Tuesday Raw Roundtable: Title Tournament, Divas Main Event, Brothers of Destruction

Features, Top Story

WWE had another new Raw on Monday, what did the Pulse Wrestling crew think of the show?

Darren Paltrowitz

It was a pleasant surprise that the Divas got the closing (cliffhanger) spot of the show, although Charlotte is not so great on the mic. That storyline is stale. Paige is so over-the-top as a heel, and Charlotte is so “gosh gee whiz, hard work pays off” as a babyface, that they’re going to get the opposite reaction desired if this feud plays out in a major city.

The tournament to crown the new champion has been fairly-predictable, aside from Kalisto making it this far. Roman Reigns looks to finally be getting the push that most members of the IWC were hoping would go to Cesaro. Or Dean Ambrose. Or Kevin Owens. Or anyone but Roman.

The New Day stole the show as always. No question about that.

Hearing Shawn Michaels say — in the “Legends With JBL” promo clip — that The Undertaker is just as fresh today as he was 25 years ago is a real credibility-killer. As was the clip about how had The Undertaker jumped ship to WCW that the WWE would have been in trouble.

For me to take an interest in Survivor Series, there will need to an interesting non-tournament match or two, perhaps something with the tag team division. Or a second traditional Survivor Series match. Otherwise, that’s a lot of time invested in seeing Roman Reigns become champion.

Philip DiGiulio

The opening and closing promos were epic with Bray Wyatt possessing the Undertaker’s Druids and then the controversy of Paige insulting the memory of Charlotte’s brother, the late Reid Flair.

Tyler Breeze picking up a showcase win over R Truth on a PPV go home show leaves hope that there are huge plans for him and Summer Rae applying lip balm for Breeze mid match is the type of thing there needs to be more of.

Neville, even in defeat, displays aerial prowess with a moonsault to the outside and a reverse hurracanrana to Kevin Owens.

Dean Ambrose vs Dolph Ziggler was a throwback to to fan favorite against fan favorite matches 20 or 30 years ago with the test of strength, pure wrestling and applying holds until finally coming to blows.

Cesaro really shined against Roman Reigns with a cartwheel on the ropes to evade and both men put together some great sequences to create serious suspense

Kalisto vs Alberto Del Rio was what is was but should have been a Lucha Libre dream match but was not. Zeb Coulter killed it as always in the pre-match promo though.

New Day actually managed to get the audience to jeer them for their rulebreaking, which was basically the whole match.

Dudley Boyz beating The Ascension was head scratching because why do anything to build a team that lost a string of championship matches.

The Paris Tribute along with the Nick Bockwinkel memorial were both classy moves.

Brittney Soban

Diva’s Championship Contract Signing: Both Divas were strong on the mic but you could tell the second Reid Flair was brought up this was going South. While heart wrenching and difficult to watch, adding fire to the Divas going into Sunday it felt like WWE had hired Triple H to hit every fan in the gut with a sledgehammer. You could tell Charlotte and Paige were uncomfortable discussing Reid and that it was painful. Another step too far in an attempt to add fire to a feud. It was great to see the Divas close the night but it could’ve been done without bringing up those that have passed on.

Check out my full 10 Thoughts on Raw!!

JT

– hey, it’s the uncles of destruction! I know a lot of people are excited to see Taker and Kane back together, but their taking on 4 young workers doesn’t do much to get the Wyatts over as a threat. The same goes for the double choke slam on what looked a lot like children dressed in robes and sheep masks…

– Neville vs Owens was an entertaining match, with Neville looking like a legitimate threat before Owens picked up the win. The counter to KO’s pop up powerbomb rates a special mention, with a beautiful super kick into a reverse huricurana from Neville.

– R Truth is really just enhancement talent at this point, but by the same token he put on a decent match with Tyler Breeze.

– Ziggler vs Ambrose was pretty evenly matched, with Ambrose getting in a bit more offense than usual and Ziggler looking strong in defeat

– So the Usos have a red and blue Power Ranger thing going on, and Ryback is in a filler 6 man tag match rather than in the title tournament. I wonder how happy with that situation any of the players are? Standard match from New Day until Ryback runs wild and the heels bail to the back, and lose by count out, I guess?

– Cesaro carried Reigns to a good match, with a great cartwheel off the top rope, but eventually fell to the unstoppable rise of the chosen one.

– The only good thing about The Ascension is watching the Dudleys squashing them in their usual stiff style.

– ADR vs Kalisto was like a slice of Lucha Underground, with the requisite botches and high spots. Despite the hope of some optimistic nerds on the IP (me included) Kalisto fell victim to the mighty pectorals of the Mexamerican.

– overall a decent episode of Raw, with four good tournament matches and a bunch of filler, including the contract signing, which I’m not even going to bother watching…

CH Punk

Charlotte didn’t sign anything. New Day proves they are LOD for Millennials. That’s a complement.
Could’ve used more cowbell.

Jonathan Widro is the owner and founder of Inside Pulse. Over a decade ago he burst onto the scene with a pro-WCW reporting style that earned him the nickname WCWidro. Check him out on Twitter for mostly inane non sequiturs