Official Raw 3/21/2016 Thread

[RoccoTanno123]

Forgot about Brock, another guy they turned face because fans liked him more despite ending Taker's streak, and facing the 'next face of the company' Roman 'Sufferin Succotash' Reigns.

Shane and Taker have tapering interest now that everyone realizes the feud is half-baked. Vince also dropped heavily in reaction, and his segment ended with him awkwardly standing in the ring to almost dead silence after his promo....
They are pushing this as hard as they can as the big thing at WM, but it clearly isn't and we should be seeing video packages of Dean vs. Lesnar and Trips vs. Roman all show long instead of stars going on about Shane and Taker in their gimmick match.
We are coming off Taker HBK, Taker Trips, Taker Punk, Taker Lesnar at WM... This doesn't top that and no amount of video packages with Pat Patterson will convince us otherwise.

Zayn I guess is as over as he should be given the whole no storyline thing. He could rightfully be receiving the Tyler Breeze treatment with how he just appeared on Raw...

League I have no idea what is going on. They aren't over, aren't a threat, and we see them wrestle New Day everyweek and we are supposed to be pumped for a 'payoff'? And why did Alberto win over Cena? As an apology for getting fired? Only wayI can explain it as he is somehow practically a lower midcarder now.

Like I said, the league are a disgrace and should be booked into the ground with everyone except Rusev jobbing. ADR better be buttering up his yawning chasm of an expectant ass, because we all know Cena will be returning hard with a full on Bob Orton cast up the ass for Del Raped-o. Just expect that revenge to occur 1-2x on TV because nobody buys ADR as a PPV opponent anymore.

any reason you left off Taker/Bray?

[RoccoTanno123]

Final thought: is there any more interesting finish to WM than a Cena heel turn?

I'm almost 100% WWE won't pull it because of Cena's reality show and because Vince loves his previous babyface king, and I know Cena has never excited the fanbase to the degree Hogan did, but man...the guy has been inactive since that US title run. This seems like the right time for a Bash at the Beach 1996 move.


The most interesting move would be re-creating Bret vs. Austin with Cena and somebody, but I don't think WWE has Ambrose over enough for that to work yet, unfortunately, so that's the next best move. And WWE has sort've been pulling that Cena and kids vs. the older fans for years now. It's dead without the right guy. Third is the Reigns heel turn. Beyond that....it may be time to just watch LU and other shows and go through the network bcs fukk...

[BroHusky]

Okay somebody explain that weak pop for Ambrose in Philly of all places. Camera panned across the crowd and people were legit sitting on their hands.

Was there tonight and left after Vince's promo. What an awful, non important show. People didn't react for Dean cause he was facing ****ing Strowman in the ME.

[RoccoTanno123]

Was there tonight and left after Vince's promo. What an awful, non important show. People didn't react for Dean cause he was facing ****ing Strowman in the ME.

Further proof it's the Wyatts who are dead. There were reports of people leaving before Bray vs. Ambrose too, which also ended in a DQ finish.

[SageKing]

Further proof it's the Wyatts who are dead. There were reports of people leaving before Bray vs. Ambrose too, which also ended in a DQ finish.

Still terrible for Ambrose.

Cena could be facing Hornswoggle and people stay put and react.

I really don't get the disconnect in Philly of all places. Ambrose has always been over where I am, even when facing two hometown boys in a triple threat....

[SageKing]

any reason you left off Taker/Bray?

Taker Bray is one of those things you just pretend never happened...

Like : Rocky V, Backlund's crazy days, Devil May Cry 2 (and the 'reboot'), every Def Leppard album after Hysteria, every Rolling Stones album after Some Girls, and the existence of TNA.

They just didn't happen, anyone that says otherwise is trolling.

[BroHusky]

Still terrible for Ambrose.

Cena could be facing Hornswoggleu and people stay put and react.

I really don't get the disconnect in Philly of all places. Ambrose has always been over where I am, even when facing two hometown boys in a triple threat....

It's really not an indictment on Dean. We just had to watch almost 3 hours of complete garbage so the crowd was dead. Strowman being his opponent made things 10x worse.

