WWE Raw: An uninspired WrestleMania go-home show

I’ll give WWE this much credit: they made sure to advertise this weekend’s WrestleMania shows almost incessantly, whether by graphic, the commentators, or promos delivered by wrestlers.

I mean, they ran through the entirety of the two-night card while McIntyre was in the ring, his music still playing, waiting for his opponent for the evening — King Corbin — to make his entrance for their main event match. I couldn’t stop laughing.

However, for a go-home show before the “granddaddy of them all,” it was lackluster to the point of being mostly uninspired.

Let’s begin with the good, mostly revolving around the build for the upcoming WWE Championship match at ‘Mania.

The show-opening promos by both Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre were well done and impassioned. They both sold what winning/retaining the title would mean to them, and I think Lashley delivered his best promo thus far as WWE Champion.

King Corbin, though not a fan favorite (and as a heel, so good), is perfectly suited to his role as an upper-mid card heel. He’s a better worker than people give him credit, and last night’s match with McIntyre was a fine television main event.

The rest of the show/build, though, was a bunch of empty calories.

The incessant need to have the Women’s Champion and her challenger team up to face the Tag Team Champions is so tired, but beyond that, it basically left a dearth of contenders in the tag division with little to do.

One would think this would allow those teams to work their way up to a title match, but with WWE’s continual 50/50 booking and other teams losing so handily to Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler, that’s not the case.

Instead, there will be a tag team turmoil match on night one pitting Lana & Naomi, Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose, Natalya & Tamina, and the Riott Squad against each other. A now-deleted tweet also advertised Carmella & Billie Kay to be in the match, so we shall see if that takes place on Friday’s pre-recorded show. The winner faces Jax & Baszler Sunday for the title.

What do you do when you have nothing? Throw everything together, it seems.

On the other side, Rhea Ripley turned heel tonight by shoving Asuka off of the top rope, attacking her outside of the ring, and causing Asuka to eat the pin from Baszler. I don’t think turning Ripley definitively heel was the right call, as she was doing just fine as the overconfident tweener. I also don’t think it added much to the match; we already knew Ripley is supremely confident and skilled, and fully believes that she will defeat Asuka.

I’m only interested in the United States Championship match because of first-quarter in-ring MVP Sheamus being involved. Hey, it’s nice to see the man have a break after a run of seven consecutive weeks of matches, including being in the Elimination Chamber match and having both a no disqualification and no holds barred match with McIntyre, the latter at Fastlane. That’s nine televised matches of some sort over seven weeks.

In an era with no house shows, that’s a lot of matches.

I haven’t been shy about my distaste for Riddle. His character does not help…at all. Tonight, I think all WWE did was remind us that Sheamus faces Riddle this weekend and that Riddle is annoying.

Moving to what should be a spectacle, Braun Strowman just couldn’t help but regress to the Dolph Ziggler School of Promos as he yelled for 90 percent of his mic time. This was after marked improvement last week because he didn’t yell.

Shane McMahon was, well, Shane McMahon on the mic, and it would be best if he was off-screen for a number of months after this weekend.

Finally, the whole Damian Priest & Bad Bunny vs. The Miz & John Morrison angle tonight left me feeling like it was both predictable and also juvenile. We ALL knew it was going to end in a tag match, but they needed to fill the time until this weekend with guitar shots and now, painting cars.

Part of me is just mad they painted on that sweet, sweet Bugatti. As Tayce from Drag Race UK might say, “The cheek, the nerve, the audacity, the gull, and the gumption.”

Bunny’s promo was fine considering he’s not a trained promo, but it was far too long to get to what we all knew was coming.

Also, did anyone else get flashbacks to John Cena & Cryme Tyme spray painting JBL’s limo, with Cena spraying “JBL is Poopy” across the hood? Oh, now you remember? Sorry about that…kind of.

When your go-home show for WrestleMania is invoking memories of “JBL is Poopy,” that can’t be good.

Last night’s Raw was a microcosm of the discussion surrounding the builds: just so lackluster. Yes, there are going to be many good matches across both nights (Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins and Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair should be quite good), but that doesn’t take away this uninspired, almost apathetic feeling I have toward this weekend’s shows.

If you’re WWE, that is not the feeling you want to leave fans with as a final sales pitch. Let’s just hope this weekend turns into another iteration of Stomping Grounds 2019 from my hometown of Tacoma, WA: a lackluster build that over-delivered come showtime.