Last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw saw a singles match between Charlotte Flair
and Shayna Baszler turn into a six-woman tag of Flair, Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose vs. Baszler,
Nia Jax and Lacey Evans.
So far, so overbooked.
But then a series of botches significantly derailed the episode.
First Charlotte and Baszler awkwardly tumbled to the outside.
They appeared uninjured, but also didn’t notice the referee counting them out.
This meant definitely not Raw General Manager Adam Pearce had to come out during the adbreak
to restart the match.
WWE do weird angles like that all the time before the adbreak, as a mini-cliffhanger
to make viewers stick around to see what happens.
But, according to PWInsider, this was a genuine mistake.
The site is reporting that the referee legitimately counted Baszler out, leaving everyone in the
ring looking visibly confused.
WWE were forced to send out Pearce to improvise, and get the match restarted during the commercial
break - which the heels won when Nia Jax chokeslammed Dana Brooke into the earth.
Speaking of Jax chokeslamming Dana Brooke into the earth!
Dangerous worker segway.
Jax finished the match with an odd powerbomb into a shoulder height chokeslam move, causing
Brooke to hit the canvas hard - and fans fearing Dana was concussed.
PWInsider are reporting that, thankfully, Brooke was “100% okay after the rough bump
she took from a Nia Jax chokeslam.”
Jax has a long history of moments like this - most recently injuring Mandy Rose in November,
concussing Kairi Sane in April, and then opening her head open with a dangerous throw into
the steps in June.
The June injury to Sane, which had to be edited off TV, brought a lot of heat upon Jax backstage,
with one source telling Bryan Alvarez, “She needs to be fired.
She is dangerous.
Fire her before she cripples or kills somebody.”
WWE have faced a lot of criticism for how they’ve handled the pandemic - firing people
at the start of lockdown, continuing to run shows, not enforcing mask policies, not testing,
etc, etc.
They’ve done a good job since August, though, putting stricter precautions in place.
And even addressing the disease live on-air with Drew McIntyre’s diagnosis two weeks
ago.
But apparently the talent wants them to do even more.
Fightful Select is reporting that wrestlers were told via the Talent Relations App - because
there really is an App for everything - that the company will not be providing on-screen
talent with the COVID-19 vaccine.
If they want to get vaccinated, they’ll have to handle it on their own because - say
it with me now - they’re independent contractors.
The same independent contractors that were forced to work in the middle of a pandemic,
that saw multiple outbreaks of COVID.
Understandably, this has upset quite a few people backstage, with Fightful reporting
some of the talent they spoke to were “shocked” while others were “frustrated”, but perhaps
most damingly, some said they were “not surprised”.
Some even noted that there are senior members of staff within WWE that actively speak out
against COVID and its existence all together.
WWE might’ve just set themselves a logistics challenge even greater than the worldwide
vaccine rollout, though.
They’re going to move their complex WWE Network exclusively to NBCU’s Peacock Premium
platform from the 18th March for US subscribers.
It’s a genius move for the company, worth a reported $1 billion over five years.
And it’s also great for subscribers price-wise, with the new version only costing $4.99.
But interface-wise, there might be some issues - as @cowboyKdog on Twitter has
pointed out: Now here’s my review of last night’s Raw
in about 5 minutes.
The Royal Rumble go-home show was opened by Drew McIntyre - schwing! ...that’s-that’s
the noise of his sword being whipped out from his kilt.
That sounds just as ba- - for a great promo on his two big opponents
this month: Goldberg, and COVID.
He was everything a top babyface champion should be.
Honest, sincere, and the most important trait in professional wrestling, credible.
Sadly that was the only good thing about the WWE Champion’s go-home segment.
Miz and Morrison obnoxiously interrupted, so Goldberg helped Drew beat them up.
COVID affecting WWE’s booking was out of their control.
But this was the episode to get them back on course.
Why does Goldberg think Drew’s disrespecting legends?
Why is Goldberg fighting McIntyre?
Why should we be excited?
Unfortunately Charlotte Flair can’t be on every single WWE brand.
So, to get round that, Raw is booking her in three different storylines instead: entering
the Rumble, defending her tag titles against Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax, and feuding with
Lacey Evans for banging her dad.
Which led to my new discovery of wrestling booking: The Charlotte Rule.
You know how you can have too much of a good thing?
You can also have way too much of an already overexposed thing.
THE OMNIFLAIR The more Charlotte in an episode, the less
enjoyable that episode will be.
Which meant this episode sucked.
She took on Baslzer in the show’s first match, which went barely a minute before Jax
caused the DQ.
Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke ran down to save Flair - but not, you know, her actual tag
team champion partner Asuka - which, along with Lacey joining the heels, led to a 300%
increase in blonde for a six woman tag.
And then it got worse.
The aforementioned Shayna/Flair botch happened, where the referee ruled a countout and everyone
stood around confused.
So definitely not Raw General Manager Adam Pearce restarted the match in the break, for
Nia to win with that scary powerbomb on Dana.
And that wasn’t even the end of Flair.
She had another segment backstage later, walking in on her dad Ric showing Evans how to grapple
a woman from behind.
Charlotte cockblocked her father, saying womanising isn’t cute anymore, and that she’s not
the bad guy.
Lacey punched her in the head.
We got the latest Retribution squash of Xavier Woods.
Which sadly didn’t debut Bryan Alvarez’s new character pitch P-Cock.
Instead it was a name far worse.
Slapjack.
Woods won for a change with Retribution’s interference backfiring.
Ali showed him mercy in the post-match beatdown, telling him to deliver Kofi the message that
he’ll be replacing him in the Rumble match.
Which was actually very well done.
And now for our second discovered rule of wrestling booking.
The Truth Paradox.
The more R-Truth on a wrestling show, the less believable that wrestling show becomes.
R-Truth got an unfunny backstage skit with Riddle.
He then interrupted a VIP Lounge segment, thinking a gift for MVP was actually his.
Got himself booked in a Royal Rumble qualifier against AJ Styles in another backstage skit.
Where he was beaten in about a minute later on.
That’s four separate appearances.
Thankfully Sheamus is doing some of the best work of his WWE career right now.
In what was my favourite thing on the show, Sheamus and Morrison had a midcard party like
it’s 2011.
Morrison worked over Sheamus’ knee in a really good match, which Sheamus just eeked
out a win.
I thought this was going to be soured by Miz then challenging for a 2 on 1 handicap match
right after, but that ended up being really good too.
Sheamus fought through the pain, but eventually lost to a Skull Crushing Finale.
It really feels like they’re building him up for a big feud with Drew.
Sadly Riddle’s feud with the Hurt Business is now two weeks out of date.
But, much like the bulging bottle of cream in my fridge, WWE are choosing to ignore that
fact.
Lashley has already decisively beaten Riddle in a US title match.
So we got a gauntlet match here, where if Riddle beat all the other Hurt Business members,
he’d get another championship opportunity.
Annoyingly, the other half of this story is also frustrating.
Raw tag team champions Cedric and Shelton are still in-fighting, leading to Benjamin
and MVP getting quickly defeated.
Lashley then attacked Riddle in the post-match, ensuring everyone looked worse than when they
started this segment.
Edge then announced in a prerecorded promo that he’ll be entering the Royal Rumble
match - setting up another tantalising staredown between him and Orton.
Which might dovetail into whatever Randy’s doing with The Fiend.
The main event of Alexa Bliss vs Asuka was the same as last week’s main event, just
this time for the Raw Women’s Championship.
It was the same stuff as last week.
If you like supernatural stuff, then bully for you.
WWE’s YouTube audience certainly seems to, with the Randy/Bliss/Fiend segments consistently
and massively outdrawing all their other clips.
But, if you’re like me, who thinks it’s all very hokey in a bad way, then you’re
going to hate it.
Bliss randomly appeared on a rocking horse mid-match, which the announcer’s just treated
like an everyday occurrence - undermining that most important thing we talked about
earlier in wrestling, credibility - and then almost had the match won with her Lady Fiend
locking in the mandible claw.
I must admit, though, the brief flash into Bliss’ old gimmick and music with her crying
was cool.
But just when you thought Bliss was going to win the title, Orton appeared with burn
make-up on his face to hit Alexa with an RKO.
Asuka, at this point, is now more of a prop than Charlotte’s tag team title.
What did you think of Raw?
Let me know in the comments down below, and follow us on Twitter @WrestleTalk_TV to vote
in our poll on a pole match - where 34.5% of you thought it was poor.
I agree.
This was a terrible episode of Raw in general - with too many repeated matches, the Riddle
push being derailed, that terrible 6 woman tag - but by Royal Rumble go-home show standards,
this was even more of a failure.
This week’s Raw is Awful.
This is also go-home week for WrestleTalk’s Royal Jamble live reactions match.
And ahead of our Royal Rumble predictions video tomorrow, here’s what we’ve got
planned…
What big Royal Rumble return might’ve been spoiled?
Click the video on the right to find out!
And what are the 10 biggest Royal Rumble elimination fails?
Click the video below that for Adam Blampied’s latest list.
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I’ve been Mr Davis, Jam that Jam.