So, the Finn Balor era lasts about 24 hours. He is out 6 months and has to give up the title. Everyone comes out to take turning this into a tournament episode. There are four participants for this title match next week. We get Rollins, Owens, Big Cass and Reigns for the match next week.
The good news is Bayley is here! Let me state my daughter woke up to cheer her. If WWE fucks this I will find a way to put Vince into a home. I am sure it wouldn't take much effort. Bayley challenges Charlotte, but gets Brooks who eats a belly to boobie for the lost.
Bayley was one of the only bright spots on the show. I was honestly considering turning off the TV midway through.
I totally bought into Zayn's injury, which was PROBABLY a work...it says something about the state of selling nowadays that people wonder if a wrestler is legitimately hurt when he/she does a convincing sell job.
They should have been bold and crowned a champion tonight and not Rollins or Reigns, even if it were for a short spell until you put it on someone outside the box. The goofy looking belt with a weird name and an event with so many mishaps and misfires could have used that.
Neville looked like a million dollars last night. A deadlift German on Owens from a man the size of a Keebler elf is just nuts. And a 450 splash FROM THE APRON. Get them cruiserweights on RAW now.
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
After a couple of years of Neville competing with the big boys, it'll seem like a step back for him to be pigeonholed with the cruisers...but it may be his best hope. Ditto for some of the other undercard guys like the former Lucha Dragons.
What are the odds that after his match, Finn went up to Vince and said, "my shoulder is fooked" and that's why Reigns-Rusev went the way it did?
Average-to-bad Raw with a few bright spots, the brightest being Bayley. I actually feel a small emotional attachment to some of the NXT alums and seeing those who I became attached to make the main roster always makes me smile like a proud father. Last night was more of that. They should be able to print money with her but we'll see. It also sets up heel Sasha, which is my favorite Sasha.
Originally posted by PowerPB13I totally bought into Zayn's injury, which was PROBABLY a work...it says something about the state of selling nowadays that people wonder if a wrestler is legitimately hurt when he/she does a convincing sell job.
Yeah that made me really worried throughout, since we've seen Sami work through a bad injury on RAW before. Is Seth's new gimmick that if you're in the ring with him, you're automatically injured, work or shoot?
Please, please, please someone pull Charlotte aside and tell her that she does NOT have to go off-script and respond to every single crowd chant. Thankfully, Foley cut her off.
Can someone tell me if I'm off base on this...
Show opens, the announcers talk somberly about Finn's injury while a graphic is shown on the screen and the sad and upset crowd boos. The tone is set for Finn to relinquish the title. Next thing you know, Stephanie WELCOMES US TO MONDAY NIGHT RAW!!!! Following that, Foley proceeds appropriately with the serious situation at hand. I absolutely hated how tone deaf Steph was. So bad.
Originally posted by Mr ShhPlease, please, please someone pull Charlotte aside and tell her that she does NOT have to go off-script and respond to every single crowd chant. Thankfully, Foley cut her off.
Can someone tell me if I'm off base on this...
Show opens, the announcers talk somberly about Finn's injury while a graphic is shown on the screen and the sad and upset crowd boos. The tone is set for Finn to relinquish the title. Next thing you know, Stephanie WELCOMES US TO MONDAY NIGHT RAW!!!! Following that, Foley proceeds appropriately with the serious situation at hand. I absolutely hated how tone deaf Steph was. So bad.
I think you're off base on this. I think it's been well established the TV Steph doesn't care about anything but her family and winning. Of COURSE the start of Monday Night Raw -- HER SHOW -- is going to be more important than some schmo who got injured.
Bayley is a pile of money in the WWE's hands. It's up to them how much of that money they'd like to throw into the sewer. The correct answer is "none," but I'll settle for "less than all of it." This is Monday Night RAW.
Finn's injury sucks, but at least the stated recovery time was 4-6 months, so maybe a Royal Rumble return? That's definitively the best place for a guy to return. Also, the slow mo of Finn popping his shoulder back into place was pretty insane.
Originally posted by Matt TrackerNeville looked like a million dollars last night. A deadlift German on Owens from a man the size of a Keebler elf is just nuts. And a 450 splash FROM THE APRON.
Neville's actually done both of those spots before, and Kevin Owens is absolutely the best at selling those deadlift suplexes. He just looks so confused and dismayed while he's up there. Neville may be my favorite guy in the company, and it was good for him to have a solid opponent for a quality match again, as it's been a while.
So, let's see: RAW gets the Cruiserweight division, probably a bunch of guys from the CWC for that Cruiserweight division, the most promising NXT callups, and a new title belt as soon as the Draft is finished. Smackdown gets...no tag or women's titles, and Nikki Bella. So yeah, I'd say the shows are probably about even, right?
