RAW Superthread

ThePott

Main Roster and NXT are just too different at this point and you're right it sort of speaks to Vince and HHH, to a certain degree.

NXT has always catered to smark fans that love 'wrestling' and not necessarily the sports entertainment aspects. Triple H is good at working those fans and into the wrestling side of things.
Main Roster, Vince has always hated as being just branded as a wrestling promoter, he wants to be that media mogul. I think it's Beyond the Mat, where he says that they make films. 9 times out of 10 that means you get the best looking people or most entertaining acts flourishing on main while the others or people he just doesn't get flounder. When you look at the list of people that were unremarkable in NXT that did well on main or even vice versa it should show the difference in their thinking.

Sasha has always fancied herself as a wrestler and not just a personality. WWE have never really gotten her. The fact she hasn't been given a proper heel run on main roster as the Boss is a joke. A lot of these unhappy people want to be wrestlers, not entertainers. There's nothing wrong with being either of these but at the end of the day Vince wants to be seen as an entertainer not as a wrestling promoter. Not to mention that the roster right now is just too bloated and the show is absolute trash. It's hard to blame anyone with a degree of talent or profile for wanting out.

Just my two cents even that's a broad oversimplification, I don't think anyone can fully see Vince's thinking, he's clearly an egomaniacal nutjob but that comes with being so successful for so long and when you're the only game in town for so long why would you do things any way but the way you want them.

J. Marston

Brand split? Not with Raw ratings in the gutter. The BIG DOG is back on Raw...

https://twitter.com/WWERomanReigns/status/1124683766453153792

ERG89

J. Marston wrote: »

Brand split? Not with Raw ratings in the gutter. The BIG DOG is back on Raw...

They'll probably have him punch Stephanie.

J. Marston

Or maybe he isn't?

https://twitter.com/wwe/status/1124693192148959233?s=21

(He is.)

They've cancelled a Smackdown house show on Monday also so more Smackdown wrestlers will be there presumably.

ThePott

So an invasion angle, meh

Lord TSC

Y’all ready for Roman vs Goldberg?

ThePott

Lord TSC wrote: »

Y’all ready for Roman vs Goldberg?

God, that was my first thought as well.

RobbingBandit

Would like to see Braun Vs Goldberg if Goldberg can Jackhammer Strowman he is back

ThePott

Apparently it's mostly so Smackdown guys can appear for the build to Money in the Bank.

Sounds like they're gonna push this Roman is an underdog thread again :rolleyes:

PTH2009

Well the 'SD' live event in Dublin Thursday next features a few Raw guys and the Raw live event in Belfast the night before features a few SD guys. Maybe something too do with Travel if guys like Reigns, Finn, Elias etc are going to be on Raw this week ??

Lord TSC

Lead WWE Raw Writer Fired

Fightful Select learned on Monday that former WWE Raw home writer Ryan Callahan has been fired by WWE. He had been with the company for several years

We're told that the firing actually has nothing to do with ratings, viewership, storylines or anything of the sort. Instead, we're told that Callahan had an issue with Dave Kapoor, who portrayed Rainjin Singh on TV for years. Kapoor felt that Callahan took creative changes a little too personally, and was difficult to work with, not setting a good example for the rest of the writing team. Callahan was subsequently fired the evening of Thursday, May 2.

https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/exclusives/exclusive-lead-wwe-raw-writer-fired-why-it-happened

J. Marston

So silly that we're supposed to believe that Vince can't stand Roman.

TimesArrow

Wildcard rule.. christ almighty... and they're hyping mcintyre/reigns rematch as if its a mega match and people cared the first time

Officer999

That Raw was a mess

RollieFingers

Officer999 wrote: »

That Raw was a mess

Is it ever anything other than a mess? The era of Kofi/Seth/Becky has been utter garbage so far. That wildcard thing is such a cheap move too, might as well just not have a brand split. And the Revival "angle"......embarrassing stuff.

