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Raw Is Silence

I'm not going to pretend like you watched Raw, but good lord was it a turgid slog of a show. The crowd was as dead as I can ever remember, and this Authority shit is just sucking the life out of everything it touches.

I'm not nearly as critical or fiery about this stuff as I used to be - I mostly just watch now because it's a nice thing to have on while feeding an infant - but even I'm bored to the point of giving up. I think the thing that's so goddamn depressing is looking at the talent available and knowing what they're capable of. What a sad waste.

​THEY'RE HAVING FUN, MAGGLE!​

Comments

  1. I didn't watch at all. It is DVRed so if I missed anything good I could see it. I can't imagine I missed anything good. Have read the results yet.

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  2. It's the best RAW of the year!

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  3. Barring a massive complete reboot this company has passed the point of no return. Diehard fan since 1990. Never has it been this bad...even the dark ages of the mid 90s he some semblance of importance and characters and angles that mattered. This is a giant void of nothing.

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  4. If you just looked at the line-up, it sounds like an awesome raw:
    ziggler v barrett for the ic title (2 out of 3 falls)
    ambrose v wyatt
    wyatt family tag team explodes (harper v rowan)
    ryback v rollins (and kane)
    ascension in a squash to show how dominant they are
    reigns v big show

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  5. You owe it to yourself to see the final segment, just to see how much disdain the WWE has for its fans

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  6. Theberzerker Von HUSSingtonJanuary 5, 2015 at 10:07 PM

    Nature destroys to build. I think we are going to watch it all dissolve down to ROH/PWG levels, which is about as severely underground as WWE will be able to go, then come back as some radically different take on the genre, just like WWF in the 80's, and the Gold Dust Trio in the 30's & 40's.

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  7. Scott, NJPW WK9 rant? Cmon, I still don't know how to really feel about the matches! Please, don't make me think! Tell me how good or bad the matches were so I'll know and can move on from this hellish uncertainty!

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  8. Theberzerker Von HUSSingtonJanuary 5, 2015 at 10:08 PM

    Was anything BONZO GONZO?? I HAVE TO KNOW!!!

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  9. I also need to know what wrestlers to like and what wrestlers I should hate and bitch about online. My head hurts.

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  10. I hate that I laugh uncontrollably whenever I see the word "MAGGLE"

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  11. It sounds like I need to look for a near future "Death of WWE" TEW mod. It would be interesting to see whether or not NJPW bleeds over in the absence.

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  12. Tonight was a microcosm on how they suck in booking babyfaces. No intense anger, no having to hold them back because they're doing everything they can to beat up the heels, nothing except sad resignation and frowning faces.

    You know what folks, Its a running joke that everybody turns on Sting and he's the dumbest man in wrestling, but here's the the thing. The guy had such fire, such intensity, such a sense of pissed off babyface energy, that you just sensed he was going to make any betrayal pay a hell of a price. Hell when Flair turned on him at Havoc 95, Sting wasn't putting on the surprised hurt face. He was stunned for a few seconds and then tried to beat the hell out of the Nature Boy as quickly as he could. Hell Dusty got the shit beaten out of him time and time again, openly said in promos that he was outmatched, and still one believed Flair was so screwed once Rhodes got his hands on him.

    I just don't get it. This smug 20+ bragging shit, even if it wasn't old, doesn't compare to a heated segment where all of four of the guys are being held back by security while the Authority are shouting about how the three of them are fired and are to never come back. It gets both sides over and gives the audience something to be a part of rather than watching their heroes passively get belittled for minutes on end.

    And I'm sure WWE sill do some "crazy" segment in the future where the guys are now all of a sudden full of piss and vinegar and Cena will do his outraged shouting promo declaring he's going to raise hell and such for what the Authority have done. But one can only watch so many of these lifeless dreary segments and start to see how fake and put upon the supposed following segments will seem, because the babyfaces won't seem angry because they're real people who are responding naturally; they'll seem angry because now its the time in the script for them to express that.

    And its not the same.

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  13. What happened? I didn't watch Raw tonight?

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  14. I don't care about John Cena, he's going to be in title matches no matter what.

