Rate the RAW!: 4/8/2024

[GOTHIC CHARISMA 🧊 🥶❄️FURY]

Apr 8, 2024 22:21:11 GMT -5 Chiral said:

Apr 8, 2024 22:12:35 GMT -5 GOTHIC CHARISMA 🧊 🥶❄️FURY said:

completely fair but also wondering, did you watch night 2 last night?

I watched the two world title matches, Seth/Drew I thought was mostly finisher spam which was fine, just didn't really get anything new out of that + a cash in, Reigns/Cody was some super fun schmozz with such a nice ending.

gotcha okay, i'm also not gonna do the whole "oh erm actually did you watch this" thing because that doesn't apply here and i know if i was asked if i watched a show in response to a rating/review of a show, i'd assume that so please don't think that!

raw is just rough most of the time, especially for those of us myself included who are used to dynamite. if you haven't watched raw in a long time, it's still not going to be as good as potentially could be back in the day because of something all of us who have fun watching it every week know all too well, HHH's favorite thing in the world now is heatless middle chunks of shows that drag everything else down. his favorite thing used to be having ultra boring no heat women's tag team matches that he refused to add story to but that has changed. tonight is one of the bigger examples of what raw's issues are but also show why the product is so hot right now for some people. the rest of us as well.

everything bookending these way too long heatless matches is the stuff that most people are coming back to the product for. rock doing his thing, judgment day/truth stuff, rhea, etc. that's why the product is super hot but the reason the rest of us who watch a ton of wrestling are liking it more is stuff like bayley/iyo, the triple threat at stand and deliver and to some degree the US championship match too. there's not as big of a divide now between watching the big WWE or big AEW ppvs now, you're probably going to find some similar and great matches workrate wise in both. especially that bayley/iyo match, that to me is the best example of how wwe has changed and why i dig it a lot more than i thought i could again. all of that was built on smackdown where they don't have to stretch out 3 hours and hhh isn't creative enough to properly fill 3 hours of raw.

there used to be this malaise that lingered around the entirety of all the shows and a big part of that was roman's whole deal but we have variety now. some fantastic matches, stories actually progressing, people you could squint and see as future main eventers based on talent and not just what vince/hhh thought a body should look like. it's not going to change overnight and tonight was very heavy on the hhh ball fondling but the crowd didn't turn on it because the entire time you were gone from the WWE weekly shows and vince was still around, holy shit was it some of the worst TV ever and this is basically prestige television in comparison. 

[Doo Doo is Worse Than WCW 2000]

First hour was an 8/10 IMO, but it ended up being a 7 overall, so still good. Ilja vs. Nakamura was a pleasant surprise, that was the highlight for me.

[Denny Zen]

Apr 8, 2024 22:08:26 GMT -5 Chiral said:

Pretty disappointed honestly. For all the hype I heard while I wasn't watching, I thought WWE would be like incredibly improved, but that felt so same-y. It's definitely better don't get me wrong, like camera work and wrestlers having more freedom, it's clearly a hot AF product with the tons of people in the crowd but...it felt like a lot of the same folks doing the same things as before, there wasn't really any story hook for next week, the last hour was super boring, bleh. It was the Raw after Mania, and it felt like a random Raw before Over the Limit. I'm bummed, not gonna lie.

Also I get it completely from a branding standpoint to want to hype up that Vince is gone now but oh my god I was sick of them blowing Triple H in promos and video packages 20 years ago so that being a regular thing moving forward is very annoying for me lol.

Pretty much my thoughts exactly. Mania Night 2 was quite good and it was awesome to see Cody win the big one.

I probably won’t be watching any WWE content again until Summerslam.

[theironyuppie]

7. Cena as the pay-off to Truth's delusions was a fun moment, Chelsea tormenting all three GMs was welcome (and the crowd was happy to see her on Raw again), Drew's growing rage was great, using both NXT champs was a good idea, but the opening Cody bit went too far over the thin line between affecting and schmaltzy.

[schizo]

10

Had a blast

[Timeless Hayterade]

7/10 is fair.

[Zone Was Wrong]

I was semi enjoying the first 1 1/2 to 2 hours. It's the same thing that kills me every time I try and get back into WWE through Raw. I get to almost the 2 hour mark and quickly lose interest. I actually enjoyed the opening segment, though it could have been HEAVILY edited down. The backstage stuff and the 6 man were a blast. But the other tag killed me. I'll go with a 6

Probably sticking mostly to NXT and AEW for now still. Looking forward to some hype ass matches on Dynamite and whatever bat shit insanity Gacy does on NXT.

