BRM Reviews the 2/17/2020 Raw (very bad)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 2/17/2020 Raw (very bad)

Post by Big Red Machine » Feb 18th, '20, 21:53

OPENING SEGMENT- HORRENDOUS!
After many video packages recapping Randy’s various heinous acts, he comes out and tells us that the advertised Matt Hardy vs. Randy Orton no holds barred match isn’t happening because Matt can’t get cleared. Are you kidding me? Can we please have just ONE WEEK where they actually deliver on all of the big points they advertise?
Matt comes out in a neck brace and asks Randy to “finally explain why you tried to take away Edge’s second chance.” In other words, Matt wants Randy to say THE THING RANDY WAS ABOUT TO SAY LAST WEEK BEFORE MATT INTERRUPTED HIM. I have just lost all sympathy for Matt Hardy.
Matt gives this long, annoying GRAND DRAMATIC SPEECH about himself and Edge having “grit” and how they’ll keep getting back up when Randy knocks them down. Matt says that even though he’s not cleared, he’s a man of his word and thus is here to fight Randy. Then Matt Hardy, who is IN A NECK BRACE and we have been repeatedly told IS NOT CLEARED TO COMPETE but insist that he will fight Orton anyway, gets into the ring with Randy Orton. WHERE THE F*CK IS SECURITY? Matt Hardy clearly needs to be saved from his own stupidity (we’re past the point of bravery now).
Randy says that no one will ever understand what he did to Edge because he loves Edge “like a brother.” Then Randy, due to the respect he has for Matt Hardy, left Matt in the ring, unmolested. So not only are we not getting the fight we were promised, but we were also just told that we’ll never get the explanation we have been promised for weeks.
Randy leaves, but then decides to come back for no real reason. Matt grabs a chair to defend himself with but misses his swing and gets his injured neck snapped on the ropes. STILL NO SECURITY. Then Randy gave Matt an RKO. The fans responded to this by chanting “ONE MORE TIME!” It’s idiots like this who allow Vince to dismiss everyone booing Roman Reigns when Vince inevitably goes back to pushing him to the moon.
Anyway, there is STILL NOT SECURITY, so Randy hits Matt with a chair a bunch of times. Then he goes to get a second chair for a con-chair-to… and FINALLY someone comes out… but it’s just one referee who does nothing but stand there and shout at Randy as Randy REMOVES MATT’S NECK BRACE AND PREPARES TO MURDER HIM WITH A CHAIR. Then, for no real reason, Randy leaves.
Wait…no… now he’s back. And he walks RIGHT PAST the referee, who again does NOTHING to stop him, as Randy yanks Matt out of the ring and sets his head up on the steps. Randy finally sandwiched Matt’s head between the steps and a chair… and only now the referees go over to try to check on Matt and keep Randy away from him.
And now Randy is coming back AGAIN… and referees (there’s a second one now) just STAND THERE AND LET HIM SMASH MATT’S HEAD INTO THE STEPS WITH A CHAIR AGAIN.
This was SOOOOO bad. Matt is an idiot for putting himself in this position in the first place. And it’s not like Matt got into the ring and just tried to hit Orton. He got in Randy’s face and dared Randy to RKO him. He came off like he had a death wish, so it’s hard for me to be angry at someone for giving Matt what he wanted.
It’s also a little hard for me to care that Randy Orton murdered Matt Hardy when the only other people who seem to care are the announcers. I beat the point about no security coming out and the referees’ pathetic efforts into the ground, but how about the other babyfaces? Randy spent a while telling us all how much respect he has for Matt Hardy. Doesn’t anyone else have any respect for Matt? At least enough to SAVE HIM FROM POSSIBLE DEATH?! Where the f*c are Kevin Owens and Ricochet and Cedric Alexander? Guys who have almost certainly grown up watching Matt Hardy in his famous ladder matches and so forth. Don’t they care enough about Matt to lift a single finger to save him?
Between all of those issues and the fact that this just kept GOING AND GOING AND GOING AND WOULDN’T END, this segment was absolutely TERRIBLE.

