RAW Begins the End of a Television Era...
Greetings
Enthusiasts!
Here
we are again for RAW and I have to
say the feeling is a bit bittersweet.
This is the final week where we have RAW and SmackDown back to back.
After this week, we will start the week with RAW and finish it with SmackDown
and I am curious as to how that will play out.
I’m not sure that they’ll do a West Coast airing so, SmackDown may just be live, leaving
those like me on the West Coast to catch that action on the flip. I just hope they’re prepared for the ratings
adjustment. We’ll have to get caught up
before the next RAW and at least once
a month before the upcoming PPV. Not
sure how I feel about this just yet but I am prepared to alter how I post and
poke fun. Gotta do what you gotta
do. I’ll get it in somehow.
In
other news, we had the NXT debut on
USA last Wednesday. I didn’t know they
were only going to show the 1st hour but didn’t mind switching over
to the WWE Network. Helps me get more of
my money’s worth. Not sure how often I’m
going to check in on this but I do find it interesting that it’s pretty clear who
AEW’s true competition is. Not at all
surprised that Kenny Omega talked some shit regarding the NXT wrestlers too. NXT has AEW’s production values beat by just
a smidge but both have that gritty underground feel. They are basically in the same place. I get that AEW has more established talent
but when it comes to WWE fans, AEW and NXT basically have the same difference.
Now, understand that this is not to praise the WWE as much as it is just stating the facts. The WWE is the promotion to beat in this Wrestling World. They’ve been around for decades, have the best production values and the best talent that money can buy. If this was an 80s or 90s era sports comedy, the WWE would basically be “Big Wrestling” or the wrestling version of Cobra Kai. They’re the big, intimidating, corporately funded faction that the “little guys” shouldn’t be able to stand a chance against. Omega playing into that only helps his cause yet, the true question will always lie within the longevity of a rival promotion. Lucha Underground is the current cautionary tale. To me, that was a true rival to the WWE but without solid funding, it’s not certain if they’ll have a 5th season. So, that kinda takes them out of the running. That’s the real telling point, if you ask me. Can a new promotion last more than 5 years? We all know that New Japan and ROH do their things but they stay pretty level when it comes to their production values. I haven’t really seen any improvements, they're simply holding steady. That being said, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that this quest for wrestling dominance won’t really be a valid discussion for another 5-10 years. I guess we should just enjoy this time as we wait and see.
Now, understand that this is not to praise the WWE as much as it is just stating the facts. The WWE is the promotion to beat in this Wrestling World. They’ve been around for decades, have the best production values and the best talent that money can buy. If this was an 80s or 90s era sports comedy, the WWE would basically be “Big Wrestling” or the wrestling version of Cobra Kai. They’re the big, intimidating, corporately funded faction that the “little guys” shouldn’t be able to stand a chance against. Omega playing into that only helps his cause yet, the true question will always lie within the longevity of a rival promotion. Lucha Underground is the current cautionary tale. To me, that was a true rival to the WWE but without solid funding, it’s not certain if they’ll have a 5th season. So, that kinda takes them out of the running. That’s the real telling point, if you ask me. Can a new promotion last more than 5 years? We all know that New Japan and ROH do their things but they stay pretty level when it comes to their production values. I haven’t really seen any improvements, they're simply holding steady. That being said, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that this quest for wrestling dominance won’t really be a valid discussion for another 5-10 years. I guess we should just enjoy this time as we wait and see.
So,
that brings us to tonight! Now, I don’t
know if we should expect too much but they should be setting us up for a pretty
solid SmackDown since it will be the
last one on the USA Network for the foreseeable future but, we’ll get into that more
tomorrow. As for this evening, looks
like Bray Wyatt filmed another installment of the Firefly Fun House. Nikki Cross will see if she can put a dent in
Sasha Banks’ newfound sass. And Chad
Gable still isn’t through with Baron Corbin.
Got to say I’m a little curious with what they’re going to do with
this. Hopefully, it’s worth it whatever
they settle on. Also, looks like we may
close the night with a stacked Fatal-5-Way to see who gets a shot at Seth
Rollins for the Universal Title since Brock Lesnar sauntered over to SmackDown
to “attempt” to take the title off Kofi Kingston. Now, this may or may not matter because of
the draft coming up in a few weeks or at the very least, whatever comes of all
of this may be very, very temporary. These
are very interesting times. We’ll see
how they make the most of it. Funny
tweets get retweeted and as for Likes/Favorites well, we should be a bit shrewd
in our viewing. With all these big
changes about to go into effect, we are ultimately looking for the WWE to take
this opportunity to reinvent itself a little or at least spruce itself up. I hear that we should at least get new sets
for both RAW and SmackDown in the coming weeks, that is a start. Guess we'll have to watch to see how it ends.
See
You in a Bit,
-Nicole Alexis (^_~)
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