Raw Has Seemed Shaken Up

I’m not sure if they are still on the menu, but do you remember those bowls at KFC? The bowls that had chicken, potatoes, corn, gravy, strawberries, Purina, and whatever else was in the back? Basically they seemed to just throw everything they have into one bowl, hand it to the customer and say, “Enjoy!”

That’s basically what we have been given when we tune in to USA on Monday night’s the last few weeks.

This is supposed to be the equivalent to the start of the new fiscal year. WrestleMania has come and gone, it’s time to start setting up for the next “season” of WWE.

The best way to do this was to start from semi-scratch with the “Superstar Shake Up” a few weeks ago. That is the best was to get a fresh feel right away for both shows.

Or so we thought.

The concept is always good – put guys on different shows, give us new matchups. Makes sense to me! The timing though was pretty bad With new rosters a few weeks ago, the “shake-up” and shaken up this Sunday’s Payback pay-per-view – and not in a good way.

Seth Rollins vs Samoa Joe has been the only rivalry that has consistently been a part of Raw for enough time to get us to care. Other than that, the build has been confusing.

Two of the top matches include superstars that are on SmackDown, another with one missing superstar, and a program that seems to have been built for the show that isn’t currently on the card.

I understand that WWE wants to keep Raw and SmackDown separate, and I like that. But seeing Randy Orton and Kevin Owens on Raw or Bray Wyatt and Chris Jericho on SmackDown a time or two to help build towards their matches wouldn’t be the worst thing. We got a cryptic video message from Wyatt once, that was it. Other than that it has been WWE just telling us to wait until the pay-per-view to see if these matches are something you would want to see.

Roman Reigns has been off TV for a few weeks now. I get that, He was destroyed by Braun Strowman and toppedover inside an ambulance. Keeping him off TV makes Strowman look stronger, which is obviously the main goal of this entire program. Last night would have been a perfect time to bring Reigns back though,.

During the beatdown Strowman was giving Kalisto (because that is apparently a rivalry now) Reigns could have made the surprise appearance and save the former Lucha Dragon. Nope, instead we got a spot made famous in 1998 when the stage was literally five times higher.

We have been teased what could have been a solid Intercontinental Championship match with Dean Ambrose and The Miz. No, not exactly a “new” matchup since they both came from SmackDown but still could have been a good one.

Nope!

MizTV with Finn Balor will be on the Kickoff Show (?) and Dean will….i don’t know…be in the arena? Maybe?

Everything came to a head with the end of last night’s Raw – Jericho and Ambrose against Miz and a mystery partner – which is weird in itself because a “mystery partner” would usually be a thing for the good guys to use. Ah well, logic is no longer on the table.

It did make things a little more interesting though. Who would it be? To me the obvious answer would have been Owens who would make a onetime appearance back on Raw. NOPE! I know the rumors said he would debut on SmackDown but maybe Mike Bennett would be showing up to help Miz out? NOPE!

Bray…it was Bray Wyatt.

He comes out, takes out Ambrose and Jericho then turns on Miz to end the show… … … ok.

The last few weeks have really seemed like Raw writers have just said ‘Let’s just make it to Payback and start things back up then.” I think a lot of that has to do with the “Shake Up” happening when it did. I think it would have been a lot more beneficial to hold off on the Shake Up until last night. That way you would still have all of your talent on the Raw to hype the pay-per-view then start fresh next Monday.

Lucky for us, Payback IS this Sunday and maybe, just maybe, Raw will be getting back on track.

Fingers crossed!

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? HAS RAW SEEMED OFF TO YOU LATELY? DO YOU BLAME IT ON THE SUPERSTAR SHAKE UP? DO YOU THINK THINGS WILL IMPROVE AFTER PAYBACK? LIKE US ON FACEBOOK AND FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @FROM_THETOPROPE AND LET US KNOW!