Last night was the RAW after the best Royal Rumble in recent memory. This gave the WWE an opportunity to continue heading strongly in the right direction on the road to Wrestlemania. These are the five biggest talking points I took from the show.
The Authority are what's best for business
So Triple H won the Rumble! Not really a surprise there. This isn't me saying it's the wrong decision, rather that everyone and their mums could see it coming. RAW opened this week with a lengthy opening segment from The Authority. Now a couple of months ago we would've all moaned and groaned about it but this week it was an excellent opening to RAW. Vince and Steph made the segment a little weak but to his credit, HHH came out and showed why putting the title was, unfortunately, the only way to go. He preached about how Roman's arrogance was the downfall of his championship reign. It was a good promo from Hunter and he looked like he believed every bit of what he was saying. Surprisingly there was no Roman involvement in this segment, as a matter of fact he turned up to RAW about half an hour late. No wonder he isn't WWE champion anymore.
AJ shows off his Style against Y2J
AJ Styles got the loudest pop of the lot last night when he made his debut in the Rumble and he continued in the right way on RAW. The way AJ is being treated by WWE so far shows that they view him as a big deal which is great because, lets face it he is a big deal. Going into Wrestlemania it looks like he will be invested in a feud with someone like Kevin Owens which is perfect because they seem like they'll work well in the ring together. On RAW however he faced the perfect first opponent in Chris Jericho. Jericho mainly works now to put other guys over which makes him perfect for this role. They put on a very good showing and despite Jericho being a little loud when calling certain spots he showed good work with AJ. There are two big things with Styles going around at the moment. The first is that people seem to think that his trademark "Styles Clash" has been banned for being too unsafe. Unlikely. If this was the case then he wouldn't be trying to do in regularly and the commentary team certainly wouldn't be referencing it. Second is that the WWE need to handle him carefully. For the more hardcore fans he will need to be booked in good feuds and good matches but they also need to make sure he is given free reign in the ring so that he can quickly win over the casual audience who may not have heard of him. Once he has won over them he will become a huge draw for the WWE and should be inserted into the WWE Championship picture.
Women going in the right direction
Becky Lynch and Charlotte put on a great match at Royal Rumble and despite the finish being a bit iffy it was a step in the right direction. Involving Sasha Banks was also good because fans have been pining for her for a while now. Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch faced each other last night on RAW and while the match didn't get enough time the creative was put in the right direction. Sasha Banks needs to be in the title picture because, well she's Sasha Banks but Becky Lynch doesn't deserve to be shunted off into the background like an afterthought because she has been doing some of the best work on RAW recently. Perhaps a triple threat is on the horizon at Fastlane or a No.1 contenders match between Banks and Lynch. Either way it's certainly moving well towards Wrestlemania.
Rock comes home
Before RAW even started WWE broke news on their Twitter that there would be a major star returning on RAW that night and within about 15 minutes pretty much everyone knew who it was. Obviously it was going to be The Rock and he received a thunderous reception from his home crowd. The Rock did his whole thing on the mic until New Day came out and just made things even better if that was even possible. They more than held their own against Rock on the microphone but the segment ended with them getting put down by Rock and Usos. It made for good entertainment but New Day have sort become that group that exist outside that Face/Heel dynamic. They're just fun guys to watch.
Main Event at Fastlane announcement
At the beginning of the night Stephanie McMahon announced that at the end of the night The Authority would announce the No.1 contenders match at Fastlane to see who will face HHH at Wrestlemania. The main event consisted of an OK match between Reigns and Ambrose vs Sheamus and Rusev. After Reigns and Ambrose got the win Steph came out to announce that it would be Reigns vs Ambrose vs LESNAR at Fastlane. Now call me cynical but I have a major issue with this. Not with the match itself because the match is actually going to be great to watch. What I have a huge problem with is the creative. It's just pure laziness and the result of this match is predictable to everybody. Ambrose is simply in the match to take the pin and Brock will be eliminated by the Wyatts in some way. The major beefs I have with this are
- Stephanie said they would judge what happened THAT NIGHT on RAW to decide the main event but Brock was not even there. Interesting
- Dean being is means that the Intercontinental Title is playing second fiddle, just as both it and the US title did in the championship tournament leading to Survivor Series.
- The whole idea is that The Authority hate Roman. So why on earth would you just give him a chance at a title match at Fastlane?
- Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns have been Allies forever so you're going to put them in a match together. Seems a bit strange to be honest.
I've said in other posts that the main thing holding WWE back right now is poor creative decisions and this is just another example to add to the long list. With crowd reactions for Reigns being what they are right now they need an interesting story line to help the whole thing develop and this is just not it.
What do you think? Did I miss anything out? Tweet me @baileybishop165!
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