Universal Wrestling Topic

[Crokey]

 

The show opens up with Everybodies favorite Johnny Boy Cena, doing the usual build up shtick, only to be interrupted by his brother from another mother Darren Young (which they even made reference to /tips hat) and Titus O'Neill in which turned out was some good stuff by Titus and I really do think Vinny is investing in him... not that the crowd cared, not about this, they didn't care all night.

 

JC (no not Jesus Christ, although some think he is) v His Bro from another Mo.

-Sqaush

 

Ryback v Otunga

-Squash. Mark Henry was coming out to continue his beef, Vickie and Teddy stop him and setup this match at Wrestlemania (see Smackdown for more info on this)

 

Faan-Daan-Go-o-o v The Great Oaf

-Seriously why are they pairing up the lovely Natty with Khali... just no WWE, just no. Anyway no match here, Fandango gets beef for it, which I'm fine with they're just slowly building up heat for a potential match at Wrestlemania with Y2J... cause he's awesome and lets the new guys go over on him, whereas the other older guys just circle jerk among themselves.

 

The Savior v K-Kwik

-Sandow, excellent as ever, still don't get R-Truth. Count out after Sandow had sense and gave up on this abortion of an episode of Raw

 

Kaitlyn ... that is all.

 

Taker/Punk Promo

-This would have been good, if the crowd weren't so crap, the lack of reaction to any of it killed the entire thing.

 

Hello No v Primo/Epico

-Good Match, the diamond in the rough. Kane is looking back to his evil best, whether this is a character thing due to Paul Bearer or maybe the personal effects are showing in his character. PS AJ

 

Y2J and Faan-Dingo was his name-o, this was the good section of the show and this feud good be excellent, although I fear they are going to pull out the full cheese on this one and bring up Jericho's Dancing With The Stars past and make it some cheesey dance off.

 

Rhodes v Del Rio

-Squash, beat down on Ricardo, nasty rumour is they want to pair back Ricardo's involvement with Del Rio... stupid really when he adds the class and everybody wants to see him break a record for the longest Albertoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Del Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiioo, at Wrestlemania.

 

Booker-T is now in the Hall of Fame

 

Orton/Sheamus v The Beibers (does Jinder ever want to wrestle)

-Squash, excuse for more Shield build up, with Show on stand by.

 

Ziggles v Kofi

-Ziggles won, and Hell No came out to set up a Tag Match with Ziggles and Big E... obviously need something for all of them to do at Wrestlemania.

 

Wade v Y2J v The Miz

-Wade retained in what could end up being a title match at Wrestlemania with The Miz, although I'd rather see The Miz v Cesaro (US) and Wade v Bo Dallas (IC) at Wrestlemania.

 

Trips and Brock Lesnar buildup... which was crap.

 

Apart from the Hello No match, Ziggles and the Y2J/Fandango bit, this Raw was absolute sh*t

 

 

Justin Gabriel v Leo Kruger

-The South Africans are going at it again, and I'd love to see this match on a bigger stage with plastic in the ring (/Lethal Weapon 2 reference). Excellent match again from these two, back and forth with Kruger showing a real hunger for it and has the presence, skills, ability and 'gimmick' to be able to hold his own in the main roster. Kruger took the with a turkey wing Boston crab submission move.

 

Regal is the ring calling out Kassius Ohno to apologise for hitting out at him last week, actually nice to hear Ohno given some time on the mic and he took it well and ran with it. Ohno didn't accept the apology and they gave a nice back and forth exchange on their history together which led to Regal flipping again and square punching Ohno in the chops... I sense that Regal will be putting his kit back on shortly for a match.

 

Bayley v Paige

-Good Divas match with Paige back in action... seriously we need her in the big leagues, would add a well needed edge to the Divas division, Bayley however did give a good fight, and with some work could be one to watch. Paige took the win and nearly got Shanghaied by Summer Rae, but she stopped her before she could get in the ring.

