WWE RAW & Smackdown Thread

[Majingir]

Iguana, Vikingo on Raw. Does this mean any time any of those guys are on the main roster we can literally say they've been called up from AAA!?

Congrats to Naomi & Big Jim! Also liked how she still heeled it up even before leaving lol. 9 months from now is May 2026, so likely 2027 Women's Rumble return.

Great way to turn a real moment back in to a heel character moment.

Jimmy Uso getting the praise for "helping the women's divison" by taking out the champ lol. The Bloodline continues...so.....he "DID IT" for the rock?

Baby Uso chants too!

Becky's announcement was obviously so weird since it was with no fans and during the MITB win.

Don't think anyone else like Alexa got to announce anything on tv. So Naomi going out there and announcing it was obviously such a huge special moment.

I hope Vaquer comes back with a great line in response to it all too. "Just the mere thought of having to defend her title against me caused Naomi to get pregnant"

[SmashMan]

[TheMatrix31]

Bayley's promo the most interesting part of Raw. By far.

Heyman's promo too. Great as usual.

How nice that the enduring image of Naomi symbolically laying down her title is on a Slim Jim logo. Cool for the annals of time.

Everything else was subpar and generic. For a Philly show especially.

[UFCMPunk]

As a reminder, unless you are using International Netflix to watch Smackdown live, it is taped delay for the US. So be careful of spoilers if you don't want to know what is happening.

[Majingir]

Some notes for Raw going forward:

Today it starts at 3pm ET due to it being in England.

Next week it's in Paris so it starts at 2pm

The following week it goes back to its usual timeslot.

However, the next week (September 15) its starts at 7pm ET.

Don't know why the change for the 15th. You could guess MNF might have something to do with it, but the 8th is the first Netflix Raw going up against MNF and that one doesn't start earlier. Wonder if that could be a trend going forward with earlier starts during MNF?

Looking at the start times for Raw going forward, the final 3 in September look to start at 7pm ET, but October goes back to 8pm ET (outside of the Australia shows)

[UFCMPunk]

Not having Stephanie Vaquer at Paris this weekend in some kind of match is just bad creative. How do you not book a Battle Royal to determine a new opponent for Stephanie? At least give her a open challenge match or something.

If Naomi's timeline is correct, she's 7 weeks(8 weeks now) Pregnant which means WWE knew weeks ago Naomi wasn't going to be wrestling in Paris. So they had plenty of time to set something up once Naomi officially vacated the championship. I miss the Triple H that booked a great NXT Women's Division... where's that Triple H now?

[Majingir]

That Nikki/Becky promo was great.

Nikki Bella and Charlotte Flair being involved in stories that I enjoy....what a crazy time.


And I don't want Charlotte/Bliss to lose anytime soon, but a Rhea/Iyo vs Asuka/Kairi feud would be so good. You have enough women on the roster where there really should be no reason for any of their 5 divisions to be weak.

Not having Stephanie Vaquer at Paris this weekend in some kind of match is just bad creative. How do you not book a Battle Royal to determine a new opponent for Stephanie? At least give her a open challenge match or something.

If Naomi's timeline is correct, she's 7 weeks(8 weeks now) Pregnant which means WWE knew weeks ago Naomi wasn't going to be wrestling in Paris. So they had plenty of time to set something up once Naomi officially vacated the championship. I miss the Triple H that booked a great NXT Women's Division... where's that Triple H now?

It depends how long ago wwe actually knew. Not like she'd know/tell them the second after they.....tried making babies. Given how sudden all wwes news came out, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't know from her until around that Raw when she couldn't compete on. If they knew beforehand, she probably wouldn't have even won at Summerslam.

But the story for Vaquer makes no sense. She became the #1 contender, but Pearce was just like "I have the perfect opponent for you". So she had to earn the title shot, but he's going to just name a challenger for her for the vacant title?

Do they have no champ until Wrestlepalooza and do some match there, or could we have a main event match on Raw for the vacant women's title?

