Watched some highlights. Actually seemed decent for Raw. Lots of good in-ring stuff. There’s obvious logic stuff to pick apart. Finn Balor listing his accolades to Rey fucking Mysterio is weird. Don’t know why the heels got a marathon sprint into a tag team title match against faces. That sort of shit. But that happens everywhere now.

Lots of guys focusing on their selling and facial expressions. That’s going to set them apart. T-Bar was out there bumping like a madman. They should really change his name though. So good in the ring.

Say what you want about Keith Lee, his work in this gimmick makes more sense and he’s got a bit more oomph. I still don’t really care about him, but he’s trying to work in a more sensical way. His fake intellectual stuff while he flipped around was a bit indy.

Austin Theory is really great. And Dominik Mysterio is really good. I keep expecting Dominik to suck whenever I see him for some reason. He really doesn’t.

Seth seemed “good.” When he’s not doing evil monologues, he’s actually good at putting detail in to being a great douchebag heel.

The Street Profits are really good. Alpha Academy are amazing. Ziggler and Roode should be a dream team but somehow they are not, even though both are good. But they can be stars in that division.

The whole opening segment was devoid of sense, but that’s how they’ve positioned their pieces.

Credentials for challenging for the top title:

Seth: just lost to Edge in Hell In A Cell. Showing no ill-effect from a match that happened 5 Days ago. Edge, having won the feud, is the one off TV. Makes sense from a contract structure POV but not from a kayfabe one.

Finn: just lost in a challenge for the top title on the other brand, and lost in the KOTR finals.

Kevin Owens: last beat (did he?) Happy Corbin and has not been in championship contention for a good while.

Rey Mysterio: last competing in the tag division, lost his KOTR 1st round match.

You’ve got to play the hand you’ve been dealt I guess, but it stinks a bit more when you’re dealing to yourself.

They simply could have just said “we’re doing a match with the new top talent on the brand to create a new #1 contender” and avoided the opening segment. They also ran a Triple Threat and a Fatal Fourway to identify #1 contenders for different titles on the same show (albeit the Tag contenders already had their shot) which I’d have avoided. I guess they just got done with a shirt tourney so that option is off the table.

Absolutely agree. The obvious answer was to announce that the top draft picks from SmackDown were getting an opportunity. Seth could have explained Edge’s absence by saying that Edge had to push himself too far to beat him at Crown Jewel, but he’s so fucking resilient he’s here tonight. I dunno, it’s still weak. I do wonder how some fans feel seeing Edge win and then him not being there. It interrupts the kayfabe flow your faces have. Brock is going to be a similar factor on SmackDown.

They also could have recorded something with Edge to explain his absence. Maybe they did that and I missed it? But something like that can keep people engaged.

In this crazy world of wrestling, I’m okay with the Ladder Match stip. You don’t see that shiny red contract up all the time, so it stood out visually a bit. And they were all top guys. Pretty memorable for Raw actually. And it played off the “I’ll do anything” stuff. They had to go through hell to earn it. Which is why I could always reason Money in the Bank with a bunch of mid-carders. They qualify through the match.

I would have just done RKBro vs. Ziggler & Roode and Street Profits vs. Alpha Academy with AA winning. I guess they wanted “stakes” through the show. And you don’t get Orton’s disapproving look at Riddle applauding Ziggler & Roode. I guess they can go somewhere with this next week with Ziggler & Roode whining they had to go through a gauntlet to get the shot.

Chaotically booked for function, but not as boring as Raw can usually be. And there was clear stuff coming out of it with talented people. It just needs to keep on this way.

And stop the camera cuts and let guys speak more naturally. They’re not all awful talkers, but the WWE promo style could use a lot more organic (no shit).

Since it was the first segment I wasnt annoyed enough yet to point it out, but did NONE of the previous Raw roster who didnt switch brands not want a title match? They were cool with just letting 4 brand new people jump them in line for a title shot? AJ Styles or Randy Orton. Keith Lee with a new gimmick doesnt want to jump right into the title picture? Karrion Kross just had a promo.a.week or two ago saying he was coming for all the championships, and the very first time he could, he just doesnt? Damien Priest is not interested in becoming a double champ?

It makes no logical sense that all of those guys didnt want a shot.

