Rate RAW - 8/1/22

[Deleted]

I had the first two hours on in the background while I played Yakuza 0 (which I should've done much sooner because that game is amazing). I appreciate the attempt at making the US Title seem like it's worth a shit and booking matches with an explicit goal of facing the champ. I did not appreciate both women's matches, including the debut match for Io, ending in a DQ. Overall it seemed like a slight step up but there's still a long, long way to go.

[YAKMAN is ICHIBAN]

It's hard to rate for me. Ended up going with a 7. Seems like a good average rating for a competent wrestling show.

Everything seemed good and a lot less annoying than usual.

But I still have a hard time paying attention to anything WWE - maybe its the 3 hour run time, maybe it's a Pavlovian response to the main roster production style. It still was RAW, even if it dialed back some of its worst tendencies.

[Hypnosis]

7/10.  Weak ending, but I enjoyed mostly everything else, and it feels like there's a purpose with the segments and matches now.

[FALLOUT Goldashausen #BLM]

8. I don't know if it's just me but the three hours flew by. Quite a bit of action and WAY more picture-in-picture ads than the Raw at MSG. The commercial-free first hour helped quite a bit.

Great wrestling, good promos, still a ton of video packages (but that's okay for a Raw after a major PPV).

Good to see Tez, Ciampa and the "New Women's Order" getting a lot of screen time. Miz stood out as well.

Count me in as optimistic but not entirely sold. They'll have a TON of time to build to Clash so hopefully they'll utilize all three hours this well moving forward. Looking forward to how the U.S. Title match goes next week.

[ben:friendship frog]

Aug 2, 2022 5:38:12 GMT -5 @mrbonezone said:

Didn’t watch but it was the 1st time in a couple years I actually checked results as the show was happening so that’s something. It didn’t read all that compelling which is troubling as reset shows are incredibly simple to make seem exciting. That women’s match would have made me turn the show off 20 minutes for a lame DQ. I like Ciampa but it seemed like there was way too much Ciampa on the show.

It obviously depends on personal taste but as someone who hasn't watched much recently I really enjoyed it. I can see on paper it not looking mind-blowing but everything flowed really well, the first triple threat match in particular was great and I think Io/Bianca told a great story.
The Ciampa stuff is interesting though, I didn't get that at all from watching it, he was in two matches (as was AJ) and had a short promo. I think Bayley, Io & Dakota probably showed up the most throughout the night.

[canceled4truth]

8. Very good show, loved the storylines progressing throughout the night and there were no real large stretches of dead air. Also Mustafa Ali and Io Shirai on RAW makes me feel like Triple H has been copying my TEW save, but in a good way.

[Ishmeal Loves Kaseyhausen]

Aug 2, 2022 8:14:42 GMT -5 YAKMAN is ICHIBAN said:

It's hard to rate for me. Ended up going with a 7. Seems like a good average rating for a competent wrestling show.

Everything seemed good and a lot less annoying than usual.

But I still have a hard time paying attention to anything WWE - maybe its the 3 hour run time, maybe it's a Pavlovian response to the main roster production style. It still was RAW, even if it dialed back some of its worst tendencies.

That’s about where I’m at. The show was good. Just too damn long. 7 sounds fair

[Nr1Humanoid]

Would have given a 9 but the Bloodline's presence brings everything in life down 2 points.

[Jindrak Mark]

8. A solid show with every segment/match serving a purpose. That's not rocket science but when's the last time you could say that about a 3 hour Raw? Usually there's pointless 24/7 stuff or random matches that are happening for no discernible reason.

It seems like their main goal was to begin elevating the titles. The Women's title scene took up a large part of the show. The US title stuff got multiple matches/segments, a cool video package about the history of the title then promos from Ciampa and Lashley hyping their title match next week. The tag titles main evented and the match actually made sense. The Mysterios got big wins last week on Raw and at Summerslam so they deserved a title shot. It wasn't just one of those random title matches.

I liked how they teased a future solo push for Montez. Bayley's group getting credit for further injuring Becky was good. And they didn't try to just ignore that Becky and Edge were despicable heels. They both acknowledged it in their promos and basically apologized. Fans would have happily cheered them anyway but it's nice to narratively have them address things before going forward as faces.

Nothing groundbreaking. It's just basic logical stuff but it's basic stuff that Vince wasn't doing most of the time, probably because he was re-writing shows multiple times during the week and in the end half of it didn't make sense.

Even before the past 2 weeks, I think Raw has been fairly decent since Wrestlemania although this was still an upgrade. Smackdown is the show more in the need of a boost so hopefully there's more of this logical booking there and maybe a return/debut or two for them also.

[Hypnosis]

Aug 2, 2022 11:48:42 GMT -5 Jindrak Mark said:

Even before the past 2 weeks, I think Raw has been fairly decent since Wrestlemania although this was still an upgrade. Smackdown is the show more in the need of a boost so hopefully there's more of this logical booking there and maybe a return/debut or two for them also.

Hopefully the return of....Shotzi's tank!

[King Devitt]

Watched my first full Raw in ages.

Gonna go 7.

Was it long? Yeah. But everything had a purpose, plenty of storyline's moving forward from Summerslam, and them making the US Title feel important makes complete sense since there's no other male single's title on Raw for them to showcase with Roman being predominantly Smackdown having both world titles.

And hell, I'm one step closer to my Iyo vs. Asuka dream match that I'd given up on ever getting.

[Push R Truth]

i feel like it's going in the right direction

[xCompackx]

I say an 8. I think the length is always going to be a detriment so it's a question of "how do we maximize the extra time to showcase as much talent as possible" and last night was absolutely a showcase of talent. Fun episode.

[Deleted]

Aug 2, 2022 9:13:06 GMT -5 ben:friendship frog said:

Aug 2, 2022 5:38:12 GMT -5 @mrbonezone said:

Didn’t watch but it was the 1st time in a couple years I actually checked results as the show was happening so that’s something. It didn’t read all that compelling which is troubling as reset shows are incredibly simple to make seem exciting. That women’s match would have made me turn the show off 20 minutes for a lame DQ. I like Ciampa but it seemed like there was way too much Ciampa on the show.

It obviously depends on personal taste but as someone who hasn't watched much recently I really enjoyed it. I can see on paper it not looking mind-blowing but everything flowed really well, the first triple threat match in particular was great and I think Io/Bianca told a great story.
The Ciampa stuff is interesting though, I didn't get that at all from watching it, he was in two matches (as was AJ) and had a short promo. I think Bayley, Io & Dakota probably showed up the most throughout the night.

I was in the ER most of yesterday so I watched the show on my phone. I’d give it a 7 but it really didn’t feel all that different. If I didn’t know Vince was out I probably couldn’t tell it still feels the same with matches designed just to kill time only to have a crappy finish. Even the NXT women getting called up is something we’ve seen for years now with Vince in charge.

[King Devitt]

Oh, I also didn't get motion sickness from watching the show either. So yay for that.