Raw 11/04/11 Discussion

[Smegma Cake]

The stipulation that Jerry Lawler chose was a bit weak IMO, I was hoping for a steel cage match or something which would see Lawler get the chance to beat seven shades of shit out of Cole. The tag team match doesn't cut it for me.

 

He's still to announce the stipulation. He gets to chose the match and stipulation.

[Glen Quagmire]

The stipulation that Jerry Lawler chose was a bit weak IMO, I was hoping for a steel cage match or something which would see Lawler get the chance to beat seven shades of shit out of Cole. The tag team match doesn't cut it for me.

 

He's still to announce the stipulation. He gets to chose the match and stipulation.

Was a little confused by it all, I think you're right.

 

Also is it me or did someone stick a bicycle pump up Mason Ryan's arse?

[AndyUK]

I enjoyed RAW this week. It was very unpredictable so kudos to them for that. Obviously the main thing coming out of the show is Edge's shock retirement and that was seriously out of left field. It's sad when people you grew up watching start to retire. He's had a great career though and is doing the right thing in not risking his body.

 

As for the rest, R-Truth getting a main event push of nowhere is seriously random like people have said. I don't mind when people are built up quickly ala Del Rio because at least they're built up but when they've been doing nothing but job for a the past few months and suddenly become a main event player out of nowhere, it is a bit shit.

 

The Gauntlet stuff was interesting though. Things like that were so many people are gunning for a shot at the World Title always serve to make it look really credible. Cena's quest to be champion heading into Mania 28 is something different too and keeps the match with Rock fresh in people's minds, even if the match really doesn't need the title.

 

The Divas stuff was a lot more interesting than usual. Kong's vignette was great, I'm glad they've started using those for debuting Superstars again as they're very effective and it will be interesting to see where the backstage segment with Eve moaning at the rest of the Divas goes. Brie Bella becoming the new champion is certainly something new.

 

I enjoyed Sin Cara's debut match with Primo, there were a couple of really cool looking spots in there and while the Cole/Lawler feud is starting to wear a bit of thin, JR being on TV again makes it tolerable and I hope the stipulation that Lawler announces next week is that if him and JR win at Extreme Rules, JR gets his job on RAW back. That would be a very fitting end to the feud.

[Slapnut]

Highlight of the show was JR telling the referee to shut up. Hilarious stuff.

 

Thought it was a cracking show. I echo everyone's thoughts on R-Truth mind, completely mind-boggling choice. No doubt that the original choice was Morrison before he golden-showered Trish Stratus or whatever.

 

Sin Cara and Primo had a quality match too.

[Ron Simmons]

I'm not overly bothered about the R-Truth title shot. The guy's over, and has consistantly received a good reaction since he debuted. Why not give him an opportunity in the main event? I think it's either a pre-empt to a heel turn, or they're building him up to send him over to Smackdown to replace Edge. WWE needs a top African American star, and while I think Kofi Kingston's by far the better candidate for that role, I'm sure R-Truth can fill the role should they give him more of a character.

[Sexy Dad]

Thinking about it now, Miz did say on commentary 'If R-Truth gets the title shot I don't know whether he'll bring the street thug or the guy who sings with kids' or something along them lines. Despite this out of the blue win for Truth indicating that he's going to get a bit of development, The Miz' statement makes it look evident that they will be adding more dimension to Truth and its about bloody time. He was actually quite watchable in TNA as far as I remember so this could be a step in the right direction even if the shot should have gone to someone else.

[The Invisible Boy]

Just checked, its on Box Office. Fuck that.

 

I was sure they advertised it being on Sky Sports on a recent show but yeah I just checked on the Sky website and it says Box Office, that sucks!

 

As for Raw, gutted for Edge but at least he's gone out on top and he found out now, it's better he retired now rather than went on unknowingly and made things a lot worse. It's interesting to see what happens with the World Title now though, obviously Edge will probably vacate it on Smackdown but will they hold a tournament and the winner goes against the current number one contender, Alberto Del Rio, or will Edge just handpick Christian to replace him? I'd guess they'd leave the Title vacated for Extreme Rules, if not it's a bit stupid crowning a Champion meer weeks before a PPV where it could be up for grabs and it would be guaranteed that a new Champion would walk out.