Yeah, they keep recycling the same faces.




I did enjoy Crown Jewel (except the Reigns v Lesnar match because of interference fuckery) when my fam came to watch tho.

I didn’t even catch that they were all SmackDown guys. Plus Big E. They literally ported the SmackDown upper midcard. Guessing Lashley was selling from 5 days prior?

I hate the “guys come out and make challenges but some guys just don’t show up trope. The only way I can make sense of it is that it could potentially ruin your standing with management. It’s like using some sort of meter in video games. I dunno. It’s stupid. I hate it. There are smarter ways to get into and out of stuff.

Lashley selling was one of my favorite details of the show. Guys change shows so much you can’t be blamed for not knowing who used to be where.

Official Raw Thread for 11/01/2021
 

Discuss.

Becky Vs. EST before Monday Night Football.

Massive match to start Monday Night Raw is War. Will watch to see if good.

They really shouldn't have taken a break until MNF.

Ooof gnarly gut buster on Becky. Good stuff so far.

Why is USA advertising Raw on USA during Raw?

Very good match. Bianca is so impressive. Becky doesn’t get enough credit for her athleticism. Held her own vs a premier athlete.

Zelina has WAY more wins the last 2 weeks then Malakai Black!

Alpha Academy trying to heel so bad despite being incredibly lovable and talented.

Such a waste

I’m beating a dead horse at this point but why are Gable and Otis heel? It makes zero sense.

WWE love their aww shucks squeaky clean baby faces. Gable and Otis are perfect for that role.

Well, Gable is.

Did everybody turn off after they saw Alpha Academy?

Becky’s shrug to Liv was exactly the reaction she should be getting. She’s just been trounced repeatedly for weeks and she’s stepping up to the champ.

Gable is such a fucking talent. I actually would have booked him vs. Finn Balor last week off the back of Crown Jewel and both men being the previous King of the Ring finalists.

Hope they wrestle again next week and get more time.

Decent RAW so far. I'd rate this weeks episode ever so slightly above background noise at this point. Still 2 hours to go though leaving plenty of time for me to tune it out.

Lashley killing the Mysterios, love it

lol Corey Graves and Byron Saxton were both champions in the WWE tonight.

"Great title reigns guys, why don't you break them down for us" - Jimmy Smith

They bout to make Doudrop the new Nia Jax. Looks like a heel turn is coming and she is gonna be the monster of the division.

RAW was....actually decent.

Had a feeling Lashley would take out Dominik and get his place in the Survivor Series match. Is that what happened?

Raw seems to be getting a lot of positive reviews from people recently. Like, not two thumbs up “Holy shit, this show made me cum” reviews, but “pretty decent Raw” kind of stuff.

Did Chad Gable wrestle?

Another Noid prediction that you didn’t actually state anywhere :p

Pearce basically said that he picked the team then decided he’d made a bad choice by picking Dominick as all the other team members are former WWE Champions. For some reason, despite not having any kind of alignment to either brand Pearce really wants Raw to win. So he booked Lashley vs Dominick with the spot on the team.

Later in the night - despite really wanting Team Raw to win - they booked the Raw womens team to fight amongst themselves, a sure fire way to build unity.

I can see them doing a 5-on-5 match next week with the team facing off against the other 5 women on Raw to see which team takes on SmackDown.

Just because I didn’t post it here didn’t mean I didn’t predict it. I thought Lashley would just beat the shit out of Dominik and take his place though.

I posted that first..... def not here tho.

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Yes, he had a match against Big E and it was a pretty good match too.

Nice! Hopefully this means Master Charles is moving up in the world.

Gross.

Was expecting a squash match tbh and actually got a legit contest out of it. Big E squared up with Otis afterwards so I imagine we get those 2 next week.

Relax guy I’m just “yanking your chain”.

I was not a big fan of the goofy Otis gimmick, but concede he was over within that world. But heel Otis is pretty damn impressive in the ring.

Don’t know if he’s Chad Gable level yet. I hope Chad doesn’t get blamed for Raw’s terrible rating, lol.

It looks like Noid is obsessing over Chad Gable nowadays. Gone are the days of fantasy booking Val Venis and Funaki in the main event of WrestleMania.