I appreciate your viewpoint, Aiden. I liked Raw better than you but, overall, found it of mixed quality. The biggest issues I had was the tease of Nia Jax vs Asuka vs Shayna Baszler (which I was quite looking forward to) and the screwjob-like ending of the U.S. title match. The VIP lounge was okay, but as soon as Zelina Vega and her charges came out, the result (a six man tag match) was telegraphed from a mile away. The match itself was one of the better show segments. The ladies triple threat match never officially got going, which was a letdown. I expect it will be rebooked for the pay per view. The Bobby Lashley squash matches are boring. WWE have yet to use Lashley in a good storyline since he returned to the company. Liv Morgan vs Ruby Riott had a good finisher but, overall, wasn't memorable. Happy for Morgan but Ruby is a better talent than what she's shown. Maybe WWE works an angle where she needs help to get back on track after her long layoff and seeks advice from someone like Paige or Natalya? WWE is pretending that last week's embarrassing Viking Raiders carpool karaoke never happened. I have never liked the characters, only the men behind them. They will always be War Machine, Hanson & Rowe and WWE would be wise to once and for all drop the Viking gimmick because nobody cares. Jinder Mahal is a decent enough talent, but his matches are generally boring. WWE needs to look past the fact he's Indian (Indo-Canadian, actually) and just concentrate on getting him over as a heel, regardless of ethnicity. They also don't want to push him too hard, just yet. That's what turned people off a couple of years ago, when he went from the lower card to a main event push, as WWE tried to court the large Indian audience. (Eventually they switched gears and turned to Saudi Arabia. Far fewer people but a lot more money.) I quite liked Andrade vs Crews. WWE may finally be giving Apollo a proper push. His career has been marred by start/stop pushes, followed by long periods of absence or irrelevance. I agree with you about the ending (which was actually a victory for Andrade via referee decision Crews couldn't continue, not a DQ). Cedric Alexander and Ricochet are two spotfest wrestlers. They are exciting to watch and would work well with Zelina Vega and her crew. Ever-Rise are an NXT tag team. Before that, they spent a long time wrestling for indie promotions (particularly in Canada). The contract signing was...well, a contract signing. Inevitably, there is a brawl. Reuniting Buddy Murphy with Seth Rollins is a good idea. The heel benefits from having 'weapons' to cut corners against a babyface and Murphy fills that role nicely. Let me take time to address your annoyance with how WWE is booked. I can see both sides of the issue. The point to WWE doing what they do is to draw you to watch the pay per view, for which you need to pay for a WWE network subscription. Raw and Smackdown are available (in the U.S. and Canada, anyway) on cable, which doesn't require a WWE network subscription. Now, if we weren't dealing with current world circumstances, I suspect match quality would improve, though we'd be getting less of them (and more backstage & pretaped stuff). Having said all that, the ratings have been at, or near, record lows. A lot of people would generally agree with you on needing to air better matches on Raw & Smackdown. Specifically regarding world title matches, I think the WWE's logic is to try and keep them special. That doesn't happen if the belts are defended repeatedly on television, as well as at pay per views. But, they are going to have to try something to draw fans back to the product. Putting crazy Vince McMahon on Smackdown was more a novelty than a solution. I was fine with Triple H's 25th anniversary celebration on Smackdown, but having the top 10 moments list on Raw was too much. We are a week and a half away from Money in the Bank. It takes place May 10th at the Performance Center, though some stuff was filmed at WWE headquarters in Connecticut. If you've read what I've read, you'll know WWE appears to have an elaborate taping schedule which will see nothing air live for a couple of months. Some shows will be taped the day of the broadcast, others a week (or more) in advance. Those are my thoughts. Usually, when I compare Raw and Smackdown, it's shows that air the same week. So my comparison between the red and blue brands will be one of the April 27th Raw vs the May 1st Smackdown. Raw wasn't as good last night as the week before and a good Smackdown this Friday could mean I will like it more.
KWETribute 3 flip me Allan lol you do know how to write me a long paragraph but don’t worry I have read all the way through it and I think your reviews and reactions are quite good and I still think if wwe wants to draw fans to raw and smack down they need to make it as though the two shows are actually special and not crappy pit stops on the way to a big pay per view if you know what I mean like they could have a universal or wwe championship match like often on the two brands no all of the time but often just to keep viewers actually entertained and exited for the shows instead of seeing to many boring promos and too many boring match’s they have absolutely no reward if the superstar wins just a win that’s all like well anyways have a good day evening night morning afternoon whenever it may be in Canada here it’s goodnight goodnight form good old UK 🇬🇧