Officer999

RollieFingers wrote: »

Is it ever anything other than a mess? The era of Kofi/Seth/Becky has been utter garbage so far. That wildcard thing is such a cheap move too, might as well just not have a brand split. And the Revival "angle"......embarrassing stuff.

The mess is with the wildcard rule. The whole superstar shakeup has been a mess from the start. They stated superstars had no say in making the move. Then you have a promo from Styles later that night saying he choose to come to Raw. Then you have Reigns tweeting he'll be at Raw. Then you have Vince stating there is a wildcard rule with 3 superstars until Lars Sullivan shows up, then it's 4. A shambles the whole thing.

WWE were advising a creative role recently with emphasis on storyline continuity. I think they need to advertise 20 more positions to help with storyline continuity at this stage.

As for Kofi/Seth/Becky....they are all too samey samey. Underdogs that overcame the odds at Wrestlemania, fighting champions fighting for the fans. Essentially all three are the same character

ERG89

RollieFingers wrote: »

The era of Kofi/Seth/Becky has been utter garbage so far.

Totally didn't see that happening, no I swear I didn't
WWE gave the fans what they wanted at WrestleMania & god help them they didn't know what to do after. They don't know what their audience wants in 2019, plain and simple.
I scrolled through the videos on YouTube & honestly scrolled right past them without watching one. Why put myself through watching a man thrown into a bin or a sock puppet. I've better things to watch instead of a bad acid trip variety show.

Lord TSC

Nothing is happening. There's no character development, no incentive to watch week to week. There's no coherency.

The "wildcard rule" of bringing three people over each week lasted about 10 minutes, and then more SD people showed up. There's no storylines, no plot development.

There's no reward for the viewer for tuning in each week.

The one genuine undercard story is between Usos and Revevial. And that's butchering both teams. I find it hilarious though that Vince is trying desperately to bury Revival, and the two are just throwing themselves 110% into the stupidity, and will get themselves over more as a result. Usos, on the other hand, are now juvenile kids, and have lost every bit of what made them "cool" on Smackdown.

Never have they had such an incredible roster, and zero clue how to deal with it. Vince has always been like this, but it's getting worse and worse each week. Usually you get a post-Mania bump with loads of fresh stories and matches, and this dip doesn't happen till September or so...

AEW probably can't believe their luck that their launch will coincide with WWE's worst ever product....

Lord TSC

Nothing is happening. There's no character development, no incentive to watch week to week. There's no coherency.

The "wildcard rule" of bringing three people over each week lasted about 10 minutes, and then more SD people showed up. There's no storylines, no plot development.

There's no reward for the viewer for tuning in each week.

The one genuine undercard story is between Usos and Revevial. And that's butchering both teams. I find it hilarious though that Vince is trying desperately to bury Revival, and the two are just throwing themselves 110% into the stupidity, and will get themselves over more as a result. Usos, on the other hand, are now juvenile kids, and have lost every bit of what made them "cool" on Smackdown.

Never have they had such an incredible roster, and zero clue how to deal with it. Vince has always been like this, but it's getting worse and worse each week. Usually you get a post-Mania bump with loads of fresh stories and matches, and this dip doesn't happen till September or so...

AEW probably can't believe their luck that their launch will coincide with WWE's worst ever product....

sky88

The show is so toxic at the minute it just glosses over anything good on the show like there was 2 very good matches last night in roman/drew and kofi/bryan but all that sticks out is just the absolute stink of the storylines and lack of character development.

jesus the usos are coming off one of the great tag team runs on smackdown where they totally changed there characters for the better had great matches consistently now there shoved into this crap urgh just f**k off vince and co

ThePott

About halfway through it right now. I genuinely think I might be done with Raw.
It's painful to sit through, the stories are shocking. The brand split doesn't matter anymore and if there was decent storylines to support it that would be fine but instead it's just in support of Roman being an underdog, yuck. Having the WWE champion on Raw, why?

