The Spotlight On Raw for 7/13/2015

Tom Lynch Spotlight On Raw, Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

First off I like to apologize for being off the grid these last few days. I’ve been a bit under the weather really since last Wednesday and it just got worse until finally kicking my ass all weekend. I’ll get more into that on tomorrow’s Daily Spotlight but thankfully I started feeling a bit better just in time for a great Raw (and an awesome Home Run Derby, which I’ll also get into tomorrow morning). As for Monday Night Raw, it emanated live from Atlanta, Georgia and was the final stop of the road to WWE Battleground. Without any further ado, let’s get right into some of the highlights of the show… 

Highlights: 

1) Divas Get Their Chance- Tonight’s Raw didn’t only see one call up from NXT but rather saw three call ups as Charlotte, Becky Lynch and NXT Women’s Champion Sasha Banks all made there Raw debut tonight. The segment was probably the greatest womens segment since Paige debuted and beat AJ Lee for the women’s title the night after Wrestlemania 30. This was really a relaunch for the women’s division in WWE as Stephanie McMahon showed up to introduce the three ladies from NXT. What made the segment even more special was that the crowd absolutely exploded with “This Is Awesome” chants and showered the ladies with praise. It was really a telling sign as to how far NXT has come that the NXT women were instantly reconized and admired for their athleticism and past accomplishments. If you only have time to check out one segment from this week’s Raw, its this segment right here. 

2) The U.S. Title Open Challenge- What else is new? These segments are great every week and it is nice to see that each week more and more people continue to come out and challenge John Cena. The U.S. Title has become the most prized possession in WWE & it’s great to see how John Cena has brough prestige back to that belt. Cesaro continued his streak of having the best match on Raw as he and Rusev (and for a little while Kevin Owens) had a great, nearly , 24 minute match. It was great to see that Rusev is back showing his aggressive side and it was nice to see him, not only, getting a big win over Cesaro but also to see him getting a DQ victory over Cena. Kevin Owens costing Rusev the match ,after taking himself out of the three way, added some heat on Owens. Owens is obviously respected and, by a certain percentage of the audience, adored. The problem with that is that he’s being counted on to be a top heel in the company so by having him taking himself out of matches and then also costing the fans the opportunities to see clean finishes, (with Cesaro and now Rusev) the crowd may be more inclined to boo him. WWE has done a good job over these past few weeks of adding Cesaro and Rusev to the Cena and Owens story. They’ve used a hot feud like Cena-Owens to create new contenders for the US title in Cesaro and Rusev and giving both of those guys a rub in the process. Good stuff all around. 

3) The Champ Stands Alone…Confidently?!?– This week Brock Lesnar continued his destruction of the Authority by taking out Kane after previously taking out J & J Security. This set up the showdown between Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins well in that now, theoretically, Rollins is all alone to face Lesnar. In the process, however, I felt that Rollins cut his best promo to date in that he claimed not to be afraid of Brock Lesnar while also rediculing  Kane.  He  also, correctly, pointed out that while Lesnar had gotten better of all of his past challengers, he never did get the better of Rollins. I felt the end of Raw did a good job in setting the stage for the Battleground main event and a number of possibilities moving forward. If Seth Rollins proves he doesn’t need anyone and defeats Brock Lesnar retain the championship, he’s a made man. If Brock Lesnar wins back the championship and Triple H doesn’t come out to help Rollins or fails to help when he does, this starts issues between Rollins and Triple H. Lastly, it’ll be interesting to see where Kane goes from here after being verbally undressed and humiliated by Rollins to end the show. 

4) Stardust Returns- While I was surprised to see Stardust return as a heel (presumably to continue his program with Stephen Amell), it was great to see Stardust back on Raw for the first time since the untimely death of Dusty Rhodes. I thought Stardust cut a great promo to hype his return prior to his match with Neville and seemed incredibly passionate. It was nice to see him get such a warm reaction from the crowd and it’ll be interesting to see just how long WWE will be able to keep Stardust a heel. 

Closing Thoughts

Overall, I think Raw was a really good show, perhaps the best since the Raw the night after Wrestlemania. The show did a good job in building towards Sunday’s Battleground and even beyond. It’s interesting to note that with only Smackdown remaining before the Battleground show, Dean Ambrose (who’s main evented the past two pay per views), Cesaro, Rusev and the Divas are not on the Battleground show. I’m sure some will be added but since Battleground is, likely, part of the larger Summerslam picture, it’s ok not to have everyone on every pay per view. 

