{"id":35038,"date":"2016-11-16T21:07:18","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T03:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=35038"},"modified":"2016-11-16T21:07:18","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T03:07:18","slug":"raw-hits-misses-1114-goldberg-lesnar-shane-bryan-visit-raw-scarves-owens-reigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/11\/16\/raw-hits-misses-1114-goldberg-lesnar-shane-bryan-visit-raw-scarves-owens-reigns\/","title":{"rendered":"RAW HITS &#038; MISSES 11\/14: Goldberg-Lesnar, Shane &#038; Bryan visit Raw, Scarves, Owens &#038; Reigns, more"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-4076720072\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>Last week was very hectic and busy for me, thus I was late in watching Raw and Smackdown.\u00a0 And I was dismayed by how awful each of them was in the same exact ways.\u00a0 This build to Survivor Series has been terrible for the most part, with the PPV itself having a stupid concept.<\/p>\n<p>October also marked my 10th Anniversary of doing Hits &amp; Misses for PWTorch, which is crazy!\u00a0 But as I watched both Raw and Smackdown, it struck me as impossible to review them.\u00a0 After ten\u00a0years, how many times can I complain about Raw being three hours?\u00a0 About the ineffectiveness of heel authority figures?\u00a0 About authority figures in general taking up too much time and taking away from the actual wrestlers?\u00a0 About the McMahon family, particularly Stephanie, sucking the life out of the shows that they are on?\u00a0 About a meaningless brand split?\u00a0 About 50-50 booking?\u00a0 About how horribly they use their secondary titles?\u00a0 About undeserving wrestlers getting pushed at the expense of deserving ones?\u00a0 About their lack of ability to successfully introduce new acts?\u00a0 About terrible announcers?\u00a0 About top babyfaces being rejected by the fans?\u00a0 And others being constantly miscast?\u00a0 After ten\u00a0years, I don&#8217;t know what to say anymore.\u00a0 But, this week&#8217;s Raw was better.\u00a0 And I am going to try to do my job to cover Raw by presenting my Hits &amp; Misses:<\/p>\n<h3><b><u>RAW HITS<\/u><\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>Owens &amp; Reigns vs. Cesaro &amp; Sheamus:<\/b>\u00a0 This was a pretty good 13 minute tag match to start the in ring portion of the show.\u00a0 There was good wrestling action and they all played their parts well with Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns showing signs of not being able to work together, but ultimately coming together in the end to win the match.\u00a0 The problem is that is the theme for all three of the Raw vs. Smackdown elimination tag matches at Survivor Series.\u00a0 How many times can we see angry blind tags and similar shenanigans on one show?\u00a0 There were too many to count in multiple matches on this Raw and this match was just the beginning of it.<\/p>\n<p><b>New Day vs. Jericho &amp; Rollins &amp; Strowman:<\/b>\u00a0 This was another pretty good tag match, this one going 14 minutes.\u00a0 It was similar in quality to the previous one, and also had the same issues with one team not getting along well.\u00a0 Again, you had more angry blind tags.\u00a0 On the positive side of things, the wrestling action was all well executed.\u00a0 WWE is trying to build up Brawn Strowman as an unstoppable monster and while I may not agree with that strategy, this match was a good step.\u00a0 This helped make Strowman look unstoppable at when he dominated all three members of New Day at the end of the match.<\/p>\n<p><b>Goldberg &#8211; Lesnar:<\/b>\u00a0 This was definitely the highlight of Raw to me.\u00a0 With the exception of that terrible week in Minnesota when the fans rejected the notion that they were going to cheer for Goldberg over Brock Lesnar, the build up for Goldberg vs. Lesnar has been very good.\u00a0 It started off well with Goldberg&#8217;s appearance on SportsCenter.\u00a0 It continued well the next week on Raw with Paul Heyman&#8217;s challenge.\u00a0 The following week was great with Goldberg&#8217;s first appearance back on Raw.\u00a0 Then came the off the rails week.\u00a0 Then came the good segment with Goldberg, Heyman and the surprise of Rusev.\u00a0 Last week two of the few good parts of a terrible terrible Raw where the videos about this match.