Monday Night RAW Updates/Discussion/Spoilers

[BamBamBunglow]

AJ/Owens was one of the best RAW matches I've seen in ages. AJ's finally got used to the ring and I'm so happy they gave them almost 20 mins to show what they can really do. Crowd were really buying into the match.

Aside from that.... meh. I'm more excited about NXT Takeover and what happens *after* Mania. I'll admit I'm interested in Taker/Mania, but a 1 month build for something of this magnitude (Which essentially comes down to Ownership of WWE Vs. Career) feels rushed and a little bit "panic-buttony".

It's kinda sad actually, the thing I'm most looking forward to abotu 'Mania is really the NXT before it and the Monday after it.

[Fnord]

The NXT card really isn't that spectacular, either, IMO. I am looking forward to Nakamura and Joe/Balor should be a decent match, but other than that... I looked it and really thought "who cares".

I'm interested in the results and outcome of Shane/Taker, but other than that... not much excitement IMO.

[BamBamBunglow]

Austin Aries in-ring debut, Shinsuke Nakamura debut, Joe/Balor for the title, Asuka/Bayley for the womens... that'll do me

[Chris Shields]

Austin Aries in-ring debut, Shinsuke Nakamura debut, Joe/Balor for the title, Asuka/Bayley for the womens... that'll do me

Not to mention American Alpha Vs. The Revival, both of which have quickly become favorites of mine. Those 4 will no doubt go all out trying to have the match of the night. The 3 titles matches, Zayn Vs. Nakamura and Aries Vs. Corbin (who has improved massively), all sound better than any match on the Mania card.

[Alex Smiley]

Hold the freakin' phone.

Sami Zayn wrestles Shinsuke Nakamura and gets an IC Title shot, all on the same weekend?



#OLE

[Cory]

Hate how they are rushing him into everything and giving him little to no time to explain why he arrived. I think it would help his crowd reactions (which have been less than ideal IMO) if they let him/KO re-tell some of their NXT storyline.

[Fnord]

Well, I think their feud could go past WM to a one-on-one match.

[Fnord]

Tonight's WWE RAW will take place from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn with the final hype for WrestleMania 32. WWE will also tape a few SmackDown matches tonight, which will air with highlights from Axxess.

Tonight's show is an "all hands on deck" event with Shane McMahon, Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Triple H, Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, Rusev, WWE United States Champion Kalisto, WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler advertised.

* Who is the true authority in the WrestleMania main event?

* To what extremes will Ambrose go to slay The Beast?

* Are we approaching The Undertaker's final WrestleMania?

* Will Chris Jericho accept AJ Styles' challenge?

* How will the "Total Divas" even the odds?

* Who will gain the upper hand before WrestleMania's Intercontinental Title Ladder Match?

[Cory]

Loved that Shane McMahon spot, great promo too between the two.

[Cory]

lol, what a go home Raw.

"Hey, it worked for Taker/Brock.....lets just use that again!"

[BamBamBunglow]

I can't believe Shane botched that elbow. Technically it was a fist drop, more'n an elbow. If he hadn't extended the hand out he'd have missed altogether. Was surprised that they showed the slow-mo.

Aside from that, I managed to watch the whole thing without skipping anything. Wasn't greast but wasn't bad either.

Favourite moment had to be Dean Ambrose trundling out his little red wagon to go weapons shopping. I giggled.

[Jon]

lol, what a go home Raw.

"Hey, it worked for Taker/Brock.....lets just use that again!"

What exactly were you expecting?

[Cory]

I can't believe Shane botched that elbow. Technically it was a fist drop, more'n an elbow. If he hadn't extended the hand out he'd have missed altogether. Was surprised that they showed the slow-mo.

Aside from that, I managed to watch the whole thing without skipping anything. Wasn't greast but wasn't bad either.

Favourite moment had to be Dean Ambrose trundling out his little red wagon to go weapons shopping. I giggled.

I dont think you can knock Shane....with the injury bug risking that on a move on a Raw that had very little substance I credit him for the effort.

[Cory]

What exactly were you expecting?

I hate talking about what I want because I've only started paying attention to the product (outside NXT) for the last month so I dont know if Im just missing something but

- Taker/Shane was great. Promo wasn't botched and was as effective as a promo not featuring Paul Heyman could be. The bump wasn't totally clean but it was old school Shane and Taker had some color. For as much as this match will probably be a clusterfuck, it still should steal the show with some crazy spots come Wrestlemania. HOWEVER, we still have no idea why Undertaker is helping Vince...or a reason to cheer for him aside from not wanting him to lose at Mania. The "he'll be fired" stipulation Vince said two weeks ago makes no sense...if Shane wins he can hire him back. I think they should have done: Taker is paying back the debt to Vince that he owes after Vince "gave" him his rematch with Brock Lesnar after losing to him at Mania, but thats just me.

- Jericho/AJ just isn't doing it for me. On paper its a fantastic matchup but all of their encounters so far have looked meh....their chemistry isn't great and I don't think Jericho can keep up with AJ, though I hope i'm surprised at Mania. I cant knock the segment as its the direction they're going and it was alright....but the force chanting of either AJ Styles or Y2Jackass is cringeworthy....especially with how the crowds have been. They have been dead this entire "road" to Mania and I don't blame them. It's been pretty brutal to be honest. I think adding a stipulation to this match....say a Submission match would have gotten a pop. Walls vs Calf Crusher.

