6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (April 25)
Surprise returns spark show, crooked authority figure and promo train drag it down.
To say that Monday Night Raw was a mixed bag would be a fair assessment.
If you were watching for surprises and big moments, you got them. If you wanted to see Randy Orton properly celebrated for his 20th anniversary, you were most likely rewarded.
But if you thought the one hometown hero would get a big, shining moment, you’d be mildly disappointed. If you were hoping WWE would avoid some of its most common tropes, you were probably left groaning at the TV and asking yourself why with 37 writers they can’t come up with anything original.
This is Raw in 2022. A talented roster and a desperate need to right the ship has resulted in some genuinely good-to-great moments on the show at times, as opposed to the malaise of previous months. But this is also WWE, where various crutches and poor storytelling derail segments and leave you wondering how this company still turns a profit.
We don’t even need to count them shortening Tommaso Ciampa’s name as a “down” here, because it’s just par for the course.
But Raw featured some great surprise returns and a nice bookending with Orton, so we’ll give the show passing marks. You just can’t expect them to maintain that momentum from segment to segment.
Let’s get to it…