Wrestling Forum banner

How has WWE got really good so suddenly

12K views 120 replies 93 participants last post by  Lm2 
#1 ·
-Dean Ambrose is WWE Champion

-Finn Balor going over Roman Reigns and facing Seth Rollins at Summerslam for RAWs title

-Sasha Banks is WWE Womens Champion, Shes the Hot,Can talk on the mic,and can Wrestle everything you demand from a Womens wrestler basically

-The Roster has been more stacked then it ever has been, im still a bit weary of the brand split but it seems to be working out so far

Seriously has Vince McMahon been kidnapped ? WWE has been very unlike itself in the past month or so and I love the content its been briging
 
#7 ·
You're not allowed to say that kind of stuff around here
 
#16 ·
The hypocrisy of people shitting on Roman Reigns for not being worthy/good enough but adoring seeing Balor pushed so hard so quickly is amazing.

All Im seeing is a bunch of IWC cliches. Roman loses, Balor wins, Sasha wins, the smarks cream their pants while the product is still terrible and just getting worse if Kevin Owens cant get a Main Event push but Balor does...let that fact sink in. KO one of the best and most rounded talents on the roster is still just in the midcard losing to Zayn...while Balor who is beyond terrible, and indescribably boring beats Rusev and Reigns in one night and has a WWE Title match coming up...

In-freaking-sanity
 
#47 · (Edited)
First Balor is not beyond terrible, for whatever reason they decided in NXT to make Balor a boring white meat babyface outside of his entrance. And even if you think Balor is beyond terrible in your own opinion, doesn't change the face that Balor is actually pretty popular.

That aside Balor getting the push right to the SS title match is basically a product of what the WWE did with splitting the rosters. They want to keep Rollins heel (for whatever reason) and Reigns face (again for whatever reasons) so they needed a face to throw up against Rollins that has a chance to get cheered over him at Summerslam. My personal choice (since double flipping Rollins and Reigns seemed out of the question) would have been Zayn or flipping Owens face (but again that is not something they want to do in the short-term it seems) so Balor was the next best choice for that. Balor has aspects that will appeal to all groups of fans as a face and by having him beat Reigns clean the way they did it potentially makes him a "hero" to the hardcores. The WWE realized they could not go into Summerslam with a "face" Reigns vs a "heel" Rollins, so they are guessing Balor is the best option they have at a face getting cheers over a heel Rollins.

With all that said, Raw has been better the last couple weeks, but a good couple weeks does not mean it is an overall good product now, I like what I am seeing recently (well at least like it more than what I have seen in the recent past) But consistency is the going to the key here for the WWE, with the rosters split now.
 
#12 ·
Maybe they've finally realized that we weren't buying the crap they were selling and they had to change things completely to make this brand split work.

They did a great job with Raw, minus a couple of small issues, and look at the response it got.

Hopefully the ratings are strong because the show deserved it.
 
#33 ·
Everyone calling this smark friendly booking apparently didn't notice that last night's show was in Pittsburgh---a notoriously casual crowd that typically sits on their hands. They were eating up everything Balor did so clearly he has casual appeal.

BUT.... Last nights show was all hot shot booking and you can't sustain that. 99% of shows won't have a title change, won't have a debuting star running through the roster, and won't have the newness of a new set, new announcers, etcetera. We have to wait and see if they can sustain this level of quality for 6, 12, 18 weeks before we can declare they've turned things around.
 
#32 ·
I'll say what i always say... the RAW after a PPV always delivers these days, it gives you hope and expectation. It's what happens between that RAW and the next PPV that will really tell the story.

I enjoyed last night's RAW, it had a few surprises which is what i was hoping for, now they need to carry that on.
 
#43 ·
I thoroughly enjoyed RAW. Best episode all year imo and the company has made a bevy of good moves over the last 48 hours. I'm still grinning over Ambrose's Cinderella story. It was obvious Balor was going to be pushed to the moon so the complaints on that front are redundant. It was happening. You knew it was happening. I'm not his biggest fan but he has a great presence, is over, and will make the company money once he's established. He'll catch flack from a portion of heterosexual males who tense up every time a guy that women find attractive is pushed heavy (and yeah, to a degree, that definitely played a factor with some of the flack Reigns got early on, too) but Finn will be a top guy in due time as he should. Hopefully he won't be phased by the tools who will inevitably attempt to hijack his push because Kevin Owens looks more like them. (And yeah, KO deserves a push, too.)


Sasha and Charlotte killed it and proved why they are the two the company has chosen to back. The match lived up to the title of the show. There was nothing but raw passion between the pair and it was arguably the womens MOTY. Easily. Very seldom is the entire arena standing for ten minutes during a women's match on RAW. You can count on one hand how often it happens a year. The future is in good hands with those two.


Roman on the flip side is taking his lumps. This will either make or break him. Hopefully he does some reflection and figures out who exactly Roman Reigns is. He's being humbled and his entire perception will never be the same when this is over for better or worse. I think this will work out better for him in the long run. The foot is off the gas and in time, it's entirely possible the rift between he and the fans will be mended. He won't ever get the Cena push again but he will and can be a top 3 - 5 guy going forward. He'll learn from this and win over a lot of people in the process.