That’s going to do it for me but I’d love to hear your thoughts on tonight’s Raw. Until then keep your eyes pealed for a new Daily Spotlight in the morning, updated Tough Enough power rankings prior to tomorrow’s show and a whole lot more right here on thedailyspotlight.com!

The Spotlight On Raw 7/6/15

Tom Lynch Spotlight On Raw, Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

WWE Raw just went off the air and I have to say I really enjoyed this show as it did a good job in continuing the build for Battleground while also delivering with a great main event. Let’s get right into some of the highlights of the show. 

Highlights:

1) Chicago Made- It’s not easy for me to admit it, as a proud New Yorker, but the best WWE fans belong to the city of Chicago. This crowd was into everything on the show and remained lively for the whole three hour show. The crowd was a lot more than CM Punk chants as they showed support for everyone and respect for everyone not named John Cena (though I think with Cena its a little tongue in cheek and he won the fans over in the end). I hope WWE also heard the support for Bo Dallas. As I say on a weekly basis, they have something in that guy, I just hope they realize it.,

2) What a Main Event- Another week of raw, another show where the John Cena US Title Open Challenge has stole the show. John Cena and Cesaro tore down the house for over a half hour pulling out innovative moves and reversals while going move for move with each other. In the end I found myself torn as, while I wanted to see Cesaro get the win, I don’t want to see the John Cena Open Challenges end. Cena continues to reinvent himself with new opponents each week and knows how to work a crowd like none other. He knows he’s hated in Chicago and has no problem embracing the hate as a bit of a heel. I also like the nice tough of Cesaro wearing the Candian armband out of respect to Tyson Kidd. A very classy touch from Cesaro, who I hope to only see grow from here. 

3) Brock Lesnar Vs The Cadillac- Right when Seth Rollins rewarded J & J Security with a brand new Cadillac last week, you knew it was only a matter of time before Brock Lesnar got his hand on the $55,000 automobile. Well this week Brock didn’t disappoint as he destroyed the car as only Brock could. I also liked that he was able to take out Noble and Mercury. They’re doing a great job in building up the Lesnar-Rollins title match at Battleground as Brock continues to take out Seth’s support system. 

4) Rusev Crush- Maybe it’s just me but ever since Dolph Ziggler started hooking up with Lana, I started to feel a bit bad for the Bulgarian Brute. Every week Rusev would show up to Raw, broken foot and all, and every week he’d have to see his ex girlfriend kiss another man. This week when I saw Dolph and Lana kiss right in front of Rusev, I was hoping Rusev would take him out..and did he ever! Thankfully, Rusev revealed that he had healed and destroyed Dolph (Who did a stretcher job to boot). Maybe Rusev isn’t supposed to be the baby face here but I like the shades of grey of all the characters involved here that allows fans to support who they’d like to. This slow build between Rusev and Ziggler can lead to a fun match at Summerslam either with just the two or a mixed tag with the ladies involved.

Closing Thoughts:

You know as much as I loved the period in May and June where every two weeks there was another pay per view, WWE has done a good job building Battleground with a little extra time to do so. We’ve known the big matches for that show for a while and each week of television has nicely built to those matches.  This week was no exception as if you have some extra time, I’d suggesting checking out this weeks Raw as it was a really fun show. On top of the highlights mentioned above, you also had a nice return by Randy Orton and I also thought Titus O’Neil, of all people, did a great job on commentary during the New Day-Lucha Dragons match. 

That’s going to do it for me but I’ll be back with the Tough Enough Power Rankings and a whole lot more tomorrow. Until the. Let me know what you thought of this week’s Raw in Chicago and be sure to subscribe to the Daily Spotlight below. Thanks for all of your support!

