Last night’s Raw promised a whole lot before it began and ended up delivering quite a bit. Shane McMahon returned once again and continued to put an emphasis on new stars. He booked a #1 contender’s tournament for the Tag Team tournament, a Women’s Championship match and a #1 contender’s match for the Intercontinental Championship.
He also booked Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt together in a tag team match against the League of Nations.
5). Lance Storm drops a Carlito reference
For the last two weeks, WWE has shown Puerto Rico themed vignette for the repackaged Primo and Epico. Why WWE decided the Los Matadores needed another chance despite many failed pushes is another question.
@lancestorm tweeted about whether there was any chance of Carlito turning up in WWE again to join his fellow Puerto Ricans. Carlito had a very successful WWE run in the 2000’s and is a former US, Intercontinental and Tag Team Champion.
On an interesting sidenote, Carlito won the US Championship on his debut in 2004, defeating a certain John Cena.
4). This tweet from Cageside Seats made me laugh out loud
WWE announced last week that Dr. Phil would be the guest host of Raw this week. Dr. Phil showed up backstage to confront Charlotte and Ric Flair, accusing Charlotte of letting her father convince her to cheat and win instead of standing on her own to feet.
This was followed by Ric and Dr. Phil loudly woo-ing in each others faces. Dr. Phil also sat ringside during Charlotte’s Championship match against Natalya later in the night where Charlotte once again cheated to win. As pointed out by @cagesideseats on twitter, who the hell hired Dr. Phil to harass wrestlers backstage?
3). Is Vince really that delusional? Possible. Very Possible.
WWE’s recent push of Roman Reigns despite mostly negative crowd reactions is rumoured to be because of Vince McMahon’s wish to have him as the next big face of WWE. The reaction to Roman Reign’s has gotten worse and worse over recent weeks and the WWE had to mix out boo’s during the main event of Wrestlemania 32.
Many fans are wondering why Roman Reign’s isn’t just turning heel and attribute it to Vince just being out of tune with reality. @heelbook hilariously point out Vince’s possible reaction to the Bullet Club chants.
2). Roman 3:16
Another Roman Reigns related tweet? Sorry, but this one was just too good to ignore. Roman has improved in the ring no doubt, his the way he’s been booked has just not gone over well with the fans. They aren’t ready to accept him as the next face of the company.
No matter what Reigns does, how hard he works, he just can’t get over with most crowds. @KayfabeNews tweeted this earlier in regard to WWE’s desperation to get him over.
1). WWE commentary mentions New Japan Pro Wrestling
WWE rarely ever mention any promotions other than themselves or the companies that they have bought out over the years such as WCW and ECW. They refer to TNA as ‘that company in Florida’ despite having signed a host of former TNA stars in recent years.
They never mentioned New Japan when they signed AJ Styles. When Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows debuted on Raw last night, Michael Cole mentioned New Japan on commentary. If you don’t realize how earth-shattering that moment is, check out @WWECreative_ish’s tweet during Raw.
