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Raw 19/03/2012 - Pre/Post Discussion


hbknhhh

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Rock was great again. There was NO twitter references for the first time. The crowd loved it and I personally loved it. Glad we didn't have to see Cena do any promo work. Shame to see Miz/Henry jobbed out though.

 

Jericho/Punk feud is getting better. Loved how Jericho referenced Punk's sister but wasn't a fan of Punk swearing. Jericho's coming across as a smug bastard. But for some reason, I thought they were gonna give him a split personality gimmick? Where hes Chris and then Chris Jericho. Did anyone else think that?

 

Trips/HBK/HHH segment was just dull. Taker is shit.

 

Santino is on top form again and I'm really enjoying him. Otunga is improving each week.

 

Swagger got a hair cut (thankfully) but sadly we had to endure him in a match. At least it was a tag team match and not him in singles action. Fire the bastard.

 

All in all, I'm really looking forward to Mania.

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Raw was uneventful, for me. The build for most of the matches has sort of hit a brick wall. Like they didnt want to do to much being the second from last week and didnt want to waste anything for next week. Rock and Cena didnt do anything really. They've done this angle backwards. They went from shoot laced promos and nose to nose showdowns to doing comedy to now doing the "I'm stronger than you" spot. Usually, its supposed to be the other way around. Hope they have something special lined up for next week.

 

Jericho and Punk probably would have been more effective if it was later in the show. It came across as an odd segment to kick the show off with. Seemed flat to me.

 

Undertaker and Shawn Michaels was boring as fuck until Triple H picked up the microphone and showed the locker room how you make an angle come across as special. One thing about Triple H, there is few (if any) better at creating an impact when he's cutting a promo. He's got a believability in his voice, that blows everyone away.

 

Daniel Bryan killed Zack Ryder in hilarious fashion, which was good. And Sheamus looked good en route to giving Miz his weekly pasting. At least Mark Henry looked strong again. Everyone knew he was going to end up losing, so the amount of offence he got in prior was good to see. Another thing that was strange was, Ziggler beat R-Truth in the tag team match and literally the very next clip they showed was Ziggler getting pinned clean by Triple H on a house show. Not the best way to highlight a persons win. And Johnny Ace did Santino's celebration. Which is great.

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I thought Raw was deathly dull to be honest. I'm not enjoying it at the moment, but at least it saves me getting over hyped for Mania, like I have been for the last few years by lowering my expectations considerably.

 

The opening Jericho/Punk segment was desparate to try and get something going for a feud for WM and make people give a shit. Punk looked bored/disappointed and Jericho was well Jericho. I assume that Jericho is coming out to Starsailor at WM to ramp up the drink related stuff. Or maybe not, oops.

 

Big Show and Kane was meh, but it did do something, it forwarded the Big Show/ Cody Rhodes angle for Mania, which is good. At present though with this and the GM match I'm beginning to care about the mid card feuds more than the supposed main events barring Rock/Cena.

 

Santino vs Otunga was again okay interms of forwarding the GM angle and the way Otunga is being groomed. I'm assuming a big push is his after Mania, he certainly looks and carries himself like a million bucks, is getting better in the ring, is decent on the stick. Perhaps a feud for a World Title in the offing if things keep up the way they are. He certainly is being booked that way.

 

So Albert is back, or rather Lord Tensai (Lord Genius?) is back. I still reckon the Master Blaster gimmick with Hornswoggle I suggested in chat is bang on the money :thumbsup: Could be interesting, but given recent returns and debuts, the WWE is going to have to work hard not to fuck it up as per usual.

 

The Rock is just going through the motions isnt he? The promo by the Rocky statue dragged and dragged and dragged and resorting to crap impersonations of old wrestlers and shoving a Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich up Cena's arse isnt really drawing me in. It seems like a) he is on autopilot b)is out of touch because he has been out of the game for so long or c) a combination of both. Either way it's really not doing it for me. Another turn like the last Wrestlemania, and his legacy destruction will be in full swing.. Grim. The Rock Bottom on Mark Henry and subsequent piss poor show down with Cena really didnt add much either.

 

Talking about that I thought Mark Henry and Cena was pretty decent. It looks like Henry is back to full fitness again, as he was certainly more agile than he has been in recent months. Id quite like to see a proper feud between these two after Mania tbh. Im probably the only one like, but yeah I would enjoy them beating snot out of each other.

 

The Diva's bit was there I guess. Another Mania, another celeb involvement in the Diva's match.