The Daily Spotlight For 7/5/2015

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 Hello everyone, I hope you had a happy and safe 4th of July. I don’t think it would have worked out any better with the 4th falling on a Saturday as it gives all of us a chance to recover with a lazy Sunday before getting back on the weeklong grind tomorrow. I ended up getting to Jones Beach for their annual fireworks celebration, their first in six years. I really enjoyed the fireworks and there isn’t anything that compares to being on the beach with your girlfriend watching fireworks on the boardwalk.  Unfortunately, however, the fireworks celebration was run terribly.  You would really think that over the six years in which Jones Beach didn’t do the fireworks, they would find a better way to handle the traffic. The fireworks show ended around 10PM & we didn’t get out of the lot  until it was close to midnight.  I understand there was some 100,000 people who attended the fireworks spectacular but 2 hours to get out of the lot is inexcusable. To make matters worse, there was nobody in the lot to offer any sort of assistance. This led to people getting into accidents, fights breaking out and of course people shooting fireworks everywhere you turned. Fireworks were another major problem as there were people setting off fireworks in the middle of the boardwalk and causing a major disturbance for everyone. Sure, setting off fireworks can be fun but they’re incredibly dangerous and there’s no place for that at a family event. It was a real shame for me who grew up on the tradition of the Jones Beach Fireworks and couldn’t wait to give my girlfriend and her kid brother to the experience. If the Jones Beach fireworks are back for good, I hope to see an uptick in security next year and they really need to hire some extra help to control the parking lot crowds. Even if they put people there to guide the cars in order, then you wouldn’t have hundreds of cars trying to get to the exit at the same time.

 – Really interested in seeing the MLB All Star Game Selection Show Tonight if for no other reason than to see how many Kansas City Royals get to start the game for the American League. I am actually pulling for the team to consist only of Royals and Mike Trout like it looked like it was going to be just a few weeks ago. People will complain and some may even whine about how this makes the all star game a joke due to home field advantage in the World Series being on the line here but I have no problem with it. I feel that if you’re ever going to take the voting power away from the fans, they should just put all of the statistically best players as the starters but that’s not as much fun. It isn’t as if the city of Kansas City is the biggest city in the US, every other fan base had an equal chance to send their players so if the Royals fans voted all of their players into the game, then they should be rewarded.

– Last Wednesday night i went back to the Adventureland Amusement Park in Farmingdale, NY for the first time in about a decade. I had grown up going to Adventureland and so it was cool to return there for an impromptu visit. My girlfriend and I brought along three kids including our two year old god daughter and there was plenty for everyone to do. What I like about Adventureland is that despite being a little smaller they’re always trying to find ways to differentiate themselves. The new Turbulance Roller Coaster is like nothing I’ve ever rode before as its a coaster that features spinning cars. Thus, you’re spinning the entire time you’re riding the coaster which is a real blast. Likewise, the Crocodile Run water ride is really unique (and my favorite attraction) as you control your own ride as you stand on a rotating platform while trying to avoid different waterfalls (or going under them intentionally if you’re inclined to get drenched) by controlling your individual pod. Though I really enjoyed the new rides, I was glad to see some of the classic rides like the water flume, the classic Ferris wheel, the ladybug roller coaster and the pirate ship were all still there. Speaking of the pirate ship, I couldn’t believe that after all these years the mermaid on the pirate ship has finally been covered up!

That’s going to do it for me today, I’m on my way currently to New York City to try out the new Hunger Games exhibit in Times Square! Keep your eyes pealed for that but until then feel free to visit Adventureland.us for more information on the theme park!

Editor’s Note: I never did post this yesterday so sorry for the delay.

The Daily Spotlight for 7/4/2015- The Fourth Of July Edition

Tom Lynch The Daily Spotlight , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy 4th of July everyone.  I hope that all of you guys celebrating have a great time but do so responsibly.  If you’re going to have a few beverages find a place to stay if you don’t have a designated driver.  Even if you do have a designated driver, it may be a good idea to find a place to stay as there will be people on the road who aren’t as responsible.  Furthermore, if you’re thinking of driving after having any drinks whatsoever, cops will be out in full force.  It’s Saturday night and so everyone is off tomorrow, the party factor will be greater than ever (as it should be) but everyone also has no excuse not to find a place to crash until tomorrow morning.  Now that I’m off my soap box, for today’s blog I’m going to talk about my favorite personal 4th of July memories.  Let’s get right into it.

-It’s funny but in a pre 9/11 world there were fireworks shows literally taking place everywhere in every town.  I actually remember many of these shows we would go see as a kid would be held by police officers.  My family and I would go to local parks and watch police officers fire off fireworks that they probably had confiscated from people who had them illegally.  Looking back these were pretty unsafe as well as you could stand right under them.  Speaking of standing under fireworks, back in the Shea Stadium days, the Mets still fired off fireworks behind centerfield so you can see them anywhere in the town (Nowadays the Mets do an impressive Pyrotechnics show which are brought out after the game in the middle of the outfield).  Well my friends and I would head down to watch the fireworks and we would lineup by the fence right outside of shea stadium.  The firework residue would actually fall onto us after the fireworks went off, it was insane.  As I got into my teenage years my family, friends and I would all head to Jones Beach to watch the fireworks.  We would always plan to stay on the beach until we were kicked off because the traffic on the way home was always the worst.   I remember one year in particular, I ended up hurting my hand during July 4th weekend a few days prior to the 4th of July.  I wore a sweatband on my right wrist but didn’t it let it stop me from driving everyone and spending the entire day at the beach.  Well, it turned out that I actually broke my wrist and spent the entire day there with a broken wrist hanging there.

