6 Ups And 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (March 28th)
The last stop on the Road to WrestleMania cures insomnia, not much else.
If you came into Monday night expecting a big, exciting, action-packed episode of Raw to fire up the crowd and pique interest in WrestleMania, then you werent alone, and you certainly werent alone in being disappointed. Raw delivered a big goose egg for the most part Monday, combining poor match quality with minimal storyline development which actually is more of a function of most of the angles being played out in the weeks prior.
What we were left with Monday was a series of matches that had no consequences other than filling up three hours of programming while everyone tried to avoid getting injured climbing between the ropes. After watching Luke Harper go down with an injury last week, its understandable if the locker room is suddenly apprehensive about losing their WrestleMania payday.
But now all the hype and setup is done, as Smackdown really is a very light wrap-up show leading into Mania weekend. Raw reminded us that there are four title matches, a battle royal, a tag team rivalry between the old and new guard, a four-on-three handicap match (unless you count the trombone, then its even) and a 10-woman tag match that could be Brie Bellas swan song.
There also is a street fight between a lunatic and a Beast, and a bout for control of the companys flagship show, a program that the insurgent said is stagnant and boring, and Mondays show certainly seemed to reinforce that belief.
Its certainly not the card WWE could have envisioned six months ago, but injuries galore have decimated the roster, and this is the hand the biggest wrestling company in the world had to play. For better or worse, this is WrestleMania XXXII.
So what set the table and what sent fans to the concession stands? Lets get to it