Wow Raw was actually quite good last night the 2 Fatal 4 Way matches were good mostly the first one and just to echo most people's thoughts Charlotte/Sasha was one of the best women's matches that I have seen on Raw for some time was surprised to see Sasha win the Women's title as I was expecting a screwy finish involving Dana Brooke but congrats to Sasha and to Charlotte as well for her part in the match. New Day segment was a disaster thank god for Gallows and Anderson and Golden Truth getting involved in a tag team match cause of Pokemon Go was a giant waste of time but apart from that I was impressed with last night's show Smackdown has a lot to do to somehow top that. Also looking forward to Finn/Seth at Summerslam for the bizarrely named WWE Universal Championship cause it's a match that I have never seen before now that's more like the new era.

One thing that I hope to see in the future is more appearances on NxT by Eric Young, Bobby Roode, and Itemi, now that a few people have been called up, as we have not seen them in quite some time.

Well your in luck cause Hideo Itami makes his return to NXT on next weeks show.

Itemi's meant to be returning in two weeks.
Not sure about the other two. Maybe one of them can attack Itemi on his return and start a feud from there.

Yeah not really sure why they did that new day segment even though they ve never beaten demolition's reign yet. Mind you I never worked out why L & K had their reign for so long as I dont recall them defending every month.

If Balor/Rollins is this new era then im liking it. Balor is more suited for Smackdown but I can see why they didnt do Raw the Veterans brand and Smackdown the new stars show. Even though it might have worked better that way. The name for the Title is deff a Bizare one suprised they didnt just call it the WWE Disney MGM Studios Championship.

Decided tO give Smackdown a go tonight to see how it compares to last night. Probably won't be making a habit of it

Just read No Mercy is another old PPV name making a return.

Definitely one of the best episodes of RAW in a very long time. I honestly think the brand switch will be good for both shows. Smackdown has a lot to live up to tonight!!

Loved that Sasha won the women's championship, and definitely the best women's match in a long time.

I love the New Day, but that segment was a mess!!! A low point of an otherwise good night.

Love or hate him, Roman is yet to appear in a bad match IMO.
Noticed he was bleeding from the side of his mouth during his match with Balor, not sure when it occurred though?

If RAW keeps up last nights form then I'm going to look forward to it each week.

Raw was really good last night really happy for sasha it just shows all the hard work you put in gets the rewards and the video of her FaceTime Bayley was very nice and well done to Finn should be a great match at summerslam who will Roman face not sure Kevin Owens possible

Thoroughly enjoyable Raw, who'd have thought anyone would be saying that, let's see if they can keep it up over the next few weeks

Haaaaaate the name of the belt but that's a small issue in the grand scheme of things

Love that Balor looks to be getting a big push, again we'll see if it keeps up and how the whole Balor Club angle plays out

Surprised they gave away the Women's match for free, flashbacks of WCW's downfall, but I can understand the need to open the new Raw era with some major moments

also quite enjoyed Roman getting some positive chants, I think it even took him by surprise when it started, I like the guy and don't think he deserves the reactions he gets through some shady booking he has no control over

Looking forward to Smackdown's response, they have a high bar to aim for

Just reading original plans were Reigns vs Rollins at Summerslam but Vince changed his mind shortly after Balor won his first match. He is said to want to give other people the chance to have Reigns' spot.

Sasha and Charlotte was also originally planned for Summerslam but pulled forward to give the New Era a shot and got rave reviews behind the scenes for the match last night

I wish they'd make the New Day more of a threat and not just a bunch of goofy guys. Seeing Xavier getting a chance to wrestle at Battleground was so good!

The guy can wrestle so they really should let him more often.

I remember when they beat down Cena and two others a while back and I was hoping it was a slight turn where they'd be a bit more serious but I think they were back to normal the next week.

I really like Charlotte now compared to when she was first called up. She's improved loads and I like her heel work.

I think comms should really just be Cole/Graves as Saxton brings nothing to the table apart from being the one who Graves can attack/put down.

Thats probably a blessing in disguise. Nothing against Rollins/Reigns but its been done to death last year and we really needed something new. If Vince is wanting a new era for Summerslam im guessing Nia Jax will be challenging Banks for the Womens belt.

