Pro Wrasslin' Thread: I don't know what I just saw

[Sideshow Raheem]

Is there a known reason Asuka ended up on the shit list?

She's not on the shit list and has the second most matches won this year in the entire company, all brands. She's just not Charlotte or Becky so there is no story for her, just like there's no story for any of the women on Raw that aren't Ronda or her opponent.

She does have a story: She's Naomi's friend. It's compelling stuff.

I'd say if they bring back James Ellsworth for the express purpose of embarrassing you in between losses to Carmella, something's going on. But I have no insight into any of this stuff.

[dkdk]

Is there a known reason Asuka ended up on the shit list?

cant speak good english
not blonde

that's all you need to get bushed in the divas division

[dkdk]

alexa's standing on a box talking to bayley and sasha lol

[bork]

Sat through Raw expecting to see Bray Wyatt come back and save Finn Balor from the beatdown at the end of the show.

Joke's on me!


How did things get this bad when the main event is Baron Corbin vs. Finn Balor?  And the new big heel faction is Corbin, Lashley, and Drew?
 

[TVC15]

Sat through Raw expecting to see Bray Wyatt come back and save Finn Balor from the beatdown at the end of the show.

Joke's on me!


How did things get this bad when the main event is Baron Corbin vs. Finn Balor?  And the new big heel faction is Corbin, Lashley, and Drew?
 

Been out of the loop. What happened to my beloved Dolph?

[bork]

Been out of the loop. What happened to my beloved Dolph?

He was there and accepted Rollins' open challenge for the IC title.  Dunno if that means he's done partnering with Drew.

Have zero interest in Rollins vs. Ambrose.   Corey Graves always looks over at Renee Young and asks her about him when they're talking about Ambrose being a psychopath.  It's so awkward. 

[bork]

Smackdown last night-

Big Show turned on the Bar already and is now a face I guess?   

The show was shit, but ended with a battle royale (that I missed most of, oops) to add a third addition to Charlotte vs. Becky at TLC.  Asuka won.  They seem to be pushing Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville a lot now since they were in the final four and both looked pretty strong.  Deville was the last to be eliminated by Asuka.  Watching this made me realize how much more I like the SD women over the RAW women.  The RAW women's division is so boring now since Ronda destroys everybody and the rest are just in limbo if they're not in a feud with her.

Good RAW recap:
https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2018/11/27/18114019/wwe-raw-worst-episode

That was one of the worst episodes of Raw I’ve ever seen


There was almost nothing to like about this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw:

- One of the biggest reasons WWE has been stale for what feels like a decade is that they constantly go back to the well with the authority figure angles, and more often than not it’s a heel trying to hold back a babyface. There aren’t a lot of characters who can make this work, and there aren’t any who are currently on the WWE roster. We saw this all throughout the evening, with Baron Corbin running wild and even creating another authority figure, this one for the women’s division in Alexa Bliss. You won’t be surprised to learn that led to a segment where she was immediately feuding with two babyfaces over that power dynamic.

- Whatever happened to those reports/rumors that Vince McMahon hates factions? It sure feels like we’ve seen some variation of a treacherous trio on damn near every episode of Raw for the past six months, no matter how little it makes sense. Here, we got Corbin, Bobby Lashley, and Drew McIntyre. They ran roughshod over Elias, one of the only babyfaces who gets cheered consistently, and then did the same to Finn Balor, who has been utterly lost since he got injured was forced to drop the Universal championship. That was two years ago, by the way.

- That’s another big issue with this show. Everything is heat. It’s never ending. There are no babyface wins to be found.

- Oh, wait, there was a babyface win to be found -- Seth Rollins issued an Intercontinental championship open challenge and defeated his opponent with the Falcon Arrow, which was a nice change of pace. The problem? Dolph Ziggler was the guy who answered said challenge. I don’t care who the two wrestlers are, I can’t get into a match if I’ve already seen it 748 times this year.

- Speaking of Rollins, we got a pre-tape segment with Dean Ambrose where he cut a promo about how Rollins is sick and there’s no medicine to cure him while a doctor was shooting a needle into his ass because he needed a rabies shot.

- The Lucha House Party are working a gimmick where they can basically do what they want as a trio in tag team matches under their own rules, where things like tagging in and out and being the legal man don’t matter. They are doing this as babyfaces.

