BRM Reviews the 4/15/2019 Raw (Superstar Shake-up: Night 1)

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- hated every moment of it
Steph makes her first appearance on WWE TV in months. She tells everyone to give Shane a big standing ovation and asks him to come out. So is she a heel now? Because Shane clearly is and she is now asking everyone to cheer him.
She also happily called Shane “the best in the world.” This would be the same “best in the world” title that he won by inserting himself into the finals of a tournament and then beating one of her wrestlers who had already wrestled twice that night, which made Steph furious because Shane’s actions were total BS and allowed Raw to beat Smackdown in this supposedly-important tournament. I guess she has gotten over it.
Shane wastes our time f*cking with this “best in the world” stuff, with both the ring announcer and then doing it in French himself. The crowd is getting annoyed. Now Shane is going full heel, getting cheap heat by saying that Parisian French is proper French and that Quebecois French is “dirty.”
When they finally get done wasting our time, Steph proudly announces that from right now until the end of Smackdown “every Superstar™ is eligible to be shaken-up.” Yeah. She actually said that. Shane then told us that tonight was going to be very exciting because we might see “new championship contenders” and that “certain tag teams will be broken up.” This show has been on the air for less than six minutes and I have already heard this said twice, first by Cole and now by Shane. Couple that with all of the times they told us that various tag teams might be broken up due to the Superstar Shake-up on last week’s show, and I’m getting really f*cking annoyed that Shane and Steph have been running their mouths for five minutes and no one has actually said anything new yet.
Steph tells us that this is one of her favorite shows of the year because “regardless of what brand they’re on, as of right now every Superstar begins their own journey to next year’s WrestleMania.”
1. Then what the f*ck happened on last week’s show? Wasn’t that the beginning of the journey?
2. If your entire pitch for this show is that people will be switching brands, you really shouldn’t be telling me that which brand the wrestlers wind up on doesn’t matter.
Steph finally tries to move on to something that isn’t obnoxious and repetitive, but Shane stops her and says that first he wants to watch a f*cking highlight package about WrestleMania and the road to it. NO! You assholes have wasted more than enough of my time with recap packages over the past eight days.
Shane’s presentation is pictures of him beating up Miz and Mr. Miz. Because what better way to drive home the point that the wrestlers might wind up on different shows and that this grand new journey will begin tonight than by letting us know that a feud that has already worn out its welcome is going to continue?
It’s booze time. I have a feeling I’m going to need it for this show.
They f*ck around with this some more before Steph once again begins to announce the first person who is being drafted to Raw, but Miz’s music interrupts her. Miz then attacks Shane from behind, which means that he has an accomplice in the production truck who helped him with this ambush. One would assume that with Shane’s new heel persona, he’ll try to root this person out and fire him/her, but this is a show written by people who were dumb enough to think it was a good idea to have Steph say “every Superstar™ is eligible to be shaken-up,” so I’m not holding my breath.
While Miz and Shane are brawling, Cole tells us that Miz is the first person to switch shows and he has now been drafted to Raw, but that is absolutely not how I read the segment. It seemed to me like Miz was interrupting Steph as she was about to announce someone else. Maybe Cole has a list of who has been drafted, but that would expose any surprise he shows for the rest of the show as being an act. Either that or the writing is so f*cking clumsy that it didn’t even occur to them that Cole knowing that Steph was going to announce Miz made no sense.
Despite Miz being a regular wrestler and being many years younger than Shane and despite Miz attacking Shane from behind, Shane made a comeback on Miz and beat him up cleanly, even busting him open. Miz needed a chair to get the advantage back. Eventually Shane rolled out to the outside and Miz just gave up on chasing on him because apparently climbing out of the ring is more effort than Miz is willing to put in to avenge his father.

Can someone please rescue Michael Cole’s niece’s puppy from Vince McMahon so that Cole doesn’t have to say “WRRRRESTLE-MANIA” in that same f*cking inflection every single f*cking time?

They aired a “Seth Rollins is the new Universal Champion” video package. Anyone else sick of these recaps already? Speaking of things I’m sick of, we’re getting a six-man tag tonight pitting Corbin, Drew, and Lashley against Seth, Roman, and a mystery partner who is coming from Smackdown.

