Welcome to the Tuesday Morning Backlash; it’s time to review Raw. This week, what we got on Raw was mostly filler, but at least it was filler with a good reason. Not only is this show pre-taped from England, which guarantees lower ratings, but it is also the week before the draft, a fact that really could have used more hype. With fewer eyeballs on the show, WWE tried less for a Raw which essentially had one big moment and a ton of filler. Meanwhile, WWE will do the draft without a 3-hour show, losing one of their big draws of the year for ratings. The only real reason I can think of for this is that Vince McMahon was serious about wanting to shake up the way WWE tells stories and organizes itself, but needs the draft as a suitably important moment to set that off.
That said, we did get one important moment on Raw when R-Truth turned heel. The instant John Morrison started baiting Truth into the match it was clear one would turn heel. WWE, as usual, ignored the common internet sentiment to have that one be Truth and not Morrison. While, obviously, Morrison has proved a more effective heel character in the past, Truth is equally clearly campaigning for a bigger spot. With no real room for another top face on Raw and no real role as the serious rapper present for the goofy character, a heel turn was needed for the push. He and Morrison can now still be in some combination in the Extreme Rules main event before segueing into their own, hopefully star-making feud, at least for one of them. While the internet clearly prefers that be Morrison, for WWE, they’re just giving these guys a chance to prove they can get crowd response at a consistently elite level before either gets to the next level.
Dolph Ziggler and Sheamus got basically the same match tonight; each man defeated a plucky underdog babyface convincingly. For Sheamus, it was to continue his new storyline of beating on those who wronged him. Ziggler was, meanwhile, getting over his new hair style. As silly as that sounds, everyone acknowledges the importance of look to a wrestler, so this was a major step for Ziggler. His haircut before was over-bleached and looked silly, and when combined with his ridiculous name held him back. A more serious look could go a long way in making sure his push is maintained, especially as his character has so much in common with the newly retired Edge, who’s now retired.
Sheamus, meanwhile, looks like he won’t be getting Sin Cara’s inaugural feud. That’s a bit of a shame, as a real feud does a lot to help guys get over. Then again, so do a number of squashes, and both Sheamus and Cara are getting those. Cara, though, despite his pedigree, has had at least one bad moment per appearance. Last week, although Primo knocked him off the rope, Cara is the one who utterly no sold it, breaking the suspension of disbelief in the show. This week, he badly missed his second rope moonsault. He’s flashy, but none of his moves look crisp and, at this point, despite the credibility that comes with being the former Mistico, he has looked like any old low-rent Lucha. WWE can make a huge star out of basically any luchador they please, so if Cara doesn’t shape up, his push will go to someone else. Since he doesn’t talk, all he has is his in-ring work to speak for him. If he doesn’t have that…well, even being paired with Cena won’t help.
Finally, Raw had the trio of filler segments. First, we got Eve beating a Bella and doing nothing to further her “Diva’s are all the same†agenda. This was disappointing, but as we got another Kong promo, I’m willing to assume that they’re merely waiting for a big moment to get this story rolling when people are paying attention to Divas thanks to Kong, rather than now when they’ve been a joke for so long. I can live with that idea, as one way to really bring the product into a new direction is a renewed focus and intensity for the Divas.
The next bit of filler was the knighting of Michael Cole. Put bluntly, this angle was over at Wrestlemania. There’s no way to top the emotional impact of Cole costing Jerry Lawler the title, facing him at Lawler’s first Wrestlemania, and involving the King’s family. Now, there’s absolutely nowhere to go, and the feud has become a cycle of embarrassing Jim Ross and making Lawler seem incredibly stupid. If this is just further set up for the return of the manager (Cole, A-Ri, Vickie Guerrero, Ricardo Rodriguez) into prominence, then it will be fine in the longrun, but another feud could have accomplished this with far less awkwardness.
Finally, we have CM Punk finally becoming a moronic cliché bad guy. He had Randy Orton utterly defeated, but stopped Mason Ryan from finishing the job. Hubris is a common error in villains, but, really, doing so for a reason is usually a big plus. He just went from a mastermind to a poor Bond-villain. I wonder if he looked so bored in his match due to this poor writing or because his feud with Orton is probably going away thanks to the draft likely separating them this week. Either way, the feud goes on exactly as set up with last week’s New Nexus run in, just as the Cole feud does.
So, after a week of new ideas and a seemingly different direction, we got one big story move and a bunch of filler. Still, the draft could only be pushed up because of this need for new stories and, well, because Smackdown needs help without Edge. We’ll get much further into that in Friday’s draft preview. Until then, this was likely a speed bump and let’s move on from what was a very boring Raw.
