OPENING SEGMENT- The Authority- all five of them- come out and are all united and stuff. Hunter hypes up Summer Slam. He runs down the card and plugs the WWE Network. He also announces a Beat The Clock Challenge for Rollins and Ambrose for the right to name the stip of their match at Summer Slam. Ambrose will face Del Rio while Rollins will face RVD. THIS WILL BE SO AWESOME! Steph announced that she and Brie will have their contract signing tonight, and said that “if Brie Bella gets out of line tonight I will slap her so hard she will wind up in a hospital bed right next to her husband.” OH SH*T! Those are some fighting words right there!
Orton started to cut a promo saying he would kick Roman Regins’ ass for costing him a shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Title. Roman Reigns then came out and said he took everything Orton could dish out last week and he is still standing and now he will kick Orton’s ass. Hunter instead books Roman Reigns vs. Kane in a Last Man Standing match for RIGHT NOW! He also scolded Kane, telling him “I’d better see a demon tonight.”

LAST MAN STANDING MATCH: Roman Reigns vs. Kane- 7/10
Reigns wins. It will be interesting to see what this means for Kane.

JOHN CENA VS. BROCK LESNAR VIDEO PACKAGE- BEST VIDEO PACKAGE EVER!
Brock said a couple of words that you can’t say on TV. They were censored (obviously), but it really helped to give this a very different feel.

MARK HENRY vs. DAMIEN SANDOW-
Sandow was wearing OU gear and said that OU would dominate Texas. The crowd did not take kindly to this. Mark Henry, of course, came out wearing Texas colors and squashed Sandow. The announcers were having fun here, crapping on Oklahoma. JBL insisted that Texans know a lot more about Bar-B-Q than anyone from Oklahoma ever possibly could. Lawler said that if you graduate from OU, you can put the diploma on your dashboard and that would allow you to park in a handicap spot.

ADAM ROSE STARES INTO THE MIRROR FROM OCCULOUS, WHICH MAKES YOU SEE YOUR EVIL SELF-
His Rosebuds cringing in the background and begging him not to try it was funny. He does it anyway, and it turns out that Earth-3 Adam Rose is guy who wears a suit and tie and carries a briefcase. It would have been SO MUCH FUNNIER if he had seen Leo Kruger in the mirror.

BEAT THE CLOCK CHALLENGE: Dean Ambrose vs. Alberto Del Rio- 7.5/10
A great story and a VERY scary bump. I absolutely love the fact that they let this go for so long.

SIN CARA vs. RUSEV (w/Lana)- this ENTRIE MATCH happened during the commercial. And when I say the “entire match,” I mean that we didn’t even know there was a match until we got back from commercial and the announcers told us there had been a match and showed us footage of Rusev killing Cara.

SEGMENT WITH LANA, RUSEV, SWAGGER, & ZEB- great stuff.
Lana sang Happy Birthday to Obama in Russian. Zeb came out and cut a promo on the heels. He said they have no chance because Swagger is fighting for all Americans, both everyday Joes and our brave troops abroad. Rusev beat Swagger up using the Russian flag as a weapon. They then cornered Zeb and Lana mocked him.

ANTONIO CESARO vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER- 2.25/10
Cesaro kicked Dolph’s ass, then lost after just taking one Zig Zag. Why did they decide to start jobbing Cesaro out all of a sudden?
Miz and Ziggler had a staredown after the match, and Dolph almost kicked Miz in the face.

PAIGE PROMO- apparently she shoved AJ off the stage on Smackdown. She cut a mocking heel promo.

STARDUST & GOLDUST WILL RETURN TO IN-RING ACTION TONIGHT- well… at least they won’t be talking about the Cosmic Cube or whatever

GOLDUST & STARDUST vs. CURTIS AXEL & RYBACK- 3.25/10
OH COME ON! Of all the teams to have these guys face, they HAVE to pick the team they have been wrestling for the past FIVE MONTHS?!

KANE TAKES HIS MASK OFF AND GIVES IT TO STEPH- hmmm…

IF JERICHO WINS, HARPER IS BARRED FROM RINGSIDE AT SUMMER SLAM: Chris Jericho vs. Luke Harper (w/Erick Rowan)- 4/10
Apparently Jericho beat Erick Rowan in a match with similar stipulations on Smackdown. If they wanted to do an angle like this to sell Summer Slam, shouldn’t Harper and Rowan have caused Jericho to lose to Bray at Battleground.
Jericho won by DQ when Bray attacked him. I guess the stip doesn’t matter much to Bray, so why should it matter to us?

FANDANGO (w/Hornswoggle) vs. DIEGO (w/El Torito, Layla El, & Summer Rae)- DUD!
I’m sure I’ve said this multiple times before, but Hornswoggle has officially sold off the last of his dignity.

