Rate RAW 4/11/16

[Snowman1]

Sooooooo I watched this on the recommendation of a friend... and whoa. Oh my goodness.

The second thing I heard about this show behind the obvious was that "WTF WWE Y U NO MAKE SENSE" and all that typical bullshit and I couldn't wait to see what happened so I could rip this show apart in here... And... Guess what, I'm going to go against that.

In the buildup to Wrestlemania... Forget about the Undertaker's reasoning, forget about what's in the black box, forget about the Authority (seriously)... The biggest issue I had when watching that never-ending match they had at WM32 was simply "These stipulations don't matter. If Shane takes over, nothing will change anyway. It'll be the same show with a different voice making 20 minute promos, whatever."

So now Shane got control. Vince just gave it to him at behest of the crowd. Why? To make the fans happy. And then he did it again, due to "overwhelming social media support". To make the fans happy. Hell, at this point it makes TOTAL kayfabe sense to say "Hey, all these polls we put online say these shows have been kicking ass, Shane. A hell of a lot better than Triple H did with his 10% approval ratings on .com! Keep going!" And Triple H gets spurned and goes to hide away in their basement over at Full Sail University where Vince won't even think to look.

Because look what we got here.
-Great wrestling. Immediately booked Cesaro vs Owens and Zayn vs Styles. HELL YEAH!!!
-No Triple H or Stephanie to be found. Fantastic. Get those two as far away from television as you can!
-Most importantly: Wins and losses actually mattering!!! YES! My biggest problem with Raw and why I find it so painfully boring is just this. Even if it is Cesaro vs Styles, if there's no point to who wins, who cares? Divas' match was on the line! A tag team tournament was started! And hell, even the main event super-established the Wyatt babyface turn. THEY ARE EVEN STARTING TO FIX BRAY WYATT, AM I SERIOUSLY WATCHING THE RIGHT SHOW!?

Just for all of this, this show gets a 9/10. Sadly I can't rate it match-by-match due to Hulu, because when you have a show where damn near everything mattered, all the matches looked severely edited for time . But I just can't bring myself to watch the 3 hour version

 

[Prince Bálor]

Also, another positive from the show that I've obviously failed to mention is: Cesaro's tear-away suit will be a recurring theme! Sweet!

 

[Roadster]

Also, another positive from the show that I've obviously failed to mention is: Cesaro's tear-away suit will be a recurring theme! Sweet!

I just noticed the Bond straw minitron. Love that their going with that. lol.

 

[Rogue]

Can you believe they brought back No.1 contender's matches? Never thought I'd see the day.

 

[Roadster]

Can you believe they brought back No.1 contender's matches? Never thought I'd see the day.

Fastlane 2016?
Last week?

 

[Rogue]

Fastlane 2016?
Last week?

Was talking about them being more prevalent in general.

But alright. Fastlane? You mean that triple threat in which the one who got pinned got a title shot announced the next night?
And last week, this week. Both under Shane's rule.

 

[Roadster]

Was talking about them being more prevalent in general.

But alright. Fastlane? You mean that triple threat in which the one who got pinned got a title shot announced the next night?
And last week, this week. Both under Shane's rule.

The Fastlane match was still a #1 Contenders match, of course consequences don't matter in WWE, but the match was a Contenders match.

 

[RedDwarfTechy]

I hadnt watched the product in ages but I really enjoyed this Raw. I agree with @Just Kevin though Reigns may not be a good guy, he may not be a bad guy, but he's the blandest guy on the mic.

Owens vs Cesaro and Styles vs Zayn were great matches to watch, but i kinda wish Owens won that one because i have a feeling WWE will play on the whole injury thing and make Miz win that match (with a little help from his wife of course)

Divas match was really good too. like many others, i had to keep pinching myself from time to time, even the guest part of the show was alright!

So 8/10 from me, keep them comin WWE!

 

[Majour]

6/10

It was decent. Some really good matches. I didn't even skip any of it

 

[alexb]

Pretty hectic week at work but, as they say, bettter late then never. Notes/Thoughts:

- Good opening segment and I liked the fact that overall we saw a lot of interaction from Shane himself throughout the show. Now, the fact that he is running the show despite losing to the Undertaker at Mania is still open to discussion and "overwhelming social media response" doesn't excactly cut it (found that rather weak) but at the end of the day we're all pretty satisfied that Shane is around so I guess it's all good.

- After RAW ended the week before in my notes I mentioned my idea of inserting Cesaro in the IC title picture and, what do you know, seven days later he's the number one contender, It was the rather obvious way to go and I'm defintely glad he got this opportunity, though I'm not so sure he will win the belt right away. My early prediction is that somehow Maryse will have some vital role in this (just like with Ryder) and will probably help Miz retain so this feud carries on for a bit longer. As far as KO vs Cesaro, good stuff overall...

- Backstage promo with Flair and Dr. Phil I found quite funny, needless to say Dr. Phil made some good points pretty much speaking for the most of us cause, indeed, it's come to a point where this getting too old too soon with Ric interfering in EVERY single match. Same thing of course happened later that night so given how things went down, I guess we'll have a rematch at Payback and if this is the case, I hope Charlotte wins cleanly.

- New Day promo was the usual stuff though cuddos for the nice layout of the brackets regarding the breakdown of the tournament. Speaking of which, I found that an excellent idea...

- Dudleyz vs Lucha Dragons was...meh and I don't know if Kalisto was legit injured but once more the US champion looked weak and I still find it rediculous that they didn't at least give the US title to Ryback at Mania. Granted, Ryback isn't exactly popular but a) we ain't got that many heels and b) what is WWE doing with Kalisto anyway? It's not like they're pushing him or anything...

- Enzo and Cass: simply brilliant and can't wait to see them fighting the Dudleyz....

- Reigns promo was the rather typical stuff, LON we still don't give a fuck about. Aside from that, Rusev's line "...and yes, I'm also better looking then you" I found hillarious and LOL'ed big time. I wish they could just cut these guys loose and have Rusev go solo again with Lana by his side cause God knows we'll never give a crap about LON as a faction...

- The long awaited debut of Anderson and Gallows was quite interesting and it's really hard to say whether them attacking the Usos was something random or not. I obviously liked the surprise aspect of it (kind of out of the blue on a random RAW rather then something more significant, like a PPV) and I guess we'll have to wait and see what their deal is,though I doubt that the Tag Team belts are what these guys are interested in at the moment.

- Oh, the Usos faught and beat the Social Outcasts...Like we care....

- The backstage promo with Miz, Maryse and later Cesaro was also a good one and this exactly is why I think the Miz will stay champion for just a little bit longer rather then just dropping it right away to Cesaro...

- AJ Styles vs Sami Zayn: Fantastic match between these two and I'm also absolutely fine with the result and how everything went down. I love Sami and all but really did want to see Reigns vs Styles one on one...

- So, they're doing Y2J vs Ambrose after all? Another good promo this one and, well, these two going at it ought to be good...

- Main event was alright but the pairing of Bray with Roman was obviously the most intriguing part of it. I just hope WWE comes us with something meaningful for Bray cause God knows he deserves it...

Overall a good show and like I noted in my previous post, the new blood obviously has a major part in improving the show. So much potential now with several different type of feuds and matches we can get to see and I'm also still waiting to see how HHH and Steph will react to Shane running things; sooner or later, they have to visit this and I'm sure they can make an interesting storyline out of it. Brand split? I can't say I'm totally for it (probably more cons then pros in this situation) but I guess it could work if they do it right...

PS: Gotta say, the way Payback is shaping up, I think it's safe to say it looks a lot more interesting and fun in comparison to Wrestlemania...