RICOCHET, ALEISTER BLACK, CURT HAWKINS, & ZACK RYDER vs. THE REVIVAL & THE VIKING EXPERIENCE (Ivar & Erik)- 7/10
When Ricochet came out, Cole wondered if this meant that Ricochet is exclusively on Raw now. Considering that last year we saw a bunch of people appear on Raw and then wind up drafted to SD the next day, I’d say that it doesn’t, Cole.
The tag champs got their entrance cut. If the team whose entrance you least want to show because you think it’s the mostly likely of the teams in the match to make fans change the channel is your tag team champions, that’s a good sign that you’ve put the titles on the wrong team.
If you’re wondering who the Viking Experience are, they’re the War Raiders. In addition to their much lamer new tag team name (which sounds like a ride at Disney World) they have new names, which are Ivar (Hanson) and Erik (Rowe). War Raiders don’t have their belts with them, but they’re still being acknowledged as the NXT tag champs. If you’re acknowledging them as the champs then why are you changing their names? This is so stupid. You’d think there would be some sort of hard and fast rule not to call someone up if they have a title in NXT. And in this case it’s even worse because doing a tournament to crown new champs would feel a little silly, seeing as we just did a tournament and War Raiders beat the team that won the tournament to retain their titles.
The announcers gush over how “these two men live the Viking lifestyle.” I can’t help but notice that these same announcers used to relentlessly make fun of Sarah Logan for being a Viking. It’s shocking how their tunes change when they start talking about people who could kick their asses without breaking a sweat.
Speaking of the announcers, they really need to shut the f*ck up about how “exciting” or athletic Ricochet is. It’s really annoying to hear them repeat the same thing every damn minute, and when they’re saying it while he’s doing a f*cking arm wringer it just makes them look like idiots.
They’re now once again wondering whether Black & Ricochet are now officially on Raw. I know WWE thinks that this makes the show sound exciting by creating a mystery, but it really just makes WWE look disorganized because no one seems to know what’s going on. Also, their uncertainty on Black & Ricochet is a ridiculous contrast to Cole’s certainty on Miz.
The match itself was actually pretty great and seemed to go quite a good length. The Viking Experience pinned the tag champs in their first match on the main roster. If that has you excited, allow me to rain on your parade by pointing out that Aleister Black and Ricochet did the same thing in their first match as a team on the main roster, then did so several more times, and all that led to was them not being the champions, and, in fact, being on the losing side of this tag match.

They plugged a WWE Network special this weekend called “The Shield’s Final Chapter” but never actually told us what that will be.

CEDRIC ALEXANDER HAS BEEN DRAFTED TO RAW- Corey Graves tried to get us excited for this by telling us that “Cedric Alexander hopes to follow in the footsteps of his counterpart Ali on Smackdown Live.” Ali, as you’ll remember, was started out hot, but is now just a random midcarder who had his first name taken away for no reason that has ever been explained.
The sad part is that what I just quoted to you was the less stupid half of Graves’ sentence. You see, the thing that Graves said that Mustafa Ali has done that Cedric will hope to emulate is to “show that Cruiserweight is more than just a weight class; it’s a way of life.” What the f*ck does that even mean? Ali- when he has gotten air time at all- has just been a dude. He’s been no different from any other babyface midcarder.
But yeah. Leaving 205 Live is basically a death sentence for a Cruiserweight, and 205 Live being involved in this makes very little sense as there are very few wrestlers they are eligible to get back. There is Lucha House Party (who appear on 205 Live anyway), Mustafa Ali (who just got taken from them a few months ago) Ricochet (who would be great but I don’t see them moving him to 205 Live) and Rey Mysterio Jr. (who would be a pretty cool get, but they’ll never do it).

MICHAEL COLE HYPES UP FINN BALOR’S OPPONENT- Balor’s opponent was hyped up as not just someone “making his Monday Night Raw debut” but also someone “chosen by the McMahon Family.” The McMahons are the ones in charge of the show, so don’t the McMahons choose everyone’s opponents?

FINN BALOR vs. ANDRADE “CIEN” ALMAS (w/Zelina Vega)- 7/10
Almas and Vega come out and start speaking French to get a pop before speaking in Spanish to get heat. That was dumb. Why have them get the pop at all? Also, we have now had two people cut promos to get heat tonight, and both went for cheap heat by speaking in a language (or dialect) different from Quebecois French. It’s like the only things WWE knows about Montreal are “they speak French there” and “that’s where the Montreal Screwjob happened.”
Cole puts Andrade over by telling us how he and Rey would “tear down the house” together when they wrestled each other on Smackdown, at which point I screamed “THEN WHY DID YOU MORONS PULL THE PLUG ON THEIR PROGRAM?!”
Vega and Almas are new to Raw, so Cole has to go full-bore on putting them over. This included Cole putting over Vega’s “athleticism” when she did her big rana spot to Balor, COMPLETELY IGNORING THE FACT THAT SHE WAS ILLEGALLY INTERFERING IN THE MATCH. Almas then hit Balor with the Hammerlock DDT, so at least Almas got the win, but putting him over cleanly would have made him look a lot more formidable.

