10 Things We Learned From WWE Raw (April 10)
7. All Filler, No Killer
The 'Superstar shake-up' concept felt somewhat of a damp squib on Monday's broadcast, with little mention of the mechanisms or controls behind the changing faces of Raw and Smackdown Live! and talent literally showing up out of the blue to confirm their arrival.
However, at least those stars got the opportunity to show up.
Apollo Crews, Kalisto, Heath Slater and Rhyno were reduced to ashes before even appearing in front of a live Raw crowd by the virtue of a video package introduction. Curt Hawkins was given no respite from his delusional loser act on Smackdown, earning a single punch from The Big Show as his prize for ascending to the 'A' show. And Byron Saxton was told after the show went off the air that he'd be switching seats with the equally moribund David Otunga.
The whole layout of this supplementary 'shake-up' seemed only to damage all of those that weren't given profile.
As cringeworthy as it may have sounded on commentary at the time, Matt Striker practically exploded over the news Vladimir Kozlov was coming to his show ECW during Monday Night Raw's 2009 draft. That level of enthusiasm for the lower card hopefuls would have been a welcome injection.