OAO Raw Thread - July 30, 2007

[billdynamite 0]

Cena hasn't been getting ANY noticeable reactions in a long time.

 

 

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

No.

[Downhome 0]

The fans booed both John Cena and Bobby Lashley for the majority of their match at the GAB. It seemed to be a battle of who the fans could boo the most. It picked up at the end for Cena, but they were certainly booing him throughout the match, just as they were doing to Lashley. The fans didn't seem to care about the match at all, and didn't really want either guy to win in the end.

[Mecca 0]

Also for a show that just raped Smackdown there is nothing behind Cena on there.....They take Smackdowns talent make them all jobbers then people say they don't have enough talent. All the while they have no idea how to book anything or use anyone right. Raw is really good about just burying people left and right and then their idea of fixing it is taking more guys from the other shows and doing the same thing.

 

Meanwhile Smackdown just chugs along losing guy after guy but putting on solid shows with more than just John Cena to rely on. MVP/Matt Hardy is an excellent undercard program.....when was the last time Raw had a undercard program that was even decent?

[AmazingRen 0]

Another problem is they don't have the kind of top heel that you want to see lose or get his ass kicked. In the mid-90's it was McMahon/Rock/HBK and in the 2000's it was HHH. Right now they have nobody because the writers focus too much on making the faces look strong.

[Mecca 0]

Another problem is they don't have the kind of top heel that you want to see lose or get his ass kicked. In the mid-90's it was McMahon/Rock/HBK and in the 2000's it was HHH. Right now they have nobody because the writers focus too much on making the faces look strong.

 

That's been the WWE formula for a long time. Any Heel not named HHH always loses or gets his ass beat all the time. Every heel has to play the chickenshit heel that can't possibly beat a face clean. They seem to want to send the crowds home happy more than booking something that would do well.

[luke-o 0]

And theres only two fueds going on Raw at the moment. Cena/Randy and Melina/Candice which has seemed to be going on forever.

 

The last decent fued on RAW was Sandman/Carlito because it was something different, I would have watched Raw just to see their fued progress. And I enjoyed the Hardys/Rednecks fued, that had something behind it, the main event storylines for the past year have just been, "can Cena overcome this challange?" And I'm not blaming Cena for that one, it's not his fault.

 

Lets rebuild a IC title division, lets rebuild a tag team division. Lets do something other than Cena going over in his fued for the month.

[cabbageboy 0]

Mecca said almost exactly what I have felt for a while. I mentioned well before the draft that Raw is an entire show of guys that are buried. Silly me, but I thought the idea of the draft for Raw was to bring in new guys that are not buried and try to push them. But the thing is, Raw has already buried the vast majority of the guys they got in the draft!

 

Major guys:

 

Lashley: Seemingly the big pick, immediately jobbed to Cena clean, then jobbed to Kennedy clean. Now injured for a long while.

 

Booker: Baffling draft pick really since he fit in well on SD and there's nothing for him on Raw. Before he get be buried by HHH he has to get past a 58 year old Jerry Lawler, and he's struggling to do that.

 

Kennedy: Maybe was still hurt, but if so he shouldn't have been on TV. He starts out, Lashley kicks his ass easy, he jobs in 30 seconds to Super Crazy, etc. Then he comes out and constantly says he is the real #1 contender.....huh???? Frankly jobbing Lashley so hard to Kennedy this week only made Lashley look embarrassing, it didn't really help Kennedy.

 

Minor trades to Raw:

 

Regal: I thought he might be a decent IC contender or do SOMETHING on Raw. He's done jack shit.

 

Snitsky: Hasn't really done much on Raw yet, jury is still out. Of all the guys NOT to bury, it'd be Gene Snitsky?

 

Sandman: Pretty over on his Raw debut, was doing well initially, and then he just jobs to Carlito and then wasn't on the show this week. If he isn't totally buried yet, give it time.

 

London/Kendrick: In a crap Raw tag scene these guys should be getting title shots or the belts, but due to some stupid shit London is in the doghouse. Quit being petty and push the guys.

 

Jillian: I thought she could be a contender for the women's title, but she's jobbing to freakin Candice or doing little otherwise.

 

New debuts or returns:

 

Beth Phoenix: See Jillian. The jury is still out but they should have had her come in initially and just lay out Candice and lay claim to the women's title. Then feud with Micki James to pay off that angle from last year. How hard is that? Instead she's dicking around playing 2nd fiddle to a jobbed out Melina and no one cares.

 

Cody Rhodes: Ugh. What could have been a rousing debut angle with him standing up for his dad against Orton turned into him just jobbing his ass off to Orton clean. If they are building up Orton for a title shot, why do it at the expense of a debuting guy?

 

Speaking of which, why is it on Raw that they then try to push the various guys who have already long since been buried? Carlito has been uber buried. Why bring in the Sandman and job out to Carlito when Carlito has jack shit to offer at this point and Sandman is at least over? Why even push Orton when he's such a liability off camera and apparently is also the Ratings Killer too AND has been jobbed out to everyone for 2 years?