THE DRIFTER GETS INTERRUPTED WHILE TRYING TO SING- This time it’s by Rey, who Cole loudly declared to be “THE GREATEST MASKED SUPERSTAR OF ALL TIME!” Then Renee chimed in by shouting “EAT A DICK, BILL EADIE!” Okay, maybe that last part didn’t actually happen.
Rey slipped on the ropes while trying to do some sort of springboard move but managed to catch himself on the second rope and somehow turn it into some sort of wacky spinning bodyscissors that I can totally believe is in some maestro’s Lucha Libre textbook that he gives to his students. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.
Rey ran The Drifter off. The fans were chanting for a 619 but never got one. After The Drifter left, Lars Sullivan showed up to attack Rey, who actually managed to get some offense in on him before getting overpowered. Rey actually managed to slip free several times. This was GREAT, and made me really badly want to see a Rey vs. Lars match. Lars gave Rey a Ligerbomb after the Freak Accident so maybe the Freak Accident isn’t his finisher anymore.

BOBBY ROODE & CHAD GABLE vs. THE USOS- 5/10
Roode and Gable made an open challenge, which was answered by the Usos. How fortunate for WWE that the new wrestlers on the roster that they want to feature were the closest ones to Gorilla position when the challenge was made.
Graves tried to convince us that the Usos were now in “unfamiliar territory” because they have been on Smackdown for so long and thus at a disadvantage. WHY? Because the ropes are a different color and the English announcers are located on the stage instead of at ringside? You can’t insist on cross-brand consistency to the point where the shows are just palate-swaps of each other and then try to tell me that they’re somehow different. I don’t know if this was something Graves was told to say or something he said on his own, but either way the person who said it is either a moron for not thinking about it before saying it/ordering it said or has become so delusional that they think fans will accept anything they say without question when all evidence points to the contrary.
They had a GREAT match for the mere five minutes they were given, which the Usos won. All of the new guys going over is frustratingly predictable. Can we get a story where someone actually starts to do poorly on the new show and has to find his or match confidence again? Or immediately ruffles someone’s feathers and gets screwed out of their first match?

A MOMENT OF BLISS WITH SPECIAL GUEST SAMI ZAYN- mostly great
This segment convinced me that Sami can make this ill-advised heel gimmick work. The only negative here was that hosting A Moment of Bliss again appears to have caused Alexa to revert to turning face or heel as the script demands with no explanation.
Also, because I’ve been trashing the announcing all night, I have to say that Graves’ and Renee’s back and forth during this segment felt completely natural, and was a vast improvement over everything else we’ve heard tonight. Maybe Vince was in the bathroom during this segment or something.

EARLIER TODAY ON WWE.COM SASHA BANKS WON’T RETURN BAYLEY’S CALLS- The IIconics show up to make fun of Bayley, who tells them to keep Sasha’s name out of their mouths. Bayley vows to find a tag partner to face them tonight.

BAYLEY & NAOMI vs. THE IICONICS- 0.25/10
Boy, what a wacky coincidence that the person Bayley happened to find is one of the Smackdown wrestlers who got moved over to Raw in the Superstar Shake-up. And once again, the new person gets the pin, as Naomi pinned Billie Kay with a Split-legged Moonsault in under two minutes. So the good news here is that the Rear View is hopefully gone as a finisher. The bad news is that the new champs are still jobbers they were before WWE out the titles on them.
Of possible interest, Graves claimed that the “truth” was that “Sasha Banks lost her ball and quit the game.” Yes, Graves always dumps on Sasha, but I’m surprised that they say it like that and not make a bigger deal out of it. Renee, on the other hand, merely said that Sasha was very upset about losing the titles and had sent out some “cryptic Tweets.”

Michael Cole decided that his planned segue to a recap of the women main-eventing WrestleMania was so f*cking important that he dared to claim that this two minute match nowhere near the top or bottom of the hour crossover segments was “the women’s division taking center stage.” Yeah. Michael Cole sees no difference between this random spot on a random Raw and the main event of WrestleMania.

THE BOXED PUPPET WITH EMPHYSEMA IS BACK- No word on whether this means it has been drafted to Raw.

EC III vs. BRAUN STROWMAN- no rating, bad segment
The moment Braun came out, the announcers made it clear Ethan has no chance is and is nothing but a joke. Braun jumped the bell on Ethan and beat the sh*t out of him, finishing it off by chokeslamming him through the stage. What did Ethan ever do to Braun to deserve this? Hell, what did anyone do to Braun to make him this angry?
Then Becky Lynch’s music played. Graves said that this would be “very interesting” but she had no interaction with Braun or with Ethan’s corpse, so Graves wound up looking like a moron.

In the background of a recap, it was mentioned that Eric Young is now on Raw. No one else from SAnitY. Just Eric Young. There was also a commercial and a recap of both the Shane/Miz brawl and Lars taking out Rey, so by the time we got back to Becky, she must have been in the ring for a good eight minutes or so, just standing around doing nothing.

