When

United States: LIVE, Monday Night, January 7, at 8/7c on the USA Network

United Kingdom: Tuesday Morning, January 8, at 1AM on Sky Sports Arena

So happy The Revival won the tag titles! Especially with having Dash in my FWL team :partysign:

 

Nikki and EC3 lost :rolleyes3:

 

That ending was totally flat. They did well building Becky up through the night then Vince just comes out and said Charlotte is taking her place, the fans didn't know how to react. I really hope they keep this Becky vs Ronda rather than a triple threat match.

I wasn't expecting the NXT stars to be promoted on the show. I imagine it's to try and make the show more exciting/must-see however I feel like it just removes the surprise/shock factor down the line when they do actually get called up. (I'm assuming they'll still be appearing on NXT as DIY still have their respective titles) WWE still haven't done a single thing interesting with the previous group who got called up. I mean, what was that Heavy Machinery/Lacey Evans segment all about! :eek:

 

We've seen the excitement someone like Becky Lynch has caused, and more recently, Kofi - why not try and push the existing talent by giving them storylines which make the fans actually care about them. OR if you're going to bring up NXT stars, give them a reason to be there rather than just sticking them in random matches.

 

We get ANOTHER Braun/Baron match, however, Bobby/Drew didn't bother helping Baron out this time. I thought that was strange as just 24 hours earlier they wanted to make sure he won. I'm not sure if I missed something but it felt like they just dropped Bobby/Drew from the feud.

 

I was totally expecting Becky to appear at the end, even if only in the crowd, shame we didn't get to see her.

We've seen the excitement someone like Becky Lynch has caused, and more recently, Kofi - why not try and push the existing talent by giving them storylines which make the fans actually care about them. OR if you're going to bring up NXT stars, give them a reason to be there rather than just sticking them in random matches.

That's what's really been missing for me. Give us a reason to care about the wrestlers and matches. Give us the wrestlers' backstories and a reason for the match that's about to take place. I mean, is it for revenge, to regain a title, are the families bitter rivals from way back, is there a score to settle, or is it all about bringing a peacocking wrestler down a peg. Just something. It wasn't that long ago when we got masterful storylines and honestly, sometimes the WWE still does that. I just wish it happened a bit more often.

Thought that was a pretty good Raw this week.

 

Great announcement from Roman, I think the audience's reaction was shared by most watching at home. I was a little gutted when Dean didn't come out after Seth, thinking it was because he is leaving - but that made for a nice moment later on during Dean's beatdown. I totally wasn't expecting Roman to get any kind of in-ring action for ages.

 

I really want/need Revival to get a decent push, every time I think they're on their way they start losing again! Maybe we'll get a triple threat tag feud between the 3 NXT teams. I kinda liked Ricochet and Black together too.

 

I'm liking Becky's Kill Bill esq outfit. I thought as they mentioned she was on her way to jail we were going to get an attitude era moment with her spoiling/gatecrashing the Birthday celebrations later on. The more I thought about it the more I thought it was going to happen, especially with her being 'The Man' also.

 

I'd heard rumours about Batista coming back for a WrestleMania match but I have to admit, that totally took me by surprise. Was a pretty cool moment, although I don't really care about a Triple H / Batista match at Mania.

I want to see the match, but considering Ric Flairs health problems even though he was not hurt that was a long distance to drag a 70 year old man. Did anyone else feel uncomfortable about that or just me.

got to commend Flair though, the guy was willing to do that. Roman announce was great, but do we really need another shield reunion, so Revival complains and ask for release WWE's response, give them the titles and have them lose every week. Becky showing up wasn't a big surprise, while it was during a boring tag match, the ending segment between Ronda and Stephanie made it worth, Ronda dropping the belt adds to the intrigue. Elias has gotten old. Lacey Evans is getting go away heat until she actually wrestles a match. Nia Jax sucks, Lio Rush being wasted, no build to Fastlane.

Did anyone else feel uncomfortable about that or just me.

I love him and it was good to see him, but he looked tired and shaky. I felt uncomfortable about it too. I'm sure Ric Flair wanted to be there, but maybe the WWE could have handled it better. There's no telling what all he had to do behind-the-scenes. Standing, waiting, and just generally chatting up everyone. He just seemed a bit tired.

I thought The Shield reunion was a nice moment, even if we know it won't last for long (with Dean leaving).

 

The only other moment I liked was Ronda turning heel which was expected considering the amount of boo's she was getting against Becky. (Although the crowd didn't seem that into it) I wonder if there's a chance Shayna Baszler, Marina Sharif and Jessamyn Duke will try and help Ronda at WrestleMania. if Ronda is taking a break/wanting to have a baby, it would be a good way to introduce Shayna to the main roster and fill some of the gap left by Ronda.

Oooh Shelton Benjamin! We all knew he would lose but nice to see him :)

 

I'm SO bored of Lashley and Balor, I guess we're going to get a gimmick match between the two at Mania?

