BRM Reviews the 10/7/2019 Raw
Posted: Oct 7th, '19, 21:48
OPENING SEGMENT- horrible
We were apparently supposed to have Rusev vs. Orton but when the theme song ended, Orton, Corbin, and Rusev were all in the ring and the former two were jumping the latter. This was one of those things where you can tell that WWE is trying really hard to do things differently but just don’t realize how wrong their mindset about certain things is, to the point where it defeats their attempts to change. Let’s look at what happened here:
WWE wanted to get the show off to a hot start and create some excitement by doing something where it feels like they are breaking from their usual pattern. But in order to get the pieces in place for this break from the pattern, they had to break from their usual modus operandi (not having people in the ring before the show starts) with no logical explanation, which makes the whole situation feel forced and thus defeats much of the purpose of breaking from their usual pattern. Also, how about not having the heels wait until the theme song is over to launch their dastardly attack.
This attack is happening because they’re on the opposite sides of a Team Hogan vs. Team Flair match which is happening to appease a Saudi Prince. Hopefully this means we won’t get the usual stupid bullsh*t at Survivor Series this year.
Anyway, Rusev makes his own comeback and beats back both heels. Then Bobby Lashley takes over the TitanTron from Rusev’s house and jumps into bed with Lana. Lana tells Rusev that they no longer have joint bank accounts because everything is now hers. “Ah!” I thought. Lana must have divorced Rusev because he cheated on her with Maria. That would explain why she is so angry with him that she is taking glee in publicly humiliating him in this way.”
Nope. Lana is doing this because Rusev was sending remittances to his family back home in Bulgaria rather than spending his money on her. I’m not against this sort of stereotypical egotistical gold-digger bitch female character, but for G-d’s sake do it with someone like Mandy Rose where it fits the character. They have shown us Rusev and Lana go through so much on TV (it hasn’t even been a year since Aiden English tried to break them up) that I just don’t buy this. It feels like a new booker came in and figured he/she could just ignore things that had happened before. Like Joss Whedon’s terrible six-issue run on Runaways.
Anyway, Lashley’s promo was pretty good for what it was supposed to be. Rusev watches the whole thing, near tears. Instead of taking advantage of his distracted state, the heels just watched, too. I, meanwhile, was praying no one else walked into the room while Lashley and Lana were on the screen and thought I was watching porn in my living room.
Rusev fires up and beats up on Orton and Corbin some more. I’m supposed to feel sorry for him, but he was the one who cheated first, wasn’t he?
LACEY EVANS PROMO- “You know what happens at the end of the road, don’t ya? The trash is taken out for removal.” HUH?
Other than that, this was fine.
LAST WOMAN STANDING MATCH: Lacey Evans vs. Natalya- 6.75/10
This took a while to get going, but the buy the time it ended I felt it was worth the time I invested in it. They did a good job of building up to the finish.
They had a commercial plugging the draft, in which Cole told us that “it’s about Fox and it’s about USA positioning themselves with the top Superstars™.” Wow. This… actually makes sense. Of course, in order for that to work, they have to show us executives from the two networks making the picks rather than their usual off-screen Sorting Hat method. We’ll see what they do (hint: I’m not optimistic).
BRM’s ANNUAL SUSAN G. KOMEN ANTI-PLUG- If you want to help fight breast cancer, there are a lot of charities that will spend your money a lot better than Susan G. Komen, who are basically the WWE of the charity world. Check out CharityNavigator.com for a list.
ALEISTER BLACK PROMO- Yeah… he’s starting to sound like Bray Wyatt now.
THE STREET PROFITS WASTE TIME NOT DOING ANYTHING- bad
They mentioned some wrestlers (Buddy Murphy, Apollo Crews, Drake Maverick) and even the ones they tried to put over (Crews, Murphy) it felt like they were making fun of. Why are these guys being used as hype men and not wrestling?
Also, I took the liberty of looking up this “smoke” that they seem to so desire on Urban Dictionary. Turns out that it means a high from marijuana or opioids. Also, according to the very first example, the fact that Dawkins refers to Ford as “fam” means that Dawkins is something called a “f*ckboy.”
