Rate RAW 3/30/15

[Prince Bálor]

Edit: I apologize to the marks offended by my assessment/opinion. I tend to think that not everything WWE does is gold. =)

How dare you? :blackshock:

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

Opener was awesome. Brock makes anything worth my time. Love that they are just rolling with the punches and letting Brock be a face essentially. Heyman was playing up to the crowd big time. Steph was good here as well, what else is new.

Bryan vs Ziggler was so much better than their match on Raw last week. A genuine 5* TV match that would have stolen the show on most nights. This is how you make the mid card matter. Such a nice blend of Bryan mixing in his submission and technical wrestling, Ziggler's amateur/mat wrestling and then just beating the hell out of one another. The top rope backdrop and Ziggler's superkick were both top notch. Barrett on commentary put the match and both guys over well.

Also thought they did a really nice job of slipping in Sheamus' return. I expected Barrett to attack and thought it was a fine way to wrap everything up, and wasn't expecting Sheamus at all. Fitting him in as a mid card heel is perfect. No more having to deal with him as a top face. They booked the turn perfectly by having him destroy Ziggler and Bryan in front of the crowd they just set on fire. I was actually optimistic that WWE would make the IC belt feel important if they put it on Bryan, and sure enough this was a damn good start. Some sort of 4 way match at ER between Ziggler/Bryan/Sheamus/Barrett could be fantastic. Glad to finally have you back lobster head.

-
I didn't really think WWE was crazy enough to give me Brock vs Rollins for free the night after Mania, but what we got was probably better anyway. Brock going ape shit was one of the best segments I've seen from WWE in the last 5 years. Guess we'll see you in 6 months Brock. When Lesnar left before they cut to break I was hoping he would come back out to destroy the EMTs. Imagine the pop if he came back out for a curtain call lol
-
Of course, the double edged sword to that tits segment is now we 1.) Know the show is all downhill from here. 2.) Have no commentary team 3.) just killed the crowd spending 10 minutes hauling off the bodies Lesnar laid behind. Had this been a 2 hour Raw and this was the closing segment I would have given this show something like a 9.5/10.
-
I think in most walks of life you probably call it a day when a crazed lunatic takes out 3 commentators and a camera man, but naturally the show must go on in pro wrestling. I was waiting for JR to make a surprise appearance, instead we get some guy named Bryan Claxton. I know I certainly wasn't in the mood for a Stardust match at this point, and he didn't seem to be either. I'm probably the only person on here who doesn't care about Mizdow
-
Adrian Neville debuted. I don't really care for the little vanilla midget. Frankly I was rooting for Axel, even though I think his "hey I'm deliberately being lame isn't that funny" gimmick is horrible. Byson Jackson called this match with the enthusiasm of a rotting carcass.
-
As much as I enjoyed the Bryan/IC happenings, the Cena/US title happenings were like the polar opposite. Promo was typical Cena. Match was typical Cena. Result was typical Cena. nothing about this interested me.
-
Once Brock is out of the picture we quickly are reminded of how shitty the WWE is. generic 6 man tag to close this show? Fuck you. With Kane and Big Show? FUCK. YOU. The "Same old shit" chants were definitely warranted.

Everything up to & including Lesnar getting suspended: 9.5
Everything after: 0.0

 

[ShaRpY HaRdY]

-
Adrian Neville debuted. I don't really care for the little vanilla midget. Frankly I was rooting for Axel, even though I think his "hey I'm deliberately being lame isn't that funny" gimmick is horrible. Byson Jackson called this match with the enthusiasm of a rotting carcass.

Byson Jackson :dawg:

 

[edge4ever]

Basically. lol

Lol what a waste.

 

[CFCrusader]

I feel sorry for Byron Saxton, he's not that bad (he's enjoyable on Smackdown in the JBL role) and is getting shit on because of this. IMO, him and Lawler on RAW like that isn't going to be very good and they should have gotten Tom Phillips out there as well, putting out one guy who hasn't had much experience BY HIMSELF on the biggest RAW of the year is pretty lame of them to do.

