RAW 22-2-2016 (FastLane Fallout)

martyos121

So it looks like Reigns didn't even get busted open for real last night, you can quite clearly see Byron Saxton handing him what is almost certainly a blood pack:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10153218436591571&id=644321570&refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2Fnightsneakjames%2Fvideos%2F10153218436591571%2F&locale2=en_US&_rdr

The blood definitely made an impact, but unfortunately for Vince, it made an impact for the wrong guy! :pac:

briany

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

No chance. Lay down? Like the fingerpoke of doom? That would bury both Taker and Shane. An ending like that would result in massive boos. People will want a decisive winner.

I have a question for those who are happy with this match-up: how do you want Taker to be booked? Out and out heel? Should he unashamedly pledge his support to The Authority?

Or should he not be turned at all, in which case how do you ensure that the audience stays on the side of Shane rather than go with the hometown legend?

It's a can of worms the more you think about it. I honestly don't see how you can avoid a massive swathe of the crowd going with Taker. And even if you can successfully convince most of the crowd to go with Shane, are you telling me that at the conclusion of the match, when the bell rings, that people are going to be happy in Texas seeing Taker on his back? Even if he endorses Shane afterwards? I don't see it.

And if you end up with a situation where Shane blows up and gets gassed, and then lumbers to a win over Taker that pisses off the audience, you then have the potential to kick off Raw with Shane in charge and many of those hardcore fans giving Shane a hard time. So you end up substituting one heel McMahon authority figure for another.

Taker in Texas needs to be the babyface and Taker in Texas WILL be the babyface, regardless of how they book him imo.

No, not like the Finger Poke of Doom, rather 'Taker absolutely beats the living crap out of Shane, going for the pin once or twice, pulling him up on two and a half. He wants to win the match to keep it from being 22-2, he wants to win in front of a Texan crowd, but he has a crisis of conscience he knows that doing so will only perpetuate the Authority's reign of terror (even though he won't feel the brunt of that, he's thinking about his fellow wrestlers). Eventually he either lets Shane pin him (pulls an unconscious Shane on top of him, even) or disqualifies himself. In this way, 'Taker gets over for making a selfless sacrifice, and Shane gets over by taking the beating he did. Both also get over in having screwed the Authority.

As for the crowd, they'd know there's something at stake on both ends making them conflicted in their support. Yeah, they might wanna see 'Taker win, but on the other hand his doing so would keep evil Stephanie on our screens, calling the shots for that much longer, so there's something to support in Shane's cause as well. And some of these conflicted crowds make for the best viewing, thinking back to Hogan/Rock at WM 18. A not technically outstanding match absolutely made by the passionate crowd that was split down the middle, and swung back and forth, actually, depending on who was on top. It wasn't a case of either/or. No, 'Taker would not be booked as an out-and-out heel, but as a babyface being played as a pawn and showing a certain amount of annoyance over this fact.

Bounty Hunter

Shane was pretty much the one guy that was left out there who could make a surprise comeback and have that effect, even someone like the Rock would not be as much of a big deal imo.

That said I agree that the match announcement is very odd but hopefully there is a lot of twists to come in that storyline before Mania because as much of a great one as it is to get us all talking it does not make sense with regards the face heel dynamic etc.

If I had to predict I would say that Taker would make an appearance next week and throw a spanner in the works by saying no to Vince, no he will not represent him at mania. Say he want's Vince/Steph/HHH out of power and would rather represent Shane O'Mac. Vince agrees to this but only if Taker puts his career on the line.


So the match becomes Taker representing Shane vs someone representing Vince and that someone then becomes... Sting or Cena

Sting because he is desperate to face Taker at Mania and Vince knows this or Cena because he literally is Superman having come back from his injuries already and Vince knows he is a big match guy and the one guy who could live with having the fans on his back as they no doubt would be vs Taker at Mania with his career on the line.

JP Liz V1

Could Rollins be back to represent Vince instead of Taker or instead help Shane at WM

briany

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

Shane was pretty much the one guy that was left out there who could make a surprise comeback and have that effect, even someone like the Rock would not be as much of a big deal imo.

That said I agree that the match announcement is very odd but hopefully there is a lot of twists to come in that storyline before Mania because as much of a great one as it is to get us all talking it does not make sense with regards the face heel dynamic etc.

If I had to predict I would say that Taker would make an appearance next week and throw a spanner in the works by saying no to Vince, no he will not represent him at mania. Say he want's Vince/Steph/HHH out of power and would rather represent Shane O'Mac. Vince agrees to this but only if Taker puts his career on the line.


