Professional Wrestling

[ltrandazzo]

50 minutes before the first bell ring. Way to start the first Raw after AEW’s rave-reviewed first PPV. Horrible. I feel awful for the talent that could’ve been showcased in that first hour.

[Space Suicide]

50 minutes before the first bell ring. Way to start the first Raw after AEW’s rave-reviewed first PPV. Horrible. I feel awful for the talent that could’ve been showcased in that first hour.

I'm far from an AEW shill but the fact they have had this Grade F RAW air after this weekend was one of the worst things they could've done. Absolutely moronic.

[richardp]

FUCKING HELL THAT WAS AWFUL.

That was legit the worst wrestling event I have ever been to. I dont know if the TVs picked up on it, but they managed to suck the entire life out of the crowd before the first half hour was even over. It was DEEEAD all night long. We got excited after that Cesaro match thinking it would pick back up, but nope. And that fucking electric chair shit?! Every single person in the arena was so utterly confused at what the fuck was happening. And I literally watched the WWE crew go out and select random people in the crowd to ask those questions like seconds before they got air time. Those insanely shitty "questions" were not given to the people in the audience by producers. Thats why that last guy stumbled so hard trying to get a question out. They legit just gave the mic to random fans and let them ask the first stupid thought that came into their heads. Unreal.

Just kinda stunned that they had us all sit there for almost 4 hours for everyone to watch 40 minutes of Ziggler and Kofi and an endless amount of useless promos.

[henryeatscereal]

I just saw the segment of Lesnar dancing Reggaeton just so they could sell that reatarded T-shirt...

...i switched off RAW right away.

[ltrandazzo]

Aside from Ricochet and Cesaro, this was an awful Raw. Like I said above, 50 minutes into the show before the first bell ring and it was for a Shane McMahon match against MLW's Lance Anoa'i. I mean, I'm glad an indie wrestler was featured, but it was done in such a bad way to help bolster up Vince's son. They are devaluing the Women's tag titles by putting the IIconics in matches against Becky, who is clearly going to win them. Glad that Nikki gets a little rub from it, but Nikki could also be teaming with Naomi or someone else to form a new tag team.

This was rough. Really rough. Like I said, I feel the worst for the talent that was unused tonight and the talent that was misused which, aside from Cesaro and Ricochet, was everyone. Two Brock segments, three Seth segments, and a way-too-long segment for Kofi and Dolph in the first hour just really sucked any momentum WWE could've start building post-DON. Hopefully Smackdown hits the reset button on a lot of this and WWE tells the USA Network to go fuck themselves.

[richardp]

Aside from Ricochet and Cesaro, this was an awful Raw. Like I said above, 50 minutes into the show before the first bell ring and it was for a Shane McMahon match against MLW's Lance Anoa'i. I mean, I'm glad an indie wrestler was featured, but it was done in such a bad way to help bolster up Vince's son. They are devaluing the Women's tag titles by putting the IIconics in matches against Becky, who is clearly going to win them. Glad that Nikki gets a little rub from it, but Nikki could also be teaming with Naomi or someone else to form a new tag team.

This was rough. Really rough. Like I said, I feel the worst for the talent that was unused tonight and the talent that was misused which, aside from Cesaro and Ricochet, was everyone. Two Brock segments, three Seth segments, and a way-too-long segment for Kofi and Dolph in the first hour just really sucked any momentum WWE could've start building post-DON. Hopefully Smackdown hits the reset button on a lot of this and WWE tells the USA Network to go fuck themselves.

Every single time they'd go to commercial and it was obvious that the Kofi/Ziggler shit was continuing, practically the entire crowd would let out a collective groan. It's so funny that they have the belt on Kofi and are trying to push him as the "best champion ever" yet this motherfucker spent 40 minutes on the ground acting like he was dying from a chair shot.

I don't know, I'm sure it was one thing to watch it on TV, but it was utterly astounding and entirely confusing watching all of that happen live with absolutely no context for any of it.

Also, when Brock first came out with the boombox, they completely cut his audio so that it could play out of the boombox, and you couldn't hear it AT ALL. It was just dead silence in the arena while Brock "danced" around for way 10 minutes.

[Volband]

Man, as good as Dark Side of the Ring started, it ended as badly. The first 3 episodes were great, and even the Von Erich one was decent, albeit quite rushed.

Then episode 5 came, and it was like some trash documentary about Big Foot or spooky ghosts. That final conclusion was just pathetic. I'm not saying he couldn't have been died of natural causes, but to prove otherwise by an ex-mafioso who said don't worry, he wasn't killed??? Oh, good, then case closed I guess!!