It's the same stuff over and over again. Spending nearly a half hour of talking in the ring about this new Wildcard Rule that doesn't really matter anyway. I think from now on, I'll just catch clips on Youtube or Reddit. Total nonsense. WWE wonder why rating are in the toilet and attendance is down, take a f'ing guess when this is meant to be your flagship show.

EDIT- Oh my God, The Revival segment. Jesus Christ! It's killing my interest in the Usos as well.

J. Marston

I've watched for a long time and I can't remember a time when they've been so blatantly out of ideas as they are now.

Becky/Lacey, for example, had a pull apart brawl last week. This week they had another quick brawl. Why?

The Corbin/Lashley/Drew trio of heels have been a thing for almost a year now. Zero, and I mean zero, heat. When Corbin won last night you could hear a pin drop.

The Revival stuff, time being wasted on a petty punishment.

I actually really enjoyed Sami being given the dumpster treatment though. It's a shìt gimmick that received no reaction other than home town pops in Montreal and has rightly been trashed.

Seth, bland. Kofi, bland. Becky, rapidly approaching bland. I was really hoping Bryan would win the belt last night. One face needs to be chasing.

Autecher

Just a question on The Revival. They want to leave but WWE won't let them and instead are trying to embarrass them with these segments the last few weeks because they won't sign a new deal. Why don't The Revival just refuse to do them? Vince gets offended at them saying no, they get fired, see out their 90 day no-compete clause, go work for AEW or whoever and get what they wanted?

J. Marston

Sasha has the right idea. Stay at home and avoid his petty bullshìt.

Lord TSC

Autecher wrote: »

Just a question on The Revival. They want to leave but WWE won't let them and instead are trying to embarrass them with these segments the last few weeks because they won't sign a new deal. Why don't The Revival just refuse to do them? Vince gets offended at them saying no, they get fired, see out their 90 day no-compete clause, go work for AEW or whoever and get what they wanted?

Probably a few reasons.

They're professionals.
One of them just had their contract extended for missing time due to injury, so refusing to participate in shows would likely see the same happen again.
They probably wouldn't be fired, but could be sued, have their wages docked, etc. They are under contract currently.

ERG89

Autecher wrote: »

Just a question on The Revival. They want to leave but WWE won't let them and instead are trying to embarrass them with these segments the last few weeks because they won't sign a new deal. Why don't The Revival just refuse to do them? Vince gets offended at them saying no, they get fired, see out their 90 day no-compete clause, go work for AEW or whoever and get what they wanted?

They'd likely be sent home and have their contracts frozen for all that time they are home.
I can't imagine their treatment will make people want to sign to WWE more. Must be a real ****ty atmosphere there with bad ratings, people wanting to leave, unmotivated talent & haphazard booking.

WinnyThePoo

The revivals nxt run was fantastic. Probably my favourite nxt tag team ever.

Such a shame.. How theyve been treated on the main roster.

Furious-Red

WinnyThePoo wrote: »

The revivals nxt run was fantastic. Probably my favourite nxt tag team ever.

Such a shame.. How theyve been treated on the main roster.

Sadly its pretty much the same with any NXT call up :mad::mad:

J. Marston

I know the man is old but Vince just has no presence these days. He was larger than life before and now he just kinda mumbles and repeats lines.

sky88

J. Marston wrote: »

I know the man is old but Vince just has no presence these days. He was larger than life before and now he just kinda mumbles and repeats lines.

at some stages i think to myself are they trying to do a kinda senile vince storyline but i think with age his abilty to perform on tv isnt there

Furious-Red

sky88 wrote: »

at some stages i think to myself are they trying to do a kinda senile vince storyline but i think with age his abilty to perform on tv isnt there

If they are doing that type of storyline then they are really dragging it out ha

TimesArrow

I’m done with this for a weeks now.. Raw had become unwatchable right now.. watching Vince talk in the ring was actually uncomfortable at points.. and they finished the show saying “don’t forget to tune into smackdown to see who might show Up”.. I’ll read the results (like they matter) but I can’t watch this ****e at least for a while.