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Mecca said almost exactly what I have felt for a while. I mentioned well before the draft that Raw is an entire show of guys that are buried. Silly me, but I thought the idea of the draft for Raw was to bring in new guys that are not buried and try to push them. But the thing is, Raw has already buried the vast majority of the guys they got in the draft!

 

I knew this was going to happen when the draft happened because the problem with RAW is not the roster but the writing. It has been this way with the exception of a handful of weeks here and there ever since they split the writing crews in 2002. The draft only hurt the company because it made Smackdown significantly weaker and did nothing to address the reason why RAW sucks.

[cabbageboy 0]

Even going under WWE's odd line of thinking that people watch on Raw or only SD, it's still insane to bring guys over to Raw and immediately start jobbing them out. It's like they sit and think "Okay, we need new guys to be on Raw so we can feed them to Cena, HHH, etc." And in some ways, the new guys have cannibalized each other (such as Lashley dominating Booker and Kennedy only to be jobbed out himself).

[King Cucaracha 0]

Another problem is they don't have the kind of top heel that you want to see lose or get his ass kicked. In the mid-90's it was McMahon/Rock/HBK and in the 2000's it was HHH. Right now they have nobody because the writers focus too much on making the faces look strong.

 

That's been the WWE formula for a long time. Any Heel not named HHH always loses or gets his ass beat all the time. Every heel has to play the chickenshit heel that can't possibly beat a face clean. They seem to want to send the crowds home happy more than booking something that would do well.

 

And to think, it was only a week or two ago people were bitching about the heels winning clean at GAB being bad booking.

[Mecca 0]

Another thing I want to add to my point about how Raw has no idea how to book.

 

They treat guys they guy from the other shows almost every time in the fashion like they just came from WCW. It's like they go "you were big shit on smackdown but you ain't nothin here but another midcard job bitch". Then they treat guys who were pumped up to be big players on Smackdown like they are little bitches that just got to the big time coming over to Raw.

 

Raw will always be stale when any new fresh face they get, I say get because they can't create one, is used as nothing more than a jobber to the same 3 guys they've been pushing for 5 years. Right now if I'm not Cena, HHH or HBK and I'm a wrestler there I don't want to be on Raw. John Morrison is a much better spot now than he ever was on Raw....

 

Raw has this pecklng order that is impossible to break, Raw refuses to make new stars. They take the new stars the other bands make and make them jobbers to the same guys they continue to push....then we wonder why the show is stale.

 

99% of the talent that is brought to Raw from the other brands is treated like a WCW guy during the invasion.

[Downhome 0]

From PWInsider:

 

I have heard from two sources that Nielsen has contacted a number of programmers and said that there was a problem (glitch) in Monday's ratings, as I suspected may be the case. I am not sure what the extent of it is, but as I said yesterday, I wouldn't be shocked to find out that there was a problem since the drop was so huge. I have heard that Nielsen has contacted WWE about it but with the three straight weeks of 3.4s for Raw prior to this week, WWE does realize that there is a real problem with the make up of their shows and are working on doing what they can to fix them, regardless of whether there was a big drop on Monday or not.

[Bix 0]

If there was a glitch like that, though, it would probably be decent sized news, and it probably wouldn't be as big as the number dropping by 26%.

[2GOLD 0]

If there was a glitch like that, though, it would probably be decent sized news, and it probably wouldn't be as big as the number dropping by 26%.

 

Be funny if the glitch actually added more viewers than they got. I'm not saying I'd laugh or enjoy it, I'm just saying it would be funny.

[JustJoe2k5 0]

From PWInsider:

 

I have heard from two sources that Nielsen has contacted a number of programmers and said that there was a problem (glitch) in Monday's ratings, as I suspected may be the case. I am not sure what the extent of it is, but as I said yesterday, I wouldn't be shocked to find out that there was a problem since the drop was so huge. I have heard that Nielsen has contacted WWE about it but with the three straight weeks of 3.4s for Raw prior to this week, WWE does realize that there is a real problem with the make up of their shows and are working on doing what they can to fix them, regardless of whether there was a big drop on Monday or not.

 

Keep your eye on the RAW preview, "Mr. McMahon Strikes Back" will likely vanish soon.

[bob_barron 0]

Haha, that's really funny

[cabbageboy 0]

I doubt it will vanish....you know Vince is dying to get back on TV. I just have no idea what he would actually do, since there is no real feud for him to do. Maybe he'll just be normal for a change?

[JPopStarKami 0]

From PWInsider:

 

I have heard from two sources that Nielsen has contacted a number of programmers and said that there was a problem (glitch) in Monday's ratings, as I suspected may be the case. I am not sure what the extent of it is, but as I said yesterday, I wouldn't be shocked to find out that there was a problem since the drop was so huge. I have heard that Nielsen has contacted WWE about it but with the three straight weeks of 3.4s for Raw prior to this week, WWE does realize that there is a real problem with the make up of their shows and are working on doing what they can to fix them, regardless of whether there was a big drop on Monday or not.