Raw lost viewers going into the third hour but I think the low 3s is where it's at. I think 3 hours on Sunday, 3 hours and Monday and then expecting another 2 hours tonight totalling 8 hours of wrestling is a bit testing but we will see tomorrow night what the Smackdown rating is.


I've been thinking about this for most of today. I don't think I've seen so many positive posts about WWE on forums in such a long time. There's definately a disconnect here with me and to me that is not wrestling, it's Cirque Du Soleil. And I went back and watched the first fatal 4 way match and Russo was right, it's all super kicks. Even when Kevin Owens breaks up a pin attempt, it's a super kick. Russo remembered back when he started writing Vince McMahon would not allow any other wrestler to do a superkick because that was Shawn's move and when Shawn did it, it finished the match. Every wrestler's finisher finished a match. Now they are using these moves just like throwaway moves and they all do it, they all do these superkick things and they pop right back up, even Cesaro who I like, many times in that match got hit with a move and just went right back to his feet, how can the audience really sit there and suspend their disbelief.

Having said that I am curious to see how this all pans out. I've said for months now that I wanted them to actually do this, fill their main TV shows which they get paid $100 million a year for with these NXT wrestlers and see how it fares. I'm genuinely curious to give it a month till Summerslam and see how the ratings are. We always expect a post PPV bump and then it usually drops down the next week. I'm genuinely curious to see how the millions at home feel, are the millions at home sitting watching this and nodding along and enjoying it. And then of course right after Summerslam the NFL is there for 14 weeks and there's no doubt in my mind they will knock them well under the 3 million mark, no doubt about it, we haven't hit rock bottom with the ratings yet but I'm curious to see if this really takes off.

I never thought the WWE would ever do this. I never thought I'd see the day where Vince McMahon himself caters to the minority with the loudest voice. The smark fans. The IWC and the sad thing is that the smarks and the IWC aren't going anywhere. Even in this thread there are people that will not go anywhere, they will never stop paying for Sky Sports or stop watching, they have these people and like Russo said last night, if you're gonna milk that minority for every penny, by all means milk them for every penny but would it not be good to do both? Would it not be good to appeal to the casual audience that don't watch wrestling week to week and try and get them to start watching week to week? You're not gonna lose the IWC or the smarks. They will always watch. Shawn Michaels even said that. They're always gonna be there. Wrestling fans are unlike any other. They don't just go away. Why not try and bring in a new audience on top of the one that's there and make even more money and appeal to everyone?

There is a disconnect. That's not necessarily to say you're wrong but it's obvious WWE doesn't connect with you any more. And hasn't for a really long time.

It's going to take time to see if this format change can attract some of the audience back. If WWE can put out a consistently good shows over the next number of months, then we should see the audience grow. It will take time to get back the audience who stopped watching WWE.

If they can put on that quality of show every week, they've won me back as a weekly viewer for at least one of the live shows. Improvements can still be made, I still think there is still a need to create storylines, to let things build, to not compartmentalise the stories they create, but I had bloody fun last night. Watching Raw has become a chore, on the occasions I have watched all 3 hours in pretty much the past 12 months I've woken up feeling like shit the next day. Today I didn't wake up feeling like I wasted my time.

This has always been a frustration for me when it comes to WWE, they can do it. They can create ****ing brilliant television and it can be (for me) the best form of entertainment but so often they get it so so wrong and I don't understand how the same people that wrote the past 12 months of Raw also wrote that episode last night. It's so bipolar.

I don't know if they can build ratings, falling ratings on cable aren't exclusive to Raw and Smackdown. And this is the point Vince was trying to make (probably didn't make it phenomenally well) that yes their ratings are falling but they remain most weeks the #1 show on cable television on Monday nights and that shows that cable ratings with the select few exceptions are falling.

Battleground was the best PPV they've created all year, I felt good heading into Raw and now I feel great heading into Smackdown. If they can keep it up, I'm back as a weekly viewer and I really hope they can but I don't have much hope that they can based on past experience.

I don't think Vince is catering to the smark fan, but it's because the likes of Bryan and Styles and Ambrose and Rollins have been the only ones actually getting over this decade. He's tried with others, yet can you one of those who people truly popped for?

The booking is largely to blame - scripted promos and 50/50 booking for a start. Still, back in 2009 many families weren't that into anybody outside of Cena and his contemporaries. The so called internet darlings are the only ones who could still get heat even after being jobbed out or put on the back burner.