    I don't care about WWE champion Brock Lesnar, because he's likely leaving and is never around anyway.

    I don't care about Roman Reigns, he's working a horrible program with Big Show, and will be pushed just because regardless.

    I care about Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, but their wins and losses mean absolutely nothing.

    I don't care about Bray Wyatt, he's all talk and has never backed anything up.

    I care about Daniel Bryan, completely.

    I care about NXT completely.

    Every single other aspect of WWE I'm indifferent about, and I subscribe to the WWE network solely for NXT and the on demand catalog.

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  15. It WAS in Corpus Christi. Small city with the shittiest beach in Texas, and literally nothing to do there outside of the State Aquarium, USS Lexington and the first Whataburger. I'd hate being there too.


    It was the arena where the Benoit tribute Raw was held though, maybe his spirit haunts the building or something.

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  16. Did PG have a meltdown and we just don't know yet?

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  17. ^ THIS. For as long as there has been professional wrestling, there have “good guys” and “bad guys”. The job of the “good guy” is to be cheered by the audience, whereas the job of the “bad guy” is to be booed jeered by the audience. Pretty simple, common stuff, just watch ANY MOVIE EVER. In theory, it should be pretty easy to write these characters: The Cenas are good guys that do good things, and McMahons are bad guys that do bad things. BUT THE PROBLEM IS SIMPLE: You keep recycling the same thing and you get what we got tonight. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. I predict HORRIBLE RATINGS.

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  18. uh, that sounds awesome

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  19. Crikey Mate Down Under AussieJanuary 5, 2015 at 10:28 PM

    Where's the Raw recap?

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  20. So glad HHH is back!

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  21. In a way I would would compare this to the empire strikes back. At the end of the movie, you know that the luke/han/jedi will come back and win in the next movie.
    However with the wwe, you are not so sure many times. Ryder never came back to win. Bryan only won after the fans revolted. Ambrose never came back to beat Wyatt or Rollins. We think that Cena and the gang will defeat the authority but the evil authority figure keeps coming back.

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  22. I decided to take a break from wwe until the Rumble because I'm just not interested in the authority at all.

    Wrestle Kingdom was so fucking great and nxt has been fantastic so I can easily get my wrestling fix elsewhere. My wife got a few pwg dvds for me for Christmas so maybe I'll watch those on Monday night for the next few weeks.

    The Rumble is always great so I hope things turn around there.

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  23. That might take awhile. He still hasn't done the rant for the uncut Great American Bash '89 that he said he was going to do when the WWE Network launched last year.

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  24. Had to watch the two authority segments out of morbid curiosity. Wow, way to push ziggler as a big star!!!!

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  25. If WWE booked Empire Strikes Back ending, Luke would just shuffle his feet and sadly walk away from Vader after the latter's offer, while Han, Leia, and Chewie all reacted to the prospect of Solo being frozen in carbonite with confused yet slightly glum faces.

    Oh and Vader would spend 15 minutes saying to Luke he's only recruiting him he feels sorry for him and that Skywalker is barely worth his time.

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  26. Top WWE Heels - You're Fired!
    Top WWE Babyfaces - Well that's a shame, i was looking at buying a boat this year.


    And they wonder why business is ice cold?

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  27. Just read a recap of the show and HOLY SHIT that last segment sounds like some kind of dare to sink the company. This I gotta watch for myself but holy shit, HHH and Steph seemed to have over delivered on sabotaging their own show. Amazing.


    Also, Ambrose loses AGAIN! I really wanna hear from an Ambrose defender who thinks this guy is getting some kind of big Mania match or actually getting revenge on Rollins at Mania. Holy shit, Ambrose would be lucky if he gets to job to Rollins on Superstars at this point.

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  28. Looking at a recap... so everyone still agrees that Ambrose is getting a big match at Mania, right? Holy crap, Iron Mike Sharpe thinks this dude is a jobber.

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  29. Also please do keep in mind: This is a show crafted by TWENTY SIX writers, and signed off by Vince before it made it to air.