ERICK ROWAN vs. ALEISTER BLACK- 6.75/10
Believe it or not, this was the advertised match I was most looking forward to. Why? Because these are two guys who have been winning every match they’ve been in for MONTHS, and now they’re facing off one-on-one, something has to give. One of these men is going to have to lose. As a result, this felt extremely exciting, and was great for the mere 7:45 it went. The finish was also quite brilliant as it allowed Rowan to lose cleanly but still look extremely tough for needing two Black Masses to be put down, but also not making Black Mass look weak because the first one sent Rowan into the ropes, meaning that Black didn’t have a chance to pull him and that the ropes helped Rowan get back up.

CHARLOTTE PROMO- awesome!

WWE 24/7 TITLE MATCH: Riddick Moss(c) vs. R-Truth vs. Mojo Rawley- 2/10
They did some stuff. Riddick Moss pinned Mojo with a roll-up. Okay… why didn’t Mojo just chase after Moss once the match ended? It’s the 24/7 Title.
Instead of doing that, Mojo tried to attack R-Truth but got beaten up.

THE WRAP (WHATEVER THAT IS) BREAK THE NEWS OF A WOMEN’S #1 CONTENDERSHIP ELIMINATION CHAMBER MATCH- For an article written by non-wrestling people, the bit we saw wasn’t bad for once. The only thing that annoyed me about the writing was claiming that the stakes in this match are “as high as can get: The winner faces Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 36 for her Raw Women’s Champion Title.” “Champion Title” is obviously stupid, but the real crime there is in the logic. How are the stakes “as high as can get” in this match if the whole point of this match is that you’re trying to win it to earn a match for a bigger prize?
The thing I hate the most, obviously, is the booking here (or, rather, the lack thereof). The six women involved will be Shayna Baszler, Liv Morgan, Nattie, Asuka, Ruby Riott, and Sarah Logan. Asuka just lost cleanly to Becky TWICE, Logan just got obliterated by Rhea Ripley and hasn’t won a match in MONTHS, Ruby Riott also hasn’t won in a long time due to an injury, and Liv has only beaten Lana, who has been portrayed as a total joke. Nattie hasn’t even been on TV. And then there is Baszler, who is dragged down by being thrown into a match with this collection of losers. Would it have been that hard to give Nattie a win or two, or to at least replace Asuka with Kairi?
Making this even sillier is the fact that the match is a lame duck because THEY ALREADY SHOT THE BIG ANGLE WITH BECKY AND BASZLER! Sure, they could use this match as an opportunity to make Shayna look strong by having her eliminate all five opponents, but it would be even better if they just had her do that by choking out one opponent a week for five weeks. That way you wouldn’t make it look like the results of the matches don’t matter because the new badass ass-kicker is getting put in a #1 contendership match along with several women who haven’t won a match in months, and you also wouldn’t have to stick these six women in a match that is a lot more dangerous than the average match.
Also, if we’re doing this #1 contendership match on March 8th to determine the #1 contender for WrestleMania, does that mean that Becky will go two months without defending her title? Some fighting champion she is.

DREW MCINTYRE PROMO- bad
Funny Drew McIntyre who makes fun of the idea at pointing at the WrestleMania sign isn’t doing it for me. Can’t he just go back to being a badass?
Oh G-d. Now he’s telling us that “Suplex City is located in Claymore Country.”
Then Paul Heyman came out to tease us all that Brock is here tonight but then tell us that he’s not. Drew cut a promo on Brock and Heyman, then Heyman wasted a bunch of time bringing out MVP, even though Drew vs. MVP was already scheduled for right now. Then MVP cut a promo on Drew. He got in a cheap shot to start the match off, but, of course, the referee had to send MVP back to his corner and give Drew a chance to recover before ringing the bell for…

MVP vs. DREW MCINTYRE- DUD!
Drew basically squashed MVP, which doesn’t mean sh*t since MVP hasn’t won a match in a decade.

