WWE Raw – April 29, 2019 (Review)

The Best of Raw

The Raid is On

After a lacklustre start to Raw, the Viking Raiders got to dismantle all three members of Lucha House Party. It was an out-and-out squash match barely lasting three minutes, but it was an effective showcase of the Viking Raiders’ abilities. Erik and Ivar were given a fair opportunity to show off their incredible strength, agility and quickness. And they did just that.

While the Viking Raiders are yet to face legitimate competition on Raw, it’s nevertheless promising to see them dominate lesser teams. In a world of AoP and SAnitY disappointments, I’ll gladly take easy wins for an NXT call-up at this stage.

Yowie Wowie!

Bray Wyatt has fast become the best part of Raw. The former WWE Champion returned to the Firefly Fun House this week, complete with pastel colour scheme, Mr Rogers’ sweater and a new friend. Audiences were introduced to Rambling Rabbit this week, who joins Mercy the Buzzard and Abby the Witch.

Last night saw Wyatt highlighting the joy of painting, which allows him to express his repressed feelings. Bray’s repressed feelings? Apparently memories of his family compound being raised to the ground, burying the spirit of Sister Abigail. That’s not creepy at all.

Wyatt’s subtle change of facial expressions whenever the tone takes an ominous turn, the contrast between light-hearted children’s show sound effects and the tracks resonating with each dark turn, and the ever present unsettling atmosphere – all of it is pure brilliance.

Also, this week’s word of the day was ‘sociopath’. That’s S-O-C-I-O-P-A-T-H, kids. Every aspect of this act is genius.

Mean Charley

There’s a troubling culture of bullying developing backstage. But it’s not because of JBL or the Clique. No, the main catalyst of this toxic environment is one Charley ‘The Silent Assassin’ Caruso.

This week saw her start an interview with Rey Mysterio by inventing the claim that “some people are saying that this is the most challenging period of your career, with repeated losses since WrestleMania.” She might as well have pointed out that Rey was old, washed up and noticeably shorter than his son.

Charley then later casually pointed out to Becky Lynch that she would, in all likelihood, be leaving Money in the Bank with no championships.

I have no idea why Charley has developed this straight-faced, casual heel persona backstage, nor why I enjoy it so much. But she has, and I do.

‘Becky Two Belts’ and ‘Lacey One Punch’

Becky Lynch stormed to the ring to address both of her opponents at the upcoming pay-per-view. While the promo consisted of the all too familiar refrain around Lacey being a “plank” currying favours backstage and Charlotte being an entitled company darling holding the division hostage, Becky’s fiery, confident delivery was head and shoulders above anything else we saw last night.

The war of words escalated once Lacey Evans came out to face the ‘Champ Champ’ and a “chaotic scene” quickly ensued. Despite Michael Cole’s overselling, it was just a mini brawl in reality. But Lacey looked amazing and held her own in the short promo she was asked to deliver. I’m an unashamed fan of Evans’ southern, sing-song promo style and she unquestionably looks physically impressive. I remain optimistic about this match at Money in the Bank.

A Big Win for Rey Mysterio

Rey Mysterio and Samoa Joe had a predictably good TV encounter. The story coming into the match for some reason was that Rey was on a terrible streak of losses, which was supposedly bringing untold shame and embarrassment upon his family. …Uh, okay?

Whereas the context was slightly confounding, the match certainly wasn’t. Samoa Joe was in control for most of the contest, with Rey attempting to use his speed and guile to stay alive. Eventually the diminutive Mysterio was able to roll up his much larger opponent to secure the win and restore honour to his family. Because apparently a decades long career of excellence can all be wiped away by a bad month in WWE.

There was a slight botch to end the bout, with Rey struggling to get Joe’s massive shoulders on the mat, causing an awkward delay before the official started to count the pin. But that shouldn’t be held against the match, which was in the main really good.

The Next AJ Styles?

The final segment of the evening saw the contract signing between AJ Styles and Seth Rollins ahead of their Universal Title match at MITB. This exchange was decent but based on way too many catchphrases and questionable one-liners.

Among them was Seth reiterating his affinity for burning things down, while Styles reminded us that he prefers to build things up. Then Styles threw out the wild claim that people have been saying for years that Rollins was “the new AJ Styles”. Really? When? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that comparison.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw3SRPfBlW6/

AJ went on to speak about his accomplishments over two years on SmackDown, only for Seth to point out that Raw’s ropes are red and that Michael Cole was on commentary, not Tom Phillips. Which made me wonder whether anyone had ever actually seen Michael Cole and Tom Phillips in the same room together. …Coincidence?

Eventually though, we got to the action. A quick exchange between the two competitors ended with AJ Styles hitting the Universal Champion with a Phenomenal Forearm, driving him through a conveniently-placed table. Overall, a decent segment with more good than bad. I’m still up for their match in three weeks time.

5 years ago by Nicholas Holicki

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