Old School Raw

[King Pitcos]

Surprised nobody's started a thread about it yet. So Undertaker vs CM Punk is happening, John Cena and The Rock had a fantastic showdown on the microphone, and Sgt Slaughter got his big baldy head kicked in. The Million Dollar Man's interaction with the Prime Time Players was a lovely little touch, and I loved the set, but I thought the Old School stuff was a bit underutilised on the whole. I think what I mean is I wanted Stone Cold to do something.

 

Cesaro's phoney patriotic thing has been dropped, according to commentary it was because people didn't care about it. Which is true, but nobody cares about the awful five languages gimmick which has been brought back either, so the flag-waving stuff was probably abandoned because they didn't want it to muddy Swagger's waters.

 

Ryback and The Shield seem to be done, which is strange but probably for the best. Ryback and Menry! If Ryback did his special on Henry, that'd be a WrestleMania moment and a half.

 

Did anyone else on this forum watch this, and if so, what did they think?

[gold76]

Taped it & watching now enjoying it so far.

 

Think Ric Flair can finally make Miz likeable? Or just a one shot deal..

[Devon Malcolm]

I saw bits of it in-between sleep.

 

The Fatal Four-Way was great. Not in the slightest bit interested in Undertaker v Punk, though. I will never believe the latter will win, certainly after only 4 or 5 weeks build-up as well. Pointless. Should have kept Undertaker for next year against Cena.

 

The Cesaro - Ryback match was better than I expected and I really thought Cesaro was going to win at the end. I wish he had, I don't give a shite about Ryback. I hope Menry absolutely mullers him at Wrestlemania.

 

I don't really remember much else. Were The Shield on? I remember Ric Flair coming out at one point.

[2Xtreme_lives]

I saw bits of it in-between sleep.

 

The Fatal Four-Way was great. Not in the slightest bit interested in Undertaker v Punk, though. I will never believe the latter will win, certainly after only 4 or 5 weeks build-up as well. Pointless. Should have kept Undertaker for next year against Cena.

 

The Cesaro - Ryback match was better than I expected and I really thought Cesaro was going to win at the end. I wish he had, I don't give a shite about Ryback. I hope Menry absolutely mullers him at Wrestlemania.

 

I don't really remember much else. Were The Shield on? I remember Ric Flair coming out at one point.

 

Skimming through RAW quickly this morning Shield had a minute or so taped promo but dont recall anything else

[Astro Hollywood]

I gave it 45 minutes, then went to bed. The first couple of Oldschool Raws were fun, but by now you know it's the same old retro faces they wheel out every six months, so the novelty's gone. Wildly unsurprised to read that Sgt. Slaughter was there again. I can almost hear Cole and Lawler's fake laughter at a rubbish Jim Duggan skit.

[ravishing1]

Think Ric Flair can finally make Miz likeable? Or just a one shot deal..

 

Nothing on Gods Green Earth will ever make Miz likeable. The only things I have seen with the Miz that I enjoyed was Brock throwing a chair at his head and Cesaro swing him head first into the outside barrier.

If the idea is to put Ric Flair with him to get him over, it is a massive fail. Obviously at one time Flair was the man, but now he is a crazy old man whooooing and dropping elbows and knees on the invisible man.

[Reznor]

I didn't like it. Had to force myself to stay awake as I really wanted to see Punk, but there wasn't much in it for me, other than the set and all the nostalgic touches. Another 5 weeks and i'll almost certainly be back to cherrypicking.

 

The midcard was the usual stuff, the old school names were tired, Flair got in tow with the man i'd least like him to align with and was constantly hoping he'd turn on him, and I found all the promos pretty boring, as I usually do when nothing much happens during them.

 

I quite liked seeing the Old Age Outlaws and i'm really glad that Taker/Punk is confirmed and Ryback/Henry looks to be happening. Oh, and the finish to Ryback/Cesaro was cool (that uppercut is probably my fave move in wrestling at the mo). But overall, that's not a lot to take from 3 hrs of your time.

 

I really wish they'd went back to the red, white and blue ring ropes too. Although any colour/combo than all white would be an improvement.

[NEWM]

I'm a big fan of any aesthetic changes (good or bad) in wrestling in general, so that tends to carry these sorts of shows for me. Blue mats and banners and shite are better than just saying "Duggan's coming, get excited".

 

I feel there were some slight missed opportunities in here where guys could've played older versions of their own characters, but I guess it's harder to facilitate that on the Road to Mania, especially with the older wrestlers not actually wrestling until the big night. For example, if HHH had come out in his blueblood trunks and dispatched Antonio Cesaro or some other no-mark with a Pedigree in a squash, only to then cut a promo telling Brock he's getting The King of Kings at Mania, not the blueblood, and to show that smashes Cesaro to shit with a sledgehammer to make his point. I dunno, maybe that's shite, that's off the top of my head, but you get the point. Menry being front and centre for Mae's birthday had a similar chance to have him kick right off with anybody that stirred the shit but it never came.

 

Outlaws were good apart from some berk turning the music off while Road Dogg was talking down the aisle (probably acting on instinct), but their largely silent entrance was like when WWE 13 glitches and the music doesn't play. They were great though, they got lots of oblivious kids into them by the end. I love how the old hands know how to get over.