 

Keep your eye on the RAW preview, "Mr. McMahon Strikes Back" will likely vanish soon.

 

Nah, I don't think it'll vanish.

[tominator89 0]

I don't care if the rating is a 3.4 or 2.5, the shows are still boring.

[Jingus 0]

Any Heel not named HHH always loses or gets his ass beat all the time. Every heel has to play the chickenshit heel that can't possibly beat a face clean. They seem to want to send the crowds home happy more than booking something that would do well.

And to think, it was only a week or two ago people were bitching about the heels winning clean at GAB being bad booking.

 

You're both right. Having every single heel go over at the Bash WAS bad booking. Why screw the fans who actually paid money to see these shows, and presumably cheer their favorites? I've never understood PPVs that are loaded with heel finishes, nonfinishes, whatever. Like, GREAT example, the worthless piece of shit they claimed was Summerslam last year. I mean, of ALL times for Cena to do a job, it's in his hometown in the second-biggest show of the year? What the fuck?!

 

That kind of "make the fans wait for the payoff, drag it out drag it out dragitout" thinking is the exact same thing that helped kill WCW's ratings in 1998, when the NWO just Never. Freakin'. Lost.

 

 

On the OTHER hand, you can't go around making every heel a chickenshit scaredy-cat with no apparent wrestling talent who lives in fear of the badass babyfaces. Like Ricky Steamboat's philosophy: if I make my opponent look like a piece of shit, then when I pin him, so what? I just beat a piece of shit.

[cabbageboy 0]

Jingus, here is the thing about that GAB PPV. There wasn't one particular finish that upset me in terms of a heel winning clean....it's that they did it about 5 different times. This is the way I've always felt about heels winning against a face on a similar level:

 

--If the heel cheats to win, then the face can claim to still be the better man and ask for a rematch.

--If the heel wins clean in the center of the ring, he's the better man.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

NIELSEN GLITCH THAT LED TO POOR RAW RATING CORRECTED; FIVE DAYS OF USA NETWORK PROGRAMMING UNDERREPORTED

by Mike Johnson

 

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the Nielsen glitch that led to the 2.5 rating for Monday Night Raw was "an equipment issue" that caused underreporting for the USA Network from 7/28-8/1. A Nielsen spokeswoman told the trade journal that they have corrected the problem and are seeking ways to recover the proper ratings for the days affected.

 

Why would such an issue affect only one network?

[cabbageboy 0]

Who knows. I dunno if they will ever know the real rating for the show now, but if it goes back to a 3.5 or so this week we'll know that it was roughly a full point off.

[Bix 0]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/conten...32a93f3ac8898f3

 

Nielsen error slows USA Net ratings

By Paul J. Gough

 

Aug 4, 2007

NEW YORK -- A glitch in Nielsen Media Research equipment led to lower-than-normal ratings for USA Network for five days last week.

 

Nielsen confirmed Friday that an "equipment issue" was to blame for the problems, which underreported USA Network ratings from July 28-Aug. 1. The nature of the equipment problems wasn't clear.

 

A Nielsen spokeswoman said that the underreporting only affected USA Network and that it had been corrected Thursday and was now providing accurate information. Nielsen also was working on providing new ratings for the affected five days.

 

"We are looking into a way to recover that information," a Nielsen spokeswoman said Friday.

 

Nielsen and WWE, whose program "Raw" is on the USA Network, said a new rating would come at some point. This past week's "Raw" episode showed a dramatic drop from a 3.4 household rating to a 2.5 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research.

 

USA Network couldn't be reached for comment late Friday.

Did any cable systems suddenly move USA around?

[razazteca 0]

Just saw the Kennedy vs Lashley match on Telemundo and to my surprise it was actually good with Lashley using his amature skills early in the match. The best part of the match was Mr. Kennedy working the shoulder continuously throughout the match the second Lashley started to show that it was "injuried". I loved the end with the counter to the spear being a high knee to the shoulder and the use of the Americana Armbar to increase pain and further damage to the shoulder. Maybe Ken Kennedy should change his name to something like Andrew Anderson considering that he attacked and destroyed the shoulder like the Andersons of the past.

[Enigma 0]

LEGIT RAW RATING STILL TO COME IN AT A SCARY LOW NUMBER

 

PWI is reporting that the legitimate Raw rating will end up being somewhere between 2.8 and 3.1, which is still pretty bad.

[v.2 0]

Even if the number is adjusted, their not going to have it perfect, and we're going to have to wait until Tuesday to see whether this is just an anomaly or a pattern.

 

As an aside, I'm surprised I haven't seen more ads on period, as I didn't even see an extra push for the show during Burn Notice, Psych, or Monk, let alone on any other channel.