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  30. Worst line was when Ziggler responded with: "90 days?" He should have said, "how about if I kick your ass right now?" and then do it.

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  31. It is quite amusing.

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  32. You know, it's gotten to the point where it's also like fuck Dolph Ziggler, the real person, for just going along with terrible career-killing shit like this. Ohhhh but he's cool because instead of voicing his opinion and standing his ground for real he's gonna passively aggressively bit chin two months on Twitter?


    WWE's creative is God awful, but the roster themselves are the biggest pussies who've ever pussied.

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  33. Couldn't agree more with this email. I don't know if it's the 3 hours plus or what but dam is this show boring, between repetitive rematches, to awful theme music, to every wrestler seemingly the same, this show needs a total overhaul.

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  34. It would be awesome if WWE exploded into 4 or 5 smaller territories run by hardened business vets who actually know what they're doing. Then you could rotate talent around so nothing ever gets stale. And the Network would still be around to tie everything in.

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  35. I said this a few weeks ago. I watched Wrestlemania this year. I watched RAW the night after. I watched RAW the night after Summerslam based on the beating Brock gave Cena to see if anything of interest happened. Nothing interests me anymore. I youtubed Sting appearing at Survivor Series out of a mild curiosity. Years ago, I would've tuned into RAW the night after Survivor Series to witness the fallout. These days, I knew there would be no fallout, because the WWE doesn't write for their audience anymore, they write to amuse and self fellate each other.

    I've been a fan since 1989, Warrior got me watching when I was channel flipping one Saturday morning, and then Taker's debut at Survivor Series hooked me for, what seemed to be life. Now, I figured the Streak would end at some point, but between that ending, Warrior dying (the two reasons I became a fan in the first place), and the state of wrestling as a whole, I think I'm pretty much done.

    I'll still read recaps, and I still enjoy discussing wrestling and reading the discussions here about wrestling, but I doubt if I'll ever watch WWF/WWE again (outside of the DVD's that I own). TNA is not an alternative at all. I may try to watch Wrestle Kingdom 9 at some point, and maybe Global Force could be great, but as a fan of the last 25 years, maybe I'm just finally burnt out.

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  36. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 10:42 PM

    Starting with putting it back to 2 hours.

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  37. Turgid? More like flaccid.

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  38. They have destroyed Ambrose'sheat

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  39. That's what I don't get: why they have such a large writing team. Name one three hour movie that's ever used 26 writers (Most three hour movies have four writers at most).


    And even if you factor in the extra airtime and the episodic nature, no daytime soap in history has ever had 26 writers on one show. WWE is literally the only form of entertainment that's ever felt the need to employ so many writers for one show.

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  40. ARRRRGH THE BARBARIANJanuary 5, 2015 at 10:44 PM

    Defiant babyfaces get too over, and then either go to make movies, quit over their bookings, or are the guy you've been making goat quips about for 2 years and now you have to book him like a stud instead of the gassed up beast you have a hard-on for

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  41. Here's his little blurb about himself on twitter:
    "stand up comic. i wrestle to pay the bills. oh & former WWE World Heavyweight Champion (again) whatevs

    Bikini Bottom, TRANSYLVANIA"

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  42. See my comment above. I'm with you.

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  43. ARRRRGH THE BARBARIANJanuary 5, 2015 at 10:46 PM

    Even Cena is a pussbag when he's not busy looking out for himself. Him and his buddies could have put Trips in the icu before his useless stooges showed up.

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  44. He is going to pin a candy bar in a vending machine match

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  45. Damnit, I can't even say "save us Sting!" in these situations anymore!

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  46. I got a Hulu account and watched that version for awhile but I can't even do that anymore. It's one thing to watch a bad product with no talent hacks or aging stars but seeing perfectly good young talent squandered is just depressing. No one gets over or has a chance to get over anymore. Who wants to watch a product where your fan support has zero effect on what you're watching? And if you still support them in vain hope things will change HHH goes out there and mocks you for it. Reason #243 they can't even sell this shit at $10/month anymore.

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  47. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 10:48 PM

    Yeah, it was a fantastic start to 2015.