[Doo Doo is Worse Than WCW 2000]

Apr 9, 2024 0:51:14 GMT -5 Zone Was Wrong said:

I was semi enjoying the first 1 1/2 to 2 hours. It's the same thing that kills me every time I try and get back into WWE through Raw. I get to almost the 2 hour mark and quickly lose interest. I actually enjoyed the opening segment, though it could have been HEAVILY edited down. The backstage stuff and the 6 man were a blast. But the other tag killed me. I'll go with a 6

Probably sticking mostly to NXT and AEW for now still. Looking forward to some hype ass matches on Dynamite and whatever bat shit insanity Gacy does on NXT.

Carefree Beach Life Gritizen or GOTHIC CHARISMA 🧊 🥶❄️FURY will be able to put it in a much better way than I can, but I think WWE's biggest problem is that the wrestling (like the tag match) still feels like it's only there to fill time.

[King Devitt]

I enjoyed the first half, the opening segment was long, but I was entertained.

Ilja?!! Holy f*** I marked out. Highlight of the night for me.

Cena's usage was amusing, but the second half lost me even with the ability to fast forward.

I long for the day Punk isn't on my screen anywhere.

Decent enough show, Dragunov being there bumps it up greatly, so a 7 seems fair.

[Doo Doo is Worse Than WCW 2000]

Apr 9, 2024 0:59:10 GMT -5 King Devitt said:

I enjoyed the first half, the opening segment was long, but I was entertained.

Ilja?!! Holy f*** I marked out. Highlight of the night for me.

Cena's usage was amusing, but the second half lost me even with the ability to fast forward.

I long for the day Punk isn't on my screen anywhere.

Decent enough show, Dragunov being there bumps it up greatly, so a 7 seems fair.

Loved how over Ilja was, too. Let the guy do what he does in the ring and I think he's going to be a star.

[Bo Rida]

Apr 8, 2024 22:32:32 GMT -5 GOTHIC CHARISMA 🧊 🥶❄️FURY said:

Apr 8, 2024 22:21:11 GMT -5 Chiral said:

I watched the two world title matches, Seth/Drew I thought was mostly finisher spam which was fine, just didn't really get anything new out of that + a cash in, Reigns/Cody was some super fun schmozz with such a nice ending.

gotcha okay, i'm also not gonna do the whole "oh erm actually did you watch this" thing because that doesn't apply here and i know if i was asked if i watched a show in response to a rating/review of a show, i'd assume that so please don't think that!

raw is just rough most of the time, especially for those of us myself included who are used to dynamite. if you haven't watched raw in a long time, it's still not going to be as good as potentially could be back in the day because of something all of us who have fun watching it every week know all too well, HHH's favorite thing in the world now is heatless middle chunks of shows that drag everything else down. his favorite thing used to be having ultra boring no heat women's tag team matches that he refused to add story to but that has changed. tonight is one of the bigger examples of what raw's issues are but also show why the product is so hot right now for some people. the rest of us as well.

everything bookending these way too long heatless matches is the stuff that most people are coming back to the product for. rock doing his thing, judgment day/truth stuff, rhea, etc. that's why the product is super hot but the reason the rest of us who watch a ton of wrestling are liking it more is stuff like bayley/iyo, the triple threat at stand and deliver and to some degree the US championship match too. there's not as big of a divide now between watching the big WWE or big AEW ppvs now, you're probably going to find some similar and great matches workrate wise in both. especially that bayley/iyo match, that to me is the best example of how wwe has changed and why i dig it a lot more than i thought i could again. all of that was built on smackdown where they don't have to stretch out 3 hours and hhh isn't creative enough to properly fill 3 hours of raw.

there used to be this malaise that lingered around the entirety of all the shows and a big part of that was roman's whole deal but we have variety now. some fantastic matches, stories actually progressing, people you could squint and see as future main eventers based on talent and not just what vince/hhh thought a body should look like. it's not going to change overnight and tonight was very heavy on the hhh ball fondling but the crowd didn't turn on it because the entire time you were gone from the WWE weekly shows and vince was still around, holy shit was it some of the worst TV ever and this is basically prestige television in comparison. 

I've long been confused about why wwe is much more popular these days with many of the same old faults but that's the best explanation I've seen.
Explains why I often see people say raw was really boring 3/10 and someone else giving a 10 based mostly on one segment.

It does make me wonder if things will be held to a higher standard as the post Vince honeymoon period wears off. Better shows but that's taken for granted again.

[King Devitt]

Apr 9, 2024 1:05:35 GMT -5 Doo Doo is Worse Than WCW 2000 said:

Apr 9, 2024 0:59:10 GMT -5 King Devitt said:

I enjoyed the first half, the opening segment was long, but I was entertained.

Ilja?!! Holy f*** I marked out. Highlight of the night for me.

Cena's usage was amusing, but the second half lost me even with the ability to fast forward.

I long for the day Punk isn't on my screen anywhere.

Decent enough show, Dragunov being there bumps it up greatly, so a 7 seems fair.

