FlipBoard
WWE Raw
Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE Raw: WWE went to Scotland, where creative’s only ideas were, “debut the guy from Scotland,” and, “if you have a championship, you’re getting pinned.” Also on the show, Stephanie McMahon told Team Raw they needed to get along, so she made them wrestle each other. Like you do.
Remember that With Spandex is on Twitter, so follow it. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. You can also follow me on Twitter. Also, make sure you’re reading the vintage Best and Worst reports.
Hit those share buttons! It helps more than you realize. Help us get through these shows. This time of year, specifically the time between SummerSlam and Royal Rumble, is a real dead zone.
And now, the Best and Worst of WWE Raw for November 14, 2016.
![[avatar]](https://profilecdn-woven.netdna-ssl.com/photo/1245/profile)
Over the last two years, I’ve drifted from “watching regularly” to “watching sometimes & relying on Brandon’s columns to fill me in” to “just reading Brandon’s columns” and now I’m down to “skimming Brandon’s columns.”
This describes me perfectly as I, legitimately, just finished skimming the article myself. No slight on the writing, I just find myself losing interest in what’s going on. I couldn’t imagine spending the 47 hours a week on trying to keep up with all the new content.
Wow I have traveled literally the exact same path. LOVE Brandon’s columns, but sadly they are literally the only thing worth paying attention to in wrestling right now. They just need a better product. WWE is so terrible right now. I don’t even watch most of the PPVs because nothing matters to anyone.
this describes me too. Brandon’s writing about Punk and “the pipe bomb” brought me back into wrestling, but the product is so terrible right now that i canceled the network 2 weeks ago and just dont feel any desire to watch the product. ill continue reading the B&Ws but thats pretty much it for me right now. maybe when HHH finally takes over creative but for now just yuck.
Me too
I promise I’m a lot more enjoyable if you don’t skim
I’m not to “Skimming Brandon’s Articles”, but every paragraph I read about RAW just saddens me about the product.
At least we have Aztec Warfare on Wednesday.
YOU ALL HAVE AZTEC WARFARE ON WEDNESDAY!
Ditto.
But I only skim this article; the retro B&W’s are fully enjoyed in all their glory.
I like skim milk…well not really.
I don’t care if he looks good or not imitating Enzo’s dance taunt; the fact Mick Foley can move his legs that fast after barely being able to walk a few years ago is a modern day miracle.
So, hypothetical: would you rather see Mick dance while Stephanie talks, or Stephanie dance while Mick talks?
Ah, I should add a stip – no muting the sound.
There are no circumstances under which I don’t want to see Steph mom dancing. Even with Mick blathering over it.
I was so sad, she didn’t really get into her New Day bit…
So what’s the only acceptable outcome for Goldberg vs. Lesnar? Goldberg can’t lose his first match in 12 years and you don’t want Lesnar to look like a chump by losing to the guy who hasn’t wrestled in over a decade. Does Taker show up and murder everyone?
Why can’t Goldberg lose in his return? They jobbed out Sting with absolutely no second thought in both of his big matches.
@TyMo Fair point. Hadn’t even considered that.
Yeah, feels like 100% that Goldberg loses. They’ll give him a few cool spots and I bet he gets to look way better than the way they jobbed Ambrose to Brock at ‘Mania, but the build to whatever Brock is doing at WM33 (maybe his last Mania?) starts here by making him look great.
I don’t buy that it’s Goldberg’s only match.
The ONLY acceptable outcome is Brock destroying Goldberg. That’s the #1 reason I have zero interest in this feud. One of the most legit monsters in WWE history versus a gray-haired 50-year-old who hasn’t wrestled in 12 years. How does ANYONE care about this?
@hobbitcore Exactly. Been asking this question since the rumors of Goldberg’s return started.
