REWIND-A-RAW 4/23/18: Raw is Bruno, Greatest Royal Rumble

Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/04/24/rewind-a-raw-4-23-18-raw-is-bruno-greatest-royal-rumble/


CLICK TO DOWNLOAD


John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE RAW 4/23/18:

The WWE pays tribute to the passing of Bruno Sammartino, Raw gives a final push to its matches ahead of Friday’s Greatest Royal Rumble, and Ronda Rousey gets physical in Natalya’s defense.

Days ahead of the show, we discuss the WWE’s position (or lack thereof) on the absence of its female performers at the Greatest Royal Rumble.

Wai shares his thoughts on the excellent Bruno documentary that premiered tonight on the WWE Network. John talks about the death of Motoko Baba.

Plus, Café feedback to WWE Raw from the POST Wrestling Forum.

 

Our thoughts are with all of those affected by Monday’s tragedy in our hometown of Toronto.

 

Rewind-A-Raw Theme by Colby John
http://www.ColbyJohn.com

Subscribe to POST Wrestling
iTunes & iOS | Android | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn | Mac & PC | RSS

Discuss this show at the POST Wrestling Forum
https://forum.postwrestling.com

Support our Patreon - The POST Wrestling Café
http://www.patreon.com/POSTwrestling

Follow us
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Funny you guys mention the 24 hour shows. They are already here! Tons of people do 24 hour streams on twitch. I have done 4 myself. Every year I do one for Extra Life to raise money for children’s hospitals. Its certainly weird to stream for that many hours.

After hearing Wai’s review of the Bruno doc, I want to go and watch it now. Sounds like they put alot of care in to it.

1 Like

I agree with you guys on the Saudi Arabia show. I wonder if the architect of the Royal Rumble himself, Pat Patterson, will be in attendance backstage. It’s a little ironic that the biggest match on this show in a country that discriminates against homosexuality was the brainchild of a gay man.

1 Like

I can’t wait until this Saudi Arabian show is done so people can move on and can stop pretending to care about that countries politics.

Yall weren’t bringing this shit up when Darren Young was talking about it and was actually boycotting the shows in U.A.B…then that country were having women wrestle there…tna did it first blah blah blah…fact remains…you can’t expect anyone to cater to your values if you’re trying to sell them something. Progress doesn’t just happen overnight…and trade and economics have helped relations with countries that the west didn’t see eye to eye with more than stupid boycotts ever have. Boycotts breed more tension and helps people ignore them further…until it fits someone’s agenda agenda.

Great show! I hope you are right about Owens and Zayn having a tag run. A tag title is the last belt Owens needs to complete his grand slam! :wink:

I’m boycotting the ‘Greatest Royal Rumble’ personally.

John and Wai point out that things would be very different if this was a race issue. I have to disagree. I fail to understand the difference. I can’t shrug off one versus the other in order to see this situation as remotely acceptable.

Woman are banned and you have an entire division of woman who help carry your show.

You would think the backlash to this show would completely and utterly dwarf the trivial nonsense that was the May Young Battle Royale by comparison. Where is the public backlash though?

All I’m hearing is “that’s unfortunate but oh well lets talk about the card because its going to be great!!”

Fans of the WWE are sending a message that this is acceptable business and I’m extremely disappointed by this. WWE is just doing what’s best for business here…you can hardly blame them…but the only thing that would or could change their minds going forward would be sufficient backlash. We’re seeing practically none of that right now so guess what…woman being banned from your program for certain weeks of the year is I guess acceptable in 2018. Awesome. What a time to be alive.

I wasn’t on the LAW forums in the Darren Young days and good for him for speaking his mind. I think what makes people so angry about this is WWE has been tooting their own horn about the Women’s Revolution for the past few years and going to a country that didn’t even allow women to drive up until a few months ago sends an extremely contradictory message. WWE deserves a lot of criticism for this.

Women weren’t allowed to drive until a few months ago…so progress took time? :thinking::thinking::thinking:

It maybe harsh or cold of me to say, but I don’t care about the politics regarding this show. WWE is a business, one with shareholders and if an opportunity comes up to make a bucket of cash, they will do it. We don’t know about the back end details and we never will so I am not about to climb up on my soapbox to complain or boycott this one.

It is one show, with possibly a few more to follow in the coming years.

Should politics be considered? Maybe.

The world doesn’t operate under the lens of the western world. I am sure the WWE Network is available to customers in Saudi Arabia which means they have seen women wrestle.

WCW and New Japan worked with North Korea…“but they didn’t represent a movement”…except it was called a peace festival…:thinking::thinking::thinking::thinking:

John’s recap of Bayley and Sasha’s conversation backstage, all done through body language, was one of the funniest things I’ve heard on this show. Salty John Pollock is so good.

1 Like

I’m not defending the WWE, but I am not shocked they would throw the women’s division under the bus for a pay day. The WWE only takes the women’s division slightly more seriously than it does 205 live.

Even though WWE has gotten better in recent years, they still bury women’s matches and pay them a fraction of what the male talent gets. If I was going to boycott WWE for their treatment of women, I would have been gone long before they agreed to do a show in a country that doesn’t allow women to wrestle.