WWE rant blog

Ripp’d a New One
    This week in WWE review

The road to Wrestlemania continues this week in the wake of the Royal Rumble pay per view. First off on the review chopping block is Monday Night Raw.

Raw is the longest running episodic television show in history with 1,244 shows it stands alone in with the accolade the closest second longest is coincidentally WWE Smack down live with 922 episodes.

Raw opens as most shows do with a promo. Kevin Owens is the WWE Universal Champion having retained the title at the rumble. With best friend Chris Jericho at his side they do their usual routine to get over. Great chemistry with the two of them since day one.

The down side to this is they both hold titles that have a history of prestige. The storyline being carried out has made it very difficult to accept them or the belts they hold as serious champions or worthwhile championship titles.

Being that Owens is Universal Champion means that he will main event Mania and it is clear from fan response that he is not yet made it to the caliber that justifies that decision to keep him as champion. He has yet to retain his belt during a defense that was not unassisted so it makes him appear to be weak and shady. Owens is probably one of the top 10 on the roster in his in ring ability. So it’s a sad thing to have him be a weasel champion that cannot stand-alone.

I have never liked this booking style for a heel because it never draws the kind of heat you would want on a main event heel champ. In the end the wrestler that is forced to work in this manner succumbs to eventually irrelevance and obscurity. Unless you are an exceptional ring and mica performer who is able to find a way to adapt and reinvent himself. Its very rare when a wrestler is that good.

So there is uncertain direction for the road to mania and how the WWE universal champ factors in and in what capacity.

So Owens was forced to face Braun Strowman for his title as punishment for cheating to win at the rumble. Strowman is an impressive 6 feet 7 inches and weighs in the range of 365 lbs. He moves and has speed like a guy 1/3 his size which makes him an even more impressive worker. Now not withstanding all those factors, the fact that it is too early in his push as a main eventer and the fact that it’s a television event with only 3 weeks till the next pay per view. It was safe to know that Strowman was not going to win the title. So the M.O. stayed in place as Strowman won the match by count out but he looked as monstrous as ever, Sadly Owens continute his cheap victory story and the unchallenged test he would really need to wrestle a clean match and get the honest win. Soon it will be too late and the fans will dub him that guy and it will be very difficult to recover from that.

So Sami Zany faced Chris Jericho for the U.S. championship and they tore the house down with their match. Zany is amazing in the ring and can make anyone look like a million bucks. However back too much of the same monotony as Jericho had the tainted win.

So Seth Rollins called out Triple H again and the hope is that at mania they will finally face each other in what has a terrific long and well played out storyline, which will make this a great match. However HHH showed up and when Rollins came to the ring he was attacked by newly signed from NXT Samoa Joe. Joe nearly destroyed Rollins and left him motionless for nearly an entire commercial break before being assisted to the back by medical staff. Rollins did sustain an injury but what that was and how severe is still up in the air. With Rollins being the main face of RAW it will be very bad if he is unable to make a return soon but asked me not to mention that person.

The six-person tag match came and did its filler job putting Bailey pinning Charlotte who is the Woman Champ. Now this would make the fourth time in two months that Bailey has taken the queen and pinned her for the 3 count. So they are setting up a raw match between the two for the title and being that charlotte is undefeated in PPV title matches.  So the only way to keep that in check without sacrificing content going to post online etc I see the need for these stories and so on but why make it so difficult to.

So Goldberg who has washed his hands with Brock Leaner and further exploiting that he has more victories and it’s her title to take. So now they will face one last time at wrestle mania and the coveted idea that they both will turn in a instant classic amazing run by one or the other. Much better than their match over 12 years age that smelled up the ring so horribly that you can be glad you were not there.

So it is unclear who will be the number contender to face the champ at mania and more interesting than that is guys like Jericho and Kurt Angle are so good even at the age of 37 and 44 respectively. They just never got the chance to fill many open spots at the top. . In the end its clear that it will be a delayed storyline finish under the circumstances.

So with very little enticing I cant help but say this. The WWE has survived and prospered from every event even with things going bad, However in this case with the storylines all over the place and it being consumer season it may make for a difficult thing to continue with the failing storylines and the oddities that are not carrying the format out in their writing history.

Over all I wil give the show RAW a 6 ½ star rating due to the 4.5 rating in views is on the decline on The Current with the time frame and view ship it is far lower than just a few months back we had that heat wave when the raiding showed Raw with over 8 million weekly viewers.

As much as the fans were so incredibly angry at this outcome it was clearly the only course of action over the incredibly tough situation that is causing RAW to scramble and keep their feet under them in order to achieve great things.

Sorry not my best breakdown of a show and not worded well either but be sure to checkout the next installment of Ripp’d a New One and where I review smack down live and give you my “How I would book it” and my rumored match ideas and predictions for the big event.

              Until then thank you WWE universe ad get ready for the speed train cause PPV fast lane and elimination chamber are coming and it will be difficult to rewrite the books in order to have the storylines play out properly before Mania and scratch the ones who just don’t fit into the plans even just for now.