WWE Raw & Smackdown Weekly Thread

[darkwarrior3007]

I know dude, although there are rumours circulating that he will have something lined up even bigger than the belt itself afterwards.

Here is what I imagine the 'Mania card will look like, a combination of rumours and my own guess work.

The Rock VS John Cena
Triple H VS Brock Lesnar
The Undertaker VS CM Punk
Sheamus VS Randy Orton
Ryback VS Big Show
Dolph Ziggler VS Alberto Del Rio
Rey Mysterio VS Sin Cara
MITB - Wade Barrett VS The Miz VS Kofi Kingston VS Daniel Bryan VS Kane VS Cody Rhodes VS Damien Sandow VS Christian
some Divas nonsense

I toyed with Barrett VS Miz as I didn't have an opponent for either and some contrived six man with a face team vs The Shield but then I realized I was loading the card with too many singles matches and didn't have opponents for Rhodes Scholars, so a Money In The Bank match might make sense. Won by Wade.

I also imagined Mark Henry being fit and coming back for revenge on Show, but I hear Show being picked up by Ryback is a Mania moment they want. I also thought Jericho VS Ziggler at one point but Ziggler will be in the title picture and I don't see them putting Jericho in there, even if he comes back in time.

Has it been confirmed that there will be a MITB at 'Mania and not as a separate PPV?

 

[Mr_Stiffy]

Has it been confirmed that there will be a MITB at 'Mania and not as a separate PPV?

There will still be the MITB PPV in July and no, nothing has been confirmed for 'Mania. It's just something I imagined for those guys to do. They were going to have one last year too, but when Barratt (who was schedule to win it) got injured, they scrapped it.

 

[Moonchild22]

Well, whatever happens, AJ Lee tastes like Honey Nut Cheerios. :drool2:

 

[grower_boy]

I was really impressed with both Raw and SmackDown this past week. Best one-two punch I can remember in well over a year. Hopefully the 20th anniversary show is better than Raw 1000 was last summer. Other than Punk's heel turn, that show was a complete and utter disaster from what I remember. They need to limit the promo time for the old guys. Nothing against the attitude era, but things like a 20-minute DX promo "just for old time's sake" are bad enough during the summer, and two weeks away from a huge Royal Rumble PPV would be really annoying.

I've had quite enough of the Team Hell No angle. Kane and Bryan need to split. Really tired of the "Yes!...No!" crap.
(Did I hear Cole correctly when eluding to Kane getting in the upcoming Hall of Fame? I hope so. He deserves it.)

The "Yes!...No!" crap was old after they did it for about two weeks. Now it's just ridiculous. That being said, I actually like Bryan and Kane as a team. For once the tag team belts are around the waists of relevant, main event-caliber superstars rather than mid-carders with no direction. Bryan/Kane vs Rhodes/Sandow might not be E&C vs. The Hardyz, but it sure beats most of what we've gotten during the last 5 years. I wouldn't mind seeing a "Best of 5" series between the two teams, but I doubt anything like that will happen.

 

[Mr_Stiffy]

Rhodes Scholars are in the right place right now, they're over and they are both skilled wrestlers. I'm so pleased they're in the spot that it seemed the Prime Time Players were occupying, realistically champions elect just waiting for the right time. One or two of the smarks were getting very excited about the PTP just because they were a "real tag team" that had a name, dressed the same and somewhat of a gimmick, ignoring the fact that they're still green as grass. They could have done with International Airstrike getting more time on the A/B shows given that they're light on face challengers once Bryan/Kane relinquish the belts (can't even think of any other than Rey/Cara), but that's a moot point now Kidd is injured.

Sandow's got the tools to be a player, this might only be the start for him.

 

[whalers90]

I love Rhode scholars. I love the sandow gimmick even more. Just when he is doing that searching for an "apprentice" angle and the crowd is loud...and he yells "SILENCE" I really do laugh out loud. Obviously I was not happy with their result at the hands of the Rock on smackdown Friday night. Sandow is probably my 2nd favorite wrestler behind cm punk right now

 

[Mr_Stiffy]

It's good for him. They knew he would get a reaction coming out and getting flattened by the Rock. It shows they're aware that he's really over as a heel. And if the segment is viewed as a success, it will get him closer to the main event. Similar to in real sports/games how they say you learn more playing someone better, Sandow getting to share the ring and swap verbal barbs with the Rock makes him look a bigger deal than before.

 

[grower_boy]

I feel like the only one in the IWC who isn't sold on Damien Sandow. His gimmick is very goofy if you ask me, and the only reason I can take him half seriously is because he has Cody Rhodes with him.

 

[darkwarrior3007]

I like Damien Sandow. I wasn't crazy about Idol Stevens.