- Nia Jax cut one of the worst promos of all time that may have actually hurt whatever heat she got for being terrible at her job and legitimately hurting an opponent. I’ve never seen an arena go from booing a heel to sitting on their hands cringing at every word. Ronda Rousey interrupted this promo, where Jax was verbally assaulting her, and she came to the ring smiling from ear to ear because the fans were cheering her. She even stopped the show, if only for a few seconds, to tell the crowd how much she appreciates them cheering for her. Then it was her turn to cut a bad promo where she did the weird voice fluctuation thing and at one point seemed to forget her lines. It was so uncomfortable. To top it off, Jax responded to a challenge for a fight by saying “I’m stalling for time” before everyone just stood around. Finally, Natalya’s music hit and she ran in. That’s what she was stalling for? Then Nattie was attacked by The Riott Squad before she could even get to the ring and Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, and Sarah Logan were easily beaten back by the Raw women’s champion in a matter of seconds. The segment just sort of ended after that. Bad promos, terrible storytelling, awful timing — this was a disjointed mess that went nowhere. One of the worst segments of the year.

- AOP won a match because Drake Maverick pissed on a robe.

- After Ember Moon won a match against Alicia Fox, No Way Jose came out for his match against Jinder Mahal. He, of course, had his conga line and Renee Young could be heard on commentary saying “Ember Moon hates dancing” while Moon was dancing and smiling in the conga line.

- Alexa Bliss booked a segment where Sasha Banks and Bayley would have an “open forum” to answer questions from the audience. After announcing this, Banks and Bayley went on Twitter and mentioned women’s tag team titles as a way to promote the segment. They were asked precisely one question: “what would you change about the women’s division?” That left the door wide open to bring up the aforementioned women’s tag team titles. Instead, they ran down Bliss, because, again, this show has to be all about whoever the authority figure is at any given time. The segment ended when Alicia Fox, Mickie James, and Dana Brooke randomly ran in and attacked.

Again, this was one of the worst episodes of Monday Night Raw I have ever had the displeasure of watching. It is a show entirely dependent on stars and it has no stars, because the man in charge of making them doesn’t seem to know how to do so or caters to part timers who don’t want to show up every week.

[bork]

- After Ember Moon won a match against Alicia Fox, No Way Jose came out for his match against Jinder Mahal. He, of course, had his conga line and Renee Young could be heard on commentary saying “Ember Moon hates dancing” while Moon was dancing and smiling in the conga line.

[bork]

This was so bad it's almost- naw, it's just bad.  Nia is awful.  Tamina...stands there.

[bork]

She was crying bloody tears because of how shitty the show was.

[bork]

Watch Raw brehs :mjlol

And it's always torture when I do it- SO WHY DO I DO IT


I think they're in a really bad spot right now since the two top guys they built up are both out and the champion is once again a part timer. 
 
Strowman may not be cleared to wrestle for the TLC event they are still advertising him for, too.   First the dirt sheets were saying he was out and now they're saying rumors are it will be changed to a six man match and Strowman will do a brief run-in to cause Corbin to lose.  Then Alex Bliss will be GM. 

[Sideshow Raheem]

I stopped watching the video at "warrior culture."

Just to reiterate: Nia is awful and Tamina is 10 pounds of awful in a 5-pound bag.

[bork]

Observer radio said that Baron Corbin was on RAW for a total of ONE HOUR on Monday.  Baron.  Fucking.  Corbin.


Would it surprise anyone to find out that this particular show was full-on Vince handling all the segments? 

[Human Snorenado]

RAW IS BARON CORBIN

Here's what... well, shit. I can't even say I don't "get it" because this is WWE and they program everything as if their audience are a bunch of barely sentient wet farts in MAGA caps. But it remains disappointing.

RAW opens with a heel authority figure faction bending the rules to beat down a face, Elias, who stupidly walks to the ring by himself without backup to take on one of the cowardly heels, only to (SHOCK) find himself a victim of the damn numbers game once the GM changes the rules on the fly. The OTHER face (Balor) feuding with these goobers makes it a point to cut a promo about specifically how this sort of thing is what he can't stand, yet later on THAT SAME FUCKING SHOW he goes out for a match against one of these heels and OMG SHOCK the same exact shit happens and he doesn't have back up either.

So, like:
-all your heels are shitty cowards
-all your faces are stupid and can't be arsed to team up or look for back up
so why the fuck do I care about them? Answer: I don't.

Contrast that with SD where at least there are interesting things happening. The most over person in the whole company is a shit talking, ass kicking Irish woman that calls herself the man; her main rival just went crazy and pillmanized the other brand's champion; and the men's champ is a ball kicking evil ring genius. Even AJ realizes he gets kicked in the balls a lot even if he doesn't wear a cup. Also, Samoa Joe exists and is always great.

