Ronda Rousey vacates the title, Ronda Rousey gets the title back , Ronda Rousey turns heel
- go home, WWE, you’re drunk. Also, the real reason behind a backstage WWE
firing has been revealed! Click the timestamps in the video description below to go straight
to any of those stories. I’m Oli Davis - give us a subscribe, press
the thumbs up button, and answer our question of the day in the comments: Do you think Ronda
turned heel in the main event segment? Where I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE!
And click the ‘i’ above my head to give your rating of the show - where you can choose
from: RawSome, Cor, AVRAWGE, Poor and RawFul - as I review the 4th March, 2019 edition
of Monday Night Raw.
After brilliantly revealing he’s in remission from leukemia last week, Roman Reigns opened
the show again here - BOOOO ROMAN, BOO ROMAN REI-I’m still getting used to this whole
cheering thing, sorry. Yay, Roman. He cut an in-ring promo about how now he’s
back, he wants something that Seth Rollins is blocking. It was a smart piece of writing,
making you think he’s talking about the Universal Championship he never lost, and
how Seth’s fighting for it at WrestleMania - for Roman to then reveal it was actually
something far more personal: he wanted to get the band back together one last time,
as his recent bout with leukemia has taught him, it’s the people around you who matter
most in life. And then teaming up with those people to beat up randomly assorted midcard
heels. Seth eventually came round to the idea, but
Dean Ambrose was attacked by Elias with a guitar before he could answer. It set up a
nightlong storyline of Roman and Seth trying to get an emotionally distracted Dean back
on side, with such 100% naturalistic dialogue as Seth calling Ambrose his “wrestling soulmate”
Which is now the name of the dating app I’m developing.
Baron Corbin’s Midcard of Evil with Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley mocked the Shield
backstage next, before having a six-man tag against Kurt Angle, Finn Balor and Braun Strowman.
No-one… can escape… being sucked… into the Baron Corbin midcard vortex!
This match was even less interesting than when they had it a month ago, with Lio Rush
back interfering on Bobby’s behalf, but then getting tackled through the timekeeper’s
area by Strowman. He’s really got to learn to change direction when running.
It was enough to give the heels the win, and then even more heat as they beat up Balor
and Kurt afterwards. Seth and Roman were presumably too busy being “wrestling soulmates” backstage.
Natalya beat Ruby Riott in a few minutes with a shock roll-up victory, and then Lacey Evans
did her half-entrance thing again. Ruby sure feels special coming off that Ronda Rousey
feud.
After Batista promised he’d show up to confront Triple H next week in an Instagram clip, Hunter
cut a weird worked shoot promo about Richard Fliehr, Ric Flair’s real name, and how Hunter
was by his side when they buried Ric’s son, and during Flair’s health scare last year.
He used that as evidence against a phoney Batista, who he accused of playing a ‘bad
guy’, that this isn’t a Game. This is real.
It was a very well delivered emotional promo, but by focusing on how this feud is real rather
undermines the rest of what’s happening elsewhere on the show and in Triple H’s
career, implying that everything else is fabricated. It was a solid next chapter in their feud,
but alongside some of the other kayfabe puncturing angles on this episode, it began to weaken
the show’s credibility.
At least we’ve got the super believable portrayal of Otis from Heavy Machinery to
win us back round! And I’m actually being half-serious, as
Otis broke his usual eccentric delivery to realistically say his feelings have been hurt
by the rest of the Raw tag division making fun of him. In just one line, I was suddenly
invested in him as a person rather than a series of fun spots.
Sadly, the crowd weren’t, and they were largely silent for Heavy Machinery’s clean
sweep gauntlet match over The Ascension, the B Team and Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder.
Torrie Wilson was announced as the latest inductee in the WWE Hall of Fame, with her
promo package seemingly playing in reverse like Benjamin Button. Tell me your secret
for eternal youth!
Dean put over yet another midcard heel on his lengthy way out of the company next - but
not you EC3, you get 50/50 booking - losing to Elias while still selling his back from
the earlier beatdown. Reigns and Rollins tried one more time with
their “wrestling soulmate” afterwards, but Dean just left through the crowd - a nice
reference to the Shield entrance. But quicker than you can say ‘disappointment’,
Baron Corbin’s Midcard of Evil appeared to beat up Rollins and Reigns, leading to
Dean running back for the save and finally reuniting the team with a fistbump - setting
up a Shield vs Midcard of Evil match at WWE Fastlane, Baby!
Meaning Strowman, Kurt and Balor were just used as fodder over the last month to get
over the heels, and Elias’ involvement in the storyline was purely filler. Reigns’
return to the ring is genuinely astounding, but everything since has featured incredibly
lazy booking.
In the reverse of last week’s Bayley beating Nia Jax match, we got Sasha Banks losing to
Tamina here.
Another storyline running throughout the show was Stephanie McMahon revealing that Saturday
Night Live’s Michael Che and Colin Jost will be special guest correspondents at WrestleMania.
They had a series of unfunny skits backstage, which is par the course for celebrities in
WWE, but Jost’s heel portrayal was severely misjudged - first joking about how he’s
up to date with WWE, to reel off a bunch of 80s and 90s acts (which would be funny if
he wasn’t then confronted by undercard nobodies Titus O’Neil, EC3 and No Way Jose ]), and
then asking Braun Strowman if any of this is even real?