BO DALLAS vs. R-TRUTH- no rating. Good segment.
Bo wins by grabbing the tights. Truth attacks Bo during his celebration, but Bo comes out on top.

BRAY WYATT PROMO- good

BEAT THE CLOCK CHALLENGE: Rob Van Dam vs. Seth Rollins- PSYCH

BEAT THE CLOCK CHALLENGE: Seth Rollins vs. Heath Slater- no rating. Eh segment.
Ambrose came out and distracted Rollins by messing with the briefcase and its contents. As a result of this, HEATH SLATER PINNED SETH ROLLINS.

BRIE BELLA-STEPHANIE MCMAHON CONTRACT SIGNING- bad
Brie makes a prison rape joke, because rape is apparently funny so long as the people involved are in jail. They were given terrible dialogue. Steph had a good deliver, but Brie’s was terrible. The way Hunter trapped Nikki in the corner with the desk… well… it just wound of looked hilarious, which wasn’t what they wanted. Both Bella ate Pedigrees from Steph.

A good show from WWE.

Big Red Machine wrote: JOHN CENA VS. BROCK LESNAR VIDEO PACKAGE- BEST VIDEO PACKAGE EVER!
Brock said a couple of words that you can’t say on TV. They were censored (obviously), but it really helped to give this a very different feel.

Big Red Machine wrote: MARK HENRY vs. DAMIEN SANDOW-
Sandow was wearing OU gear and said that OU would dominate Texas. The crowd did not take kindly to this. Mark Henry, of course, came out wearing Texas colors and squashed Sandow. The announcers were having fun here, crapping on Oklahoma. JBL insisted that Texans know a lot more about Bar-B-Q than anyone from Oklahoma ever possibly could. Lawler said that if you graduate from OU, you can put the diploma on your dashboard and that would allow you to park in a handicap spot.

i know it's old school face/heel tactics, but i'm gonna remember this next time WWE goes a OU town and Lawler is kissing their ass

Big Red Machine wrote: ADAM ROSE STARES INTO THE MIRROR FROM OCCULOUS, WHICH MAKES YOU SEE YOUR EVIL SELF-
His Rosebuds cringing in the background and begging him not to try it was funny. He does it anyway, and it turns out that Earth-3 Adam Rose is guy who wears a suit and tie and carries a briefcase. It would have been SO MUCH FUNNIER if he had seen Leo Kruger in the mirror.

For a second there, i did bolieve that they were about to re-introduce Kruger and start the demise of this terrible project called Adam Rose.

Big Red Machine wrote: SEGMENT WITH LANA, RUSEV, SWAGGER, & ZEB- great stuff.
Lana sang Happy Birthday to Obama in Russian. Zeb came out and cut a promo on the heels. He said they have no chance because Swagger is fighting for all Americans, both everyday Joes and our brave troops abroad. Rusev beat Swagger up using the Russian flag as a weapon. They then cornered Zeb and Lana mocked him.

I'm getting tired of these segments, same shit, different day/ "shut up Natasha" "here in america blah blah" fight. Swagger and Rusev need to interact more without Zeb and Lana cutting promos, just run-ins or something.

Big Red Machine wrote: BEAT THE CLOCK CHALLENGE: Seth Rollins vs. Heath Slater- no rating. Eh segment.
Ambrose came out and distracted Rollins by messing with the briefcase and its contents. As a result of this, HEATH SLATER PINNED SETH ROLLINS.

Heath Slater pinned the undefeated Mr Money in the Bank in the main event of RAW, let that sink in. I was personally hoping for Heath to take Rollins to minute 15 without any help, but i guess this is as good as it gets. This brings me to rant no 1. If you're doing a beat the clock challenge where you need to beat 15 minutes, don't do it when you only have 10 minutes left of show, and a closing segment still advertised, they pretty much telegraphed that shenanigans would be in place.

Big Red Machine wrote: BRIE BELLA-STEPHANIE MCMAHON CONTRACT SIGNING- bad
Brie makes a prison rape joke, because rape is apparently funny so long as the people involved are in jail. They were given terrible dialogue. Steph had a good deliver, but Brie’s was terrible. The way Hunter trapped Nikki in the corner with the desk… well… it just wound of looked hilarious, which wasn’t what they wanted. Both Bella ate Pedigrees from Steph.

i kinda agree with you with the acting, but i liked the segment. Those Bellas sell the pedigree better than half of the male roster, so kuddos for that. Oh, and with this segment is now clear that Hunter is an amazing husband, going out there with Steph to support her, plot with her, enjoy these moments as a couple. Bryan and Cena on the other hand....

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote: SEGMENT WITH LANA, RUSEV, SWAGGER, & ZEB- great stuff.
Lana sang Happy Birthday to Obama in Russian. Zeb came out and cut a promo on the heels. He said they have no chance because Swagger is fighting for all Americans, both everyday Joes and our brave troops abroad. Rusev beat Swagger up using the Russian flag as a weapon. They then cornered Zeb and Lana mocked him.