BECKY LYNCH vs. RUBY RIOTT (w/the Riott Squad)- 5/10
F*cking Cole and his f*cking talking points. Cole told us about how Becky won both women’s titles at WrestleMania and became the first person to ever pin Ronda Rousey in WWE. A mere ONE MINUTE AND TWENTY SECONDS LATER, Cole starts up with “let’s not forget what Becky Lynch accomplished eight nights ago at WrestleMania… and pinning Ronda for the first time in her WWE career.” A F*CKING GOLDFISH WOULDN’T HAVE FORGOTTEN SINCE THE LAST TIME YOU MENTIONED IT! SHUT THE F*CK UP AND CALL THE MATCH!
By the end of this match I was sick of hearing about Becky pinning Ronda for the first time ever and winning the titles at WrestleMania, sick of hearing the phrase “Becky Two-Belts,” sick of hearing Renee completely bury the heels and insisting that they have no chance, sick of hearing about how the Riott Squad might get split up in the Superstar Shake-up, and just generally sick of hearing the voices of all three announcers.
These two had a decent match for the time they got. Becky won clean, and then got to beat up the other members of the Jobber Squad after the match just because.

CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS THE HEEL FACTION- meh
Corbin was bad, Drew would have been good except that I’m already tired of him feuding with Roman so I really don’t want to hear him say that all he cares about is getting revenge on Roman. The only person who was actually good was Lio Rush talking on behalf of Lashley.

NATALYA COMES OUT TO THE RING TO CONFRONT BECKY LYNCH- meh
You know how wrestlers usually go to the back when their match is done rather than just hanging out in the ring for the entire next segment? Well apparently Becky inexplicably decided to just hang out in the ring, so she was still just standing there when we cut back after the end of the interview. Nattie’s music played, and we went to a commercial. Fortunately for us viewers at home, Nattie was nice enough to wait until Raw returned from the commercial break to start speaking, meaning that these two just spent several minutes staring at each other. Also, Becky has been in the ring for almost half an hour at this point.
When Nattie finally started talking, she congratulated Becky on her victories both here tonight and “in the main event of WrestleMania XXXV,” which I believe is the first time they have actually used the number for this year’s WrestleMania. We’ve got Becky saying “belts” all the time, Nattie giving out the Mania number, Mickie James trying to get some extremely non-PG merch made for herself, and Sasha Banks no-showing a mainstream media appearance. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but I think Hunter went to the women and told them to do this stuff in an attempt to make Vince have an aneurysm and die so he can take over the company.
Nattie goes on and on, effusively praising Becky for her accomplishments, and 90% of it was stuff we’ve already heard Cole say six-hundred times in the past half hour. Also, can we please stop praising Becky for being the only person to “win both the Raw and Smackdown Women’s Titles in the same match?” It’s not that it’s not impressive, but it just seems a little silly to me to be praising this as some sort of historic accomplishment that people have been striving for for years when no one ever had the opportunity to do it until two weeks ago. There has only been one time in history that anyone even had a chance of doing it, and it was a guarantee that one of those three was going to walk out with both belts. Becky just happened to be the winner. Again… I’m not saying that this isn’t true or impressive, but it feels like we’re putting her over for doing the same thing twice but pretending it’s different. It’d be like congratulating the UVA men’s basketball team on winning the 2019 NCAA Tournament, and then also congratulating them on winning the national championship as if this were a separate accomplishment rather than merely a function of winning the tournament. It not only comes across as weird, but it makes it feel like they’re trying inflate Becky’s resume, which is the sort of thing that leads to fan backlash and makes the recipient feel like a “chosen one,” which is exactly the kind of feeling that can hurt someone in Becky’s position, because the whole point of Becky is that she wasn’t the “chosen one.”
Predictably, Nattie wants a title shot. She used Bret’s “best there is, best there was, and the best there ever will be” catchphrase… and got booed? In Canada. That was unexpected.
Becky sees an “overlooked” talent like herself in Nattie so she’s going to give Nattie a title shot. The fans were happy about this and that’s nice and all, but personally I’d prefer it if Nattie actually had to win some f*cking matches in order to get a title shot. I did some checking, and aside from that Gauntlet Match for a title shot in December where she beat three women in a row- which is debatable as to whether it actually counts as multiple matches the way WWE frames these things and which she was rewarded with a title shot for, so it’s not quite fair to count it in here- the last time Nattie won two singles matches in a row were the Tables Match at TLC against Ruby Riott, and another match against Ruby on Raw a month earlier. That’s almost FIVE MONTHS. Also, excluding the aforementioned Gauntlet Match, the last time Nattie defeated anyone other than Ruby Riott in a singles match was a win over Alicia Fox on AUGUST 28TH (and Ruby was also one of the two fresh opponents Nattie beat in the Gauntlet Match).
Lacey Evans came out in what appeared to be a sexy Mountie Halloween costume. Before she could say anything, Becky said “oh. This dope.” I laughed my ass off at this, but it also felt like it completely took the wind out of Lacey’s sails and turned her into a joke. Becky should probably be a little more careful when doing things like that.
Lacey came off as a complete and total cartoon character. She said that she should be the one to get a title shot and called them “nasties” and said various other things. Lacey specified that she wants the Raw Women’s Title. Lacey is also apparently officially on Raw now. It’d be nice if we got some sort of clarification on Ricochet, Aleister, and EC III, who were in theoretically similar roster situations to Lacey. Lacey announced that she had been talking to the McMahons and they have booked a…

