WWE

Thread for all the inevitable surprises and returns as Raw and Smackdown move past the big show

Not much buzz for this one. I'm definitely not a fan of the formula of running main event rematches that follow decisive victories in the first match but it seems to be the only way they know how to book. That said, I don't see why this won't be an entertaining show, they always are. Tag should be great and I'm interested to see how they book Asuka vs Moon.

Too early? So far, I've heard speculation about Lesnar-Goldberg, Lesnar-Shane, Taker-Cena, Styles-Cena and Jericho-Owens. Anything else out there yet?

I skipped Raw, but I did see the Taker/Roman segment. Roman's promo was dope. Taker's on tron promo was hilariously bad, made sure to get in the WM tag line, and he looked like he was the shrunken head guy from Beetlejuice. I watched Smackdown and was in a state of confusion that AA and Usos are relegated to the pre show battle royal, that Rhyno is getting a WM payday in 2017, and that the last thing before WM was a nearly 20 year old clip from Austin's Titan Tron directly into "AND NOW, CHRISLEY KNOWS BEST".

Watching Triple H's incredibly long promo tonight, it struck me...it's a good thing he's always lecturing the fans about how much they cheer and support Seth Rollins. Based on the crowd reactions when his name comes up, I think they'd forget, otherwise. Also, I'm really hoping Braun Stroman gets added to the Reigns/Taker match, otherwise I fear for the trainwreck that might ensue.

http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/buyout-ring-honor-wwe/ "Multiple sources with direct knowledge tell us the companies have been talking since January and things have been slowly progressing, with the plan being a full takeover if the deal is made official."

Is HHH watching Volk Han in his spare time? What was that leg hold at the end? Surprised he didn't just do a figure four.

Ok.... all the talking and conjecture is over. The show is about to begin. Let's talk about the actual show here.

Biggest takeaway from Raw is that Chris Jericho and Undertaker are the most over faces on Raw in 2017. Goldberg already getting crowds turning on him is hilarious but also so predictably WWE audiences at this point. It's all fun and games until you beat an indie fav. Not sure what to think of Braun backing down to Taker. It's probably preferable to having Taker beat his ass, but it was wildly out of character. They'll already leaning heavily into "you should be booing Roman this time", so I expect fans to have a good time with that and probably end up cheering him in the end. Sami appears to be battle royal bound, which is hilarious. When Cesaro has more planned t…

On paper this show looks good. Reigns vs Strowman should be heated and hard hitting. I expect Joe vs Zayn to deliver. Charlotte vs Bayley should as well. I'm intrigued with how you book Owens vs Goldberg. Seems wrong to have Goldberg work a competitive long match before facing Lesnar again. Do we get a squash of Owens then?

First off, I've been incredibly distracted for the past month at how extra robotic and scripted all the promos have been on all shows from all talents. They just seem extra bad lately. The burns in the women's promo and everything Cesaro was talking about were horrific. Died laughing at Seth's big emotional promo getting CM Punk chants and then silence until HHH came out, then Seth saying he'd be at WM getting the most mild of promos. Super annoyed with Cesaro having a match where he tweaks his knee in the early going, then Joe focuses on it the rest of the match, but he's still doing dropkicks/double stomps/flying crossbody blocks like nothing happened. Hopeful…

Apparently RAW was in autopilot this week except for the actual main event. BRAUN vs Big Show seemed to be fucking incredible.

Pretty big night of Raw last night with the Bailey title win and Owens turning on Jericho. Does Charlotte do the usual thing of dropping the belt on TV and then gaining it back on PPV?

Card rundown: Pre-show: Mojo Rawley vs Curt Hawkins; Kalisto/Apollo Crews vs Dolph Ziggler; Becky Lynch vs Mickie James; Natalya vs Nikki Bella; Tag Team Turmoil: American Alpha © vs The Usos vs The Ascension vs Breezango vs Slater and Rhyno vs The Vaudevillains; Randy Orton vs Luke Harper; Alexa Bliss © vs Naomi; Elimination Chamber: John Cena © vs Bray Wyatt vs The Miz vs Baron Corbin vs Dean Ambrose vs AJ Styles

Watched only the final hour today. Main event was a really good match and it featured a good post-match. Braun is the best.

So I'm pretty interested in Raw tonight to see where they go with Roman/Braun, if they do anything to follow up Roman eliminating Taker, whether they plant seeds of an Owens/Jericho match at Mania or go in another direction. Also hoping to see them NOT split up the awesome Cesaro/Sheamus team.

A lot of mystery surrounding the big match and that's a good thing. Just hope the journey there isn't as painful as Mania, Summerslam and Survivor Series

I don't think there was a NXT card so uninteresting paired with a main roster card so damn unpredictable and with such potential to be the PPV of the year. I am expecting the women's fatal four way to be the best match on today's card, easily.

http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/wrestlemania-34-location/ First broken by Wrestling With Words 2 months ago and now further confirmed.

Last week of television before the most unpredictable Rumble since '08 at least, and the most boring looking TakeOver card. Let's hope BRAUN murders people.

WWE has signed ICW to appear on the Network, with Progress and OTT close to appearing. Now they have told FloSlam that nobody who appeared in the UK Tournament can appear on FloSlam... Here is a fascinating quote from Dave in the WON So it looks like Vince did the WWF national expansion, and now, 30 years later, Paul is doing the WWE international expansion. Fascinating times.

Raw's opening segment ended with a really hot 2 minutes. Alas, the previous 10 were pretty bad.

We really need an update on the board to embed tweets... Anyway, WWE announced today they are doing a UK Tournament for the Network starting in January, with the winner getting this belt Nigel McGuinness will be a co-host and was today in the announcement. https://twitter.com/WWE/status/809358953708744704 It's gonna be a 16 man tourney.

https://twitter.com/JerryLawler/status/820347745466744832/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw I'm excited. Heel Lawler was actually getting good right before the draft when nobody was watching SmackDown. If he's on your payroll, might as well use him. Hopefully this isn't just a one-time Memphis thing. "Kalisto is so stupid the teacher told him to raise his grades and he held his report card over his head!" "My next guest, Dean Ambrose, is so ugly when he was born, his mother got a ticket for littering!" The cheesier the better. Bring it!

BRAAAAAAAAAAUN and Seth having a match. Strowman clearly made Rollins shine a little bit here.