7 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Raw (April 13)

McIntyre's next challenger reveals self as the show must go on!

Seth Rollins Drew McIntyre
WWE.com

Live and direct from the WWE Performance Center, it’s Monday Night Raw, complete with that fresh live Raw smell!

The sports entertainment program deemed essential returned Monday night with an uneven effort that advanced a few new storylines and set things up for next month’s Money in the Bank PPV, which is a good thing. We got three qualifying matches for the women’s MITB ladder match, and they announced the participants in the three qualifying matches for the men’s MITB contest for next week.

Raw also featured a show-long angle involving Zelina Vega’s charges that felt like it was going somewhere big, but ended up settling on a lower aim. It also set up Drew McIntyre’s first challenger for his WWE Championship, and while it shouldn’t have been a huge surprise, it was still interesting to see how it played out.

But Raw was not without its challenges. There was some sloppiness, some boring matches, and some dull moments. Nothing really stood out as outstanding. Overall, all things considered, this wasn’t a bad episode, just a step or two above bland. But as previously mentioned, the grading on a curve because of the circumstances is going to end. WWE is charging ahead with the show, and so we have to accept this new reality for the foreseeable future.

With that said, 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 fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.