Great RAW all in all and I can't wait to see how Smackdown plans to top it.
 
#46 · (Edited)
It's pretty damn early to start heaping this kind of praise on WWE, as there is still a lot of work to be done.

That being said, things certainly look a hell of a lot better than they did 6 months ago.

I'm shocked that they're doing Balor vs Rollins for a World title at Summerslam, but I like it. It's about damn time WWE started taking some risks.

Also, :lol at the usual suspects crapping all over it because the majority of us actually enjoyed it. Hopefully the Balor push will knock em off the bandwagon for good. No room for archaic, outdated mindsets in this brave new world (assuming that it actually sticks, and doesn't revert to the same old crap.....which it almost certainly will)
 
#51 ·
Also,
at the usual suspects crapping all over it because the majority of us actually enjoyed it. Hopefully the Balor push will knock em off the bandwagon for good. No room for archaic, outdated mindsets in this brave new world (assuming that it actually sticks, and doesn't revert to the same old crap.....which it almost certainly will)
We'll see who ends up correct. The outdated mindset who wants the days of badass wrestlers like Austin and The Rock returned or whatever we have now. The abysmal ratings will continue to tell the real story. None of what they've done will make things better. The WWE is done and it'll never get past the level it's at now. It's just a machine and a cash cow that they've put on autopilot. Revenue over everything else. That's their real problem and since it's a publicly traded company that will never change.
 
#107 · (Edited)
Good? We got a random nobody* against the stale Rollins for one title, while Ziggler who was on the pre show for the last 3 PPV's is in a world title match.

The brand split is a waste of time with no star power. Reigns vs Cena vs Lesnar as the SS main event would have been a 100x better.
Balor may have some detractors as well as fans, and the casual fans might not know who he is, but to anyone that is interested in pro wrestling, and not just the brand that WWE creates, he has been one of the hottest stars for a hell of a long time.

Not everyone has to debut as a jobber and work their way up. Balor was introduced as a really big deal. Drafted before Reigns and Cena and given a place in one of the fatal four ways on his first night.

To even the casual fan, the story of his debut has been "the people in charge have a lot of respect for this guy - they give him the opportunity to insert himself into the Summerslam main event, and he took it. He must be as good as they say."

Just because he didn't come from a huge rival promotion - because there AREN'T ANY - like WCW and ECW sign-ups did back in the day, you instantly brand him a "random nobody"? OK, so you have no idea about NJPW, ROH or NXT ... but surely you see why they're bringing him in with a head of steam?

Don't worry, he won't beat Seth - and he'll move to upper-mid card for a while before coming back up for a "Universal Title" run.

I seriously don't understand how people can think he's boring though.
 
#4 ·
I'm not seeing it. Aside from Roman getting pinned clean by a vanilla midget (which is almost certainly down to him being punished, not some shift in the creative mindset) nothing extraordinary happened. I don't like the second world title and will dislike the inevitable second women's title. It's way too early to start heaping praise on WWE.
 
#31 ·
If you think Balor is a vanilla midget, you're honestly less intelligent than a Roman Reigns promo.
 
#40 ·
People are saying it good or it's bad but aren't really saying why it's either. I can see why the average smark could end up on either side

The Good:
- More meaningful matches, aside from the 3 quick squashes
- Booking. The bigger IWC darling won every match and Reigns lost clean.
- Commentary was more focused on action. Used the terms "wrestling" and "fans"
- Little Authority presence

The Bad:
- Little time spent on promos
- No storylines developed besides Sasha's win
- New Day and/or EnC's antics. They were off which is added ammo for their detractors
- Vince's picks. Braun and Nia, for the people who fear their pushes
- Local talent squashes
- Pokemon Go segments
- 2 Roman matches
- Sashawinslol

Personally I thought the action was good, I even watched the matches with people I normally auto skip because there were stakes (except Neville) but wrestling without stories and promos is pretty pointless to me.
 
#63 ·
The key will be building midcard feuds that people care about about and mean something. I mean here are the facts about last night

- We had 4 matches that people cared about ( 2 Fatal 4-Ways, womens championship and the main event)
- The opening segment set up most of the show and not the just the main event, which allowed the show to flow nicely and rarely drag

The key will be developing midcard feuds people will care about and the cruiserweight division to supplement the main event scene.

Part of the negativity comes from the Reigns ass sucking trolls but other part comes from WWE's inability to string together good back to back RAW's, so theres some reason to think this RAW was just a fluke.

Sorry Balor hates, hes going nowhere. Even if he fails to get over as a face, they'll turn him heel and reunite him with Gallows and Anderson and he'll become a top heel. Either way lose. so suck it and go grovel in your misery with that skinny fat fuck flash in the pan Russo.
-
 
#77 ·
YMMV with the reasons OP listed being good things or not, but I will agree that the product has been leaps and bounds better lately thanks to a combination of spotlighting new acts, a renewed focus on developing and maintaining heat within feuds and somewhat improved booking.

I wonder if the call-up of Ryan Ward had more influence on this all than we realized.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top