Sheamus, Del Rio, Reigns and Henry have all been given mega pushes. They haphazardly tried with Ryback, Big E, Rusev, Barrett and Rhodes.

All those pushes had serious fundamental flaws though and basically slotted into the WWE booking routine so none of the guys stood out. I would argue that the Henry one in 2011 was the most successful but also short-lived. To me, it's a shame Reigns has been booked so badly because he's one of the best workers in the world right now and has great mannerisms etc. Just turn the ****er heel and push him right to the top.

Also, 1-3 for this show tonight?

Yeah. Well 1-3+20 mins over run lol

Christ, stop it with the overruns! No need!

Thanks though. Tentatively looking forward to seeing what they have to offer.

I would say 2009 was the start of them aiming at the kids and families and John Cena was up front and centre.

People think of the Attitude Era all the time. I'm not talking about a 5 year period, I'm talking from the late 80s till mid 2008. Wrestling was full of larger than life characters. Those characters were different. Most of them wore costumes, had gimmick names, some of them talked in ways they never would in real life. There were stories connecting the matches. That's how wrestling was from Roddy Piper and his Piper's Pits which everytime he did one he seemed to start a new feud with a different person to Randy Savage and the Mega Powers, Sgt Slaughter, the Hart Foundation, even through the New Generation era it was filled with over the top characters. Even in 2008 we had Mr McMahon and his bastard son Hornswaggle and him whipping him with a belt after beating him up inside a steel cage and then pulls his underwear down on TV and asks his son to kiss his bare ass. How can anyone not laugh when watching all that? That's how wrestling was for many people for many years. They've never known anything different so you have to try and understand that for some of us....me.....the last few years of WWE and last night, it's a bit of a change, it's quite the change, it's like a million miles away from what we used to watch and again I'm not one of these fans harking back to the Attitude Era, i'm talking a good 25 years.

The smark fans, tend to be the kind of fans that hate all that stuff. They would hate blood. They would hate the Kiss My Ass Club or even Sgt Slaughter, you see now how they don't have time for Rusev and Lana's schtick, do you think they would have liked Sgt Slaughter and General Adnan? Course they wouldn't. They would hate anything that resembled entertainment or pantomime or soap opera. A lot of them just want wrestling and nothing but wrestling and that's why some people say things like that, the WWE is catering to the smarks because they tend to represent that side of the wrestling business.

There was people like me that enjoyed the other side of wrestling and unfortunately people tend to think of that as the Attitude Era and I've just proven that it's not 1997 - 2001. It's actually 1988 - 2008. And for many people that's all they knew. That's what wrestling was to them.

I can't explain it any better or clearer than that and that's why I always said to people online that would give me abuse about it that they didn't see what I saw. If you saw what I saw within those 20 years, you would see it from my side. If you saw the wrestling that I saw, you'd see the difference right away, it's like night and day.

But after last night and seeing hardly any negative comments on the show, I now know that I need step back for a bit because it's not a case of a company putting out a product that I disagree with and I can say it's not aimed at me, it's aimed at families and that's why It doesn't challenge me or interest me. It's now a case of people my age all agreeing that it's good and they want more of it so now I know what needs to happen and I know that I can't see it the same way they do. And it's happened with other things where the general public get behind something, it's great and they love and I give it a go and I can't get into it and there's things there that they can see that I can't see and I could be wrong. The WWE could be doing the right thing and if it ends up being good for business and more people watch it then that's great and it just means I got it wrong. It doesn't change the wrestling I did watch, I can still say I watched and enjoyed wrestling for that period of time.

That's a big thing for me. There really isn't any need to run 20 minutes over every pissing week. Raw runs over like 1hr 20 a month, most PPVs run under by 10-15 minutes.

I think the thing you don't seem to understand is that most people gets that the product has changed in the past however many years. And people's issue isn't with you feeling that or even talking about that.

People don't hate blood, I think they just see the practicality of not having it. It's like last night somebody asking why they use a plant instead of an actual member of the public. It's just basic common sense. You do make these sweeping, ridiculous generalisations which makes it hard to take you and anything you say seriously.

There's no need to turn it into a "You weren't there so you don't know" thing either.