The One And Only Raw Thread For 6/24/02!

[Guest Flyboy]

.... That would be sweet.

 

Hey, Flyboy! I think you're my first pal on the SmarksBoard...and you're a HHHater and an RVD/Storm mark. All the better...

Heh.. cool.

[Guest Mattdotcom]

I'm trying to join the Smarks Chat, but stupid Yahoo doesn't believe 35611 is my zip code. I know it's Alabama, but cripes...plus, Mattdotcom was already taken.

[Guest Kingpk]

Save for the CrocDust segment, a decent women's match (considering who was involved), and the main, RAW sucked as usual

 

I know I'm gonna get reamed for this.

 

I'm softening my stance on Brock just a bit.

 

That match was pretty decent and it should have been the way the KOTR final went with a different finish (Brock dominating, RVD just won't stay down, Heyman interferes, Lesnar gets a tainted win).

 

Plus, if the guy can cut a decent promo without Heyman and lay off the power stuff all the time, he'll be all right. Maybe not a main eventer, but he'll get over.

 

If not, it'll be the bookers fault for rushing him and confining him to a power wrestler. RVD will get the shot if Vince knows what's good for the company.

 

RUTHLESS AGGRESSION~~~~!!!!!!

[Guest Frankie Williams]

Boy that show was brutal. After all that banter in the beginning, all that came out of it was Hardy vs taker and nWo vs Booker and Goldust.

[Guest notJames]

Not a great show... but not too mind-numbingly insulting for 2 hours of free TV (not by much, though). I can tell Austin's departure has sent the writers and bookers scrambling, and for what it's worth, at least their getting two things accomplished:

 

1. Getting all the players involved (established and up-and-coming)

 

2. Trying something new

 

It's really early on, and of course some things just aren't clicking, but seeing as how the WW_ is hitting the down slope as of late, I think they can afford to experiment a little. It's not like the NWA is providing any competition... yet...

 

The biggest thing I don't get is the almost complete 180 on the IWC's stance on Lesnar. 3 months ago, Brock was the Second Coming. Now, it's like he shat in everyone's cereal. I know all the arguments:

 

- They're pushing him too hard too soon

 

- He's not over with the crowd

 

- He's got no charisma

 

- He's got no mike skills

 

- He looks lost in transitions

 

Is he deserving of a push due to his lack of experience and know-how? Why not? It's not like he's Viscera in the ring or Steve Blackman on the mike (as tonight's little promo indicated). What he doesn't know yet he can learn. Sure, he shouldn't be pushed if he's not ready. But it's not like RAW has a lot of Main Eventers they can throw around. They need to build a lot of guys up if the company's to survive, and they can't just rely on the

Net faves and the old has-beens. Lesnar just happens to physically tower over the other guys. Vince has a hard-on for the big he-men, so it's not really surprising, is it? I' rather have him than Bradshaw. And besides, the guy's been here for only 3 months. Give him a little time. It's not like he'd ever Big Show the World Title. Hell, even Spike Dudley couldn't do that.

 

Let's look at the ME's Usual Suspects:

 

1. RVD - solid choice. But it looks like they're going the slow route with him. Fine. He's over now. He'll stay over a year, regardless of having a belt. Isn't it better that he have a credible guy to work against for the next few months or so? I can see Brock vs. RVD feuding for a long time. Better to build the credible heel so that the babyface favourite gets the loud pop victory at the end.

 

2. Booker T - another solid choice. Right now though, they're playing up his relationshipwith Goldust, which has been paying off in spades. It's one of the only consistently entertaining RAW items they have left, so milk it. I say keep the Rock and Sock Connection v.2.0 going as long as they can. Booker will eventually see gold of another kind at the end of it all. Especially when the nWold finally get their comeuppance.

 

Speaking of which:

 

3. Nash/Michaels - I list them together since they're essentially the same person. Over the hill, can't wrestle (in HBK's case, can't wrestle anymore, ride the tweener line against the storylines, shoot on their contemporaries to keep their few remaining smark fans glued with ooey-blooey to their keyboards... need I go on? Having them on camera just to get Big Slow and the Grease Rat over isn't working on any front. Thank you Vince McMahon for your Hall statement, shoot or not. Poor Kevin's gonna have to suck it up from now on. Boo fucking hoo. And HBK? Icon my ass. Icons don't run away with fake injuries and invented "personal demons" when it's their turn to do the time-honoured tradition. I wish I could find those 8 or 9 guys from Syracuse who punked out his sorry God-fearing ass all those years ago. I'd give them $100 to do the same to Nash.

 

4. Guerrero - as skilled as he is and as improved as his promos are, I sincerely doubt the the 15 pounds of gold will ever go around his waist.

 

5. Benoit - I await patiently for the inevitable. Benoit is coming, Benoit is coming...

 

Other than that, RAW's got no one. Better to build now than blow their load.

 

Other RAW thoughts:

 

Dreamer/Raven was 3 minutes I'll never get back. If however, it leads to something meaningful for Raven, my patience is firm. Dreamer, however, can go back to Heat with Stasiak, Crsh, Bossman, and Steven Richards and stay there. Give D'Lo RAW time.

