They're certainly going all-in on Sting. That show was 3 hours of building up heel heat so people pop when he returns to fight the Authority. Rough to watch though.

 

There shouldn't be too many RAWs in the next few months without Bryan, Rusev, Lesnar, or Heyman, so we have that going for us.

Did they even mention Bryan anywhere on the show?

 

They can't show video packages of him training for his comeback? This shit should write itself.

As far as I remember Bryan wasn't mentioned once tonight. They probably are saving him for next week. He's booked for both shows

I've gotta tune out again. WCW 2000 wasn't fun the first time. No reason to re-live it. Daniel Bryan is awesome, but I'm not sure he's worth enduring all of this.

They're certainly going all-in on Sting. That show was 3 hours of building up heel heat so people pop when he returns to fight the Authority. Rough to watch though.

 

There shouldn't be too many RAWs in the next few months without Bryan, Rusev, Lesnar, or Heyman, so we have that going for us.

 

There didn't seem to be any heel heat. It was mass indifference.

 

That was just a cutesy version of Evolution, HHH-at-his-worst, "cake and eat it, too" heel bullshit.

 

Ziggler, Ryback, and Rowan looked like impotent morons not immediately beating the living shit out of Trips. They were "fired" so what did they have to lose? Just awful.

 

Exactly!

 

Triple H can do his dance only to be surrounded by those three fired guys and get a oh shit look on his face as they destroy him. Makes the entire thing way better.

 

Instead we get Sting forcing their return somehow.

I mean, even Orton returning to hit Trips with an RKO OUTTA NOWHERE would have been a real end.

The fans seriously couldn't care less. That was pretty awful.

Or, right as Stephanie is saying the word "fired", arena lights go out, they come back on, HHH has a bat in his hand and Stephanie has disappeared.

I can't believe you guys... Ryback, Rowan and Ziggler are FIRED!!!!!!!

 

Seriously though, I know WCW was really bad but this is just lazy. I don't think they even give a fuck anymore... Vince, Trips, Steph, the writers, the wrestlers. I think they are perfectly content on going out week after week to comatose crowds and just shitting the bed. Where's my boy Johnny Sorrow to defend this crap?

Seriously though, I know WCW was really bad but this is just lazy. I don't think they even give a fuck anymore... Vince, Trips, Steph, the writers, the wrestlers. I think they are perfectly content on going out week after week to comatose crowds and just shitting the bed. Where's my boy Johnny Sorrow to defend this crap

The show was brutal to watch but the defense will be if the crowd pops big when Orton and Sting return to fight the Authority. If the internet is right, then fans will be too apathetic about the Authority to care about Sting and Orton getting revenge on them, ratings won't move, crowd sizes will be down, etc. But I bet it works fine.

I can't believe you guys... Ryback, Rowan and Ziggler are FIRED!!!!!!!

 

Seriously though, I know WCW was really bad but this is just lazy. I don't think they even give a fuck anymore... Vince, Trips, Steph, the writers, the wrestlers. I think they are perfectly content on going out week after week to comatose crowds and just shitting the bed. Where's my boy Johnny Sorrow to defend this crap?

He'll be watching the Hulu version tomorrow. Though to be fair he misses being able to watch all 3 hours of WWE.

Ah true. This is what happens when the Pavlovian dog stops responding to the dinner bell. Complete silence and apathy.

I actually usually watch it on Saturdays, and by then everyone's moved on. And I'm not giving a shit about arguing about it. I like what I like, others like what they like and I'm bored with arguing about it. Waste of energy.

I've been a wrestling fan for 35 years, and I have a 14 year who loves this stuff. I feel like I've failed as a parent!

Or, they're reaching their target audience.

It's amazing how much good stuff has been taken away from us in the past year.

 

The Shield and The Wyatts are split so no more awesome six mans. They could have rode out different combinations of that feud for months.

 

Ambrose and Bray are feuding when neither guy really can afford to be losing matches right now, plus they've burned through three gimmick matches in less than a month. Where do you go from there?

 

The Rhodes Brothers were turned heel for reasons that were never quite clear and their heat is gone as a result. No more awesome Goldust peril segments.

 

The Usos are fine but they don't have the quality opposition to put on kick ass tag team matches they had before. Their next opponents are already being called jokes on commentary in their second week of TV.

 

Daniel Bryan had a terrible year, not the companies fault. But his announcement was so important last week that the announcers couldn't even be bothered to mention it tonight. This was the guy that main evented WrestleMania last year.

 

Cesaro is teaming with Tyson Fucking Kidd on B-shows which is a fine little B-show team, but come on....

 

Roman Reigns has to give generic babyface promos when he got over being a wrecking ball and never speaking more than a sentence.

 

There are so many guys who are worse off now then they were a year ago.

 

Seriously though, I know WCW was really bad but this is just lazy. I don't think they even give a fuck anymore... Vince, Trips, Steph, the writers, the wrestlers. I think they are perfectly content on going out week after week to comatose crowds and just shitting the bed. Where's my boy Johnny Sorrow to defend this crap

 

The show was brutal to watch but the defense will be if the crowd pops big when Orton and Sting return to fight the Authority. If the internet is right, then fans will be too apathetic about the Authority to care about Sting and Orton getting revenge on them, ratings won't move, crowd sizes will be down, etc. But I bet it works fine.

 

I think the problem is the fans thought they *already* got the payoff to this at Survivor Series. Now we are back to square one

As I said before, if they put half the effort into booking that they do being trolls to mean internet people, WWE TV would be awesome right now.

Seriously, wtf was that ending segment? I'm as sick of Superman Cena as everyone else but the guy is still your ace and you book an entire three hour show around making him look like an enormous asshole.

Serious question: from a total package standpoint, has WWE ever been worse than it is now? The godawful booking and dead crowds make Raw an absolute chore to get through, and the in-ring product isn't nearly good enough to compensate. The crowds are the biggest killer because they suck the life out of everything. The good stuff seems not as good and the not-so-good stuff is unbearable. I know there's no chance of WWE going under in the foreseeable future, but watching Raw really feels like watching a dying promotion.

There are so many guys who are worse off now then they were a year ago.

 

The "better off" list: Rusev, Ryback, and Ziggler. The latter two were just kayfabe fired, and the former wasn't on the main roster.

 

Arguments could be made for Barrett (who's only in his second week back and was just given the cat toy title) and Rollins (who has better stature but went from unimpeachable to... not so much).

Serious question: from a total package standpoint, has WWE ever been worse than it is now? The godawful booking and dead crowds make Raw an absolute chore to get through, and the in-ring product isn't nearly good enough to compensate. The crowds are the biggest killer because they suck the life out of everything. The good stuff seems not as good and the not-so-good stuff is unbearable. I know there's no chance of WWE going under in the foreseeable future, but watching Raw really feels like watching a dying promotion.

2003 and 2009 Raw was atrocious, but during the brand split days if one show sucked the other was at least decent as a general rule. Struggling to think of a time when the entire product felt this flat.

Ah true. This is what happens when the Pavlovian dog stops responding to the dinner bell. Complete silence and apathy.

Sounds like RAW sucked, but what an awful thing to say. Fuck off, douche.

I had actually thought about watching the Raws leading up to Rumble since I haven't watched any WWE post-Summerslam (aside from about half of NOC). Glad that it was just a fleeting thought.