 

Everything from concept to execution with Taker and Punk is piss and I don't care, but Rock/Cena was topper so hopefully we'll get a bit more of that before Mania. Swagger's fucked isn't he? I totally understood strapping the rocket to him at Elimination Chamber with the Zeb Colter promos coming out of nowhere, but unfortunately the shine wore off with only Swagger underneath and the crowds have clocked on too quick. Del Rio's weirdly hot babyface act seems to have collapsed too, that match may really struggle without a Attitude era type gimmick or stipulation to tart it up.

[Devon Malcolm]

Wrestlemania's looking pretty fucking crap, isn't it?

 

The thing is, the best WWE PPVs often happen when you expect them to be a load of shit, so hopefully they will manage that trick again. But it's almost as if they are completely pinning their hopes on John Cena v The Rock. I have no reason to care about anything else on that card except maybe for Menry destroying Ryback. I can guarantee, too, that Mark Henry will get a bigger pop than Ryback at Wrestlemania.

[Snake Plissken]

Were The Shield on? I remember Ric Flair coming out at one point.

 

 

From various newz sites:

 

After RAW went off the air, The Undertaker simply turned around and headed to the back. CM Punk followed.

 

The Big Show then came out for the dark match. The Shield came out and surrounded Big Show. They beat him down and nailed a gigantic triple power bomb on Show!

 

John Cena, Ryback and Sheamus then came out. The Big Show slowly got up and went to the back.

 

It's Cena, Ryback and Sheamus vs. The Shield. The babyfaces had the upper hand when The Shield used a chair to get disqualified. The Shield set Ryback up for a triple power bomb, but Sheamus saved him with a Brogue kick. The babyfaces then all hit their finishers to send the crowd home happy.

[Reznor]

Wrestlemania's looking pretty fucking crap, isn't it?

 

The thing is, the best WWE PPVs often happen when you expect them to be a load of shit, so hopefully they will manage that trick again. But it's almost as if they are completely pinning their hopes on John Cena v The Rock. I have no reason to care about anything else on that card except maybe for Menry destroying Ryback. I can guarantee, too, that Mark Henry will get a bigger pop than Ryback at Wrestlemania.

Despite my moans at last nights programme, I think it has potential to be great actually. Helps a bit that i'm apparently in the minority about being excited for Punk/Taker I guess.

 

But in addition to the ones almost confirmed, we'll no doubt get a big Shield 6 man, probably against Orton/Show/Sheamus, and based on their previous matches, that should be excellent too (time permitting). That'll take it up to 6 so a tag team turmoil, 4 way or something for US/IC title and something with the women should fill things out quite nicely.

 

The only potential turkey is Del Rio/Swagger (and that's no slight on Alberto) but they can redeem themselves on that one by having a real quick sub-minute Alberto squash with Ricardo bringing the comedy, followed by another Alberto win as Ziggler fails with the cash-in.

[Baz Windham]

Been an odd Wrestlemania build so far. It seems as if for the first time in ages they've got quite a lot of people they've built-up/pushed over the past 6 months or so and have no idea what to do with them to fit them in alongside the big names coming back. So the result has been them sort of jumping between one bit of a feud and another and ending up with a big pile of nothing.

 

You've still got The Shield, Ryback, Sheamus, Henry, Jericho, Ziggler, Orton, Big Show and to a lesser extent Team Hell No, Barrett, Cesaro and Miz with nothing concrete set for Mania. People like Sheamus have been jumping between feuds all over the shop and Ziggler has been doing jack shit (although will probably cash-in). As much as i'd like to see Ryback vs Henry, the whole Ryback getting battered by The Shield every week had/has to lead to payback on the big stage, surely that writes itself?

 

Muddled booking aside Cena/Rock was a great promo, HHH's did the job too. Although I agree with the person that said because they are both part-timers it's hard to get as invested in the match. Brock's sporadic appearances are the only downside to his return, there's little momentum with the character etc. I'd rather him stick around for a few months then bugger off. Taker/Punk is a bit meh for me, don't really have an opinion which is a shame.

 

Oh and you're a damn liar if you haven't said FAAAAN DAAAN GOOOO out loud yet.

[AshC]

The opening segment - Undertaker walks out, with a Wrestlemania graphic behind him. Cut to break, return from break, CM Punk wants to wrestle Undertaker at Wrestlemania. Is creative completely dry of ideas, or what? Reminds me of the first segment between Undertaker and HHH that set the table for Wrestlemania 27; another angle that had seemingly no creative effort whatsoever put into it. At this stage, they may as well can Raw and just announce the matches for each pay-per-view on their social media.

[SpursRiot2012]

I think Mania looks good. I'd like to see Cena/Rock 2, I have no problem seeing Trips/Brock 2 and I would be interested in seeing Punk/Taker, I think it'll make a good match. Hopefully Punk wins.

[El Dingo Capitano]

I am really looking forward to Mania. The Undertaker return was hardly inspiring but I certainly wanted him back and Punk would have always been my pick to give a great story telling match. Rock Cena 2 will surely give Cena the victory but with the WWE Rock Love it's not concrete. If Rock can hold his fitness for a match then this will at least feel big time. Hell I'm even looking forward to HHH and Brock. Fact is although these guys are part timers I'd rather see those names on a Wrestlemania Bill right now that a card full of mid roster wrestlers as it gives the event gravitas that the likes of Kofi and crew can no yet do. If we get to see Mark Henry give Ryback a beating then I'll be perfectly satisfied with a fifteen quid well spent.

 

Now all I need is the streak to get ended