4 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (16 February - Results & Review)
Raw builds to Elimination Chamber while WrestleMania remains a mystery.
If you didn’t realize WrestleMania 42 was two months away and tuned into WWE Raw Monday night, you would have had next-to-no idea that the biggest show of the year is just around the corner.
Raw continued to build out its participant lists for the two Elimination Chamber matches at the eponymous PLE at the end of the month, as well as a solid World Heavyweight Championship match taking place at that show, but they continued their painting-around-the-edges routine where it pertains to WrestleMania 42.
They built toward a potential Women’s World Championship match with a fiery promo from Stephanie Vaquer that left Royal Rumble winner Liv Morgan in tears, but other than that, the 'Mania card remains barren except for the World Heavyweight Championship match between Roman Reigns and CM Punk.
But first, Punk must get past Finn Balor at Elimination Chamber. Their feud ratcheted up a bit Monday night in another really good segment that saw Punk needling Balor about continuing to run with the Judgment Day while negging him.
Overall, WWE continues to throw together poorly constructed shows with uninteresting angles and characters that aren’t compelling and matches that aren’t dynamic, all at a time when they’re supposed to be firing on all cylinders.
It’s not dismal stuff – there’s still good – but this is the first WrestleMania Season in a few years where we’ve had serious questions like this.
Let’s get to it…