 

Nowinsky/Bradshaw? As long as a. Nowinsky goes over, and b. Regal gets mike time.

 

Jeff Hardy, stuntman to the stars. I like the face paint, I like his subtle mike work, I like that he has no ego to speak of and will make everyone look good with his selling. Ladder match with UT? Sure, why not. Let UT murder Hardy for 8 minutes. At least it'll be better than that 20 minute punchfest that KOTR's main was. And unlike HHH, he knows the difference between shutting up to hide your stupidity and speaking out and removing all doubt.

 

JR's recanting of his comments toward Molly's non-conformist body-type? Way to snake out of public disapproval. At least Lawler's honest about being the lech that he is.

 

Hey Trish: I bet those sour grapes taste better than the McMahon spunk you had to swallow to get to the top. (I will give her props for her improved workrate, her revisionist history notwithstanding)

 

Damn, it's hot. Off to bed, with visions of Spinaroonies dancing in my head...

[Guest Incandenza]

Random thoughts....

 

*That Main Event wasn't half bad. It wasn't half good, either, but it was better than Brock's usual.

 

*I'd would like to be proven wrong on Brock, by the way. I know the guy has potential, but it's a long way in coming. Right now it's just baby steps, which is necessary for Brock, but the question remains: Should this be necessary for someone who just won KotR?

 

*Goldust sucks as a wrestler, but the WWE must keep him around for comedy bits. That Croc Hunter parody was da shit.

 

I don't have much else to say, as I wasn't much up for Raw-watchin' tonight, and I had my thumb on the FF button for most of the program. I don't think I missed much.

[Guest Austin3164life]

Hmm. Where was that thread talking about the WWE's closing??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, it might sound rediculous, but if Vince keeps putting out this bullshit (save for the Booker T/Goldust routines) then I'm going to completely shut my television off for the entire two hours of Raw (I haven't watched SD! since last November). My blind devotion to this sport-turned-soap-opera is running out. Seeing Hogan as Champion sparked it, Austin's departure blew it up, and now it's only a matter of time before the WWE loses its core audience, unless Vince pulls a miracle and we start seeing RVD, Angle, Benoit, Jericho Main Event both shows.......

[Guest cabbageboy]

The show wasn't too bad tonight and that was some of the sickest shit I've ever seen (the spot with Brock slamming RVD to the floor before the table thing).

[Guest Zero_Cool]

It was a decent show. Goldust did a dead-on Croc Hunter parody, and anything insulting X-Pac's intelligence is gold.

 

Brock/RVD was good for at least the fact that my dad, who remembers the days when Bruno Sammartino and Buddy Rogers (maybe not that far) rocked the ring, marked out to it.

[Guest AlwaysPissedOff]

Well, like it's been said already, the Crocdust segments kicked some serious ass, btu dammit, Booker should have punke dout Vince for swiping the mic from him so many times.

 

There are ways of getting new guys elevated, but the Benoit/Eddy/Buh-Buh Ray mess isn't one of them. As soon as the match started, I went to the kitchen to get soem water and the match ended literally 5 steps after I got up...

 

Taker/Hardy will be painful to watch next week...

 

Raven's gonna reform the Flock, too bad it's about 2 to 3 years too late to worth a shit.

 

RVD/Brock was pretty damned good and I must say that Brock impressed me when he finally spoke. He probably still isn't WWE Undisputed Title material yet, but he's getting better at pacing a match(that bearhug which focused on the back is an example), so he's starting to change my original opinion of him. Let's see if he can keep it up.

[Guest jester]

Things I Learned From Tonight's Raw:

 

1. Vince is getting is so tiresome with his evil owner and boinking the divas shtick that I think I would actually welcome Stephanie back instead. At least we know she wouldn't do the boink-the-divas angle. Although if she did, it would probably put the ratings back through the roof.

 

2. At least some of the crowd still wants to cheer Micheals as a face, which initially took some of the heat out of Booker T's challenge. Micheals looks awfully smug. Must be nice knowing you can mouth off without having to get into the ring and work somebody.

 

3. Booker T and Golddust do in fact rule. Too bad they had to job.

 

4. Molly hates people who sleep their way to the top and act like total sleazebags. So she tag partners with.... Jackie. Uh...

 

5. Despite that, I though the women's match wasn't half bad.

 

6. During the Buhbah Ray Dudley/Guerro match, when it looked like Guerro was going to go through a table, JR said something to the effect of "Guerro does not want to taste Buhbah's wood." I was drinking a coke at the time, I nearly spewed it across the room.

 

7. Goldberg chants can still clearly be heard when Brock wrestles.

 

8. RVD and Brock might not actually be a bad program. I think they should give them both some more mike time to try to build heat. Brock didn't say much, but what he did say didn't rule out the possibility of good promos. I thought the reason they had Paul E speaking for him was because he had a voice like Alvin and the chipmunks or something.

