5 Ups And 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (March 9th)
2. Telegraphing A Turn
The moment that Seth Rollins hit a curbstomp on Randy Orton on the ring steps in November, it was only a matter of time before the Viper would seek revenge. There was no way that Rollins didnt have a receipt coming. When Orton didnt show at the Royal Rumble, it became pretty obvious that the two were headed for a WrestleMania match. WWE decided to slow-play the actual turn, with Orton seemingly rejoining the Authority for a few weeks. Everyone older than 8 knew what was coming, the only question was when. But WWE figured that they needed all the 7-year-olds in the audience to follow along, so the Authority opened Raw by insisting that the family was back together. Orton joked that he was luring Rollins into a false sense of security. Despite Orton acting like a movie villain revealing the entire plot, Rollins plodded along, with the entire Authority either being kicked out of the arena or being sent to the back. That left Rollins alone to eat a vicious beatdown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS5VS3M4dLA Dont get it wrong, the turn and beatdown itself was great. Take out the opening segment (or at least lay off the sledgehammer of plot) and backstage bit with Rollins and J&J Security and it would have worked 20 times better. Everyone could follow what was happening, but WWEs deliberate dumbing down of things just beat it into the ground.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
