7 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (April 28)
The land of jobbertunities.
A "go-home" show for an imminent pay-per-view should - should - write itself.
The entire premise of a go-home show is to spike excitement for the blow-off without blowing the load prematurely. It should and usually does involve the men who are actually competing against one another at the pay-per-view exchanging tense words or entering into a brief but spirited physical altercation in a teaser of what is to come.
What shouldn't happen - but what did on RAW this week - is a two on one handicap match in favour of two babyfaces (!) amounting to little more than a glorified squash. It wasn't as if those three men (Chris Jericho, Dean Ambrose and The Miz) even have anything to do with one another on Sunday. None of them are even on the main card.
Honestly, in contrast to the events of RAW, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns playing tug of war over the WWE Heavyweight Title prior to WrestleMania 31 looked like an intense stare down for the ages - and it was only the start of a week in which wrestling pretty much ate itself.
7. The Axis Has Shifted
Back at the turn of the decade, things in WWE were so dire that people still to this day bemoan the fact that Michael Tarver and David Otunga didn't become lasting headliners as part of the Nexus faction.
Ostensibly every full time performer was a product of WWE's shallow, disastrous developmental system and wrestled the same, bland style. When WWE did recruit a different and critically acclaimed performer - Daniel Bryan - they buried him for being different. WWE was homogenised and tedious - very much a no fly zone. The independent scene, another WWE punchline, was so much more rife with talent that it bordered on the embarrassing. Fast forward a few years, and the best players of that scene have ushered in a paradigm shift - which is shifting again, if the events of RAW are any indication.
All 6 ft 8 inches of in-house developmental product Braun Strowman annihilated the gifted, acrobatic and well-travelled Kalisto and fans absolutely lost their sh*t. Strowman, target of IWC ire just one year earlier, received massive cheers for bludgeoning a workhorse.
Crazier still, in this nuts new world, Vince McMahon won't go all in on his platonic ideal of a sports entertainer because he's growing too popular for his own good.