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  48. Ugh at him calling himself a standup comic. That's more offensive than his shitty wrestling persona.

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  49. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 10:48 PM

    More like he's going to get pinned by the candy bar.

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  50. He's had it that way for a while, too. Like others suggest, I think the majority of that locker room is just happy to be getting a decent check.

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  51. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 10:49 PM

    Daniel Bryan is literally the only hope, and even those chances are slim.

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  52. Zack Ryder's starting to look like the second coming of Goldberg compared to Dean.

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  53. "O'bryan Kenobi you're are only hope"

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  54. Look...

    ...they kept Big Show strong with the DQ finish.
    ...they still have more surprises to come--remember, Sam Sung is on the roster and recently got a big win at TLC
    ...The Ascension was exposed (by their own employers)
    ...they have another bad ass heel again (Stephanie)
    ...PPVs still cost $9.99 for smart people, anyone who pays more is an idiot--no matter what the circumstances--amirite?
    ...the A New Day is a positive group; I LOVE THEM!

    See? Plenty of good things came out of this Raw.

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  55. HAHAHAHA, no way. He puts the candy bar over to get the candy bar ready for his feud against a waffle iron.


    Seriously though, I'd bet anything that at some point between now and Mania we get Seth Rollins pinning Ambrose in an unannounced 6-minute match on a random Smackdown. Cole will mention how this is a renewal of a previous rivalry, the security guards distract Ambrose for a second and he eats a curb stomp and the match isn't even mentioned as anything important.


    That's where Dean Ambrose is. (This could also happen on Main Event.)

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  56. Would we be complaining so much tonight if a male face won a single match tonight like if Ambrose had beat Wyatt or if Ziggler over came the odds?

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  57. Do you work for one of those "damage control" PR firms?

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  58. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 10:53 PM

    That's right, WWE should hire you.

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  59. The pattern I see with Raw every week, is that could have happened. But then it gets unraveled next week, when that person jobs to Big Show or Kane in less than 2 minutes.

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  60. Totally.


    Hell, at least Ryder got so over for a moment that MSG was chanting for him nonstop including during a Rock promo. Dean's most over was two seconds right before he lost to a fucking ghost.

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  61. Great points all around. Plus at least in the dark ages of the mid 90's, at least the main event picture and the overall roster were always different every year. Nowadays, the roster and the main event picture is almost the same as it was three years ago.

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  62. HHH & Steph fire everyone.


    They get mad and beat the shit outta HHH while Stephanie looks on in horror.


    I mean what are they gonna do? Fire you again? a 6 year old could have booked something so simple.

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  63. Seek out alternatives. I'm burnt out just like you but I love pwg and ordered wrestle kingdom and it was great. Plus I go to my local indy each month. There's still wrestling out there.

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  64. I like the douche-on-purpose persona he has going for his Twitter account. I think it's a clever take/satire on modern communication. He knows what he's doing on there even if it's not for everybody.

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  65. I know there was the thing with Cesaro making the "people are sick of seeing Cena fight Orton" comment, but has anything come out about what Ambrose did wrong or who he pissed off? I don't remember reading a thing, but clearly something happened somewhere along the way.

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  66. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 10:56 PM

    When Fear 2 Stop says that his 7 year old kid thinks the writing is stupid, you know wrestling is going down hill.

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  67. And everything tonight was to build up to a match involving fucking STING? An old as fuck guy who can't work a decent match and is absolutely not going to draw a paying audience in 2015. Yup, totally worth it.

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  68. Getting rid of that terrible "Tonight Is The Night" opening theme would help too.
    Bring the 2010 Smackdown theme "Let It Roll" back and just make that the Raw theme for the rest of eternity.

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  69. Enron, BP, Acme...all the major companies have used my services.

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  70. As a Brit, all I can say is thank **** we get the network in two weeks (hopefully). Off to get a Roku in a few days so I can start watching Nxt and maybe some New Japan and enjoying wrestling again. We get an hour long recap of Raw/Smackdown on Saturdays (WWE Experience I think its called) and even that's too boring to watch most weeks.

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  71. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 10:57 PM

    Audience of one?