#1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH: Lacey Evans vs. Natalya- 4/10
Remember how Renee Young used to fawn all over Lacey Evans and say how much she loved her dresses and so on? Well Renee hates her now because she dared to insult “one of the founding women of the Women’s Evolution.”
Cole tells us that Lacey Evans “thinks she’s better than everyone else.” They had Lacey walk up and down the ramp twice a week almost every week for three months, but they couldn’t have her cut one f*cking promo saying something like this? Between this and the way that pretty much all of the recent call-ups have been handled, it feels like WWE’s conception of “character” is three bullet points Michael Cole can tell us while the wrestler walks to the ring and that’s all we need to do. I don’t know if this is incompetence or it’s just Vince arrogantly believing that when he speaks to the WWE Universe through his vessel Michael Cole it comes across to us as the voice of G-d and we just accept everything he says and there is no need for any other reinforcement, but it’s killing the product because most of the roster aren’t characters but rather caricatures: Rough sketches of human beings with exaggerated features.
Renee Young reacted to Lacey Evans calling Nattie “classless” by saying “Natalya is anything but classless! Do you know how much Louis Vuitton this woman owns?” That would be your babyface female announcer telling you that in order to have class, you need to own brand-name shoes or handbags or whatever Louis Vuitton makes. Wonderful messaging there. Renee later flat-out admitted that her dislike of Lacey Evans really stems from that one time Lacey held a fan up in Renee’s face a few weeks ago. Can we please sit Renee down with Jim Ross or Les Thatcher or someone like that who can teach her the basic ins and out of being a babyface announcer?
They had a match that was a little sloppy early on. Lacey survived the Sharpshooter and then a vicious barrage by Nattie on the outside, nailed Nattie with the Women’s Right… then climbed to the second turnbuckle and did that Kevin Steen jump and spin 180 to land on the top rope, then do a springboard moonsault (and landed with her knees in Nattie’s gut so maybe we won’t be seeing that move so much anymore) and got the pin.

CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS SETH ROLLINS & ROMAN REIGNS- meh
They teased telling us who the third partner was. They even had the door open behind Seth and close again. That was just plain annoying. They talked about this maybe being one or both of their last night’s on Raw. They really need to stop having wrestlers treat the possibility of this being their “last night on Raw” like it’s something that people actually care about, because we don’t. We care that a team might get broken up, but I don’t think anyone cares whether they have to watch Seth Rollins on Monday or Tuesday. If Seth had just said that this might be the last night he and Roman get to team together for a while because one of them might wind up on Smackdown that would be one thing, but that’s not what he said. He treated the possibility of one of them having to go to SD and the possibility of both of them going to SD together as equally sad because they wouldn’t be on Raw anymore. Why is that so sad? It’s been almost three years of this brand split and they have done nothing to explain to me why the wrestlers care about which show they’re on or why they might like one show better.

MORE CREEPY TOYS- snore
There are no clues here as to what any of this means so that we can piece it together for ourselves, so you showing another one of these for the same person (the music was the same as the puppet in the box, and there was laughing at the end of this one, too) is just a waste of time. And if they’re for different people then why the hell are you introducing two such similar new characters at the same time?

ROMAN REIGNS, SETH ROLLINS, & AJ STYLES vs. DREW MCINTYRE, BARON CORBIN, & BOBBY LASHLEY (w/Lio Rush)- 7.5/10
A fine main event. AJ pinned Lashley after all three guys hit their finishers on him.

This was a mostly enjoyable show in the ring, but once again the Superstar Shake-up aspect of the show failed for me. Most years I gripe about the lack of explanation for the mechanism, and while I would still like that, the framing this year was much less problematic due to the McMahons seemingly controlling everything and working together as a team. This year my biggest issue is that most of these changes really don’t feel exciting at all. Yeah, the Raw tag team division looks stacked, but it’s a tag team division so I’m sure nothing will happen with it, plus it could still easily lose Roode & Gable or The Revival. AJ is a nice addition, but he was really the only heavy-hitter who moved, and the Raw men’s division will not feel refreshed unless three out of Balor, Seth, Roman, Drew, Braun, Lashley, or Corbin leave and fourth turns, and considering that only one big named switched to Raw from SD, I don’t see more than two switching from Raw to SD, either. We also only got one NXT call-up to be excited about, and that call-up has the caveat of it being baffling from both an NXT booking POV and having a baffling set of name-changes attached to it which really hurt it.

