General

That Flair/Ripley match is EASILY Match of the Night for now. The fellas in the tag title match have their work cut out for them. What a great match. Maybe the best Women’s Mania match to date, rivaled only by Sasha/Bianca imo.

Night 1:

Theory vs Cena - ⭐️⭐️.25
4-way Tag - ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Rollins vs Paul - ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Lynch/Lita/Trish vs Damage CTRL - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rey vs Dom - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ripley vs Flair - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
McAfee vs Miz - ⭐️
KO/Zayn vs Usos - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Definitely a satisfying night of wrestling. A fairly forgettable first half made up for by having some legend/celebrity involvement, followed by 3 instant classic Mania matches (& 1 friggin filler segment). Exceeded expectations, if only just slightly.

All my ratings are based solely off the actual in-ring wrestling. I feel the Women's title match just barely eeked out the tag title match in that regard, but if I were judging on emotion and story, the tag title match would be 5+ stars. The ending to the tag match was great.

KO and Zayn having the PWG logo on their gear - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Got some high expectations for this match.
Gunther is in really good shape compared to when he first started appearing on NXT regularly.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:
THey are beating the piss out of each other.. I've never seen so many chops in my life

I'd hate to have to follow that

PizzaTheHutt wrote:
I wonder who will challenge Gunther next?? Brekker?? Hope it's not Lesner, Amos or Lashley.. bring in some new blood..

This doesn't look good for Belair... Cena came out with kids and he lost.. Foreshadowing??

shadyfozzie wrote:

I don’t need it to be immediately, but I actually do want Lesnar to challenge Gunther sooner or later. Pass the “big meat boy” torch to Gunther.

Great IC title match. Will prob remain the match of the night for me.

Bianca/Asuka was a real good match too, and I so badly wanted to be wrong about my prediction. Asuka is one of the best wrestlers in WWE, women or men. She deserves far more spotlight. But Bianca is great too, so good on her.

Rest of the show so far has been pretty forgettable.

Wow, wasn't expecting to see this guy any time soon.

And maybe he should've stayed gone

PizzaTheHutt wrote:
WTF just happened to Shane O'Mac?

He blew his knee out and Snoop Dogg had to save the segment. Never thought I'd see that happen.

So Miz vs Pat, then Miz vs Shane, Shane vs his quad, & Miz vs Snoop Dogg… but Lashley could only get penciled in to stand on the stage with a trophy? Aaaaalright.

Damn, only two matches left and it’s not even 10pm yet. They must have something else planned for between these two matches.

WTF is Edge wearing?
FYI: Edge has one of the best entrance songs of all time..

Wish it was darker out.. Balor's entrance would be a hell of a lot cooler..
Fun Fact: Balor and Edge are both over 40..

That HIAC match was underwhelming. The blood lull destroyed the momentum and then it seemed like they were just setting up the spots that they had planned to be stretched out. That may have been the case, I feel like it was supposed to be longer. Still a good match, just underwhelmed is all.

Time to retire the Demon gimmick. Finn loses any time he brings it out.

theJaw wrote:


I saw some wishful thinking on Twitter (though I don't personally believe it so I won't be disappointed if/when it doesn't happen) that Lashley's open challenge will be answered by Jay White.

They’re putting on pre show video packages. I think HIAC was supposed to go longer. They’re killing for time.

WrestleMania in Philly next year, hopefully they will save a spot in the HOF for an ECW Original.

Whoever approved TurboTax commercials without an IRS cameo needs to rethink their decision.

Wow, I ain't even mad at that result. I am surprised though.

I can’t be mad, it’s expected for WWE to absolutely fumble an easy layup in the 4th quarter. Massive missed opportunity to build a fresh, legitimate main event guy solely to get Reigns to 1,000 days. The Bloodline has officially jumped the shark.

I still see this as the Jey Uso show. We’re not done with Bloodline turmoil and I see Jey and Roman fighting at SummerSlam. But, we’ll see what happens.

