Alex Rants on RAW March 6, 2017
This week’s episode of RAW was centred almost entirely on the fallout from what very well might have been the worst PPV since WrestleMania 32, Fastlane 2017. WWE tried its best to make this show a must-see, but when it came to the actual writing, they failed horribly.
The matches this week were forgettable and the promos were average at best. The only thing that saved this show from being completely irrelevant was the closing segment involving, you guessed it, the Undertaker.
Because the Undertaker is the only WWE gimmick that people still respect. Undertaker could do the most despicable thing possible and the audience would still cheer him. That’s why he closed this show, and why he’s still wrestling despite his body being held together by dark magic and the dreams of wrestling fans everywhere.
This episode of RAW was further proof that WWE is putting the focus of this year’s WrestleMania onto part-timers and 50-year-olds (worse, Goldberg fits into both of those categories, while also holding RAW’s most important title). But that isn’t the only reason this episode of RAW was average.
So without further ado, let the rant begin.
The opening segment between Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho was okay, but still incredibly unrealistic. WWE was trying to make Goldberg’s title win the night before seem like something incredible and unprecedented. It didn’t help that Kevin Owens came out acting like his normal self as if he had only lost an insignificant singles match.
If I were Kevin Owens, a hard-working world Champion who had to carry RAW on my shoulders every week, and I just got punked by a 50-year-old man who hadn’t wrestled a full match in over a decade due to outside shenanigans, I’d be fuming. I’d want immediate vengeance against the man that screwed me over and embarrassed me.
If I saw that man in front of me, as a wrestler I’d take him out and try and beat him to a pulp. At least that way it would make my feud with this man believable and realistic.
But no, Owens not only walked out as calm as ever, but he cut an articulate promo as if the loss had no meaning to him. Stuff like this is why fans don’t care about WWE’s storylines, or at the very least, are so detached from them.
The wrestlers don’t care about their own rivalries. If Owens truly cared about what had happened, he’d have skipped the promo and tried to end Chris Jericho’s career (he had, after all, done far worse to Sami Zayn who had done far less to Kevin Owens). But since Owens doesn’t care enough to sell this loss as something major, why should the fans care at all?
WWE’s writers need to re-evaluate how they present wrestlers. I get that they’re supposed to be ‘Superstars’ with an emphasis on the ‘super’ part, but that does not mean they should be presented as though they lack genuine human emotions in certain circumstances.
Wrestlers are essentially high-risk actors, but they still have a story to tell, and doing so requires emotions to be conveyed. That cannot be done when Kevin Owens doesn’t go absolutely bonkers over a monumental humiliation.
When the confrontation did reach some level of physicality, it led to interference from Samoa Joe and then Sami Zayn. This was one of those opportunities where a Teddy Long would’ve been perfect.
A tag team main event with Sami Zayn & Chris Jericho challenging Samoa Joe & Kevin Owens would’ve been a money match. Instead, there were two otherwise average singles match on a show that centred heavily on short, insignificant matches, and too much talking.
I won’t say anything about Sami Zayn that hasn’t already been said.
Either give the man a worthwhile storyline or send him to SmackDown. He’s becoming a mid card jobber in the same vein as Dolph Ziggler was. Worse, there isn’t even much of a story there, where Zayn might want to try and get just a little bit closer to winning with every loss so that fans have something to hold on to.
Instead, Zayn loses for several weeks in a row and then gets one ‘high-profile win’, to keep himself on the treadmill. The poor guy has earned a better spot than this.
The next match we got was the Cruiserweight Championship match. If this match proved anything, it’s that the Great Muta was right: American fans are indeed ‘match-producers’, and not just idle viewers.
They were far louder for this match than arguably any TV Cruiserweight division match on RAW before it. That built upon the in-ring action that was taking place, making this a much better match.
The audience showed their approval of what they were seeing, which led to the TV audience interpreting this as a better match. Thank you, Chicago, for once again being such a great wrestling crowd.
I’m also glad Austin Aries now has a major feud going forward against Neville. These are two men that, if given enough time, could pull off a great Cruiserweight match and possibly steal the show. Hopefully, they’ll be given such an opportunity at WrestleMania.