I also didn’t like the overly-contrived nature of the situations in which most of the switches were revealed. It very much felt like I was watching a show that booked around the idea of getting the newly-shifted wrestlers over. I know that sounds like a silly thing to complain about, but watching this show felt like going to a magic show where the magician saws his lovely assistant in half, but the box is completely transparent and while he is busy sawing you can clearly see her sinking down into the hidden compartment while the saw goes through nothing. You can admire the physical skill with which the artists perform their craft, but the wonder and excitement are gone.
To provide some examples of how I thought things could have been done better:
1. Rather than have Steph be apparently about to announce that Miz got moved over to Raw and then have Miz come out in that convoluted way to attack Shane, I’d have Shane make it clear that he insisted that Miz be sent to Raw where he won’t be able to bother him anymore, then have Miz come out and attack Shane, which would give their brawl some gravitas as we know it will be Miz’s last chance to get revenge on Shane.
2. Rather than have Roode & Gable make an open challenge, I’d have them come up to Steph backstage and demand competition, and have Steph would reply “I’ve got just the team for you.” Or rather than have Bayley have to find her own partner and call Naomi, I’d have Steph supply Bayley with a partner. Something that makes it feel like the kayfabe powers that be have more control over the matches being booked, because them wanting to feature the new wrestlers makes sense. What we got tonight was often, in kayfabe, it being left up to chance. I’d want them to come up with ways to make the other matches featuring new talent feel more like the main event did where management clearly put this new Raw acquisition in this big spot rather than an open challenge being made and new draftees happening to be the ones that were in position to answer it, or it being left up to the wrestler to find his/her own partner and he/she just happens to pick someone from the other show.

[Bob-O]

CEDRIC ALEXANDER HAS BEEN DRAFTED TO RAW... 205 Live being involved in this makes very little sense as there are very few wrestlers they are eligible to get back. There is Lucha House Party (who appear on 205 Live anyway), Mustafa Ali (who just got taken from them a few months ago) Ricochet (who would be great but I don’t see them moving him to 205 Live) and Rey Mysterio Jr. (who would be a pretty cool get, but they’ll never do it).

Remember when they actually wanted to do something with 205 and centered the show around Enzo? I also can't see them doing it, but if they wanted to try to mainstream that show again, I could see Ricochet and/or Balor being great candidates to elevate it. They tried it once before!

but once again the Superstar Shake-up aspect of the show failed for me

Me too, but I think it's just because it's Raw... and Raw is as Raw will do. I mean, on paper, it looks great! Not the part of the paper where War Machine went from "avoid cease and desist from Marvel" to Vince wondering (the same thing many of us were, to be fair) "What the hell is a 'War Raider'?" and deciding "No... no, look in the mirror, you're VIKINGS dammit! Kids are going to love this!"

I hated the War Raider name so much I think Viking Experience is better by comparison. Changing their individual names is what pissed me off, Rowe and Hanson just sound so badass... Erik and Ivar are an effort to push the stereotype and lost me completely. Maybe I was lost out of the gate because I thought the tron read "Villian Enterprises" and I had a complete split second mark out moment to wondering wtf was going on... such an emotional roller coaster in such a short span of time...

But, beyond that.. which has insane potential if they decide to bring sAnity in with Eric Young, and there's got to be a returning AOP eventually, along with a nifty dynamic we don't see the Usos in very often... we've got AJ and Andrade on Raw now, as well as The Miz who fills that void of usually being entertaining regardless of the garbage written for him left by Ambrose.

But you're right, none of it feels good and it should, and I think it's just our lack of faith combined with the lack of clarity that the Smackdown moves will bring to the bigger picture. I expected a bigger heel; like Joe, Bryan, or Orton, to switch... so I'm wondering who they've got in mind for a top heel... McIntyre? Zayn? Somebody turning? It's intriguing.

I expect the bigger moves to be made tonight. I think Roman, Brawn, and Revival move to Smackdown and I think they call up Undisputed Era. There's also a possible spoiler from the NXT tapings...

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Kairi Sane was taking bows and thanking fans after the tapings that left those in attendance under the impression that she wasn't coming back. Since she didn't show up on Raw, I'm assuming we'll be seeing her tonight... hopefully with Io...

This is where they lay the groundwork for the Fox transition, so I'd expect the bigger moves to be made tonight.

[Big Red Machine]

Hidden text.

Kairi Sane was taking bows and thanking fans after the tapings that left those in attendance under the impression that she wasn't coming back. Since she didn't show up on Raw, I'm assuming we'll be seeing her tonight... hopefully with Io...

Hidden text.