Meanwhile on RAW you have all that shit, an absentee champ that would rather be in the UFC but shows up for ludicrous paydays, and a face "tag team" that gets to cheat and put over for it (Lucha House Party)

RAW is a piece of shit and should be fired into the sun, and I haven't even talked about Nia Jax

[dkdk]

lowest rated raw ever last night

i wonder why 

[nachobro]

Smackdown and The New Daniel Bryan

[TVC15]

This was so bad it's almost- naw, it's just bad.  Nia is awful.  Tamina...stands there.

Art. It’s art. Just like video games.

[bork]

lowest rated raw ever last night

i wonder why 

I read it was a better show than last week, but last week's was so bad that I avoided watching this week.     Is it true that Dean is now doing a Bane gimmick? 

Smackdown and The New Daniel Bryan

Turned it off before it got to this part.  Enjoyed the intensity of the opening segment with Charlotte, Asuka, and Becky...and that was about it.  Them ignoring crazy-psycho-heel Charlotte from Survivor Series and keeping her a face is so stupid.

[bork]

[nachobro]

Turned it off before it got to this part.  Enjoyed the intensity of the opening segment with Charlotte, Asuka, and Becky...and that was about it.  Them ignoring crazy-psycho-heel Charlotte from Survivor Series and keeping her a face is so stupid.

yeah that is dumb, especially since she keeps saying she beat Ronda and everyone else is like "wtf no you lost".

but ya, New DBryan is great. Just shitting on everyone for being meat-eaters and destroying the planet, making sheep noises at the crowd when they chant "What" at him, and just generally being a smug douche. Plus Graves egging him on with "what if I had a coworker that maybe drove a big SUV and threw away plastic bottles without even drinking all the water in them, what would you say to that person?" as Byron gets upset.

[bork]

There's something amazing about all these nerds begging for the end of Cena/Roman and when it finally happens, they get 3 hours centered around Baron Corbin as a heel authority figure

To me it's more like "Roman is gone for the foreseeable future, Braun is out for a little bit, and they don't have Cena right now...and Vince thinks BARON CORBIN is what the people want?" 

[bork]

Dirt sheets are saying Alexa has been cleared to wrestle again.  Wonder if the rumored plan to make her the new GM following TLC is going to stick. 

Please get Corbin and her out of authority roles. 

Please stop having all these dumb, evil, played-out GM roles.

PLS

[nachobro]

Better not wish for Corbin to be gone too hard. They'll just replace him with Steph

Anytime I see Corbin I still think back to that NXT doc where someone asks him if he's gonna spend time on his abs during his workout and he just says "Nah"

[bork]

Give me Stephanie over Baron Corbin- she doesn't stay on TV for an hour at a time. 

[nachobro]

rewatch raw 2013-2015 and tell me that

[bork]

I saw a thread on The Coli that Dean Ambrose is now Bane wtf

If you just scroll up a bit a video is on this page!

[bork]

Reading wrestling threads on The Bire

[bork]

https://www.cagesideseats.com/platform/amp/wwe/2018/12/10/18135336/wwe-uses-seth-rollins-acknowledge-raw-sucks

Seth Rollins opened WWE’s flagship television show by admitting the show we are all watching has sucked for the better part of a month.

Rollins knows Raw is bad, he listed the many reasons why Raw is bad, all while fans watched the opening segment of Raw. The reigning Intercontinental champion even brought up Raw’s sinking TV ratings multiple times during his promo.

Then General Manager Elect Baron Corbin came out and Rollins blamed everything on him. WWE copping to having produced a bad show for weeks on end and then throwing Corbin under the bus for all it, was a very WWE thing to do.

[Sideshow Raheem]

The only good decision the braintrust at Raw have made recently is forcing Larry Corbin to cut his Cryptkeeper's hair and cover up his awful tattoos.

[bork]

https://twitter.com/MoonSpiderHugs/status/1073456674063683585

[bork]

Anyone watch TLC?  I was out and didn't watch it live.  Came home and just watched the segment where Vince decided to bury Baron Corbin and had a bunch of guys beat him down with chairs and get an Angle Slam.

When I opened the Network app, it didn't even show TLC as in-progress and I had to go to the PPV section to bring it up.     Nice to see Asuka getting the belt back even if the focus is on Becky and Charlotte still.

Tonight's Raw is supposed to have Vince out to "shake things up."  Roster change-up time?

[Sideshow Raheem]

Anyone watch TLC?  I was out and didn't watch it live.  Came home and just watched the segment where Vince decided to bury Baron Corbin and had a bunch of guys beat him down with chairs and get an Angle Slam.

When I opened the Network app, it didn't even show TLC as in-progress and I had to go to the PPV section to bring it up.     Nice to see Asuka getting the belt back even if the focus is on Becky and Charlotte still.