I’m not sold on unbeatable Brock. I like the idea of Goldberg eeking out the win, not because he’s physically superior, but just because he has his number and enough tanking and enough old man strenph to power through and hit Brock hard enough to win. And frankly who the hell else are they gonna let beat him. They already put him against Strowman once and Brock just turned on his speed booster and suplexed him. Nor do I see any value in him diminishing Goldberg by beating him. There has to be one guy Brock can’t walk all over. Plus there’s much more storyline possibility with Brock having to deal with actually losing clean.
Watching the State of the WWE just made me sad for Mick Foley. Dude very clearly has pretty severe TBI issues. I get having stars from yesteryear come back is a fun nostalgia kick and I don’t want this to seem like I’m bashing Foley, because I love him. I’d just like him to have a peaceful retirement.
The no-stakes thing for SS continues to infuriate me, because Brandon’s 100% right, there’s no reason these guys should get along or care about winning. Shouldn’t KO, an ultimate opportunist type, want his team to get wrecked and beaten so badly at SS that the other guys are too banged up to even think of challenging for his title? It felt so dumb to see Ambrose and Styles standing shoulder to shoulder last night, and the same goes for like ten other feuds over the two shows. All you have to do is even throw a frigging trophy into the mix or some promise about future championship opportunities to make it worth everyone’s while. But WWE continues to believe that fighting for the honor of the McMahons is the highest accomplishment, so stakes be damned.
In 2028, will Lesnar realize that a 1-1 record vs Goldberg still isnt good enough?
God damn, Birdman, that comment was well done.
Thanks!
I tried to Scanner Seth after he turned down Jericho’s gift, and I tried to will Braun to put on the scarf – maybe too much to do both at the same time.
3.0 are really showing some range.
I’m sad that a show full of tag matches with people who don’t get along didn’t end up with a Battle Bowl Battle Royale. You get to keep that ring another year, DDP!
(Completely unrelated note: Way to go Uproxx on getting Alan Sepinwall! He and Stroud are the two people who I read reviews of things I don’t always have the chance to watch because they’re style is compelling enough. Now…how about some editing function on comments?)
If Raw was a magic show the magician would load the pretty assistant into a box to saw them in half, then wander around the stage shuffling cards, and the finale would be them holding up a rabbit and saying “ta-DA!”
Did anyone else feel like they were hitting the “Remember the Shield?!” talking points a little heavy last night, even BEFORE the Rollins/Reigns powerbomb? I can’t help but feel like WWE has some Shield-related nonsense planned if they feel the need to hit that talking point so often, which would be fine if they hadn’t just done a Shield triple threat like 5 months ago.
It’s a little late for that now that all three Shield members are the most insufferable kind of WWE babyfaces. I legit wouldn’t even care that much if they reunited. Fuck all three of em.
Was hoping for some Wyatt Family nonsense, too… maybe Wyatts/Shield nonsense, but having trouble giving a flying f*** anymore. But, please… for godsake sell your Booty-Os.
Is there some sort of petition I can sign to have Brandon write about Smackdown instead? Im starting to feel bad at this point.
+Infinity for two Lonely Island references in one paragraph.
All I’m praying for right now is that Undertaker calls out Vince and Shane tonight for the fact that the stipulation under which he wrestled at Wrestlemania apparently had no consequence since Shane is still on television thus ushering in the “Continuity Era” where things matter for more than a week at a time.
@BurnsyFan66, I challenge you to a CHALLENGE this SUNDAY at SURRIRIR SERIE! I’ll take Team Raw and you can take Team Smackdown and here’s the best part – LOSER HAS TO STAY RETIRED! Haha!! Best 2/3 Raw vs Smackdown SS matches! (Wink if you’re at a place where you can’t talk.) (PS, I’ll petition President Trump to release you from Gitmo!)
** this summer my friend Sarah made $ 2000 – $3000 in 7 days (maximum period) filing for fast cash mortgage loans in impoverished neighborhoods facing foreclosure. Using the following net service you too can H 3ll p m E! ! kin6 and agreeing to a protected financial loan. **
DELETE THE ABOVE COMMENT THE PERSONS KNOWN AS BURNSY FAN IS DEAD DO NOT LOOK FOR HIM
IF HE TRIES TO CONTACT YOU AGAIN PLEASE CALL 1-800-CALLFBI (1-800-225-5324)
Great! It’s settled then!