2 weeks from WM: No taker, Shane, Lesnar, two seconds of triple h, 5 minutes of reigns, and Ambrose vs Strowman

[Triceptops]

It's really not an indictment on Dean. We just had to watch almost 3 hours of complete garbage so the crowd was dead. Strowman being his opponent made things 10x worse.

2 weeks from WM: No taker, Shane, Lesnar, two seconds of triple h, 5 minutes of reigns, and Ambrose vs Strowman

Hope WM flops so Vince is forced to open his eyes and take action.

[SageKing]

Hope WM flops so Vince is forced to open his eyes and take action.

If WM flops Vince will think:

'Gawdamnit, that Ambrose can't draw a dime, we didn't push Roman hard enough and make him look strong enough, this Ajax Stylish guy is an Indie midget, Big Show should have won the Andre Memorial, Kane should have interfered in the Main Event, and somehow, just somehow I know this is Daniel Bryan's fault...'

And HHH will shake his head and think 'fuk this I'm going to NXT', then swipe 'ignore' when Vince calls him.

[mtdman]

Wm is going to be a disaster.

[JustBasketball]

Slept through tonight guys, I read a recap online and it sounded absolutely atrocious. Can anyone confirm?

[SuperAmmo]

Slept through tonight guys, I read a recap online and it sounded absolutely atrocious. Can anyone confirm?

It was atrocious.

Even with all the injuries, the writing is as bad as its been since the New Generation era.

WWE botched the Wyatts so badly. 1/3rd of it is bringing Strowman on board, another 1/3rd was burying Bray in any meaningful feud and the final 1/3rd was changing their entrance. The crowd loved "We're here."

The fact that even supposed "mark cities" are absolutely crapping on Roman Reigns should be very telling to WWE. And Roman's reaction is NOT the Cena mixed reaction. It's slowly becoming more X-Pac heat.

I mean...how are they not cringing when they hear his promos?!?!?!

[wake_me]

It's really not an indictment on Dean. We just had to watch almost 3 hours of complete garbage so the crowd was dead. Strowman being his opponent made things 10x worse.

3 hours of Raw is overkill. There is so much fat to trim off it, to get it down to a fast paced, solid 2 hours. It was a mistake when Nitro went 3 hours, and it was a mistake when Raw did. The only reason I can think as to why it is 3 hours is for ad revenue.

[butteredtoast]

Two things that are really chapping my ass after this Raw:

- What the hell have they done with Rusev. He used to be an unbeatable behemoth who was beating John Cena and carrying the US Title. Now, he's a goddamn jobber with the League of Gaytions. Unbelievable.
- I really hate how they pronounce Fandango's name. "Fon-dong-o." Fuk you.

That's all. Raw sucked. WM32 will be a glorified Raw, then the product will go back to being piss until the top guys (ie Rollins, Cena) return.

[CitizenVagrant]

And Roman's reaction is NOT the Cena mixed reaction. It's slowly becoming more X-Pac heat.

That's the thing, though.

Said this before and I'll say it again: There are no traditional "heels" and "faces" anymore. No one doing "bad" things is going to get booed.

CM Punk would go out and insult the crowd non-stop and get a cacophony of cheers and chants. Sasha Banks would make 8 year old girls cry and get considered the best female wrestler on the planet. Seth Rollins - same thing.

"Good heels" are effectively cheered like faces now.

"Bad wrestlers" or "boring wrestlers" are the new heels.

Reigns, Eva Marie, etc. People who get "forced down our throats" are the new heels, with the top heel being "The Authority." The actual authority, Vince. Vince, the actual person, not a character, IS the top heel because he's percieved as the force jamming all the bad wrestlers on TV and into PPVs and titles.

[mtdman]

Harper got hurt last night in a match after the show went off the air.

[HoganIsGOAT]

This is the worst build to a Wrestlemania in modern history. That's not to say recently others haven't been bad, but this stands out as the dirt worst.

Why was Stephanie not angry as the opening segment began? Roman Reigns brutally attacked her husband the week before. They were very protective of how they used Roman Reigns on Raw. Which is very telling, considering his role in the company. He was loudly booed, as expected. Why would they put him in a promo back and forth with Stephanie? I get why they kept it short (too short frankly), but his promo skills are far too weak, and it didn't come off great. Why does he still look like the one man Shield? How many faces of wrestling companies wear a t-shirt to wrestle? He needs to look less like the Shield, and more like his own identity (of course nobody knows what that is). Bottom line, Roman Noodle is a 7/10 wrestler, in a main event, face of the company role.

Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles was a bad idea for a match in the context of the story. Sure, the in-ring work was very good, but that's now why you have that type of match. They wanted Owens to look Strong, so they have him win, while making Styles lose and look foolish again. It was a lose-lose situation either way. Jericho interferes, and Styles loses due to a distraction, making him look like a foolish "rookie." Later in the night, Styles comes out and distracts Jericho, only Jericho, the "veteran," doesn't fall for it, and still beats Fandango clean. And why were we reminded Fandango beat Jericho clean at 'Mania? Doesn't that diminish what they're attempting to do with Styles this year at 'Mania? AJ is bad on the mic, they must do a better job of protecting him. Why was he super slowly chanting his name? That's not the rhythm and pace you need to get a crowd to chant your name. He isn't more over than he should be because of how they've booked him. They've constantly reminded you that he's small, a rookie, a redneck, can't talk, and now apparently, not too bright.

You know how thin the roster is, and how poorly they utilize the talent they have when Zack Ryder is wrestling for the IC Championship at Wrestlemania. Zack Ryder. Are you serious bro? Joining him is Stardust (another jobber to the stars), Mr. Irrelevant Dolph Ziggler (who loses as much as he wins), Sami InZayn in the Membrane (who just joined the main roster) and the Jiz (who frequently jobs). This is literally a championship match of jobbers. But it gets better. What do they decide to do, with the record number of injuries they are experiencing? You guessed it, throw them all in a fucking ladder match, where they are at serious risk of injury, for no reasons, other than to have a ladder match at 'Mania. Can you imagine how many fans tuned out as hour 3 began with Stardust vs. Botch Cara vs. Zack Ryder?

They do a video package that almost makes Shane look like the best wrestler of all time. It certainly led me to believe it will be the main event, going on last. This proves they're capable of doing great things, they just don't bother to. Imagine doing this for talent they're actually trying to get over. Vince McMahon even calls Shane the most formidable opponent that the Undertaker has ever had. I guess he forgot about the year the streak was broken...minor detail...etc. Then he calls the Undertaker his bitch. How can the end of this match NOT be Undertaker dying on his own sword and allowing Shane to beat him at this point? We still have zero idea of why Undertaker would do Vince's bidding, other than apparently now arguably Vince's greatest character of all time is relegated to being his bitch.

The New Day are great. Big E could finally be a breakout singles star, and I think they'll be a great face team. But the League of Nations? These guys are absolutely terrible. What an underwhelming feud.

A segment with Kane and Big Show to promote the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal...boy would Andre be rolling over in his grave at the way they've treated his memorial battle royal. These two are an absolute embarrassment in the ring. The Social Outcasts are so bad. This was really bad.

The Usos are cheesy and overmarketed (face paint, neon colors, Uso crazy...etc.) to the point that they're the tag team version of Cena. They're stale, forced down your throat, no real character or character advancement, and they're now getting boos along with cheers from kids. And somebody please ask them to stop the superkick party that they copied from the Young Bucks. It's very bush league. The Usos should be a cocky, obnoxious heel tag team.

Can anyone tell me why they're hellbent on sticking Dean Ambrose in terrible situations in the main event of Raw? Another main event for Raw for Dean, another stellar opponent in Braun Strowman. Seriously, when is this guy going to learn how to wrestle? The crowd was bored during a Dean Ambrose match, which is unfortunate. No crowd wants to see Strowman in a main event, period, Vince. And why have Dean look weak against Strowman? He's about to face Brock Lesnar, and doesn't even look like he can beat Braun Strowman. What a joke.

So here we are, on the road to Wrestlemania, and on this Raw (the company's flagship show), less than two weeks away, we didn't see Brock Lesnar, Undertaker, Shane McMahon, and we barely saw Triple H (in a backstage segment only), and Roman Reigns. Those are your biggest matches on the card, and essentially all but Dean were nowhere to be found.

What a mess.

[I3igAl]

Why is everyone hating on the League of Nations that much? They have done their job quite well, it is not their fault a team with multiple world champions gets booked like jobbers.