I did want Cody to win, but it obviously didn’t happen today. It will probably happen someday, though.

I could buy the Jey Uso spin for a while but he cemented his position as a full on heel when he turned on Sami and meant it. If they kept that post-Rumble shade of grey in his character after the turn, I’d still be with you. But now it’ll feel like backpedaling if they shift focus back to Jey when they had plenty of opportunity to keep that aspect bubbling right under the surface instead of turning him entirely “bad”. It’d just be very “Big Show” to attempt to turn him face again. Face at the start vs Roman > heel when he sides with Roman > face when he refuses to attack Sami > full on heel when he officially turns on Sami > face when he has a change of heart and challenges Roman? I don’t need to see that, personally.

I’ll keep watching to see where it ends up, but like I said, the story has jumped the shark for me. I’m no longer nearly as invested in the “take Roman down” angle and I don’t think placing Jey back at the front of the line will rejuvenate it for me. It’s a shame, but oh well. Expected.

I heard rumors earlier before the show that they would have Roman retain to drop the belts to Omos at SummerSlam. I highly doubt that’s really the case, but if THAT’s the route they actually do take, RIP any interest I have left.

Night 2:

Brock vs Omos - ⭐️⭐️.25
Women’s 4-way Tag - ⭐️⭐️
Gunther vs Sheamus vs Drew - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Bianca vs Asuka - ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Snoop Dogg vs Miz (vs Shane?) - ⭐️
Edge vs Balor - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Reigns vs Rhodes - ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️.5 - Wildly underwhelming show. The IC title triple threat was the one pillar, Bianca/Asuka was good, and the main event was admittedly great until the overbooked “third act” and the massive missed opportunity that comes with the result. The rest was standard. Haven't felt this indifferent after a Mania in a while. Didn't hate it, didn't like it. I was certain Night 2 was going to outdo Night 1, on paper it's the better card, but that wasn't the case whatsoever unfort.

(PS will tally scores tomorrow, I’m a tired fella tonight)

theJaw wrote:

I'd love to see Reigns vs. Gunther.. It almost makes sense.. Gunther vs. Reigns, Imperium vs. Usos, and they can introduce someone new to take on Solo. Gunther really impressed me last night.. That IC match was frigging BRUTAL.. they literally beat the piss out of each other for like 25 straight minutes..

Tonight is the only Raw I watch from start to finish.. it's gonna be interesting to see where some of these story lines go:
1) Who challenges KO/Zayn?
2) Does Ripley split from Dom/Judgement Day?? Does Judgement Day start a feud with LWO?
3) Who's the Raw woman's challenger now?
4) What's up with Lynch/Lita/Stratus?? Who's challenging them, Rousey/Baszler?
5) Who challenges Theory now? Hopefully someone new, like Gargano.
6) What NXT guys/gals make their debut tonight?? Any Free Agents make a surprise appearance?
7) Will someone challenge Reigns saying how he's a little dog and needs help to win?
8) How AWESOME will tonight's crowd be?

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Tha Doggfather absolutely saved the segment. The Miz was hopping around the ring dazed, surprised me, I would think he would be able to improvise better than that. Drop an elbow to take Shane out or something.

back4more wrote:

I wonder if the Miz knew what was going on at the time..

The reason why the Edge/Balor match was temporarily stopped:
https://twitter.com/FinnBalor/status/1642753664661...

wow, thats a serious split.

As for Miz, the guys probably see injuries occasionally so they are probably training on what to do when an injury happens. Maybe he was either freaked because it was the boss, or he didnt know it was really just a leg injury.

Here are the scores the way I tallied them. If anyone wants to double check my work against their predictions, go for it and let me know:

@shadyfozzie - 40
theJaw - 35
@jgrant78 - 40
@BloodPuppetX - 41
@mcorrado - 31
@PizzaTheHutt - 37

Congrats to BloodPuppetX for eeking out the win. Almost thought we were gonna have to go to the tie breaker.