One night after AEW aired its All In footage for people who still give a shit about that mess, I decide to write some musings on the RAW After Wrestlemania that took place this past Monday since that’s kind of a tradition ’round these parts or something. You’ll be pleased to know that I actually sat through all three hours… well, okay, I skipped commercials and some minor bits here and there, but still I saw most of the show. That has to be worth something, right?
Well, not really…
They had announced that there would be a commercial free first hour, but really, this is just so we’d have no reason to cut away from the exciting interaction between newly minted WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and The Rock… but first, Hunter has to thank the fans, introduce the champ, and give us a lovely video package about Cody. (I’m not saying that to be funny, either; it really was a nice little package.)
Credit where it’s due… the segment itself was fairly entertaining. Rock is as good as reading the room as anyone else in the game today, letting the fans get all their crude chants out before giving Cody his flowers – ah, fuck, is that the new “finish the story” line now? Rock and Cody swap belts for a bit and the crowd chants “This Is Awkward” before Rock announces that he has to go away for a bit. Before he leaves, he gives Cody something and tells him never to break his heart again. So what did Dwayne give Cody? That’s a mystery. But even more so, this furthers the long-way round towards the eventual Cody vs. Rock match that might come along one of these days. Is this potential Mania fodder? Who knows? Will Cody be champion by the time the match happens? Who knows? It’s going to be a thread that won’t be touched upon for a good while, but it’s at least somewhat intriguing.
And then after that, we have Shinsuke Nakamura getting murdered by reigning NXT Champion Ilia Dragonov in a short, squash match. Let the countdown begin for the eventual Dragonov/GUNTHER encounter on the main roster because that is going to be glorious.
Other than that, the rest of the show was kind of ho-hum. New IC champ Sami Zayn and Chad Gable defeated GUNTHER’s cronies, after which Sami offered Gable a title shot for next week. Jey Uso won a match to become No. 1 contender to Damien Priest’s newly won World Title, during which our boy Drew was screwed over by Collision Monkey Punk, John Cena did a cameo spot during an Awesome Truth/Judgment Day Tag match, there were a couple other nothing matches and promo segments. In other words, it was the usual episode of RAW.
For what it’s worth, I will be watching next week’s episode from Montreal because I just want to see Sami come home with a belt, even if he potentially loses it to Player 1, but without the heavy hitters, I don’t see how you keep up interested in the usual day-to-day stuff.
Here’s hoping I’m wrong.
POSTSCRIPT
In my general apathy in the show following that opening segment and maybe a couple other things, it occurred that I never mentioned that backstage segment where Liv Morgan tossed a chair across Rhea Ripley’s unprotected skull. That looked like it sucked and why would anyone do something so stupid like toss a chair full force across someone’s skull? “Because it looks awesome?” Fuck off. I’m done with unprotected chair shots to the skull. This was fucking stupid. Hopefully, Rhea’s not too badly hurt by this, but… let’s not do this again.
dtm666 