Highlighting the intrinsic hypocrisy of Lucha House Rules on Raw? Pointing out that having Drake Maverick pissing all over the place isn’t funny? Criticising the decision to return the Universal Title to Brock Lesnar?
Has Seth Rollins been listening to WrestleTalk?!
If that is the case, then I only have two questions. One, how do you keep your hair so lusciously greasy? And two, what’s it like being the voice of the people?
Because that’s exactly what we witnessed last night. Seth acting as our conduit, reciting the grievances of every wrestling fan who’s had to sit through the atrocity of Raw in recent weeks.
He effectively echoed everything we’ve been complaining about in recent times. The booking is incoherent, the humour is juvenile and the wrestling is flat; all of which has contributed to pushing fan support and TV ratings to an all-time low. Those words were actually delivered by Rollins, as he placed complete blame for the languishing product at the feet of Raw ‘General Manager Elect’, Baron Corbin.
Of course, Raw is a scripted show, which means that in truth Seth wasn’t voicing his own feelings, nor channeling the fans’ discontent. These criticisms came directly off the written page, crafted by the brand’s writing staff and (presumably) signed off by WWE‘s agitator-in-chief, Vince McMahon. This was, in effect, WWE criticizing itself in the most stark, uncompromising of ways.
It was an unexpected, even shocking, approach to say the least. One that, naturally, not everyone agreed with:
This opening segment was right out of WCW when they were swirling down. Amazing.
— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) December 11, 2018
Vince is actually scripting a segment blaming himself on how bad ratings have gotten and using Corbin as his surrogate. It's fascinating.
— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) December 11, 2018
Strange scripting decision aside though, the words coming out of Rollins’ mouth weren’t untrue. The Revival have been unfairly buried. We are tired of the whole Drake Maverick mess. And, interestingly, Lesnar really hasn’t turned up for a televised match on the red brand in over 16 years. Aside from a single dark match and a handful of house show appearances, Lesnar last competed on the July 22nd 2002 episode of Raw. His opponent on that occasion? It would shock me if anyone guessed this… but it was Tommy Dreamer. In a ‘Singapore Cane’ match (whatever the hell that is). Feel free to go forth and impress your friends with that little nugget of useless information.
Getting back on track though, this was certainly an interesting start to last night’s Raw. A surreal segment that ended with Seth challenging Corbin to a TLC match. With the Raw GM reluctant to agree to the contest, the ‘Architect’ resorted to the Daniel Bryan school of goading your opponent into a match – repeatedly calling Baron a coward until he relented. Because apparently Corbin doesn’t mind being called lazy, incompetent or biased, but he draws the line at cowardly dammit!
They say that the first step in remedying a problem is recognising that you have one. And that recognition seemingly arrived during last night’s broadcast. But did it lead to a better Monday Night Raw? Or was it simply a hollow gesture on yet another awful show? As usual, we’ve gathered our cast of WrestleTalk writers to discuss that very question and evaluate the show overall.
As an aside – and this was too important to just let slide – but Corey claiming that Rocky 4 was his favourite in the series is one of the biggest heel moves of the year. It was a thinly-veiled patriotic fluff piece entirely lacking the spirit of the original, Graves! Damn heels.
With that out the way, let’s kick things off with the good.
What was your favorite moment from Raw?
Brian Eseppi
Last night my favorite part was the opening segment of the show. It felt like the WWE actually heard what the fans were saying and just let Rollins open up and get it out there. Rollins brought up the stacked roster that is not being used, and in not so many words basically said that they are jobbing out one of the best tag teams they have on Raw.
Rollins putting the locker room on his shoulders and having him carry them out of the ditch that has been dug for them since at least Survivor Series, if not longer, is a great way to elevate him back to the main event scene. Hopefully they can continue with this story the right way, and let Raw be the “A-Show” that they seem to want it to be.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrOl2NUFwDC/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
JP Wood
The best part of Raw this week was that it didn’t suck. Right from the beginning. I appreciated the way WWE decided to shine a light directly on the hot garbage piles that they’ve delivered in the last few weeks.
We, as the audience, know that those decisions can’t really be laid at Corbin’s feet. By shining a light on it and putting it in context of their authority figure storyline though, WWE is asking the audience to kindly look past it.
Eric Stites
The opener last night was very good. It was really interesting to see Seth Rollins come out and cut a CM Punk-like pipebomb promo on Baron Corbin and the current state of Monday Night Raw. This gives me hope that WWE knows that the last three Raws were terrible and that they are going to start making an effort to improve. I really hope that’s not just wishful thinking on my part. Corbin was good in this segment too.
Kyle Payne
The two things that quickly come to mind are the successful heel runs for both Drew McIntyre and Dean Ambrose, albeit with the former seemingly more consistent than the latter. Drew comes across as a genuine tough guy you don’t want to mess with and the intensity during his promo, which was great, delivered that message clearly.
It’s clear that McIntyre doesn’t see himself as a heel but simply as a man trying to make Raw a better place. He couldn’t care less if you like him or not, but you will respect him. A solid match with Ziggler, delivering the finish that should have happened last week, only served to raise his stock further. WWE has a void to fill now with several top stars out, and Drew McIntyre is the perfect man to fill it.