 

Adrian Nevile v Luke Harper (The Wyatt Family)

-Good match where we actually got to see Luke Harper pull off a good match, as he's been lost in the tag thing up till now. After a lengthy match Harper took the win, but before the family could give him a post match beat down, Nevile's tag partner Oliver Grey came to the ring to help save him, swiftly followed by Bo Dallas, who all cleared the ring of the family. This apparently leads to a 6 Man tag match which should be good.

 

Raw is supposed to be the jewel of the week and NXT being the developmental isn't supposed to be of good quality as a result... well they f*cked that idea up this week as this 1 hour of NXT outstripped the full 3 hours of Raw by a long way.

 

 

Truth v Barrett

-Barrett took the win, in which was a decent match, nothing spectacular, still better than Raw mind, but it was really just a poke at The Miz on commentary to try and goad him into a match at Wrestlemania.

 

Sheamus does a little more stuff on the The Shield match, nothing exciting, usual we cant' trust Big Show stuff, which to me is big flag to say at Wrestlemania, Orton and Sheamus are going on about not trusting The Big Show when what will happen in Orton will screw Sheamus and Big Show and Sheamus will be on the same page.

 

Aksana/Alicia Fox v Layla/Natty

-Good Divas match which seems to have been a theme recently, good signs I hope, plus there is rumours of more returnees. Natty takes the win with Uncle Bret's Sharp-Shooter.

 

The Uso's v PTP

-Good match which The Uso's win, which if rumour is to believed could be the beginning of the end for The Uso's due to Jimmy getting a DUI... WWE logic kicks in, mid carder gets a DUI, could be forced to leave, upper card wrestler gets a DUI and possession charge, gets a push to the WHC.

 

 

Zack Ryder v Antonio Cesaro

-Good match here, mainly because Cesaro made it good cause he is a beast. Ryder here jobbing again, which is sad as he was great back when he was tagging it as one of Edge's minions with Curt Hawkins... which is also sad as WWE were supposed to be pushing the tag division but they are burying it again. Anywho Cesaro takes the win and has the nice bug boot print on his face to prove it.

 

Sweet-T/Clay v JTG/Mike McG

-Good match, and JTG and Mike McG were really impressive in this even if it did end up a squash match... although I said JTG did well, I think he maybe botched the 'Call my Momma' finisher when Clay went for the torso and Tensai went for the legs, JTG lifted his legs in anticipation for Clay and forgot about Tensai, which I think p*ssed him off a little, his face told it all... could say it's a little karma for sandbagging Ryback a while back

 

 

MizTV opens the show with Randy Orton and Sheamus and then a special invite for The Big Show, arguments back and forth and Booker-T comes out to pull of a Teddy Long Special...guess... go on.... yeah a Tag Match playa'

 

Henry v Ryder

-Squash, which led to The 'Back coming out and squaring off with each other, Ryback meat hooked Henry, which got a good pop. Still think that Ryback is going to pull double duty at Wrestlemania and take out the Shield as well, he kind of has to after being taken down several times by the Shield, it would be a ultimate sign of weakness that WWE could do to a face to have him not have the last word, a potential career burying move which would be wholly unacceptable by the fans and I'm not just talking the IWC crowd either. However I do think that the post match segment with Booker and Teddy is a get out clause for The Shield/Ryback/Henry/Big Show thing, by Booker not being happy with the move, just in case the next week and half don't go as expected (plus Henry could have picked up an injury at a house show as well)

 

We get another video montage of Booker-T and I like how they cut out the clip just before he says about Hulk Hogan, "I'm coming to get you ..."

 

Ziggles v Kofi (The Blue Brand replay)

-Before the whole match thing, AJ looked so damned cute perched up on the announce table, I would have loved the seats just behind them, plus AJ was good on the commentary as well. Ziggler did the double over Kofi this week and Big E took out his earlier frustration of getting whacked by Kofi with his slam... where's the NXT crowd with their "One more time" chants and "5...5...5...5...5..." chants as well (as Big E likes to go for the 5 count in NXT, and old King Kong Bundy favorite)

 

More backstage stuff with The Sh-Ort-Mus

 

Swagger and Zeb with an instantly forgettable bit before Y2J Saves Us™.

