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What's the story?
Seth Rollins opened this Monday's Raw by blasting the current booking of the show, placing the bulk of the blame primarily on the shoulders of Baron Corbin.
Ringsidenews.com carried a report from Mike Johnson's PW Elite radio show noting that there could have been a few reasons behind Rollins mild pipe-bomb.
In case you missed it...
Baron Corbin has essentially ruled over Raw with an iron fist since assuming interim-GM duties from former GM Kurt Angle.
He's often changed matches in the middle of them to his favor, has constantly attacked wrestlers like Braun Strowman, Elias and Finn Balor and has fired Rhyno.
Rollins opened Raw in the ring, running down some of the recent reasons why Raw's rating are at an all-time low. From booking the Revival in ludicrous 'Lucha House Party' rules matches in three straight weeks to firing Rhyno to making Heath Slater a referee, Rollins laid into Corbin. Rollins even challenged Corbin to a TLC match in the main event.
Corbin turned Heath Slater into a referee in his pocket as Slater reluctantly reffed a match between Lio Rush and Elias. Lashley soon interfered and bullied Slater into not calling the match a DQ. Rush eventually won.
Corbin tried to use that relationship to his advantage on Raw against Seth Rollins in the main event, but the Kingslayer overcame the odds.
TLC will ultimately be the next step into deciding whether Raw will continue to sink lower in the ratings or improve.
The heart of the matter
Raw has had its two lowest-rated shows in history over the last two weeks.
On his PW Elite radio show, Mike Johnson offered a few possible reasons behind Rollins' verbal lashings:
“It could have been the company lost their minds and put their thumb in the eye of the audience and saying we acknowledge it but we don’t care. Or it could just be that they decided all this talk online and they could transfer this heat to Baron Corbin.”
Johnson also mentioned that it might have been a “wink, wink, nudge, nudge,” from Vince McMahon to the viewers where they admitted that they were aware Raw hasn’t been good recently and they’re attempting to turn it around.
TLC will either help start turn things around or continue the trend of Corbin abusing his power.
What's next?
Putting the blame on Baron Corbin looks like a shrewd move to put even more heat on the interim GM. He's getting near-nuclear heat on a weekly basis and has become one of the top heels on Raw because of his status as GM. We really won't know what to think until Corbin either wins his match at TLC and becomes permanent GM of Raw or loses to Strowman.
Expect Corbin to pull out all of the stops on Sunday in order to beat Strowman. He may think Strowman won't show up and simply forfeit, but other things could be in the works for the PPV match.
