BLOG: After A Great PPV WWE Raw Was A Letdown
By: Tim Grzecki
@tjetski971
Sunday night I was writing my reaction to WWE Fastlane with a smile on my face and an urgency to get my thoughts documented. Hoping to capture just how good that main event left me feeling about the upcoming five weeks of programming until WrestleMania. Twenty four hours later I find myself trying to decide just how I'm going to express my disappointment in Raw. Twenty four hours later and all momentum the WWE had coming out of Fastlane is gone…vanished.
Raw missed nearly every opportunity to pick up where it left off at Fastlane and advance the storylines. Let's go down the list shall we?
We'll start with the Intercontinental Championship. Why the hell didn't Dean Ambrose talk? He should have a microphone in his hand every time he's on TV let alone the night after he steals the belt. I understand Dolph Ziggler needs a win, but does it need to come at the expense of the champion? Are we really going to get a Fatal 4-Way at Mania with Ambrose, Ziggler, Bad News Barrett and R Truth? Who actually thinks R Truth belongs in that situation?
Next up, Sting vs HHH. Did HHH even speak tonight? Cause I sure as hell don't remember hearing his voice. The video package on Sting was nice, but WHERE WAS HE? Sting NEEDS TO BE ON TV. Sting NEEDS TO TALK SOON. I said I didn't mind him not talking at Fastlane and I stick by that, but the clock is ticking and he HAS TO SPEAK BEFORE MANIA.
Bray Wyatt cut another stellar promo about his desire to finish off The Undertaker. Wyatt is doing one hell of a job trying to sell this match, but I'm not buying. The Undertaker is no longer undefeated at Mania. I haven't seen The Undertaker on WWE TV since last year's Mania. Why on earth would Bray Wyatt, let alone anyone else, want to face The Undertaker at this point? MAYBE IF HE WAS THERE! Mania is five weeks away, why wasn't The Undertaker on TV tonight? HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN.
The hype began for the Andre the Giant Battle Royal. The Miz, Curtis Axel, Ryback, all threw their names in the hat for the match…hate to sound like a broken record here…but WHY DO I CARE? That match means nothing. It did nothing for Cesaro last year because the WWE botched his push. The winner gets nothing but a trophy and didn't that trophy break last year?
Randy Orton's return couldn't have been any more anticlimactic. I get that they are trying to draw this process out, to try and have us fans on the edge of our seats just waiting for Orton to explode and RKO everybody. Yeah I get it…meanwhile he was on fire last night and tonight was boring, absolutely boring.
Roman Reigns did a great job standing there while Daniel Bryan sold how great Reigns is. He did a great job standing there while Paul Heyman did the same. But when is HE going to SELL HIMSELF? He needed to look strong on his own Monday, to keep the momentum from Sunday. At some point he has to be able to sell himself. And although the little that he said wasn't bad, it wasn't good enough.
Finally while I'm complaining, what the hell was the point of that Divas segment? It wasn't entertaining. The "match" was a joke. The story between Paige and The Bellas didn't progress. If the time and the material you're going to give them to work with is that bad just keep them off TV till you come up with something better.
Sadly there's still more I could go on about but I'm pretty sure that's all the negativity I can stomach for one night. Tune in next week to see if things improved or if I move one step closer to being that guy that says he's never watching again, but is glued to the TV every time it's on.