-Good match, again because Y2J made it good, shame his 2013 return isn't better scripted, his return at the Rumble made 95% of the wrestling world mark out and then it's been flat since, however I'm hopeful due to the interference of Fandango that this might improve over the next week or two with their program kicking in. Swagger took the win, in what looks to be a formulaic heel always wins up til the big one then loses nicely, I could see them de-push Swagger after Wrestlemania.

 

The Rhodes Scholars v Sweet-T Clay

-A match that really didn't kick in because this was used a setup for a probable match between The Funkadactyls and The Bellas, which could be a good match.

 

The Miz v Cesaro

-Good match, which these two do quite nicely when they do meet and have a full term match. The Miz takes the win with the Greg Valentine Figure 4 leglock.

 

The Sh-Ort-Mus v The Beibers

-Good entertaining match with The Big Show and Sheamus having a good laugh, The Big Show has been good as a heel, but I do get the feeling that they may be turning him 'tweener', now that Henry's back, although that could be subject to change after Henry's injury. Sheamus took the win for the team much to the annoyance of The Big Show... oh then we get The Shield, who end up thinking twice.

 

Apparently after the camera's stopped they actually had this has a dark match which The Sh-Ort-Mus won by DQ.

 

 

Primo/Epico v The Great Khali

-Two things of note, Rosa Mendes didn't do her usual hip swinging dance at the beginning, probably cause it's for the kids and second, hats off to Primo and Epico for doing a wishbone on Khali... old school move, Natty's dad and uncle would be proud of. Guess who won?

 

Natty interviews the SMS GM Mick Foley... still can't over that Mick Foley legendary for barb wire matches is now the GM on a kids show. Sandow and The Miz interrupt which Foley sets this match up.

 

The Miz v Sandow

-A nice match indeed which Sandow dominated quite a bit of, The Miz however did take the win with the Rugged Ronny Garvin Figure 4. I really do hope in the latter part of this year they start to pull the trigger on Sandow, give him the IC belt as his first stepping stone.

 

To finish off we get a setup for next week of Sweet-T/Clay v PTP.

 

------------------

 

X-Pac tore his butt hole...

[Shenmue18]

That's the second time that's happened to poor X-Pac.

 

Am I going to watch Raw or not, not sure I want to waste my life watching this watered down, terrible, PG product. Guess I'll tune in and if it starts as bad or God forbid worse then last week's show I'll tune out.

 

So far this show has been decent.

 

EDIT: Well, I ended up falling asleep before the show ended, I guess that shows how riveting Raw is that I can't even stay awake through a whole episode.

 

Well, I watched The Rock and Cena's promo and I have to say it builded the feud up much better then I expected, and not just Rock's part of the promo either, early on Cena was kinda boring, but as he got less "Hustle, Loyalty, Respect" and more arrogant saying that The Rock didn't beat him, he beat himself and stuff was great.

Edited March 26, 2013 by Shenmue18

[Ryda King]

That was fantastic. Not Cena, of course, but the ENTIRE building booing the shlt out of him, and even harder when he tried to kiss their ass. Then he got legit pissed and started freaking out because everyone hates him now. Then he gets Rock Bottom'd. I didn't even hear "let's go Cena" before "Cena sucks!"

 

I just heard

 

"Let's go Rocky!"

"Cena sucks!"

"Boooo!"

"Let's go Rocky!"

"Cena sucks! Cena sucks!"

 

Kick ass. Rest of the show except the first hour sucked.

[Shenmue18]

Yeah, the crowd booing Cena was so awesome, hope we have a crowd this good at the go home show for Mania and at Mania itself. Honestly I'm going to rage if Cena doesn't turn heel. I mean, what a tease if he doesn't turn, he talks about how Rock didn't beat him that he beat himself, that's heelish, also that moment when he got in The Rock's face and taunted him with that cocky smirk on his face was totally heelish and he really didn't seem to care what the crowd thinks about him, which again is a very heelish (Yes I know that's not a word : P) thing to do.

