This was the first RAW on the road to Wrestlemania after the Elimination Chamber. While the Elimination Chamber had a few things that newsworthy, for the most part I felt that it was flat and nothing more than side money in between the Rumble and Wrestlemania. Nonetheless, it was obvious that a few things needed to be addressed on this RAW episode and while it started off hot, I felt that by the time it got to the end, the show had moved to Pluto.
CM Punk Promo
This whole segment was super red hot. Matter of fact, this is by far the best promo segment I’ve seen in a very long time. Punk effectively charged into the arena after parking his truck, grabbed a mic then stood on the announcers desk after tipping the top off and blasted Cena, the Rock and Seth Rollins. Whatever handcuffs that had been on Punk up until this point were gone. The PG Punk era that people had criticized Punk for since returning to the WWE was not what we saw here. Instead, Punk was furious and he really lit the crowd up in how he called the Rock and Cena balding frauds. The best part for me was seeing Punk do that shitty goosebump arm slap the Rock does and calling it bullshit. He did mention that he was going to see both men down the road. But holy crap did Punk ignite that crowd and it felt like a bunch of pent up frustrations were released all at once.
After calling out Seth and blasting him in saying that Becky needs to pick him up, Seth comes out to a nice pop and Punk wasted zero time in brawling with Seth from near the entrance way back towards the ring. The brawl was pretty amazing and got the crowd to chant “this is awesome!” I hated the hockey fight stuff but all the security and both guys’ intensity really made me look forward to their program.
Unfortunately, from here on out, the program went on a steep decline….
Judgment Day Backstage Segment
More Dominick wanting a new member (which means booting out useless Finn) while Finn goes on the defensive about his own incompetence in facing Bron but backing out when Finn had a chair. I want to see Finn against Bron because the match will be decent but the Judgment Day stuff really is Dominick, Raquel and Liv at this point.
Otis (w/Akira Tozawa & Maxxine Dupri) vs. Gunther
I called out this match from my last RAW review. But Gunther verbally eviscerated Otis. However, compared to what Punk said earlier, Gunther really feels second rate and it’ll be disappointing to have Gunther vs Jey Uso as the main event for night one given that Gunther is facing a bunch of jobbers at this stage rather than facing high level people. But at the same time, I figure Gunther has a high likelihood of dropping the title to Uso so they might be cooling him off for now. Either way, Gunther did his best with Otis and managed a weak looking powerbomb for the pin. Gunther continued bullying Otis until Tozawa came in but that was pointless. Of course, Jey came down to defend Otis etc for which Austin Theory and Grayson Waller also appeared to beat Jey up until Jey cleared them out so that Gunther could choke Jey out.
That whole segment was a huge mess. The biggest problem is that when Gunther went back in to handle Jey, neither Austin nor Grayson were seen again. Also, what happened to Otis, Tozawa and Maxxine? This is more stage acting which is why I feel bad for Gunther and why Gunther vs Jey should not be the main event for night one at Wrestlemania. They aren’t treating either guy like a real main eventer.
AJ Styles Backstage Interview
Cathy Kelly tries to ask AJ about his thoughts on Cena but gets promptly annoyed…I mean interrupted by Karrion Kross. AJ wants to challenge Logan Paul and Karrion says something about his job being done. Ugh….so I’m guessing the WWE realizes that Karrion is a bland wrestler and was on the road to becoming another Marc Mero with his wannabe Sable spotlight hogging wife so they covered all that up and turned him into a useless backstage character that really does nothing at this stage except show up. But it’s just so stupid….like everything else on this show.
Lyra Valkyria (c) vs. Ivy Nile (IC Title Match)
I guess Ivy got her wish for a title match in threatening Lyra to make a noise until she received one. Again, I didn’t pay much attention here. Lyra won but I’m guessing at some point they’ll have another worthless three way probably at Wrestlemania between these two and Dakota Kai just to give them a payday at WM.
Seth Backstage Segment
Jackie Redmond tries to interview Seth but because it’s backstage we get another fight with Punk interrupting and a new brawl erupting. Adam Pearce comes down to break it up but he’s clearly frustrated. Later, Pearce tells Seth he’s going to set a steelcage match between Punk and Seth for next week’s Madison Square Garden show. That actually is something I will look forward to.
