6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (May 2)
Edge continues ramblings, Veer squashes, Bloodline jumped, women main-event.
If the goal of Raw on Monday night was to take whatever momentum there was for WrestleMania Backlash, avoid toning it down, and even increasing excitement modestly, then mission accomplished, WWE.
Raw didn’t add any more matches to the six-match card for this weekend, but it keep the heat turned up on Backlash’s bigger matches, furthered a couple simmering feuds, suggested a new path for two under-utilized wrestlers, and avoided blowing up this weekend’s PLE.
But Raw also heavily featured Edge and his antics, focused on the 24/7 division quite a bit, undercut a just-returned wrestler, and piped in a ton of fake crowd noise to compensate for fans not reacting how WWE would like them to. Overall, it was a mediocre show without any tragically awful segments, but also without a truly memorable moment.
It’s really a shame at this juncture when WWE gets some things really right and then manages to screw other things up that should be executed better. You would think a Hall-of-Famer would have better segments than he has the past month-plus, but he keeps running out there delivering channel-changing efforts.
And really, the fact WWE is relying on piped-in crowd noise to manipulate fan reactions and perceptions is pathetic. The company should be embarrassed, but honestly, we shouldn’t be surprised.
Let’s get to it…