WWE MASTURBATES TO THEIR OWN PUBLICITY FROM THE TYSON FURY ANGLE WITH BRAUN- And, of course, some of these articles all but broke kayfabe. Of the ones where they showed up more than just a headline, it was the usually incompetent Yahoo! Who managed to do the best job of keeping things kayfabe (and thus something WWE should be putting on our screens). Also, they managed to avoid using the wrong homophone for the first three paragraphs, which has been a struggle for Yahoo in the past.
CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS TYSON FURY- fine
He wants an apology from Braun.
THE VIKING RAIDERS vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER & ROBERT ROODE- 6.75/10
Once again this match got a lot of time and took a while to get going. This was more of a case of “they’re holding back for a bigger match” that it was it just taking a while to get into things like with the Last Woman Standing match. The Viking Raiders overcame a babyface in peril situation to get the clean win on the tag champs.
We are now an hour into the show and it feels completely detached from the PPV I watched last night. I’m not even sure there has been any mention of the main event.
ALEISTER BLACK CUTS A PROMO AGAIN- He’s finally f*cking figured out that this is a wrestling show and if he wants to fight someone so bad he should just go down to the ring and make an open challenge.
THE SINGH BROTHERS GOOF AROUND UNTIL THEY ARE INTERRUPTED BY ALEISTER BLACK- This became a handicap match in which Alesiter murderized them. Good. That’s what goofs deserve. You’d better not show your face around these parts, Heath Slater, or you’ll get the Black Mass and/or Aleister’s new submission choke finisher.
CHARLY CARUSO INTERIVEWS BRAUN STROWMAN- meh
This really wasn’t necessary. We all know he’s not going to apologize to Tyson Fury, so just gives us our confrontation already.
CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS REY MYSTERIO JR.- averages out to being good
Rey says he is proud of his son from “taking his beating like a man.” BAD PARENTING! The second part of his promo about having to watch Brock “maul” Dominick was good, though. The story is that Cain is Dominick’s godfather and showed up at the hospital and offered to avenge Dominick. The problem with this is that Rey is passing off fighting his own battles to someone else, which is completely out of character.
WHO IS AOP VIDEO- It should be “Who ARE AOP.” Other than that, this was F*CKING AWESOME AND WHY ARE THEY NOT MURDERING PEOPLE IN THE RING YET?
LUCHA HOUSE PARTY vs. THE OC (Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, & AJ Styles)- 6.5/10
OC win clean, then beat Lucha House Party up after the match.
MIZ TV WITH SPECIAL GUESTS CHARLOTTE FLAIR & BECKY LYNCH- Two babyfaces can’t be in one place without both saying they’d win the other’s title. WHY? And it’s even more ridiculous now when they’re going to have to be on different shows because of the draft. Then the Kabuki Warriors came out to cut a promo in Japanese and shoot an angle to set up a match that had already been booked. What a waste of time.
THE KABUKI WARRIORS vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR & BECKY LYNCH- 6/10
Asuka pins Becky after the mist, so that sets up a big match.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Charlotte attacks Asuka but gets beaten down two-on-one. Alexa Bliss! & Nikki Cross come out to make the save.
CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS APOLLO CREWS- He’s wrestling Ricochet tonight and they didn’t mention this before now. His promo was very good.
VIKING RAIDERS PROMO- Hanson moving around in the background was very distracting. They’re getting a title shot next week.
SARAH SCHREIBER INTERVIEWS RICOCHET- overly-scripted tripe
APOLLO CREWS vs. RICOCHET- 6.5/10
Good athleticism, but they weren’t given the time for this to be the “showcase” it was billed as. Ricochet won clean.
BRAUN STROWMAN/TYSON FURY CONFRONTATION- EXCELLENT segment
This was exactly what it needed to be, although I do think it went on a bit too long.
This wasn’t a bad episode of Raw, but it didn’t feel particularly important either, other than the main event segment. The lack of Sasha and especially Seth and The Fiend/Bray was a major negative here. Sasha apparently wasn’t cleared to wrestle but still could have cut a promo. The lack of follow up to the main event of Hell in a Cell makes me think that they are probably taking a good, long, hard think about what to do next after the finish of the main event bombed so badly.