So the match becomes Taker representing Shane vs someone representing Vince and that someone then becomes... Sting or Cena

Sting because he is desperate to face Taker at Mania and Vince knows this or Cena because he literally is Superman having come back from his injuries already and Vince knows he is a big match guy and the one guy who could live with having the fans on his back as they no doubt would be vs Taker at Mania with his career on the line.

"Undertaker - if you don't represent the Authority at Wrestlemania, I'll stop your checks." :pac:

Sting's spinal issue puts his ability to participate in doubt, and Cena's racing against time to be fit in time for WM. Admittedly, this would be a good slot to make a Cena match at WM quite important at short notice, but makes zero sense in terms of motivation. At least with 'Taker you could halfway explain by saying he is a dark loner, whereas Cena has been and probably always will be the baby-kissing babyface of WWE and has had his disputes with the Authority. It may be, still, that 'Taker does protest, but the talk was of someone facing Undertaker who was not only on the active roster, but had not even been on the books at all (as of the time when the report was made). That fits Shane. It does not fit Sting or Cena.

Bounty Hunter

briany wrote: »

"Undertaker - if you don't represent the Authority at Wrestlemania, I'll stop your checks." :pac:

Sting's spinal issue puts his ability to participate in doubt, and Cena's racing against time to be fit in time for WM. Admittedly, this would be a good slot to make a Cena match at WM quite important at short notice, but makes zero sense in terms of motivation. At least with 'Taker you could halfway explain by saying he is a dark loner, whereas Cena has been and probably always will be the baby-kissing babyface of WWE and has had his disputes with the Authority. It may be, still, that 'Taker does protest, but the talk was of someone facing Undertaker who was not only on the active roster, but had not even been on the books at all (as of the time when the report was made). That fits Shane. It does not fit Sting or Cena.

surely due to the word active it'd fit both of them. I actually dont terribly mind the match but all of the concerns MNG/TBC brought up are very real ones.

Shane would also be a perfect placeholder for someone not yet cleared to wrestle like Sting, Cena or Rollins not that I necessarily expect any of them.

Logically Cena doesn't make much sense but neither does Taker fighting for Vince and as a heel in Texas. At least with John you could have them do some sort of an angle where he wants the biggest match he could have at mania and that is vs Taker... more would be needed but thats the WWEs job to come up with.

As things stand odds are it'll be Shane vs Taker but I don't think it should be

Insect Overlord

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Could Rollins be back to represent Vince instead of Taker or instead help Shane at WM

5 months couldn't possibly be long enough to fully recover from a cruciate ligament injury.

PTH2009

If it's Shane in the match then he will be down for most of it and will low blow taker and do the coast to coast thing on him. It will be unlike other taker matches which included numerous kick outs and finishers. Will Kane be dragged into this story.

It should of been Shane vs Kevin Owens or team Shane vs LON

Lord TSC

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

Shane was pretty much the one guy that was left out there who could make a surprise comeback and have that effect, even someone like the Rock would not be as much of a big deal imo.

Went back and watched it there. Really shows haw a hot crowd can be such a massive boon to a show. When Shane's music hits, when he walks out, when he does his dance round Vince, when he stops the hug, when he refuses the handshake...the crowd popped repeatedly and in perfect timing, and made it an OMG Moment for sure.

Easily one of my, if not THE, favorite moment of the last ten years. The fact that, unlike Rock, unlike Brock, unlike AJ, there was no word of the return really added to it.

I love rewatching clips of debuts or whatever where the crowd just go nuts, and this joins the playlist. And this time, we didn't have to see Reign's reacting to the debut to tell us it was a big deal :P

ERG89

Shane is going to get an advocate to replace him yeah?
Or is this more awful booking. Hard to know with the wwe.
Bet the Rock is relieved he can't wrestle they'd book him against someone like Erik Rowan

Lithium93_

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Could Rollins be back to represent Vince instead of Taker or instead help Shane at WM

Rollins is still 6 months away from recovering from his ACL injury.

briany

PTH2009 wrote: »

If it's Shane in the match then he will be down for most of it and will low blow taker and do the coast to coast thing on him. It will be unlike other taker matches which included numerous kick outs and finishers. Will Kane be dragged into this story.

This is a part of what makes Shane v. Taker an interesting prospect. It would not be a case of Taker being an out and out face based on what a win for him would mean, and Shane is such an underdog that it could not be the usual 3 tombstones in order to put him away. I'm sorry, but, beyond the streak being broken, Undertaker's matches of recent years have been pretty predictable. Shane vs. Taker for control of RAW offers something different and puts something on the line now that the streak is dead.