 

R-Truth in a main event of a PPV, just crazy. I was hoping it'd end up being Miz vs. Morrison, those two would have a brilliant rivalry with their history as a tag team and then their hate for each other when Miz turned on Morrison (or was it the other way around), either way I'm waiting and waiting for them to feud properly and have the WWE Title involved, I'd love that, it'd be a lot more interesting with the history between the two rather than sticking two guys together just to go for the WWE Title, fair enough there's a point to them feuding if it's for the Title but I'd love a WWE Title feud between two guys who have a history like Miz and Morrison. Especially as Morrison is the guy a lot of people were thinking would be the HBK of the team and Miz the Jannetty, but it turned out to go the other way round, Miz could even bring that up in his promos and what not. I know it wouldn't happen any time soon though with Morrison's backstage attitude. Also just a quick note on Miz's commentary, I thought his "Super Cena" line was great and it kind of made it seem that he was standing up for the Cena Haters who sarcastically say "Super Cena" every time he somehow defeats the odds and there are a lot of heated chants and boos. He also mentioned that it was five year olds and women who were chanting "Cena" and "everyone with a brain" was chanting "Cena Sucks" which I thought was pretty amusing.

 

Sin Cara looked great but I have to say WWE should bring back a cruiserweight/lightheavyweight division for him, even better have something similar to the X Division and have no limits on anything which would be great for highflyers and also big guys, they could have highflyer feuds, big guys feuding and a mix of the two.

 

Looks as though Awesome Kong will be arriving soon too with that video package, looks like she's going to be a monster heel character after she was breaking the heads off dolls. Eve losing the Title to Brie Bella was cool too, I like Eve as Champion but a feud between her and the Bellas with the Bellas switching and so on would be good, then maybe have them put in a three way match or a four way so there's no way they can switch, then maybe Nikki could get the pin and Brie lets on it was her pinning which could lead to a split and feud.

 

I thought Lawler making it a tag match with him and JR against Cole and Swagger (who now looks like he isn't good friends with Cole anymore) was a bit stupid, it's a few weeks away and what's to say Swagger and Cole won't become friends again in that time?

 

Glad to see Nexus are back again but I would have liked to have seen it progress a bit rather than just have them beat down Orton again. Also The Corre, at least they got the win now but the whole Apple thing has just made it seem they are part of a comedy angle with Santino, which they shouldn't be at all, one of them is a big monster, the others are the Tag Team Champions and the Intercontinental Champion.

[d-d-d-dAz]

Sin Cara looked great but I have to say WWE should bring back a cruiserweight/lightheavyweight division for him, even better have something similar to the X Division and have no limits on anything which would be great for highflyers and also big guys, they could have highflyer feuds, big guys feuding and a mix of the two.

 

Erm, like the World Heavyweight/WWE championship divisions...?

[Doog]

R-Truth got a big pop when he cane out at the start and when he came out for the gauntlet too, he always does, so it makes sense in that respect to capatalize on it, much as I like Morrison, Truth is much more over than him.

 

And I agree it would seem he'll be going heel now which could be good cause obviously he hasn't played a heel in the WWE yet and if they stick him as a thug up against Cena it could be entertaining for a bit, not sure where that'd leave Miz though.

 

Gutted for Edge too, I'm still slightly skeptical and will be until tonights Smackdown is over.

[The Invisible Boy]

Sin Cara looked great but I have to say WWE should bring back a cruiserweight/lightheavyweight division for him, even better have something similar to the X Division and have no limits on anything which would be great for highflyers and also big guys, they could have highflyer feuds, big guys feuding and a mix of the two.

 

Erm, like the World Heavyweight/WWE championship divisions...?

 

Yeah but bar Rey Mysterio's run as World Heavyweight Champion I'm not sure if we'd see much more guys like that winning it. Technically it is a Heavyweight division for both of the top Titles (The World Heavyweight and WWE Championships) so you should technically be a certain weight to be a contender, over the past few years now they seem to have been a little lenient with that rule and I think it could be due to the death of their Cruiserweight division and wanting Rey Mysterio to have his run as World Heavyweight Champion after Eddie's passing. On the other side a Cruiserweight/Lightheavyweight division is for the smaller guys who aren't big enough for the Heavyweight division and therefore bigger guys can't be involved, the X Division was a no limit one, where the two mixed. I suppose the top Titles the smaller guys could really go for technically would be the US and Intercontinental ones but I'm not sure if there are supposed to be any actual weight limits on them.

