RAW March 23

[slik]

RAW

[rez]

Starting RAW off with a spectacular video package to pump us up for a taped PPV. INJECT THIS SHIT STRAIGHT INTO MY VEINS

[Droford]

Reusing video packages lol

[Droford]

They put up a black curtain around the ring

[slik]

they moved the hard cam, good

[Emperor Smeat]

Yeah took them long enough to realize the way they were presenting empty shows was way more awkward than it should have been.

[Evil Vito]

LMFAO more classic matches. They’re not even trying. Again.

[Emperor Smeat]

:| Already starting with a lengthy match replay to eat up time.

Wikipedia says this Triple Threat match for the WWE World title was around 22 minutes long so probably nothing new is happening till after 8:45.

They had like 2 weeks to tape a bunch of segments and stuff to help out Mania's dire build but took the easy way out every time instead.

[slik]

Literally no reason after WM to have a Network subscription for me

https://i.postimg.cc/1tMLZH4n/Screenshot-2020-03-23-at-6-14-52-PM.png

[Evil Vito]

Lol my subscription just expired.

[Droford]

Back when the curbstomp was a curbstomp

[Emperor Smeat]

If I had to guess, that "limited" access for the Network is probably going to last for as long as NFL and NBA did for their own streaming services.

Only difference is WWE trying to squeeze out money and artificially boost their Network numbers by not including Mania.

[Droford]

New tag title match at Mania Profits vs Andrade/Garza

No US title match I guess

[Emperor Smeat]

WWE adding epic music for the recap of last week's Taker-Styles contract signing segment made it feel way less lame than it was in reality.

[slik]

This show sucks

[Droford]

Boneyard match

https://cdn.smehost.net/ozzycom-uslegacyprod/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/181116_ozzysboneyard_525px.jpg

[slik]

Is a boneyard the same thing as a graveyard?

[rez]

:shifty: da fuq. why the hell is AJ always involved in family matters? I expect Joe or Angle to come out.

[Emperor Smeat]

:| Boneyard match

The build for this feud somehow keeps getting worse each week.

[rez]

Is a boneyard the same thing as a graveyard?

I had to google search if there was such a thing as a boneyard match..I'm suspecting that's the case... :?:

[erickman]

wonder where they will film that boneyard match, with good camera work that match might not be too bad. that will look like the hardys impact stuff.

[slik]

Commentary thoughts

Tom Phillips/Byron Saxton don't need Lawler
Michael Cole was good by himself on SD

[Emperor Smeat]

:lol: at Garza's tag attempts

[slik]

RIP trunks era of Ricochet

[Emperor Smeat]

This tag match turned into a mess very quickly

[Droford]

I had to google search if there was such a thing as a boneyard match..I'm suspecting that's the case... :?:

<iframe width="932" height="524" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-eGKis5QERs" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[rez]

Man. I didn't even remember that

[Emperor Smeat]

Tag team match was pretty good overall. Probably could have been a few minutes shorter based on that ending but was enjoyable either way.

[Emperor Smeat]

Out of everyone possible from NXT they could have called for emergency help, WWE decided to pick the two most random people possible.

[Emperor Smeat]

The lights being dimmed for this in-ring interview segment is a huge improvement compared to what they were doing before.

Baszler's promo and this segment itself was pretty terrible though.

[slik]

Aleister comes across well in this environment

[xrodmuc316]

Wonder if ESPN had to pay Vince to air the 3 Manias they are showing.

[Emperor Smeat]

Not sure who got the shorter end of the stick, Aleister Black or Bobby Lashley for Mania.

Black went from a potential contender for Lesnar's title at Mania to being just a throw-away in a Styles feud because of Taker to being put in a random match against Lashley.

Lashley went from a high profile (and terrible) cheating relationship angle with Lana & Rusev to being in a decent mini-feud with Ricochet to doing nothing of note for a few weeks to getting put in a random match against Black.

[slik]

I don't want to relive Charlotte beating Asuka...

[Emperor Smeat]

:| Another past match being re-aired to simply eat up time.

Guess on the bright side at least WWE decided to re-air more than one past match tonight and both were not that overly long to begin with.

[Droford]

Wonder if ESPN had to pay Vince to air the 3 Manias they are showing.

Only thing I heard was Vince was asking way more money than UFC got for the ESPN+ deal

[slik]

I turned RAW off

#TeamAsuka

[Emperor Smeat]

Besides WWE dropping the ball big time with Asuka and Nakamura at Mania 34, Asuka got the double whammy of quickly sliding into irrelevance for almost the rest of 2018 because of WWE's terrible booking and them going all in on Ronda Rousey instead.

[slik]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Some fans may criticize the choice to have Charlotte end Asuka's streak, but at least Charlotte had a lengthy reign and... What? She lost the title at the very next Smackdown? Ew. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MondayNightRAW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MondayNightRAW</a></p>&mdash; Matt Maybray (@MattMaybray) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattMaybray/status/1242282159567712257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Emperor Smeat]

Can totally see Charlotte beat Rhea Ripley for the NXT title at Mania mainly because of the desperation to boost NXT's viewership and WWE once again having her hog the spotlight and title reigns.

[rez]

hope dynamite doesn't get cancelled..we need an actual good wrestling product in our lives.

[Emperor Smeat]

Compared to last week's RAW, tonight's episode was better but these empty arena shows are still barely worth watching.

[Droford]

Raw should just go to 2 hours and fill the 3rd hour with WWE from the vault or something

[xrodmuc316]

Only thing I heard was Vince was asking way more money than UFC got for the ESPN+ deal

That isn't too surprising, UFC only got $150 Million a year to broadcast 15 live cards.

Not sure how that works with their bigger cards, but I could see Vince wanting to use Mania to get a higher flat fee for every PPV.

Edit: Reading further those 15 do not include the big PPVs, but are still getting $10 million per show. If Vince wants that model, he could probably sell 10 shows then have the big 4 be standard PPV purchased through ESPN.

Still not sure how economically viable that would be.