Damnyou

My opinion of what happens is there is obviously going to be s lot of interference from people in the match as he'll in a cell is no disqualification if I remember correctly and no way will Shane get a clear win.

Queue Shane and Taker beating the crap put of one another and Vince hits Shane with chair or something. Stone cold music comes on and gives Vince the finger and stuns Vince and undertaker and good old shane o mac and stone cold share a few beers and laugh at vince
It's not going to be a clear win for shane o'mac anyway.

Ambrose vs Lesnar will be awesome. I'd say ambrose will be broken up after that.

I despise Reigns as has the charisma of a turnip and his cute little roars and superman punches. On the microphone he's probably the worst wrestler I've ever seen, won't be that bad of a match but Reigns cannot win.

What lies in store for the rock? Maybe a match against Kevin Owen would be good or who else would be good?

CSF

briany wrote: »

This is a part of what makes Shane v. Taker an interesting prospect. It would not be a case of Taker being an out and out face based on what a win for him would mean, and Shane is such an underdog that it could not be the usual 3 tombstones in order to put him away. I'm sorry, but, beyond the streak being broken, Undertaker's matches of recent years have been pretty predictable. Shane vs. Taker for control of RAW offers something different and puts something on the line now that the streak is dead.

But Undertaker doesn't get control of Raw. The idea is a great one. Shane's return is about he most exciting thing that's happened in WWE and a match where Shane could (will) win control is a great one.

But there is no reason for Undertaker to be motivated to stop Shane taking over Raw, and the motive they give him is inevitably going to be a stupid one. Undertaker will show up once (maybe twice if we are lucky) and I'd say that's destined to be a story untold. It'll be Shane vs Vince that we see every week, and that's really the storyline we are looking at here. Undertaker is just a big name to be thrown into the equation.

What they could (IMO should) have done was added to the Shane excitement and have him bring some guys in with him, IMO this would have been the time to bring the best NXT guys into the WWE frame with the right match (Balor, Zayn, Nakamura, Samoa Joe IMO) versus either the League of Nations or the Wyatt Family. These guys are heels so it would not be the slightest bit surprising to see them working for the boss. They've done it before.

In doing so, you've given the fans something completely fresh, given 8 guys decent spots on the card who aren't getting it now, and avoided a match between 2 guys with an average of not far off 50, which won't be feuded every week on Raw.

BMMachine

Bullet Club to come in and interfere in Shane-O-Mac vs. taker. New era - with a bit of luck.

this certainly has me more interested in mania. Unless of course they put Reigns over clean and keep pretending that we want him, that would annoy me. If they turned reigns and he wins and becomes Vinces lackey, then Im all for it. Heel reigns makes a sh*t load more sense than face reigns as the booing would work

CSF

Heel Reigns is about as close to genuine heel heat as you could get IMO.

Mr.Nice Guy

Even by HHH standards that was quite the burial of young Roman at the end. As Meltzer noted, he went totally for the babyface reaction with the crotch chops and everything.

When I saw it I was reminded of Angle's last year in WWE when HHH criticized him for not getting enough boos as a heel. It was a hypocritical complaint then, and it remains so ten years on too.

I guess it will help him when he lobbies Vince to keep the title on himself at Mania. I can't say I care a great deal at this stage because Reigns gets less over by the week and I don't like the idea of either man as the champion. I feel this will be a really underwhelming main event if it goes on last.

Mick Murdock

Wade Keller always talk **** about Shane 'playing wrestler' but I thought he was a great athlete in his own right and way more entertaining than most guys on todays roster. Not everything was executed brilliantly but for someone with so little actual ring time he took some amazing bumps and his agility showed. He looks in good shape still and I think replacing him would be such a damp squid.
E
I hope he's in a match one way or the other.

mrkiscool2

Have Cena come in and help Shane beat Taker so that the Authority is out of power, Taker vs Cena at WM 33. Just good booking right there.

CastorTroy

Unfortunately, I spoiled the Shane return for myself by hitting refresh here after turning Raw off when Steph came out. Was great seeing him though. Was thinking he got a bigger reaction that most guys get.
As for his match against Taker, I don't know how it'll go, but I'd say it will go ahead. The reason being that people will now want to see Shane in a match, to see if he can still go coast to coast and to see how he comes down from the top of the cell. Also the fact they already named it as being Hell in a Cell makes it pretty set.
Unless Linda somehow gets involved as well. Maybe it somehow becomes triple threat to give Shane someone else to pin. With the streak gone, it can go either way. For now, I think the big question mark is around whether or not Taker is willing to fight him for Vince.