Ambrose, on the other hand, came across as a vindictive bastard set on making Rollins’ life hell. He’s been all over the place lately, with WWE unsure of what kind of heel to make him, but they are finally getting some consistency. Besides dressing as a villain from Gotham, Ambrose is an artist at crafting a promo. His remarks when asked about Roman, albeit simple and short, were enough to trigger the audience.
Oh, and a special shout out to Ruby Riott because the woman cuts a great promo and should be one of, if not the top heel this time next year.
What was the worst part of last night’s episode?
Brian Eseppi
For me, the Nia Jax / Ronda Rousey segment was the lowest point of the show. Hyped up as a Q&A session, with Alexa Bliss as moderator, it boiled down to a longwinded Nia promo, Ronda running out to confront her, and then ended with an Ember Moon vs Tamina match.
Even the Raw preview on the WWE website wanted fans to tweet in questions, and I don’t even think Alexa said a word while being out there. It was a segment promoting a match that I don’t think many people are looking forward to, and the climax of the segment was a match that didn’t involve either participant.
The "Anti-Rousey" @NiaJaxWWE has a secret weapon heading into her #RAW #WomensChampionship against @RondaRousey at #WWETLC… HER FIST! 👊 pic.twitter.com/lHGvJ2i4uz
— WWE (@WWE) December 11, 2018
JP Wood
Nia Jax, if you screech into that microphone and wake my daughter up at 11:30 PM, my TV is going to be muted when you are on it. That isn’t creating good heat. It is making me seethe with anger at the performer rather than the character. There’s no need for it. It isn’t working. Please stop.
Someone get this woman a manager as quickly as possible.
Eric Stites
My least favorite moment of the show was the Mixed Match Challenge promo disguised as a match between Bayley and Alicia Fox. This was clearly just meant to be a way to make us all want to watch the MMC Playoffs tomorrow but it did not do that for me. I only watched the first few episodes and this segment did nothing to make me regret my decision.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrOw8XyFRE3/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
Kyle Payne
I’ll never understand WWE‘s fascination with using real life tragedies in an attempt to get cheap heat. Natalya came out and cut an emotional promo on how she dedicates her TLC match to her late father. This brought out Ruby Riott who, I’ll admit, creatively put Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart’s picture on a table and cut the classic line “when I put you through this table, you and your daddy are going to be closer than ever”.
As a whole, I didn’t like the segment but I’ll be alright with it if Natalya does in fact go over at TLC, even though Ruby is the one who should be built up and win the match.
How would you rate the show overall? (From best to worst: In Awe, Cor, AvRAWge, Poor and Bore)
Brian Eseppi
I’ll give the show on the whole an AvRAWge. The show was much better than it has been the past couple weeks. We had a very good promo by Seth Rollins to start the show, new Raw Tag Team Champions in Bobby Roode and Chad Gable, a fun TLC match, and some final thoughts on matches going into TLC on Sunday.
We are starting to get a direction for the show, with the good guy vs the bad guy. Instead of just the bad guy beating up on midcarders because of Corbin’s “reasons”. My one concern right now is the women’s division on Raw having no direction, no story, and just feeling like a mess. If they can turn that around, I think Raw will start looking like it’s going to be ok.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrOpR9fled2/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
JP Wood
Cor. To be honest, I don’t know if this show really deserved higher than AvRAWge. I was just so relieved that I didn’t spend most of the show cringing that I might be being overly generous. I know this and accept it as a personal flaw.
When it comes down to it though, we want Raw to be good, and this week was an improvement over the last few. Good job.
Eric Stites
I thought this was a really good episode. The wrestling was good for the most part and apart from a few boring segments here and there, the storylines tonight were very good. The Seth stuff was especially great throughout the whole show. I think this week’s Raw was Cor.
https://twitter.com/WWEMaverick/status/1072324421426147328
Kyle Payne
I’m going to have to give this show the AvRAWge rating because the entire thing seemed to match good and bad. For every good thing, I could point to something bad, almost as if the show was designed to have equal parts. The standouts were Dean Ambrose, Drew McIntyre and Ruby Riott (regardless of how I feel about her segment, she nailed it).
Seth Rollins coming out to represent everyone’s feelings about the show lately was an interesting way to start Raw but I have no faith in WWE actively trying to be better. Dolph and Drew had a fun match that made the latter look even better, even with the scary shoulder bump Ziggler took, and seeing Bobby Roode and Chad Gable win the tag team titles was nice.
With that said, to see what has become of AOP is depressing. What has become of Sasha Banks and Bayley is depressing. What has become of Raw is depressing. I didn’t care for bringing up family tragedies and I didn’t care for the segment with Bobby Lashley, Lio Rush, and Elias. I haven’t even mentioned my thoughts on Ronda Rousey and her feud with Nia Jax because WWE hasn’t built any interest in it whatsoever. Can we please get to WrestleMania season already?
.@IAmEliasWWE & @fightbobby will now compete in a #LadderMatch THIS SUNDAY at #WWETLC, streaming live at 7 ET/4 PT on @WWENetwork! @itsLioRush https://t.co/u5ROzwfUaO pic.twitter.com/MdOeZZ9Goa
— WWE (@WWE) December 11, 2018
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