What we learned from the WWE this week: April 17, 2017
The post-WrestleMania buzz has apparently come to a close for another year, but there is still plenty going on for WWE fans to enjoy. This week we began to see the planting of some – at times, quite surprising – seeds in the run up to WWE Payback and Backlash. This may not have been a week in which the company set the world alight, but there are still some talking points to go over and some questions that need to be answered.
#1 Raw is Braun?
After his somewhat disappointing involvement in Wrestlemania earlier this month, it looked as though the promising feud Braun Strowman had with Roman Reigns throughout March was all going to be for nothing. Now that the feud is back on, it seems Strowman still has a few more months of the spotlight to enjoy. One could argue that Braun was the principal feature of this week's episode of RAW.
Not only was his beatdown of Reigns the sole focus of the pre-RAW video package, but he also cut an opening promo with the new General Manager, Kurt Angle. He was then featured throughout the episode backstage, beating up people like Kalisto, Goldust and R-Truth before finding himself in the main event with Big Show.
Also read: Braun Strowman is proving that he is the next big thing in WWE.
Strowman is showing a lot of promise, and being the anti-Roman Reigns is currently working for him, in terms of fan reception. It is slightly baffling that fans are able to see past his lack of mic skills and cheer him regardless, especially when you consider that poor mic skills are part of the reason for their hatred of Roman Reigns. However, Strowman is probably considered good enough to warrant a bit of attention.
He is at the point in his career where the only way to get better is to feature him prominently and hope for the best. He certainly didn’t ruin RAW this week, which is probably all management were hoping for, and his match with the Big Show was actually very entertaining – especially when you consider the ring collapse at the end. Only Brock Lesnar, Mark Henry, and Big Show himself have been afforded that kind of OMG moment to close out a match before.