7 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (18 April - Review)

Bloodline, Judgment Day, LWO and tag champs dominate Raw, Trish explains her heel turn.

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WWE.com

When WWE finds a good cheat code, they haven’t been shy about exploiting it to maximize their impact over an entire program.

Monday Night Raw was a great example of this, with the Bloodline and Judgment Day running rampant all over the show, along with Rey Mysterio and the team of Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn & Matt Riddle all getting significant TV time as a counterweight. These wrestlers dominated the opening segment, the main event, another match and a backstage segment. WWE even managed to weave all of them together, a feat that they rarely accomplish.

Throw in a solid heel promo from Trish Status that actually explained her actions, a great twist on the main event pull-apart brawl, and even a simple video package for a mid-card heel, and you’ve got the makings of a pretty good Raw, by WWE standards.

Let’s just be clear though: Despite the overwhelming positives here, this wasn’t a blow-away show by any means. The in-ring action was solid, but unspectacular (fans chanting, “This is awesome” for a Miz match in 2023 seems almost like an ironic self-own). While Status’ promo was great, the women’s tag match landed with a quiet thud.

Good stuff overall though. Let’s get to it…

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Contributor
Contributor

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.