WWE Raw Superthread

Need to see that RKO turn on Cody

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A bit of a 'Raw after mania' feel to this episode

It can wait until the morning and I'll watch it on Reddit then. Not sitting through 3 hours of Raw for it.

Just watched his promo and it was very PG Punk in the WWE it could have been a Rock or Cena promo just hitting all the WWE by the numbers points.

Also was surprised the pop was so small when he walked out.

The key thing I took from it was the line he is there to make money.

And do as he is told I'm guessing if he wants to make that money. I'd say the WWE legal went in big on his contract and acting the fcuk on his half and he is out and losing money.

Thank God I didn't stay up until for 4am for that. A heap of nothing.

The "I'm home" line was good trolling though.

Sam Roberts mentioned that the idea of a rumble match where everyone is out to get Punk would be good. Maybe do that Roman screws him over and they have the in between RR and WM feud and leave it open for them to go their separate ways with Cody and Seth. Would require Cody winning the rumble again which is probably not ideal though.

Apparently he did a "victory lap" just as they were going off air á la the Young Bucks on Collision the week after he left. That was the extent of his shooting.

I was surprised Cody was Shinsuke's target, interesting feud but ultimately Cody will go over

I think Punk's time was cut as Randy Dom went over

It was an interesting timid promo from Punk, everyone was probably expecting AEW, Seth digs etc., but he just wants the money which he probably is getting

I'm guessing we see a long slow burn where Seth keeps refusing to acknowledge or fight Punk, treating him as an irrelevance the same way he did tonight, so Punk wins Rumble and calls the Seth fight. To stop things getting stagnant with that belt in the meantime, could even see a situation where Seth loses it soon, continues to dodge Punk, and then gets a later title shot again down the line (maybe even at the Rumble, or maybe later than that) - with Punk interfering to win it for Seth, so that Seth has to accept the challenge after Punk wins the RR.

Cody and Roman can be made happen some other way, getting reignited in the run up to WM.

Barring the Rock signing up for a Roman match, it feels like Seth/Punk, Jimmy/Jay, and Cody/Roman are all likelihoods for WM.

There's mileage in Punk being the one guy Rollins-who accepts any challenge-won't face on principle, and the one guy Reigns doesn't want to face cause Punk was longest WWE champ of the 'modern era' (w/ Heyman at his side too).

A tad misleading there AC.

On Punk's promo, what shots did people expect him to take? Shots at AEW? Do you think WWE would even approve giving them relevance on their TV putting aside talk of an NDA?

The promo aped much of his debut promo on Ramage and it was clearly by design, topped off with his line into the camera about being here to make money. He was being purposefully fake and by the numbers, which will feed into Seth's promos.

A mild promo if you take it literal, but if you read between the lines it sets the foundations for what's to come.

I'm sorry man but I can't tell are you just trying to wind people up or trying to be petty.

"Raw's ratings didn't improve with Punk"... "I'm actually not even aware what their ratings usually are, they suck regardless".

When it comes to cable ratings, 1.8 is a good number. For example, 1.884 which RAW got would put it ahead of half of the episodes of HBO's House of the Dragon (Live TV+DVR) viewership. Granted HBO is it's own separate cable package (stuff like that is incidentally why they are quick to shout about ratings over a longer period of time and the streaming numbers now). There's only a few shows on cable you could say are bringing a massive number these days, outside of live sports and news.

Channels weren't paying just for the numbers (which are good) but also for the fact that they have a consistent audience that stays generally high and has a programme that does not go off the air. Scripted shows are great but how do you keep an audience when the season is over. Sports audiences can genearally be higher but those sports have an off-season. Wrestling doesn't and live viewership is important to advertisers as it's more likely to keep viewers engaged and pay attention to advertising.

You could look at the demos (remember when that was the way people insisted we measure wrestling) or look at how RAW is up quite a bit year over year, which is impressive considering ratings in general are falling nowadays. Either way, the number is decent. I'm not going to say it couldn't have been higher with Punk. They actually started over 2 million but dropped over time but the number itself is decent and as pointed out above, did show boosts.

I just don't get the need to be so hostile over ratings, especially when you haven't much of a leg to stand on. By your own logic if a viewership at 1.8 isn't worth much money, what does that say about a potential deal for AEW who could only dream of a number like that at this point. That's not dissing AEW's ratings, they have drawn good numbers too but this just seems like pointless stirring.