Now Streaming… WWE RAW: SuperStar Shake Up 2019

Features, Reviews, Top Story

{This is a stream of consciousness-style of article. All times are based on the start of my event stream. – MJH}

 

WWE RAW
April 15, 2019
Montreal, Quebec, CA

 

8:04 am – Shane McMahon is clicking as a top heel at the moment. It’s great to see his character shift after being a babyface since his return.

8:06 am – Miz is the first moved to RAW and I’m honestly surprised. He was just gaining a ton of traction with the Shane feud so I hope they have big things planned for him on the red brand.

8:07 am – Ouch, when did Miz get busted? If this feud is continuing, that final shot of bloody Miz with a chair was great promo material.

8:14 am – Ricochet and Aleister Black in the RAW Tag Team Division worries me. The division has a long history of gimmick teams instead of in-ring talent so I fear either Black and Ricochet will get lost in the shuffle or turned into a comedy “odd couple”. I really hope I’m wrong.

8:16 am – Pretty cool of WWE to air The Shield’s final live event on the Network. Makes you wonder if they are trying to make up for how they sent Ambrose off of RAW.

8:18 am – The Viking Experience? Who the hell came up with that name? And they’re heels teaming with The Revival? They just decided to ignore all of their NXT time apparently.

8:28 am – Great debut for The Vikings. At least their in-ring work should have overshadowed their terrible name change and heel turn.

8:30 am – Nice to see Cedric Alexander get the call-up. I’m curious how legitimately they take the former longest reigning Cruiserweight champion.

8:33 am – Andrade on RAW and in the Intercontinental Division? I’m sold. Balor/Andrade is a dream match.

8:43 am – Fantastic match and just the tip of the iceberg for these two. Cannot wait to see what they do on PPV for the belt.

8:50 am – I’ve always hated Rey Mysterio on RAW because it was usually run by big men like Triple H and John Cena. But if this is a new era of RAW led by the hyper-athletic Seth Rollins, then maybe we’ll get some great dream matches out of the lucha legend.

8:55 am – Oops Usos graphic.

8:58 am – The Usos on RAW change everything I said about the tag division earlier. Usos have the ability to carry the division to fantastic matches and I’m excited about this switch.

9:17 am – I’ve always loved Sami but this new heel Sami is phenomenal. This is real and World Championship material. Look how quickly he was able to turn his hometown crowd! This summer and MITB may be the Summer of Sami.

9:21 am – Wow, The IIconics… the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions… did not even get a TV entrance. I’m hoping that maybe Sami just ran long and this wasn’t a conscious decision.

9:23 am – And damn, they commented on the Sasha Banks situation. Interesting how they played the PC card with Renee’s comments while also having Graves bash her.

9:26 am – Despite the victory, Bayley still doesn’t look very happy. I feel terrible for Bayley in this situation. It’s obvious just caught between being a professional and showing up for work and her close friend who is seemingly MIA at the moment, at least as far as WWE is concerned. Unfortunately, the best thing for her to probably do is just keep showing up and look out for her own best interests.

9:30 am – Why the puppet, WWE? It’s silly and Bray Wyatt should be anything but silly.

9:31 am – I heard that Drake Maverick and EC3 have been paired up recently in dark matches. They were great in TNA and its obvious that EC3 needs something to get him on the right path. Pair them together and let’s see what happens.

9:42 am – Stellar debut as the champion for Becky 2 Belts. Wish we had a little promo time from her but it is a stacked show tonight.

9:47 am – Zero pop for Nattie in Canada. That should be a great example of how over Becky is everywhere. Anyone who challenges her will be booed out of the building.

9:58 am – Lacey Evans has improved immensely since I saw her on an NXT live event and then at her callup dark match on RAW. She has the background to be big in WWE and its nice to see the time she’s putting into improving is paying off.

10:02 am – I’d love to see McIntyre switched to SmackDown. He’s faced every one of value on RAW and needs a change of scenery to get to the next level.

10:03 am – OK so is Sister Abigail a puppet now?

10:07 am – Roman Reigns would be another great move to SmackDown Live. He’s never been on the brand and with Rollins as RAW’s champion, Reigns needs different prey to hunt.

10:09 am – I will watch AJ Styles on any show. It’s been that way since ROH and TNA and I’ll watch him on RAW. He’s the top performer of our generation and I can’t wait to see what he does on RAW. Let’s hope he gains the same status as he did running SmackDown Live.

10:20 am – Fun tag match to end a newsworthy RAW. I am unbelievably excited about the possibilities of Rollins/Styles.

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