Read on for my thoughts on the 10/15 Raw.
I liked Show's opening promo.
I don't like Bryan losing clean, but I see that they want to make Show stronger so it means more when Sheamus (hopefully) goes over clean.
Good Punk segment as always.
Strong win for Del Rio. I don't think it hurts Brodus much if at all to lose to a former World Champion.
Good tag match for what it was. I hope the tag division stays strong.
I'm fine with 3MB existing. At least they're doing something of note.
Good Ziggler promo.
Thank God Ryback didn't beat Ziggler. They used him fine. I continue to worry about how he'll fare in a long match.
I'm generally not a fan of non-wrestlers taking up a lot of TV time, but we'll see what they do with Vince, Heyman, and Striker.
I wish more hype was given to the U.S. Champion vs. a top contender, but the match itself was fine. I like that WWE's making titles more important.
Not crazy about Kane vs. Striker, but I see what they were doing with it.
A Divas match got advanced hype!? Amazing.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Kingston. I hope this is leading to bigger things with him.
Fine match with Sheamus and Barrett as always. Hopefully they're the future and Big Show's just used to elevate guys like them.
I expected more from Eve vs. Layla. I know they can do better with more time.
I liked the Vince/Ryback segment. He's growing on me.
3MB is pretty weird. It's clear Creative put them together because they aren't doing anything else. Hopefully in time someone in the group will gain momentum.
Good tag match. Keep your eyes on Rhodes and Sandow.
Good match between Miz and Kingston.
I liked the contract signing well enough. It's still pretty early for Ryback as a WWE Title contender.
More wrestling coming up!
Chuck, good to see you're almost caught up with the current events and state of the company.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to hear your thoughts on Otunga's stance at this point, as I am very confused. He had three separate segments on SmackDown a few weeks ago and the WWE seems to have a lot of stock on him promo and interview-wise, but despite that, he's basically in squash matches that last two minutes.
You mentioned before that House Shows are booked differently by different employees, but I don't get how he can be in main events on the MAIN ROSTER to being booked to lose to guys like McGillicutty and (in 20 seconds last House Show) Riley. I like those two, but let's face it, they've been on the main roster show maybe twice this whole year combined.
I'm also a little impartial to Ryback and the "big guy" bias WWE has. I understand he's a over with fans and has freakish size, but he's barely had any promos and hasn't really said more than those three words he always says to show much personality and charisma. I understand he's built to be more like a Goldberg character, but it's now World Wrestling ENTERTAINMENT, and I think he lacks the "entertainment" element. What do you think?
Tensai is similar in that retrospect in that he's a big guy that was in main events and beat top guys like Cena not long ago, and now he's fallen out of favor like SO many other big guys who have entered the company. I just don't understand it.
They must not see Otunga as someone who can do longer matches at the moment, so they're utilizing him in ways they trust him with. Or maybe Creative/Management just sees more in other people wrestling-wise. It takes a while to earn your keep unless someone's pushing for you. Maybe if he got in good with the right people, he'd do better. I don't know who he travels with. I know Miz gained favor by soaking up knowledge from the old vets instead of going out and partying or whatever.
ReplyDeleteIt could be that the people booking live events want to see what they have with Riley and McGillicutty. Live events a lot of times are testing grounds to see who to give good marks to. I know Otunga's had longer matches on live events. They must not have gone over as well as you'd hope.
I think there is some entertainment in a rough dude who can clobber people. I don't see him as ready to challenge Cena (I would have picked Kofi), and know at some point he'll need to have some depth to his character, but what he's doing seems to be working so far. Also note that to Vince, big guys = entertainment. There were a LOT more big clobbering guys in the '80s when he got to do pretty much what he wanted.
Now that Tensai's no longer undefeated, there's not as much they can do with him. They might actually like him, just as someone who can put others over. It wouldn't surprise me if they brought him in just to work with Cena, then didn't know what to do with him afterward. WWE focuses on the top merchandise sellers/reaction getters and books around them to some degree. It's more "what's Cena doing next?", then I imagine it goes down the ladder with who they want to utilize (Punk, Orton, Sheamus, etc.). It seems like they just throw a lot of other things together (they have SO much TV/PPV content to write!). As many wrestlers as they have, there are going to be people who have slumps because Creative/Management doesn't know what to do with them. Maybe they change their minds so much on the top guys that they don't have time to worry much about guys who aren't being pushed.