Edited March 26, 2013 by Shenmue18

[Ryda King]

Backstage news is they're expecting him to get booed out of the building when he wins the title. He's getting no cheers anymore. But they're still going to go forward with it because he's Cena.

 

Sense this does not make.

[Shenmue18]

I really don't understand how they can't turn him heel, as seen back in 2003 he had most of the best promos in his career as a heel, actually was allowed to do more then 3 moves and wasn't a PG, family friendly, bore fest. This is the perfect opportunity, against a legend like The Rock and after all that heelish stuff he did that I mentioned earlier.

[Ryda King]

I don't want Cena anymore period. Not as a heel or face, or any gimmick changes. I don't want him whatsoever.

[Capricornus]

I don't watch wrestling nearly as mush as I did in the early-mid 2000s, but I have been watching it a lot recently. The thing that has ALWAYS pissed me off about WWE, even back then, is the fact that they make it too obvious as to who the winner will be in big matches like Rock v Cena II. I was watching RAW last night with the HOFers questioning Rock and Cena. It was pretty decent, would have been better without all of the politically correct aspects. Great emotion put into the promo.

 

I don't post here much so forgive me for asking but, am I one of the only ones that don't really like Del Rio's face turn that much? He's much better as a heel.

 

I am unsure as to when Dolph will cash in that MITB briefcase, but I hope he wins the title when he does. And where the hell is Evan Bourne? I know he got suspended but that was a long time ago.

[Stryfaar]

There was a sign of his heel turn on Raw. But The Great One has completely owned this jackass.

 

 

[Crokey]

I don't post here much so forgive me for asking but, am I one of the only ones that don't really like Del Rio's face turn that much? He's much better as a heel.

 

I am unsure as to when Dolph will cash in that MITB briefcase, but I hope he wins the title when he does. And where the hell is Evan Bourne? I know he got suspended but that was a long time ago.

Del Rio, maybe, I think he works much better as a face, because as a heel he was flat and had no edge to him as a face he has a little more freedom and his clean cut image suits a face, as a heel I would expect him to have a more ruffled appearance. On the subject of Del Rio what the fudge have they done with his music, they've added an out of sync drum track to it and it sounds awful.

 

Evan Bourne was injured and then got suspended for a Wellness, then had a nasty accident and broke his leg and ankle in four or five place and they weren't clean breaks they were nasty breaks and he's been recovering from that. However last I heard is that he is back in light training and may well be back before the end of the year if not the middle of year.

[Flesh-n-Bone]

F*ck, that segment with Cena, The Rock and the legends was just awesome. Didn't like the beginning when Cena tried to suck up but after "Because I have to", the intensity really picked up. Now they've got me excited for their match and I have that little hope of seeing a heel turn for Cena.

 

And even if he wins clean and goes back to his smiling ways, I still take that over CM Punk as champion for the entire year. God, that was terrible.

[Shenmue18]

I would rather have a chickensh*t heel CM Punk be WWE champion and never win clean then a face, never serious Cena bury all his opponents. However I do think that heel Cena has some upwards potential, as during the short time he was heel he seemed to have a lot of good matches with the likes of Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit on PPVs and Smackdown. He also cut some pretty good heel promos, which as seen this Monday after the "Because I have to" part Cena started to show some potential as a heel character, or at least as a edgier face.

[Flesh-n-Bone]

 

I would rather have a chickensh*t heel CM Punk be WWE champion and never win clean then a face, never serious Cena bury all his opponents. However I do think that heel Cena has some upwards potential, as during the short time he was heel he seemed to have a lot of good matches with the likes of Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit on PPVs and Smackdown. He also cut some pretty good heel promos, which as seen this Monday after the "Because I have to" part Cena started to show some potential as a heel character, or at least as a edgier face.