 

No Way Jose's hair was just a NO! :eek:

 

As much as it will make a nice WrestleMania moment for Kurt, I can't believe it will be his last match - he'll be itching to get back in the ring again.

 

Ambrose took a hell of beating!

 

So it's going to be Roman/Drew at Mania then - should be a good brawl but nothing I'm that excited about.

Didn't think much of Raw this week.

 

WWE actually hyped up Kurt's WrestleMania opponent...only to give us BARON CORBIN! :brickwall:

 

Poor Dana :eek:

Wasn't really anything great about the show.

I wasn't expecting Baron Corbin to be the pick. I guess they're going for the feud over the RAW General Manager position again. I've never been a fan of that angle and I hope something big is brewing behind-the-scenes. I need to find something to like about Baron Corbin because it's clear he'll keep getting pushed.

Baron Corbin has storyline reason to be Kurts last opponent, but I fear the match will be disappointing. But hey, maybe Kurt can win it. Most of the time people lose their retirement matches, but I don't think Baron Corbin is necessarily headed anywhere big so he could probably lose it and it wouldn't matter.

 

That Drew McIntyre promo against Roman was awful. "You may have beaten Leaukemia but at WrestleMania, you won't beat me!" jesus Christ it sounds like 80's wrestling all over again. Maybe Roman will start talking about saying his prayers and taking his vitamins next.

 

Yay our tag team champions the Revival get a throwaway segment on Raw, and will lose to Lucha House Party + Titus O'Neil on The Main Event this week. They're really being pushed as the faces of the tag team division!

 

I feel like Batista is coming across as more charismatic than ever before, but still somehow this feud is falling flat. Maybe the motivations behind it are the problem. The kick-off was great with the Flair bit, but now that we're into the middle of it, it's like "eh".

It really really annoys me that Triple H is "putting his career on the line" against Batista. Like really? You wrestle 1 or 2 times a year, your career has been over since 2011 and you know it, you just never formally retired so you don't have to keep coming out of retirement for 1 more match.

 

He did this career stipulation when he faced Brock Lesnar in 2013 and he won, and I'd bet on Triple H for certain now. Triple H is going to want to stay retired when he retires, or maybe do 1 single "Coming back" match for big money a few years later, not retire and then come back when the next Saudi Arabi PPV comes up.

It really really annoys me that Triple H is "putting his career on the line" against Batista. Like really? You wrestle 1 or 2 times a year, your career has been over since 2011 and you know it, you just never formally retired so you don't have to keep coming out of retirement for 1 more match.

 

He did this career stipulation when he faced Brock Lesnar in 2013 and he won, and I'd bet on Triple H for certain now. Triple H is going to want to stay retired when he retires, or maybe do 1 single "Coming back" match for big money a few years later, not retire and then come back when the next Saudi Arabi PPV comes up.

I skipped that entire segment, so first I heard of it :) Like you said, I can't see Triple H retiring, especially with all these big money making supershows to do :P

 

I thought Raw was OK. The crowd was crazy in that opening segment, haven't heard them that loud in a long time.

 

I normally don't like the celebrity involvement at WrestleMania, but seeing Colin Jost troll the fans makes me smile. I can't see either of them (Colin and Michael) in the Battle Royal for too long.

I thought the fight between Charlotte, Becky and Ronda was great, I'm really surprised they didn't finish with that.

 

Putting Baron Corbin in the final segment of the final Raw before Mania :sleep:

 

The Kurt video was good too, so many great memories.

Baron/Rey was not the way to end Raw before Mania, should've been the women's stuff honestly, or Seth/Brock.

 

This whole build up has been weird though. You'd think Batista/Triple H would be a bigger deal, but...it just wasn't. I mean the go-home segment for their match is just Batista coming out and saying "kiss my ass hunter" and leaving. Like, really?

Putting Corbin in any segment.:sleep:

As soon as Kofi said about winner take all...I thought he'd lose to Seth and WWE would unify the men's title as well as the woman's.

 

Good to finally see Lars although I didn't expect him to go after Angle.

 

I knew Lacey would get more involved after WrestleMania, I just wasn't expecting her to go after The Man.

 

Roode finally turning heel!

 

Undertaker was a nice surprise, glad it was here and not WrestleMania.

 

I thought Mojo was Eric Young at first :-O

 

I thought having The Bar come out and spoil the final match was a cop-out, especially with Seth just making it a tag match.

 

No idea what the below was about, something to do with Bray?

 

That is my guess too, it's Bray. It looks like a buzzard. FOLLOW THE BUZZARDS.

 

I missed Roode turning on Gable but good.

 

I was also afraid Kofi was gonna lose the title in a unification. I dunno what the point of that whole thing was - No winner, no unification, and seemingly no actual feud for either Seth or Kofi moving forward from it. So what the hell? Why couldn't they have just had matches?