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WWE RAW Discussion Thread - August 25, 2014 from Anaheim, CA (#1109)

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When

United States: LIVE, Monday Night, Aug. 25, at 8/7c on the USA Network

United Kingdom: Tuesday Morning, Aug. 26, at 12AM on SkySportsHD3

 

Venue

Honda Center in Anaheim, CA

 

Confirmed Matches/Events

 

Hall of Fame Forum to Kick Off the Show w/ Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, & Shawn Michaels

 

John Cena to Address the WWE Fans

 

John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt

 

Build to Night of Champions

Edited by TPIB

Featured Replies

I hated the end with Cena but most of the show was solid and whilst the angle with the Bella's was poorly acted out, I liked it a lot. I think if you cut RAW down to 90 minutes, took out some adverts and stopped the relentless "Did you see this from 5 minutes ago?! NO?! Well, lets show you again in full!" replays, it'd actually be a good show. It's far too long and drawn out though but the content is alright.
If WWE were't so brutal about their copyrights, it would be a really interesting experiment to see if you could take every episode of RAW, and edit it down to about 60-70-ish minutes (a 90 minute show with the adverts taken out) and see how it comes out.

I think it'd be a huge improvement. I remember a poster on here dissected the content of RAW between adverts, replays, promos, matches etc. and the amount of new content in the 3 hour show was far too low. It creates a plodding, dull show so for me, RAW would be unwatchable live and the only way I can enjoy it is by skipping through 80% of it. The match quality is usually good but are too long and the only promos I watch in full are from Wyatt.

 

The idea of a 3 hour wrestling show is flawed, I think. Wrestling is fun when it's over the top, exciting and unpredictable but you can't do that for 3 hours a week without it being a complete mess. The WWE were backed into a corner by being pushed into longer shows and, unfortunately, it hurts the product but cut this show down to 90 minutes, speed everything up and it'd be far more enjoyable.

McMahon has always been a proponent of 90 minute shows.
Maybe, with all the "earlier tonight...", "Did you know..." and inane shilling segments, Vince is actually putting out a 90 minute wrestling show via subterfuge.

 

I know I watch RAW (as well as Smackdown and NXT) via downloads, so the ads are removed anyway. RAW at around 2hrs 10mins is much more bearable and with skipping the repeats of earlier segments, etc, it does come in at around 80-90mins.

They should never give Brock Lesnar a live microphone but let him do all these fun video packages where he doesn't give a shit! Video packages bring a tear to Brock Lesnar's eye.

Edited by Shaun2J

That was a great segment with the Bella Twins!!

 

I'm happy to defend the WWE, but this segment was horrendous.

 

I get the feeling that if Chris Jericho had been at the show he wouldn't have let the man that beat him clean at SummerSlam and next PPV opponent that he's working with to get over be destroyed in two separate matches by John Cena.

 

But he wasn't there, so best of luck saving this Chris.

I actually saw the Brock interview as it happened and loved it. If CENAWIZLOL at the next show I'm gonna lol so damn hard.

 

The plexes on Bray were kinda dumb. Just as dumb as BEEG and Henry coming to save the day.

Yeah, I agree on Cena. WWE are so desperate for ratings that it hurts their product at times, like it did with him this week. Lesnar is being built up as a guy who ruins careers, he beats Cena in a one sided match leading to questions over what Cena has left. That's all good, but why then do you have Cena dominate a strongly booked faction a week later? If anything, he should have been wrapped in bandages, hobbling and losing clean to a lower card guy to emphasise this 'Lesnar ends careers' thing or maybe even better, have him off TV for a few weeks altogether. It's illogical to have him still be dominant after such a beatdown and yet because the WWE are scared of losing ratings, Cena goes over in the main event. It's very timid booking.

Well first of all he just palmed off his complete destruction by Brock and said "I'll kick his ass next time!"

 

Secondly he had a 1v1 match against Bray Wyatt which he dominated for two minutes by throwing Bray around for a while until the Wyatts made the save for a DQ. That turned into a 6 man with Show and Henry where Cena dominated everyone for a while and eventually pinned Bray clean.

What stuck out on RAW for me (and not in a good way) is the fact that they undid over two years of dominance by The Wyatt Family just to put John Cena over for a feud that will probably be over after Night of Champions. WWE is the worst about using these tactics; they put all this time and effort into building up these Superstars to turn them into "unstoppable forces". Then, when a Superstar (usually Cena) needs put over, they undo all the work they put into. The last twelve years are riddled with guys who have been used as a means to put Cena over and The Wyatt Family is just the latest.

 

The Bella Twins segment was done superbly, which is surprising considering that it featured The Bella Twins :lol I feel like this feud is mostly the brainchild of Brie & Nikki as I can't see WWE scripting something so well done. It was a segment that definitely pushed that PG envelope with the things that Nikki said (especially telling Brie that she wished she "died in the womb") and I'm surprised Brie wasn't injured the way Nikki yanked her around like she did.

 

This week's RAW was an episode where it was painfully clear that they didn't have enough to fill the entire duration of the show. There was absolutely no reason to have Slater & Titus vs. Los Matadores and there was no reason to have Bo Dallas vs. Kofi Kingston (they easily could have had Jack Swagger attack Bo Dallas backstage or during a stage promo) and there was certainly no reason to have that Hall of Fame Forum. It always makes me feel a little bad for guys like Flair or Michaels when WWE has them make meaningless appearances on RAW (not so much Hogan since I think Hogan lives in California anyways). Especially Michaels since it seems like he's the least willing to stay involved with WWE. With Flair, it's the only thing he's got going on so he's kind of stuck with having to play ball with WWE. In any case, the Hall of Fame Forum was just an unusual buildup for a John Cena promo and it just seems like a desperate attempt to bring in viewers.

 

This Paige/AJ Lee feud is another feud which is really pushing the PG envelope as there is a lot of suggestiveness between the two of them, not to mention Paige's suggestive moves during the match (not that I'm complaining).

 

I wish WWE would decide what they want to do with Mark Henry. Are they going to move forward with this Big Show & Mark Henry team or are they going to have Henry feud with Rusev or are they really going to double book Mark Henry in two separate feuds?

 

Speaking of tag teams, I was caught a bit off-guard by Goldust & Stardust turning heel after that match with The Usos. I'm assuming that WWE decided to turn them heel to add intrigue to a feud between Goldust & Stardust and The Usos and, of the two teams, Goldust & Stardust being the heels makes the most sense, even though it seems way too soon for them to turn heel as they still seem quite over as faces.

 

Roman Reigns throwing that "concrete" block like he did seemed like a risky move when you think about it. The pieces that flew all over the place could have hit a fan or one of the employees at ringside (it apparently almost hit Lawler, after all). It just seems like they could have done that a different way. Anyways, I like the potential of this feud between Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns even though I thought they were going to at least finish the Orton/Reigns feud first. Unless, of course, they somehow work it into a tag team angle.

he had a 1v1 match against Bray Wyatt which he dominated for two minutes by throwing Bray around for a while until the Wyatts made the save for a DQ. That turned into a 6 man with Show and Henry where Cena dominated everyone for a while and eventually pinned Bray clean.

It was an STF submission on Harper wasn't it? He didn't pin Bray.
Don't forget about him AA'ing all three Wyatts one after the other to end the segment.
This all sounds like another perfect reason to never watch wrestling again. I swear the WWE is like a frightened child that is managing to molest itself.