How WWE Are Intentionally Killing Raw To Save SmackDown

Blue Equals Green.

By Michael Hamflett /

WWE

Is hashtagRawAfterWrestleMania not "a thing" anymore?

Advertisement

There was much to unpack from Monday's edition of the flagship show - the episode that has been promoted as the best of the entire year via WWE Network documentaries and the like - but the overwhelming air of disappointment wasn't isolated to a main event butchered by a transparent bait-and-switch.

Some balance, first, just so this article doesn't go the same way as Seth Rollins and Kofi Kingston's "Winner-Take-All" encounter. Your writer was in the cheap seats at the Barclays Center just days removed from a plum spot in the 100s for arguably the greatest NXT TakeOver of all time, so comparisons between the two were already coloured by unfair biases before Monday Night's show nosedived into 2015 Royal Rumble territory in the final third.

Advertisement

This piece isn't designed to go to bat for bored beach ball enthusiasts, though. The "AEW" and "CM Punk" chants were cheesier than any platitute 'The Beast Slayer' could have spouted before his battle with Brock Lesnar. However, this as much reflected how in sync the Brooklyn crowd were with WWE yet again - like the company's creative team, they simply couldn't be a*sed to offer anything better than the norm.

CONT'D...

Advertisement