\u00a0 I loved when Lesnar said that his advice to Goldberg&#8217;s wife and son was to not watch Survivor Series.\u00a0 What a great line.\u00a0 And it all culminated with this great segment with Goldberg and Lesnar finally sharing a ring together.\u00a0 The crowd was super hot for this segment, and they responded the way WWE wanted them to.\u00a0 That is a big part of why this was a success.\u00a0 The mic work from both Heyman and Goldberg was good.\u00a0 Goldberg was super intense.\u00a0 Everything seemed natural to me.\u00a0 And the physicality at the end was kept to just the security guards getting beat up.\u00a0 They didn&#8217;t have Lesnar and Goldberg touch each other which was the way to go.\u00a0 I still don&#8217;t think this will be a good match and I&#8217;m not sure that the Toronto fans will end up reacting the same way that the fans in Buffalo did.<\/p>\n<p><b>Closing Segment:<\/b>\u00a0 I wasn&#8217;t a fan of the talking that started off this segment between Mick Foley, Stephanie McMahon, Shane McMahon, and Daniel Bryan.\u00a0 Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.\u00a0 All of that sniping back and forth made me want to turn the show off early.\u00a0 I could give that half of the segment at Miss.\u00a0 I did like the ending of the show with the face off between teams Raw and Smackdown.\u00a0 It did have some problems which are rooted in the main problem with these Survivor Series matches which is wrestlers putting their heated rivalries aside to work together for some type of non-existent brand loyalty.\u00a0 I have issues with Dean Ambrose standing next to AJ Styles, or with Rollins standing next to Owens.\u00a0 However, I did enjoy the mic work here at the end.\u00a0 Styles was good.\u00a0 Owens was good.\u00a0 Jericho was hilarious.\u00a0 I liked that they had Bray Wyatt acknowledge his past with Strowman.\u00a0 And I appreciated the fact that Ambrose started to talk, but then fought instead.\u00a0 The fight that ensued was fun to watch.\u00a0 Smackdown got in a good shot in terms of being able to ultimately knock Strowman out of the match.\u00a0 But, Raw was able to finish on top which makes some sense as Smackdown was the invading group here.\u00a0 I still don&#8217;t care about the match at the PPV, but at least this was fun to watch.<\/p>\n<h3><b><u>RAW MISSES<\/u><\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>Opening Segment:<\/b>\u00a0 This better Raw did not get off to a good start.\u00a0 I am sick and tired of these types of segments with Stephanie McMahon dressing down the locker room, or in this case, a portion of the locker room.\u00a0 I know she was mostly positive here and acting more like a babyface, but she still had to end the whole thing with a threat to the various Raw wrestlers who will be representing the brand at Survivor Series.\u00a0 And if you are trying to get the wrestlers on the same page as they said, why book matches where teammates would still be facing each other like the women&#8217;s tag match or the 8 man tag?\u00a0 It doesn&#8217;t make sense to me.\u00a0 Mick Foley seemed to mess up at one point, jumping the gun on announcing one of the matches.\u00a0 It is good that they announced several matches for the rest of the show, but I wasn&#8217;t excited about any of them.<\/p>\n<p><b>Scarves:<\/b>\u00a0 This felt overly scripted to me.\u00a0 I did chuckle a few times during this skit with Jericho trying to make amends to Rollins and Strowman by giving them scarves.\u00a0 However, Rollins seemed to be acting out of character to me.\u00a0 His line about Jericho stealing clothes from Lady Gaga was terrible.\u00a0 It didn&#8217;t work for me, despite a few funny moments.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2311597326\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><b>Banks &amp; Charlotte vs. Fox &amp; Jax:<\/b>\u00a0 This was the third tag team match on this show featuring members of one of the Survivor Series tag matches.\u00a0 And while I liked the first two, I did not like the third.\u00a0 I was very tired of the angry tags at this point.\u00a0 Alicia Fox and Nia Jax aren&#8217;t very good in the ring, so the quality of the action wasn&#8217;t as good either.\u00a0 And the idea that Charlotte and Sasha Banks were ultimately able to work together reluctantly to win didn&#8217;t work, because they were beating their own teammates.\u00a0 So yes they worked together in the end to win, but Fox and Jax didn&#8217;t.