 

Some people were really down on this Raw, but the women's match, Bookdust and RVD/Brock kept me reasonably entertained.

 

jester

[Guest MrRant]

And everyone hated Brock last night.

[Guest AlwaysPissedOff]

Dammit, MR, I said I was going to be optimistic about Brock in the Crossface!

 

Heh... j/k, dude.

[Guest Ram]

I didn't watch most of it. All I caught was Booker and Goldust (who, by the way I'm happy for because he's in a good place right now. May not be main event, but that almost means shit these days), Jeff/UT, and the RVD Brock match.

 

Felt sorry for Brock. He's built as a heel, but everybody wanted to cheer him as a face when he first came. Should've ridden that, I'd say. RVD did a good job. He should've intensified his punches at his coronation breakup. Would've increased the crowd reaction, from what I saw. ANd they ended the attack too early. Killed the heat by going so quick.

 

Booker needs to feud with Benoit. They seem like they'd be a good mix-up, and could possibly get each other monster over. Eddy needs to drop Latino heat NOW. It's going to drive his character into the dirt faster than Brock's back tattoo began to look stupid.

 

Vince needs to go semigimmickless and just be an owner running things backstage. Cut the overacting, the sex addiction, and the plain hatefulness. Leave the coniving to someone else. Sure they can boo him for a while, and laugh when someone makes fun of him, but if the test run did indeed fail, he could always go back.

 

Jeff's feud with UT could be a good feud, but its nearly reached the limit on ridiculousness. I mean really. He'll probably end up being the fluke winner, and then he'll disappear until the split ends and show up with Matt again. Wahoo.

 

X-Pac needs to go. Sure, he has the athleticism to be a good worker. But his character is dead. And the 'XPac sucks' chants aren't heat. They're just the truth from some bored fans. Big Show needs to thin up, speed up, or just leave. His slow moveset and transitions kill the crowd, and unless he's fighting high end performers, his suckity suckness just shines everywhere.

 

Michaels has no reason to be here anymore. Nash won't wrestle when he gets back. They're useless money pits. They had heat for their time, and one has been called a legend by many, and the other a helping hand in the wrestling boom. But that's it. WERE. WAS. Old news is good to remember the past, but nobody wants to look at an old newspaper for long because they want to see new news of the current time. Mouthpieces my ass. They aren't getting the nWo over and aren't making anything better. Just adding life to a long-dead battery from 1995.

 

The Flock won't work.

 

RAW was a letdown, but eh, what else to expect. Things don't look good. The overall product is bad. Some parts shine. Everything else is either old, done wrong, boring, or heat deficient.

 

And I still can't see "WWE" without thinking WEEE. I'm not joking. I hate it.

 

Oh well. Smackdown will probably be worse than this. Here's to missing it too.

[Guest AlwaysPissedOff]

I loved when Nash talked about "main eventing a few WMs" in the opening yakfest...

 

Hell, I think SummerSlam last year that Booker main evented drew a better buyrate than anything Big Lazy was a part of...

[Guest Perfect Plex]

Brock is the future of the WWE. Everybody should quit hating on this guy.

Woah...

 

"Hating on"??????

 

"HATING ON"?!?!?!?!?!?!

 

Long time no hear...

 

Holy shit, I've gone back in time!!!

 

(kills a pterodactyl)

[Guest Anubis Puppet]

Nash and Michaels's little over-the-hill guys trying to act like teenagers act is wearing extremely thin. I hope somebody steals Shawn's hat and Nash's hair dye.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

At least the WWE is letting Lesnar speak. You've gotta give the guy some sort of personality.

[Guest XdojimeX]

"5. Benoit - I await patiently for the inevitable. Benoit is coming, Benoit is coming..."

 

Man, crazy to think that fans have been saying this since 1996. Has it really been that long? Chris's American career has been the wrestling equivalent of a goddamn Red Sox fan. "This year he'll finally get the big push!"

 

35 now, damaged goods, program with Austin evaporated, along with a cemented reputation as the ultimate "good hand" (see Hennig, Curt, - Steamboat, Ricky). Time to finally give up the ghost I'm afraid.

 

Can't wait for Benoit bumping and selling his ass off for Bubba freakin' Dudley.

[Guest Ash Ketchum]

The question I wanna know is:

 

 

 

When's Rey gonna be on TV?

[Guest Ravenbomb]

The Flock damn well better work!

[Guest Austin3164life]

The Flock damn well better work!

If Vince uses it though.....Tough to tell with the nWold as the "dominant" stable when there's really only two active wrestlers in the nWo......

[Guest humongous2002]

The weewee needs new main eventers, the fans are sick and tired of seeing HGH, Rock, Mean Mark, Hogan and all the others over the hill main eventers holding the good wrestlers down. The company has Angle, Benoit, RVD, Y2J, Guerrero, and others but they decide to give the McMahon rub to a green wrestler that may or may not be able to carry the ball. There's no more logic in the weewee, if Vince keeps on listening to his little girl who's getting banged by that mutant looking HGH, the weewee will closed down like WCW, and the irony would be that Turner buys it from Vince.