I thought it was a fun Raw, the crowds the last two nights have been really good and that helps the energy.
Just some responses to your thoughts.
I'm a fan of Alexa Bliss, its clear that she's really putting a lot into this gimmick, and you can see where she's just so much better in terms of her promo instincts then a lot of other men and woman on the Roster. But the writers have completely lost the thread on this one. Maybe because they keep bouncing her out of feuds so fast, they dropped the Shayna and Nia stuff in a hurry. Now they've got her feuding with Eva and Piper, and the funny thing is that Eve is still just not good anything and that's why they put her with Piper. Alexa's best work in this gimmick was still working off of Bray. Now we get the weird magic stuff, and we're heading into a weird Harley Quinn character. Its a waste of a talented worker, unless they're protecting her because of her series of concussions.
Keith Lee just hasn't worked, I can't put my finger on it, but he worked well in the smaller arena's in NXT, but is just lost on the main roster, he can work, he's got some charisma, but he just doesn't connect all that well. In NXT he could get away with being that big man that does insane stuff. But he doesn't stand out on the main roster.
I noticed a lot of things about Kross tonight. They didn't bring Scarlett with him, I don't get that because frankly she's awesome in her role. They also really rolled back his entrance. If you watch his NXT entrances they're amazing.
Instead he was just another generic big man and they turned the volume way down on the entrance. Then he loses to Jeff Hardy. If anyone should be getting the Lesnar treatment or Goldberg treatment its this guy. Oh and whoever wrote his promo after he lost is an idiot. When someone loses, you don't tell the victor that he's made the biggest mistake of his life by beating you, it makes no god damn sense. Instead he should have gone into rage and destroyed Hardy in the back or something. Just a bad debut for a guy that I really like.
I don't have a lot of faith in Bill being able to pull off a good match against a guy the size of Lashley. Bill isn't Bill anymore. But then again Lashley is very good in the ring, and has a safe reputation.
Lesnar will return to set up a feud with Roman and Heyman is going to screw Reigns, though I hope they find a way to flip the table and keep Reigns a heel and somehow make Heyman and Lesnar the faces.
Loved that Nikki won the belt, because she's just a hard worker, and Shane Helms loves her gimmick. But she won't be champ for long. But there are some really interesting woman being called up Io is on the way to Raw. Alliyah is also on her way to Raw and shes improved a ton. But a Io versus Nikki would be a good match.
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If CM Punk and Daniel Bryan actually end up in AEW then WWE could be in some trouble.
WWE really needs to figure out how to build some new stars and quickly.
The last time WWE was in a situation like this was when WCW had raided them in the early-mid 90s. It also produced the single best era as far as main stream appeal and drawing power. WWE did its best work with its back to the wall. The issue here is, do they consider their back to the wall? I don't know. AEW hasn't taken anyone close to what Hogan, Savage, Nash, Hall er al were. Moxley is the biggest name, but WWE never viewed him as more than a good hand.
I don't see Punk as a big issue for WWE. He's been gone for close to a decade now. He was likely never coming back for them as it wasn't a money issue for Punk. Losing Bryan though? That would be massive.
Edit - As an aside, if Bryan does go I don't see it being a long contract and I don't see it being exclusive. He wants to go out and wrestle guys he considers good from every promotion. He knows WWE will take him through retirement though, so he'd be back before long. The guy has always been pragmatic.
Yeah Bryan will do a "retirement" tour, wrestle who he wants to, then end right back up in WWE with a plum job if he wants it. And he has the luxury of calling those shots.
And let's be real - Hall, Nash, Hogan and even Flair eventually ended up (back) in WWE. It's not like the big stars left permanently. Even WWE-exclusive stars like Rock, Austin, Undertaker, Michaels and Cena come back for specials and reunions.
Nothing is forever in the wrestling world. Well, except maybe if you're Jim Cornette.
Corny has enough Carny in him to do just about anything. I am still almost 100% sure he ends up working a program with the Bucks at some point. There's not reason for it, and no point to it but it just feels like something that will happen.
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Corny has enough Carny in him to do just about anything. I am still almost 100% sure he ends up working a program with the Bucks at some point. There's not reason for it, and no point to it but it just feels like something that will happen.