- Becky Lynch vs Charlotte is so damn repetitive, having 'X' diva on commentary and then shenanigans from said Diva and Flair. Its the most undeserving stale feud heading into Mania. We've seen what these ladies can do and their ring work is arguably the top female wrestling in the world, let them do it, focus on the wrestling. They didn't add anything fresh to this to entice the viewer more for the Mania match.

- Andre Battle Royal....I still cant and will never forget two weeks ago Big Show yelling "KANES THE MAN!". With a depleted roster this match is as pointless as ever, it'll come down to Kane/Show/Strowman and Kane will go over is my prediction. Lets get over all of the "old giants" and forget how we thought by Cesaro winning it he was getting a big push.

- HHH Promo 1. We'll at least it wasn't a half hour promo to start the show. There's nothing the HHH can do to turn the crowd on him, especially not a smarky NYC crowd.

- New Day / LON is what it is. New Day is probably the most over thing along with Ambrose...and their matches with LON are pretty good....its just the way LON has been booked for the last two months....there's just no reason to care about them. This feud, much like the DIVA's is incredible repetitive and stale. They didn't do anything to make me want to see the most over team at Mania with this segment, bad writing.

- US Title, Kalisto is one of the better workers regularly and now with all the injuries he's the main high flying spot guy. Ryback is a decent big man....but again I dont care about this feud and I have been given no reason too. Nothing was done on this Raw to change that. I think their Mania match could be fairly good but there's a reason its on the pre-show....because its been booked badly. Why not have Kalisto and Sin Cara feud? There's actual history and they'd have a fantastic (botchy) match. Nope, lets have Ryback randomly quit a 6 man tag with Kane/Show that went over on the Wyatts at a PPV then disband the next night...and THEN give him a Title match at Mania with Kalisto because one guy is big and one guy is small. Ugh.

- Lesnar/Ambrose was even kinda weak by their standards. Overall, it was the second best segment of the night behind Shane/Taker but going from cool cameos and getting weapons from legends past to having a wagon and for some reason these weapons behind under the ring? And ignoring Brock lesnar while you go to the ring, fill up wagon and leave? Are you kidding me? Heyman's promo was A+ but there could have been so much more done with this, I get the mindgames idea but when the two most over guys in the company do NOTHING on the go home Raw.....



- Paige/Emma...like seeing Emma on the main roster as her, Paige and Natalya are the forgotten 'good' females workers in the Divas revolution....but this match....alright. Lets have the same shit piss break battle royal that made the women's division a joke over the last decade and hurt everything we've tried to chance with one of the top angles of the year. Then they brought that Red Haired chick who got shit on by the crowd to help the faces. My god this is gonna be a trainwreck at least its on the pre-show.

- Alright so throwing out the fact that we can assume it was supposed to be Owens/Zayn/Neville match and they made it the spotfest ladder match after Nevilles injury aside.......why for the last match on the go home Raw are you having the same fucking 6 man tag team matches that we see every week? The crowd always shits on it, it never accomplishes anything and this situation even makes less sense. Why would these guys team with each other? They're facing each other for the #2 title in the company......HORRIBLE booking and it brought a smile to my face that the crowd absolutely shit on this. I feel bad for Zayn/Owens....they should have booked this as a singles match and carried their storyline over from NXT so the fans would know/have a reason to cheer Sami. His reactions are luke warm because the casual has no idea who he is and the awful commentary team hasn't sold his story at all.

- Lets finish the show after the crowd is super dead with the exact same angle we used for Taker/Lesnar, except do it worse....between two people the crowd aren't into. Reigns had a sick dive to the outside (ok ok, are you trying to reinforce that you're reusing the Taker/Lesnar feud now?) and the crowd still chanted "you still suck". Yikes, Sunday is going to certainly be interesting.

[BamBamBunglow]

I dont think you can knock Shane....with the injury bug risking that on a move on a Raw that had very little substance I credit him for the effort.

Oh I can, and I will. My view on it;

A guy who's not been there for 6+ years is going to get into the main event, against THE biggest attraction of Wrestlemania. There's only one guy who's allowed to do that, and it's The Rock. The reason he's allowed to do it is because he's the biggest star made in the part twenty years. I don't even like the Rock, but I at least recognise what he's done for that company.

Shane... what's he done? "Bought" WCW so that Vince could humiliate the brand name for an additional year on TV and Jumped off a lot of shit. Now he's being presented, and I quote, as "The most formidable threat The Undertaker has ever faced". I call bullshit. The entire angle smacks of panic button;

They've booked themselves into a corner with NO GOOD WAY OUT. If Shane wins over the Undertaker, you're presenting the fact that THE guy at Wrestlemania has just been beaten by a guy who hasn't stepped into a wrestling ring in 6 fucking years! Taker's beaten HHH, Kane, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, but can't beat SHANE MCFUCKINGMAHON?! irrelevant that it could freshen up the product or get a brand split/brand war on the go - it makes no sense in any way, shape or form!

On the other side of the coin, Taker wins and the last month's worth of TV time has been a complete damned waste. Whoop dee doo. Rather than taking an up and comer and using Taker to get him over, they instead fly in Shane with a rushed story about wanting control of RAW, which fizzled out within 2 months.

So don't tell me I can't knock Shane when his first "big move" since coming back he comes within a bollock hair of botching. He shouldn't be in this situation *anyway*, and if he wants to be, he'll be scrutinised just like anyone else, regardless of what stupid shit he pulls. He fucks up, I'm knock him for it.