Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted February 18, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 18, 2020 13 minutes ago, Supremo said: What’s funny is that I’m absolutely convinced Matt Hardy is getting the Dean Ambrose treatment and he’ll probably do at least another three or four farewell appearances before all is said and done. Jeff is sticking around isn’t he. Because his contract has been extended. So it would make sense if this led to his return. Otherwise, what is it doing? I wonder if there is another WWE.com exclusive video of Hawkins and Ryder kicking off about it just like they did when Edge was attacked and they were backstage not coming out for the rescue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted February 18, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 18, 2020 1 hour ago, King Pitcos said: The rot has already set in for Owens and friends vs Rollins and friends. It can’t have been going that long but because it’s the same thing every week, it reminds me of that period during KO’s Universal title run where every Raw for months was headlined by some variation of him and Jericho vs Reigns and Rollins. Yeah, that's a great shout. Both sides for me. They've stumbled upon, or capitalised upon if you want to give them credit, some greatness in Seth's arrogant "messiah" character and fuck me he looks great with that douchey fur lined leather jacket and the bloody top knot. It's genius, as is the messiah nickname and that graphic of him in stained-glass. But they're booking it in their completely inorganic way. The face announcers in the past would be hammering home that he's the so-called messiah. They'd hammer home that he's using the "disciples". They shouldn't have custom podiums and signs. We should have seen Buddy Murphy come out with a load of posters and stick them on some WWE tat. Make them feel like heels who are above their station as, in fairness, Rollins has done with his appearance. Then you've got the other side. Fair enough, we got the Street Profits interjected for a run-in with a bit of energy but it's been very samey. I'd much prefer KO and Joe to be on a mission to take the tag titles off them with Seth finding some roadblocks from outside his group initially building to them going through AOP and then eventually Rollins and Murphy. It just lacks focus. Again though, in fairness to them, last night was the first time it felt like a retread. I think they've done well recently but once they did the 8 man, there wasn't a whole lot to do with it. My heart sank when Drew said there are 48 days until Mania. This is the problem with this stuff. There's too much time between Rumble and Mania and everything just spins and spins until they get there. They've known that for the longest time, hence putting title shots on the line at the Feb PPV, etc as far back as 1996. They've not realy solved it though. I still think an injury angle and vignettes of Drew desperately training to make it back for Mania would have been a better way to protect him. Imagine the pop when he walked out and kicked Lesnar in the face 2 weeks before? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 9 minutes ago, tiger_rick said: My heart sank when Drew said there are 48 days until Mania. This is the problem with this stuff. There's too much time between Rumble and Mania and everything just spins and spins until they get there. It's a strange one, that, because for years one of the big moans was that they should go back to 4 PPVs and build to them properly. And yet, when we do get the big gap to build up Mania (at least for the two Rumble winner matches), they don't have the content or the motivation for it. I don't like the injury angle idea for Drew much - I can see the benefit of it, but they shouldn't be relying on writing the main event hero out of the show to stay fresh in the weeks leading up to the big moment. He was fucked the second he won the Rumble, anyway. Yeah there were a few attempts at "Heyman booked it, Vince wanted Roman to win" but by the Wednesday or Thursday, people were ready to jump on everything he does and hate him. If he did the injury angle, it'd be criticised as a rip off of the boyhood dream storyline, or likened to how Roman was injured in 2014/15 and came back straight into the title picture, or general "ugh Drew's a part timer now." It'd be wrong for some reason or other, as will everything he does from now on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The King of Old School Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 They just needed to have him not all of a sudden start pandering to the fans, telling crap jokes, and weird "1,2,3" chants or that stupid thing he does when the ref raises his arm. Who on earth thought that any of that is a good idea when you have someone who looks as good as Drew does? Crazy, but not at all surprising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted February 18, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 18, 2020 4 minutes ago, King Pitcos said: It's a strange one, that, because for years one of the big moans was that they should go back to 4 PPVs and build to them properly. And yet, when we do get the big gap to build up Mania (at least for the two Rumble winner matches), they don't have the content or the motivation for it. I've never wanted 4 back but there were too many. There still are with all the Saudis and specials. It's irrelevant now. There's just so much TV time they feel they have to fill. It's not like there always wasn't. In the late 80s they ran 4 hours of first run TV a week with Prime Time, Superstars and Challenge but never got close to burning anything out. Now someone has to do something on every show. They've backed themselves into a corner and just do their best with it. 4 minutes ago, King Pitcos said: I don't like the injury angle idea for Drew much - I can see the benefit of it, but they shouldn't be relying on writing the main event hero out of the show to stay fresh in the weeks leading up to the big moment. He was fucked the second he won the Rumble, anyway. Yeah there were a few attempts at "Heyman booked it, Vince wanted Roman to win" but by the Wednesday or Thursday, people were ready to jump on everything he does and hate him. If he did the injury angle, it'd be criticised as a rip off of the boyhood dream storyline, or likened to how Roman was injured in 2014/15 and came back straight into the title picture, or general "ugh Drew's a part timer now." It'd be wrong for some reason or other, as will everything he does from now on. I don't like it much either but honestly, the best way to protect a babyface in WWE is for him to be off TV every week. I get that there'll be people who jump all over him regardless but i think they're a few