The “go home” / last Raw before Wrestlemania 41 and boy has it been a long road to get here or what? This time Raw comes from Sacramento, CA before the WWE hits Las Vegas to start out Wrestlemania week that I believe last until next Monday. I think the only show that might not be originating from Las Vegas this coming week is tonight’s NXT show. Also, there will be an earlier PPV for NXT on Saturday. So this whole week is going to overflow with “wrestling.”
Gunther in Ring Promo Segment
Gunther starts the show off and Michael Cole is tasked to give the interview. The crowd tries to drown out Gunther like Dominik and Charlotte but that seems to only irritate Gunther as he’s unlike either one of them. Eventually, he Tony Schiavone’s the mic from Cole and finishes up the segment in describing what he intends to do against Jey Uso on Saturday and putting a stamp on the end by claiming he’ll walk out with his championship. While this promo was fine for what it was, it pretty much set the tone for the rest of the go-home show where to me it didn’t make me anymore hyped about Wrestlemania than before.
Bianca Belair Video Promo
Pretty much hints that Bianca is a heel now. Anytime a wrestler starts using the “truth” argument in the WWE, it pretty much indicates that they’ve turned heel. She’s become arrogant here and I expect Bianca to walk out champion with possibly Naomi helping her. But I think the main point here is that the WWE is really minimizing the risk of these promos from going sideways anymore and just sticking these people in a spot where the whole thing can be heavily produced not to mention avoiding flying their stars out to Sacramento this close to WM.
Bayley vs Liv Morgan
A preview match before their last minute tag team match for WM. I’m off the Bayley bandwagon as I see her as being sloppy, slow and not exhibiting the mentality of a veteran. I really was hoping for better since Liv has reached a new status in her career but this match was bland as fuck and just the usual toss out a bunch of moves, no momentum, exchange counters, etc. with the occasional interference from Raquel who was the one thing that made this match somewhat palpable. Shockingly, Bayley wasn’t even given her entrance on the video I watched so I didn’t realize that Valkyria came out with her. That alone makes me think the tag team match is going to be an after thought just to get Liv on the PPV as well as Valkyria. But if that match goes more than 8-10 minutes, it’s going to suck.
Rhea Ripley Video Promo
Done similar to the Bianca Belair one, I just shrugged my shoulders as this video did nothing for me. I like Rhea but she’s dying a slow, painful death being involved in this three way. She was doing far better against Charlotte and Liv Morgan but this three way makes it harder to get behind her.
Rey Mysterio vs Julius Creed
Not really a “preview” match since Rey is taking on Chad…I mean El Grande Americano on Saturday. There were a few botches from Julius like when Rey tried to dive to the outside and Julius nearly missed catching him. That looked really awkward but I think they wanted to show Julius’ strength. The real story was the constant interference and chaos on the outside by the LWO and American Made where the referee tossed both groups out (which included a nearly inconspicuous Chad Gable). Eventually, Chad…I mean El Grande returned and tried to interfere. Rey foiled the attempts and managed to hit a springboard splash on Creed for the pin.
However, the story continued with El Grande inserting the metal plate into his mask to head butt Rey and the LWO returning. I thought that Cole nearly botched his announcing where he mentioned Chad rather than El Grande under the mask (I mean he “knows” it’s Chad but in talking about El Grande directly you still need to call him by his character name in the moment). Also, there was an odd spot where Dragon Lee would punch at El Grande’s mask where the plate supposedly was but didn’t sell his hand. Yet he did sell getting headbutted which made me lose a tremendous amount of respect for Dragon Lee. I mean if you’re going to do a gimmick, you need to go all the way or don’t do it at all since it kills the gimmick. Anyway, El Grande came out on top but I expect Saturday’s match to be similar to this ending since all the supplementary people here need some sort of payday and that they’ll overbook the finish rather than focus strictly on the gimmick. So very low hopes on that match right now.
War Raiders Video Promo
These guys really need a classic manager. Visually, they have a distinct look with their size. But god their promos are bland and generic. They fired up a bit here but nothing that they said was interesting. So my impression of them right now are two fat guys. Sorry.
Kofi and Xavier Backstage Interview
Kofi and Xavier have a lot more personality (and talent) than the War Raiders. They need to beat the War Raiders otherwise their heel turn means nothing. Not to mention the War Raiders need to go away and learn what a personality is.
AJ Styles vs Karrion Kross
So Karrion Kross is slowly “reverting” to his original entrance which got him over. Unfortunately for the video I watched, they didn’t show it. But at least since the time I’ve been watching Raw and Smackdown on a more dedicated basis, this is the first time I’ve seen Karrion Kross actually wrestle. And I think I know why that is. This match was almost all AJ Styles. It’s the classic “make a broomstick look good” scenario. Kross has worked on his in ring personality but his wrestling portion stinks. He barely can do anything and without a guy like AJ, he’s probably unwatchable. I know I complain about wrestlers doing too much. Well, there’s the opposite too and Karrion Kross is one of those people.
Logan Paul eventually came in (and I emphasize the word “eventually”), Kross might’ve tried to attack AJ at some point to create an opening for Logan. Then Kross and Scarlet mutely left the arena like another after thought. What the fuck? For all the shit that Karrion was spouting out all this time, he just leaves AJ so that the spotlight goes exclusively on AJ and Logan Paul? Why not have Kross at least help out Paul a bit in all of this? Why even bother attacking AJ in the first place after the match ends when there’s no follow up once AJ goes down? It’s stupid….