 

HHH/Taker/Michaels. Christ on a bike, Im already bored by this. The involvement of Michaels in the match, killed what interest I had stone dead and yet again we were left with a dire end to raw as a result. The crowd who had been seemingly mainly dead all night didnt give a shit either. Taker leaving, saying Michaels was better than HHH, garnered fuck all in the way of a response and it doesnt interest. People want to see HHH/Taker beat the shit out of each other, not drone on boring the audience to tears. The best part of the whole night was seeing HHH steal Taker's Tombstone finish in a house match. Michaels doesnt need to be there at all. Shame

 

So overall another pretty pants Raw. Mania is less than two weeks away and the whole thing is meandering to whimper at this stage rather than feeling like, this is going to be huge and such a special event. I cant help but think that the WWE have dropped the ball in the build up this time around (though that may be to do with Vince still booking Mania, and flip flopping about what is going to happen) Im certainly not super excited about the whole thing. As Ive said above. Im beginning to care more about the mid card feuds than the Main Event one's and that certainly isnt the way it should be going down.

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One small thing I noticed on Raw (although I could be wrong, you only get a quick glimpse of it) was the Intercontinental Championship when Cody showed up. When he brought back the classic belt at Hell in a Cell, it was a new design of the old belt. The belt he carried out with him last night, I think, was the original classic IC belt. It's hard to tell though, but it does look distinctly different from the HiaC belt.

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It seems all action is being kept back untill next week. Hopefully next week's RAW is worth the wait as it's the most important show of the year technically for WWE.

 

It's pretty cool that Florida and Machine Gun Kelly are going to perform at Mania for Cena and Rock.

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All the Mania matches had good build this week but was nothing special, i've enjoyed the build for Mania but I feel they may have tried too hard in some cases. Orton/Kane has a simple but effective story now, but I wish they'd add a stipulation just for that bit of freedom, a decent brawl could kick the show off then. Rhodes/Show, Teddy/Johnny and Punk/Jericho all had good build too. I like how the teams are being put together for Teddy/Johnny, not just announcing the teams has made it more important and provided some decent sub-plots (Ryder, Miz). I'm quite looking forward to Punk/Jericho, the best in the world promo a few weeks ago was really good and now they've got some good personal heat into it too. The only match i'm not into in some way is Bryan/Sheamus, there has been very little story and heat, but i've been enjoying Bryan's stuff which has sort of been the story and i'm sure it will still provide a good match.

 

Enjoyed the Rock/Cena stuff this week, hoping for a great final encounter next week though to really give it that final push. HHH/HBK/Taker segment was good, especially from HHH and there's just a couple of things missing for me. I think Taker needs to be more of the Phenom and stress the lengths he's gone and will go to keep the streak and remind HHH who he is etc rather than be the "Haha, Shawns better than you" bloke he is at the moment. I've enjoyed HBK and HHH's roles and understand their motivations but I think Taker hasn't brought that much to the party. Not sure what, if anything, they'll do next week with this match. Next week i'd also perhaps like to see a couple of video packages for the top two matches, as well as the ones at Mania, perhaps something like HHH/Takers' cell history or something for that match.

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If you tuned in towards the end of the Undertaker/Hunter/Shawn segment you'd probably think you were watching some kind of love triangle storyline in which HHH and HBK are competing with each other for 'Taker's affections.

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So who do people think will finish off Johnny's and more importantly Teddy's team? I can't see them going for Zeke and Khali as originally 'reported', especially Zeke. I think we'll have Del Rio on Johnny's team and then Ryder, Mysterio and in a SWERVE ~, we'll have a Miz face turn to join team Teddy because it's the only way he can get on the show. Rumour has it it will be done during segments on Prime time wrestling also feautring Hillbilly Jim and Bobby Heenan.

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http://www.wwe.com/videos/john-cena-vs-the...fetime-26005824

 

Preview of the "Once In a Lifetime" documentary to show before RAW next week showcasing The Rock vs. John Cena battle at Wrestlemania. I forgot about this, should be a great watch.

 

I was fastforwarding through Raw -- was this plugged at all?

 

EDIT: OOH, the classics videos are now available in the UK. Unfortunately the matches seem to largely be clips.

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Considering this was the penultimate Raw until 'Mania, it was quite a poor show. They appear to have given us too much too soon, again. As a result the last two weeks have killed a little bit of the momentum, IMO. Oddly enough, the one match that appears to be peaking at the right moment is the CM Punk/Jericho feud (wasn't arsed, but the last two weeks have added a lot), also the GM match is coming along nicely.

 

The Rock segment was what I expected, little funny bits and catchphrases - it's what he does, after all. The AA to Henry looked brutal, poor fella. The past two weeks have hurt this match though, I still have faith they've got something big planned next week, they must.

 

This love triangle, again, peaked too early. 'Taker is such a boring old git, him speaking for a decent length of time sucks the life out of most things. Thankfully he has masters like DX to pull him through. Triple H (and his Richie approved wardrobe) did his best to make this as intense as possible, but it kind of went a bit flat. Nobody does smugness/cockiness better than Shawn Michaels, nice tease.

 

I was of the opinion a few weeks ago that Jericho/Punk should be for the WWE title, instead of Rock/Cena. Now that Jericho/Punk isn't really about the belt any more, they should have just given it to Cena. Waste.

 

Lord Tensia is a rubbish name. Lets hope he doesn't play a Jap too.

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