WWE had another new Raw on Monday, what did the Pulse Wrestling crew think of the show?
Darren Paltrowitz
The Undertaker was a nice surprise at Battleground last night, even if the dirt sheets had hinted at it. But a rematch with Brock Lesnar is unnecessary. Lesnar should be pursuing the WWE title, as Paul Heyman’s great promo initially alluded to. I’m not confident that The Undertaker can offer a great match. Furthermore, Lesnar is arguably the top babyface of the company, so why would he fight one of the all-time top babyfaces if neither of them have heat?
The Intercontinental Title picture remains boring with Big Show and The Miz battling. I hope Ryback heals, but his injury did leave room for the Divas match at Battleground.
The tag team division is tolerable, at best. Two interesting teams at top, but how many times must a champion lose to a jobber due to a “distraction” of some sort?
Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper all need a strong feud to keep them relevant. Tonight did not offer that.
The same can be said for Rusev and Cesaro. That six-man tag main event was good, but reminded me of “Smackdown” in the Teddy Long era. The RKO finisher was great.
John Cena buried Seth Rollins a little too much in his promo. Rollins may not be “defending” the title, yet he’s on the road every night like Cena. Cena and Rollins could be a good feud if there were a “title versus title” aspect to it.
The Divas division is still arguably the best thing going for the main roster right now. Charlotte needs to change up the wardrobe up, or else there will soon be a wardrobe malfunction. I didn’t realize that Becky Lynch was doing a steampunk gimmick, I’m surprised that wasn’t nixed by a higher-up. Glad the Divas got two matches tonight.
Great to see a lot of the lower card appear during the Brock-Taker brawl. Finally, Damien Sandow made it back on “Raw.” Pretty sure I saw Brad Maddox in there, too. Way to make your roster look weak by not letting them hold two people apart, WWE. World’s Strongest Man, eh?
John Turnbull
Opening promo from Undertaker was a step down from the recent Heyman gold but the dead man has never really been known for his mic work.
Charlotte vs Brie was rough around the edges and showed that Charlotte probably needs a better opponent to really shine, but it was a better match than either of the Bellas have put on in a while.
PTP vs Los Matadores was unremarkable until the predictable New Day interference, at which point it became ridiculous. F#€k this feud.
Miz vs Big show was pointless, much like their entire program.
Heyman promo was the most entertaining thing so far, until the Lesnar/Taker brawl broke out! Funny stuff that the whole locker room was needed to keep them apart, and hilarious to see Taker slapping the crap out of Connor just because he was there. Best brawl I’ve seen in a while.
Reigns vs Harper was a passable big man match, with the former Brodie Lee carrying most of the weight. Pairing Reigns with Ambrose is definitely the best thing to get people cheering for the chosen one.
So Cena is back in the world title hunt – what a surprise. I would prefer almost anyone in the 6 man tag in his place. Not Shamus, of course. Because Shamus sucks.
The Divas tag match was entertaining, which is more than I can say for 80% of the show this week.
The 6 man tag match was fun whenever Owens or Cesaro were in the ring, but I can’t help thinking it would have been better without the inclusion of the other 4 men. And no, I am not f’n entertained, Shamus.
Overall an average episode of Raw saved by a couple of decent tag matches and a great brawl between Lesnar and the Undertaker.
Pat Metalhead
Let’s get that brawl thing out of the way first because I’m pissed off. Was it a good segment? Well, Lesnar and Taker looked to be suitably incensed, the commentary team bailing out was a nice touch, it was a wild and chaotic brawl the likes of which we seldom see anymore in the WWE and Heyman was gold, as usual.
Then what’s my problem? Simple.
It pisses me off that we always have to wait for guys that are seldom there to see something like this, and to people who are saying no-one else has the aura of Lesnar and undertaker, I answer, sure, but who’s fault is that? If WWE is presenting everyone else as inferior to Taker, Lesnar and Cena, how can the other wrestlerswrestlers shine? This is WCW all over again. It pisses me off that Steph and Triple H are doing more efforts to put over Taker and Lesnar at Summerslam than they did for anyone else in years. It pisses me off that 95 % of the locker room was treated as jobbers to the “real” stars. I mean there were guys like Owens and Cesaro out their completely lost in the shuffle, while someone like the Big Show was protected. I can understand Cena and Orton for example, I can certainly understand Rollins as he wasn’t about to come within arm’s reach of Lesnar, but Big Show? what’s the message here? If Big Show was there he would have solved the whole thing with some KO Punches? Why is he protected over those best suited to become THE FUTURE STARS OF YOUR DAMN COMPANY???? It pisses me off that creative only work their asses of to create intriguing and entertaining television for part-timers. It pisses me off that the implied idea here is that only Lesnar can beat Taker and vice-versa. That’s one of the reasons the WWE product is so stale. If they insist on presenting part-timers as invincible and their sporadic appearances as the only thing that matters, why should we care about anything else that happens the rest of the year? And finally it pisses me off that WWE is, once again, selling us an empty box. Sure the wrapping is kinda nice and shiny and good looking, but even FANS of Taker/Lesnar part 2 are saying that the match is probably gonna suck. People that are sold on the whole thing admit it’s gonna suck!!! So your main event, the most important, epic, momentous event ever to happen (according to Triple H and Steph) is gonna suck. Great. Meanwhile Cesaro is being presented as Cena’s sidekick and Owens has become Cena’s understudy and Rollins is being presented as a joke and Cena’s next victim. Stale? That doesn’t even begin to explain WWE’s current situation.
The rest of the show didn’t do much to better my mood.
The NXT girls were allowed time to shine, and shine they did. But it pisses me off (again) that commentary insists on putting over Stephanie McMahon while they should be putting over what’s happening in the ring. Because, no, Steph has nothing to do with the talent those girls have.
It pisses me off that Cena is probably gonna be Seth Rollins next opponent. Not because the segment was bad, I actually think they both had some good points, but, as hinted above, Cena is still being portrayed as the real thing and Rollins is being portrayed as a joke. Beside, is there any doubt on who will win this one. Remember Spoiler: Cena wins? Right.
Big Show treating Miz like a jobber is actually being applauded by some because they hate Miz. Those people are missing the point.
I liked the fact that New Day inserted themselves in the title picture again, but the fact that it was a risible gimmick like Los Matadors picking up the win, because, apparently, there is no-one else, pisses me off.
I liked that Ambrose was added to the Reigns/Harper/Wyatt thing, I’m finally interested in this feud and it’s gonna be fun comparing the crowd reactions Reigns and Ambrose are getting, but if the rumors are true and they add Sting to this, it’s gonna piss me of because they’re then gonna screw-up something that could be great.
Main event was watchable, but Rusev looked like a face trying to overcome insurmountable odds at some point, and all I could think off while watching this is what a great team Orton and Cesaro would form. It would be more useful than what they are doing now anyway. Besides, except Cena, all were afterthoughts to the real stars, a 50 year, broken down veteran, and a part-timer who will only show up when he’s paid enough and who can only perform well when he’s allowed to be in Suplex City. Signs of improvement? Where? Summerslam is gonna be a huge step backwards and WWE only has themselves to blame for it