[SageKing]

Why is everyone hating on the League of Nations that much? They have done their job quite well, it is not their fault a team with multiple world champions gets booked like jobbers.

I don't hate them, not even ADR and Sheamus who are quite unpopular with many vocal fans. I think they are all a product of bad booking, and Vince getting bored of them.

[JoaoPTPinto]

I don't hate them, not even ADR and Sheamus who are quite unpopular with many vocal fans. I think they are all a product of bad booking, and Vince getting bored of them.

Well they are not that bad, they are just booked so boring, and WWE limits the in ring work sometimes.
There was someone saying that ADR was given the US title because of him being fired, that was not the only reason, they wanted to get the Mexican crowd behind ADR but they made the character so stale.
I didn't watch AAA when Alberto was there, but I watched LU and he was pretty over as a face... And in his return you could hear some chants for Alberto... I thinks there's a problem with the creative team. The LON is pretty boring YES, but it had a lot of potential to be a heel demolishing stable.

[masterfulsky]

on raw tonight reigns was excellent, new day where fun. kevin owens failed as a heel again, and there was a couple hours of other stuff

[JPeeper]

on raw tonight reigns was excellent, new day where fun. kevin owens failed as a heel again, and there was a couple hours of other stuff

Wot?

KO is the best heel in the WWE, if not all wrestling right now.

[RoccoTanno123]

Why is everyone hating on the League of Nations that much? They have done their job quite well, it is not their fault a team with multiple world champions gets booked like jobbers.

Alberto has to have some blame for being negative charisma whenever he's on WWE TV. If anything, Sheamus has been booked too strong thoroughout his career (same with ADR). He also doesn't have the charisma and interview skills to be the leader of a top tier heel stable. Barrett is fine but they've jobbed him out too much. Rusev....Rusev is good, no problem with Rusev.

[SageKing]

Alberto has to have some blame for being negative charisma whenever he's on WWE TV. If anything, Sheamus has been booked too strong thoroughout his career (same with ADR). He also doesn't have the charisma and interview skills to be the leader of a top tier heel stable. Barrett is fine but they've jobbed him out too much. Rusev....Rusev is good, no problem with Rusev.

The one time Sheamus really needed to be booked strong, which is now, they made him weaker... Why.

People can bish but having a finisher that nobody kicks out of, and an equally strong wrestler makes an awesome match when put up against an opponent built up just as well.

Sheamus vs. Big Show sounds like chit on paper but nobody kicked from either finisher so putting them against each other actually made a good suspenseful.match even though I did not care about either guy.

Imagine heel Sheamus not pinned since his heel turn, against Styles unpinned, or Lesnar, etc... Even against Reigns if they built it better it could have been an actually interesting match, both guys unpinnable with finishers nobody kicks from, but they made Sheamus a loser.

Shoulda make chicken salad outta chicken chit but they lowered the W-L ratio of everyone in the League and made them boring.

ADR is a good wrestler but they stick him ina personality that doesn't get over, and insist on making no changes whatsoever.

ADR when his armbreaker was stronger was at least suspenseful because it meant the other wrestler was fukked once he got them into it. Now I expect anyone and everyone to make it to the ropes, and we get a head kick with no build up instead.

[DaBest12]

If WM flops Vince will think:

'Gawdamnit, that Ambrose can't draw a dime, we didn't push Roman hard enough and make him look strong enough, this Ajax Stylish guy is an Indie midget, Big Show should have won the Andre Memorial, Kane should have interfered in the Main Event, and somehow, just somehow I know this is Daniel Bryan's fault...'

And HHH will shake his head and think 'fuk this I'm going to NXT', then swipe 'ignore' when Vince calls him.

How can it flop though? They're giving it away for free, idunno. Seems like such a weird situation. Sure the event can have less viewers than they wanted, but it's not like more viewers would've equaled more $$

[RoccoTanno123]

How can it flop though? They're giving it away for free, idunno. Seems like such a weird situation. Sure the event can have less viewers than they wanted, but it's not like more viewers would've equaled more $$

It's free to new subscribers. Not to existing subscribers. Additionally, it could backfire if Wrestlemania proves to buck the current trend, which is that when people sign up for a free month that WWE retains a big majority of those customers for multiple months.

[RoccoTanno123]

This years build has been bad. Last year's build was also really bad too.

