SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Every Tuesday morning, Hulu debuts a 90 minute version of the previous night’s three hour plus Monday Night Raw on the USA Network.
Here is a chronological list of matches and segments WWE cut from the full version of Raw’s 9/11/2017 edition before handing it off to Hulu…
-Alexa Bliss’s and Nia Jaz’s ring entrances before their match.
-The Total Bellas commercial.
-The entrance and pre-match promo from Sheamus and Cesaro.
-Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose came out for a promo with Sheamus and Cesaro, then Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson joined in the promo fun. A three team fight followed when Gallows called Ambrose and Rollins nerds.
-Edge’s WrestleMania 21 moment when he won Money in the Bank with Cole comparing it to the moment Strowman can have at No Mercy if he beats Brock Lesnar. This was part of the Cena/Reigns video package but Edge’s part was deleted for Hulu.
-Kurt Angle backstage with Goldust, sans makeup asking for a match against Bray Wyatt as the man Goldust, Dustin Rhodes.
-Curt Hawkins promo and match with Apollo Crews.
-Booker’s “You don’t see Alex Riley” comment after Reigns’s promo.
-Renee Young’s backstage interview with the Hardy Boyz.
-Bray Wyatt vs Dustin Rhodes and the post match Finn Balor on screen promo to Wyatt.
-Enzo Amore interacting with backstage workers.
-A Commercial for Smackdown hyping what Shane McMahon will do to Kevin Owens after he attacked his father and A.J. Styles vs Baron Corbin for the United States Championship.
-Gran Metalic vs Neville.
Now here’s the chronological list for the condensed Hulu edition:
-The freeze frame of Bobby Heenan with 1944-2017 to signify his birth year and death year.
-The opening promo with Kurt Angle, Miz, with the Miztourage, and Jason Jordan to set up the show’s main event Six-Pack Challenge. The full entrances were shown for all.
-Cole’s hype for the sit-down interview with Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar; Graves’s hype for John Cena vs Roman Reigns at No Mercy.
-Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax walking to the ring, split screen style.
-Kurt Angle calming down and motivating his furious son, Jason Jordan backstage to win the Six Pack Challenge to face the Miz at No Mercy.
– Alexa Bliss vs Nia Jax; complete with Sasha Banks preventing Bliss from walking out, Banks attacking Jax post match, Bayley coming out, Bliss, Banks, and Bayley attacking Jax, then Bayley and Banks attacking Bliss after she inserted herself in the celebration.
-A Bobby Heenan tribute with tweets from Vince McMahon, Sheamus, Ric Flair, Chris Jericho, Jerry Lawler, and Daniel Bryan, then Cole saying the Heenan tribute will be ongoing during the show. Cole quoted what Heenan would say about Lesnar vs Strowman, then Graves told Cole Heenan would say his parents ran away from home.
-Cole threw to clip about the Lesnar/Strowman feud, with the Lesnar footage going back to 2002 with a younger and thinner Paul Heyman talking up “The next big thing,” Lesnar’s rookie nickname.
-Cole plugged his upcoming sit-down interview with Lesnar and Strowman.
-A short video clip for Asuka to hype her impending Raw debut.
-Sheamus and Cesaro vs Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson vs Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose.
-Miz and Miztourage backstage talking about the Six Pack Challenge. Bo Dallas talked about his pedigree being known before Jordan was known as Angle’s son. Curtis Axel said his father (Curt Henning) was one of greatest Intercontinental Champions of all time, and he has been the IC Champion before. Miz told them one thing at a time and to prove Jordan doesn’t deserve their spotlight.
-A career retrospective video package for John Cena and Roman Reigns that ended with their current rivalry and Graves hyping their No Mercy match.
-The Strowman and Lesnar sit-down interview.
-A clip of the women’s angle earlier in the show with an announcement of Bayley’s participation in the Women’s Title match at No Mercy, making it a Fatal Five Way match; along with Emma’s tweet of starting the Women’s Revolution and deserving a week off instead of another opponent.
-Roman Reigns’s full entrance and anti-Cena promo.
-A different Asuka hype video, with a Sun Tzu quote of “Be extremely mysterious even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.”
-Bobby Heenan tribute quotes from Triple H, Bill Goldberg, Jay “Christian” Reso, Jim Ross, Mick Foley, Stephanie McMahon, Peter Rosenberg.
-Cole talked about Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon reuniting at the broadcast booth on an early Monday Night Raw episode. Graves spoke of how funny he thought it was when Gorilla threw Heenan out of the building, and Booker said Heenan was the best person to ever call his matches as a slight rib on Cole. Cole talked about Heenan’s passing and how Heenan won’t be forgotten, with Graves appropriately pointing to his brain.
