RAW Discussion (25th Feb)

Must be plenty to talk about this week. I haven't watched the main event yet, but I'm sure it's easy to guess what happened so feel free to discuss any of that.

I shall focus on the other parts for now though.

Firstly I have to say that this edition of Raw was the best I've seen in years. I know they always step it up pre Mania, but it felt like the most complete wrestling show that I have seen since god knows when.

Raw began with promise of a fight between Paul Heyman and Vince Mcmahon, obviously just a set up for Brock and HHH from the start, but it was good to see once great promotion rivals having a bust up to further the interest in the surviving promotions biggest PPV of the year. I could almost see ECW being revived at some point, to reward Heyman for his quality work over the last year. And to give his fans one last hoorah (properly this time, not bobby lashleyified) The real talking point though was HHH and Lesnar having quite a good tear up, I'm still not sure if Lesnar bladed or just took the ring post to his head because he is a hard nut, as I was watching on a stream and it jumped a bit, annoyingly. Either way these two are capable of having a really brutal match at wrestlemania, which may make some grown men cower and cry. I'm certainly looking forward to the match, especially as I missed their last rivalry/most of brocks time in WWE anyway.


Jack's Back funny sort of punishment he is getting. To me it still looked like Miz getting punished for being a dangerous cunt. Everything about this story and matchup is exciting. They even made the ankle lock seem more brutal this week (btw It's the Patriot Act Cole! Though Cole has now renamed the move the Patriot Lock, because he said it fifteen times in a row. Well done)
Someone even had a sign in the crowd with "We The People" written on it. A bit awkward really. Fine, enjoy the story, but not one person in the arena should show support to them, as it suggests you are a real life version of their characters and you look like a bigoted tool. The crowd seemed pretty hot during Miz TV. Which is a sign people in the live crowd are listening to the promo's instead of shouting "WHAT!" and failing to participate in the event and work that is being done for their pleasure.

okay that was ranty, but you all know I rated this storyline since day one so.

Plenty of other talking points but for now I'll leave it at that. You have your own minds and must have enjoyed at least some, if not all of the show.

Was a very good Raw, I don't think Lesnar bladed, there's rumours he now has 12 staples in his head. Very good brutal opening, also looked like HHH pished himself.

Brad Maddox is brilliant, and Bryan/Kane segment and match was funny.

Zeb was good again, exactly what Swagger has needed for years.

The Main Event, wasn't really lokking forword to it, but it was another great match from Cena/Punk, they two of them seem to always have a great match, and Cena needs to add the powerbomb to his moveset more often, and stop doing the hurricaranna, just looks too sloppy, then WWE let Punk perform an illegal move in the piledriver, and before it all Punks promo, "I Am GOD!" was class.

feяgie22 wrote:

then WWE let Punk perform an illegal move in the piledriver

Or not

Quote :

- Vince McMahon reportedly "blew a gasket" backstage at RAW last night during the CM Punk vs. John Cena main event. Word is that Vince got upset when Punk hit Cena with a piledriver, which is a banned move when done the way Punk did it. Vince was upset with Cena and Punk but because it was them, there will likely be no serious punishment.

He has something about him, does Brad. I just did a bit of a search to find out his background and he has held a fair few OVW and developmental titles. But maybe more interesting was this: After he was defeated he renamed himself Brent "Beef" Wellington and changed his gimmick to that of a necrophiliac.

Nearly every part of last nights RAW was trending on twitter, which may be a sign that it's building it's veiwers up to a higher point than usual pre mania levels. I'd certainly expect so. As any fan who may not be watching of late, will surely not be able to miss the pure attention WWE is getting now. Glenn Beck for example was trending as soon as Cole mentioned him again.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1544615-glenn-beck-hides-from-wwe-refuses-to-give-interview

This had the Cole Youtube video and an article on the situation. The part that stands out the most to me is that "Media outlets that normally don't have much to say about what goes on at Raw and SmackDown have weighed in. Huffington Post, New York Post and International Business Times have all reported on the war of words between WWE and Beck"

Perfection.

feяgie22 wrote:

feяgie22 wrote:

then WWE let Punk perform an illegal move in the piledriver

Or not

Quote :

- Vince McMahon reportedly "blew a gasket" backstage at RAW last night during the CM Punk vs. John Cena main event. Word is that Vince got upset when Punk hit Cena with a piledriver, which is a banned move when done the way Punk did it. Vince was upset with Cena and Punk but because it was them, there will likely be no serious punishment.

If only the move was the other way round! As in Cena hitting Punk with the piledriver. Because then Punk could again channel Andy Kaufman and threaten to sue! Missed chance. It would suit the CM Punk right to complain character perfectly.

(Induct Andy Kaufman to the HOF)

Sexton Hardcastle wrote:

Jack's Back funny sort of punishment he is getting. To me it still looked like Miz getting punished for being a dangerous cunt. Everything about this story and matchup is exciting. They even made the ankle lock seem more brutal this week (btw It's the Patriot Act Cole! Though Cole has now renamed the move the Patriot Lock, because he said it fifteen times in a row. Well done)
Someone even had a sign in the crowd with "We The People" written on it. A bit awkward really. Fine, enjoy the story, but not one person in the arena should show support to them, as it suggests you are a real life version of their characters and you look like a bigoted tool.

Well maybe he actually was a bigoted tool so didn't feel bad about looking like one.

I have to say that WWE have achiveved something quite major here - made me care about Jack Swagger. Before he came back I'd forgotten he even existed, now I'm actually looking forward to him and Zeb. My only concern is what will happen to Swagger when/if he and Zeb part company. At the moment it's fine having Zeb doing most of the talking while Swagger stands behind him and goes: "We the people." But sooner or later there will be a parting of the ways and I'm a little concerned that without someone like Zeb around, Swagger will struggle.

I caught the end of the main event and it did look suitably epic. Quite a few people are saying that this was better than any match we'll see at WrestleMania which I hope is not going to be the case. But I don't think that Cena/Rock II will come close to this.

I'd hope that anyone, when given the chance to work with someone with superior story telling ability, would improve on their own ability to do so. In some of the videos he does join in to some extent, but I doubt we will see Jack say that much, until he has to cut an "I realise the error of my ways" speech. Or have Zeb create a stable before he leaves, and share the promo work around, like The Shield do.

A big part of being good in promo's is enthusiasm and confidence, I think people need to realise that making mistakes isn't going to mess up the whole thing. So they may as well go for it. CM Punk made mistakes last night and repeated one part, but it didn't affect the promo as a whole.

another promo based talking point is how relaxed Sheamus and Barrett were together. They looked like they enjoy working together and find it easier. I'd have them fued for a long period as it could bring out the best in them.