The smarky crowd alone giving Jim a heel's welcome would be well worth the chaos he would cause backstage. One Night only!
I don't know if anyone watched the Austin interview of Kevin Nash on the network. But he talked about the Monday Night Wars. He talked about Vince a lot and how he reacted to the Monday Night War, and he basically stated that nobody does the presentation like the WWE and they can simply kill promotions with presentation.
I also expect that there are two factors. Vince didn't see AEW as a serious threat, and the idea was to survive to the end of Covid and probably will be able to really leverage the live audiences really well.
I mean there's an argument for me against bringing back Goldberg, just because he can't work anymore. But Cena is a huge hot shot, and we know that he has Brock in the wings as well that can pop a crowd.
I expect AEW to go hard after Punk, but I think putting a guy that's been out of the ring for that long probably isn't going to work like anyone thinks it is. But the natural program is really Punk and Jericho.
I highly doubt that Bryan is going to AEW for a couple of reasons. First of all, because of the reasons above. Second of all, because his wife's brand is completely intertwined with WWE and they make a ton of money off of how WWE has promoted the twins and given them a lot of power over their own show.
I expect with Bryan the idea will be to give him the lattitude to go out and wrestle wherever and whoever he wants, then he returns for Wrestlemania and does a retirement tour with WWE.
When you look at the ratings, this monday's Raw episode popped huge at 1.9 which was up about 20% over the week before and the 18 to 49 demographic was way up.
Smackdown went over the 2 million ratings to 2.23 and their 18 to 49 was up 38% over the week before
NXT bumped up to 709,000 despite going against the NBA finals.
I don't have AEW's rating for this week yet. But it looks like across the board the return to normalcy and live audiences and bringing back some heavy hitters popped the WWE brands.
There were two bobbles on Raw, Kross and to me Bliss, but overall it really was a solid show with a lot of good action.
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I expect AEW to go hard after Punk, but I think putting a guy that's been out of the ring for that long probably isn't going to work like anyone thinks it is.
Weird. Don't remember you having this take when Edge returned. Christian and Sting (for his age) have also been solid after long layoffs.
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But the natural program is really Punk and Jericho.
That's the WWE fan in you talking. AEW fans want to see Punk/Omega, Punk/MJF, etc. Punk himself has also said he's only interested in returning to wrestle people he hasn't wrestled before or people he can make big bucks with.
The biggest worry I have with the Punk to AEW stuff is having him and Colt Cabana in the same locker room considering the major personal heat between the two.
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I don't have AEW's rating for this week yet. But it looks like across the board the return to normalcy and live audiences and bringing back some heavy hitters popped the WWE brands.
AEW did over a million head to head against the finals last week. I think last week's card was more stacked, but it's not like they're struggling.
I didn't say that AEW was struggling, going over a million was a major milestone for them.
In terms of Punk, Look at what happened to Edge when he came back, serious injuries right off of the bat, and this isn't the same edge that he was previous. The big thing with Edge is that he's one of the best guys in the business in terms of psychology, so he can fight a much more simplified match. Punk, is one of the best promo guys in the business, he's a decent story teller, but he was never a super athletic worker.
I mean ideally bringing in Punk vs Jericho to me is two pre-eminant promo guys, and you can use Punk to leverage Jericho into more part time less ring work. Personally I'd like to see Punk beat the Bucks in a loser leave town match, just because I'm seriously not a fan of the Bucks at all.
Sting wasn't great in his return to WWE, the match against HHH was a dog to me.
AEW doesn't really resonate with me, WWE hasn't really resonated with me to the point where I fast forward through RAW looking for good bits. I am a NXT type because I think the work rate in NXT is just some of the best in NA right now. Plus Cameron Grimes is a god damned national treasure.
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All out is in chicago, so do they bring him out then? Or beforehand, if it's legit
Bryan seems more concrete, someone I hadn't heard of reported its done and sean ross sapp says he cant confirm but that the person reporting it, Cassidy Haynes, has a lot of aew contacts
Bryan would have to be non exclusive like mox, which is really cool
I didn't say that AEW was struggling, going over a million was a major milestone for them.
