Snitsky back to get that Ron Simmons spot.

I am 100000% for that!

I want Kane to lose his next Mayoral Election just so Snitsky can tell Kane that it wasn't his fault!

Nice little tv banger from Otis and Shinsuke tonight. Feel like they’re putting out at least one of these a week on Raw now.

A much different time from when I used to argue Raw was the worst show on television.

Raw is too long, but they always try to slip some good bell-to-bell action in there. They’re starting to line up their ducks story-wise too. It’ll be interesting to see if it pays off or if the 3 hrs is just too much.

Dude your wrestling takes anger me so much.

This week it was Ivar vs Miz.

Ivar has been having great matches on raw for a little while now. I was at the show where he wrestled Kofi and it was fantastic.

yeah not to make light of someone's misfortune but erik being out for six months due to surgery is the best thing to happen to ivar's career

guy can move freakishly well and is having some absolute scorchers lately that he'd never have been given the room for while he was stuck jobbing with the viking raiders tbh

particularly while the tag belts are still unified and both shows' tag divisions are effectively pointless

i am also glad to see the miz getting another push. i hope he's the one to break gunther's reign

nice li'l achievement award for him, like rey's recent US title run

he doesn't need the belt or the accolade, and he doesn't need to have a super long reign or anything, but it'd be a nice acknowledgment for how hard he's worked putting over other people for a while

how we feeling about this drew mcintyre heel turn, tpww

Ehhh for now, just because I have zero confidence they will use him as the killer he should be. Last time he was a heel he was Ziggler's sidekick, a flunky of Corbin, and a heater for Shane McMahon.

Hopefully they use him well, but starting off teasing him joining up with Judgement Day feels like short sighted booking for War Games vs an interesting arc.

Yeah if the plan is to have Priest take the title off Rollins soon then it’s an interesting choice to have one of your world title level wrestlers basically removed as a potential opponent. At least for now.

Did they ever figure out Drew’s contract situation

do you think priest is gonna be the one to actually roll rollins? i'm not super convinced tbh, feels like they've been less sure about the decision to give him the case as time has worn on but maybe that's just a byproduct of how drawn out it feels like the cash-in has been

also feels like they're planting the seeds for, if not a dissolution, at least a big fracture in TJD with priest's whole "i'm the leader" thing, could see the group not being a barrier to having priest vs drew if priest does indeed depose seth

I don't have any problems with this... on paper...

The problem is if they do what they did last time Miz turned face, which was the stupid-ass babyface pandering to the Nth degree thing which is antithetical to Miz being Miz. He can be a babyface and still be a cocky dick. And hopefully, with the recent goings-on with AEW, he doesn't bust out with figure fours this time either.

Supposedly his absence earlier this year was considered injury-related, which allowed WWE to tack on more time and push his contract out into Mania season next year.

Guess if his Mania plans aren't interesting to him he might walk but I suspect he'll end up sticking around. Makes sense for guys to take things to the wire to negotiate, though.

I like Drew as a heel. Hopefully any association with JD is short lived.
Not really down for Miz beating Gunther. Should be a win that cements someone in the upper midcard not something for Miz to do. Plus, then what? How much steam does a babyface Miz have?

Never have I had more heat at a show than when wearing my Miz shirt.

It is gonna be a rough go tonight against the Super Bowl Rematch. Raw's best hope is a really hot open before the game starts and then hope for a blowout so people will change back.

So... this R-Truth thing has got me interested. Is this going to reach the heights of Sami Zayn and the Bloodline!?

#livelaughlove

I haven’t been following too closely, but I kind of like the idea of R-Truth actually turning heel and joining The Judgment Day. But he might have gone too far lovable for that.

Maybe heel before becoming loveable again. Similar to Zayn

He could be a heel manager for years. It’s hard to believe heel Truth was 13 years ago.

Punk vs Cody promo was excellent! That's how you build the Royal Rumble. When those two eventually have a feud it will be outstanding.

I thought Punk’s line in the Rumble was spicy. “I didn’t come back to lose to Dusty’s kid.”

Emotional promo from Punk and nice set up to the feud with McIntyre (Summerslam?). How can you hate CM Punk?

They've got an injury problem heading into Wrestlemania 40... I hope they don't go Cody/Seth and Rock/Roman.

feels not unlikely at this point, especially with the punk v drew feud so visibly in the mix now too tbh

leaning towards the triceps injury being a work

i have been v much on the "cody has to finish the story" train for a few reasons but honestly after seth's promo i don't hate the idea of cody choosing him instead

i like it when they let the wrestlers get a little honest on the mic, bc i don't think seth had to dig too deep to find the gravitas and reality behind what he was saying about roman. but it made him believable and i found myself quietly agreeing

I haven’t seen the Cody/Seth promo, but if the issue is that Punk is out and they also need a new opponent for Gunther: Seth vs. Gunther is the most direct way to address that.

If Punk is out, I hope they let him do commentary. Punk calling WrestleMania would be grand.

So I actually watched Raw this week. Good show. Didn’t drag nearly as much as other Raws I have tried to watch.

Highlights:

* Jey Uso and Gunther’s story in the opening tag.

* Sami Zayn is so good.

* The work in general was really good.

* Seth/Cody promo.

* Becky/Nia/Rhea segment.

The product is pretty cohesive. They’re serving bits up I’m not really interested in but on the whole the product is good.

Seriously wonder what Zayn is going to do at WM... from being one of the main events last year to not really having any story or steam this year....

Seemed like he was going to face Drew before all the plans changed, and seems like they are still planting that... but they are also planting that Drew is gonna fight Rollins at WM now.