I had heard of these rumors. My fear is that she is being brought up to be made into a human mascot for WrestleMania Pirate Ship.

[Bob-O]

Hidden text.

Kairi Sane was taking bows and thanking fans after the tapings that left those in attendance under the impression that she wasn't coming back. Since she didn't show up on Raw, I'm assuming we'll be seeing her tonight... hopefully with Io...

Hidden text.

I had heard of these rumors. My fear is that she is being brought up to be made into a human mascot for WrestleMania Pirate Ship.

LOL... You might be right, and I'm also afraid for ANYONE that gets doomed to the main roster, but at least it's a long term plan!

[Big Red Machine]

I guess Drew was allowed to be seen on the losing team this week.

[Serujuunin]

Oh god please don’t call up Era... please.

[cero2k]

Oh god please don’t call up Era... please.

You mean Adam, Kyle, Bob, and Roderick, collectively known as the 'Indie Experience' ?

[KILLdozer]

Oh god please don’t call up Era... please.

Ha! Nice one, calling them just "Era", since their lack of winning all the titles in 3 years means they're obviously NOT "Undisputed"!

You also sound like Percy Watson, he's the only one I've ever heard call them that really.

[KILLdozer]

CEDRIC ALEXANDER HAS BEEN DRAFTED TO RAW... 205 Live being involved in this makes very little sense as there are very few wrestlers they are eligible to get back. There is Lucha House Party (who appear on 205 Live anyway), Mustafa Ali (who just got taken from them a few months ago) Ricochet (who would be great but I don’t see them moving him to 205 Live) and Rey Mysterio Jr. (who would be a pretty cool get, but they’ll never do it).

Remember when they actually wanted to do something with 205 and centered the show around Enzo? I also can't see them doing it, but if they wanted to try to mainstream that show again, I could see Ricochet and/or Balor being great candidates to elevate it. They tried it once before!

but once again the Superstar Shake-up aspect of the show failed for me

Me too, but I think it's just because it's Raw... and Raw is as Raw will do. I mean, on paper, it looks great! Not the part of the paper where War Machine went from "avoid cease and desist from Marvel" to Vince wondering (the same thing many of us were, to be fair) "What the hell is a 'War Raider'?" and deciding "No... no, look in the mirror, you're VIKINGS dammit! Kids are going to love this!"

I hated the War Raider name so much I think Viking Experience is better by comparison. Changing their individual names is what pissed me off, Rowe and Hanson just sound so badass... Erik and Ivar are an effort to push the stereotype and lost me completely. Maybe I was lost out of the gate because I thought the tron read "Villian Enterprises" and I had a complete split second mark out moment to wondering wtf was going on... such an emotional roller coaster in such a short span of time...

But, beyond that.. which has insane potential if they decide to bring sAnity in with Eric Young, and there's got to be a returning AOP eventually, along with a nifty dynamic we don't see the Usos in very often... we've got AJ and Andrade on Raw now, as well as The Miz who fills that void of usually being entertaining regardless of the garbage written for him left by Ambrose.

But you're right, none of it feels good and it should, and I think it's just our lack of faith combined with the lack of clarity that the Smackdown moves will bring to the bigger picture. I expected a bigger heel; like Joe, Bryan, or Orton, to switch... so I'm wondering who they've got in mind for a top heel... McIntyre? Zayn? Somebody turning? It's intriguing.

I expect the bigger moves to be made tonight. I think Roman, Brawn, and Revival move to Smackdown and I think they call up Undisputed Era. There's also a possible spoiler from the NXT tapings...

Hidden text.

Kairi Sane was taking bows and thanking fans after the tapings that left those in attendance under the impression that she wasn't coming back. Since she didn't show up on Raw, I'm assuming we'll be seeing her tonight... hopefully with Io...

This is where they lay the groundwork for the Fox transition, so I'd expect the bigger moves to be made tonight.

Exactly! For the idk what time it's been said here, WTF IS A "WAR RAIDER"?!?!? I'm positive those two words have never really been used together to describe anything or anyone. This is better than them constantly with the "Viking Viking Viking", with a completely different random name...

[Bob-O]

Exactly! For the idk what time it's been said here, WTF IS A "WAR RAIDER"?!?!? I'm positive those two words have never really been used together to describe anything or anyone. This is better than them constantly with the "Viking Viking Viking", with a completely different random name...

Every time this happens I go back to...

Interesting looking guy, ex-NFL player, cool tattoos, comes with a catchy name on his birth certificate...

Vince: So, I hear you can puke on command...
Droz: Lol, yeah...?
Vince: Your name is Puke.
Droz: Uh...
Vince: Do it! Do it right now in my office, here's a garbage can! HE'S GONNA PUKE! HE'S GONNA PUKE! HE'S GONNA PUUUUUUUUUUUUKE!!!! Hahah! Good luck, pal.