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  72. I'm willing to bet that next week, all the babyfaces will go on strike to get those 3 their jobs back.

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  73. And a fine job you did too!

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  74. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 10:58 PM

    And they'll get their jobs back within the first 30 minutes of the show.

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  75. Maybe so, and I may look at alternatives, but for now my alternatives are legitimate sports. I definitely won't be watching WWE for a very long time, if ever. I contemplated ordering Wrestlemania this year(the "stupid way" too) and figured I would a few months ago. Now, I no longer care.

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  76. As bored by raw as I am, I'll probably subscribe to the network forever due to the archives and nxt. Enjoy it!

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  77. What good does that do his wrestling career?


    Also as a comedy fan him calling himself a standup comic is offensive as fuck. I can't imagine, based on anything I've seen or heard from him otherwise, that he's even remotely funny let alone a fucking comic.

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  78. Acme???

    Ambrose would like a word with you

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  79. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 10:59 PM

    If they had the money to use the music, I'm sure they would.

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  80. He was inadvertently critical of creative and the creative process on Jericho's podcast, even if he seemed to be just being honest and giving genuine answers. This happened one week before TLC and the debut of Sam Sung.

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  81. Here's one way for those 3 to get their jobs back: they sue WWE for wrongful termination and we spend an entire RAW inside a court room

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  82. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:01 PM

    Knowing WWE, it'll be held in Little People's Court again.

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  83. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:02 PM

    And that could be the answer.

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  84. It hasn't been removed on the Hulu Plus archives so obviously they do have the money.

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  85. As a Canadian, all I can say is WWE can take their network and shove it.

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  86. What good has Twitter ever done for a wrestling career? A serious answer would be appreciated on that question. You use it for good, you end up like Ryder. You use it to bitch, you get punished like he and Cesaro have been in the past. I don't fault him for having fun with it and poking fun at our texting language.

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  87. He got *too* over.

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  88. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:04 PM

    Ah good, then yeah they should use it. I also don't have that big of a problem with Tonight is the Night, just that I think it sounds like a poor mans version of remember Remember the Name.

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  89. Even Michael Floorwax would consider Dolph's standup comic claim to be insulting and offensive.

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  90. That's exactly what would've happened in the Attitude Era and the crowd would've eaten it up.

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  91. Your situation sucks, I thought we were going to go the same way with Sky offering the same type of channel as Rogers has in Canada but it looks like we're getting the real thing. The only downside is we're paying 50% more for it (close to $15/month). Prehaps the fans should do what the Brits and Irish did and just trash the live shows in Canada until they get their way.

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  92. That's part of why it's so stupid and inconsistent. Too many cooks spoil the pot.

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  93. Hell, most Canadians can't even get the stupid shit Rogers is selling.

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  94. The problem with Tonight is the Night as a theme, for me anyways, is that it doesn't hok me and get me pumped up for the show.

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  95. Hip-hop that sounds like it was produced by Katy Perry has no place in wrestling.


    The only compliment I can give to that theme is that it's only the fourth worst wrestling show theme of all time, behind the Nickelback Raw theme, the "Cross The Line" Impact theme from 2009 and of course, the eternal all time worst, the original NXT theme "We Are Wild And Young".

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  96. More like "and almost entirely re-written by Vince before it made it to air."

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  97. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:10 PM

    I know that this may not be a popular opinion, but when I started to watch wrestling again in 06, Papa Roach's Wanna Be Loved would always pump me up.

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  98. To each their own, but anything Papa Roach is terrible.

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  99. They could make it like half a dozen NXTs: all micro managed in smaller teams.


    Honestly, I think that'd be pretty cool.

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  100. Thanks for spoiling next week's show!

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  101. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:12 PM

    But nothing is worse than Nickleback right?

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  102. This is true.

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  103. They had a PPV caliber card tonight and the fans didn't care about any match other than Ambrose/Wyatt.

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  104. They have more writers than active wrestlers. That sounds like a problem.

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  105. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:14 PM

    Oh yeah, it's because of wrestling that I'm a big fan of Rock in Roll today. The songs actually fit the product. Now, I don't really like rap songs overtaking WM, even if they're decent it just doesn't feel right.