Tonight's Raw is supposed to have Vince out to "shake things up."  Roster change-up time?

I saw TLC.

The weirdest thing was the interplay among Michael Cole, Cory Graves, and Renee Young during the Shield match. The match was awful and overlong, but Graves kept jabbing at Young about her relationship and Dean Ambrose's injury. It seemed really meanspirited, and even Cole admonished Graves to call the action. Young isn't very good with comebacks, so it seemed all the more noticeable, I guess. It made me wonder how much of the sniping came directly from Graves and how much was instigated by the people backstage who prompt the announcers.

Asuka winning was great, but I wish the ending wasn't a direct result of Ronda Rousey interfering. The ending was sort of dumb, too, because these women endured all this hardship and were then crippled by having to leap off a falling ladder onto the ropes.

The rest was fine, but pretty forgettable. Oh, Rey Mysterio used a steel chair like a Boogie Board, and that was kind of neat.

[dkdk]

fuckery occurring rn

idk if this is good or bad

[nachobro]

seems like the same shit to me. 40 minute long mcmahon segment back to red dead and football

[bork]

https://twitter.com/GIFSkull/status/1074492892398276608

[dkdk]

yeah the fuckery turned out to not be fuckery at all

[Human Snorenado]

Hey guys you know what's better than one unlikable authority figure is FOUR unlikable authority figures

[nachobro]

actually now WE'RE the authority! i say we band together and fire whoever does those annoying camera zooms. also kurt angle.

[Human Snorenado]

Man, wtf- why did they shit can Paige? That wonderful skank was the best authority figure they ever had, removing her from the GM role just because RAW is a flaming pile of AIDS is dumb AF

[Trent Dole]

Man, wtf- why did they shit can Paige? That wonderful skank was the best authority figure they ever had, removing her from the GM role just because RAW is a flaming pile of AIDS is dumb AF

[bork]

Man, wtf- why did they shit can Paige? That wonderful skank was the best authority figure they ever had, removing her from the GM role just because RAW is a flaming pile of AIDS is dumb AF

Just to clarify the development on Smackdown with Paige being removed from the GM role, this is strictly a creative decision to abolish that role on both shows. Paige's performance as GM was extremely well received by officials and she is going to be re-assigned to a new role with the company, though it remains to be seen whether it will be on Smackdown.

Except you still have Shane/Stephanie/HHH doing the GM thing so not sure what's changing here.  Rather than having shat on Baron Corbin (twice), they should have just come out and said that they have a slew of changes planned to make things more exciting.  Showing NXT call-up vignettes (wtf is up with the EC3 one?  ) doesn't do much.  A surprise roster shake-up with these guys included would have been awesome.

I know this is the end of the year and we're just getting throw away shows until the Rumble, but that's part of the problem- stop making throw-away shows and do something to make this shit worth watching.  It's so stale and boring.

[bork]

Raw and Smackdown were taped for next week.

Raw 12/24:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

- RAW will kick off with a 34th Street Fight between Elias and Bobby Lashley. Elias comes out and plays a Christmas-themed song insulting Lashley and Lio Rush. Lashley comes out to interrupt, and our opening bout gets underway.

- Elias def. Bobby Lashley: During the match, Lashley opens a present and dumps Lego bricks all over the mat. Lashley goes to throw Elias on to the Lego, but Elias reverses and slams Lashley on to them. Elias takes a violin out of a box and smashes it on Lashley for the win. Elias pours egg nog on Lio Rush after the match.

-Bobby Roode & Chad Gable (c) def. The Revival: This one was for the RAW Tag Titles. The Champions retained with  roll-up pin, in a match that got good reviews from fans in attendance.

- Drew McIntyre does an interview saying he intends to win the Royal Rumble.

- Finn Balor def. Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre: Finn won this three-way dance with the Coup De Grace on Ziggler. After the match, McIntyre gets back in the ring, but Ziggler gives him the Zig Zag.

- Sasha Banks, Ember Moon, & Bayley def. Alicia Fox, Dana Brooke, & Mickie James: After the match, The Riott Squad attacks the winners.

- Paul Heyman comes out to the ring and gets on the mic. Heyman talks about his client Brock Lesnar, and then he sings a Christmas carol about Lesnar beating Braun Strowman at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. Braun Strowman comes out to interrupt. Braun doesn't have the sling on his shoulder anymore, and he talks some trash to Heyman about what he's going to do to Lesnar, before sending Heyman away.

- Ronda Rousey def. Natalya: Ronda retained her RAW Women's Title in this one with the arm bar.

- Heath Slater def. Jinder Mahal: Rhyno runs in wearing a Santa costume and hits the Gore on Jinder.