The Viking Experience. Vince's genius at work, folks...

[Big Red Machine]

Oh god please don’t call up Era... please.

You mean Adam, Kyle, Bob, and Roderick, collectively known as the 'Indie Experience' ?

Don't be ridiculous. It'd be Adam, Roderick, Karl, and Rob.

[cero2k]

I was waiting for this show to vindicate Red. When you lead to this show with both RAW and Smackdown wrestlers in the same show all the time, the night you have the shake up, it doesn't feel any special at all. Let alone the new style of announcing jumps suck, but you try to tell me to get excited for Black and Ricochet when they've been here all the time, and it's not like fans have to choose what shows they watch, so the actual announcement that they're now just staying with RAW is actually worse for the fans.

Why can't they just do a normal draft and announce people one by one in a special network show?

[Serujuunin]

Oh god please don’t call up Era... please.

Ha! Nice one, calling them just "Era", since their lack of winning all the titles in 3 years means they're obviously NOT "Undisputed"!

You also sound like Percy Watson, he's the only one I've ever heard call them that really.

I’m on my phone. Typing out the whole thing is a pain.

[Serujuunin]

Exactly! For the idk what time it's been said here, WTF IS A "WAR RAIDER"?!?!? I'm positive those two words have never really been used together to describe anything or anyone. This is better than them constantly with the "Viking Viking Viking", with a completely different random name...

Every time this happens I go back to...

Interesting looking guy, ex-NFL player, cool tattoos, comes with a catchy name on his birth certificate...

Vince: So, I hear you can puke on command...
Droz: Lol, yeah...?
Vince: Your name is Puke.
Droz: Uh...
Vince: Do it! Do it right now in my office, here's a garbage can! HE'S GONNA PUKE! HE'S GONNA PUKE! HE'S GONNA PUUUUUUUUUUUUKE!!!! Hahah! Good luck, pal.



The Viking Experience. Vince's genius at work, folks...

I wasn’t super a fan of the name War Raiders, but if you’re gonna call someone something, freaking stick with it!

I was only half paying attention when their music hit, and had no idea what was happening when they were announced... it wasn’t until I looked up and went “wait, that’s Hanson and Rowe”. And I actually watch NXT!

Why do they have to change people’s names all the time. It actually drives me mental.

[KILLdozer]

"The Freak" Lars Sullivan? Really just doesn't fit. The man is "6'3", and not very impressive looking at all.", to quote someone I know. I mean...he's probably statistically Lashley's size...but they don't make him out to be "some out of control giant DESTROYER!", he's just jacked as hell, and that's fine because they don't try to overdo his size.

This guy is NOT like Strowman. I'd say he needs a new finisher....just keep the other one around for a here and there spot on guys he can ACTUALLY PROPERLY EXECUTE IT ON.

[KILLdozer]

Yeah, I knew from the moment I heard it "Becky Two Belts", would immediately become another WWE thing they love to say over and over again with a silly jovial tone...

[Big Red Machine]

"The Freak" Lars Sullivan? Really just doesn't fit. The man is "6'3", and not very impressive looking at all.", to quote someone I know. I mean...he's probably statistically Lashley's size...but they don't make him out to be "some out of control giant DESTROYER!", he's just jacked as hell, and that's fine because they don't try to overdo his size.

He's Lashley's height, yes, but he's got almost sixty pounds on Lashley.

[KILLdozer]

"The Freak" Lars Sullivan? Really just doesn't fit. The man is "6'3", and not very impressive looking at all.", to quote someone I know. I mean...he's probably statistically Lashley's size...but they don't make him out to be "some out of control giant DESTROYER!", he's just jacked as hell, and that's fine because they don't try to overdo his size.

He's Lashley's height, yes, but he's got almost sixty pounds on Lashley.

You know what? Hot tag to Bob-O!

[cero2k]

"The Freak" Lars Sullivan? Really just doesn't fit. The man is "6'3", and not very impressive looking at all.", to quote someone I know. I mean...he's probably statistically Lashley's size...but they don't make him out to be "some out of control giant DESTROYER!", he's just jacked as hell, and that's fine because they don't try to overdo his size.

This guy is NOT like Strowman. I'd say he needs a new finisher....just keep the other one around for a here and there spot on guys he can ACTUALLY PROPERLY EXECUTE IT ON.

except sullivan looks like a freak with that freakishly big head and those freakishly big hands. Freak is not about being tall or muscles, anyone can have muscles if you have enough free time during the day. there;s a ton of people in the world taller than Strowman.

[KILLdozer]

Yeah though-on that OTHER subject-that's Bray Wyatt returning. If it's somehow NOT...then I'd have literally no other idea who the curveball good be. I don't think it's foreshadowing some kind of surprise Abyss appearance or something involving him.

I mean...ROCKING CHAIR NOW? Come on lol.