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  106. The biggest problem with Raw these days is that the shows seem to be put together by somebody who literally just started watching wrestling. Everything goes out of its way to eschew common sense and conventional wisdom.

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  107. Finally the return of David Otunga! With Judge Judy as the special guest host (has that happened before? Seems like that's happened before. But it seems more appropriate now since she's well past being relevant).

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  108. Absolutely. They should have just used a track from Econoline Crush's 2008 comeback for the 2009 theme. Would have been a hell of a lot cheaper and a hell of a lot better.

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  109. She has her own slot machine. I swear aby one can have their own slot machine now.

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  110. Man people are really pissed off about this, I've seen grumbling about crap Raws, but man people aren't happy.

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  111. Cesaro gets himself and his moveset over and so they ****ing bury him with a
    half arsed turn and stripping him of the hightlight of his moveset. Then
    Ambrose gets over and they job him out to an exploding TV set. The Wyatt
    family get over (and improve in the ring) and they get jobbed out to
    Cena and split up after having a cup of coffee with Brian who they are were trying to strip of his heat.


    The company is now even more screwed that it was during the invasion when they pissed away tens of millions of dollars just to satsify Vince and 'taker's egos. I don't blaim the 26 writers, most of them haven't a clue what they are doing and judging by every interview I've read are living on 5-6 hours sleep a night and completely driven mental by the endless re-writes.

    I used to fly to the States each year for WM / the Hall of Fame and catch most of the live shows at the O2 in London; now the only thing I'm interested in is watching their freaking development territory. How messed up is that?

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  112. Raw made me sad. I am going to have to go watch Old Yeller just so I can cheer up.

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  113. That's an understatement lol. I'm seeing a bunch of new names I haven't seen comment here talking about it too. Ain't just the regular cast of people crapping on it.

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  114. It would be great if Ric Flair got his own slot machine and he ended up spending his entire Legend's contract on it.

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  115. I say The Road. That's a definite mood picker upper compared to tonight.

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  116. Good point, there's not a lot of names I've recognize or regulars.

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  117. It needs to include bonus rounds such as "whipping his cock out at the bar" for bonus spins, and "dropping an elbow on his jacket" for multipliers.

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  118. I have never before seen a wrestling show play this heavily in the heels' favor and offer NOTHING in the way of hope to the fans. A title changed, a PPV match changed, every babyface beaten and/or beaten up, new talent buried, smark-favorite talent buried, THREE babyfaces fired, and the top babyface in the company humiliated. This show was a middle finger and a fart in the face of EVERY conceivable fan group.

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  119. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:25 PM

    I feel like I should welcome them all.

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  120. So they have next Monday, which a lot of people won't watch because of the NT game, then the go-home show the week after to try to make something cohesive...We all know nothing happens on Smackdown.

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  121. And it needs to be in a bar where the bartenders are Scott Hall and Becky Bayless. That's a reality show waiting to happen.

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  122. I'm here all the time, I just rarely post unless I feel it necessary.

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  123. It almost brought me out of retirement. That's how bad it was.

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  124. Things looked so promising after this years' WM and the follow-up RAW. It looked like things would be new, fresh, exciting, and fun. They looked like they were going to stop fighting the audience that was borderline rioting from how bad the product was.


    And yet...here we are again. The crowd's aren't borderline rioting this time, though, because there's no one to get behind. Bryan might be back, but that's still an empty hope and he's not back full-time yet. So instead of growing frustrating and borderline rioting on the product, you have growing apathy. That's actually worse because now the fans are just not giving a shit rather than being passionate and speaking against the product.

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  125. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:27 PM

    Still, here's an honorary welcome.....to coping with a bad Raw.

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  126. Hey.. Roman Reigns won a hardfought DQ victory over the Big Show!!

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  127. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:28 PM

    It's just getting worse every single year.

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  128. Really, all wrestling has going for it right now is Japan and Botchamania.

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  129. Sorry this brings you out of the woodwork...it seems to have done the same thing for others.