And then the last one... I am glad that they approached the Moolah episode as they did, by trying to argue for both sides. As for someone who doesn't know much about her, it would've been a drag to listen to 40 minutes of "people said she sold others as prostitutes, so she is literally hitler, have a good night"; things are never this one-sided. Moolah's friends and co. said she was great, Moolah's enemies and co. said she was bad, with very really substance. It means very little in a business where jealousy is rampant, and where people at the very top are always subjects to debate. But the icing on the cake was Wendy Richter saying she didn't know that her masked opponent was Moolah. I mean... can we take ourselves a bit more seriously?

Anyway, I did like the inclusion of her daughter, mainly because it is easy to forget that even villains (or perceived villains, besides the point now) have families, who can be hurt.

Still, episode 5 was by far the worst, and I hope they don't delve into bullshitmentary (ep 5), nor keyfabing (ep 6), because it is just lame.

[tony.parente]

Aside from Ricochet and Cesaro, this was an awful Raw. Like I said above, 50 minutes into the show before the first bell ring and it was for a Shane McMahon match against MLW's Lance Anoa'i. I mean, I'm glad an indie wrestler was featured, but it was done in such a bad way to help bolster up Vince's son. They are devaluing the Women's tag titles by putting the IIconics in matches against Becky, who is clearly going to win them. Glad that Nikki gets a little rub from it, but Nikki could also be teaming with Naomi or someone else to form a new tag team.

This was rough. Really rough. Like I said, I feel the worst for the talent that was unused tonight and the talent that was misused which, aside from Cesaro and Ricochet, was everyone. Two Brock segments, three Seth segments, and a way-too-long segment for Kofi and Dolph in the first hour just really sucked any momentum WWE could've start building post-DON. Hopefully Smackdown hits the reset button on a lot of this and WWE tells the USA Network to go fuck themselves.

Yikes, I was a little bummed because I was missing Raw last night because I was at the Blues watch party thing downtown at the enterprise center in STL but I'm not so upset after reading that.

[poinoup]

1) Mariachi Brock > B-Boy Brock

2) Dustin and Cody was amazing. ***** for the entire thing.

And as for RAW, I'm content following around on the wrestling blog at work. Us cutting it down is more entertaining.

[Dryalex12]

I dunno, I kinda like Brock doing the boombox shit. Gives him more personality.

but yeah, other than Cesaro saving the day and Bray, of course being as weird and entertaining as he usually is, I can't even defend this show, it was bad. Even with me rooting for Corbin, i still couldn't get over it.

I really wanna know how the other McMahon's and Trips feel about this

[ltrandazzo]

The boom box was comical on TV, but if they turned the sound down in the arena and it was pumping out of the box and the audience couldn't hear it, then it's dumb.

@richardp The commercial breaks for Kofi/Zig were just as awkward on TV as they likely were in person. Cringe worthy how long it took to do that segment.

[henryeatscereal]

Man, as good as Dark Side of the Ring started, it ended as badly. The first 3 episodes were great, and even the Von Erich one was decent, albeit quite rushed.

Then episode 5 came, and it was like some trash documentary about Big Foot or spooky ghosts. That final conclusion was just pathetic. I'm not saying he couldn't have been died of natural causes, but to prove otherwise by an ex-mafioso who said don't worry, he wasn't killed??? Oh, good, then case closed I guess!!

And then the last one... I am glad that they approached the Moolah episode as they did, by trying to argue for both sides. As for someone who doesn't know much about her, it would've been a drag to listen to 40 minutes of "people said she sold others as prostitutes, so she is literally hitler, have a good night"; things are never this one-sided. Moolah's friends and co. said she was great, Moolah's enemies and co. said she was bad, with very really substance. It means very little in a business where jealousy is rampant, and where people at the very top are always subjects to debate. But the icing on the cake was Wendy Richter saying she didn't know that her masked opponent was Moolah. I mean... can we take ourselves a bit more seriously?

Anyway, I did like the inclusion of her daughter, mainly because it is easy to forget that even villains (or perceived villains, besides the point now) have families, who can be hurt.

Still, episode 5 was by far the worst, and I hope they don't delve into bullshitmentary (ep 5), nor keyfabing (ep 6), because it is just lame.

I saw the Moolah episode and was surprised on how good it made her look.
Of course they mentioned her scandals, but if anything it helped to clean Moolah's image a bit...

