4 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (30 March - Results & Review)
WWE turns in flat show less than three weeks from WrestleMania. Is there time to course correct?
Generally speaking, when you’re heading toward your biggest, most important wrestling show of the year, you want to start peaking about two or three weeks out so everything has been building to a crescendo and there isn’t much to do afterward other than wait one week for everything to come to a head.
WWE has opted to try an interesting tactic, tanking Raw on Monday night, less than three weeks before WrestleMania 42. Monday’s show was a dismal, uninspired, and flat one that promised something special for Madison Square Garden and delivered… Stephanie McMahon trying to sound like a sage, subpar wrestling, repetitive plot points, and a 'Mania match that appeared out of thin air and was booked five minutes later.
It’s difficult to express just how disappointing this show was, given the circumstances and the stakes. WWE was broadcasting from their home base of MSG with just a handful of shows left before a WrestleMania where ticket sales are so below expectations that they’ve threatened watch-party blackouts to try to encourage more people to buy tickets for WrestleMania and Raw. They needed a home run show that would sell fans on booking a last-minute flight to Las Vegas and seeing this show in person.
Instead, they presented one of the clearest cases that the boom period of mid-2022 through early 2025 is officially over, and they might be sliding into a funk.
Two weeks to right the ship and sell a two-day PLE that actually looks good on paper and might be fine on the night, but it’ll be meaningless if fans aren’t invested and don’t show up.
Let’s get to it…