 

[Prince Bálor]

I loved this.

And these, too! Some of the greatest moments from the episode.

 

[Jacob Fox]

How would you rate tonight's RAW? Spoilers inside!

Spoiler: Results

-Heyman & Steph Segment

-Daniel Bryan def. Dolph Ziggler to retain the IC Title.. Sheamus made his return during this match and attacked Bryan & Ziggler.

-New Day & Lucha Dragons def. Kidd Cesaro & Ascension.

-Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar were schedule for a rematch but Seth came out and said he'd give him a rematch another day.. Brock attacked Seth but he managed to escape when Mercury & Noble got involved.. Lesnar started going on a rampage, Steph came out and pleaded with him to stop, he proceeded to drop an F5 on the cameraman and got suspended indefinitely.

-Damien Sandow def. Stardust, after the match Miz attacked Sandow and gave him the Skull Crushing Finale.

-Neville debuts and def. Curtis Axel by pinning after laying the Red Arrow.

-John Cena def. Dean Ambrose in an open challenge for the United States title in a good back and forth match.

-Naomi, AJ Lee & Paige def. Natty & the Bellas.

-Rusev def. Goldust via submission.

-Reigns, Orton & Ryback def. Seth Rollins, Kane & Big Show

-

I gave it a 7. It was an entertaining post Wrestlemania Raw.

I liked:

Opening, especially Steph taking control.

Ziggler vs Bryan. A fun match but headbutts hurt to watch.

Damien vs Stardust was good and Damien was excellent.

Seth Rollins vs Brock Lesnar. This and Lesnar's subsequent rampage and Steph getting pissed was wonderful.

Adrian Neville looked great.

Main Event was good.

I was indifferent to:

Divas match

Tag match.

 

[Leo C]

You know, thinking about it, why the hell did the Brock thing happen so early? Their main event was a random 6 man which lead to nothing, really stupid move there. Unless they wanted to get all the good stuff out of the way first in order to have plenty of time for their usual boring show. Really not sure why this was done like this. Would've also avoided having to have Lawler and Saxton there (I think Byron sounded extra bored because he was selling the fact Cole was murdered, I'm really not sure but it sucked either way).

 

[Snowman1]

You know... I remember a discussion I had with CrayJ Lee about Bayley and Sasha, as she was asking why Bayley's so popular and I didn't really have an answer, while she started talking the way we normally do about Sasha. She's a tremendous worker, improving on the mic, plays her character to perfection... and all I can say in return is "Bayley's wonderful and awesome and adorable and bad things should never happen to her! lease:" and she just laughed... and it kinda dawned on me that it's SO nice to feel about professional wrestling. Talking to each other is McMahonanese is great and helps us love characters to an awfully large extentbut damn do I wanna just FEEL a character and not just witness it.

Enter Brock Lesnar. After that epically epic display of epic epicness of epic proportions dude started the show off and I was audibly slamming on the keyboard in all caps. "LIUFLAIUSGNFLAUIBGEPAUIL:WIOJ:APOITHNEIUNLAUIJNHAPIBRHFPSIU BITCH!!!!". Direct quote. Brock Lesnar gonna FUCK you up! No "well he only knows one move", no "well he can't talk"... Nah. Murdering time, party of YOU, SETH.