BECKY LYNCH PROMO- meh segment
The good news is that because Shayna didn’t bury Becky underground and stay with her for an entire night, Becky did not get turned into a vampire by last week’s bite.
Becky comes out here with a big bag of money and starts dumping the money on the mat and says that this is her paying a fine in advance for what she is going to do to Shayna Baszler the next time she sees her… which has me really curious as to what Becky is going to do, because we’ve seen people try to maim and murder each other outside the confines of a match (including Randy Orton earlier tonight, and also two weeks ago) and not get fined. What’s Becky going to do? Shoot Shayna with a gun? Sexually assault her? How much farther can you go when attempted vehicular homicide doesn’t even warrant a fine?
Becky said that “only animals go for the neck, and when they do, it’s to weaken their prey before they kill them.” Really? Has Becky never heard of a sleeper hold before? Or a neckbreaker? Also, when animals go for the neck, they’re usually going for a killing blow (or some other method of killing, like a crocodile grabbing prey by the neck in an attempt to pull it into the river and drown it).
Becky kept talking until Shayna showed up on the TitanTron. They still gave her an NXT graphic, which implies that she’s still a member of the NXT roster, in which case why is she allowed to be booked in a Raw match?
Baszler’s promo was awesome. Becky basically told us all that she’s going to confront Shayna at the PPV.

CHARLY CARUSO INTERRUPTS SOME HEELS HAVING A MEETING BACKSTAGE- pointless
Said heels are Lana, Lashley, Zelina Vega, and Angel Garza. Lana is confused and thinks that Vega and Garza are dating when we all know that they’re not. This was about two sentences of meh build for a tag team match taking place mere moments later, so it really served no purpose.

HUMBERTO CARRILLO & RUSEV vs. BOBBY LASHLEY & ANGEL GARZA (w/Zelina Vega & Lana)- 4.5/10
This was a short match that did nothing. If you want us to be excited for Garza vs. Carrillo, how about not constantly putting them in the ring together before their big match? Garza needed a handful of tights to beat Rusev, because G-d forbid we give the new heel a clean win over a midcard babyface who isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

KABUKI WARRIOS PROMO- bad
I’m sorry, but these over the top cartoon promos are not working for me one bit.

NATALYA vs. KAIRI SANE (w/Asuka)- 4/10
They gave these two less than five minutes. Nattie is in the #1 contendership match at the PPV and Kairi is not… so of course they gave Kairi the win via count-out after interference from Asuka.

SETH ROLLINS PROMO WITH A STUPID NAME- massive waste of time
Now they’ve got Seth giving a “sermon” from a pulpit. Oh dear G-d.
Seth said nothing new or interesting. The Viking Raiders showed up and attacked the heels. Seth ran away to the stage but Kevin Owens came out and gave him a stunner. In other words, nothing new happened and nothing was moved along in the story.

CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS SETH ROLLINS- Seth says that Murphy and the AOP will fight Owens and the Viking Raiders later tonight. Nothing says “we’ve got our sh*t together” like a main event being booked two thirds of the way into the show. I’m sure the results of this match will matter just as much as the results of every other match in this feud.

AJ STYLES PROMO- He says he’ll prove his dominance at Super Showdown and hints at taking on a legend at WrestleMania. Ricochet eventually interrupted him. They argued over whether Ricochet deserved his title shot and whether he had a chance at beating Brock. This segment made me want to hunt down whichever PR goof told Vince to always say “title opportunity” instead of “title shot” and punch him or her in the throat.
Ricochet challenged AJ Styles to a match, but Karl Anderson accepted the match instead, setting up…

RICOCHET vs. KARL ANDERSON (w/the OC)- 5/10
They had a fine match for the relatively short amount of time they were given. Ricochet won with the Bena-driller, so he’s now got a new finish in WWE.

CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS LIV MORGAN- bad
Liv tried very hard to emote and failed. She got louder, but her emotion felt pathetically fake. She says she will get revenge on Ruby Riott in the Elimination Chamber and earn a title shot at WrestleMania… which is a great example of why creating a personal issues feud between two people and then sticking them in a six-person match instead of a singles match is a bad idea. It distracts from the real goal.

BUDDY MURPHY & THE AUTHORS OF PAIN vs. KEVIN OWENS & THE VIKING RAIDERS- 7/10
They were having a great main event when Seth Rollins ran in for the pointless DQ.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
The heels beat the babyfaces down until the Street Profits came out to make the save. The fans popped, but what does this really do? We’ve now got a babyface group of six guys (seven if you include Big Show) against just four heels, it still doesn’t move the story forward, and it makes the opening segment all the more frustrating if the Street Profits are willing to come out and make the save here but not for Matt Hardy in a much worse situation in the opening segment.

This was a TERRIBLE episode of Raw, with a whole bunch of bad booking and segments, and the only good match ending in a pointless DQ. Find Charlotte’s promo on YouTube if you can, but even that isn’t essential viewing. This show is back to sucking again. Maybe I’ll start watching Smackdown instead. At least that way I get to see Alexa Bliss! and Dragon every week while I sit through a bad wrestling show.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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Bob-O
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Joined: Dec 17th, '10, 06:06

Re: BRM Reviews the 2/17/2020 Raw (very bad)

Post by Bob-O » Feb 19th, '20, 10:07

Big Red Machine wrote: Feb 18th, '20, 21:53 ERICK ROWAN vs. ALEISTER BLACK- 6.75/10
Believe it or not, this was the advertised match I was most looking forward to. Why? Because these are two guys who have been winning every match they’ve been in for MONTHS, and now they’re facing off one-on-one, something has to give. One of these men is going to have to lose.
This! I really miss this about wrestling. You don't NEED a story for every single match. Two guys on winning streaks facing off in a fresh match is enough to get me excited. It's a wrestling show, it should be OK to have matches for the sake of having matches, we don't always need a girl involved or dog food and porta-potties. Rowan wasn't buried... unless they go the tried and true WWE-route and do this same match again every week until Wrestlemania.
Big Red Machine wrote: Feb 18th, '20, 21:53 Becky comes out here with a big bag of money and starts dumping the money on the mat and says that this is her paying a fine in advance for what she is going to do to Shayna Baszler the next time she sees her… which has me really curious as to what Becky is going to do, because we’ve seen people try to maim and murder each other outside the confines of a match (including Randy Orton earlier tonight, and also two weeks ago) and not get fined. What’s Becky going to do? Shoot Shayna with a gun? Sexually assault her? How much farther can you go when attempted vehicular homicide doesn’t even warrant a fine?
I think, in a round about way, Becky is saying that she doesn't care what the script says... she's going to kick Shayna Baszler's ass for real the next time she sees her.

But you're right... beyond putting your hands on non-competitors, there's only ONE THING WWE doesn't tolerate... and I'd hate to think Becky would go that far, but she IS only a week removed from being Baszler Zombie Chow and did dump a bag of money in the ring to make her intentions clear...

...I think we have every reason to believe that Becky Lynch intends on breaking the Social Media policy. She's gonna be calling Baszler's friends out without running it by them first, probably while sitting in the audience of an AEW show posing with Moxley... she's going to be leaking Baszler's sextapes during her own now topless vlogs... she's going to threaten to go "Chris Benoit" on Baszler, she's going to threaten to throw her off a balcony like one of Jimmy Snuka's girlfriend's, Shayna's going to need a serious doctor when Becky is done with her, "not the one that writes prescriptions for us - but like, a real doctor"... Becky is going blame Shayna for WWE's stock tanking before segwaying into starting a Wrestler's Union...

Policies are out the window. I hope Shayna's ready.
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