d-d-d-dAz Posted August 23, 2011 Author Share Posted August 23, 2011 One thing really struck me from Raw, something that I've assumed since they started saying 'pissed off' and 'ass' again but now I am absolutely sure of; they are marketing the product at an older age group now, aren't they? I'm not saying we're at the attitude end of the scale, whereby they are targeting the 18 - 34 demographic hard, but there is at least a focus on teenagers as opposed to young children in the writing. Â What really put it over for me was that a couple of years ago you had a shitty Cena/Santino segment, albeit tongue in cheek, where Cena reprimanded Santino for disparaging Santa and trying to expose his 'secret' whereas last night Punk just came out and said Santa's not real. I know it's an odd thing to pick up on, but I think if they were still trying to tickle the belly of the parents and young kids it's not something they'd have put out there. Â I suppose if we are to believe that Vince believes in the 'life cycle' of a WWE fan, then we have moved beyond childhood into adolescence... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyshady Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 It depends what their contracts are that require them to be PG, if it's family orientated programming or just anything as long as it's within the PG boundaries. I know they're cussing a little bit more now but back then it was constant. Promo after promo, even the announcers, even though ass is a tame word it was just used to often as was other words. I think now they could be doing with a little bit more of that and not just letting the main event guys get away with it. It just makes it a bit more realistic because that's how real people talk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members CleetusVanDamme Posted August 23, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted August 23, 2011 So, Swagger's managed by Vickie now as well, what the fuck?, because Dolph Ziggler being Escobarred into oblivion worked out so well, right?. They did make a great start to the angle though, Vickie came out and said "Excuse me", and then the commentators spent the duration of Swaggers match talking about her. DO YOU FEEL THAT?, THAT'S JACK SWAGGER'S CAREER BEING REVITALISED!. Then they teased the Dolph/Vickie break-up for at least the 80th time this year. Outside of the obvious real career benefits (not being with Vickie), this angle's loooooong went past the point where Dolph will benefit at all from the breakup, storyline wise. That's all being optimistic though, this will end up like the other 79 teases, with Dolph still firmly in the role of her bitch, except now he has a partner to stand around looking stupid with while she speaks. SHE'S LIKE A MODERN DAY BOBBY HEENAN!. Â Â The (end of the) tag match was pretty cool, as was Santino getting, uh, got. The Truth/Miz alliance is a good idea, and should keep them relevant while whatever's going down in the main event scene, keeps going down. The slagging off the crowd rap needs to become their entrance. Â Â Love, love, loved the Nash/Punk/HHH/everyone else shit. Big Kev needs to be given theme music though, I get that he's not an "employee" at this point, but they know he's going to be there, they've announced that he's going to be coming out, why can't you play his fucking music?. Despite the jobber entrance, the crowd reacted better to Kev this week, he was tremendous in everything he did, especially slugging Punk in the jaw after he got a bit too mouthy to his mate. The others deserve a mention as well.. Punk's still on fire, HHH is great in the authority figure role, Cena's doing fine taking a backseat to Punk, Del Rio's had a good start to his title reign, and even Johnny Ace has been cracking as the corporate stooge. Â Â Â Two really good matches, and some great storyline development. These Monday-Monday waits are starting to feel really long again eh?. Hopefully they'll keep it up.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted August 23, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted August 23, 2011 Shawn Michaels had these words to say on his twitter: It aint gonna be good for anybody if @RealKevinNash gets really angry. At any age I'll put him against anybody in WWE at the real deal!! Â See! Its The Kliq mentality. I bet Triple H feels that Nash has one last run in him. I think Big Kev's sticking around for a long while yet. Wouldnt surprise me if CM Punk's doing the J-O-B at Night of Champions. And if anyone doubts it, he's the master. He's the man who got Vince to travel in a van while he and his pals went on strike. He's the man who keeps getting Scott Hall a job (even as earlier as last year), he tore his quad on a high six figure salary, and when a normal man would have had his contract ran down, Nash returns and gets a main event run. He's also the man who WWE wanted on the booking committee in 2003 and who Hogan and Bischoff wanted on the TNA booking squad in 2010. And he's a 52 year old man getting pushed in a top storyline in wrestling during WWE's "youth movement". Give him a few weeks, he'll probably be slapping Alberto and Cena around and returning with the winged eagle belt. He's a man of many talents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doog Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 I was suprised how Cena took advantage of Nash's distraction to win too. He's adding a lot more heel traits to his character lately. I don't think they're turning him fully heel yet, nor will they probably ever, but he's definently tweaking it up a bit. He's not being as jokey as he used to be the last couple of weeks either. Interesting to see how this plays out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyshady Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 I quite liked the look of that new OMG Top 50 Moments DVD/blu ray. I know it isn't out till September over here but don't Silver Vision send stuff out early? It says preorder on their site so i'm not sure if it's worth placing an order now or waiting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted August 23, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted August 23, 2011 People will read absolutely ANYTHING slightly different or out of character that Cena does as him turning heel, won't they? Â Great Raw, though. Del Rio seems incapable of a bad match right now and is looking a legitimate nutter with all these post-match attacks. First segment fell a bit flat and the Divas were shit as usual, otherwise it was a great show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xear Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 Who all was in the kingston/Bourne post win segment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doog Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 People will read absolutely ANYTHING slightly different or out of character that Cena does as him turning heel, won't they? Great Raw, though. Del Rio seems incapable of a bad match right now and is looking a legitimate nutter with all these post-match attacks. First segment fell a bit flat and the Divas were shit as usual, otherwise it was a great show.  