For Ambrose/Lesnar, I think a Last Man Standing match would work better since the whole thing is that Ambrose refuses to stay down.

And poor Godfather didn't even get a proper video package with voiceover guy and all.

BMMachine

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Even by HHH standards that was quite the burial of young Roman at the end. As Meltzer noted, he went totally for the babyface reaction with the crotch chops and everything.

When I saw it I was reminded of Angle's last year in WWE when HHH criticized him for not getting enough boos as a heel. It was a hypocritical complaint then, and it remains so ten years on too.

f**k reigns tbh. theres no helping him, might as well make him a heel and see if he can help himself. HHH giving the crowd what they want, albeit as a heel but this is a heel vs. a guy getting boo'd - who are we meant to root for? gimme the guy that can actually connect with the audience any day.

their match will stink either way, H has barely had a good match since his program with Sean (the undertaker matches were horribly overrated, his one at mania 17 was his best with him. he had the poorest of all the lesnar programs since his return, he put us to sleep since about 2003/4 on) and reigns is a 5 moves of doom big guy. at least H is doing something interesting in this feud. Oh no sorry, next week Reigns will come out and cut a sh*te promo and grin like an idiot - imma gonna cheer that guy


oh and as for Godfather - Koko now has competition for worst wrestler in the HoF. what a horrific choice

LeeJM

Just thinking today a good way to get Shane out of the match with Taker is having video/pics of Shane going for the mandatory medical and Dr. Amann refusing to clear him to compete for some reason. Board of Directors decrees that Shane gets to hand pick his replacement and thats where either Rollins or Cena enters. Im more leaning towards Rollins. I think he is closer to a return than we are being told.

martyos121

LeeJM wrote: »

Just thinking today a good way to get Shane out of the match with Taker is having video/pics of Shane going for the mandatory medical and Dr. Amann refusing to clear him to compete for some reason. Board of Directors decrees that Shane gets to hand pick his replacement and thats where either Rollins or Cena enters. Im more leaning towards Rollins. I think he is closer to a return than we are being told.

If anything, he's further away from a return than we've been told. Minimum term for an ACL tear is 6-9 months, and that's just to get up and about again, it could be even longer before he can wrestle. Summerslam return is the best case scenario here IMO.

LeeJM

martyos121 wrote: »

If anything, he's further away from a return than we've been told. Minimum term for an ACL tear is 6-9 months, and that's just to get up and about again, it could be even longer before he can wrestle. Summerslam return is the best case scenario here IMO.

Im pretty sure I have seen either reports or pics of him back doing crossfit! I know Im being vague but I cant remember exactly what it was, but I do believe if he isnt back for WM he'll be back for Raw the next night.

sirmanga

Jericho is so slow, plodding and out of shape. They need to get AJ away from this guy.

CastorTroy

I did like someone's suggestion here of making it best of 3 with Rousey/Steph, Shane/Taker and HHH/Reigns. That way can have Shane lose and then actually have some interest in Reigns winning

martyos121

LeeJM wrote: »

Im pretty sure I have seen either reports or pics of him back doing crossfit! I know Im being vague but I cant remember exactly what it was, but I do believe if he isnt back for WM he'll be back for Raw the next night.

Well I really hope you're right, but an ACL injury isn't one to rush back from above any other. I just really hope he's careful in how he handles it.

Thank goodness it isn't a head injury at least, I'll be deeply worried every time someone gets a concussion now after what happened to Bryan.

LeeJM

I will hold my hands up and say I could be wrong but I swear I saw something along those lines. Totally agree re the ACL injury. Not something to rush back from. Hope if he is back for Mania that he is ok and not rushing back at only 50%

PTH2009

LeeJM wrote: »

Just thinking today a good way to get Shane out of the match with Taker is having video/pics of Shane going for the mandatory medical and Dr. Amann refusing to clear him to compete for some reason. Board of Directors decrees that Shane gets to hand pick his replacement and thats where either Rollins or Cena enters. Im more leaning towards Rollins. I think he is closer to a return than we are being told.

hope to see something like this. dont want to see taker being wasted and be in a one sided match. few things though

why would taker fight for Vince ???

if taker goes to shanes side why would Cena/Sting fight for vince ???

sting is against the authority and i very much think taker would be against them too.

DM_7

Just watched the end there.

Triple H pretty much turned face there.