\u00a0 And Bayley was not good on guest commentary.\u00a0 I appreciated that she backed Charlotte as their team captain, but she should have stopped at praising her success on PPV.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t like what she had to say about them working together in the past at NXT.\u00a0 And I didn&#8217;t like how she said it was important to prove that they were a better women&#8217;s division than Smackdown.\u00a0 They shouldn&#8217;t want to prove that they have the best division.\u00a0 They should want to prove that they are the best within that division.\u00a0 That&#8217;s how wrestling is supposed to work.<\/p>\n<p><b>Enzo &amp; Cass \/ Gallows &amp; Anderson vs. Golden Truth \/ Shinning Stars:<\/b>\u00a0 Here we got the fourth tag match with some members of Survivor Series teams.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t get the point.\u00a0 In order to build team unity between Enzo &amp; Cass and Gallows &amp; Anderson, they had to fight their other teammates in The Shinning Stars?\u00a0 That doesn&#8217;t make sense.\u00a0 And if you are trying to win a match, why wouldn&#8217;t Golden Truth attack Enzo &amp; Cass right before the commercial break?\u00a0 They were opponents in this match and aren&#8217;t going to be teammates on Sunday, so fight each other!\u00a0 Instead, Golden Truth attacked their own partners later in the match.\u00a0 It was a mess.\u00a0 And again, you got silly tags and teams one upping each other for the fourth time on the show.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS HITS &amp; MISSES COLUMN:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/11\/04\/smackdown-hits-misses-111-ellsworth-miz-tv-daniel-bryan-styles-vs-ambrose-main-event-orton-wyatt-family-tag-match-qualifiers\/\">SMACKDOWN HITS &amp; MISSES 11\/1: Ellsworth, Miz TV with Daniel Bryan, Styles vs. Ambrose main event, Orton-Wyatt Family, Tag Match Qualifiers<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>OR CHECK OUT JASON POWELL&#8217;S HITLIST ON THIS SAME SHOW:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/prowrestling.net\/site\/2016\/11\/15\/powells-wwe-raw-hit-list-the-final-push-for-goldberg-vs-brock-lesnar-team-smackdown-shows-up-and-fights-team-raw-charlotte-and-sasha-banks-bicker-tag-team-trade-proposal\/\">Powell\u2019s WWE Raw Hit List: The final push for Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar, Team Smackdown shows up and fights Team Raw, Charlotte and Sasha Banks bicker, tag team trade proposal<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<article id=\"post-30600\" class=\"post-30600 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-hitsandmisses category-opinionandanalysis category-specialists category-spotlightarticles\">\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<p><i>Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com\u2019s WWE Hits &amp; Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown each week. Email him at jmezz_torch@yahoo.com.\u00a0<\/i><em>Act now and become my 68th Twitter follower<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/jonmezzera\">@JonMezzera<\/a> (pretty clever handle right?). Just be aware that I don\u2019t live tweet Raw, I don\u2019t tweet much about wrestling, and I don\u2019t tweet much at all.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3017183839\"><div id=\"pwtor-3034589727\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Last week was very hectic and busy for me, thus I was late in watching Raw and Smackdown.\u00a0 And I was dismayed by how awful each of them was in the same exact ways.\u00a0 This <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/11\/16\/raw-hits-misses-1114-goldberg-lesnar-shane-bryan-visit-raw-scarves-owens-reigns\/\" title=\"RAW HITS &#038; MISSES 11\/14: Goldberg-Lesnar, Shane &#038; Bryan visit Raw, Scarves, Owens &#038; Reigns, more\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,52,28],"tags":[728,105,224,365,96,4236,530],"class_list":["post-35038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","tag-bill-goldberg","tag-brock-lesnar","tag-daniel-bryan","tag-hits-and-misses","tag-raw","tag-scarves","tag-shane-mcmahon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Charlottebelt_3x2Lunn.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35039,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35038\/revisions\/35039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}