Live WWE TV Discussion Thread

[Joe Root]

I agree with you.

[Powder]

What do you mean? other than the Lana wedding abortion, that I am glad I missed.

[Powder]

So Robert Roode made his return from suspension for steroids, and when he comes back he looks more jacked tan ever. Hmmm.....what was he suspended for?

[Powder]

RAW was pretty rough last night.

They have Sarash Logan again trying to become a badass, but again gets her ass handed to her by Charlotte, and ends up tapping out to the Figure 8 pretty quickly. If the idea is for Logan to become a badass, then you need for her to get the upper hand on Charlotte, and to beat her significantly. Not in a match, but outside the ring. Do not have Logan attack Charlotte, then brawl, then have Charlotte tap her in less than 5 minutes. That takes all the air out of her sails.

Drew McIntyre is getting a face push, and pinned AJ Styles. Good for the WWE. Looking like he will be the one to face Lesnar at Mania.

Riccochet vs Mojo. Who cares? I turned to the football game.

Lesnar and Truth segment. Pretty funny actually. Then Mojo wins the 24/7 title? Again, who cares about Mojo? unless this leads to Mojo vs Gronk at Mania, then I see the logic.

Lashley vs Rusev. Yawn. Wrong guy won, now the feud continues.

Viking Raiders vs the Singh bros? With the outfits and entrance and shtick from the Singh bros, makes them look like the WWE is taking shots at the Young Bucks.

Black vs Murphy. great match.

Rowan just keeps moving on. Nothing new here.

Fist Fight. Nothing new here except KO's spot off the tron. Buddy Murphy now has direction and we now have a new 4 man stable. I like it for Murphy.

Nothing of major note. I found myself changing the channel a lot to the football game.

[PEN15v2]

You're not wrong, but I disagree. The issue is that I watched for different reasons than you, and I enjoyed getting what I was hoping for.

You pointed out a few times "who cares?" about squashes. Again, you're not wrong. This is going to be a major issue for WWE when developing new stars. They've finally seen that partly why they struggled to get new talent to a higher level was the dreaded 50/50 booking. So they've developed some jobbers, and brought in one night jobbers too. There's probably one job match too many per show, and some of them don't advance much. The Rowan and Viking matches were repeats, except Rowan has the caged pet, and Vikings have an unoriginal prematch promo. But in the end, the matches are the same as what we saw last week, and nothing really pushes the story forward.

This is what I liked about Logan vs Charlotte. There was a story there, and while I get wanting to develop Logan as a badass, it's Rumble to Mania season. Logan isn't going to be getting featured anytime soon. This is about putting Charlotte back at the front of the division for whatever story we are getting. Logan showcased her fire, and showed potential. My guess is that she'll be kept on the backburner, but that this 2 week run was a trial, and she'll get a bigger push in April.

I like Mojo. Not as a star, but for a midcard guy, he's very good. He's also delivered in a lot of backstage segments and shined in his few matches, so a 24/7 title run is interesting. It'll be hard to beat the comedy and entertainment of R Truth, but I think back to Steve Blackman as the Hardcore champion, and understand there's potential for this to work with a non-comedic defending champion. Will it match Blackman? Likely not, but I'll give it a shot.

I liked how guys who lost moved into a new story. Buddy Murphy was the big one, but Mojo is another. They lost in their first match of the night, but left a bigger impression later on in the show. I find that fascinating.

Rusev vs Lashley was average, and now that the wedding stuff is over, it'll be hard for the matches to reach the same excitement level because Rusev is just not comfortable working as a face. He's great playing the character, but in the ring, he's very very bland. He needs to bring part of that Bulgarian Brute back. Lashley is solid, but unremarkable, so a match with Rusev won't be great. Either make it sports entertainment, or let them brawl more. But a wrestling match doesn't work with these guys in these roles.

Man, I see Aleister Black making huge imprint in the Rumble. I'm not predicting he wins it, but final four or ironman run is likely in his future.

And that match! When we hear of TV match sprints, Black vs Murphy should be the blueprint (or Roman vs Brock, but that's apparently a less popular opinion). Too bad the ref messed up the ending.


I just found most of the show served a purpose and pushed things forward. The squashes not so much, but the stories really moved forward. Basically, Raw made me want to find out what happens next week, which makes it a great show. Murphy is my top draw right now, as I'm interested in what he does with this faction. Black's next step after winning; KO/Joe, where do they go from here; AJ vs Randy is still a match to look forward to; the push of Drew into a main event spot...etc.

