MagicianCamille

Embarrassing performance. This team has no strengths this year. Worst Ravens team I can remember in a long time. 

Started the season with an inexcusably poor WR corps. Offensive line has been under-performing. Secondary isn't as solid as we thought it'd be. 

 

I wish the front office learned from the mistakes of the past. This team was held back for so many of Flacco's early years by a poor WR corps, and when we got in Boldin and Torrey we won a SB. Then we let them go in back to back years and now we're 1-3. Not sure what they expected to happen. 

really? i seem to recall everyone swearing that marlon brown and kamar aiken were the answers to our prayers

Key emphasis on "with any sense". I certainly never thought Brown and Aiken were good enough. 

Flacco put it all together in the end and his receivers just let him down. Disgraceful and extremely predictable. Everyone with any sense said during the offseason the receiver corps wasn't good enough. 

Now we can't stop the run all of a sudden. Sigh. 

O-Line getting manhandled and no receiver separation. Didn't expect the first but expected the second, which makes the first that much more problematic. 

Well throw out everything I reckon as CM Punk has quit. Some initial reports seem to suggest WWE was planning on moving Daniel Bryan into a match against Triple H, leaving Punk without a main event opponent. 

 

Can't blame Punk for being upset about this, as after having arguably the best match of 2013 against Brock Lesnar at Summerslam, WWE had been using him in feuds against midcarders (Axel and The Shield). I suspected there would be a light at the end of the tunnel for Punk, with him either winning the Rumble and the title at WM, or wrestling Triple H, but with both options extinguished that would've left him with someone like Kane as a Wrestlemania opponent. Far from an attractive option given Punk's status, talent, and his already diminished role in the company over the last 7 months.

 

He's said himself he has enough money for the rest of his life, so without a new goal set for WM to provide incentive for him, leaving WWE would be a sensible move from his perspective, especially given the fact he hasn't really had a chance to rest his body since he began his career. 

 

As a huge Punk fan this is very disappointing. I have no interest in Batista, Randy Orton, or John Cena. I like Daniel Bryan but not to the extent I'm a fan of Punk's. I'll probably watch Elimination Chamber as it's usually a solid show irrespective of storylines, but unless there are major changes to the direction I can't see myself being at all interested in Wrestlemania. 

Possible spoilers regarding the road to wrestlemania depending on what you define as a spoiler: 

 

Word is that Batista's contract guaranteed he would win the Rumble and the WWE title at Wrestlemania. Due to the huge backlash to Bryan not even being in the Rumble, it is being considered that we will get a triple threat at WM between the Elimination Chamber winner, Batista, and Daniel Bryan, which Batista would win, leading us into Extreme Rules in Daniel Bryan's home state of Washington, where Bryan would likely win the title. 

 

Take with a grain of salt of course, but I can see this being the case. 

 

Personally I wanted CM Punk to win the Rumble with Bryan working a program with Triple H for WM, but it looks like Punk will be filling that role instead, most likely facing Kane at Elimination Chamber, which would then lead into Punk/Trips for WM. 

 

Before the Rumble, my ideal WM card would have been: 

 

CM Punk vs Brock Lesnar © - WWE Title

John Cena vs The Undertaker

Daniel Bryan vs Triple H 

Randy Orton vs Batista (dont actually care about this, but I dont want them in the other matches and it works story-wise) 

The Shield vs The Wyatts (looks like we actually will get this, perhaps at EC, depending if Cena/Wyatt lasts until WM) 

 

I could have lived with swapping Punk and Bryan as a second option, but as it stands the current direction isn't interesting me too much. 

Truly a magnum opus promo by CM Punk last night. Best promo in the WWE since his MITB worked shoot. This build is already better than the entirety of the Cena/Rock build.

He was never televised on either NXT TV show, and I don't believe he ever competed for NXT's brand (I could be wrong on this, but it's irrelevant as live shows are not distributed). I'm pretty sure WWE viewed Ambrose as more of a special project they didn't want to expose, so they kept him to WWE dark matches following FCW's transformation into NXT. He's definitely been portrayed as the "general" of the group, in promos and in the TLC match and attack segment on last week's Raw.

Dean Ambrose was never in any incarnation of NXT.

Ambrose is a great talker and wrestler so I don't really care what happens to the other two guys as long as the real star gets pushed.

He's just as "done" as he was after WM28. In other words that post-match segment did nothing for me. Decent match though.

Cena cashed in on Raw 1000 and won by DQ so he loses the case and didn't win the title.

I could see Ziggler losing to Jericho at SS and cashing in at the end of the night to be honest.

The CEO mocking Jim Ross' bells palsy is fine but make a Kobe Bryant joke and you've crossed the line. Gotta love the WWE.

Today WWE announced a new television program to air Wednesday nights on the ION Network, titled "WWE Main Event". Basically sounds exactly like Superstars.

http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/WWE_News_3/article_62789.shtml

WWE announced Monday a new TV show, "WWE Main Event," that will air on the Ion Television network. The timeslot is Wednesday nights at 8:00 p.m. EST and the launch date is Wednesday, October 3.

