Monday Night RAW 3/30 was the vaunted “go home episode before Wrestlemania.”
Usually, this episode is where you see WWE scramble to cram a bunch of last second matches, tied together through the vaguest of storylines, at a near blinding pace.
That didn’t happen on Monday Night RAW 3/30.
Instead we got some amazing promos. I’m talking legendary. We also got the requisite re-airing of Mania matches, as well as a couple in-ring match-ups.
Let’s examine the re-airings first:
Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair from Wrestlemania 35: Can you believe this was only a year ago? Feels like a lifetime ago. Also, remember when Ronda was in WWE? We haven’t seen her in a year. I wish I could get paid a fat sum of cash to not work. Oh wait, that’s called unemployment and the cash was not that fat. Jokes aside, I was curious to see how this match a year later with much fresher eyes (not after 7 hours of Mania). This match was actually pretty damn good, and despite the wonky finish, it holds up.
Brock Lesnar vs. Rey Mysterio from Survivor Series 2019: I can think of like 10 or other Brock Lesnar matches I’d air before this one. Or maybe WWE should’ve aired ANYTHING featuring Drew McIntyre. Maybe that awesome WWE on B/T vignette? Maybe something from his NXT days? The Heyman promo was enough to put over Brock (how much more do you need to put him over?). The casual fan needs more of Drew, and it’s been very few and far between in that regards.
The Matches Monday Night RAW 3/30:
Aleister Black vs. Jason Cade: Jason Cade is a young guy with a lot of potential and I saw that in the early days of MLW. On RAW he was the latest person to “eat defeat” from Aleister. This really does zero to build up Black’s match with Lashley, and I’m very curious to see which super protected superstar comes out on top.
Asuka vs. Kayden Carter: WWE sees a lot in Carter as she seems to be a constant on TV (particularly NXT). She got a little bit to do here, but this was done mostly to set up Kabuki Warriors vs. Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross for Mania.
Street Profits and Kevin Owens vs. Angel Garza, Seth Rollins and Austin Theory: It’s no secret Austin Theory is someone WWE has big designs for. They’ve literally been promoting him for years back when he was a member of the Evolve roster. He’s essentially John Cena or Randy Orton but can flip. It’s kinda stunning that of the 100 dudes not being used in WWE and NXT that he’s the guy who not only steps in for Andrade for this match, but at Wrestlemania. He’s still so young and unproven. Regardless, this match was solid. Very happy Montez Ford is alive and moving after “missing” that dive to the outside. Seth picks up the win for his team.
The Promos of Monday Night RAW 3/30:
The Undertaker: Best Undertaker promo in like a decade? Absolutely. The Deadman went all Big Evil shoot-style burying Allen Jones aka AJ Styles. This was great to see fire, intensity, and just pure emotion (as much as it could be given his nature) from Undertaker. We didn’t need the Dead Man spouting slow threats with mystical undertones. We need a man who was pissed off and looking for a damn fight. We got that and it was awesome.
Edge: There might not a better promo delivered by anyone under contract to WWE in 2020. It sold his feud better than any of the “you wouldn’t understand” non-sense from Randy Orton, or the “I love Edge more than you, Beth” crap from last month. This was a personal, emotional promo about a personal, emotional feud. Much more so than Undertaker/Styles, mostly due to history. I’ve never been an Orton guy, but he and Edge are magic — let’s see if they can recreate it.
Becky Lynch: When not having to yell over or placate to a crowd, Becky Lynch really knows how to cut a promo. And I say that because in front of the crowd she’s gotta yell over the din, and simultaneously hitting all her catchphrases, etc. In front of no one she knows how to cut to the heart of her feud with Shayna Baszler, and sell the match. While the silent slide-in for the sleeper hold was cartoonish, nothing was cartoonish about the thrashing Shayna gave Becky. The lack of audience emphasized the brutality.
Kevin Owens:Â If you haven’t realized yet that Kevin Owens is one of the best promos in WWE — here you go.
Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman: Remember when Paul Heyman said, “Next year we’ll be in the same position doing the same thing”? Well, I’ve felt like that for two years plus as Heyman cuts the exact same promo every week for Brock. It did nothing to sell this main event for me.
Comments are closed.