-As we got older my friends and I ended up going from Jones Beach to Montauk, once the Jones Beach fireworks went on hiatus.  Montauk was great because you were able to make bonfires right on the beach and also stay there all night if you wanted to because most of the people there were spending the weekend there.  Well one year, I was the designated driver and we piled four friends into a room at a budget hotel with my girlfriend and I.  We had a good amount of snacks with us at the beach and my friend, James, infamously brought along a full pizza from Seven Eleven.  In any event, as time went on, we started to file out of the beach and drive back to our hotel.  Well in one car it was my friends James and Bruce as well as my girlfriend and I and in the other car it was my friends, Adam and LP.  I was leading the way for Adam but halfway through the trip a police officer pulled me over.  I hadn’t drank anything so I wasn’t worried but had some sort of busted tail light or may have been swerving a bit due to forgetting my glasses (I told you cops are looking for any reason whatsoever to pull you over).  Well before long, the cop let us go but Adam and LP didn’t know as they were already at the hotel.  James had a great idea to pretend I had been arrested for a DUI (bear in mind I didn’t drink anything at all) and to arrive with Bruce back at the hotel without my girlfriend and I.  My girlfriend and I hung out around the pool area of the hotel and my girlfriend called James pretending to be at the police station picking me up.  The story was ridiculous that the police would arrest me and let my girlfriend tag along, then let James take my car to the hotel but Adam and LP bought it hook line and sinker.  When I returned triumphantly to the hotel 10 minutes later they still weren’t sure if I had really been arrested.  It was a pretty good rib.

  -This year for the 4th of July Flo Rida and Robin Thicke will be performing “live” on the Macy’s Fireworks Spectacular.  Well the show was actually recorded on Thursday night and we were invited to the live taping in what we being billed as a free Flo Rida concert by the New York skyline in Long Island City.  First things first, this was really cool venue for a show.  It was awesome to see Flo Rida right by the water with the Empire State Building lit up nicely right behind him.  However, to call this show a concert, would be the understatement of the century.  First off despite the venue selling food and craft beer, you couldn’t bring any of this into the concert area which made things pretty annoying for everyone who purchased food.  From there Flo Rida came out with Robin Thicke and the two did their new hit ” I don’t Like It, I Love It”  which got the crowd really into it.  Then the producer of the special came out and said they had to do the song again and finally a third time to get the best take.  They then played the song a fourth time so that they can film just the band and the dancers.  Finally they played the same song a fifth time just to film the crowd during the song for crowd reactions.  After this, Flo Rida came out and did his new song “GDFR (Goin Down For Real)” which was great and then they went through the same thing playing the song five times.  Then…that was it! That’s right Flo Rida performed two songs, five times each and that was it.  I don’t know if it was a Flo Rida call or a producer call but it would have been nice for him to do a few more songs for the live crowd that spent their night coming to see him perform.  At the end of the day we ate at a great place called “Shi” so it was nice night out with friends, but still this rubbed me the wrong way.  That’s going to do it for me today but be sure to check out the Wrestling section of the site.  I was up and at em at 5:30 this morning providing you guys with coverage of the WWE Network live special “Beast In The East” and I’d love your feedback on that. Until then, have a happy and safe independence day everyone.  God Bless America!

The Spotlight On WWE Beast In The East

Tom Lynch Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 Good Morning and Happy 4th of July to all of my fellow Americans.  I just got finished watching a live WWE Network Special “Beast In The East” which aired live from Tokyo, Japan and I have to say, this show was a lot of fun.  It was really fun to wake up before the sun came out here in New York at 5AM, run out to get bagels and coffee and enjoy a WWE show to start my Independence Day.  I might add that before the show began, I watched the Finn Balor “The Demon Revealed” special that aired on the live feed right before The Beast In The East and it was fantastic.  If you haven’t seen that documentary go out of your way to watch it as it is a perfect prelude to the Beast In The East Special.  However, that’s another discussion for another time, let’s get into some of the highlights of WWE: The Beast In The East.

