8 Reasons Why Last Night's WWE Raw Failed To Live Up To The Hype
1. Nothing Really Happened
When Raw concluded following the excellent four-way main event between Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, the returning Cesaro, and the surprise victor A.J. Styles, I was satisfied by what I had just witnessed but left underwhelmed by the show overall. The post-WrestleMania Raw has sky-high expectations attached to it due to the precedent set in recent years, but this felt like something of a damp squib. There was not the same level of energy, excitement, or emotion as in previous years.
There was no great moment like there was in 2012 when Brock Lesnar returned to take out John Cena, or in 2011 when Rock and Cena set up their showdown for the following year. No, instead we had the return of The Mizs wife Maryse, and a few midcarders from NXT.
Where were the likes of John Cena, The Rock, Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, Steve Austin, Sting, Triple H, Dean Ambrose? All of them were so heavily featured at WrestleMania the previous night and have now disappeared into the ethers. Will we even see some of them for another year?
Was the show a complete disaster? No, it was better than most Raws of the last few months, but that is loose praise. There were certainly positives to be found in the pushes seemingly being afforded to very talented stars, namely A.J. Styles. I hope that, for once, WWE and Vince McMahon in particular can prove wrong the old adage that a leopard can never change its spots.
But I am under no illusions. I fully expect Stephanie The Emasculator to be back in full force next week hopefully without her horrific Rocky Horror bondage garb to belittle A.J. Styles as a B+ player who has never made it in the big time. After all, it wouldnt be WWE if they didnt bury the popular talent that fans actually want to pay to see.