4 Ups & 9 Downs From WWE Raw (Feb 15)
Drew McIntyre stymied, same old faces fill Elimination Chamber, Lacey Evans is pregnant.
Nothing says “go-home show before a PPV” like an episode of Raw that substitutes one wrestler in a multi-man match and then presumably nixes one of its other two announced matches.
But that’s WWE in 2021. The company continues careening toward WrestleMania in almost a completely directionless manner, as no storylines look set or even seem to be hinted at. Don’t believe it? Pop quiz: Who is Drew McIntyre’s likely opponent for WM 37? Is Drew even likely to be WWE Champion at Mania? Name one other feud that is simmering and could come to fruition at WrestleMania.
The only one that easily pops into mind is Kofi Kingston versus Mustafa Ali, and even then, there was no sign of RETRIBUTION on a night where they could have easily and logically advanced that storyline.
Despite those failings, Raw was watchable, mainly because one-third of the program was tied up in the Elimination Chamber gauntlet match to determine who would enter the match last. The five matches between six superstars were mostly entertaining and fairly clean, save for the Randy Orton foolishness. Closing out Raw with 60 minutes of credible wrestling certainly helped the show, but there still is so much wrong with the product these days.
Let’s get to it…