Loved how over Ilja was, too. Let the guy do what he does in the ring and I think he's going to be a star.

The pop he got when his music hit and name hit the lower third tron warmed my cold heart. I had to watch it back because the first time I was losing my mind in happiness.

And then hearing the "ILJA! ILJA!" chants throughout the match made me even happier. He's got charisma for dayyyys, and the talent to back it up. They play their cards right he's gonna be a big deal, and with Vince gone I'm hopeful he'll actually get a fair shot and won't be treated poorly.

[GOTHIC CHARISMA 🧊 🥶❄️FURY]

Apr 9, 2024 1:22:20 GMT -5 Bo Rida said:

Apr 8, 2024 22:32:32 GMT -5 GOTHIC CHARISMA 🧊 🥶❄️FURY said:

gotcha okay, i'm also not gonna do the whole "oh erm actually did you watch this" thing because that doesn't apply here and i know if i was asked if i watched a show in response to a rating/review of a show, i'd assume that so please don't think that!

raw is just rough most of the time, especially for those of us myself included who are used to dynamite. if you haven't watched raw in a long time, it's still not going to be as good as potentially could be back in the day because of something all of us who have fun watching it every week know all too well, HHH's favorite thing in the world now is heatless middle chunks of shows that drag everything else down. his favorite thing used to be having ultra boring no heat women's tag team matches that he refused to add story to but that has changed. tonight is one of the bigger examples of what raw's issues are but also show why the product is so hot right now for some people. the rest of us as well.

everything bookending these way too long heatless matches is the stuff that most people are coming back to the product for. rock doing his thing, judgment day/truth stuff, rhea, etc. that's why the product is super hot but the reason the rest of us who watch a ton of wrestling are liking it more is stuff like bayley/iyo, the triple threat at stand and deliver and to some degree the US championship match too. there's not as big of a divide now between watching the big WWE or big AEW ppvs now, you're probably going to find some similar and great matches workrate wise in both. especially that bayley/iyo match, that to me is the best example of how wwe has changed and why i dig it a lot more than i thought i could again. all of that was built on smackdown where they don't have to stretch out 3 hours and hhh isn't creative enough to properly fill 3 hours of raw.

there used to be this malaise that lingered around the entirety of all the shows and a big part of that was roman's whole deal but we have variety now. some fantastic matches, stories actually progressing, people you could squint and see as future main eventers based on talent and not just what vince/hhh thought a body should look like. it's not going to change overnight and tonight was very heavy on the hhh ball fondling but the crowd didn't turn on it because the entire time you were gone from the WWE weekly shows and vince was still around, holy shit was it some of the worst TV ever and this is basically prestige television in comparison. 

I've long been confused about why wwe is much more popular these days with many of the same old faults but that's the best explanation I've seen.
Explains why I often see people say raw was really boring 3/10 and someone else giving a 10 based mostly on one segment.

It does make me wonder if things will be held to a higher standard as the post Vince honeymoon period wears off. Better shows but that's taken for granted again.

thank you!

there’s just different types of things that draw people to these weekly shows now and not to always make it wwe/aew but also explains why a lot of people would prefer aew to raw and the other way around. with dynamite and to a lesser degree collision (rampage still matters but for comparison’s sake) you do not know what match is going to take up the most time.

one week it could be the women’s title now that the division is getting better. another week it could be a big six man match. then it’ll be a backstage segment, you have that variety and I don’t think people realize that they really dig that until you point it out and it’s like the lightbulb goes off. I like that a lot and it’s why I don’t miss dynamite mostly ever but also why it may not get as many viewers, a lot of wrestling fans wanna see the big moment or bits and pieces leading to an epic story. great stories like we saw last night!

dynamite still has bits and pieces leading to a big story but I feel like there is less emphasis on these things, which is fair because the two shows have completely different mindsets. they’re both focused on putting on the best show possible on broadway, wwe is doing an action drama while aew is doing a romance musical. they’re both legit and bring in different types of people unless you have someone who just digs it all (hi!) but most people will be confused and not get what the hubbub is about the other.

[Lizuka #BLM]

Apr 9, 2024 1:26:46 GMT -5 King Devitt said:

Apr 9, 2024 1:05:35 GMT -5 Doo Doo is Worse Than WCW 2000 said:

Loved how over Ilja was, too. Let the guy do what he does in the ring and I think he's going to be a star.

The pop he got when his music hit and name hit the lower third tron warmed my cold heart. I had to watch it back because the first time I was losing my mind in happiness.

And then hearing the "ILJA! ILJA!" chants throughout the match made me even happier. He's got charisma for dayyyys, and the talent to back it up. They play their cards right he's gonna be a big deal, and with Vince gone I'm hopeful he'll actually get a fair shot and won't be treated poorly.

Supposedly they’re wanting to give him a similar push to Gunther so I could see him getting a long, long US title reign at some point.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Apr 8, 2024 22:08:26 GMT -5 Chiral said:

Pretty disappointed honestly. For all the hype I heard while I wasn't watching, I thought WWE would be like incredibly improved, but that felt so same-y. It's definitely better don't get me wrong, like camera work and wrestlers having more freedom, it's clearly a hot AF product with the tons of people in the crowd but...it felt like a lot of the same folks doing the same things as before, there wasn't really any story hook for next week, the last hour was super boring, bleh. It was the Raw after Mania, and it felt like a random Raw before Over the Limit. I'm bummed, not gonna lie.

Also I get it completely from a branding standpoint to want to hype up that Vince is gone now but oh my god I was sick of them blowing Triple H in promos and video packages 20 years ago so that being a regular thing moving forward is very annoying for me lol.

For me, the first hour was cool for Cody, second had some fun debuts, but this show being three hours is just a god awful slog, they very rarely make all three hours work, there's a death died somewhere, and in this case it was hour three

Imperium/SamiGable's match going fifteen minutes too long for no reason was just... a slog. It wasn't even a bad match it was just "Why has this gone on THIS long? I get to build up Gable a bit after... all that shit, but it just felt like they could've done that in half the time

Jade's squash took me back to AEW days where everyone complained about her squashes and now it's two years later and she's doing the same thing in a different company after HHH assured us she was "Not properly trained" elsewhere and nothing's changed, if anything she's backpedaled lol

Fatal Four Way was fine, Drew's promo was great, action was great but the crowd was definitely exhausted and Mania hangover was setting in. Jey vs Priest is a fine first match for Priest, I just can't look at Punk now without thinking about the possibilities of Wednesday though, lol

[Lizuka #BLM]

I think a big part of the issue with the show was just like... Other than the Cody stuff and the Cena cameo nothing really felt like a big deal or special at all. Sheamus returning is cool, but Ilja and Roxanne seemed to just be one-off cameos and they were already teasing Uncle Howdy before this so that making it into the show proper felt just kind of, "Okay, sure." This could've been the Raw after Backlash and nothing would've really changed.

[King Devitt]

Apr 9, 2024 1:45:20 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Apr 9, 2024 1:26:46 GMT -5 King Devitt said:

The pop he got when his music hit and name hit the lower third tron warmed my cold heart. I had to watch it back because the first time I was losing my mind in happiness.

And then hearing the "ILJA! ILJA!" chants throughout the match made me even happier. He's got charisma for dayyyys, and the talent to back it up. They play their cards right he's gonna be a big deal, and with Vince gone I'm hopeful he'll actually get a fair shot and won't be treated poorly.

Supposedly they’re wanting to give him a similar push to Gunther so I could see him getting a long, long US title reign at some point.

Fan.Tas.Tic.

Dude is gonna be soooooo over if they get behind him.

............

..................

........................



I said what I said.

[J is Justice]

8.

[FALLOUT Goldashausen #BLM]

I really feel like this is a 6.5 show but, unlike Mania, I'll round down to 6.

As many others have said, thank GOODNESS this was not like last year. But in the pantheon of "Raw After Mania" shows, this is fairly average.

Maybe it's no longer worth the lofty expectations we used to set as fans, especially considering we'll see far less of the one-night title reigns and bait-and-switch BS of the previous regime.

In terms of debuts, it was fine. Dragunov had a pretty fun match. FALLOUT ROXANNE had a match. Interesting to see what happens with these apparent Bo Dallas teasers. And I have a feeling we'll be seeing more debuts Friday (Jacob and Tama?)

Otherwise, average stuff in terms of matches highlighted by a great opening segment that ran the gamut of emotions. A very emotional video package, that, if it was actually made for personal use, was just so good. It's cool to see that rapport between backstage production and talent.

The Rock portion was indeed awkward live but has really grown on me since. I wonder if the "break my heart again" had something to do with the "theft" of the Mania main event or something involving AEW. I've seen fan theories saying the item Rock handed Cody was MJF's ring. I don't think it's that clever, but you never know. Alvarez and Meltzer described it as a "mystery angle" akin to the Devil/MJF storyline in its own right.

...well, I guess we'll actually have to see where this goes!

[kingofthings]

I'm a grump but even before The Rock hit the ring at the "start" of the show my eyes started to roll. The Cody stuff started to drift in to the overkill category for me. I mean, that video they played? Cringe. Cody's attempt to fake cry at certain points too whilst it played? Come on.

I get it, it's his moment, but after the post WM scenes playing out like they did (which was awesome and I loved!); an intro from the new boss to open post-Mania Raw and a brief thank you to the fans promo should've been enough. Use as a platform to kick off an awesome new feud and we're off to the races.

Hopefully the saccharine levels will deplete and it's moving forwards from next week.