Highlights:

 The Demon Rises: I’ll be honest, when I heard that NXT Takeover would be in Brooklyn, I wasn’t 100% sure that they would do the title change here but, looking back, it was absolutely the time to do it.  One of the coolest things for me was to see the entrances of both Balor and Owens with the ladies presenting them with the flowers, to flooding the ring with streamers (which is the first time I’ve ever seen this at a WWE show) it just felt like such a big match feel for the NXT championship.  Kevin Owens was immediately established as big time heel by throwing the flowers into the aisle way and doing all he could to win the match by countout.  The crowd was solidly behind Balor from the beginning until they finally got the moment of Balor winning the title which was a feel good crowning moment for Balor.  This was the best match on the card (though Jericho and Neville was close) as there was such a good build throughout the match and so many good false finishes, including Owens kicking out of the coup de gras and Balor kicking out of the top rope senton.  With Balor now the NXT champion, Owens can make the full transition to the main roster and Balor can lead NXT into the future. The title change also added to the importance of the show, especially because the NXT title is changed so infrequently.   It was also a nice tough to see Hideo Itami in the crowd, showing support and having Tatsumi Fujinami coming out to crown the triumphant Balor.

 Brock Lesnar: Brock Lesnar came off like a really big deal on this show as he returned to Japan for the first time, as a WWE Superstar, in 12 years.  The show was build around Lesnar from the name of the show to Brock entering the building being shown as if he was the biggest star in the company to the great video package showcasing Lesnar.  I was actually surprised to see the fans get behind Kofi as much as they did, it really shows me how much traction the New Day is getting. The match itself was complete domination, which I expected that it would be, however, I would have preferred to see Xavier Woods face Lesnar as I feel they’ve done a good job protecting Kofi since the New Day formed.  That said, John Cena and the Undertaker both got destroyed by Brock Lesnar so there is no shame in that whatsoever.

 The Main Event: I was surprised to see that the tag match closed the show here as the show was built around both the NXT title match and Brock’s return but, say what you will about John Cena, he was absolutely adored by the Japanese crowd who reacted as if Cena was the huge star that he is.  I felt that this was a unique tag match in which all four men worked really hard.  It’s cool that WWE continues to have Cena and Ziggler loosely related as they’ve had each others’ backs for a while.  It reminds me somewhat of Tugboat and Hulk Hogan from back in the day.  I also thought it was nice to see Bad News Barrett get a main event spot and look good doing it.  A fun match that sent everyone home happy and ended a strong show the right way.

 44 Years Young: Holy cow did Chris Jericho and Neville tear down the house to kick off this show.  The two went back and forth for over twenty minutes in a great match.  Chris Jericho, in particular at 44 years old, did a great job in keeping up with the younger Neville and there’s still so much that he can contribute to the business, even in a limited capacity.  From doing small things like demanding that the referee “Ask Him!” while performing every wristlock or chinlock to coming up with innovative reversals, Jericho was on fire tonight.  I feel that Chris has taken some criticism lately and I’m not sure why because he does a great job in making the younger stars look great every time that he returns.  I know some will complain that Jericho won but the loss didn’t hurt Neville at all.  If anything, it felt like a star making performance for Neville that he was able to hang with a legend like Jericho in the way that he did.  Making stars doesn’t mean that you have to lose every match you’re in because by doing so it gets to a point where victories don’t mean as much against that guy taking the loss.  Kudos to both of these men and I would love to see the two work a program if and when Jericho makes a return to WWE.

Closing Thoughts:

 In the end, I really enjoyed this show as top to bottom every match was good to great.  There were only five matches on the broadcast, which meant that everything got to get time to develop.  From the divas to the main events, it was clear that everyone worked hard for the respectful Japanese crowd.  It was also nice to see the unique setup from to the different pieces of raw footage from the city of Tokyo showcasing the fans dressed as the Superstars to the different look and feel to the show, it was cool to see.  I have to add that I really enjoyed the commentary on this show, which I assume was recorded live in WWE Headquarters as I didn’t see the announcers at ringside, as both Byron Saxton and Michael Cole worked hard and did a great job. Lastly, the Japanese crowd was also very respectful, they did what you’re supposed to do in a classic sense, being behind the good guys and booing the bad guys, which was actually refreshing to see.  I hope that WWE continues to showcase different live events from unique settings like this in the future.

All Photos courtesy of the WWE Network