[Fox Piss]

Please end this Lawler/Cole/Swagger/JR feud.

 

Before Wrestlemania yeah i could watch it but i do not want to see Lawler get his shit pop along with his awful match every week.

[Snitsky's back acne]

Awesome Kong's vignette video was tremendous.

 

 

Kongs promo was EXACTLY how I'd imagine her vignettes going. Playing the 'Anti Diva' should make for some good TV and something VERY different in that division.

 

 

Kong's vignette was great

 

Great to hear I'm not the only one who thought the vignette for Kong was great.

 

Reminded me a bit of the Mankind vignettes from '96.

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

Sin Cara looked great but I have to say WWE should bring back a cruiserweight/lightheavyweight division for him, even better have something similar to the X Division and have no limits on anything which would be great for highflyers and also big guys, they could have highflyer feuds, big guys feuding and a mix of the two.

 

Erm, like the World Heavyweight/WWE championship divisions...?

 

Yeah but bar Rey Mysterio's run as World Heavyweight Champion I'm not sure if we'd see much more guys like that winning it. Technically it is a Heavyweight division for both of the top Titles (The World Heavyweight and WWE Championships) so you should technically be a certain weight to be a contender, over the past few years now they seem to have been a little lenient with that rule and I think it could be due to the death of their Cruiserweight division and wanting Rey Mysterio to have his run as World Heavyweight Champion after Eddie's passing. On the other side a Cruiserweight/Lightheavyweight division is for the smaller guys who aren't big enough for the Heavyweight division and therefore bigger guys can't be involved, the X Division was a no limit one, where the two mixed. I suppose the top Titles the smaller guys could really go for technically would be the US and Intercontinental ones but I'm not sure if there are supposed to be any actual weight limits on them.

 

- Technically a heavyweight championship, like in boxing traditionally, has no lower weight limit. Hence there is no reason to bar Misterio or Sin Cara for competing for it.

 

- Technically the US and IC belts were heavyweight championships as well.

 

- Technically the X devision championship is, kayfabe wise, flawed. It spouts about being no limits, but all matches had the same rules as standard matches anyway. As great as some of the matches have been in the early days of TNA, this "no limits" bollocks has always bugged me.

 

To be honest, the introduction of a new championship is ridiculous especially when there are already several that are being misused. What the WWE need to do is build up the importance of a midcard belt (e.g. the IC title) and then put in on SinCara. The alternative that you've suggested, where by a new championship is created, will fail if the WWE don't back it... and I don't believe they ever would.

[The Invisible Boy]

Sin Cara looked great but I have to say WWE should bring back a cruiserweight/lightheavyweight division for him, even better have something similar to the X Division and have no limits on anything which would be great for highflyers and also big guys, they could have highflyer feuds, big guys feuding and a mix of the two.

 

Erm, like the World Heavyweight/WWE championship divisions...?

 

Yeah but bar Rey Mysterio's run as World Heavyweight Champion I'm not sure if we'd see much more guys like that winning it. Technically it is a Heavyweight division for both of the top Titles (The World Heavyweight and WWE Championships) so you should technically be a certain weight to be a contender, over the past few years now they seem to have been a little lenient with that rule and I think it could be due to the death of their Cruiserweight division and wanting Rey Mysterio to have his run as World Heavyweight Champion after Eddie's passing. On the other side a Cruiserweight/Lightheavyweight division is for the smaller guys who aren't big enough for the Heavyweight division and therefore bigger guys can't be involved, the X Division was a no limit one, where the two mixed. I suppose the top Titles the smaller guys could really go for technically would be the US and Intercontinental ones but I'm not sure if there are supposed to be any actual weight limits on them.

 

- Technically a heavyweight championship, like in boxing traditionally, has no lower weight limit. Hence there is no reason to bar Misterio or Sin Cara for competing for it.

