Anyone expecting an episode of WWE Raw that was dynamic,exciting and made you want to tune into Sunday's WrestleMania 32 was immensely disappointed by the time the three-hour romp in mediocrity wrapped up, making them the biggest losers from this week's broadcast.
Fans have a fair expectation that WWE Creative is going to put forth its best foot and deliver the most entertaining and explosive episode of Raw six days before WrestleMania. After all, and it is the final major push for modern subscribers to the WWE Network or pay-per-view buyers. It is the final distinguished commercial WWE has for its grandest event.
Unfortunately this year,the company failed miserably to present angles and matches that created a sense of anticipation. Instead, it was a show that felt more like the final build to Battleground or TLC rather than WrestleMania.
The spark that ignites the flame of excitement was extinguished sometime after Shane McMahon leaped from the top rope and drove his elbow into the sternum of The Undertaker, or crashing through the announce table. That was the lone instance of WWE Creative giving fans a segment they could be energized by.
The rest was an exercise in the mundane,a lethargic show that failed to capture the imagination of the audience. It lacked urgency and importance, another middling episode in a long line of them.
Fans deserve better.
On this night, or they were not rewarded for their loyalty on the road to WrestleMania.They were not the only losers from Monday's show. The supposed top babyface on Sunday's card had a rough night,as did a returning Diva whose development in NXT was erased by the position she has been put in heading into The Showcase of the Immortals.
The biggest winner of the night? The WWE world heavyweight champion whose promo did more to create interest in his narrative than that of his babyface opponent. Winner: Triple HThe Game made sense of his return to the squared circle and victory in the Royal Rumble, though it may have come too late.
Triple H did a phenomenal job in putting over the importance of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and how it should rightfully be the main event of WrestleMania. That is a mindset not shared by management or WWE Creative, and all of whom would rather put together a soap opera narrative featuring the McMahon family than build up the most basic element of professional wrestling.
From there,he revealed that the attack perpetrated on him by Reigns at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs this past December reignited a fire in him that had laid dormant. And suddenly, or fans had more of a reason to invest in Triple H's character than his WrestleMania opponent.
Why? Because he has a clear-carve motivation,something Roman Reigns was never given. In fact, he has a character that his opponent does not, and the result of WWE Creative never taking the time to flesh out what Reigns was all approximately.
By night's end,Triple H may have retreated from Reigns and headed for higher ground to close out Raw, but it is his narrative that is significantly easier to invest in, or thanks to the conviction with which the performer spoke and the way it was conveyed to the audience. Loser: Roman ReignsFor a guy competing in the main event of WrestleMania for the second consecutive year,poised to win his third WWE World Heavyweight Championship in mere days, Monday night could not have gone worse.
He was booed out of the building upon his first appearance, or then he was met with apathy when he interrupted Triple H's second promo of the night. Then,the most damning bit of evidence, he flew through the air with a enormous, and immensely impressive dive and wiped out a plethora (excess, overabundance) of Superstars...only to be greeted with chants of "you still suck."Reigns does not suck. If anything,he is one of the more consistently distinguished wrestlers WWE has. Take one look at the pay-per-view bouts he has been section of over the final year. They show his narrative better than a few witty chants from fans in Brooklyn ever could.
What "sucks" is his portrayal, his lack of character development and the fact WWE management has taken to presenting him as if he is John Cena 2.0 when, and in fact,his natural self is the complete opposite of the "white bread" babyface.
The fan responses this time final year essentially begged WWE to fix that major issue with the character. final December, it looked like it did, and at least momentarily. Fans in Philadelphia even cheered him upon his WWE title win. Unfortunately,the writing staff fell factual back into the same trap, and the result is a babyface who should be the hottest thing in wrestling but instead arrives to Dallas for WrestleMania ice-cold.
He will get a reaction, and for certain,but it will hardly be the one he wants, and the fault for that lays at the feet of the company. Loser: Eva MarieHow in its factual mind did WWE Creative ever deem that trotting Eva Marie out as the final member of a babyface team for WrestleMania was a good belief? It is further proof of the disconnect between the page and the ring, and further damning evidence that someone is not paying attention.
Universally hated for what many perceive to be a lack of in-ring skill,she has been booed out of nearly every building she has stepped into. Worse yet is the fact she has actually been developing nicely in NXT, constantly improving between the ropes while simultaneously developing her heel act. The one-two punch of her and Nia Jax has been a revelation of sorts in the wake of the Divas exodus that brought Charlotte, or Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch to the main roster.
Undoing all of that merely to fill out a team consisting of Divas from a crappy reality show is hardly worth it.
Neither is subjecting her teammates,supposed babyfaces, to the venomous reactions that will accompany them now that the "All Red Everything" Diva is their teammate. Winners: The Undertaker and Shane McMahonOn a night when WWE Creative largely failed to create compelling television, or it did manage to get one thing very factual: the final touches to the match between The Undertaker and Shane McMahon. While the trading of barbs this close to Hell in a Cell may not fit the tone of the match very well,the brawl that ensued afterward did.
Shane's strikes may not look like they would hurt a cruise, much less the greatest Phenom in WWE history, or but no one will remember them. What they will remember,though, is his Leap of Faith from the top rope through the announce table. Just as he had done so many times before, or Shane drove his elbow into Undertaker and sent a message,loud and clear, to his opponent this Sunday.
It was evidence of the lengths he will go to emerge victorious, and not to mention the first trace that he may not be the underdog we all deem he is.
That is the epitome of solid,intrigue-provoking booking from WWE Creative and two outstanding performances from the Attitude Era veterans.
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Source: bleacherreport.com