The answer, provided by WWE, is no, most definitely not, as Strowman then lifted Jost up by his
neck over the course of an entire adbreak, which Jost didn’t sell one bit once he was
put back down.
The top tier of Raw’s tag division completed its transformation into NXT call-up support
group next, with Aleister Black and Ricochet’s title match against the Revival ending in
DQ when Chad Gable and Bobby Roode attacked the champions. Black and Ricochet were impressive
as always, but they really should be booked independently on their main roster. It seems
as though they’re just doing the tag team schtick because Tommaso Ciampa is currently
injured, and Back and Ricochet are simply doing what WWE originally had planned for
him and Johnny Gargano.
I’m going to recap the main event segment in the scope of the larger Becky vs Ronda
vs Charlotte storyline since the Royal Rumble. Half to keep track of things, half to lay
out how ridiculous everything’s become. Because in the last five weeks, we’ve had:
Becky getting injured. Becky getting suspended.
Becky getting reinstated. The McMahons turning heel.
The McMahons turning babyface. Becky getting replaced by Charlotte Flair
at WrestleMania still for very little explanation, and a McMahon turning heel again.
Becky getting arrested and suspended. Ronda vacating the Raw Women’s title.
WWE dropping all charges against Becky, unsuspending her and then putting her in a vacated title
match against Charlotte. Ronda returning upon hearing this, and getting
given the title back. A match getting booked between Charlotte and
Becky, where if Becky wins, she’s reinserted into the WrestleMania main event.
Ronda turning heel by trashing the crowd and beating down Becky while Charlotte looks on.
Five weeks, all that happened in five weeks. Ronda vs Becky is not a storyline that needs
suspensions, arrests and McMahon heel authority figures - let alone all the above in just
over a month of TV. This is a very simple blood feud between two people, yet WWE have
overbooked it to a laughable extent. And to cap off the total lunacy, Stephanie
had to cut an improvised backstage promo when the episode seemingly underran by five minutes
- likely because Ronda rushed through her promo - and the closing shot was of Rousey
posing on the turnbuckle while you could audibly hear a producer yelling “tell her to hold
up the title!”
This was a pretty awful episode, showcasing the worst parts of WWE’s booking - sometimes
too superficial, like with the Shield reunion, sometimes way too complicated, like the overbooking
of Rousey vs Lynch. This week’s Raw is Poor.
But now it’s over to Luke with the news and the real reason behind that backstage
WWE firing…
Great review Oli, on point as always.
We kick off today’s news with the sad reporting that the world didn’t just lost 90210 star
and father of All Elite Wrestling’s Jungle Boy, Luke Perry, as well as Keith Flint of
The Prodigy yesterday, as the wrestling world lost big man legend King Kong Bundy.
Bundy began his wrestling career in 1981, signing with the then WWF in 1985 getting
a monster push - facing Hulk Hogan in a steel cage for the WWF Championship in the main
event of WrestleMania 2. Our thoughts are with the family of King Kong Bundy at this
time.
In the last week it has been reported that WWE had re-hired Bruce Prichard in what is
rumoured to be a creative role, as well as Dana Warrior to give a “female perspective”
and Bleacher Report writer Dave Schilling to also join the creative team. Well it seems
as they’re not alone, with the ever-reliable WrestleVotes reporting that the newest name
to “sit on important creative meetings with his opinions being held in high regard”
is Jason Jordan.
The former Raw Tag Team Champion and storyline son of Kurt Angle last wrestled in February
2018, where he was getting a major push against Seth Rollins. Sadly an injury ended their
WrestleMania plans, and it was reported by both Mike Johnson of PWInsider and Dave Meltzer
of the Wrestling Observer that WWE considered Jordan to be retired as of September last
year when his injury and surgery were a lot worse than they first thought.
But among all the new hirings there was also an interesting firing - with Pro Wrestling
Sheet first reporting that WWE had let go backstage producer Arn Anderson. While details
remained largely unknown, Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that there was
an incident at a house show that led to a huge argument between Anderson and Vince McMahon
- an argument that resulted in Double A being fired.
And Thanks to the folks at Wrestling Inc, we may now know the reason that caused this
argument.
According to the website, Anderson was in charge of a house show event where Alicia
Fox turned up “while she was allegedly intoxicated”, and Anderson let her go out to work her match.
WrestlingInc write, “Word got back to Vince McMahon, who was reportedly furious when he
found out. There were apparently some other issues with Anderson in the past, however
that was the final straw.”
It should be noted that the last house show event Fox appeared on was February 10th, where
she lost in a six-woman tag with Mickie James and Nikki Cross against Bayley, Dana Brooke
and Natalya. And according to Fightful, WWE had offered Alicia Fox rehab, but she “went
absent” to the point where several people in the company didn’t know if she’d accepted
and gone to rehab or if she was just absent from work - which reportedly isn’t that
uncommon. Fightful add that Fox has been on “thin ice” several times in the past - including
the Travis Browne incident last year at WrestleMania, and turning up two hours late for a show when
she was in line for a big push.
Is a major WWE star really injured? And how will it affect their upcoming PPV plans? Click
Oli Davis’ video over there to check that out, and click the link to get your name in
the credits that you can see scrolling into my stomach, and join WrestleLeague where you
can compete against Oli, El Fakidor and myself in wrestling predictions! I’ve been Luke
Owen and that was wrestling.