The description of the show is similar to Superstars with matches featuring the Raw and Smackdown rosters, but with more top stars, at least at the beginning. The description reads: "WWE Main Event will feature in-ring action and fit seamlessly in storylines from Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown, making Wednesday night appointment viewing for fans. The new series will offer a big arena experience with live audiences like current WWE weekly programs."

Don't be surprised to see them have top stars on the show for the first few weeks/months like they did with Superstars.

Honestly it's hard to follow, but Vince would have to have some kind of power to remove HHH as the GM of Raw. Anyway, the kayfabe corporate structure of WWE has always been murky waters.

Well if you want more non-continuity in storylines, this is it. How is it that Vince can "evaluate" Johnny Ace's job performance if storyline wise he was fired from his position which Triple H now has. Tell me how that makes any sense and I guess this is WWE once again going, "let's hope the fans forgot about Vince being fired."

It appears you forgot that Vince came back and fired Triple H. Vince is on the board of the directors he's just not the chairman anymore.

Cole revealed later on that Big Show signed the contract Monday morning, so he wasn't under contract to WWE until after he had cost Cena the match.

The battle royal was announced and the entrances happened on the pre-show stream on wwe.com before the PPV started. The PPV opened right as the battle royal itself began, and then we got the PPV introduction stuff after the battle royal ended.

Reks and Hawkins actually did go into the crowd and remove signs (likely from plants).

On commentary Cena was basically imitating Booker T and then said Johnny Ace should be Booker T since he has the voice for it and that Cena would be Michael Cole instead. He said "That was vintage John Cena, what do you think Booker?" and then Ace in his semi-unconscious state muttered "Five time...five time...".

I wasn't surprised at all by the quality of the divas match. I've been saying it all along that Layla and Beth are very good female wrestlers and deserve more time to show what they can do. Natalya, as well. As a whole the divas division needs to move away from talentless lingerie models such as Kelly Kelly, Alicia, the Bellas, and Maryse, and focus more on actual female wrestlers. Tamina is someone else I'd like to see more of. Her family is ingrained in the business, she isn't a lingerie model she's a WRESTLER. I want to see her and the other female WRESTLERS I mentioned get more time to show what they can do.

I absolutely loved the performances of the criminally misutilized Tyson Kidd and Alex Riley in that battle royal. I think Christian was a good choice to win it and eventually the IC title. Smackdown was in dire need of a midcard face, and they really plugged that hole tonight with Christian. Now he can act as a lightning rod for all these great young heels we have on the roster currently to feud with.

Punk/Bryan was phenomenal, MOTY thus far for sure. I liked the finish as it made Bryan look strong and gave us reason to buy into a rematch at No Way Out. They really need to do a better job building the feud on TV this time. There is a wealth of history between the two to tap into. WWE needs to take advantage, and more importantly, let CM Punk and Daniel Bryan tell the story that needs to be told, and not their "Sports Entertainment" writing staff.

I'm not going to lie, I laughed hard at the commentary spot in the Cena-Ace match, but for the most part I felt like this was a joke match and had no business main eventing over Punk/Bryan. That is insulting to me as a wrestling fan. However I enjoyed the predictable swerve with Big Show. We all knew it'd happen, but at the same time it needed to happen, so I'm okay with it.

TNA actually handles it's women's division a LOT better than WWE does theirs. Yes there's more T&A but they also get featured every week, sometimes multiple segments, they get a lot more ring time, their PPV matches have build. Gail Kim has been champion for a long time now and rightfully so, she's a great wrestler.

WWE's division has some really good female wrestlers as well in Beth Phoenix, Natalya, and Layla. But look at how they are used in comparison. It's sad.

Using the third hour for younger talent would be great, but how about the current stars that don't get properly utilized? The utter lack of midcard feuds? The midcard belts going undefended and programless? The absence of a tag division? These are all things WWE has been able to have in the past with 2-hour shows, but in the last few years have completely failed with. Will a third hour make the difference? Not if there isn't a change in approach and philosophy within WWE about how to use guys outside the main event.

I'm cautious about this announcement. I've already read the plan is to incorporate "Viewer's Choice" matches. Why bother with this gimmick when there are so many shortcomings in WWE's programming right now? It mystifies me.

For me personally, I can't see me sitting and watching Raw live for 3 hours every week. I'm definitely going to feel more inclined to just DVR it and watch it at my leisure and fast forward through the commercials and filler segments. That's not a problem for me at all though, just figured I'd put it out there.

As for TNA, they aren't going to be live permanently. The plan is just for Summer 2012. Obviously live is better than taped, but as long as they stay anchored in that awful "Impact Zone" the atmosphere of their shows will continue to take a huge hit. They need to find a way to get that show on the road full-time. That's more important than whether it's live or not, in my opinion.

That's possible too actually. I'd love for that to happen. I see Big Show/Lesnar being far more likely though.

Cena's not taking any time off, ever. He's main eventing PPV after PPV over their WWE Champion. He's main eventing Raw every week. They are in full blown "Cena is more important than anything else" mode. Big Show getting involved in the OTL match is a foregone conclusion. Why else start this Big Show firing angle at exactly the same time Ace and Cena are going to have a match where if anyone interferes they are fired?