[Powder]

During Heyman's promo where he was describing the rules of the Rumble, and that Heyman was saying that no one in the back was worthy of facing Lesnar, and all I was hoping for was the Fiend to come out and challenge Lesnar.


So Rusev loses once again. Pen, you keep saying that Rusev is benefiting from the BS storyline with Lana and lashley, but all I keep seeing is Rusev losing and falling lower and lower on the card.

The feud has at most one more match, after the Rumble, but Rusev must win that match and move onto his WM opponent. The WWE can't extend this until Mania.

[Oliver]

You know, you can say what you want about the Lashley/Rusev/Lana/Luv stuff, but just watching the women's Rumble back and the heat Lana got entering, what sounded to me like 'we want Liv' chants, and the pop Liv got for appearing and eliminating Lana suggest this is at least doing good things for both of those two.

[Powder]

As long as the main story of Lashely/Lana/Rusev is over and now this just becomes a blood feud between Lashley and Rusev and Lana and Liv. I'm all for it. I just can't take anymore of this sex addict, marriage nonsense. BUt did anyone else catch Lana's biggest botch to date? When she made her entrance to the Rumble with the microphone and she said 'I am the greatest “WW” Superstar'. How does the WWE keep giving her an open mic? She botches at least one line every time she opens her mouth.

[PEN15v2]

If you think that minor slip outshines all her natural heel mic work, you're mistaken. She's a great heel on the mic, even when she forgets a letter here or there.

I'll remind you all that I' ma former radio broadcaster, and small slips like this are part of the job. You'll never be 100% perfect every time, and expecting it is ridiculous. Pwoder, you're being unfair, and I think your bias against her and this angle is bleeding into your opinion about her supposedly botching every week.

[Powder]

My bias towards her is irrelevant when it comes to how many times she has misspoken or botched her lines during this entire few month angle.

I appreciate misspeaking, and I respect mistakes. I am a teacher, and I misspeak all the time, but she has made some really bad botches on Live TV. Everyone does, but she does it more than anyone else on the roster. And hers are just terrible.

I do not like the angle, and I try just to get the gist of the it when on TV, but a big part of what makes it so bad, is how bad she is on the mic.

To the same point, I absolutely hated Lio Rush as Lashley's manager as I could not stand the ultra annoying little twit that he was. And I turned the channel whenever he was on. But he never botched his lines, but he just did not appeal to me. Now he is ok, as he is not the same type of character. Lana botches almost every time she opens her mouth. There is a difference.

[PEN15v2]

You say she botches almost every time... but you're ignoring everything else she does. Forgetting the E in WWE is extremely minor. I listened to Billy Corgan on commentary last week on NWA Power, and I'll remind you he's running the entire promotion, and he said something "he will defend the NWA champion next week..." He obviously should have said championship, but his important announcement was botched. Yet, none of it matters because of the rest of what he said.

Another thing to keep in mind, but I bet that most performers botch more than you know. It's very easy to say the wrong word, but it wouldn't show to the viewers at home. Only the people with the scripts know someone messed up. I understand that might mean nothing to you watching from home, but it's a big deal to those backstage. Lana forgetting E changes 0% of the the message of her promo. That's why it's easy to give her more mic time. No matter what mistakes you claim she's made, she still delivers a good promo and there's nothing lost in translation.

[Team Farrell]

It's not uncommon to miss the E. You notice it with her because she enunciates well, but with a lot of southern guys, especially ones with thicker accents, they drop the E quite often.

[PEN15v2]

Now that you mention it COACH, I have heard a few variations on WWE. WE was my fave.

[PEN15v2]

Is anyone else having a harder time with Smackdown more than Raw? Despite being the shorter show, I find it drags so much more. First, I am not watching wrestling on a Friday night every week. I don't think I've watched it on the actual friday night since the debut episode on Fox. And even though I watch torrent downloaded episodes, therefore no commercials and can skip through lame parts, I have very little interest in the show. When I think of the angles going on, the only one I feel interest in is the Otis/Mandy stuff.

Raw has such a better balance. It's too long, but it's very rare that there isn't an angle that is well told throughout the show to build to the main event. Roman vs Corbin with the dog food is no match for Monday Night Messiah vs the babyfaces.

[Powder]

SD is a much harder watch. One reason is the lack of star power. RAW has much more people, and gasp, better story lines.

Also, Bayley is boring. Roman is bland with the same thing over and over again. Say what you will about Rollins, but he tweaked his gimmick numerous times since the Shield. Roman is exactly the same. I am not calling for a heel turn, but change up the ring gear. The look. Something.