Gotta watch Episode 5

[poinoup]

Get to photograph a show with The Warlord this summer, just got the news today. My list of guys I've "worked" with is getting pretty long.

[Volband]

I am only following the results and storylines of raw and smackdown every next day from the write-ups, and even I was appalled. Kofi, Drew, Shane in both nights?? Like, I don't have any problem with these guys, but this is sad. They didn't know what to do with Kofi on Raw the previous night, so let's shove him into Smackdon too? But at least he is the/a champ, so I can convince myself that he is above others right now. But Shane and Drew? Who was the one who wished they didn't have to wait 1 more week to see them again? Don't be shy, raise your hand.

[the duder]

You think WWE is a dumpster fire? Currently listening to Moxley ETHER WWE on Jericho's pod. Sheesh.

Dumpster fire confirmed.

[ltrandazzo]

You think WWE is a dumpster fire? Currently listening to Moxley ETHER WWE on Jericho's pod. Sheesh.

Dumpster fire confirmed.

I've read a partial transcript and am going to listen to the pod later today. Excited to check it out and listen to this conversation because I'm sure Mox and Jericho have a lot of war stories to tell.

[Piko]

Listening now. Man, it's rough. Pretty much confirms what everybody knows.

[Swykk]

FYI: I will no longer be accepting any “unprofessional” accusations thrown at the wrestlers speaking up. There’s a mountain of evidence supporting what I’ve thought to be true about Vince for years now and it only keeps growing.

He needs to go away.

[Dryalex12]

Save us Hunter

[ltrandazzo]

A lot of folks on the internet need to start apologizing to Sasha Banks, PAC and Stu Bennett. And, that's just to name a recent few.

[henryeatscereal]

"Vince is the problem", that says it all...

[Piko]

A lot of folks on the internet need to start apologizing to Sasha Banks, PAC and Stu Bennett. And, that's just to name a recent few.

Bennett got fucked, raw. Built up strong with the nexus to get killed by Cena. Gets a break with the bad news gimmick only for them to just kill it and replace it with a meaningless king gimmick.

The others got fucked for sure. But he really took a pounding. Bad enough he retired (I think?).

[ltrandazzo]

Great interview. It really reaffirms my choice of being a fan of Mox as he comes off as just a class-A person through and through. Anyone who dismisses this as him complaining he wasn't in the top position has simply not listened to what he's said here. I'm even more furious with how WWE has treated EC3 as their poor booking of him over Mox led to some fan resentment from the casual crowd and because it ignited the smarks to realize that EC3 was going over just because Mox was heading out... and yet, WWE decides this is EC3's fault and not theirs. Insane.

At no point does Mox say that Vince is a bad person or say anything about him being a piece of shit or anything like that. However, he's very clear - VKM is killing his own company because of the creative structure they have in place and that things may only get better once he steps out of the way, though, he does admit that it's likely that VKM will die in that chair before it happens. He also put over the entire roster and the talent at the company and even the writers who he also said know that they're doing things poorly and in an over-managed way. It just sounds like it's toxic to work for WWE.

[ltrandazzo]

Also - Cageside Seats has transcribed the entire interview if you're unable to carve out time to listen to it. - https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/20...ho-transcribed

[RJK]

I worked the night of Double or Nothing so I couldn't watch it. But after that horrible raw I need a cleanse and I bought it which I never do for shows I know what happens on. I think I'm going to take a WWE break (except NXT) which is a shame because they might have more great talent on the roster than they've ever had.

[Space Suicide]

Also - Cageside Seats has transcribed the entire interview if you're unable to carve out time to listen to it. - https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/20...ho-transcribed

Can't say I'm interested in listening so reading it would be best.

[ltrandazzo]

Moxley called back to 2015 when Reigns had to say "suffering succotash" in one of his promos (video below), something Reigns tried to get cut out."Vince had him say 'suffering succotash,' ya know what I mean?' Moxley began. "I remember that day. You think he wanted to say that? No. He went in there and came out and was like, 'He wants me to say suffering succotash,' and I remember kind of laughing like, 'Dude, you can't say that.' He's like, 'He wants me to say it. Is there a cool way to say it?' I'm like, 'What if you looked at the camera and said, well, that wasn't easy to say,' or something, I don't know.

https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/20...ns-say-654718/

[xfocalinx]

So, I had my first practice match last night..

[Space Suicide]

NXT: TakeOver XXV is as superb as expected/usual. That ladder match was phenomenal!

[Space Suicide]

Adam Cole Bay-Bay!