8 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (May 2nd)
2. Apollo Crews Sighting
Sometimes, its better to not be seen than to be seen doing something unproductive. In the case of rookie Apollo Crews, participating in Mondays battle royal for a United States Championship title shot did not do anything to help him. In fact, it was probably more harmful than good.
Crews was one of the masses in the battle royal, and he was eliminated pretty early on by Sheamus. It wasnt a particularly significant elimination it didnt take multiple men or some shenanigans to put him out and it didnt seem to lead to a budding rivalry between the two men (as some battle royal or Royal Rumble eliminations can). Apollo simply was knocked out of the match by the Celtic Warrior.
While being eliminated from a battle royal can be a rather insignificant occurrence, it begs the question, why was Crews put into the match in the first place? If he wasnt going to win and he wasnt going to get eliminated in a way that made him look strong or gave him a new feud, then why run him out there?
Look at fellow NXT call-up Baron Corbin, who was eliminated by rival Dolph Ziggler, so Corbin pulled Ziggler out, beat him up and tossed him back in to be eliminated. That furthered a storyline, which is much more than could be said about Apollo. Its just another meaningless appearance for Crews, as they start to pile up and this writers hesitant apprehension grows.