WrestleTalk Roundtable – WWE Raw – January 21, 2019

I’m confused. No, much like Minoru Suzuki, I’m no-selling that. More accurately, I’m befuddled, perplexed and bordering on dumbfounded.

Last week’s Raw left us on a real high, with the mouthwatering prospect of a pulsating contest between Finn Bálor and Brock Lesnar on the cards for the Royal Rumble. Finally, a fresh matchup that also hands a much-deserved opportunity to a fan favourite to compete for the company’s top title. There was (and still is) every reason to be excited.

The late replacement of Finn in the match however – coming at the expense of a misbehaving Braun Strowman – came with its own set of complications. It meant that Raw had just two weeks and one broadcast to hype the match while building Bálor as a credible challenger to Brock’s Universal Title, positioning him as a legitimate threat to the Minnesotan behemoth.

And that’s exactly what I was expecting Paul Heyman to do as he made his way to the ring to kick off last night’s broadcast. He has, after all, pulled off similar feats in presenting Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles as worthy opponents when they had their respective bouts with ‘The Beast Incarnate’. So it only made sense for Heyman to do something similar for Bálor, a man widely considered to be one of the most talented performers in WWE today.

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It came as a bit of a surprise then that he instead chose to spend most of his promo complaining about a lack of preparation time for his client before painting a portrait of biblical-type martyrdom.

In hindsight, it was probably around this point that WWE started to lose me a little bit.

Sure, we all know that the chiselled Irishman is bound to come up short in six days time. All sense of logic and coherent storytelling point to that outcome. But the magic of professional wrestling is tricking us into believing that maybe he won’t. Convincing us that despite our better judgement, there’s a chance – just the slightest possibility – that Finn might overcome the odds.

But not only did Heyman quickly dismiss Finn Bálor, so too did Vince McMahon, who claimed that this time ‘David’ had no chance of toppling ‘Goliath’. First of all, what’s will all the biblical themes this week? Second though, Vince, you made the match! Why did you put Bálor in a position to become the number one contender if he never stood a hope of winning the title? As a matter of fact, why was Baron Corbin in that match? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? 

Of course, all of this would’ve amounted to little more than window dressing had we actually seen Finn get one over the big, broad mountain man in the ring. But despite some brief moments of hope, the segment ended with Bálor getting F-5’d and Brock standing above his limp carcass.

Cinderella man pic.twitter.com/ombcZnnRh3

— Finn Bálor (@FinnBalor) January 22, 2019

That was it. There was no follow-up, as this angle was never revisited again. It was just left to stew in the ether until this pair meet again on Sunday. Will Bálor walk out with the title? No. Did we see anything to make us believe that he has even the slimmest chance of doing so? Sadly, also no. It was a disheartening beginning to a chaotic Raw. So chaotic in fact that Dean Ambrose needed to take a break and hang out in the dark corner of the school grounds where all the cool kids go to smoke their funny cigarettes.

As pointed out, this was the go-home edition of Monday Night Raw, leading into the Royal Rumble this Sunday. So it would be fair to expect a lot of exciting angles, hot matches and general Rumble intrigue. So which moments soared like an Otis Dozovic caterpillar and which floundered like a Bobby Lashley butt pose? Read on to find out more about the best and worst of last night’s Raw.

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