Lithium93_

The ratings will be further ****ed when NFL returns from it's break.

TimesArrow

I’m done with this for a weeks now.. Raw had become unwatchable right now.. watching Vince talk in the ring was actually uncomfortable at points.. and they finished the show saying “don’t forget to tune into smackdown to see who might show Up”.. I’ll read the results (like they matter) but I can’t watch this ****e at least for a while.

Lithium93_

Brand split, but now there's a wild card gimmick in effect, what was the whole point of the Superstar Shakeup?

I swear WWE Creative are a team of monkey's on typewriters these days.

Furious-Red

So is the wildcard where people can still be drafted to either brand or is it that they can show up on different shows. Im confused

CastorTroy

So what was Vince's big plan for the show to make it unforgettable before the Smackdown guys showed up and gave him 2 matches, including the main event?

CastorTroy

Furious-Red wrote: »

So is the wildcard where people can still be drafted to either brand or is it that they can show up on different shows. Im confused

I think everyone, including Vince, was confused. Seems 4 Raw guys can show up on Smackdown and vice versa. Don't know how it's decided. Like will they be sent or do they just decide to go themselves. And then could they show up, have 4 others be there before him/her and then just have to leave again?

J. Marston

There is no logic to it, it's just desperation.

Lithium93_

J. Marston wrote: »

There is no logic to it, it's just desperation.

I think it's long past desperation.

ricero

Bray Wyatt is good. The rest is trash.

The White Wolf

J. Marston wrote: »

I know the man is old but Vince just has no presence these days. He was larger than life before and now he just kinda mumbles and repeats lines.

BUT HE'S A GENIUS! In case you didn't know after that SD invasion segment.

**** off you old bollox.

Necro

TimesArrow wrote:

I'm done with this for a weeks now.. Raw had become unwatchable right now.. watching Vince talk in the ring was actually uncomfortable at points.. and they finished the show saying don't forget to tune into smackdown to see who might show Up.. I'll read the results (like they matter) but I can't watch this ****e at least for a while.

Ditto, Network cancelled and taking a time out for a few months from watching. Will follow the results but prob wont tune back in till maybe Summerslam tbh. Cant be wasting my spare time with this sh1te anymore.

rodders999

Christ that opening segment was an absolute car crash. Vince rambling away making zero sense had me hitting delete 5 minutes into the show - a new record. The product absolutely stinks at the minute.

Lithium93_

Cole said Kofi/Bryan was the first title match on RAW in 3 years, he clearly has forgotten Kofi/Seth the night after Wrestlemania.

Sirsok

Cancelled my network subscription....decided to watch Breaking Bad again and remembered how good shows can be when you get invested in characters and how I was wasting my time watching WWE nowadays.

Loughc

Lithium93_ wrote: »

Cole said Kofi/Bryan was the first title match on RAW in 3 years, he clearly has forgotten Kofi/Seth the night after Wrestlemania.

I imagine first WWE title match in 3 years. Kofi Seth was a title versus title so technically not wrong.

GSPfan

Haven’t had a chance to come in here to see what you all thought of the wildcard stuff but I think it’s brilliant

I do in me hole.

It makes no sense. Why do it at all and why limit it to a number unless it has something to do with the money in the bank competitors, 4 and 4 from each show.

Total shoite. It’s getting worse. Feel like I’m witnessing the end of an era, hopefully the end of the Vince era.

Deeper Blue

I've actually seen Raw live quite a lot in the last 2 months as I've been working strange hours. Having watched it for 5/6 consecutive weeks, it's the repetitiveness of the show that's the most striking. I'm not surprised the ratings are tanking, the shows are so utterly missable.

sky88

love how the revival play all the speculation on twitter

https://twitter.com/ScottDawsonWWE/status/1126864192340987905?s=20