Ludwig Kaiser In Ring Promo
Ludwig Kaiser effectively says he’s back in business because he won a single match. Then Penta comes out and makes Ludwig look like an idiot. I mean, why not just have the match? Or at least give Ludwig someone else to beat on like a Tozawa to give him some credibility. Just rotten after rotten…
Chad Gable in Mexico
To add to the awfulness of this program, we get wannabe Kurt Angle in Mexico. He pays a bunch of money to some unseen person who hands him a box that contains the secrets to Lucha Libre. All I can think of was the stupid Undertaker urn fetish and I’m writing Chad Gable off because he’s in a perpetual stupid comedy thing that is the death knell to any wrestler who wants some hope of getting over. Whatever talent this guy has or potential is dead just because he can’t escape this rotten gimmick.
War Raiders vs. Brutus & Julius Creed World Tag Team Title Match
There were a few impressive spots in the match like a shooting star press. But I don’t really care for either team and the War Raiders won making team Chad 0-2 tonight.
They announce that Sami Zayn is out indefinitely after his unsanctioned match with Kevin Owens, which might be code for the guy is taking a vacation.
There’s an LWO video package which was painful to listen to but mostly hyped up more New Day sucks with Rey leading the chant.
From there I started to skip the rest of the show. It just became too much recap and an infomercial that I got super irritated. I did read about Iyo Sky and Rhea and the result turned me off completely along with the rest of the show.
Final Thoughts
Like I mentioned, the show started off super hot with a must see segment. Punk lobbed a bunch of truthbombs at Dwayne and Cena (I still can’t stop laughing at the balding fraud statements….he needs a T-Shirt with those two clowns like that). The brawl was good for what it was an I am very intrigued to see Punk vs Seth in a steelcage. My only question is why do this on RAW when there’s Wrestlemania? Of course, the big rumor is that Wrestlemania will have Punk vs Seth vs Roman in a triple threat, which, despite the participants, is not a match I want to see. But I’m guessing that Roman might turn up next week to help set that match up. And if you get those three for Wrestlemania, it will have to be the main event for night one. Gunther vs Jey just isn’t enough and the WWE booked themselves in a corner by giving Jey that “main event” name.
The rest of the show was an absolute typical snoozefest. Gunther’s segment did not feel impactful just because Punk’s promo was ultra red hot while Gunther faced the latest incarnation of the Job Squad. And the other three title matches were blah. Yeah, I didn’t want Rhea vs Iyo but the result was blah to me. People are suggesting another god awful triple threat match between Rhea, Iyo and Bianca but I’m guessing that Bianca gets the big women’s title. That’s fine but why couldn’t they just have Rhea vs Bianca? Why hot potato the title like that and devalue it just before Wrestlemania?
What really started to irk me was the whole John Cena turns heel part. I hated all the stupid reaction videos. If there’s one thing I absolutely hate on the internet, it’s reaction videos. Low effort, barely worth mentioning content from a bunch of nobodies. Someone might say, “Well, isn’t your blog like that? Just a bunch of stupid reactions?” My blog has thought behind it and I take time to do the writing itself. More importantly, I don’t make low effort in showing my ugly face to get cheap views. Nonetheless, the Cena recaps, horrible reaction videos and nonstop infomercial production made me want to give up and fast forward the bulk of this show. The matches felt energiless with the crowd not giving a shit and the only one that resembled something of an affair where the crowd kinda cared was for Otis vs Gunther because Gunther is good at giving people hope spots unlike the rest of the crap on the show.
After these brutal last few shows, I think a better way of handling Raw reviews moving forward is to ONLY mention the stuff that gets my attention. There’s too much filler and you can see that the people in charge treat it that way. Anything that isn’t a main event story line is treated as secondary. While you don’t want to overshadow the key stories in place, you also don’t want to bore the hell out of your audience. I’ve stated that if they’re so keen on putting more wrestlers on for a payday, just go back to the old 3-5 minute squash type of matches. Get people in and out. Have people do their 5 moves of doom then move to the next thing. These TV shows feel very plodding and are a chore to get through especially if you’re looking for something to happen. In that situation, you’re really better off watching clips posted on Reddit because those summarize concisely the important aspects of the show.
Finally, no more goddamn multi person matches. Those stink. Just give me 3-5 minute matches if you’re keen on people that many people on per show. I hate when the bulk of the participants can’t figure out how to fill in their matches to make them seem like an actual wrestling match. But this is ridiculous at this point. It’s far worse when you have the top of the card involved in these types of matches because it demeans the issue that occur between the key people involved.