WWE RAW Reaction - Night After Mania
I was live in Dallas for Monday night Raw and have so many great pictures and video from the weekend which will be included in a special article later this week. For now, check out my abbreviated great, good, bad, and pathetic from last night's RAW.
Great
- The main event fatal four way to crown a new number one contender was a perfect ending to a great weekend of wrestling I witnessed in Dallas. Great action all around. All four men really showed why they great.
- The win by AJ Styles was excellent and very satisfying after we watched him lose to Jericho, stupidly I might add, the night before at Mania. AJ should be in the title hunt.
- The return of Cesaro was excellent!!!! He is one of my favorite performers and I'm glad he's healed in back in the mix. He was great as always.
Good
- The night after Mania always presents some debuts and surprises and I was really happy with the call ups of Enzo & Big Cass and also Apollo Crews. Great way to feature both acts in two different ways.
- I liked that Owens took Zayn out of the main event by attacking him. It adds even more heat to their feud and gives both clear direction.
- In front of this crazy crowd, Reign's came out and faced the music, said his peace, and was never seen again. Great decision.
- The New Day got their win back.
Bad
- I don't like Sasha losing at Mania and I definitely didn't like the followup the next night. Sasha was screwed by Ric Flair, and then the next night she just is forced to go out there and watch Charlotte get crowned and cut a promo right in front of her without retaliation? And they just had her wrestle Summer Rae to give her something to do. While they are setting up a title feud with Natalia? What? Why wouldn't Sasha be next in line for a one on one match since we just saw Natty get beat at Road Block and Sasha has never had a one on one match? Bad creative.
- The finish to the Dudley's vs Uso's match was completely botched. Poor Uso's. They need a gimmick change quick. They are getting the Reign's blow back. I would put them in street clothes, and pair them with Roman and create a ass-kicking bad ass group.
Pathetic
- A night after I was baffled that neither Owens or Zayn won the IC title ladder match, Ryder drops the title to the Miz. And it further devalues the championship when it winds up back around Miz's waist. Remember last year when the plan was to make the secondary title mean something after Mania with Cena winning the U.S. and Bryan winning the IC? Well, a year later and the U.S champion Kalisto wrestled on the pre-show on Mania and on Superstars on Monday. And the IC champion on Sunday was Zack Ryder and Monday The Miz. Yea, great job.
- Its no secret that I don't like Baron Corbin, but even I felt they really botched his debut. It was just terrible. A long boring rest-hold filled match with Dolph and he didn't even get to win. The crowd was busy having fun with a beach ball and it was a lot more exciting than the match.
At the beginning of the show, for some strange reason unknowing to me, Vince McMahon gave Shane the power to book the show, even though Shane lost to the Undertaker and shouldn't have gotten anything. This was baffling. All that build meant nothing of he's just going give him the show. And where the hell were HHH and Stephanie. Shane jumped off a cage and was on RAW the next night. But HHH was too banged up from that dry ass match with Roman?
Its clear that backstage politics between the Hunter and Shane is still a huge issue. Which is why those tow never interacted during this whole Mania season, even though, in story line, a Shane win would have forced Hunter out of power. This was so dumb if you really think about it, and in many ways, I'm glad its over.
Should be interesting to see where they go from here. Clearly they were playing to the smart crowd last night, and its no guarantee that they will push the guys the fans really want to see n the coming weeks. But only time will tell.
Its clear that backstage politics between the Hunter and Shane is still a huge issue. Which is why those tow never interacted during this whole Mania season, even though, in story line, a Shane win would have forced Hunter out of power. This was so dumb if you really think about it, and in many ways, I'm glad its over.
Should be interesting to see where they go from here. Clearly they were playing to the smart crowd last night, and its no guarantee that they will push the guys the fans really want to see n the coming weeks. But only time will tell.