Best and Worst of Raw: 1st May, 2017
All’s well that ends well, many across the world believe. We would have to disagree with this assessment, honestly. If you’re putting together a three-hour long show, you can’t have an amazing last half-hour and just pack the rest of the show with filler, WWE. Such programming leaves a sour taste in our mouth.
Pardon us as we go off on a rant in our ‘Best and Worst’ recap of the red brand. This wasn’t the worst episode of Raw that we’ve seen really, but it could have been so much more, if more thought and effort had been put into it, really. Here’s our review and assessment of what went down at Sacramento, California.
#1 Worst: Raw and its central problem
Think about all the episodes of Raw leading up to Wrestlemania. They were either built around part-timers such as Lesnar, Goldberg or The Undertaker, or the Kevin Owens- Jericho saga, with Reigns contending for the championship. Since Wrestlemania, Braun Strowman has been on a rampage and WWE has pushed him to the moon and back.
With the part timers no longer on the show, Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens on SmackDown Live; and Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman pretending to be injured, Raw this week was lacking in star power. All the genuine stars left in the brand were packed into the main event spot, whereas the rest of the show was packed with filler segments.
In 2017, with so many forms of entertainment available to us, people have limited attention spans and watching anything for three straight hours can be tiresome. So, if you're presenting a show that long, it better be worthwhile for the fans watching. This episode of Raw was not.
The need of the hour is to create genuine Superstars and WWE is succeeding to an extent with Strowman and Bliss. Unfortunately, in some cases, they are just creating middling talent, as we will touch upon later in this very article.