WWE RAW Discussion Thread 2019

[Zack T 171]

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?

[Kam 243]

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

 

Listening to it on Smackdown...the laugh does sound like Bray, so yeah, I'm going with him.

 

I missed Roode turning on Gable but good.

 

Roode attacked Ricochet after their loss and walked out with Gable, so they're still a team.

[Zack T 171]

Oh. Gosh dangit.

 

Still, Roode as a heel is much better.

[Guest theVman]

Any predictions for the shakeup tonight and tomorrow

Heres mine:

 

Undisputed Era, Lars Sullivan, Becky, Usos and Ricochet to RAW

Breezango, Heavey Machinary, Lashley, Alister Black and Dana Brook to Smkd

[Kam 243]

I hope they leave Undisputed Era on NXT for now. When they debut, I want it to be a surprise.

 

If Becky goes to Raw...I guess Lacey Evans would be on the same brand too. With Becky being double champ, I wonder if they'll just say she can appear on both shows and not fix her to a brand until she loses one of the titles.

 

I'm not really fussed about anyone else as I can't see much changing.

[Zack T 171]

100% F that War Raiders re-name and them being called up right now. NO. NO. NO.

[Guest theVman]

I guess it because they didnt want the word WAR for similar reason they dropped the WAR IS RAW logo.

I can kinda understand renaming the team - but i dont understand why they are no longer called Rowe and Hanson.

[Kam 243]

The Viking Experience? - My face when they came out to that name ----> 0_O O_0

 

They didn't call them War Raiders once! Then Hanson is renamed as 'Ivar' and Rowe as 'Erik'. I guess it adds to the whole Viking feel. I can seriously see Vince sitting there saying we can't have a Viking team with Hanson and Rowe as their names :p I don't get why they allowed the names in the first place if they didn't think they would/could be used on the main shows.

 

Overall, I think it was a pretty good Raw, quite a few good moments.

 

With AJ moving to Raw, I guess Roman could move to Smackdown?

 

List of superstars moving to Raw:

 

• The Miz
  
• Andrade
  
• Ricochet
  
• Aleister Black
  
• The Viking Experience
  
• Rey Mysterio
  
• The Usos
  
• Naomi
  
• Zelina Vega
  
• Eric Young
  
• EC3
  
• Cedric Alexander
  
• Lars Sullivan
  
• Lacey Evans
  
• AJ Styles
  

 

We could see The Revival or Roode/Gable move to Smackdown.

 

Eric Young drafted! So I guess Sanity will just be a tag team of Dain and Wolfe. I'm not sure Eric will be able to do on Raw, I can only see him taking an EC3 type of roll, getting squashed where necessary.

 

There was no mention of Bray, so I wonder if he'll be on Smackdown or if they'll keep these vignettes running. I was just thinking Eric and Bray would look pretty cool together...

 

I love that Cedric got moved to Raw, he's had some great matches on 205 Live, hopefully he'll get a decent opportunity on the brand like Ali has had on Smackdown. Plus it gives the stars of 205 hope of moving to Raw/Smackdown down the line.

[Zack T 171]

Dane and Wolfe sent tweets saying goodbye to Sanity. Wolfe even said goodbye to WWE in general, so he thinks he's getting released probably (which I wouldn't be surprised by if Sanity is done).

 

They dropped the ball HARD with Sanity, my god. Biggest waste of potential in a long time.

 

EC3 is being squandered too.

 

Blah.

[Kam 243]

Gutted about Sanity, such a shame for them after having a good run in NXT.

 

After all the talk about not mentioning 'WAR' on tv...when Ember Moon debuted on Smackdown, Tom Phillips called her 'The War goddess' :confused:

[Zack T 171]

I don't know that that's really a thing, I feel like they can say war if they want to. Maybe they're advised to try and not over-use the word though?

 

Regardless, horrible name changes.

[Kam 243]

It looks like WWE have changed their mind, The Viking Experience has been renamed 'The Viking Raiders'.