I'm getting tired of these segments, same shit, different day/ "shut up Natasha" "here in america blah blah" fight. Swagger and Rusev need to interact more without Zeb and Lana cutting promos, just run-ins or something.

I agree about the verbiage in the promos mostly feeling the same. In this case the thing I really thought made it particularly great was Rusev's attack on Swagger with the flagpole.

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote: BEAT THE CLOCK CHALLENGE: Seth Rollins vs. Heath Slater- no rating. Eh segment.
Ambrose came out and distracted Rollins by messing with the briefcase and its contents. As a result of this, HEATH SLATER PINNED SETH ROLLINS.

Heath Slater pinned the undefeated Mr Money in the Bank in the main event of RAW, let that sink in. I was personally hoping for Heath to take Rollins to minute 15 without any help, but i guess this is as good as it gets. This brings me to rant no 1. If you're doing a beat the clock challenge where you need to beat 15 minutes, don't do it when you only have 10 minutes left of show, and a closing segment still advertised, they pretty much telegraphed that shenanigans would be in place.

This is one of those things that I wish WWE would do differently, but they never do. This spot right here... this could have been used to MAKE someone. Imagine if instead of Heath Slater, the Authority picked someone who wasn't even on the main roster. How about NXT Superstar Sami Zayn? Just having Sami take Rollins to the limit would MAKE HIM in one night.. and the best thing about it is that NO ONE HAS TO LOSE! From here we not only have Ambrose getting Rollins in his match of choice, but we also get a new babyface star who is immediately put in the line of fire of the Authority when all he was doing was making the best of this HUGE opportunity presented to him.

WWE is often (though not always) stuck in this (and I hate using this term in a derogatory way, but I can't think of a better thing to call it) "sports entertainment" mindset of booking where the only way to advance a feud is some sort of interaction between the two guys, which often leads to dirty finishes. I'm not certainly not opposed to dirty finishes, but I think they should be avoided if possible (and I don't mean they should be avoided because dirty finishes are not "pure" good wrestling finishes and thus a sign of sports entertainment and sports entertainment is evil smarkity smark blah blah blah- I mean if only to avoid repetition, and to make them more important when they do happen).

Furthermore, WWE's way of doing things tends to force the focus all in one place. When they do their booking, their mindset is "in this segment, we focus on Rollins vs. Ambrose," and they do that to the exclusion of everyone else. Something like this doesn't need a distraction finish, or any dirty finish at all because you can have someone go to a sixteen minute draw with Mr. Money in the Bank. You get the same result (Rollins is forced into a match of Ambrose's choosing so Ambrose can get revenge on him), but you also get to both keeps Rollins stronger by not having him lose, and put a totally unrelated guy over at the same time. If WWE had come into this with the mindset of "who do we want to look strong on this show," they would have seen this. Instead, they were just looking for a way to have Ambrose screw Rollins, and thus they fell back on a tired, old, predictable, formula and thus they missed a HUGE opportunity.

It's stuff like this that makes me keep my fantasy booking going no matter how far I fall behind on it. Because WWE seems to miss so many opportunities.

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote: Oh, and with this segment is now clear that Hunter is an amazing husband, going out there with Steph to support her, plot with her, enjoy these moments as a couple. Bryan and Cena on the other hand....

Who are you, JBL? Bryan is injured and currently (at least kayfabe, according to Steph's comments) in the hospital. Meanwhile, you don't find it suspicious that Hunter and Steph insisted on doing this contract signing this week, when Cena just happens to be away shooting a movie (and a WWE-produced movie too, I think).
Also, the Nikki-Cena relationship has never been a thing on Raw and thus isn't kayfabe.

Big Red Machine wrote: This is one of those things that I wish WWE would do differently, but they never do. This spot right here... this could have been used to MAKE someone. Imagine if instead of Heath Slater, the Authority picked someone who wasn't even on the main roster. How about NXT Superstar Sami Zayn? Just having Sami take Rollins to the limit would MAKE HIM in one night.. and the best thing about it is that NO ONE HAS TO LOSE! From here we not only have Ambrose getting Rollins in his match of choice, but we also get a new babyface star who is immediately put in the line of fire of the Authority when all he was doing was making the best of this HUGE opportunity presented to him.

WWE is often (though not always) stuck in this (and I hate using this term in a derogatory way, but I can't think of a better thing to call it) "sports entertainment" mindset of booking where the only way to advance a feud is some sort of interaction between the two guys, which often leads to dirty finishes. I'm not certainly not opposed to dirty finishes, but I think they should be avoided if possible (and I don't mean they should be avoided because dirty finishes are not "pure" good wrestling finishes and thus a sign of sports entertainment and sports entertainment is evil smarkity smark blah blah blah- I mean if only to avoid repetition, and to make them more important when they do happen).

