7 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (April 18)

5. A Bright Future?

apollo crews heath slater
WWE.com

Not every NXT star who debuts in WWE can go toe-to-toe with John Cena and beat him in his first match. And certainly, not every new wrestler will immediately get inserted into a major program right away and be expected to carry a big load on the main roster. But can we agree that of all the wrestlers who debuted after WrestleMania, Apollo Crews has had the least impactful debut?

Consider that Baron Corbin won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and is feuding with Dolph Ziggler. The Vaudevillains and Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady are competing in a tag title #1 contender€™s match at Payback. And of course, the Bullet Club has assaulted the Usos and Roman Reigns in back-to-back weeks.

But Crews? He€™s beaten lower-level talent like Tyler Breeze and members of the Social Outcasts. That€™s not a knock against him, and he could soon start having more competitive matches, but it just feels like Apollo was called up and the creative team doesn€™t have much for him to do other than squash jobbers.

No real program appears to be in the works, which doesn€™t bode well when you consider that the big criticism levied against him in NXT was a need to develop a stronger character. A good feud could seriously help with that.

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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.