 

We got to see Samoa Joe and Cesaro on Raw, with Andrade/Zelina moving back to Smackdown. Aleister Black and Lars Sulivan have also been switched to Smackdown. I wouldn't be surprised if we still see some changes next week.

 

I thought Raw was ok, I didn't think they'd go straight into Styles/Rollins, thought that would have been saved for SummerSlam/WrestleMania.

 

I don't know why they keep pushing Baron as much as they do.

 

It was sad to see the Vikings not get much reaction from the crowd. I hope they don't go the same way as The Ascension.

 

I'm not sure what to think of Bray yet...

 

[Kam 243]

More of Baron Corbin's push this week....I totally forgot him winning MITB previously!

 

More brand swapping with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows now on Raw...

 

The segment with Usos/Revival was cringey!

 

Didn't care for Miz/Lashley or Shane McMahon.

 

The Women's MITB competitor announcement fell flat, was some awkward interactions there. It seems silly having all the women complaining about not having an opportunity when Lacey comes out of nowhere, attacks Becky and gets a title shot.

 

I'm still not sure about Bray yet.

 

Joe lost, again. He could have been almost as intimating as Brock Lesnar...but they dropped the ball with him, like so many others over the past few years.

 

I wonder if AJ could turn heel now that Gallows/Anderson have been moved over...

 

Overall, a pretty dull show.

[Zack T 171]

Gallows/Anderson are still apparently headed out when their contract expires in September. But boy do I sure love the Brand Shake Ups, where we get the opportunity to see all these fresh new exciting matches! Like the Usos, who just moved over from Smackdown, taking on Gallows/Anderson who also...just moved over...from Smackdown...

 

The Revival were allegedly also offered new contracts at 500K per year for 5 years but have said no up to this point, so Raw's angles with them seem to be the...reaction. "You don't want to re-sign with us after we promised to make you the faces of the tag division but made you lose 90% of the matches you had while tag champs, put over a tag team that doesn't even exist anymore (Black/Ricochet), and then lose the titles and job 3 times in a row to a guy who was on a 260+ match losing streak? How dare you!"

 

I agree about Joe. They had a glimmer of hope when they did Joe vs Lesnar, that was so good. But they didn't keep it up. He just loses and loses and loses. It's like Mark Henry before he went Hall Of Pain. Big guy, legit looking, and in Joe's case is even a better wrestler than Henry was. Sigh.

 

Nobody likes Baron Corbin. I used to, but he's just so off-putting and blah in the ring. His persona doesn't seem to garner actual heel heat, more like "I don't want to see you on my TV because you're not entertaining me at all" heat.

[Zack T 171]

I'm about to throw my TV out the window after watching the Revival be humiliated that bad.

[Kam 243]

It gets worse for The Revival...

 

It doesn't look like Vince and Co can understand why the ratings are dropping. The idea of having Raw or Smackdown stars appearing on either brand isn't really a reason to tune in each week. I still can't believe how they can build up feuds/storylines so well in NXT but can't seem to manage to get it right on the main shows.

 

It also seemed pretty desperate putting Kofi vs Bryan on Raw for the title.

[Zack T 171]

Fun news: Someone tweeted at Vince that maybe the reason ratings are down is because they have no coherent storylines and use their talent horribly - Triple H liked the tweet and left it up for a couple hours before he (or his social media manager) was like "whoops bad idea" and unliked it.

 

I imagine Triple H may be frustrated too, possibly. Given how differently and more awesome he runs NXT compared to how Vince runs Raw/Smackdown, I could understand why. Just give Triple H control for 6 months, bounce off and run XFL by yourself Vince, and see what happens.

[Kam 243]

That 24/7 title didn't look that good 0_O O_0 I'm assuming it's just going to the Hardcore title without actually calling it a hardcore title. I can imagine it bringing some light relief but...that could get boring rather quickly.

 

Still not fussed about Brock.

[Guest HH-Evolution]

There's just no reason to BE fussed about brock one way or the other...he's an overplayed asset, nothing more.

[Zack T 171]

H}{H...your name feels familiar to me. I used to frequent wrestling message boards all the time since about 2000 and I feel like I used to see someone spell out Triple H the same way you are.