10 Things We Learned From WWE Raw (April 17)

1. A Giant Mess

Sasha Banks Alexa Bliss
WWE.com

Industry legend Jim Cornette once posited that an angle can be repeated seven years after the original incarnation, suggesting that the break in time would give old viewers chance to forget the last occurrence and newer fans a cleansed palette for their first edition.

However, if the reaction from the Raw crowd following Braun Strowman and The Big Show's ring-smashing plunge is anything to go by, that number could justifiably be reduced by at least a year.

It was Mark Henry that joined Show for the last variant of the eye-popping stunt at the Vengeance pay-per-view in 2011, with the company aping the spot first rolled out between 'The World's Largest Athlete' and Brock Lesnar on a Smackdown taping in 2003.

2017's version may be the best of the lot.

Referee John Cone tumbled backwards out of the ring, whilst Strowman rose from his latest wreckage to raise his arms aloft in victory over the fallen Big Show as Monday's broadcast went off the air.

Unlike the prior collapses, the stunt offered more than just a creative 'out' in a contest between two behemoths.

Strowman's modus operandi since WrestleMania has been chaos and destruction, and if his ambulance assault last week mirrored early Steve Austin, this sense of threat and peril to all similarly mimicked 'The Rattlesnake' in his Attitude Era pomp.

Whether the company want it or not, the 'Monster Among Men' is becoming the next great babyface hope.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett