This week’s RAW was a total build-up episode for WrestleMania. Every week we used to have eight or nine matches but this week there was only five matches as they focused on WrestleMania only. It might not be the best show ever; but certainly not a bad episode either.
The matches that we had this week are good, especially the last match between Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. Even though this possibly was the 99999th time we watched this match, but it was a good match indeed. After this match, Jericho put Owens on his list for the first time which was a cool thing to see. There was not much build up for the United States championship this week, but we have already seen a lot of it so it is kind of okay.
About the other matches, the first match featuring all the women that are competing for the Raw Women’s championship was a cool match. All women performed really well. Bayley seriously needed this fall, so yes it was a good piece of booking. It also hinted a future feud between Bayley and Sasha Banks. This is a good thing, they are building up future feuds just the episode before WrestleMania keeping the WrestleMania match in mind, so it is a pretty cool segment overall.
About the other matches, there were two Cruiserweight actions, both were built to present Neville and Austin Aries as strong competitors which is good, such things are really needed before stages like WrestleMania.
There was an over the top rope gauntlet challenge to promote Andre the Giant battle royal. This match was booked to present Big Show as the strongest force as he dominated some jobbers in this match and finally, the match went to no contest everyone attacked Big Show. Still, Big Show remained the strongest man among all. We do not know why they are booking Big Show like this, what is the need?
There were so many segments, especially for WrestleMania feuds. Some we have already talked about. Among the segments, the main event one between Goldberg and Brock Lesnar was a little different. Paul Heyman cut a long promo and Goldberg came out to nail Brock Lesnar with a spear. This build up is good as long as Brock is winning at WrestleMania. If Brock loses now, this would be arguably the worst WrestleMania world championship build up ever and it would bury Brock for good too.
The other segment was between Undertaker and Roman Reigns. There was nothing physicality about it. But it was not bad. There was some vintage scary set up like other Undertaker feuds which is good. The small promo from Roman was not the best ever but there were glimpses of a heel turn.
This week we had so many cut scenes from various feuds both from Raw and Smackdown, this is a common thing on the final show before WrestleMania. So everything is legit we would say.
Final Verdict – Overall, the show was okay keeping WrestleMania in mind. They really build the event well in this episode. It was fun to watch, matches were good, segments were cool. But there was no point in showing Big Show as an unstoppable force, they could do it Strowman. Maybe Strowman is winning the Battle Royal that’s why they ignored him. Still, they could do the same thing with other wrestlers too, like Samoa Joe. What was the point of showing Big Show like this at this stage?
Sportzwiki Rating – 3/5