- Seth Rollins def. Baron Corbin: Rollins scores the win with the curb stomp. Fan reports noted that some in attendance started leaving before the end of the show, as it has been a long day at the Golden 1 Center for fans with two RAW tapings back to back.

[close]

 

Smackdown 12/25:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

- The Usos & The Club def. Sanity & The Bar: The New Day was on commentary for this one wearing Christmas-themed outfits. Anderson and Gallows hit the Magic Killer on Cesaro for the three count.

- R-Truth and Carmella come out to the ring and get on the mic, but Daniel Bryan quickly interrupts. Bryan and Truth exchange words, and Truth says he might win the Royal Rumble and take Bryan's WWE Title. R-Truth and Carmella cut off Bryan with a dance break, then Bryan attacks Truth  and leaves.

- Mustafa Ali def. Andrade Almas: Ali wins with the 054 Splash.

- The Miz comes out with the World Cup trophy, and he introduces his Miz TV guest Shane McMahon. Shane comes out, and he accepts The Miz's offer to be a tag team. It sounds like The Miz and Shane are now officially a team.

- Jeff Hardy vs. Samoa Joe: This one ends in a DQ, and Samoa Joe puts Jeff in the Coquina Clutch after the bell.

- Rusev def. Shinsuke Nakamura: Rusev wins the United States Title in an upset over Nakamura.

[close]

At least looks better than Raw.

[bork]

Paige may end up being stuck on the Kickoff show panel.  R.I.P. seeing Paige on TV.  :'(

[Human Snorenado]

Ugh. Yeah that's the thing- Paige's role as GM at the very least DIDN'T DETRACT from the show at all, and often actually enhanced it as a plot device to move things forward. And it also kept a young performer that had to give up in ring contact due to injury actively involved every week.

The fact that the lesson they learned from the RAW debacle is apparently "authority figures are inherently bad" instead of "boring heel authority figures are bad, especially combined with shitty writing and inconsistent character development that results in fans not being able to invest in your 'superstars'" is pretty telling and does not bode well for the future. At this point I genuinely hope the Khan family is backing up a truck of money to Cody & company and helping to secure a tv deal. Outside competition is apparently the only thing that will actually motivate the WWE.

[bork]

Vince finally watched Bad Santa and decided to make a video:
https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1077389292429701121

Announced:

1. John Cena back on Raw and Smackdown. 
2. Women's division tag titles finally being introduced.
3. Dolph Vs. Drew in a steel cage next week.

Yay for #2.  The other two...?

[nachobro]

John Cena back on Raw and Smackdown.

god bless us, every one

[bork]

John Cena came out on SD and Becky came out to get in his face.  They teamed up but Becky threw Cena out of the ring to win the match. 

[nachobro]

damn rip mean gene

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1080488900890628101

[bork]

 

R.I.P.

[bork]

https://twitter.com/_luizric96/status/1080304147809787906
https://twitter.com/BeckyLynchWWE/status/1080605480903499781
 

[dkdk]

barz

[Trent Dole]

Becky 'livetweeted' during Smackdown's broadcast.

[nachobro]

Naito/Jericho was my favorite match of the show, with Ibushi/Ospreay right on its heels. Cody giving a half-assed performance and taking the biggest L of the night in Jags colors was pretty hilarious. How is AEW gonna build a promotion around that bland bum?

Also that beard on Sanada. I still like his look a lot other than that and he did well last night. I just feel like he's gonna be stuck in boring tag hell forever.

[nachobro]

Supposedly Kushida is going to WWE? Seems like an odd dude to grab for them but I guess it works for the audience that watches 205 Live

[Trent Dole]

That DDT on the table Naito took was pretty fucking horrifying. Apparently he does shit like that every match?

[nachobro]

here we go

https://twitter.com/reasonjp/status/1082114423039262721

https://twitter.com/reasonjp/status/1082105491776360448

[nachobro]

Impact gonna be streaming live on Twitch now cause no one is going to watch whatever TV channel they are on now. Might start watching it now

[Trent Dole]

I don't even know what day Impact is on.

[nachobro]

neither did i til i saw the tweet about twitch

https://twitter.com/IMPACTWRESTLING/status/1082114036202946560

also isn't smackdown moving to friday soon? impact can't stop taking the Ls

[bork]

also isn't smackdown moving to friday soon? impact can't stop taking the Ls

Not until towards the end of this year, IIRC.  But then it's time for the FRIDAY NIGHT WARS   Because they did so well the first time around when they went LIVE and HEAD TO HEAD against the WWE like a decade ago and- Impact is still around?