My bad. They have cracked a million a few times this summer, but their sweet spot seems to be 800k - 1M. Will be interesting to see if the move to TBS increases.
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Punk, is one of the best promo guys in the business, he's a decent story teller, but he was never a super athletic worker.
I think that's why it won't be a big deal. Power guys are the ones who seem to fall off a cliff the fastest. If Punk is a little slower, I don't think it'll be all that noticeable.
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I mean ideally bringing in Punk vs Jericho to me is two pre-eminant promo guys, and you can use Punk to leverage Jericho into more part time less ring work.
Yeah, I just don't want to see a rehash of WWE feuds. I was kind of annoyed they went that direction with Matt Hardy and Christian, but at least they're using that feud to boost the profiles of Jurassic Express, Private Party, and TH2.
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Sting wasn't great in his return to WWE, the match against HHH was a dog to me.
Sting was fine in that match. The booking was what did it in.
All out is in chicago, so do they bring him out then? Or beforehand, if it's legit
Bryan seems more concrete, someone I hadn't heard of reported its done and sean ross sapp says he cant confirm but that the person reporting it, Cassidy Haynes, has a lot of aew contacts
Bryan would have to be non exclusive like mox, which is really cool
Yeah, Sapp is getting carved up on this one. I still have my doubts that Bryan will see the AEW as something that he wants to do. It goes against his desire for super matchups on his own terms.
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All out is in chicago, so do they bring him out then? Or beforehand, if it's legit
Bryan seems more concrete, someone I hadn't heard of reported its done and sean ross sapp says he cant confirm but that the person reporting it, Cassidy Haynes, has a lot of aew contacts
Bryan would have to be non exclusive like mox, which is really cool
Yeah, Sapp is getting carved up on this one. I still have my doubts that Bryan will see the AEW as something that he wants to do. It goes against his desire for super matchups on his own terms. I'm also thinking he ends of on the couch if he does sign with AEW, like I said the WWE has put a lot of muscle behind the Bellas, and their whole brand creation was really done in part with WWE.
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Per Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston, last night’s (July 21) Dynamite brought in an hourly average audience of 1,148,000 viewers, with a 0.44 rating in the key 18 to 49 year old demographic. That’s a healthy bump up from last week’s already impressive 1,025,000 and 0.40 in those respective metrics.
Raw had a big boost this week, likely due to Cena and returning fans, but that 0.44 demo is actually higher than Raw's MitB go-home show of 0.43.
I think this is going to be the interesting thing to watch over the next few years. WWE has a larger audience, but they clearly skew older than AEW's, so I would think AEW has better growth potential at the moment.
EDIT: I think the bigger news for AEW is that they're clearly building new stars better and faster than WWE is. Obviously Mox main evented this week and is an established draw, but the hourly breakdowns for MJF, Britt, etc., have all been very promising.
Yup thats why the bungling of the NXT stars is so baffling. Kross should have come in as a killer, the guy is seriously talented and he loses to Jeff Hardy.
They have Tegan Nox who to me has a story that just writes itself and they stick her in a generic team with shotzi. I mean right now if Reigns goes down Raw is in huge trouble. That speaks to what I've been saying. For the last 6 months Reigns is the best worker in the majors.
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Daniel Bryan is “‘locked in’ and has 100% already signed a contract with AEW,” according to Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net.
Bryan asked for and received less dates for comparable money, the ability to work in Japan, and creative input on his character, per Haynes. There are also said to be tentative plans in place for his AEW debut.
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Yup thats why the bungling of the NXT stars is so baffling. Kross should have come in as a killer, the guy is seriously talented and he loses to Jeff Hardy.
According to BodySlam.net, Karrion Kross’ segment at the NXT taping this week was taken over by “Hardy” chants, and so they had to “reshoot the entire segment.”
My two fave talents right now in WWE are Reigns (he's REALLY come a long way, and really is the biggest star in the company right now), and WALTER.
WALTER could be an absolute monster if pushed, but a) not sure WWE is capable of intelligently doing that as per usual, and b) not sure if WALTER has interest in being on the main roster. That said, his match with Ciampa at Takeover in April was absolute money; I still watch it from time to time, what an absolute violence fest. Who wins by a CHOP?? WALTER does.
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