WWE Raw: How Vince McMahon was the Problem with Last Night’s Show
By Carl Gac
Vince McMahon was back on WWE Raw, but why didn’t it work out too well for him?
The year of 2015 hasn’t been the best twelve months for WWE. Creatively the company has been ridiculously stale and that has been reflected in the decline in the tv ratings for WWE Raw.
A few weeks ago we thought that things may be about to change. We saw Roman Reigns finally win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, we saw Vince McMahon return and we actually had some excitement on the show. Then we had the Slammy Awards, a week where things fell flat a bit. Last night we had Raw live from the Barclays Centre in New York City, and things seem to have fallen back down the drain a little.
More wwe: WrestleMania 32 Card Projections 6.0
More from Raw
- WWE Raw Predictions: Seth Rollins Will BURY Jey Uso
- Three feuds for CM Punk on WWE Monday Night Raw
- Three candidates to take the Women’s World Championship from Rhea Ripley
- WWE Raw Predictions: LA Knight Will Return The Favor To Cody Rhodes
- Why Drew McIntyre turned heel during WWE Monday Night Raw
It wasn’t a totally awful show, like some we have seen this year, but the negatives probably outweighed the positives again. This time, of year is always pretty slow. With a longer than usual gap between pay-per-view offerings, there’s a bit more time to set up feuds heading into the Royal Rumble and beyond. That’s not something that seems to be happening, though. WWE seem to be spinning their wheels with a worry that things will be forgotten by the time we get to the Rumble.
Oh, and where the hell is Triple H? I know he got attacked by Roman Reigns and is outselling that beating, but are we supposed to forget that he appeared at NXT TakeOver: London and looked totally fine?
When Vince McMahon returned a few weeks ago it gave the whole World Heavyweight title picture a bit of a boost. We had seen Authority man Triple H taken out by Roman Reigns at the end of TLC and something needed to happen to punish him. What actually ended up happening was Vince ending up pushing Sheamus into losing his title to Reigns and we now have a face Champion.
Live Feed
Bam Smack Pow
The Slammys kind of got in the way a bit, but Vince came back in Brooklyn to stamp his authority onto Reigns. Again that didn’t happen particularly well. Vince ended up in jail after (not really) attacking a New York Cop and Reigns didn’t really have to do much apart from looking smug in the background. One thing Mr McMahon does well is look exasperated when a proper figure of authority stands up to him. The Cops that arrested him (including a cameo from indy wrestler Drew Gulak) played their roles well and Vince did his bit.
Whilst this sort of stuff went down pretty well during the Attitude Era it doesn’t really work in 2015. Putting (fake) Cops into the ring is a good tactic but it doesn’t really hold a lot of water with fans in this day and age in my opinion. Plus what did it do to push the fact the most important guy in the company was involved? Did Roman Reigns really benefit at all from this segment? No would be the answer.
Vince worked well as the evil authority figure when he had someone as talented as Steve Austin up against him. When you have him face to face with Reigns, well it doesn’t really work too well. Reigns plays the brooding baby face pretty well but isn’t anywhere near good enough to verbally joust with anyone, let alone Vince.
The biggest problem has to be that the fans don’t really buy the whole “Vince McMahon is the big bad guy” stuff anymore. He is a caricature of his former self. The role he has should be taken by Triple H. Triple H should have come out as Vince was being arrested and blindsided Reigns.
It’s obvious to see that Roman Reigns and Triple H are being pushed towards a probable match at WrestleMania. But why can’t we have a few weeks of Triple H just coming out as a badass wrestler? Absolutely destroying the Champion and building up some heat, whilst offering the fans the chance to grow a bit of sympathy for Reigns? Would that not work and make a bit more sense than having a 70-year-old man as the antagonist for your main protagonist?
When Vince returned from jail he announced that there would be a World Heavyweight Championship match between Reigns and Sheamus (again!?!) that would be refereed by Vince himself. Whilst it’s good to see a World title match on Raw again it will probably just end up being another opportunity for the League of Nations to interfere and tarnish the World Title a bit more.
WWE has backed themselves into an awkward corner. They have a baby face Champion who not a lot of people really want in that role, whilst having the heel facing him be basically your fourth string quarterback. Not really the best position but that’s the place we find ourselves in.
The only thing getting me through this current period as a fan is that there’s a beast in the shape of Brock Lesnar waiting in the wings to return. Please come back soon Brock!