I dont think he's turning heel, I just think its interesting they're tweaking his character quite a bit lately. He's been the goody goody guy for ages now, apart from little bits when he was feuding with The Rock, but lately his character has definently shifted a bit the last few weeks.  I dont think it's headed towards a heel turn, but with him mentioning on twitter he was thinking of changing his ring gear soon, it might mean he's starting to move away from the kiddy friendly Cena and being a bit more grown up. We'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonworden Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 One thing really struck me from Raw, something that I've assumed since they started saying 'pissed off' and 'ass' again but now I am absolutely sure of; they are marketing the product at an older age group now, aren't they? I'm not saying we're at the attitude end of the scale, whereby they are targeting the 18 - 34 demographic hard, but there is at least a focus on teenagers as opposed to young children in the writing. What really put it over for me was that a couple of years ago you had a shitty Cena/Santino segment, albeit tongue in cheek, where Cena reprimanded Santino for disparaging Santa and trying to expose his 'secret' whereas last night Punk just came out and said Santa's not real. I know it's an odd thing to pick up on, but I think if they were still trying to tickle the belly of the parents and young kids it's not something they'd have put out there.  I suppose if we are to believe that Vince believes in the 'life cycle' of a WWE fan, then we have moved beyond childhood into adolescence...   I think and hope this goes back to a more sensible mind set from people in power based on the theory of Kids Grow up Too Fast (KGUTF from now on). I did an extremely large project in my final year at uni on this and how kids are going from playing with certain toys that 10-15 years ago they would have till 12 years old to wanting more grown up things sooner. A good example is in 1995 a 10 year old would probably have wanted a a Power Ranger as a boy and Barbie as a girl to now wanting a PS3/ Dresses respectively in 2011. Kids have always wanted to feel more grown up and with todays media so much more wide and accessible this is more prominant than ever.  Therefore the kids who watch wrestling who in 2008-2009 who were 6-8 are now trying to look more adult even before there teens and of course a clever businessman needs to make there product reflect this and I think this is part of whats happening Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 Brilliant Raw. Everyone looked good in the opening speeches, and it segued well to Morrison vs Del Rio. Which was a fun match, although some of Morrison's jumpy shit was pretty wonky, particularly when Alberto "caught" the running knee and "tried to powerbomb him." Â The HHH/Nash/Punk stuff was great, and the main event was as good a TV match as you could ever hope for. Â Miz/Truth were tremendous, and there's a new, more interesting champion tag team for them to feud with in Kofi and Bourne. The Bellas looked fucking marvellous as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 I bet Triple H feels that Nash has one last run in him. Â And he's right. Though I think they should let him grey out his hair slowly. He looks better grey than all died up as he is at the moment. Â Eventually we could be looking at a HHH - Nash feud, which I'd be all up for again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PepperPlunge Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 There was a part that really made me cringe "What I have a problem with is that this whole scenario is some sort of concentrated effort by you, Triple H, Kevin Nash, I dunno maybe Jack Tunney's involved too - but you're all trying to screw me." And there's absolutely no reaction to which Punk continues "that's what I have a problem with" and then laughs a little and says "come on" under his breath. I think the crowd was like 80/20 Cena until the main event where the Punk fans seemed to come out of the woodwork more. There was a part in the show where a small portion tried a CM Punk chant and it didn't catch on too. Â Also, the vast majority of fans won't know who Jack Tunney is. I know that's CM Punk's 'thing' saying comments to please smarks and most of it I've enjoyed but last week I felt he did it too much going on about Eddie Guerrero being called a vanilla midget and that comment I felt the same way. Â Mostly a good Raw though. Pretty predictable but much more direction than there has been before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted August 23, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted August 23, 2011 Also, the vast majority of fans won't know who Jack Tunney is. I know that's CM Punk's 'thing' saying comments to please smarks and most of it I've enjoyed but last week I felt he did it too much going on about Eddie Guerrero being called a vanilla midget and that comment I felt the same way. Your spot on there. The reason Punk's original shoot-style promo and the follow up with Vince was so great is because as fans we've learned to believe Vince is a complete scum bag character, so his jibes at McMahon were still in the context of the characters we see on TV. Bringing up Jack Tunney and vanilla midgets reminds me of WCW in mid-2000 where everyone was saying things like "the writers in the back are holding me down" type stuff. It just confuses people. Punk is the new Kevin Nash in a way. Nash used to reference Tom Zenk and Al Greene ("where is 'The Dog' when you need 'em?") in promos all the time in 1999/2000 because he could get away with talking about what ever he wanted, even though the crowd didnt know what he was talking about. For me, you have to stick to the story we are asked to follow originally. As much as we probably do need Big Jack, he has no place as a passing bit of comedy in 2011. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WWFChilli Posted August 23, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted August 23, 2011 just caught the Punk/Cena III match and christ was Lawler acting a cunt on announcing, it almost united JR and Cole in there bafflement of Lawler just burying Punk. Â Del Rio looked class at ringside by the way, he needed a glass of cognac to really look the business Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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