Jey Uso in Ring (or on Announcer’s Table) Yeeting
Nothing of value was said here. Honestly, by this point, Raw felt like the equivalent of an overpriced Shotgun Saturday night than the lead in show to Wrestlemania. Just fucking wretched.
Penta vs Finn Balor
Another “preview” match before WM. This was boring. I just don’t care for Balor and at this point I prefer Penta’s brother. At one point, the rest of the Judgment Day show up to help Balor and start the clusterfuck. Then Bron’s music hits and Carlito begins shitting in his pants because he doesn’t want to receive the same fate as the previous week. So he bails by going inside the ring. Bron enters the ring, causes a DQ, eventually hits a double spear on Dominik and Carlito then Penta botches a rana on Bron. That looked really awkward where his legs don’t exactly grab hold of Bron. I can’t tell if that’s because Bron didn’t know how to take the rana or if it’s just Penta’s typical sloppiness. But the announcers couldn’t hide the fact that it was horrible looking and tried to cover Penta. I think Penta does a dive as the last selling point before their WM match but supposedly Bron was hobbling around a little afterward. I read that Bron is fine but I hope Triple H is looking closely at this Penta guy. He might be talented in the Boyz’ eyes but I see him as being sloppy and someone who causes injuries and accidents. Luckily, nothing terribly offensive has happened yet in the WWE but this has got to be in people’s minds especially this close to WM and an important title match (I do consider the IC title very important)
IYO SKY Video
Like the other two, Iyo gets her own video but it’s done entirely in Japanese with subtitles. I simply don’t care because she won’t say anything important and I’m underwhelmed by this match. I honestly am far more interested in Charlotte vs Tiffany and hope for some sort of entertaining, potentially unprofessional clusterfuck between them. It won’t happen but I’d be far more entertained by that than this dull triple threat.
Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman, CM Punk and Seth Rollins in Ring Segment
This segment closed the show. Roman and Heyman start. Roman gets the crowd to acknowledge him. They talk about betrayal and choices. Seth saunters at a zombie’s snail like gait towards the ring. Seth talks about choices and some garbled mess about what’s good for this industry. Roman finally makes some “choice” and nails Seth before Heyman chortles and becomes his usual pandering self towards Roman. Then Roman shoves a surprised Heyman towards a corner while Punk’s music blares and he jams to the ring to take on Roman and try to save Heyman. Punk checks on Heyman before turning around to receive a nasty spear from Roman. However, Seth returns with a chair and nails Roman to the back with some sort of stupid “long story” callback to the Shield chair spot to take Roman out. Then finally he Curb Stomps Punk into near unconsciousness while holding the chair and Heyman looking like a puffer fish in shock at Seth’s destruction.
Final Thoughts
Bleh. The only word that really comes to mind instantly in describing this go-home show. Wretched, long, bland, nothing happened, etc. This wasn’t even an advertisement to me. I’ve seen old WWF Superstars shows with the old squash matches that were far more exciting than this crap. I know that they’re really trying to play it safe since Wrestlemania is a week away but holy crap you might as well just show replays of older shows and interweave them with wrestlers doing prerecorded interviews than have a live show.
If I was someone in that audience in Sacramento, I’d be super pissed at what I saw on this show. The WCW Nitro house show I attended back in ’97 at the Great Western Forum was far superior than what this year’s WM card looks like. I mean I guess the main thing (besides keeping the wrestlers prepared for WM), they’re trying to maintain some sort of episodic TV here. But for that last segment, for instance, what the hell was that about? Seth just lost that crowd with verbal diarrhea in saying absolutely nothing of value. The only thing half way interesting came about when Roman tossed Heyman. Otherwise, there was no real progress in the story line. And that portion only reinforces my opinion where the real super star in that mess is Paul Heyman because of his positioning.
Everything else was bland and worthless. Bayley vs Liv should’ve been a bigger deal but Bayley is slow and not good anymore. I think her age, injuries and mindset of “trying to keep up with the kids” are making her into a joke. It’s a shame because she can talk but either change your style to fit your body or become a manager. The Karrion Kross match made me never want to see him ever again on TV. I keep thinking of Marc Mero with Sable back in the day. Scarlet’s presence has been semi-neutralized before she went full out Sable fortunately for Kross. But he just seems to be there, taking space and not doing anything important. Then poor AJ, as talented as he is, is the male version of Natalya, meaning that he’s there to put younger or not-over-people over. He didn’t lose to Kross but that match was more AJ than Kross and I read how Kross is good while the announcers are trying to sell Kross on being special. Sorry, it’s all AJ and the minute Kross takes on anyone who is green, you’ll see how terrible he is too.
But I’m not hopeful of WM. I will watch it just to see three matches: the three way with Seth/Punk/Reigns, Cody vs Cena and Jacob vs LA Knight. I don’t expect anything else to really be good. And Tiffany vs Charlotte simply has my morbid curiosity where I’m praying for a trainwreck of a wannabe shoot style match. Maybe my own personal disappointment is that Becky won’t be there. But maybe it’s better for her because she’s got a ton of talent and the WWE doesn’t deserve her.
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