Can someone tell a non-NXT viewer what makes Bayley such a hot property? I also did not catch her match last night, so "Didn't you see her last night??" doesn't work.
Originally posted by Tenken347So, let's see: RAW gets the Cruiserweight division, probably a bunch of guys from the CWC for that Cruiserweight division, the most promising NXT callups, and a new title belt as soon as the Draft is finished. Smackdown gets...no tag or women's titles, and Nikki Bella. So yeah, I'd say the shows are probably about even, right?
I'm told that you can look, but you can't touch. *cue hip swivel*
So, let's see: RAW gets the Cruiserweight division, probably a bunch of guys from the CWC for that Cruiserweight division, the most promising NXT callups, and a new title belt as soon as the Draft is finished. Smackdown gets...no tag or women's titles, and Nikki Bella. So yeah, I'd say the shows are probably about even, right?
The WWE title, women's title and tag titles absolutely should've floated between the two brands. If one roster is hit by injuries or suspensions (or is just naturally thin, like Smackdown), you can float one title over to that brand for a couple of months for feuds with those wrestlers. It's ridiculous to set up separate titles for each brand when each show's "division" consists of about six women and tag teams each.
Originally posted by HokienauticCan someone tell a non-NXT viewer what makes Bayley such a hot property? I also did not catch her match last night, so "Didn't you see her last night??" doesn't work.
Best pure face wrestler and persona in the company, male or female. Absolutely perfect for a PG-rated company, kids and adults both adore her. She is the perfect star to be marketed towards the Frozen demographic.
George Michael weighed his options. Maeby had chastised him for not taking risks, and what would be a bigger risk than perpetuating a lie about software just to ignite the passions of a woman? Of course it would be a lie, and since Maeby wouldn't know it was a lie, he wouldn't appear to be taking a risk. Perhaps the bigger risk was to tell his father he was lying, that he came up with it because he wanted his father to leave so he could enjoy what remained of his senior year. After all, he wondered, wouldn't that be the course of action taken by an overtly sexual man, a man who owns a pair of matador pants? He had not responded now for 41 seconds according to his unfailing internal clock, and it was time to come clean.
Originally posted by HokienauticCan someone tell a non-NXT viewer what makes Bayley such a hot property? I also did not catch her match last night, so "Didn't you see her last night??" doesn't work.
Average wrestler, with weak finisher. But...her NXT persona was an endlessly positive, always-smiling, perennial underdog who wants to hug everybody. That has and will naturally change as she becomes more successful. Adored by young girls (including superfan Izzy who attends all NXT shows to see her), and pervy males 18-34 who just want to hug her back.
(edited by Mr Shh on 23.8.16 1128) You askew my mirror. I askew yours.
Originally posted by HokienauticCan someone tell a non-NXT viewer what makes Bayley such a hot property? I also did not catch her match last night, so "Didn't you see her last night??" doesn't work.
Average wrestler, with weak finisher. But...her NXT persona was an endlessly positive, always-smiling, perennial underdog who wants to hug everybody. That has and will naturally change as she becomes more successful. Adored by young girls (including superfan Izzy who attends all NXT shows to see her), and pervy males 18-34 who just want to hug her back.
(edited by Mr Shh on 23.8.16 1128)
She's a decently good wrestler actually who knows how to tell a story. That might be her biggest strength. Two years ago she was indeed a childish character, a fan who got to live her dream who stood in awe next to Charlotte and Ric Flair. Basically everyone stabbed her in the back at some point. But she learned from that and got just a tad more serious. Still goofy and loveable at times but when the bell rang she would mean business. Now she still goes out and hugs people but has a wicked mean streak when needed. Last year, she made Sasha tap out by putting her in some stretch hold while kicking her against her head repeatedly.
But yes, her normal finisher (the Bayley to Belly suplex) is weak. It's everything else that makes her good.
(And no, I don't want to hug her. But you are right, at NXT London there was a guy next to me who was about 6x her size and was squealing like Izzy)
Originally posted by Big Bad The WWE title, women's title and tag titles absolutely should've floated between the two brands. If one roster is hit by injuries or suspensions (or is just naturally thin, like Smackdown), you can float one title over to that brand for a couple of months for feuds with those wrestlers. It's ridiculous to set up separate titles for each brand when each show's "division" consists of about six women and tag teams each.
Exactly. No better example than Raw's women's division. Paige and Sasha are both injured and they're not ready to unleash Nia Jax. So Bayley shows up one day and is already feuding with the champ? I hate to agree with the heel but Charlotte is right that Bayley shouldn't get a title shot already. This makes Raw's women's division look like nothing. And there are some people, like Hokie, who actually don't know Bayley. Having her show up one day and just expecting everyone to cheer her is overestimating how many fans watch NXT.