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  130. And NXT. Separate where the wrestlers go when they leave and it's a great show on its own.

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  131. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:29 PM

    And Wrestling With Text, and Botched Spots, and NXT, and possibly Lucha Underground.

    ReplyDelete
  132. WWE's on-air slogan should be "Keeping Botchamania Alive".

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  133. Oh right, I forgot about NXT, which I used to watch until Rogers TOOK IT AWAY.

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  134. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:30 PM

    *Before each video is taken down due to copyright.

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  135. As rewarding as Bryan's big WM moment was, I just don't know that I have the energy to get behind him or someone else like we did last year. I just have no faith in the company and they haven't given us a reason to care about anything that's going on.

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  136. Ratings are at pre-Attitude era lows. It's not just us bitching for the heck of it.

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  137. Yeah, that's my thing. They have just burned their audience too many times.

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  138. Old Yeller watched RAW and said "do it, kid: pull the trigger."

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  139. So, the jobber faces Ziggler, Rowan and Ryback not only just stood there while Steph was doling out suspensions and eventually their 'firing', remember last week they were nowhere to be seen while Rollins was going to kill Edge.

    Terrible, terrible, terrible writing. And they wonder why guys can't grab the brass ring. Why should anyone care about these losers?

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  140. You know what I'm glad Rogers took away? That googly eyed space alien dork from their commercials bragging about their signal.

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  141. I say Street Law. Jeff Wincott movies are always a great mood lifter.

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  142. Well, that's what I'll probably do now that football season is over. But its the principle of the thing.

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  143. It's no longer a rebellious attitude in the audience. It's apathy. And THAT'S a big problem.

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  144. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:32 PM

    Marley and Me will give me tears of sadness rather than tears of disappointment.

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  145. I'm personally hoping for OSW Review to beat out Botchamania at this year's RSPW awards over at the mightygodking blog. They came in second last year. But they both have a legit threat with NXT getting more exposure.

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  146. Yeah. That guy creeped me out.

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  147. Alex Greenfield (former head writer for WWE) went into this on JR's podcast and he said outright that in WWE, everyone is writing for Vince and Vince only. Anything that interests/amuses him gets on the air, and all other stuff get cut regardless of how good the idea is. And Vince doesn't care about the undercard stories at all.

    It was a fascinating interview and well worth listening to. Greenfield spoke at length about the problems a writer faces in WWE and working with Vince and he pulled no punches.

    So yeah, the product basically cannot get any better until the day Vince kicks the bucket.

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  148. Oh I know, because I feel it too.

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  149. Exactly. What person gets fired and just takes it?

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  150. Fucking hell, Ziggler's post-show promo was just as woeful.

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  151. *Maffew then just moves the videos to Dailymotion because nothing ever gets removed from that site anyway.

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  152. Nothing, but the powers that be demand you have one. I would probably just retweet whatever causes Steph gloats about and suck HHH/Cena's dick.

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  153. I'll have to give that one a listen.

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  154. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:33 PM

    Yep, the moment Chicago died, you knew WWE was winning the war it never needed.

    ReplyDelete
  155. I was actually relieved to read a story saying there's no plans to bring Zayn up this year.

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  156. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:34 PM

    *yet.

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  157. Ha, now I have that song "The Night Chicago Died" in my head.

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  158. We've gone from begging him to leave NXT to begging for him to stay there.

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  159. So I guess we're not getting a RAW recap tonight, so here's my two word review:

    "Shit sandwich."

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  160. WWE doesn't have its own channel on there so he's safe.

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  161. It's decent, but Greenfield totally tries to make a name for himself by shitting on Vince too. And like all former writers, they never take blame for anything they did.

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  162. "You can't say that!"

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  163. Spinal Tap's album was much better than this show. Consider revising.

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  164. Normally I'd add Tercera Caida in there on the lucha side, but that was just canceled with no warning.

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  165. The return of the Little People's Court?!?!?

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  166. No kidding. The Smackdown ratings in particular are starting to make the 1999 and 2000 Thunder ratings look stellar.

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  167. The worst Raw theme of all time was the late '06-09 one. The first time I heard that abomination I nearly changed the channel.