I don’t think WWE can ever truly manage having so much TV time to fill. (Isn’t LU like 20 hours a season? Try to imagine that show if they had to fill another 100 hours over a few months.). That said, watching that last segment (it’s the only thing I watched), all I could think of is “geez it’d be nice to see Owens vs. Styles or Reigns vs. Orton (sort of) or Ambrose vs. Rollins.” They HAVE to get some fresh matches, and they have to have performers wrestle outside of their rivalries on a regular basis. The RAW and Smackdown brands make that impossible.
Great point by Brandon on the criminal lack of stipulations for Survivor Series. It would have been so easy to give the winning teams/wrestlers prime spots in the Rumble, title opportunities, etc.
I’m fine if Emmalina is nothing more than those promos. She was always good lookin’ of course, but she’s just stunning in those beach shots. Don’t see how Zack Ryder can hold onto that.
I’m sad the Emmalina promos are always saying “premiering soon” and not “coming soon,” thereby denying us the most prolonged and epic “I’m Coming.” joke.
The fact there’s zero stakes blows my mind. I don’t get how this is so hard to build to, especially when they’ve done invasion angles before. Maybe if they kept the same amount of titles after the split so competitors would actually want to face someone from a different show, it’d make more sense, but as of right now, woof
Kevin Owens is champion and yet I still feel so unfulfilled. The incompetence in producing logic and compelling stories in this product is staggering.
At first, it felt as though the brand split had stakes that were never explicitly spelled out. Bryan would say that “We’re in a ratings battle. We’re fighting for our existence,” implying that whichever show scored higher would…take over the other program I suppose?
Now it’s clear that we’re stuck in an “MLB All Star Game pre-home field advantage” situation.
Much belated +1 on the Bret Michaels comment
I have to go back and check, but I’m pretty sure I called the brand split as irrelevant in about this time frame. It’s so lame and has never worked. You can’t kayfabe a rivalry when everyone knows it’s the same company.
All I know for sure is:
RAW is BRAWN
BRAUN is RAU
Please, Vince… at least let me have this…
I legitimately cannot believe you put a Mick Foley dancing GIF, but did NOT put a Stephanie McMahon shaking her booty GIF. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
My face when Oney Lorcan gets called to main before Samoa Joe >:(
Your face looks… pulled apart! Anyway… Oney is just one of many setting the table for Mighty Joe. Wondering if Joe is still healing up?
‘Member when Goldberg speared Lesnar allowing Eddie to with the WWE heavyweight championship? RIP Eddie.
Reality check: Any WWE show is infinitely more fun if you watch it BEFORE you read a detailed and colorful description on how much Brandon hates it. You’ll also enjoy these articles more.
No best for the close up shots of Enzo inaudibly losing his shit barking back while Stephanie talked to him like he was an enraged chiwawa in a pet shop window?
Enzo has been growing on me again – I like to the pure childishness of his insults and the seeming inability to finish a complete. I don’t know it works.
Also I like how the RAW guys came to together as a team this Survivor Series is a lot more interesting than teams built on random good guys vs random bad guys. They’re fighting for the honor of their respective shows. Makes more sense than Vince saying you’re good – you’re bad now fight.
There are 3 likely outcomes for all this Braun Stroman build up. The most likely is that he’s eliminated early in some fluke thing (gets himself DQ by being too aggressive maybe). The second is that he absolutely murders Bray Wyatt sending Bray further into his self doubt. But the most fun would be if Bray still had some sort of control over him and Stroman destroys everyone on team Raw and walks out of the match on Bray’s command.
This is written by somebody who hasn’t played a lick of competitive sports in their life. Brand superority doesn’t matter because it’s only been three months? I have been in teams where opposition players are best friends, but the teammate looks out more for me who they got minimum relations with rather than their best friend on the opposite team.