You pay the man millions to turn up for about 4 shows a year and you have him do this?
No wonder ratings are low.
What were the other options? People would still moan about a squash match, and people like Cesaro or Owens aren't on that level yet.
Hopefully Orton punts his wife in the head beforehand to make it a bit more interesting.
Whatever they do it can't be worse than three Triple H matches in a row though.
Do they even need to think about draws/buy rates now we're in the NETWORK ERA? Nobody is going to buy SummerSlam as a one off to watch him flatten Randy Orton, so why even bring him back? Why not build something the night after leading into Survivor Series?
They've featured UFC promos on their youtube channel this week (no idea about TV) so I reckon they'll get a Summerslam advert played during UFC 200. Probably just wanted as much 'name value' as they can get into the promo.
If Hunt smacks Lesnar around he should show up on Raw as Roman's uncle or something.
Lesnar/Orton would be sensational
I don't think it would necessarily be that exciting a match (though to be fair, with Orton it's hard to tell because he swings wildly between great matches and snoozefests) but it really is one they ought to be having Orton win.
He's returning, he's always built up as being this cerebral, wily veteran type and also I'm just bored of Lesnar making everybody look shit now. For the sake of the WWE booking crew I quite hope he gets mullered in this UFC fight as it would give them a chance to start working their way out of this corner they've booked themselves into.
I see ya point but I actually appreciate the booking of Lesnar, if only because he's one of the select few not subject to the misery of 50/50 booking.
Broke through in 2002 from OVW and have never faced each other -surprised by that
It will end up being quite good if they book Orton to run him reasonably close, since they can then launch him straight back into the upper card as being BACK TO HIS BEST. If he just gets molested then they might as well have used Big Show again.
The problem with Lesnar is he should be the champion given no one can get near him. OK, Rollins stole the title at Mania, I can buy that, but he should have gotten it back by now if he's never going to lose. I don't mind him as the champion who keeps the big belt away from most RAWs so it makes it feel special. I'm not sure what the point is of having him face random people in non-built up matches and crushing them and then vanishing.
Especially if Brock wins tonight, you'd feel like they have to put the title on him just because of the extra exposure he's going to have.
You'd have to do something like have him beat Orton earlier in the night and then F5 everyone in the main event to close out the show.
I personally like to see the title go on people that need it, really. More like a boost to get them over. Whereas Brock has got the amateur background / suplex city gimmick going on so he really doesn't need the title to get himself any more over.
But yeah, he's been booked pretty horribly since he lost the title at WM31. His match against Ambrose was absolute garbage at Mania and I couldn't give any less of a shit about Orton, so it's not looking good.
Until they stop booking everybody to look weak and crap against him I don't want Lesnar anywhere near the title. They'll probably have Reigns beat him clean at some point.
I don't want Lesnar having the title either but for me there's a logic issue if the title is on anyone other than "the guy who massacres all his opponents without trying and clearly wants the title". If that's how they are going to keep booking Lesnar then he needs to be the champion.
Now he won his UFC fight, Orton can beat him and WWE can officially claim to have tougher fighters. Dan Severn and Ken Shamrock return as a tag team.
Severn has a book out. What Culture publishing it. What a weird company.
Quite enjoyed that 'compound match' between Wyatts and New Day.
It was a blatant rip off of what TNA did but fits much better with the Waytts character than them cutting crap promos in the ring and eating AAs from Cena.
We need something bigger than General Managers, we need Commissioners! Next week Commissioners, pick your General Managers. GMs, pick your directors of operations.
Unearth Jack Tunney.
Commissioner Angle.
Bryan Smackdown and Heyman RAW
Two excellent gimmick names.
Good of them to pretend for ten seconds that Raw isn't the show both of them wanted. Until they laughably then said "Oh but Shane will not ALSO be on Smackdown!!!!1" as if we ever thought one of them would get to do both.
They should have given Raw to Steph with Heyman taking Smackdown then let Shane lead an invasion to get it back.
I'd just be happy if they binned the McMahons off TV.
They've accidentally spoiled the Smackdown GM already.
Toggle Spoiler
Yeah I saw that on wwe.com. They really are spastics
That should work, given how great he is at promoh wait a minute he's terrible.
Good way of getting people to watch Smackdown to see what it's all about. Depends how 'active' he gets in it.
I think people know what Smackdown is by now.
It's changing though, it'll be LIVE and have a new look and not turn every argument into a tag team match playa
Has anyone watched any of the first episode of the Cruiserweight Classic?
Saez vs Metalik was an ok match, but I didn't think much of Daivari/HoHoLun. I fell asleep for Match 3 (French Guy vs Cedric Alexander) and Match 4 (Kota Ibushi vs opponent). The crowd are quiet until someone does a Shooting Star Press, but the presentation of the show is good and Daniel Bryan/Mauro Ranello on commentary complement each other very well.
Just watched it. The presentation is at odds with the main shows but it's good. The commentators get to actually call the match, the matches don't have the director demanding mad zooms constantly throughout and nobody mentions the WWE app once.
I didn't find any of the matches to be THAT exciting but they all had some nice spots and some of the guys had pretty decent chemistry. Was hoping the French lad would win purely because of the Storm connection.
Just watched it, thought it was good. I thought the presentation was great, even if the graphics for the room Corey Graves was standing in were a bit PS2.
One thing I really liked was the fact that they really made it feel like a legitimate, global tournament, with the emphasis on the country they were representing and the hand shakes/arm raises at the end. Felt more UFC than WWE.
The last match was by far the best. Kota Ibushi looks like a real star, I see he's already been signed by the WWE.
WWE have announced the rules of the draft:
Originally Posted by WWE.com
Semi-surprised that The Undertaker isn't listed, given JBL and Cole were talking about drafting him the other night.
That tag team rule sounds like the perfect way to give Big E a [botched] face push.
Translation- We still don't give a shit about Smackdown.
The later picks will probably be done via WWE.com or some shit, I doubt we'll have to sit through them.
Needs more Brother Nero.
Am I being blind or are the Wyatts not being listed as a team?
They are not. I'm going to take this opportunity to suggest Bailey doesn't get the call-up and it results in an actual heel turn. RAW's logic for more picks only works if that extra hour isn't recaps on stuff that's happened in the first hour.
Hang on. Bully Ray.
Would be funny if all bar one of the women ended up on one show.
I'm a twit
A Bailey heel turn? Not a chance.