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  168. It would have been better if the AVGN Shit Pickle showed up at random points during the show and said "Shit Pickle" ad nauseum.

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  169. So, I read a rumor today that the WWE has no idea who is winning the Rumble: http://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/2rfh2x/wwe_superstars_divided_on_who_should_win_the/

    ReplyDelete
  170. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:42 PM

    Same, keep him there as long as possible, have him go after the tag titles or something.

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  171. Wasn't just that: there *had to* have been a record number of people on the BoD who tapped out in disgust and quit watching, switched over to something (anything) else.

    ReplyDelete
  172. Lol here's a recap, titled "this show sucked and I hated it"

    http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2015/01/05/monday-night-raw-january-5-2015-this-show-sucked-and-i-hated-it/

    ReplyDelete
  173. WWE has no idea, full stop.

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  174. Wow, Tommy wasn't even that negative in his Heroes Of Wrestling review.

    ReplyDelete
  175. Is that the guy who nails all the ppv matches?

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  176. The fact that they REFUSE to ride Daniel Bryan's popularity speaks volumes.

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  177. I've stopped watching, simple as that. I'm looking to get New Japan World and I stick around the Network for NXT, but that's it.


    I don't expect it to be get any better until we all stop watching

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  178. No idea. I don't visit reddit often but came across it on another board.

    ReplyDelete
  179. And even then, I doubt they'll change much.

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  180. He must have a firm handshake or something...

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  181. I don't mean to play devil's advocate, but I can KIND OF understand where they're coming from. He's just coming off a major, year-long, nearly career ending injury. Great reactions or not, I'd be hesitant to immediately give him the jet pack back to the top, too.

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  182. Here's a thought, they want us gone. The average age of a WWE fan is like mid 40s. In spite of this, their target demographic is 8-13. They want to drive us away so all that is left are the kids. This way CENAWINSLOL is what the fans want. This way Ryback is suddenly cool. This way Big Show's turns actually matter.

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  183. It's just crazy that things got so bad so freaking fast. Post WM was so awesome. Bryan was champ, fans were stoked, shield was amazing. How could it get so messed up in such a short period of time. There is a lot of talent on that roster too. Really, really poor booking. I cancelled my Tivo when Ambrose became Wile E Coyote so I'm just reading recaps now but boy, that escalated quickly.

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  184. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:45 PM

    Vince just isn't a big fan of small guys.

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  185. That's granted, but you have basically no one else that you can be sure the fans will rally behind.

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  186. Sure, absolutely. In the short term, it'd be a good idea. Of course, during that short term, you'd have to work VERY HARD to elevate as many new guys as you can to the top. And they can't be arsed to do that.

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  187. That's actually understandable given the strong possibility that he'll get injured again thus screwing up their main event plans for the whole year for the second year in a row.

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  188. They are finally reaping what they have sowed since Brock left in 2004 of basically creating no new stars. The Attitude Era guys are on their last legs or retiring and they have NO ONE to go to that they haven't booked as a loser.

    ReplyDelete
  189. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:46 PM

    But, even 7 year olds know it's bad writing.

    ReplyDelete
  190. Well the funny thing is they say that's their target demo but that's NOT what they say when trying to get a TV deal....

    ReplyDelete
  191. If that was the case, they'd still get big reactions from the young crowd. They're not even getting that at this point.

    ReplyDelete
  192. I'm choosing to see this as a positive sign. Reigns has been penciled in as the winner for a year now and folks are just realizing that he might not be the guy, brother...(I still think he's winning it).

    ReplyDelete
  193. So instead, they'll find other ways to screw it up.

    ReplyDelete
  194. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©January 5, 2015 at 11:47 PM

    So they're gonna evaluate and challenge the same 15 guys who compete in the same 5-10 minute matches every week?

    ReplyDelete
  195. I just think it's bad business in the short-term. Putting Bryan in that spot again gives you some more time to develop other talents. However, this company can't do that, so....

    ReplyDelete
  196. I bet Bobby Lashley REALLY regrets walking out now.

    ReplyDelete

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