RAW In A Nutshell: Rumbling On To WrestleMania

It’s time to kick off another fine week with another RAW In A Nutshell, this time we are rumbling on to WrestleMania.

That’s right, boys and girls! The Royal Rumble is behind us and we are very much on the Road to WrestleMania.

At Sunday’s Royal Rumble, two Superstars have already punched their tickets. It’s probably a little premature, but we can expect more tickets punched soon enough.

So, just like that, we get to be rumbling on to WrestleMania. That’s the fun of being on the Road To WrestleMania, after all.

We can expect lots of follow ups though. We might get to hear from Rumble winners Edge and Bianca Belair, now that they get to pick who they will challenge.

Speaking of champions, what comes next for Drew McIntyre? Or, what about Riddle challenging Bobby Lashley for the United States Championship?

See, plenty to keep us busy this week, so let’s dive right in to…

RAW In A Nutshell: Rumbling On To WrestleMania

Let’s crack open this Nutshell and see what happens next!

Best Match of the night:

This is a tough one for me…

We had entertaining matches…but I wasn’t really seeing greatness in most of them.

I liked the women’s tag team triple threat match, especially because we did get new challengers in Naomi and Lana (interesting combo there, and Lana obviously has a history with the champs).

I could go with Edge and Orton, because Edge did get that closure he wanted. It wasn’t a clean match, however, and having Alexa Bliss out to do her thing kind of took something off of it.

Those would be my top two, with Damian Priest’s RAW debut getting an honorable mention.

Worst match of the night:

Not a fan of the Lashley destruction of Riddle. Like, why let Riddle have a strong showing in the Rumble…only to bury him?

Star of the Night

Several options, but I am going with Edge here.

Great promo work to open the show, and a huge win to close it.

Spot of the Night:

Sheamus’ Brogue Kick on McIntyre for me. Not so much about a cool spot, as it was about a spot that made a statement.

hj

Jobber of the Night:

Going with Riddle here. For obvious reasons.

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

A couple options for me here.

Option one? Sheamus, recently trending as a babyface, damn near Brogue Kicked Drew McIntyre’s head off.

That resulted in Drew giving Sheamus a title opportunity. Now, that throws an interesting wrinkle into things…could the champion change before WrestleMania?

Option two, that goes to the absolute beating Lashley gave to Riddle. It’s a bit of a head scratching booking decision, but if the goal was to get Lashley over as a monster…mission accomplished.

Botch of the night:

Not a botch to speak of…so instead, I will drop this comment here.

I get that WWE has the ability to pre-record and edit stuff, given the lack of a live audience.

At times, that move works. Sometimes, however, WWE has a tendency to beat something to death…and it feels like they are going down that path.

With the recent Alexa Bliss matches, she’s started as twisted Bliss, then Alexa and then back. Once in a while, cool…but it’s getting played out.

It gets worse when they pull it into the main event matches.

Like, it kind of was cool having the sledgehammer become a torch a few weeks ago…and I get the move to give Edge the win this week. But…the splicing in of pre-recorded stuff is bothering me.

Noteworthy Moment:

Once again, the Sheamus turn gets some attention.

Now, what I’d actually love to see? If WWE tip toed and kept him as a ‘tweener face.

Hear me out…I mean, it wasn’t that long ago that Drew and Sheamus were just about to destroy each other and they stopped.

Overall lowlights:

For me, I covered it with my venting in the Botch section. I’d like to see WWE make use of the pre-recorded Alexa Bliss stuff a bit less.

Because, for one, I think it’s overdone now, and for another…with live fans expected to be at WrestleMania…they might as well stop now, because they can’t do it with fans again.

Overall highlights:

Congrats to Damian Priest for finally hitting the main roster, after having been previously rumored.

Big night out of Edge, for three reasons…one which was bigger than the others.

The two more obvious calls? His main event win, and his opening promo.

The big one? Taking the time (yes, I am sure it was pre-planned) to congratulate and compliment Damian Priest backstage.

After the final bell:

Well, we are officially on the Road to WrestleMania…and it was not a terrible start.

We know that Edge and Bianca Belair have title shots…but thus far, it’s still to be determined who they will face off against.