[SmashMan]

It depends how long ago wwe actually knew. Not like she'd know/tell them the second after they.....tried making babies. Given how sudden all wwes news came out, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't know from her until around that Raw when she couldn't compete on. If they knew beforehand, she probably wouldn't have even won at Summerslam.

She said on that Stephanie McMahon podcast last week that they found out Sunday, so that would presumably be the day before the Raw she couldn’t compete on.

A few weeks is enough time in WWE land to throw together some kind of replacement opponent for Vaquer, but that would’ve meant a sixth match on a PLE and they don’t like doing that for whatever reason.

[Majingir]

She said on that Stephanie McMahon podcast last week that they found out Sunday, so that would presumably be the day before the Raw she couldn’t compete on.

A few weeks is enough time in WWE land to throw together some kind of replacement opponent for Vaquer, but that would’ve meant a sixth match on a PLE and they don’t like doing that for whatever reason.

I think they do 5 because they/Netflix want the PLEs to be a certain length, and rather than have more shorter matches, they just settle on a card limit unless needed to be longer.

Although, Sheamus vs Rusev feels like it would've been the match on Raw and not the PLE if Naomi was competing.

I just wonder who Pearce got to face Vaquer. There's nobody on the Raw roster that makes much sense to randomly throw in there as a replacement in a vacant Championship match.

[SmashMan]

I just wonder who Pearce got to face Vaquer. There's nobody on the Raw roster that makes much sense to randomly throw in there as a replacement in a vacant Championship match.

I just assume Roxanne. She beat Iyo two weeks ago and beating the prior champ seems like an easy enough storyline reason to add her to it.

[Majingir]

Halloween SD confirmed for SLC.

SNME happens the following night from the same venue.

[TheMatrix31]

Not having Stephanie Vaquer at Paris this weekend in some kind of match is just bad creative. How do you not book a Battle Royal to determine a new opponent for Stephanie? At least give her a open challenge match or something.

If Naomi's timeline is correct, she's 7 weeks(8 weeks now) Pregnant which means WWE knew weeks ago Naomi wasn't going to be wrestling in Paris. So they had plenty of time to set something up once Naomi officially vacated the championship. I miss the Triple H that booked a great NXT Women's Division... where's that Triple H now?

I bet Triple H barely has control now.

Just speculation but the shows have been pretty stagnant and repetitive.

They're coasting.

Unless he's coasting.

[Majingir]

I bet Triple H barely has control now.

Just speculation but the shows have been pretty stagnant and repetitive.

They're coasting.

Unless he's coasting.

Definitely think somethings up with HHH in charge.

His personal rep is taking a hit from certain photos and events he's gone to, and within WWE he probably doesn't have as much power with TKO overseeing things.

Could even be one reason he stopped doing the post PLE media scrum.

[SmashMan]

I bet Triple H barely has control now.

Just speculation but the shows have been pretty stagnant and repetitive.

They're coasting.

Unless he's coasting.

Still feels like his type of show to me. It’s definitely stagnant but he came in and rode two already hot stories (Bloodline and Cody’s story) to carry the shows. Since then he’s had to create new stories and we get…well, I think it still has all the hallmarks of his NXT run. Sensical (though unexciting) booking, factions dominating major stories, and long title reigns for no reason.

His good aspects looked better because he was only being compared to Vince’s main roster booking, and his faults were hidden by NXT having less time to fill every week.

[TheMatrix31]

Still feels like his type of show to me. It’s definitely stagnant but he came in and rode two already hot stories (Bloodline and Cody’s story) to carry the shows. Since then he’s had to create new stories and we get…well, I think it still has all the hallmarks of his NXT run. Sensical (though unexciting) booking, factions dominating major stories, and long title reigns for no reason.

His good aspects looked better because he was only being compared to Vince’s main roster booking, and his faults were hidden by NXT having less time to fill every week.

Meanwhile NXT is doing very well. They could also use more story but at least week to week things develop