His ring work is not really a problem. It's his characteristics as a face that are annoying. He's always been good in the ring whether it was in his greener days wrestling the likes of Undertaker, Benoit and Angle or 2007 when he really stepped it up and started having excellent matches almost every PPV against Umaga, Orton, HBK and Lashley. And now he's truly gotten a grip of how to work a match as seen whenever he wrestles Punk or as the underdog against Brock Lesnar. It's only a problem when he half-asses matches by getting beat for the whole duration and coming back the 5 moves of doom in the end. Specially those matches with The Miz. Now they were terrible except the one that took place on The Rock's birthday show.

 

And it's no coincidence that every time he goes out of his character's comfort zone, his promos are excellent. I can only imagine how great he can be as a heel. One of the best things a heel can have is intensity and Cena has tons of it. Cutting through all the PG bullsh*t and corny jokes... he always delivers.

[Shenmue18]

Exactly, when he doesn't do the five moves of doom his matches are pretty good, and yes Cena has a lot of intensity on the mic something his PG, never serious, always joking character doesn't let him showcase except on very rare occasions like last night.

[Stryfaar]

The stage is perfectly set for Cena turning heel, and winning the WM match against The Rock, but then .. who's next?

 

The 'Who's next?' question is really very important because after John Cena, the babyface who made money for the company, who is going to take his position if he ever turns heel?

 

Randy Orton? Sheamus? Ryback? We have 3 valid contenders but are they big enough to take Cena's spot? These 3 guys I've mentioned have a good fan following like Cena but can they draw the attention?

 

If Orton turns hell after mania, he will still be dominated by a heel John Cena which will overshadow Orton's heel turn which he wanted for a long time.

 

Hence, we can conclude this by saying WWE is having the opportunity but not having the next guy.

[Shenmue18]

I could see RyBack taking a top face spot, when I went to the SmackDown house show he wasn't even at a ton of people had on RyBack merch. He's a a powerful big dude which is something both kids and casual fans like and he's been improving both in the ring and on the mic.

 

Also, Cena as a heel has Sheamus, RyBack, The Miz, Chris Jericho, ADR, Randy Orton and Taker come next Mania to be able to feud with.

[Stryfaar]

I think Sheamus should take his place as the face of the company, or CM Punk. I'm tired of Sheamus, yeah, but who else could get 'money' for the WWE? Ryback doesn't have what it takes yet, IMO. They should push Miz IMO, great wrestler, nice guy, should work more on his mic skills, but meh.

 

Also .. about X-Pac.

[Shenmue18]

Yeah, poor guy : /, Sheamus could be entertaining if he stops trying to be funny and tries to be a serious, intense face. CM Punk could turn face at Mania by shaking Taker's hand and showing respect for a legend, he still gets a lot of cheers anyway so it probably wouldn't take much to turn him.

[Flesh-n-Bone]

The problem with Punk is he's a flop. They tried to give him the ball but ratings, buyrates and attendance were down. Not to mention he's a complete asshole who would give the company a bad name if he represented them as he always gets in trouble because of some rude tweets, incident with fans and his arrogance.

 

It was a problem when they wanted to make Orton the guy after he beat Chris Benoit but by the time Orton matured, he's lost his appetite to perform to the best of his abilities and he's already done it all. Ryback and Sheamus are definitely the go-to guys if they want a top guy when/if Cena turns.

[Stryfaar]

@Shenmeu18 - Yeah, I prefer the heel character of him more than his current face crap.

@Flesh-n-Bone - Punk would be the perfect face if PG dies lol. Could be the next 'Stone Cold'.

[Shenmue18]

Punk's not an asshole, he's just not an asskisser and speaks his mind, as for his drawing power, Cena was still the main guy in the company as he got more attention on TV and almost every main event on PPV.

[llSaviourll]

@Shenmeu18 - Yeah, I prefer the heel character of him more than his current face crap.

@Flesh-n-Bone - Punk would be the perfect face if PG dies lol. Could be the next 'Stone Cold'.

