9 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (April 25)

2. Here Comes The Talking!

shane mcmahon stephanie mcmahon
WWE.com

Hands up: Who missed the endless heel authority figure diatribes that doubled as opening segments on Raw? (If you raised your hand, you are the problem with wrestling television shows today.) Surely, most fans weren€™t looking forward to seeing it return on Raw, but that€™s exactly what we got when Stephanie McMahon showed up for the first time since WrestleMania.

Stephanie verbally sparred with her brother Shane McMahon and went on a circular rant as she called the Hartford, CT fans €œtough, smart and savvy€ like her (she was born in the city), then later insinuated that they were idiots. And of course, she was carried out by security, but not before she beat one to the ground. Because Stephanie McMahon can beat up a security officer in WWE Land.

Instead of shorter opening segments (or last week€™s longer one that set up two PPV matches), this one ran 15 minutes and only served to put Shane on notice that Vince McMahon would decide who would lead Raw at Payback. Oh goodie! A McMahon talking segment at a PPV! Which brings us to

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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.