Somewhere between Lesnar Lesnaring everything in sight and the Bryan vs Ziggler championship match, it hit me. One thing Raw (and Impact when not in the UK) is lacking is just this overall feeling of joy that this Raw and Wrestlemania provided. This feeling of how there's no need to be jaded. Things you want to see happen could happen. Everything doesn't stick to a formula. You're free to like people without feeling like the "machine" or "the powers that be" or "Cena" is out to get them. You can cheer returning old guys and boo young talent without jeopardizing the future. You feel like the things that happen on Raw/Wrestlemania are what these things should be, the things we see on the regular on NXT, or Lucha Underground, or New Japan... All the shows we love, maybe Raw is salvagable and has a chance to get to that point if the writers actually start finding their box of fucks and start giving them out. Hell, during the Cena/Ambrose match I actually said "They may actually make the IC/US titles matter." Snow. Talking about midcard belts in a positive light. :blackshock: Believe that's written in the Book of Revelations. And even though it's JUST Wrestlemania season. Just 2 days... Dammit, I want to believe. Just give me these bread crumbs and make me feel like a loaf of bread with an NXT logo branded on it is attached.......

Then Big Show and Kane wrestled in the main event and all that happiness went away. Fuck this company. : 4/10

 

[edge4ever]

You know... I remember a discussion I had with CrayJ Lee about Bayley and Sasha, as she was asking why Bayley's so popular and I didn't really have an answer, while she started talking the way we normally do about Sasha. She's a tremendous worker, improving on the mic, plays her character to perfection... and all I can say in return is "Bayley's wonderful and awesome and adorable and bad things should never happen to her! lease:" and she just laughed... and it kinda dawned on me that it's SO nice to feel about professional wrestling. Talking to each other is McMahonanese is great and helps us love characters to an awfully large extentbut damn do I wanna just FEEL a character and not just witness it.

Enter Brock Lesnar. After that epically epic display of epic epicness of epic proportions dude started the show off and I was audibly slamming on the keyboard in all caps. "LIUFLAIUSGNFLAUIBGEPAUIL:WIOJ:APOITHNEIUNLAUIJNHAPIBRHFPSIU BITCH!!!!". Direct quote. Brock Lesnar gonna FUCK you up! No "well he only knows one move", no "well he can't talk"... Nah. Murdering time, party of YOU, SETH.



Somewhere between Lesnar Lesnaring everything in sight and the Bryan vs Ziggler championship match, it hit me. One thing Raw (and Impact when not in the UK) is lacking is just this overall feeling of joy that this Raw and Wrestlemania provided. This feeling of how there's no need to be jaded. Things you want to see happen could happen. Everything doesn't stick to a formula. You're free to like people without feeling like the "machine" or "the powers that be" or "Cena" is out to get them. You can cheer returning old guys and boo young talent without jeopardizing the future. You feel like the things that happen on Raw/Wrestlemania are what these things should be, the things we see on the regular on NXT, or Lucha Underground, or New Japan... All the shows we love, maybe Raw is salvagable and has a chance to get to that point if the writers actually start finding their box of fucks and start giving them out. Hell, during the Cena/Ambrose match I actually said "They may actually make the IC/US titles matter." Snow. Talking about midcard belts in a positive light. :blackshock: Believe that's written in the Book of Revelations. And even though it's JUST Wrestlemania season. Just 2 days... Dammit, I want to believe. Just give me these bread crumbs and make me feel like a loaf of bread with an NXT logo branded on it is attached.......

Then Big Show and Kane wrestled in the main event and all that happiness went away. Fuck this company. : 4/10

lol although i love your post and agree with like all of it, they can't get it all right man. I agree that big show and Kane need to retire or be completely on the back burner; but, WWE will always mess some things up.

It honestly feels like a struggle with raw. On the one hand, you have triple h: nxt, Rollins, Ambrose, DB, all for pushing young stars or actually talented stars. Then you have Vince: Kane, big show, taker, listens too much to his own ego, and favors older guys (which is fine sometimes).

It seems like they're trying to make everyone happy, yet the end result is a partially good raw because they have all this talent and they're not using it properly. I can honest to god see Vince and triple h back stage starting to argue about what the main event should be/needs to be. It'll be like this until Vince steps down.

There's nothing wrong with having opposition. It builds character and can make your product better. However, the only opposition Vince really has is triple h and maybe a couple others. If ratings go down slightly, not a lot, but maintain at a rate that keeps tons of money in his pocket, he will just beat that dead horse until it stops spitting out money. And that's bs. It ruins creativity, story's, and superstars.

