12 WWE Raw 25 Impulse Reactions
1. Stockholm Syndrome
A DX/Bálor Club/Miz/Rollins dark segment was perhaps infinitely preferable to the infuriated Manhattan Center few than a lazy and lifeless pull-apart featuring Brock Lesnar, Braun Strowman and Kane, going on in Brooklyn, but only just.
It's easy to cast aspersions on the punters that piled into to Raw's spiritual home, but they were within their rights to expect substantially more than they got. They were absolutely justified to chant 'bullsh*t' and 'refund' as the realisation of their collective fate set in. But they sacrificed virtually all of their rage to sing along with the D-Generation-X theme tune and pocket a glow-stick or two just minutes later. Game over.
And speaking of the master manipulator himself, Triple H somehow won them back round further with some sanctimonious sycophancy that silenced at least half the dissenters enough to get through a disappointing closing stretch. It was a living breathing example of why WWE can still switch to autopilot for a show that should have meant so much to so many. The company had actively promoted it as such, then profoundly failed to deliver.
Many of those visible on Raw will almost certainly be back in their take-home chairs for the Royal Rumble though. Vince McMahon didn't just win the Monday Night War in 2001, he won a free pass that's somehow still in working order today.