FanFare

After a WrestleMania that rose above low expectations and an unexplained Superstar Shakeup, we slide into two of the most holding-pattern PPVs WWE Network events that ever held a pattern: PayBackLash. The Raw version will feature two crossover matches and two undefended belts. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Apr 26, 2017 - 6 comments

Finally, six weeks after the last time we gathered, it's time for what is generally the most fun show of the year, with the added bonus that the Rumble winner is less apparent than it has been for a long, long time. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Jan 24, 2017 - 35 comments

The lesser brand has been stepping it up as of late, so of course we're going into a PPV so low-tier that it's recycling a name from earlier this year. Meanwhile, Smackdown Live! has been tearing it up as usual, coming off a better-than-it-shoulda-been TLC PPV that ended with all four title belts around the waists of heels, including Alexa Bliss and the Wyorts. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Dec 13, 2016 - 20 comments

The reunion of the brands we've been waiting for since, I dunno, July I guess? Anyway, it's Raw vs. SmackDown Live up and down the four-hour (ugggh) card, with only one McMahon bigfooting his way in. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Nov 15, 2016 - 27 comments

We're ready to go for the most over-the-top (sometimes literally) gimmick PPV, with a ridiculous three matches in The Demonic Structure. And the theoretical go-home show gave us little development for it. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Oct 25, 2016 - 13 comments

The bifurcated brand comes back together for the granduncle of them all, the last combined PPV until Survivor Series. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Aug 16, 2016 - 54 comments

The brand split approacheth, Brock Lesnar draws headlines for going back to UFC again, but before all that, we've got this month's PPV, top-loaded with talent and what the announcers insist on telling us over and over again are WrestleMania-level main events. After seeing virtually every mathematically possible combination of the six (Wait, six? Yeah, six.) competitors in the MitB match, it's finally time for what Michael Cole has been hyping as the greatest MitB card of all time, complete with a blatant teasing of a Shield triple-threat to close out the night, [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Jun 14, 2016 - 17 comments

Raw was a decent enough go-home, propelled largely by one of the better storylines in a while. So we're ready for perhaps the most dispensable PPV on the schedule, but a couple of compelling matchups and questions are making it work. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Apr 26, 2016 - 17 comments

Well... that happened. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Jan 19, 2016 - 25 comments

The downward spiral of Raw continues with a white-hot start -- fatal four-way four-man-team elimination match featuring the League of Nations vs. the Wyatt Family vs. the ECW Originals (Dudleys and Dreamer and RHYNO) vs. the Family (which is apparently what they're calling Reigns and Ambrose and the Usos despite the Wyatt Family being a thing already) -- that goes all right, but then nothing much else good happens other than the New Day and Sasha Banks but we knew that already. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Dec 8, 2015 - 33 comments

We have our predictable semi-final World Heavyweight Championship brackets. We have the Brothers of Destruction predictably making the Wyatts look like punks. We have Charlotte and Paige predictably turning a contract signing into a fight. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Nov 17, 2015 - 23 comments

Austin! Taker! Lesnar! Malenko! Finlay! Michaels! Flair! SHIELD REUNION! [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Oct 20, 2015 - 27 comments

This year's "season premiere" features the Authority trying to get a New Day bump, Kevin Owens giving Ryback shit over reading The Secret, a Dusty Finish for a fairly good Divas title match, and the first ever Sting match on Raw. Against the Big Show. Who he wrestled roughly a million times on Nitro. No wonder it turned into a tag match with John Cena and Seth Rollins. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Sep 15, 2015 - 25 comments

The granduncle of them all is here, with an expanded running time, a big name guest host, and huuuge matches (Donald Trump not included). [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Aug 18, 2015 - 19 comments

ContractSigningMania runs wild as Brrrock Lllesnarrr and Seth Rollins make their WWE Championship match offi-- Oh, who cares? NXT WOMEN INVADE. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Jul 14, 2015 - 5 comments

Brock Lesnar crashes Hulk Hogan's birthday, and Cena comes out for the staredown. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Aug 14, 2014 - 18 comments