All in all, this was best mania I've ever seen. So I pat wwe on the back for that. The raw was awesome, but definitely could've had things better. The brock segment, IC title match, US title match, and nxt stuff easily made raw at least a 9.

 

[Prince Bálor]

Just a little update on who was Brock's victim, along with J&J, Cole, Book and JBL...

- The camera man who took F5's from Brock Lesnar on RAW last night was California indie wrestler Dylan Drake.

Source: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2015/0331/592022/who-was-brock-lesnar-victim-on-raw/

 

[Snowman1]

lol although i love your post and agree with like all of it, they can't get it all right man. I agree that big show and Kane need to retire or be completely on the back burner; but, WWE will always mess some things up.

It honestly feels like a struggle with raw. On the one hand, you have triple h: nxt, Rollins, Ambrose, DB, all for pushing young stars or actually talented stars. Then you have Vince: Kane, big show, taker, listens too much to his own ego, and favors older guys (which is fine sometimes).

It seems like they're trying to make everyone happy, yet the end result is a partially good raw because they have all this talent and they're not using it properly. I can honest to god see Vince and triple h back stage starting to argue about what the main event should be/needs to be. It'll be like this until Vince steps down.

There's nothing wrong with having opposition. It builds character and can make your product better. However, the only opposition Vince really has is triple h and maybe a couple others. If ratings go down slightly, not a lot, but maintain at a rate that keeps tons of money in his pocket, he will just beat that dead horse until it stops spitting out money. And that's bs. It ruins creativity, story's, and superstars.

All in all, this was best mania I've ever seen. So I pat wwe on the back for that. The raw was awesome, but definitely could've had things better. The brock segment, IC title match, US title match, and nxt stuff easily made raw at least a 9.

If I'm being serious here, this was a 7 or an 8 raw. MUCH more good than bad.

Although watching on Hulu means I literally missed all the NXT stuff. :facepalm1:

 

[C.M. Shaddix]

6/10... it failed to deliver this year

At first I was excited I actually thought Lesnar would compete tonight, but when I saw it was happening at the 9:00 hour I knew "fuck... Rollins is going to bolt". But we had some great matches on the card, the IC title match was great, the US title match was the classic Cena match, its like the only move he knows now is the AA. The Lucha Dragons debut was great, I liked how the crowd just wanted Lucha in the match and chanted "New Day Sucks". Lesnar beating down the annouce team was great, but... now he's written off again, fuck... he should at least start making more appearences under his new contract. Neville debut was aight, but we need more out him the dude is fuckin insane in NXT. The main event I gave no shits about, it was obvious Orton's last partner would be Reigns... who wouldn't be suprised but I was suprised he wasn't booed that badly. The Sheamus return and Heel Turn was GREAT. His new look, AWESOME.

 

[Roadster]

I think the show ending with Lesnar just going in Beast Mode, and finally being suspended would've a lot better. Not only would it have made the Lesnar match believable but it would be a good way to save us from the complete awkwardness from that commentary. Saving the Authority vs. Randy and ??? and ??? announcement on SmackDown and having the match on the following RAW seemed like a good way to get people coming the next week. Seems like a good way to book 2 weeks of television. In the meantime that 12-13 minutes from the lost tag match should've gone to Bryan and Ziggler.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

If I'm being serious here, this was a 7 or an 8 raw. MUCH more good than bad.

Although watching on Hulu means I literally missed all the NXT stuff. :facepalm1:

If they had saved the good shit for the end an 8 was within reach. With how they did it instead it really killed it.

Really the only dank shit was the Ziggler/Bryan match w/ Sheamus returning and everything Brock. Outside of that... not much was noteworthy. Especially everything after Brock. It was like a flip was switched from "holy shit Brock is like SCSA in this bitch" straight to "oh, this is WWE"