Two, three hour weekly shows is just too damn much. I couldn’t even make it through the Hulu version of Raw this week.

I’m optimistic to see some changes, but you guys are gonna have to let me know when it’s actually getting good. Also, when will Kevin Dunn’s production influence end?

Been wondering this too. Dunn himself is seemingly on the way out, but being phased out instead of just getting the Ned Stark treatment. Hopefully it’s as simple as him going away for these camera shots to go with him.

At this point, I’m still only back to the extent that I turn it on and absorb whatever I happen to pay attention to. But I sure am glad that Vinny Mac language policing (e.g. don’t say “wrestling”) is dead, as is strictly scripted promo work. Sounds like they’re just giving a general creative direction for promos and letting them go, and it shows. That’s a big deal.

Apparently they even said that Paul Heyman was rehabbing in a hospital, rather than a local medical facility.

I'm quite curious as to what the current relationship is between Steph/HHH and Vince. It's difficult to imagine what Vince is doing on a day-to-day basis since he's spent his whole life being a workaholic, and now doesn't have obvious work going on and also seemingly doesn't have his wife in his life. I would think it would be excruciatingly difficult for him to find that gear of just powering down and enjoying his riches.

I’m picturing him texting/calling the two nonstop at all hours of the day.

I did worry about basically that very thing happening, but the fact that they've followed through with walking back some of his most ridiculous bullshit immediately makes me think that they're not overly worried about ruffling his feathers.

I mean the texting might well be happening, but that doesn't necessarily mean a balanced texting relationship.

Right. I imagine they’re ignoring half of his **** and just pacifying him when they actually reply.

I would put at it zero chance that Vince has any influence on the televised product

Now the rest of WWE, probably still getting a word in edgewise

Is Big Johnny a WWE employee as of this afternoon?

Sources say

Some have wondered whether John Laurinaitis will ever get a job in the wrestling industry again, but sources say...

Can't say I mind RAW starting off with a pull-apart brawl the last 3 weeks

Bayley screwed up Dakota Kai's name, then made it worse by trying to replace her divot.

The Miz threw a trash can lid at AJ Styles's head, then quickly hit him with his finisher, then instantly pinned him, and Styles kicked out. And then Styles won within the next 90 seconds.

It will be devastating if HHH fails to roll back **** like that.

I see he's already giving Vince the middle finger by bringing back a lot of his NXT guys. Can't blow everything up at once.

The ****ing what chants still alive and well.

Yeah, I won't declare any sort of failure anywhere near this early. I realize it takes time to slowly change things. I just fear that there isn't sufficient will to roll back superman kickouts. The thing is that we know it's the type of thing that CAN be rolled back, in the same way that they were once trending toward increasingly dangerous stunts late in the Attitude Era and at some point thought better of it and scaled way back.

If they don't fix the kickout problem it's because of a lack of will. And if it's a lack of will, then the lack of will is likely based in a lack of ingenuity as to how to roll out dramatic matches without cheap shortcuts. The wrestling fan brain was trained into this terrible modern mode of "just gotta wait for the first three finisher kickouts and then start paying attention to the match," and it can be untrained too.

What actually started bothering me more about Raw/Smackdown the last couple of years was the number of distraction roll-up finishes. I mean hell, they dedicated an entire championship to it.

Raw this week was purely a distracted watch for me, but I will say that Lashley-Ciampa was a good match that they managed to build into feeling like a big deal in all of a week's time. Seemed like the clear highlight of the show. Twitter spoiled me on the result, and it was a rare example of 2022 WWE where it kind of sucked to have been spoiled.

Will be interested to see where the background car crash/Dexter Lumis angle goes, assuming that's a part of the same storyline

Thoughts from what I watched of SD:

*Thankfully, they appear to be going back to actually advertising featured matches and then following through on them. Lashley vs. Styles on Monday as well as the continuation of the women's tournament. Anything to get away from this ridiculous concept they had fallen into under Vince, where almost no match was ever advertised because Vince wanted full freedom to scrap the show and rewrite an hour before they went on the air, and therefore the audience was supposed to accept this weird premise of a wrestling company where no matches were signed and only ever came about because of impromptu arguments that occurred live during the show. Last I watched of AEW, they did a good job of actually advertising key matches on their cards, and I'm glad WWE is veering back in that direction too.

*They're doing a nice job of going quickly to work at rebuilding the midcard titles and emphasizing their importance. Gunther vs. Nakamura was really good, as Lashley vs. Ciampa had been on Monday. The video packages to put over the titles were a good touch. I feel a bit of caution on this point just because I have seen this before; under Vince, they would occasionally go, "Hey guise, remember back when we respected these titles, the ones that have never actually gone away? Well we're BRINGING 'EM BACK!" But obviously there's reason to hope that HHH won't be so easily distracted by shiny objects.

*Ronda Rousey segment was fun. It felt like she was supposed to emerge from SummerSlam as a clear heel, but it seems they read the room and decided to let her lean into being a babyface with a vicious streak.

*Shayna on the mic is...ouch. And Liv Morgan got a very tepid reaction again. I don't know all of the recent title history, but they should really get the SD belt on Ronda and go from there.

*I wish I liked Drew McIntyre better than I do. He bores me. If he's the one ending Reigns's title streak, it will be a billion times better than if Brock had done it, but I can't see actually enjoying Drew getting the triumphant moment. I'd rather Reigns just goes over again and they build someone better to take him down.

I'm anxiously awaiting the video packages hyping up the history and prestige of the 24/7 belt the next time they advertise a match for it in advance

I'm kinda interested in the Shayna/Rhonda match they're building towards. Neither one is great on the mic, but there's a chance they could have a *****+ match.

As I reflect on that SD segment, the part where Shayna scolded Ronda to abide by the rules was so terrible that I have to think there's a strong chance the badness was intentional and was a step in the direction of returning Shayna to her proper status as a killer who wouldn't possibly care about rules and regulations. It does create a potentially compelling story of Ronda bringing Shayna's inner monster back out.

(The part before that top-of-ramp off-mic confrontation, where Shayna attempted an actual promo into the mic, was likely just unintentionally terrible, and a reminder that badass characters should err on the side of talking as little as possible.)