WWE had another new Raw on Monday, what did the Pulse Wrestling crew think of the show?
Darren Paltrowitz
New Day were great as always, even though they had to work with Sheamus. They made Sheamus look much better.
Tyler Breeze is looking more like a jobber every week, which is a shame.
Miz TV is still a horrific segment, and The Miz really should be relegated to “Main Event” or something exclusive to the WWE Network. Adam Rose’s The Rosebush segment is plenty more compelling than Miz TV.
The more Rusev talks, the less menacing he seems. Lana is popular, but Rusev crediting her for everything in that segment makes no sense. And Ryback having a one-off match with Rusev makes even less sense.
The Dudley Boyz is a stale tag team. Tommy Dreamer somehow makes them more interesting, and the crowd was way into this appearance. It should be a sign to WWE that one-off appearances from legends can be powerful — and perhaps the Dudley Boyz should have been a one-off every few months rather than a full-time returning tag team.
By contrast, the Ric Flair appearance during the Charlotte match wasn’t utilized particularly well.
In the next segment, Alberto Del Rio referred to Goldust as “out of date.” Meanwhile, Tommy Dreamer is an ECW classic? Consistency alert!
The Lucha Dragons are babyfaces, The Usos are babyfaces…yeah, that made a lot of sense for a match. The Ascension is your resident jobber tag team, c’mon! However, I’m not going to criticize another segment that gives mic time to New Day.
If the Becky Lynch match against Charlotte — two more babyfaces — had a New Day match, I would have at least enjoyed it. But if that was supposed to be a Charlotte heel turn, now that if she’s wrestling against Paige at the next pay per view, then we have two heels wrestling. Yep. Logic at work.
Sasha Banks deserves better than a Brie Bella match. She also deserves better than being part of the Team B.A.D. stable. It’s still not clear who are the heels in the Team Bella and Team B.A.D. battle. Credit due to Team B.A.D. for the Rick James / “Chappelle’s Show” reference in the pre-recorded promo, though.
Sheamus having his arm around Lilian Garcia was truly a great “RAW” moment. Very meme-worthy.
Stardust and Titus O’Neil being relegated to a pre-tape segment is pretty insulting to both of them.
That eight-man tag match with the League Of Nations was “Smackdown”-worthy, but at least it had New Day involved — their fourth segment of the evening, if you count the WWE merch commercial that also ran during “Smackdown.”
Damien Mizdow is still missing in action, unfortunately.
Zack Ryder, miss you too.
Heath Slater, you as well.
Mark Henry, I’m glad you didn’t have to job this week, but it still would’ve been nice to see you.
Same goes for Bo Dallas.
Philip DiGiulio
The WWE seems to realize the value of The New Day by kicking off RAW with them celebrating the championship victory of Sheamus, who looked “on fleek” in that suit and slicked back mohawk. Roman Reigns superman punching the champ did more for him than any promo ever could. Dolph Ziggler vs Tyler Breeze was a solid opening match though skipping Breeze’s entrance, one of his strengths was downright baffling.
Miz TV with Rusev and Lana worked well and will hopefully dispel the rumors that Lana has “nuclear heat” backstage but The Ryback interruption wasn’t necessary except to being that feud. Both Divas matches delivered and the Charlotte vs Becky Lynch with Paige as the antagonist is a highly layered story line worthy on the slow build it that is being furnished.
Probably too many screwy finishes with Rusev being counted out, Usos vs Lucha Dragons having New Day interference and Alberto Del Rio squashing Goldust who just returned. Advancement of angles is the reason, but these finishes sure held an otherwise great show back. Tommy Dreamer was a huge surprise return to aid the Dudleys against The Wyatt Family. Could RVD return as well to make it an even 4 on 4?
The Rosebush segments were a hit by the live reaction and could reinvigorate Adam Rose. Hopefully “The League of Nations” heading by Sheamus will be a permanent group as they make the title reign more interesting. Them defeating Roman, The Usos and Dean Ambrose in the main event suggests that this is indeed the case.
JT
– Shamus looks a little like Daken, son of Wolverine with his hair slicked back. The resemblance to anything remotely cool or interesting ends there.
– Ziggler vs Breeze was entertaining, and it’s good to see Tyler getting some decent airtime on the main show. The chances of Dolph getting a title shot, however, seem increasingly remote.
Check out my full 10 Thoughts on Raw!!
Sebastian Howard
I just thought it was extremely boring, tuned out around the last hour. That eight man tag was so telegraphed.