Before Punks heel turn he was a great face. Then he met Paul Heyman..... Now hes a heel until he dumps him. Probably after Mania he will.

 

I hope Punk becomes a Face again like when he won the WWE Title and his contract expired.

[Flesh-n-Bone]

 

Punk's not an asshole, he's just not an asskisser and speaks his mind, as for his drawing power, Cena was still the main guy in the company as he got more attention on TV and almost every main event on PPV.

I'm specifically talking about when he really became the main focus after SummerSlam. He would have 3 or 4 segments every week and the ratings really went down.

 

And "asshole" may be a bit too blunt but to put it more nicely, let's just say he's not Vince's ideal guy to represent the company as the frontman since he has a temper at times and can't keep his mouth shut. That's a problem nonexistent with Cena and Sheamus.

 

And to the last post above mine, I wouldn't even dare calling his face run "great". It was horrible and what really made me bored of him. He became a vanilla Cena imitation with some 3rd grade insults whenever he confronted John Laurinaitis.

[Shenmue18]

@Riot Agreed, he got more attention as a face and they let him win clean in long epic matches.

 

@Flesh, I enjoyed both his face run and his pre MITB 2011 heel run, but after Raw 1000 his heel character then wasn't as entertaining. They need someone new to be in the title picture though, not just Cena and Punk. Maybe Daniel Bryan or Orton could return to the main event scene.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Shenmue18

[Ryda King]

@JF-Mir2

Ha. Nice shirt design. Someone should make them into a real shirt and wear it to the shows.

 

As for ADR's face turn, I think they did it perfectly and he's much better as a face. His move set has expanded more and he's much more...open, I guess. Plus his heel character was at such a dead end, they had no choice but to turn him face.

 

If you wanna see a horrible face turn, just look at Miz. Ugh.

[Shenmue18]

ADR's face turn was bad to me, he's going against a Mexican hating character yet last week we got USA USA USA! chant's when he was being attacked by said character.

[Capricornus]

ADR's face turn was bad to me, he's going against a Mexican hating character yet last week we got USA USA USA! chant's when he was being attacked by said character.

LMAO yes I noticed that too. There are just some guys who are much better as heels, and even those that should be a heel all the time. For example, Triple H makes a cool face, but as a heel he is damn excellent. CM is an awesome heel and I hope he remains for a good while. The Rock is one of the few that makes a excellent face and heel.

 

When do any of you guys think that Randy Orton will be back in the title picture? I know he had the suspension a bit back.

[Shenmue18]

Hopefully, he deserves a WWE championship reign, way more then SuperCena (even though heel Cena as champ could be awesome) as Orton hasn't had the WWE title since 2010 yet constantly works both Raw and Smackdown on TV and on Raw and Smackdown house shows. He works harder then Cena does as he seems to be representing BOTH Raw and Smackdown. I could care if he's face or heel, his in ring work is great either way and he works just as hard as face or heel.

[Corndawg93]

Nothing pleases you people don't it

 

I come here after I've seen RAW wondering what everyone thinks about RAW and the 1st and only thing I see is people bitching and complaining about one man, ONE F*CKING MAN John Cena this and John Cena that blah, blah, f*cking blah and if you haven't noticed, John Cena's gimmick is to be the best he can be and that means Burying talent and no selling moves, yeah it makes him look bad, but it the way he is, it's meant to make him look unstoppable and when he lost the The Rock last year it brought him back to earth and it's only just recent he's regain his unstoppability, so yeah, expect him to win a lot of matches this year weather you like it or not

 

There, that's my two cents, I've been wanting to say that for a loooooooong time

Edited March 27, 2013 by billy james

[Shenmue18]

But it's terrible for the rest of the whole company to bury people and no selling their moves, to focus on one man instead of several is why the company has such a hard time finding other guys to take main event spots after Cena burying people for years and year and why they probably won't ever be able to turn Cena heel. like I said though, the latter part of the Rock/Cena segment had some great parts by Cena, so I did enjoy that.