 

[whalers90]

OMG!!! Does Vince let his production crew make the decisions on why the camera was moving all over the place, nauseatingly speeding in & out and 100% unwatchable during the Shield vs ryback,orton,sheamus segment? That is fucking annoying

 

[Mr_Stiffy]

Also it's pathetic that they couldn't even get through the first segment without using previous footage. "Let's see what happened on SmackDown!" - how about let's not? It's not as annoying as "earlier tonight" though. Jesus Christ, do they think we have the attention span of goldfish?

Overall, underwhelming show. Kind of glad Foley didn't really get to say anything before the Shield came down, I'm fed up of the disingenuous fat twat, even if he is a worthy Hall of Fame candidate. I was amazed that they used Flair to set up (I assume) a program between Miz and Cesaro, Miz isn't really doing it as a face for me. It was funny to see 3MB win and celebrate like they'd won the world title then get what they had coming to them, and good for Wade getting a clean win over Orton. But fuck me ragged, Cena was allowed to survive too much shit in that cage match. All the interference and Ziggler still couldn't beat him? Ridiculous. I say underwhelming because for a heavily hyped 20th Anniversary show, I expected some surprises rather than just Foley and Flair who were by and large expected. I'm also going to miss Eve.

I'm also wondering why it is that for the 20th anniversary of Raw (20 years after it started) they actually understand what an "anniversary" is and use it correctly, but managed to get it wrong when talking about WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series, where they observed the 25th anniversary upon the 25th instance of the PPV (24 years later). Bunch of morons.

 

[MustBeGood]

But at least John Cena won the showcase match on the 20th.

CM Punk by the way will lose the belt to The Rock. Looks like Rock will hold it until his next movie offer.

 

[Mr_Stiffy]

Rock will lose it to Cena at WrestleMania.

 

[Moonchild22]

Underwhelming. If it was just a regular Raw, this one was alright. For a 20th Anniversary show, it was lame. A couple of good matches, but could they really not get anyone from the shows past to show up besides a couple of the guys who have been around recently like Foley and Flair?
I liked seeing the Divas title change over to Kaitlyn (so hot) and she does a damn good spear, which is something I don't remember seeing female wrestlers do. I'm sure some have but I can't remember any. Kinda funny to see Eve "quit" over someones iPhone. That's a first.

 

[whalers90]

so the plan is to have Dolph have that MIB briefcase for about a year....threaten to use it on a number of occasions....possibly vaulting himself to top tier of guys in the company.... but for the whole year you build him up as (i guess) the #2 heel behind CM Punk ..... AND HE CAN'T BEAT CENA IN LIKE 44 TRIES??? way to bury a guy before he even gets started!!

BTW- i know austin had knee surgery ...but can anyone like him completely disappear from this company? he should have been there HE was RAW for years! i guess you can't have him & the Rock on the same show? or is he too busy with his tv show redneck island? ugh

 

[Atlas 316]

I for one am actually enjoying this refreshing change of Cena actually winning so far this year (I know, I know, he used to always win....but 2012 was not exactly a "win" year for him) but, yeah, it's a shame his success has to come at the hands of Ziggler. They've buried him 2 weeks in a row on Raw now against Cena. Last week's RAW he couldn't beat Cena no matter what he did. They must really be having a hard time figuring out how/when to get him to cash in that MITB contract.

 

[darkwarrior3007]

I'm also wondering why it is that for the 20th anniversary of Raw (20 years after it started) they actually understand what an "anniversary" is and use it correctly, but managed to get it wrong when talking about WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series, where they observed the 25th anniversary upon the 25th instance of the PPV (24 years later). Bunch of morons.

Now you're just nitpicking. It's completely understandable why they labeled the 25th instance the 25th anniversary.

 

[grower_boy]

I for one really enjoyed the show last night. I actually liked the lack of past stars...the last thing we needed was a 15-minute promo from HBK or Bret Hart. The only retired legend I was hoping to see was Steve Austin, but I understand why he wasn't there.

 

[darkwarrior3007]

I for one really enjoyed the show last night. I actually liked the lack of past stars...the last thing we needed was a 15-minute promo from HBK or Bret Hart. The only retired legend I was hoping to see was Steve Austin, but I understand why he wasn't there.

I enjoyed the show too.

 

[Mr_Stiffy]

Some people seemed to be expecting many stars of Raw's past to show up, but perhaps it was too soon after Raw 1000 for them to bother with that. And of course it would lessen the effect of anyone showing up by surprise at the Rumble. I personally expect Mr Ass to show up, possibly Road Dogg too.

Now you're just nitpicking. It's completely understandable why they labeled the 25th instance the 25th anniversary.

No, it's not understandable. It's wrong. An anniversary is celebrated after X number of years, like a birthday. You celebrate your 25th birthday 25 years after you are born. You celebrate your 25th wedding anniversary 25 years after you get married. WrestleMania XXV was 24 years after the first, so it wasn't the 25th anniversary at all, but the 24th. They made the same misuse of the word for SummerSlam and Survivor Series. But they got it right for the 20th anniversary of Raw, making them inconsistent as well as stupid.