We were apparently supposed to have Rusev vs. Orton but when the theme song ended, Orton, Corbin, and Rusev were all in the ring and the former two were jumping the latter. This was one of those things where you can tell that WWE is trying really hard to do things differently but just don’t realize how wrong their mindset about certain things is, to the point where it defeats their attempts to change. Let’s look at what happened here:
WWE wanted to get the show off to a hot start and create some excitement by doing something where it feels like they are breaking from their usual pattern. But in order to get the pieces in place for this break from the pattern, they had to break from their usual modus operandi (not having people in the ring before the show starts) with no logical explanation, which makes the whole situation feel forced and thus defeats much of the purpose of breaking from their usual pattern. Also, how about not having the heels wait until the theme song is over to launch their dastardly attack.
This attack is happening because they’re on the opposite sides of a Team Hogan vs. Team Flair match which is happening to appease a Saudi Prince. Hopefully this means we won’t get the usual stupid bullsh*t at Survivor Series this year.
Anyway, Rusev makes his own comeback and beats back both heels. Then Bobby Lashley takes over the TitanTron from Rusev’s house and jumps into bed with Lana. Lana tells Rusev that they no longer have joint bank accounts because everything is now hers. “Ah!” I thought. Lana must have divorced Rusev because he cheated on her with Maria. That would explain why she is so angry with him that she is taking glee in publicly humiliating him in this way.”
Nope. Lana is doing this because Rusev was sending remittances to his family back home in Bulgaria rather than spending his money on her. I’m not against this sort of stereotypical egotistical gold-digger bitch female character, but for G-d’s sake do it with someone like Mandy Rose where it fits the character. They have shown us Rusev and Lana go through so much on TV (it hasn’t even been a year since Aiden English tried to break them up) that I just don’t buy this. It feels like a new booker came in and figured he/she could just ignore things that had happened before. Like Joss Whedon’s terrible six-issue run on Runaways.
Anyway, Lashley’s promo was pretty good for what it was supposed to be. Rusev watches the whole thing, near tears. Instead of taking advantage of his distracted state, the heels just watched, too. I, meanwhile, was praying no one else walked into the room while Lashley and Lana were on the screen and thought I was watching porn in my living room.
Rusev fires up and beats up on Orton and Corbin some more. I’m supposed to feel sorry for him, but he was the one who cheated first, wasn’t he?
LACEY EVANS PROMO- “You know what happens at the end of the road, don’t ya? The trash is taken out for removal.” HUH?
Other than that, this was fine.
LAST WOMAN STANDING MATCH: Lacey Evans vs. Natalya- 6.75/10
This took a while to get going, but the buy the time it ended I felt it was worth the time I invested in it. They did a good job of building up to the finish.
They had a commercial plugging the draft, in which Cole told us that “it’s about Fox and it’s about USA positioning themselves with the top Superstars™.” Wow. This… actually makes sense. Of course, in order for that to work, they have to show us executives from the two networks making the picks rather than their usual off-screen Sorting Hat method. We’ll see what they do (hint: I’m not optimistic).
BRM’s ANNUAL SUSAN G. KOMEN ANTI-PLUG- If you want to help fight breast cancer, there are a lot of charities that will spend your money a lot better than Susan G. Komen, who are basically the WWE of the charity world. Check out CharityNavigator.com for a list.
ALEISTER BLACK PROMO- Yeah… he’s starting to sound like Bray Wyatt now.
THE STREET PROFITS WASTE TIME NOT DOING ANYTHING- bad
They mentioned some wrestlers (Buddy Murphy, Apollo Crews, Drake Maverick) and even the ones they tried to put over (Crews, Murphy) it felt like they were making fun of. Why are these guys being used as hype men and not wrestling?
Also, I took the liberty of looking up this “smoke” that they seem to so desire on Urban Dictionary. Turns out that it means a high from marijuana or opioids. Also, according to the very first example, the fact that Dawkins refers to Ford as “fam” means that Dawkins is something called a “f*ckboy.”