Feels like they are def putting the title on Drew. Rollins needs a rest and with Drew still not signing a new contract as far as I know, I think maybe they told him he gets another run as champ to entice him to stay. Plus he's gonna get a big feud with Punk later this year if he stays, possibly 3-way feud with Rollins involved too. Should be good stuff.

I imagine he has a program with Judgement Day between Rollins and Punk returning. He has some history with JD from a few months ago and Damian has to attempt a cash in at some point. Would be a good filler program while he waits for Punks re-return.

Drew winning the WHT seems “obvious,” and while I’m enjoying what I’ve seen from Drew, I’m kind of hoping they don’t go down that tidy route. I’m hoping LA Knight wins the Chamber and Drew has got more stuff to whine about.

Zayn’s mission to get onto WrestleMania reminds me of Mick Foley looking for his moment in 2006 or Jericho throwing MITB out there in 2005. I don’t know if I’d do this, but Zayn challenging a bunch of guys to a multi-man Ladder Match of some sort seems like something that could have come of this in previous years.

I am still hoping for Zayn & Jey Uso to be in the Tag Team Title scene. Them against Solo & Jimmy at WrestleMania could be fun.

I want Knight to win the Chamber and go against Seth. Rock gets the production truck to use the photo of Becky & Knight together to try and torture Seth. Rock tries to anoint LA Knight his chosen one, but Knight sticks to his own guns and wants to be his own thing, but doesn’t shy off from letting Seth know he’s a fool for tangling himself up in other people’s business. LA Knight is going to make more people care about the WHT in one night than Seth has done with an entire year. Rock and Roman use Knight as a challenger to push the idea that Seth might be nervous and Cody can’t trust him.

Zayn & Jey against Solo & Jimmy. SmackDown is in Philly before Mania, right? The brothers have a Street Fight in the main event there. Jey makes Sami promise to stay out of it, no matter what happens. Solo gets involved and the heels beat-down Jey for too long. Sami eventually makes the save, but Jey is weary that he told Sami not to get involved. Either team can be champs — Solo & Jimmy can win off Bate & Dunne or Jey & Sami can win off Judgment Day (preferable).

Orton and McIntyre can have a match or something.

I like that Dom has taken on Eddie Guerrero's move set and gets Vicky Guerrero's heat.

Where has this Seth Rollins been?!

Remember when he opened every RAW as WWE Champion with boring 20 minute promos in a whiny voice? From that to his budget Joker promos, unwatchable.

This was good.

I hope Drew wins. He has been awesome.

He can drop the belt to Punk.

this seems like the most logical choice right

Outstanding episode of RAW.

The Rock and Cody face off and subsequent brawl. Awesome. The problem is again Cody vs Roman has even less heat. I'm sure they're cooking up something to get that one back on track.

CM Punk and Drew McIntyre. I cannot wait for this one. The promo battles alone will be outstanding. Drew's stuff on social media where he takes jabs at CM Punk with AEW references has been gold!

I haven’t watched the whole show, but those segments were good. I like Chad Gable coaching Sami Zayn. It’s a nice way to give Gable some shine. He gets to be responsible for Gunther’s reign ending. You can make two babyfaces instead of just one.

Not sure how I feel about the rushed Rocky 3 story for Sami Zayn. Found Sami and Chad paraphrasing Rocky and Adrian's conversation on the beach about being afraid kinda cringe. I thought the beat down by Gunther was cool.

8 matches announced ahead of Raw which might be the most they've ever announced for an episode with the entire first round of the KOTR and QOTR on the Raw side of the bracket taking place:

Drew McIntyre vs. Finn Balor
Ilja Dragunov vs. Ricochet
Gunther vs. Sheamus
Kofi Kingston vs. Rey Mysterio
Asuka vs. Lyra Valkyria
Ivy Nile vs. Zoey Stark
Iyo Sky vs. Natalya
Shayna Baszler vs. Zelina Vega

Can't watch live but this card is definitely going to be getting a DVR from me to watch tomorrow. Assuming everything is given the time it should get this might end up being one of the strongest in-ring Raws of all time.

Not sure if the actual brackets have been released, but here’s what I’d go with:

Gunther, Rey, Ilja and Drew make it to your quarters. Gunther beats Rey and Ilja beats Drew with help from CM Punk. This gives Ilja that little babyface boost. The SmackDown side sees LA Knight beat Santos in the first round, which leads to Santos costing LA Knight a match to Hayes, who loses to Andrade in the SmackDown semis — setting up Gunther vs. Andrade as your men’s final. LA Knight and Santos have a cage match on the Saudi SmackDown.

Naomi wins the women’s tournament defeating Asuka in the final. Zoey Stark beats Shayna and there’s a handshake between the partners. Asuka, however, has no problem accepting help from Kairi Sane, drawing more political lines in Damage Ctrl.

Gunther makes a perfect King of the Ring. Naomi winning is an achievement for her that doesn’t mean carrying a championship and defending it week-in, week-out. I think they could market her quite well in the spot. I can see her going into a full feud with Nia at some point, where Nia destroys her crown.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Which sick freak made this? <a href="https://t.co/eCZzVJIBS1">pic.twitter.com/eCZzVJIBS1</a></p>&mdash; Drew (@DMcIntyreWWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/DMcIntyreWWE/status/1804949232773644565?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 23, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Ricochet really betting on himself. I am sure doing more flips on the show watched by 500,000 people will make him the star he always wanted to be :rofl::rofl::rofl: