4 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (30 March - Results & Review)

1. The Matches Don’t Matter

Anyone who has watched Whose Line Is It Anyway? knows the show’s tagline, “Where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.” That could absolutely apply to WWE’s build to WrestleMania 42, where everything seems to be made up on the fly and the matches don’t matter.

Raw emanated from Madison Square Garden Monday night, but despite being in the World’s Most Famous Arena, they didn’t bring their A-game with in-ring action. Four matches collectively stunk up the joint, with only one match really passing muster (Iyo Sky/Raquel Rodriguez) and another barely salvaged by a solid closing third (the Intercontinental Championship match).

It was embarrassingly bad when you consider that WWE is trying to sell tickets for all of its shows across WrestleMania Weekend, and despite a hyped show at their spiritual home, the wrestling wasn’t even secondary – and the fans knew it.

A New York City crowd spent large swaths of matches sitting on their hands between the bells, only coming up for obvious closing sequences. And really, you can’t blame them. Both tag title matches ended with shenanigans. The subplot to Kofi Kingston versus Penta centered on whether Grayson Waller would interfere against Kofi’s wishes. And Iyo/Raquel featured a heavy dose of the Kabuki Warriors.

Fans have become conditioned to not care about WWE matches, particularly during this build to WrestleMania. Matches will be padded with dull action that eventually builds to a watchable, even great final third, and fans will come up for the near-falls and exchanges as they sense a finish imminently approaching. Otherwise, they’ve been trained not to care and barely pay attention, because nothing of consequence will happen in those early stages.

It’s embarrassing to have a show with 15,000-plus fans in attendance and you can practically hear the vendors on the concourse selling sodas and food.