WWE MASTURBATES TO THEIR OWN PUBLICITY FROM THE TYSON FURY ANGLE WITH BRAUN- And, of course, some of these articles all but broke kayfabe. Of the ones where they showed up more than just a headline, it was the usually incompetent Yahoo! Who managed to do the best job of keeping things kayfabe (and thus something WWE should be putting on our screens). Also, they managed to avoid using the wrong homophone for the first three paragraphs, which has been a struggle for Yahoo in the past.
CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS TYSON FURY- fine
He wants an apology from Braun.
THE VIKING RAIDERS vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER & ROBERT ROODE- 6.75/10
Once again this match got a lot of time and took a while to get going. This was more of a case of “they’re holding back for a bigger match” that it was it just taking a while to get into things like with the Last Woman Standing match. The Viking Raiders overcame a babyface in peril situation to get the clean win on the tag champs.
We are now an hour into the show and it feels completely detached from the PPV I watched last night. I’m not even sure there has been any mention of the main event.
ALEISTER BLACK CUTS A PROMO AGAIN- He’s finally f*cking figured out that this is a wrestling show and if he wants to fight someone so bad he should just go down to the ring and make an open challenge.
THE SINGH BROTHERS GOOF AROUND UNTIL THEY ARE INTERRUPTED BY ALEISTER BLACK- This became a handicap match in which Alesiter murderized them. Good. That’s what goofs deserve. You’d better not show your face around these parts, Heath Slater, or you’ll get the Black Mass and/or Aleister’s new submission choke finisher.
CHARLY CARUSO INTERIVEWS BRAUN STROWMAN- meh
This really wasn’t necessary. We all know he’s not going to apologize to Tyson Fury, so just gives us our confrontation already.
CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS REY MYSTERIO JR.- averages out to being good
Rey says he is proud of his son from “taking his beating like a man.” BAD PARENTING! The second part of his promo about having to watch Brock “maul” Dominick was good, though. The story is that Cain is Dominick’s godfather and showed up at the hospital and offered to avenge Dominick. The problem with this is that Rey is passing off fighting his own battles to someone else, which is completely out of character.
WHO IS AOP VIDEO- It should be “Who ARE AOP.” Other than that, this was F*CKING AWESOME AND WHY ARE THEY NOT MURDERING PEOPLE IN THE RING YET?
LUCHA HOUSE PARTY vs. THE OC (Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, & AJ Styles)- 6.5/10
OC win clean, then beat Lucha House Party up after the match.
MIZ TV WITH SPECIAL GUESTS CHARLOTTE FLAIR & BECKY LYNCH- Two babyfaces can’t be in one place without both saying they’d win the other’s title. WHY? And it’s even more ridiculous now when they’re going to have to be on different shows because of the draft. Then the Kabuki Warriors came out to cut a promo in Japanese and shoot an angle to set up a match that had already been booked. What a waste of time.
THE KABUKI WARRIORS vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR & BECKY LYNCH- 6/10
Asuka pins Becky after the mist, so that sets up a big match.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Charlotte attacks Asuka but gets beaten down two-on-one. Alexa Bliss! & Nikki Cross come out to make the save.
CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS APOLLO CREWS- He’s wrestling Ricochet tonight and they didn’t mention this before now. His promo was very good.
VIKING RAIDERS PROMO- Hanson moving around in the background was very distracting. They’re getting a title shot next week.
SARAH SCHREIBER INTERVIEWS RICOCHET- overly-scripted tripe
APOLLO CREWS vs. RICOCHET- 6.5/10
Good athleticism, but they weren’t given the time for this to be the “showcase” it was billed as. Ricochet won clean.
BRAUN STROWMAN/TYSON FURY CONFRONTATION- EXCELLENT segment
This was exactly what it needed to be, although I do think it went on a bit too long.
This wasn’t a bad episode of Raw, but it didn’t feel particularly important either, other than the main event segment. The lack of Sasha and especially Seth and The Fiend/Bray was a major negative here. Sasha apparently wasn’t cleared to wrestle but still could have cut a promo. The lack of follow up to the main event of Hell in a Cell makes me think that they are probably taking a good, long, hard think about what to do next after the finish of the main event bombed so badly.