 

- Technically the US and IC belts were heavyweight championships as well.

 

- Technically the X devision championship is, kayfabe wise, flawed. It spouts about being no limits, but all matches had the same rules as standard matches anyway. As great as some of the matches have been in the early days of TNA, this "no limits" bollocks has always bugged me.

 

To be honest, the introduction of a new championship is ridiculous especially when there are already several that are being misused. What the WWE need to do is build up the importance of a midcard belt (e.g. the IC title) and then put in on SinCara. The alternative that you've suggested, where by a new championship is created, will fail if the WWE don't back it... and I don't believe they ever would.

 

Well really I just kind of thought the use of heavyweight, cruiserweight or lightheavyweight in the titles of Championships indicated that you had to be a certain weight size to wrestle for them. I realise now after reading this that weight class is now defunct for the most part. I remember on one of my old videogames, think it might have been Wrestlemania 2000 on the N64 that you had to be 220 pounds to challenge for the WWF Title. But yeah weight classes seem to have just faded out now which kind of explains why there is no more Lightheavyweight or Cruiserweight Title but why have a World Heavyweight Title, fair enough with the WWE Title but why not call the other one the World Title instead of World Heavyweight.

 

I think the idea of the X Division was that there were no limitations on who could wrestle for it (ie. weight class, probably gender and so on), not on the rules of the matches, ala the Hardcore Title.

[Vito]

Y'know I reckon an R-Truth heel turn and dramatic JBL-esque character change could be just what the doctor ordered. Picture this:

 

Next week on Raw the arena suddenly dims and a dark, heavy, brooding rap song plays throughout the arena, after a few moments R-Truth appears at the top of the ramp dressed in an expensive looking suit, wearing sunglasses, draped in jewellery and sporting a new shorter haircut. He gets into the ring and cuts a passionate promo beginning with a line about how the day after being declared the joint number one contender (with Cena) his contract with the WWE expired, concerned about ruining the advertised triple threat at Extreme Rules and losing a valuable superstar the WWE asked R-Truth to "name his price"; the price being a fat payrise and the ability to speak "the truth". R-Truth says that despite referring to himself as "The Truth" he's never truly been allowed to speak his mind because what he has to say might be difficult for some people to understand and that there are some people who will never be able to understand the truth. R-Truth talks about how he's been a loyal friend to John Cena and has happily stood aside on several occasions to allow his friend to remain the top dog, but R-Truth's loyalty has never got him anywhere, in fact John Cena has publicly ridiculed R-Truth for making a mistake on the mic a few weeks ago (when he botched the name of the town Raw was in) and has secretly petitioned behind the scenes to keep R-Truth away from important matches.

 

R-Truth talks about being held back by "the system" in the WWE, he talks about how John Cena persuaded R-Truth change his entrance music from "Right Time (To Get Crunk)" back to "What's Up?" and keep repeating the "What's up?" catchphrase despite secretly detesting it. He talks about how Cena and management would tell him to "just go out there are do those flippy moves you do, because it's what the audience pays for" despite wanting to be taken seriously. R-Truth explains how John Cena was nothing more than a bland musclehead before he "discovered rap" and milked it for all it was worth, he implies that Cena's songs were ghostwritten, that Cena's rap promos were written in advance by other people and that because of Cena R-Truth couldn't be taken seriously as a wrestler and rapper and that R-Truth had to constantly take a backseat to Cena's dreams of glory and be content with playing the flippy floppy ©rapping clown. R-Truth explains that although Cena may be a fraud R-Truth is legit and although R-Truth's words may not be popular they are the inescapable truth.

 

In closing R-Truth ditches the R-Truth moniker and debuts something less crappy.

 

It'd be a really delicate process because you want it to be about Truth's issues with Cena's character and not descend into a race angle, especially if Truth's going to play the heel. Personally I'd love to hear Truth ask why there has never been an African-American WWE champion, use terms like "whitewashed" and accuse Cena of exploiting "the music of the slaves" but I doubt the WWE would be willing to go that far in the PG era.

 

...or alternatively the WWE can keep R-Truth the same as he is now and serve no purpose in the main event of Extreme Rules other than to be the fall guy for either Miz or Cena.