7 Ups And 9 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Feb 15)
1. Lack Of Star Power
Did anyone else feel like Raw was seriously lacking in star power Monday night? No, not guest hosts, but actual wrestling stars. Aside from a couple guys (Chris Jericho, for example) did it feel like a star-studded affair only seven weeks out from WrestleMania and being the go-home show for Fastlane? This could have been a three-hour episode of Smackdown and no one would have blinked. Sure, there was a title change and some decent matches, but consider the lack of star power: No Rock, no Triple H and Stephanie McMahon was barely on screen. Guys like John Cena, Randy Orton and Seth Rollins are on the shelf. Daniel Bryan is retired. Batista isnt coming back anytime soon. Undertaker hasnt even been hinted at. Ric Flair was there but didnt so much as strut, much less speak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ9hjycEttk It wasnt a terrible episode, but it definitely wasnt a good effort from WWE either. If were less than two months from Mania, shouldnt WWE be throwing everything at these episodes? Unless WWE is conceding that Fastlane is a nothing PPV and are saving their shot for post-PPV for the big build to Mania. But even then, this was pretty lacking.
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.
