WWE Raw last night was not that bad because it was entertaining, but not in the way WWE wants to be entertaining. WWE if dealing with so many issue both in front and behind the scenes it's intersting to see how they are struggling to deal with them all. In most cases they are falling short.
I think a lot of the problem is they are misusing the slow burn. HHH talked about the slow burn working, but often WWE has gone over the top with it. We are three weeks away from WM31. The Undertaker should have been back in February. He doesn't have to be on the show every week, but we needed that moment to happen already.
Sting should have said something by now. The Cena Rusev match should be booked. Orton probably should have turned on Rollins. The IC match should be finalized already. The next three weeks should just be hyping all these matches. Instead WWE is still trying to put them together. I'm a huge fan of the slow burn for the big pay off, but this is ridiculous.
I'm perhaps must frustrated by the Sting/HHH match. Some have said they have enjoyed HHH's promo's and Sting's silence has been good. I'm on the other side. Sting not talking back in November and January was ok, but at Fast Lane he should have broken his silence already. This is beyond ridiculous. The way HHH is portraying the angle is beyond dumb, which is why I'm not a huge fan of his promos. He's painting Sting as a guy who is fighting for WCW and that probably isn't the case, but HHH and the announce team are trying to drive that point home.
His actions have indicated that he's really there to put the Authority out of business. Sting needs to do the very simple promo I have laid out to get the heat really going for this match.
"HHH I'm not here about WCW. I gave my heart and soul for that company, but I'm well over that ending and I have moved on. You weren't the reason that WCW went out of business. I think it has to do more with what WCW didn't do more so than what you, HHH, did. Also, if we are claiming credit I think the Rock, Mick Foley, and Stone Cold Steve Austin might have an opinion on that. But again I'm here not to defend the honor of WCW, but to stop you from wrecking the WWE. I've been watching these past few years and I've seen how you have been the constant in the WWE. How so many times you have held up and coming talents down. Last year you and your wife spent every Monday Night trying to stop the crowd from supporting Daniel Bryan. Then you threatened to fire people who stood up to you. Hard working guys like Dolph Ziggler who you stepped over and suppressed. So HHH I'm here not to defend WCW, but instead to save the WWE from you! Because getting rid of you has no become best for business."
Can you imagine how hot that would be? That plays right into the smart fan belief that HHH is always putting himself over, which makes it hot. After that promo you set a stipulation that the Authority be removed from power if Sting should win and Sting will leave the WWE forever if he loses. That would up the stakes.
The Roman Reigns project continues. I'm going on record. Reigns will never get over like other top guys. A lot of pundits are afraid to say that, but I'm not. He's just not the guy everyone thinks he is. The move set will improve, but the complete lack of natural charisma won't. I see in him a guy that has no sense of what is going on around him. He's basically trying to, as he said, get rich! That's fine and all, but have some back bone and push back at these writers.
Anyone with half a brain would have shot down that finish last night. All it did was bring both Rollins and Reigns down. Reigns gets the cheap win. That's fine. Set up a steel cage rematch for next week where that kind of interference can't happen. Having Roman destroy everyone makes you question why he would have ever lost in the first place, but ruins any heat that Rollins got from the win. So why give him the win? Instead just give Reigns the win and be done with it. Doing it this way hurt Reigns or did nothing for him and didn't help Rollins, who needs help, at all.
The best part about the Jon Stewart segment was how he rehashed how Rollins won the case. Kane tossed Ambrose and Rollins got the win. This was a rare moment when the WWE tried to recall history back further than the last months PPV. This is what gives your characters some depth. This is what drives feuds, but WWE likes to pretend that anything that happened a few months ago didn't happen. They do this because of all the losses they drop on guys. They want you to forget those loses so you stay engaged in a character they might be pushing. It's hard to get behind a guy that loses all the time.
WWE has suddenly become all about forcing us to think a certain way so that they can fit it in their plans. When I saw that WWE had produced a WM31 action figure set with Lesnar and Reigns I realized how many eggs they had put in one basket. Those were clearly ordered well before Fast Lane. This was their plan from the summer and that's ok, but when they saw the writing on the wall they should have changed course. So we only use history in WWE when it suits us, but boy does it help when you use it correctly. Kudos to Jon Steward for doing a good face segment on Raw, which is a rare site. He's lucky Steph didn't come down to run him down and suck the life out of the building.
Speaking of WWE trying to control everything, I want to make it perfectly clear that the reason the crowd seemed dead at Fast Lane, but was lively to those in attendance, was because they purposely controlled the crowd noise. They had the building mic'd in a way that allowed them to keep the boo'ing under control. That's why everything seemed so dead. In the final match between Bryan and Reigns you could not hear the YES chant very loudly during Bryan's intro. Yet, during the match it was very loud. You could also hearing the booing for Reigns, that you did not hear post match until they turned the mics up for the Bryan speech to him.
That was yet another slimy move to protect Reigns. Last night Reigns got dead reactions or booing. It's amazing that WWE thinks this is all going to change in the next three weeks. With Lensar certainly all, but gone it's almost for sure that Reigns is going over...like a lead balloon. To those holding out hope for a cash in, how could that seem believable the way Rollins has been treated the past few weeks and how that match was booked to make him look so bad last night. It won't work.
Speaking of Lesnar I think you can all, but set his ship to sea. I don't think Vince can give Brock what he wants. I think there is more to the story as well. It seems odd that he would just leave Raw like that and they probably leaked it's about the contract to quell rumors. I don't think it's the drug story BS with Reigns, but probably more something along the lines of him not wanting to lose to Reigns. The truth in these situations is always somewhere closer to the middle.
I don't think people realize that Heyman will probably be gone if Lesnar is and that would be horrible, but at this point I think Heyman can write his own ticket. He could probably go to the highest bidder, but considering he's got a successful promotional business I think he will probably not run a company. Imagine if Heyman took over TNA right now or got behind Bullet Club in NJPW? Yet, it would still be sad to see him leave WWE.
I felt like that Heyman promo was a good bye promo last night. He was edgier than he usually is and I'm not 100% sure that's not why they were cutting his mic. He protected Brock and put the match over big time. I just don't think even Heyman can save the Reigns end of this deal. It's actually hurting Reigns when he brings up Austin. Fans are not all smart, but not even the casual fan respects Reigns enough to think he's greater than Steve Austin. Especially when you consider how brief his run as a singles has been.
The WWE has a strange feel to it since the Royal Rumble. It feels like the fans have their eyes open to what WWE is all about these days and they don't like it. WM31 might be more interesting for how the crowd reacts then the actual results themselves. That in itself is worth noting.
WM31 will be highly rated because it's Mania. But just like this Raw I think many will tune in for the reaction as much as the show itself.
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