gobshites on the internet. The majority would be with him. They still are but you can just see it turning week on week because they have to turn him into their vision of what a babyface is. It's not even that Drew was a great character before - he just wasn't this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Butternut Squash Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 (edited) Very wheel-spinning episode of Raw. Agreed about Seth vs Owens already feeling old. I was never into this Monday night Messiah shtick for Seth. Granted, I think Rollins is more suited in a mid-card tag role, but this act is too cutesy by half and is pissing away the heat he should have. He was the most hated man on the planet coming out of Survivor Series, but that feels like a long time ago. Shayna/Lynch is already suffering from the overwrought, illogical, week to week booking that made last years build a drag. Shayna is fantastic though. The goofy lines can’t take away from how unique and legit she feels. She’s come along at an appropriate time too, as Becky’s act continues to circle down the drain. Her character feels more erratic and desperate by the week - I was fully expecting garlic cloves inside her bag as she goes full-on Ambrose prop goof. Black, Garza and the Street Prophets were all good and at least doing something. Hopefully they’ve moved on from the Aleister Black has to talk thing. Edited February 18, 2020 by Mr Butternut Squash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCW Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 Drew was always bland as fuck anyway (bar his 'don't give a fuck, I'm on the way out' 3mb character, which I loved) so giving him promo time every week was always going to expose him. He should just knock about backstage in his leather jacket looking broody, drinking scotch and studying tapes of Lesnar or something, anything but the gurning Cena-lite babyface schtick. That Garza fella looks good, very Guerrero like. Other than that, fairly meh Raw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted February 18, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 18, 2020 13 hours ago, King Pitcos said: I like Angel Garza’s ladies man character, but I’m a bit confused by it. I saw a clip recently of him getting engaged in the ring at NXT, but now he’s all about not being tied down to one woman? Was that just a YouTube off-air exclusive rather than part of the episode? IIRC, it occurred during the ad break, but then they showed it in a replay when the show came back on. It seemed like an odd thing to make sure you showed considering he's a heel, particularly as it was about a week removed from him hitting on Lio Rush's missus at ringside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted February 18, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 18, 2020 13 hours ago, King Pitcos said: I like Angel Garza’s ladies man character, but I’m a bit confused by it. I saw a clip recently of him getting engaged in the ring at NXT, but now he’s all about not being tied down to one woman? Was that just a YouTube off-air exclusive rather than part of the episode? IIRC, it occurred during the ad break, but then they showed it in a replay when the show came back on. It seemed like an odd thing to make sure you showed considering he's a heel, particularly as it was about a week removed from him hitting on Lio Rush's missus at ringside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snitsky's back acne Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 Garza publicly having a fiancee could work into his sleazy prick character. Kinda modern day Latino Heat. I'm not saying they SHOULD do that [as I think he will be fine as is] but just that they could if it is ever brought up again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted February 25, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 25, 2020 Ah well, was a nice little run. Back to pretty mundane week-on-week. Nothing much bad but absolutely nothing you'd recommend anyone has to see and nothing set up for Saudi Shitshow or next week's Raw that you need to tune in for. Drew McIntyre did reinforce the rule that everyone looks a million percent better in sitdown interviews than in front of a live crowd. I think by WWE standards, the commentary for this show is as inoffensive as it gets too. But yeah, it's almost like trying to build three PPVs at the same time makes things really messy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted February 25, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 25, 2020 Isn't Garza being booked as a heel on Raw and a face on NXT at the moment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted February 25, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 25, 2020 It wasn’t a bad show by any means, but it definitely feels like they’ve stopped putting proper effort in until they get past the Saudi show. The Drew thing was infinitely better than last week’s attempt at whacky game show host. The weird aura of top babyface in WWE remained though. I’d love to know the direction they get. “Right, you’re the top face now, so can you be just a little too smiley and just a little too desperate?” John Cena has got a lot to answer for. Being able to pull it off for so many years has left everyone else fucked. I think Randy’s gonna boot Beth’s head off next week and the heat’s gonna be fucking nuclear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 First time I've watched Raw in a while. Â I hate the new Drew character. Â That man should never smile, never admit to weakness. Â What are they thinking? Â I hope Lesnar batters the shit out of him at WM. Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted February 25, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted February 25, 2020 (edited) You know when a mate would get a new girlfriend and suddenly be all weirdly different and phoney nice around them, leaving you wondering, “who the fuck are you?” That’s someone being promoted to top babyface in WWE. Be like you are with the boys, Drew! Frankly, looking at the current roster, the only guy who I think could overcome it is Montez Ford, who continues to absolutely reek of future Wrestlemania headliner. The swag and charisma of that man is unreal. You can’t take your eyes off him for fear of missing a daft strut or whacky dance. Not enough is said for how insanely athletic he is, too, The air he gets on those splashes is delightful. Every week I see him and think, “man, you could develop this guy into the next big thing,” and then I remember these maniacs have already fast-tracked him through Developmental. Not that I can blame them. He’s the best. I hope he makes it. Edited February 25, 2020 by Supremo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts