03/05/2018 Monday Night Raw starring Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar - "The Roids for WrestleMania"

[Dark One]

I do now. It's their job to tell us these things. It's not the fans' responsibility to decipher every confusing thing they ever say.

WWE gets a lot of stuff egregiously wrong, but I can't imagine believing even they would think that a 98 day reign would be A LONGEST REIGN record.

[Droford]

Im assuming Bo lost his first name, Cole always calls him Dallas

[slik]

NO


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Vince McMahon Reportedly Wants To Bring Alberto Del Rio Back To WWE. <a href="https://t.co/PwsXFicQM7">https://t.co/PwsXFicQM7</a></p>&mdash; Brad Shepard 🤘🏻 (@TheBradShepard) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBradShepard/status/970803516053905408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2018</a></blockquote>
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[Droford]

VIVA DEL RIO

Maybe I can see him in a title match again at WM 35

[Emperor Smeat]

For someone rumored to be in the midst of a huge push, WWE has a really weird way of showing it for the Miz.

[Dark One]

Miz should probably go to Halloween parties as a drum.

[KIRA]

Miz should still be laid out from that curb stomp

[KIRA]

Won't change the fact Hiliary lost.

What?I don't give a fuck about that his music is shit. Makes me want to punch a child in the face

[DAMN iNATOR]

WWE gets a lot of stuff egregiously wrong, but I can't imagine believing even they would think that a 98 day reign would be A LONGEST REIGN record.

Well, I mean, TBF, Vince is what like 72, 73? And it's not like he's made the most logical sense in the past few years since he's been mainly behind-the-scenes.

[Emperor Smeat]

NO


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Vince McMahon Reportedly Wants To Bring Alberto Del Rio Back To WWE. <a href="https://t.co/PwsXFicQM7">https://t.co/PwsXFicQM7</a></p>&mdash; Brad Shepard 🤘🏻 (@TheBradShepard) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBradShepard/status/970803516053905408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2018</a></blockquote>
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I'd give it about 2 weeks before whatever their new plans with Del Rio fails or falls apart.

They already have Kalisto and Gran Metalik who should have been built into big stars for the Hispanic market but WWE's done a miserable job handling both guys.

[DAMN iNATOR]

Miz should probably go to Halloween parties as a drum.

Or just cause some Halloween havoc with his antics!

[Emperor Smeat]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We have 34 nights to figure out how to get you to boo Brock Lesnar. We might have him punch a baby. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RAW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RAW</a></p>&mdash; WWE Creative Humor (@WWECreative_ish) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWECreative_ish/status/970832128803041280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
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[KIRA]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We have 34 nights to figure out how to get you to boo Brock Lesnar. We might have him punch a baby. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RAW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RAW</a></p>&mdash; WWE Creative Humor (@WWECreative_ish) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWECreative_ish/status/970832128803041280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
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I'm all for Brock mauling a kid :y:

[Loose Cannon]

lot i thought Heyman didn't show up for a sec. USA started playing the Biggie/Tupac thing on my tv

[Droford]

OOOH

[Savio]

and he wrestled twice that year.

[Black Widow]

What?I don't give a fuck about that his music is shit. Makes me want to punch a child in the faceHe has some pretty good songs.

You probably like terrible artists too.

[Droford]

You hardly ever get to see the belt to realize how stupid it looks

[Droford]

Wait I thought Sable...

[Black Widow]

I'm all for Brock mauling a kid :y:Only if you get in a time machine and go back to you being a kid.

[rez]

was there any braun tonight?

[slik]

Good Heyman promo

[Dark One]

"Hot, competitive fingers"

:naughty:

[Dark One]

was there any braun tonight?

He beat a dude with a grand piano and double bass.

[Droford]

Paul Heyman is losing it just a bit...I have no idea what hes yapping about

[rez]

sweet

[slik]

THE BIG DOG

[Dark One]

"They're not asking for much... they're just asking for literally anyone other than me."

That said, I'm enjoying Roman actually getting to cut a loose promo and sounding like a real human being.

[KIRA]

He has some pretty good songs.

You probably like terrible artists too.

I'll have to try pretty hard to find worse than Kid Rock

and I dunno maybe its still not Kid Rock though.

[Frank Drebin]

These Heyman promos used to be gold. Now they throw him out there to yell and scream every week either solo or with Brock just standing there smiling because Brock can't cut a promo on his own for some reason. Heyman's promos are a lot of the same beats and verses. They're stale at this point because he's had to sell so many Brock matches.

[rez]

shrug. i'd rather see brock keep this title indefinitely. fake championship anyways

[Emperor Smeat]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">To recap:<br>Brock Lesnar is a bitch.<br>The WWE Universal Title is a bitch.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RAW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RAW</a></p>&mdash; WWE Creative Humor (@WWECreative_ish) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWECreative_ish/status/970874804336320515?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
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[rez]

:shifty: wait wut... kid rock talk? last thing he did of any significance was the joe dirt movie

[DAMN iNATOR]

These Heyman promos used to be gold. Now they throw him out there to yell and scream every week either solo or with Brock just standing there smiling because Brock can't cut a promo on his own for some reason. Heyman's promos are a lot of the same beats and verses. They're stale at this point because he's had to sell so many Brock matches.

v_YTz5c8M_0

Play that and you'll SEE why he doesn't cut his own promos.

[Tom Guycott]

:eek: WWE didn't go with the really lazy way to determine a PPV title match. Then again, Revival still have a few weeks left to get a win over The Bar to do the lazy excuse for a title match at Mania.

I may be in the minority here, but I think all the RAW tag teams are going to job to The Bar, and then "surprise" at WrestleMania they face a called up Authors of Pain or, more likely, a debuting War Machine to get knocked off the throne.

[Tom Guycott]

Itd be funny if we finally get Heel John Cena and everyone ends up being "meh"

Not so much "funny" haha as "funny" they totally dropped the boat on that one by pulling that trigger about a decade too late to matter.

[Droford]

:shifty: wait wut... kid rock talk? last thing he did of any significance was the joe dirt movie

Kid Rock is singing the Wrestlemania theme song..again

[Tom Guycott]

Bayley def going to turn heel and become SWITCHBLADE Bayley and steal Jay White's NJPW gimmick.

I would be all for this.

[Black Widow]

:shifty: wait wut... kid rock talk? last thing he did of any significance was the joe dirt movie
Still more significant than anything you'll ever do.

[Simple Fan]

Play that and you'll SEE why he doesn't cut his own promos.

That was amazing though. He even sold Vince as God. To bad everything went to shit later.

[Anybody Thrilla]

Honestly, that was a pretty great Raw.

[Fignuts]

Yeah, seemed pretty tight.

[Anybody Thrilla]

Come on now, surely the power structure of Raw can't be that complicated.

You've got Vince McMahon, who is chairman of the board and he answers to nobody but can also be fired by the board and the COO.

Then you've got the COO, which is Triple H, who answers to the board, the Chairman, the Commissioner and the General Manager but can fire the General Manager and the Chairman and presumably, the Commissioner.

Then you've got the Commissioner, which is Stephanie McMahon, she oversees the General Manager, but is also answerable to the General Manager. She doesn't answer to the COO because she is also the COO, which means she can fire and be fired by the Chairman and can fire herself as Commissioner.

Then you've got the General Manager, Kurt Angle, who can book anyone in any type of match they like but can also be fired by everyone and answers directly to the Commissioner, the COO, the board and the Chairman simultaneously but also has full decision making autonomy on hiring and firing.

So, you basically have four layers of power that are all answer to and are answerable to each and oh shit, I've just solved quantum entanglement...

This could be the greatest post in the history of our sport.

[Frank Drebin]

Honestly, that was a pretty great Raw.

Yeah, seemed pretty tight.

It was. This close to WM, I think I'm expecting a little more out of these though. I dunno if I'm waiting for a surprise or a "moment" to sell WM.

And yeah, damninator, I get why Brock can't cut lengthy solo promos, but why he can't do 15% of one with Heyman doing the rest is silly. Heyman can't sell every single Brock match on his own. I know Brock can't be at every show, but there has to be another way to do it.

[Anybody Thrilla]

I think that they did a good job of establishing direction. The moments should be coming fast and furious now, the first probably being Roman and Brock's face-to-face next week.

[slik]

I don't have any complaints about RAW. Things moved in the right direction.
SD on the other hand has been a mess lately.


I could see WM's final card looking something like

Braun vs Brock vs Roman
Finn vs Rollins vs Miz
Ronda/Kurt vs Steph/HHH
Alexa vs Nia
Asuka vs Charlotte
Andre Battle Royal
Sasha vs Bayley
Cruiserweights Title Final
AJ vs Nakamura
Cena vs Undertaker

I'm not really sure what they are doing with The Bar on the RAW side....meanwhile on the SD side of things I'd like to see the Uso's finally get their WM match...and IDK what they'll do with these guys, a ladder match for the U.S. belt or Andre Battle Royal participants maybe (Orton, Roode, Dolph, Corbin, Sami, KO, Jinder) ?

[Anybody Thrilla]

That actually sounds pretty good.

[Emperor Smeat]

I'm not really sure what they are doing with The Bar on the RAW side....meanwhile on the SD side of things I'd like to see the Uso's finally get their WM match...and IDK what they'll do with these guys, a ladder match for the U.S. belt or Andre Battle Royal participants maybe (Orton, Roode, Dolph, Corbin, Sami, KO, Jinder) ?

The Bar vs Mystery Team is currently rumored for the RAW tag titles.

Doesn't seem like its going to be a current team from NXT since it was also rumored this mystery team hasn't been formed yet.

[Anybody Thrilla]

Damn, that's SUPER mysterious.

[slik]

Braun and his new tag partner, J-E-Double F J-A-Double R-E-Double T

[Innovator]

The Bar vs Mystery Team is currently rumored for the RAW tag titles.

Doesn't seem like its going to be a current team from NXT since it was also rumored this mystery team hasn't been formed yet.

Sooo War Machine skips NXT?

[Innovator]

Or the father son team of Braun and Hillbilly Jim

[slik]

Braunbilly

[Emperor Smeat]

Sooo War Machine skips NXT?

I'd be really surprised considering everyone not named AJ Styles has had some sort of stint in NXT after the Sin Cara debacle. Even Triple H's most prized signing, Adam Cole, got the NXT treatment.

All depends on what WWE and PWI meant by “not currently a team” since it could just be two NXT stars randomly put together or something like a War Machine that are an established team but not in the WWE/NXT.

[Lock Jaw]

Why is Adam Cole Triple H's "most prized signing"?

He doesn't seem very special

[Black Widow]

Fan's have to lower their standards and tell themselves something is much better than it is.

[Fignuts]

Well, they didn't hang any minorities, so of course it's not going to be your cup of tea.

[Emperor Smeat]

Why is Adam Cole Triple H's "most prized signing"?

He doesn't seem very special
He was one of the biggest stars in the indies and supposedly someone Triple H spent years trying to get for NXT since he wanted Cole a lot. Triple H going after several other ROH stars was part of his plan to lure Cole away once he became a free agent again.

Every other big indie star Triple H wanted was a lot easier or quicker to get a deal done.

[Droford]

The Bar vs Mystery Team is currently rumored for the RAW tag titles.

Doesn't seem like its going to be a current team from NXT since it was also rumored this mystery team hasn't been formed yet.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr">Psssst.... <a href="https://t.co/E75Nppyz45">pic.twitter.com/E75Nppyz45</a></p>&mdash; Bubba Ray Dudley (@bullyray5150) <a href="https://twitter.com/bullyray5150/status/971094440201932801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
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[Droford]

Braun and his new tag partner, J-E-Double F J-A-Double R-E-Double T

Elias and Jeff Jarrett

[Emperor Smeat]

Whatever mainstream interest WWE was hoping would translate into viewers because of Ronda hasn't happened at all. 2nd week in a row her appearance didn't boost the numbers and instead resulted in an overall decline. Only thing that has been stable is RAW having the top spots for demo rankings.

Monday’s Raw drew an average of 3,099,000 viewers, down from last week’s 3,180,000 viewers ...

This time last year, the March 6, 2017 Raw drew 3,216,000 viewers. The March 7, 2016 Raw drew 3,551,000 viewers.

Hourly breakdown:

8PM: 3,302,000
9PM: 3,267,000
10PM: 2,729,000

All three hours were the highest rated show on cable in the 18-49 demo and beat both CBS and FOX programming in that demo, putting it behind only ABC and NBC.

The second-to-third hour drop was 16.5 percent, which is the fourth biggest single hour drop in the show's history.

Ronda Rousey being in the first segment probably hurt the overall number since if people were turning in for her, they would have left 15 minutes in. Still, this was among the lower rated shows since football season ended, and there is no competition that you could point to as a primary reason.

The show didn't really promote anything for the third hour past Paul Heyman addressing Roman Reigns' remarks from the previous week.

[Black Widow]

Well, they didn't hang any minorities, so of course it's not going to be your cup of tea.Yeah has nothing to do with 98% of the roster being generic as Hell.