Furthermore, WWE's way of doing things tends to force the focus all in one place. When they do their booking, their mindset is "in this segment, we focus on Rollins vs. Ambrose," and they do that to the exclusion of everyone else. Something like this doesn't need a distraction finish, or any dirty finish at all because you can have someone go to a sixteen minute draw with Mr. Money in the Bank. You get the same result (Rollins is forced into a match of Ambrose's choosing so Ambrose can get revenge on him), but you also get to both keeps Rollins stronger by not having him lose, and put a totally unrelated guy over at the same time. If WWE had come into this with the mindset of "who do we want to look strong on this show," they would have seen this. Instead, they were just looking for a way to have Ambrose screw Rollins, and thus they fell back on a tired, old, predictable, formula and thus they missed a HUGE opportunity.

It's stuff like this that makes me keep my fantasy booking going no matter how far I fall behind on it. Because WWE seems to miss so many opportunities.

1000% this.

Big Red Machine wrote:

cero2k wrote: Oh, and with this segment is now clear that Hunter is an amazing husband, going out there with Steph to support her, plot with her, enjoy these moments as a couple. Bryan and Cena on the other hand....

Who are you, JBL? Bryan is injured and currently (at least kayfabe, according to Steph's comments) in the hospital. Meanwhile, you don't find it suspicious that Hunter and Steph insisted on doing this contract signing this week, when Cena just happens to be away shooting a movie (and a WWE-produced movie too, I think).
Also, the Nikki-Cena relationship has never been a thing on Raw and thus isn't kayfabe.

I consider Total Divas kayfabe to a certain point, plus the last time we saw Dragon on WWE he was healthy and making fun of Bo.

BTW, found the 'should have been' version of the Adam Rose segment

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote: Also, the Nikki-Cena relationship has never been a thing on Raw and thus isn't kayfabe.

I consider Total Divas kayfabe to a certain point, plus the last time we saw Dragon on WWE he was healthy and making fun of Bo.

Which is the problem with the way they have integrated Total Divas into the show. I am actually working on an angle in my fantasy booking that will attempt to use Total Divas to create interest in a Divas Title match on PPV soon after the first half of season 3 of Total Divas ends.


As for Dragon- at the same time he was in the ring with BO, he was telling everyone that he might well need more surgery. A few days ago at ComiCon, he said he would need more surgery. He is currently injured.

Big Red Machine wrote:
ADAM ROSE STARES INTO THE MIRROR FROM OCCULOUS, WHICH MAKES YOU SEE YOUR EVIL SELF-
His Rosebuds cringing in the background and begging him not to try it was funny. He does it anyway, and it turns out that Earth-3 Adam Rose is guy who wears a suit and tie and carries a briefcase. It would have been SO MUCH FUNNIER if he had seen Leo Kruger in the mirror.

Dave Meltzer noted that the purpose of this segment was to promote the DVD release of Occulous, which was the next day. As Dave also noted, it would have worked a lot better if SOMEONE HAD ACTUALLY MENTIONED THAT FACT.

Big Red Machine wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:
ADAM ROSE STARES INTO THE MIRROR FROM OCCULOUS, WHICH MAKES YOU SEE YOUR EVIL SELF-
His Rosebuds cringing in the background and begging him not to try it was funny. He does it anyway, and it turns out that Earth-3 Adam Rose is guy who wears a suit and tie and carries a briefcase. It would have been SO MUCH FUNNIER if he had seen Leo Kruger in the mirror.

Dave Meltzer noted that the purpose of this segment was to promote the DVD release of Occulous, which was the next day. As Dave also noted, it would have worked a lot better if SOMEONE HAD ACTUALLY MENTIONED THAT FACT.

wow, i didn't even know what Occulous was

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:
ADAM ROSE STARES INTO THE MIRROR FROM OCCULOUS, WHICH MAKES YOU SEE YOUR EVIL SELF-
His Rosebuds cringing in the background and begging him not to try it was funny. He does it anyway, and it turns out that Earth-3 Adam Rose is guy who wears a suit and tie and carries a briefcase. It would have been SO MUCH FUNNIER if he had seen Leo Kruger in the mirror.

Dave Meltzer noted that the purpose of this segment was to promote the DVD release of Occulous, which was the next day. As Dave also noted, it would have worked a lot better if SOMEONE HAD ACTUALLY MENTIONED THAT FACT.

wow, i didn't even know what Occulous was

I remembered the commercials for it, and remembered being very surprised that it was a WWE film.

It's that shit about “this mirror's killt so many people...“ and the one with the Dr. Who girl in it-( I only know because of the people living with me....don't take none of my street cred.....grabs black bandana and dark sunglasses.)