I also think having one WWE title could've helped during football season. WWE Title goes to Smackdown during football season, goes back to Raw during the offseason.
Originally posted by Tenken347So, let's see: RAW gets the Cruiserweight division, probably a bunch of guys from the CWC for that Cruiserweight division, the most promising NXT callups, and a new title belt as soon as the Draft is finished. Smackdown gets...no tag or women's titles, and Nikki Bella. So yeah, I'd say the shows are probably about even, right?
Yeah, this bugs me a lot, especially since Smackdown is the only show I really care to watch out of the two. Raw has a couple of guys I care about, but the overall show and the format of it sucks.
They're way overcompensating with the "But Raw is 3 hours!" excuse. Even the SummerSlam lineup was more heavy on the Raw side in the build, though they did add about 5 matches in the last week to even things out a bit.
Raw gets what you stated above, they get 3/4 Horsewomen (can't they be split in half,so Becky doesn't get stuck with everyone else?), they're still considered the flagship show, and most of the big SummerSlam build happens on that show.
The saving grace is that when football kicks in, the ratings may even out a bit if SD can maintain the audience it has.
Not that anyone's explicitly arguing this, but I don't think Bayley's arc should reset and play out all over again. She and Balor were the co-headliners of NXT for the last year and they're pretty much the two stars of the brand who took it on the road successfully after everyone else important from the NXT "boom" had been called up. She should definitely chase the title for a long time, but in terms of presentation should be positioned just like Balor as a huge acquisition. Technically there's something that doesn't cohere about losing your NXT title match to become #1 contender to the WWE title, but there seems to be an understanding about "graduation day" and jobbing on your way out of the Full Sail territory.
What I like about the fourway is that it's almost impossible to come out of it happy with the winner. Rollins is the best but he was not supposed to have the title right now to avoid a rerun and create a new top babyface. Owens is who I'm rooting for just because he rules, but he's been Ambrose'd into where they'd now be putting the title on a midcarder. Cass is LOL. Reigns is LOL and I figure Rusev will prevent him from winning, because Reigns chasing the title until he's "hot" for his Mania coronation and then flopping with it is a cycle that must play out every year forevermore.
The level of discourse seems to have degenerated to the point where the people who don't like Reigns are just BIG DUMB STUPIDHEADS or something. Ah well.
What's the over/under on Strowman busting up a cruiserweight match?
Originally posted by JustinShapiro What I like about the fourway is that it's almost impossible to come out of it happy with the winner. Rollins is the best but he was not supposed to have the title right now to avoid a rerun and create a new top babyface. Owens is who I'm rooting for just because he rules, but he's been Ambrose'd into where they'd now be putting the title on a midcarder. Cass is LOL. Reigns is LOL and I figure Rusev will prevent him from winning, because Reigns chasing the title until he's "hot" for his Mania coronation and then flopping with it is a cycle that must play out every year forevermore.
In terms of crowd goodwill and because he is like a superior life-form from outer space, the natural replacement for Balor as Universal Champion should be Cesaro. Naturally, Cesaro was not even in the tournament for replacement champ and is instead trapped in the Hell of Seven Sheamuses.
Of the four in the final four, it should be Owens. Part of me wants JeriKO to win the tag titles instead, but if you task me to fit the garbage booking they have handed us, the best possible outcome is Owens winning the Universal title and then having his best friend in the world Chris Jericho act like a stage mom for Owens, trying to mold him into the kind of Universal Champion that only a six-time world champion, first-ever undisputed champion and inventor of Money-in-the-Bank could help create. This gives you a fighting champion (and, I believe in my heart, secret breakout crossover star waiting for his chance) in Owens and keeps JeriKO together while doing a slowburn on the two of them coming to hate each other.
(My other solution for the Universal Champion title: pull BRAUN off TV, paint his skin blue, dye his hair red, shave the beard and re-debut him as the actual Champion of the Universe from Marvel.)
Obviously, they wouldn't be having these problems if they hadn't done a dumb brand split with zero thought put into things watering down two rosters and forcing everyone to work twice as much. With a combined roster, or at least a floating World Champion, we could be looking at Dean Ambrose as the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion being stalked by a fully-powered Bullet Club (led by AJ Styles, having just beaten and killed John Cena, backed by his protégé The Demon Finn Balor and Anderson/Gallows, who just killed The Dudley Boys), with the crowds practically begging for the Shield to reunite to help Ambrose while Rollins is consumed by jealousy and Roman sulks in his tent like Achilles if Achilles' Achilles heel was that he's not allowed to turn heel.
I think it would be funny if someone passively converted to Mattitude, then started hanging around Matt Hardy all the time, and thus gets on Matt Hardy's nerves, culminating in Matt Hardy telling whoever it is that they lack the essential Mattributes to a...