WWE presented a post-TLCS 2014 edition of Monday Night Raw
Here are our staff thoughts!
Steven Berkman
Raw honestly made me think “maybe it’s time to stop watching regularly again”.
There’s nothing to appeal to a traditional wrestling fan. It’s 90% goofy sh*t made to appeal to “the masses” that won’t buy the merch, the PPV or the network.
Their current model is basically hemorrhaging fans and by that token, money. NXT and ROH are really the two things that keep my interest in wrestling in general and both products blow Raw clean out of the water.
Jimmy Jacobs, Scarlett Bordeaux and Taeler Hendrix appearing on screen should not be a show highlight for me, but it was the best part. I guess the payoff for them for the night is worth it if they’re in the area but it doesn’t get them any real exposure because the only people that would recognize them already follow their products.
Lesnar coming back to beat someone up isn’t a novelty anymore. It’s a quarterly duty. Cena/Lesnar does not interest me at all and the fact that they didn’t use the escape hatch they had in that tables match is a shame. It’s all going to lead to a Rollins cash in, a crummy short title reign and passing the torch to Reigns who I also don’t care about. Or it’s going to mean Cena has a SIXTEENTH title reign.
Raw is consistently an unequivocal disappointment to me as a fan of wrestling. And that makes me sad because I love wrestling. But raw? Raw isn’t wrestling anymore.
Justin Czerwonka
The WWE’s creative direction is just a giant mess right now. Apparently, there was a talent only meeting backstage about not having any kind of silent protest about booking. What should happen is the whole roster should step into Vince’s office and demand sweeping changes throughout the product. And something like that is desperately needed. The main event was good and a couple other things were, but the overall show just fell flat and nothing of note really happened. I’ll give the show a 3.
PK
Raw was a forgettable show. When I want to write my thoughts on it, and have to visit @WWECreative_ish to remember what happened, that’s a bad sign.
Brock beating down Jericho was predictable. Brock beating down Cena was predictable. The New Day is a lame version of 3MB (at least Jinder & Drew changed their characters to have a theme for the group…not just be best buddies). The Ascension vignette only made me realize that there are way too many tag teams that wear face paint. Roman’s return to Raw was lukewarm, at best. Let’s not even mention the budding feud between Ryback & Rusev. And the reward for having the 2 best matches on the PPV was curtain jerking in a throw away tag match (in which Big Show scored the pin?!?), and NOT EVEN APPEARING ON RAW!
There were 3 highlights: Jimmy Jacobs in the Rosebuds, Kane giving the Bunny a tombstone, and (of course) Mizdow. How can NXT be so awesome, and Raw be so terrible? (the answer is that there is wrestling on NXT).
Widro
Raw isn’t even 3 hours anymore, there is a half hour pre-show and an extended overrun, it’s more like a four hour commitment. And in all that time, they couldn’t fit Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose on the show? Is Ambrose still selling his electricity burns?
Setting up a Jericho vs. Heyman match was pointless, stupid and boring. The cage match at the end was good action but the finish was a convoluted mess. Watching WWE right now is a chore and I can’t imagine many fans enjoying these slogs of a show.
