John Pollockand Wai Ting review WWERaw featuring a major return in the Last Chance Gauntlet Match to determine the final men’s Money In The Bank qualifier.
Plus, Drew McIntyre took on Murphy in the main event, the Street Profits met the Viking Raiders in a non-title match, the team of Shane Thorne & Brendan Vink had a rematch against Ricochet & Cedric Alexander, and several announcements were made for next week’s episode.
And, WWE makes Roman Reigns disappear from the main event of WrestleMania 31 during their Top 10 countdown.
I was really enjoying this tag team match between The Viking Raiders and The Street Prophets and than it ended and they said it was not for the titles and I just flipped. I know they never mentioned that it was for the title, while they’ve built it last week like it was. I am also seeing other people confused like me. Anyway. It pissed me so much that I pretty much fast forwarded through everything else.
Also I would like to point how WWE has the two top, worse promo wrestlers that both are in the top tier of their respective divisions in Seth and Charlotte. Insufferable.
I don’t think babyface champions should have non-title matches. Granted I’m talking 30 years ago, but I always viewed that as a heel thing.
Though I guess it doesn’t matter when we’re no longer acting like matches have contracts (unless you need a signing for an angle) and when beating the champ is the only way they know how to build a challenger/feud.
Like The Viking Raiders actually need to prove themselves in this division of two teams… and the fact that they do this exact scenario once a month or bi-monthly does not help the case either. If I was told it was a non-title I would not even bother wasting my time actually sitting and watching it and get involved, just like I did with Drew and Murphy, where I just skipped to the finish.
And speaking of Drew - his new t-shirt is HIDEOUS.
I think the non-title thing is something that results from them wanting their baby face champions to wrestle all the time and non-title makes it seem possible they might lose. Not that he is a baby face but it is something good about Brock that he never has non-title matches when he is the champion.
I agree that that’s the root of the problem. The focus on ratings has led to a full generation passing since WWE has made an honest effort to create new stars (plural). They ride the money-making talent for as long as they can, then lose them one way or another before they truly pass the torch.
Now they’ve got more television time to fill than ever before, plus a new “war” to deal with, and they spent the last 20 years doing fuck-all to be prepared for it. So the solution is that your top guys have to wrestle every week. And naturally, those guys end up as your champions. So now your top talent and your titles are overexposed and not drawing like they used to, and your “B list” talent are just seen as “guys that pull in shit ratings” even though they never had a fair chance to prove otherwise.
All because a shitty quarter-hour rating this Monday is somehow viewed as worse than an unstoppable ratings free fall two years from now.