Muzzled Heyman...Reigns beats Bryan to legitimize his #1 contendership status because work meets shoot, and then Bryan kisses Reigns' ass and puts him the week's after Fastlane. Go home show: Brock and Reigns tug of war.
HHH and Sting had less heat than Shane and Taker after WWE got done with that storyline. (Don't forget Sting's interview where he says this wasn't about WWE vs. WCW, yet the match and the commentary played it completely as the monday night wars fight--when the more compelling and true character story was Sting standing up to unjust Authority). We also got a bunch of fake Stings, and HHH and Steph dominated the promo time.
Orton and Seth had a terrible build to their match, where Seth looked like a dope and Randy seemed like a schizophrenic and actually helped too much before turning.
Cena and Rusev was alright, I guess.
Bray Wyatt was babbling in that dark room about Undertaker for months, and he stopped wrestling, I guess because they got tired of jobbing guys. Taker actually didn't appear on TV because WWE figured after how terrible Brock-Taker was as a match and Taker's prior condition fans actually would just tune in to see how he looked.

Daniel Bryan had moved from the heights of WM30 down to a IC title ladder match, Ambrose was just thrown into that match, Ziggler too, lone wolf Harper, etc. the build essentially was just "hey won't this be a fun, spot heavy match? get excited"

-the women's match was a tag match....who cared about that? All the heat was for Paige to get payback on the Nikki for bullying her, including spray tanning her, but they didn't want to put the title on the pale booty goddess.

And yeah....that was the main show.

[SerpentHearted]

I didn't hate the entire show but man that main event bombed so horribly.
and it's obvious why. look at how the wyatts have been booked. strowman i don't think has ever been in a featured singles match before, possibly a squash or two? i get it that it was supposed to be a "preview" of sorts with Ambrose going up against the only other guy as physically imposing as Lesnar... but really, absolutely no reason to hear this match announced and think "oh this is going to be good and entertaining". And it wasn't.

Ambrose really needs to pack on some mass too IMO but the guy is entertaining and has been over as **** recently so they need to not screw it up with stuff like this.

Reigns I am preferring with his shorter segments, not saying much... more reminiscent of Shield era and less reminiscent of "suffering succotash" era, thank god. The "brawl" in the parking lot segment was bad though.

Vince promo also bad, pointless, and... I'm sure the HIAC match will turn out to be entertaining with some big spots but right now I'm not invested in it and like people are saying above, imagine putting this level of effort into getting us interested in something with upcoming guys on the roster?

AJ & Owens match I thought was good.
Big E and Rusev match quite good as well. New Day haven't actually "turned face" IMO they're acting pretty much exactly the same way they did previously... crowds were cheering them because they're actually entertaining and now they're feuding with a heel stable so... I dunno. I don't think there's a something to complain about there.
Charlotte and Natty had a good match too IMO. Charlotte has improved a lot and plays the heel role well IMO.
Owens setting up the whole I/C match thing was great. He's one of the best on the roster right now. Heel Jericho also great.
Actually that whole Jericho, Styles, Owens, Miz, Ziggler upper mid card mix is probably the best thing going right now along with the Diva's title. YEAH I just said that.
Usos are fkn goofy and cheesy as ****. Remember when Miz was messing with whichever one's wife and he was actually pissed off wanting to beat the piss out of a mofo? That's how they need to start acting all the time. Enough with the childish antics.

When you think good heels you think Owens, New Day up until recently... heels but still pulling out mad spots and putting on entertaining matches, not just wearing down the babyface with boring holds until there's a hot tag that no one actually pops for, or something.

Oh yeah. Big Show segment I went to make a snack. Come back and Kane has laid him out or something? They were teaming up against the Wyatts like two weeks ago. What was the fkn point of that? Atrocious booking and exactly why crowds are dead as **** for the Wyatts now.

Bah.

[DrEisenfaust]

These Raws should be making us salivating and looking forward to Wrestlemania. They're just not doing that.

I just can't get into Roman Reigns at all. I just find him dull and lacking charisma. Not looking forward to his match with Trips at all.

[butteredtoast]

Last year, I was kind of excited to watch Mania because it was the first WWE event I had watched in close to 15 years.
This year, I think I'll only be watching it because there is literally nothing better to watch on a Sunday.