-A video package, mostly of Heenan’s WWF career with some pictures sprinkled between video clips, followed by Cole wishing thoughts and prayers and Godspeed to Heenan’s surviving family.
-Enzo Amore’s entrance, brief promo of how he’s going to beat Neville for the Cruiserweight Title at No Mercy, and beatdown from Braun Strowman.
-Neville’s entrance and tiptoe around Strowman as Strowman exited the arena.
-Neville’s Red Arrow to Enzo and a “How you doin!” mockery and laughter afterwards.
-Elias talking down to the audience, then the beginning of his song before being interrupted by the Hardy Boyz entrance.
-The full entrances of Jason Jordan and the Miztourage.
-Six Pack Challenge for a IC Title match at No Mercy: Elias vs Matt Hardy vs Jeff Hardy vs Jason Jordan vs Bo Dallas vs Curtis Axel.
-The post match stare down between Miz and Jordan, and Miztourage beatdown of Jordan, and the Miz promo that followed.
Craig’s Conclusion
This week’s Hulu Raw was another well-paced edition, but left out some key segments. Leaving out the entire solo, then two-way, then three-way promo between Sheamus & Cesaro, Rollins & Ambrose, and Gallows & Anderson gave Hulu viewers less reason to be invested in the match that followed, and the title match at No Mercy of Rollins & Ambrose vs. Sheamus & Cesaro. The same goes for the Hardy Boyz being interviewed before the Six Pack Challenge, where some tension was teased and led to them fighting each other during the match. That could be the precursor to a feud between the brothers.
Cutting out the Dustin Rhodes segment with Kurt Angle, Rhodes’s match with Bray Wyatt, and Finn Balor’s promo was odd. The Wyatt-Balor feud has been going on for a while now, and the probable blow off match is coming up at No Mercy, and this was the go home Raw for No Mercy. The Rhodes-Wyatt match was in correlation to the Balor feud and helped tell the story of Wyatt overcoming a man behind an alter ego.
Ring entrances are part of what I mention to help illustrate WWE’s thought process. Some entrances don’t need to be there. For example, the absence of Roman Reigns’s entrance wouldn’t have diminished his promo. Same goes for Elias singing. There was no personal grudge in the match, hence no reason to keep it in the Hulu version. The reason for the match was for a title shot. It didn’t help set up the match either. The Hardys’, Jason Jordan’s, and Miztourage’s entrances didn’t need to be there for the same reason. We also didn’t need two Asuka video packages. The clip with Sun Tzu’s quote was all that was needed.
Editing out Booker’s comment about Alex Riley not being around anymore was also odd, given that Riley’s mention was kept in Reigns’s promo.
Not having a Smackdown or Total Bellas commercial will always baffle me. Cross promotion is almost never a bad idea and could act as a reminder for fringe and late to the party viewers of this Hulu version. It could make those unaware to Smackdown and/or Total Bellas a reason to tune in, or catch them both Hulu. Smackdown on Hulu drops on Wednesday mornings in their entirety, whereas Raw gets cut in half! Total Bellas is also part of WWE programming on Hulu.
Everything else that was edited off for Hulu made sense. I’m happy that all Bobby Heenan tributes were left in. I’m sure it was some tough calls to make for this week’s Raw and Hulu Edits as Heenan’s passing was on Sunday. With my suggestions, we would have seen a better edition of this week’s Hulu Raw. Honestly, I did not crunch the numbers to see if it all would fit, but the experienced and top notch WWE production crew could have surely made it work.
Perhaps the Hulu Raw isn’t a high WWE priority. Maybe their metrics show that the number of Hulu Raw viewers don’t impact the overall ability for them to promote and sell their PPVs and WWE Network overall. Better and more consistent thought processes of what to keep in the Hulu Raws may yield a better result. To me, it’s a wasted opportunity.
Hulu is a partnership of NBC Universal, Fox, Disney-ABC, and Turner Broadcasting. WWE’s next television rights fees contract could be with any of these companies. If not, they go to Amazon or Netflix thanks to the Lucha Underground precedent. It will be a most interesting observation how everything unfolds and where the pieces ultimately go once it’s all said and done. These Hulu edits may be taken more seriously as the negotiation time nears. I’ll be here to let you all know each week.
NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S REPORT: WWE RAW on HULU Report 9/11: Details on what WWE left in, what got cut, what got condensed, were right choices made
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