasn't been on TV in a while, HAD to come back, belittle the champ and try to take the spotlight and give her hypocrite bullshit that she cares about the divas and givedivasachance.
Is Sasha on a team with Charlotte and Becky? What I got out of this was a three-way trios feud with Team Bella vs. Tamina/Naomi/Sasha vs. Paige/Charlotte/Becky (and while we're on the subject of trios, here's a cheap plug for BRM's next fantasy booking quickie:

Hidden text.

ROH Trios Tournament 2015- should be up later today

)

It's not just Steph showing up out of nowhere and randomly being a babyface and having to prove that she's the boss and the champ is a nobody compared to her. It's the fact that the whole storyline has been that Steph is their ALLY in this and no one wants to help Paige because that would anger Steph. There was no build to Steph being a babyface. It just felt like a Hogan-esque maneuvering to be the one in the babyface slot for this thing that she knows will go down as a big moment in history.

[cero2k]

you're not the only one, i hated it, I have a new contender for a 'throw the controller to the tv' award. leave it to WWE to completely fuck up the debut of not one, but the 3 best women's wrestlers they've had in years. And while i'm not super hyped about Sasha not being in the team with Charlotte and Becky, I can take it, but what really pissed me off was that Steph, out of nowhere since she hasn't been on TV in a while, HAD to come back, belittle the champ and try to take the spotlight and give her hypocrite bullshit that she cares about the divas and givedivasachance.
Is Sasha on a team with Charlotte and Becky? What I got out of this was a three-way trios feud with Team Bella vs. Tamina/Naomi/Sasha vs. Paige/Charlotte/Becky (and while we're on the subject of trios, here's a cheap plug for BRM's next fantasy booking quickie:

Hidden text.

ROH Trios Tournament 2015- should be up later today

)

It's not just Steph showing up out of nowhere and randomly being a babyface and having to prove that she's the boss and the champ is a nobody compared to her. It's the fact that the whole storyline has been that Steph is their ALLY in this and no one wants to help Paige because that would anger Steph. There was no build to Steph being a babyface. It just felt like a Hogan-esque maneuvering to be the one in the babyface slot for this thing that she knows will go down as a big moment in history.


yeah, 3 way trios, that's why i'm saying i'm not hyped that sasha is not in the same team with Charlotte and Becky.

also, when was the tna comic book thing?, can't remember that happening

[Big Red Machine]

also, when was the tna comic book thing?, can't remember that happening

[/quote]
They did it back in April or May, I think.

[Bulletclubfan2014]

I didn't like Stephanie randomly becoming Face either but I can understand it given she and HHH are basically the same and HHH keeps going on and on both on the show and in real life about how NXT is the future of the WWE and I'm gonna assume that as 1 of the people running RAW she knew the NXT women would come out and I can totally see her immediately after finding out they'd come out to help Paige she was switching which side she's on from bella's to Paige and her friends

[cero2k]

I didn't like Stephanie randomly becoming Face either but I can understand it given she and HHH are basically the same and HHH keeps going on and on both on the show and in real life about how NXT is the future of the WWE and I'm gonna assume that as 1 of the people running RAW she knew the NXT women would come out and I can totally see her immediately after finding out they'd come out to help Paige she was switching which side she's on from bella's to Paige and her friends

i could personally care less with Steph being face or heel, it's just the fact that she was there to begin with. This had always been Paige's war, like Red said, she's just there to hog the spotlight.

[Big Red Machine]

I didn't like Stephanie randomly becoming Face either but I can understand it given she and HHH are basically the same and HHH keeps going on and on both on the show and in real life about how NXT is the future of the WWE and I'm gonna assume that as 1 of the people running RAW she knew the NXT women would come out and I can totally see her immediately after finding out they'd come out to help Paige she was switching which side she's on from bella's to Paige and her friends

i could personally care less with Steph being face or heel, it's just the fact that she was there to begin with. This had always been Paige's war, like Red said, she's just there to hog the spotlight.

Exactly. There was no need for her to be there at all, and her being there hurt the storyline.

[Bulletclubfan2014]

i could personally care less with Steph being face or heel, it's just the fact that she was there to begin with. This had always been Paige's war, like Red said, she's just there to hog the spotlight.

Exactly. There was no need for her to be there at all, and her being there hurt the storyline.

Well I was discussing it on Facebook and I also have to agree with what they said Steph coming out and putting them over like she did helped because we all know Steph has a large amount of power in the company and her coming out and saying "These women are going to be the future of the Divas Division and are going to start a revolution in Women's wrestling like Danica Patrick has for women in NASCAR and Ronda Rousey has for women in UFC actually helped make it a bigger deal than it would've been if they had just come out and been introduced by Paige and Naomi and then the big brawl happened

[Big Red Machine]

i could personally care less with Steph being face or heel, it's just the fact that she was there to begin with. This had always been Paige's war, like Red said, she's just there to hog the spotlight.

Exactly. There was no need for her to be there at all, and her being there hurt the storyline.

Well I was discussing it on Facebook and I also have to agree with what they said Steph coming out and putting them over like she did helped because we all know Steph has a large amount of power in the company and her coming out and saying "These women are going to be the future of the Divas Division and are going to start a revolution in Women's wrestling like Danica Patrick has for women in NASCAR and Ronda Rousey has for women in UFC actually helped make it a bigger deal than it would've been if they had just come out and been introduced by Paige and Naomi and then the big brawl happened

Disagree. In my experience as a fan, when you have a talent people are excited to see, it is best to debut that talent on their own instead of with some sort of authority figure introducing them with a big speech... especially if said big speech does not feel organic to the storyline. Imagine how much worse it would have been if instead of Goldberg just showing up and spearing Rock, we had Bischoff come out and tell Rock that it was totally not cool for him to be burying the fans like that and now, because The Rock has been burying the fans, he has brought Bill Goldberg in to put a stop to it... and only then did Goldberg's music play and he came out to spear Rock. That's what this was.
Yes: Steph is someone with legit power, but she is also someone who spent six months burying Daniel Bryan for being a "B+ player." Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon-Levesque cannot be on-screen characters at the same time that Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley are. It can't go both ways.

[Big Red Machine]

If you're still not convinced Steph's presence was bad, read Kevin Eck's blog: http://kevineckwrestling.sportsblog.com ... -raw-.html