Raw came to us this week from Hartford, CT, just miles away from WWE’s world headquarters in Stamford. The show promised a lot, including Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows’ in-ring debut.
The plot between Roman Reigns and AJ Styles thickened with repeated back and forth attacks between Reigns and his cousins The Usos and AJ and the Bullet Club. The show also included some great matches involving the likes of AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Samy Zayn and the members of what used to be the League of Nations.
The show also had Lana coming out with Rusev again, which was definitely a good thing. Stephanie McMahon also made her return and confronted Shane McMahon who was once again in charge of Raw.
Overall, the show was pretty good and it’s clear that WWE is moving in the right direction after WrestleMania. Here I compile the 5 best Twitter reactions to Raw April 25, 2016:
5: From Puerto Rico without love
Enough with all the Puerto Rico promos for Primo and Epico.
Firstly, Primo and Epico do not need to another repackaging. There is no place in WWE’s current tag team division for them. They just aren’t good enough. And, all this vignette time could have been better used to hype up Anderson and Gallows.
Secondly, Puerto Rico has real problems. As Matt Fowler points out, their promo was a sort of a rip-off of this week’s episode of Last Week Tonight. Even though it was probably a coincidence that led to the similarities, it’s hilarious.
4: The Magic of Social Media
The segment between Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho on Raw ended with Jericho putting Ambrose in the Walls of Jericho on the announce table. This led to hilarious back and forth on Twitter between @RealPaigeWWE and @IAmJericho.
Paige tweeted Jericho telling him that announce table submissions were her thing, only to be schooled by the ‘Ayatolla of Rocknrolla’ who reminded her of the time his announce table submission tore Triple H’s quad.
Side Note: Why are announce table submissions a thing? How does it hurt more to put in a submission move on a table? How? Where’s the logic? Oh, my bad. I went looking for logic.
3: Where’s Finn?
Finn Balor told fans he’d see them on Monday following his match against Samoa Joe last week. Fans have chanted “See You Monday” at him at every NXT house show since. So, it’s Monday? Where’s Finn? Finn Balor’s repeated teases about his debut are beginning to wear thin. At this rate, when he finally debuts to join his Bullet Club brethren, the moment will be less anticlimactic.
@FrogBalor’s tweet reciprocated my feelings. I’ve been waiting for Finn to show up on the main roster since his first cryptic Instagram posts following Anderson and Gallows signing with WWE.
2: That’s so 1990s
WWE have bought out all their major competition, from the AWA in the early days, to ECW and WCW in the new millennium. The fact that there’s no viable competition lets WWE push who they want as their top star even if the fans just won’t accept him.
I’m talking about Roman Reigns by the way. Roman just isn’t who the fans want to see. If these were the days of the Monday Night Wars, WWE couldn’t afford to continue with this kind of push. Fans would have just switched over to WCW.
@KayfabeNews tweet perfectly sums up why WWE having major competition was good for both the fans and the industry.
Side Note; The AJ Styles and Roman Reigns feud has been really good so far. WWE should get Roman as close to a tweener between face and heel as they possibly can.
1: Remembering a legend
Chyna passed away earlier this week. The whole wrestling world simultaneously came out with glowing tributes to Chyna for her storied career. Chyna was the original pioneer of women’s wrestling in WWE and was one of the company’s top draws till personal problems with Triple H and Stephanie led her to getting fired.
I don’t want to go into her history with WWE and Triple H and Stephanie again here, it’s well known. However, it was nice to see that WWE took a few moments to pay tribute to Chyna. WWE legend @RealMickFoley paid his own tribute to the ‘Ninth Wonder of the World’ on Twitter.
