WWE had another new Raw on Monday, what did the Pulse Wrestling crew think of the show?
CB
NXT women here we come! Time for a hashtag edit: #GaveDivasAChance!
Jaded Seth Malice
INSIDE PULSE: Add now we turn it over to the newest columnist Jaded Seth Malice. So Seth what was your opinion of last night’s Raw?
Jaded Seth Malice: Thanks for having me, Widro. Now where was I? Oh yeah, I’ve got a huge dead cockroach in my hallway. When I found him he was still alive and half-eaten. I’ve been finding a lot of half-eaten dead cockroaches. I’m kind of curious as to what is eating the cockroaches–
Inside Pulse: This is a roundtable about last night’s Raw. . .
Jaded Seth Malice: Yeah. . .Raw. . .So I once saw a rabid dachshund tear a pitbull’s balls clean off. . .Strange. . .What was the question, again?
Inside Pulse: Raw–
Jaded Seth Malice: I like my meat cooked–
Inside Pulse: Thanks for your time. . .Seth. . .
Darren Paltrowitz
My long-standing issue with Raw, three hour duration aside, has been the Divas division’s lack of depth. I am glad to see that was somewhat fixed last night with the introduction of Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and Charlotte. I expect bad booking within the next few weeks. Is Layla still there, by the way?
John Cena’s open challenge proved to be the usual great segment we have been expecting. Aside from Rusev clearly being too tired to wrestle two matches in a row. Ring rust aside, his first match against Cesaro and Kevin Owens was exciting.
Neville lost yet another match. I don’t understand how anyone can take “the new sensation” seriously if he losses more often than that. Stardust needed the win, however, but it’s an awkward time for him to be heeling it up.
I like the tag team champs and #1 contenders, but there are so many idle teams sitting there for a six man tag to be unnecessary. The Lucha Dragons deserve more attention when you consider how over they are.
The Intercontinental title picture is awful. Hopefully that changes up after Battleground, much like the “king” feud between Bad News Barrett and R-Truth.
Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins are still the only compelling feud which I would consider watching Battleground for. Inevitably, there will be a screwy finish to set up the Summerslam main event. Fingers crossed that it does not involve Sheamus.
Dean Ambrose has nothing going on, which is a bummer. The same can be said for Randy Orton, Sheamus feud or not. I also can’t see this Roman Reigns feud with Bray Wyatt going anywhere meaningful. Much like Bray’s prior feud with Ryback.
Sadly, Damien Sandow remains nowhere to be found.
Brittney Soban
Diva’s Revolution: FINALLY. It finally happened where the Diva’s were not only given time but a good amount of focus and hype as well. Bringing up Becky Lynch, Charlotte and Sasha Banks and mixing all the top Diva’s together before a Diva Brawl (you read that right) broke out was great. I hadn’t been that happy with a Diva’s segment in a long…LONG time.
John Turnbull
Kevin Cardona
– Heyman continues to be gold on the stick and the best talker in the business. He can sell snow to an Eskimo at this point. He magnifies and makes every storyline feel like a big deal and I really can’t say enough about it.
– The arrival of the NXT divas, which I’ll cover more in depth in an article later this week, was everything that is good about wrestling. NXT has consistently outshined the main roster and the girls are no different. The chants were well-deserved and teaming Paige with Charlotte and Becky Lynch has me giddy. I cannot wait to see where they go with this. That’s a welcome change for the Divas division.
– What do Mark Henry, a backpack and a newborn baby all have in common? They all get carried. Good God, Mark Henry cannot wrestle. The Prime Time Players should get a locker room bonus simply for having to strap him to their backs like a parachute and walk him to a decent match.
– Owens and Cesaro continue their impressive run of matches recently and the Indy fan in me cannot help but smile when I see both men doing so well. Fluid, entertaining and paced well. Both men are the future for WWE when it comes to the Big Gold Belt.
-Amidst all the awesome from NXT recently, I cannot be the only one who thinks that Neville has been unimpressive on the Raw roster. He looks weirdly uncomfortable out there. Not a bad match, but nothing to write home about either.
-Contract signings are predictable and usually suck, but this one wasn’t that bad. Probably had a lot more to do with the idea of Lesnar always being a threat to maim someone and eat from the carcass than anything else. It could have been worse.
Pat Metalhead
Start of RAW and we have one of those Lesnar appearances, with Heyman selling Battleground to us all. Great promo by Heyman, as usual, just not anything we haven’t seen before.
Sheamus MitB win hasn’t done him much favors until now. Miz continues to be fun whenever he’s on commentary.
Reings finally getting his hands on Wyatt should have been a big moment. Only problem was the crowd didn’t seem to be that much into it. I can’t blame them.
Many rejoice at the arrival, in force, of the NXT girls. I do to. But Why oh why was Stephanie there to look down on everybody and dilute what should have been one of the most heated angles of the year for the Diva division (hell even for RAW as a whole)? They didn’t think Paige and the other could get the point across on their own? Steph needed an ego-boost? Come on guys, if there was one time we didn’t need the authority, that was it. Aside from that I look forward to see The Boss and the others show the Diva’s what real wrestling is about. Then again, the fact this was more about Steph than anyone else worries me.
Why does get Henry a pin over The New Day? Anyone?
Why am I seeing R-Truth vs Barrett each week? Anyone?
Owens vs Rusev Vs Cesaro. Oh dear, where to begin? Owens walked out and Rusev defeated Cesaro. So Cesaro is definitely there to make the others look good. HOW ABOUT MAKING CESARO LOOK GOOD GODDAMNIT??? See that’s what i mean about Cena’s Open challenges, they don’t make one bit of difference for anyone losing them, despite the good efforts from the challengers. Cesaro seemed to gain some momentum, great, let’s use that to put Rusev over. WWE booking is so despairing sometimes.
Owens destroying Rusev with the Powerbomb. Yes, that I can understand.
Speaking of despairing, how about Neville? Remember when some were saying him loosing to Cena was a good thing?
Fairly generic contract signing, enhanced by Lesnar’s destructive powers. And please tell me they weren’t teasing a Rollins/Kane feud at the end. Please?
