Upon Further Review with Michael Schrute: Monday Night RAW 2/26/24
Welcome everybody to “Upon Further Review.” We will take a deeper look into Monday Night RAW. Anything written in this column is purely my view of the show. I will not personally attack a wrestling company or a wrestler. It is purely an opinion of what took place inside the television show. Long time viewers will know that wrestling companies have their ups and downs when it comes to the creative process over the years, but there is always something good coming out of each show. I have always supported all the wrestling companies for several decades and I hope everybody else will too without attacking a company or a wrestler. Any parts of the show that I didn’t enjoy should not be viewed as an attack. It is simply my view of what was good or not so good during the television show and we should remember how much entertainment wrestling has brought to us, the fans. So with that in mind, Upon Further Review, here is my critique of Monday Night RAW:
The show opened with them showing various wrestlers entering the building earlier in the day. Thinking back to the amazing work Kevin Dunn has done over the last 40 years, I think they made a good transition into their next phase of producing the television shows. I like how we are seeing the wrestlers coming into the building as it gives the product a better sports feel as we see the NFL doing this weekly on their pre-game shows.
A great video package aired telling the story of what happened at Elimination Chamber. This will help the viewers who haven’t seen that show understand what will be taking place tonight so they are not lost in the storyline, while at the same time, highlighting the most important stories for fans to pay attention to.
Dominik was in the ring and got a lot of boos. He introduced Rhea Ripley who at least half of the crowd cheered for. I’ve noticed over the last month that we haven’t had as much interaction between Ripley and Dominik. I would assume this was to make Ripley the babyface in her match against Nia Jax going into Elimination Chamber, especially with it being in Ripley’s home country. Becky Lynch came to the ring to congratulate Ripley. When Dominik stuck up for Ripley, this was probably a sign to show that they are still together in case fans wondered why they haven’t been in a lot of segments together lately. While Becky and Rhea will be facing each other at WrestleMania, hey did show each other some respect. When Nia Jax attacked Becky, Nia stared at Ripley hinting that their feud is not over with. This segment was well done and got some heat back on Jax after her loss at Elimination Chamber.
Sami Zayn was able to get a win over Shinsuke Nakamura. They advanced the story that Sami is once again believing in himself that he will find his path to WrestleMania. For me, I’m about the storyline and personality of the characters, so mission accomplished. The more I’m invested in the storyline and the personalities, the more I’m interested in the match.
Raquel Rodriguez vs Chelsea Green: We need to stop looking at so-called jobbers and look at the role they have on the show, as this is still a television show. Yes, Green usually loses her matches, but she plays her role very well. She has gone on many interviews and said she is more about performing as a character. She is able to constantly do jobs and still get some heat when she gets on the microphone. She was able to put over Raquel and still be over in that role. It’s good to see Raquel come back. We never want to see any performer out with any illness or injury as these are real people in real life having to go through these real life injuries and illnesses. Same with Liv Morgan later in the show who recently returned.
Backstage, we saw the quick interaction of Gunther passing by Sami Zayn and laughing at him. It looks like the storyline is Zayn getting his confidence back and finding his path to WrestleMania and maybe it will be against Gunther. I think it would be a good choice if Zayn built up that momentum going into the show, beat Gunther, and gets his popularity back to the level it was when he was feuding with The Bloodline last year.
Backstage, Cody Rhodes talked about Grayson Waller and was smart enough to mention some of Waller’s positives. Better to beat somebody who you said is a somebody than to beat a nobody.
The Judgment Day came out during a Gunther/Imperium interview. Damian Priest told Gunther that we are looking for more gold. It’s interesting because if they are going with Gunther vs Zayn (pure speculation), that they did this segment. I’m guessing it was to see if the crowd would cheer for Priest as I see him turning babyface at WrestleMania (again, pure speculation). Could Drew McIntyre defeat Seth Rollins at WrestleMania and then Priest cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the title. This could get Priest over as a huge babyface while continuing the story of McIntyre being denied defending the title against a live crowd. Dominik stepping up to Gunther was good to end the segment.
Backstage, Ripley asked Dominik why he chose Gunther. Her showing concern tells the audience they are still aligned. Dominik bumped into Andrade, so we will have to wait to see what storyline eventually gets told with them.
New Day and Imperium had a street fight. Unlike some matches like this, most of it made sense. I like the homage New Day paid to The Dudleys by saying, “Get the tables’, as well as their Demolition finisher. The only difference was Woods landing his knee instead of his elbow on Giovanni Vinci.
Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark vs Indi Hartwell and Candace LeRae: The crowd was absolutely dead for this match. While I feel the women’s division is stacked, the tag team division never really seemed to take off. I don’t know if it’s because they have the bottom half of their pushed women’s roster comprising the tag team division, or because from the beginning, there were so many abrupt endings to the tag teams whether it was talent leaving or getting injured, but I think if they put some of their top third pushed singles into the tag team division, it can improve.
Drew McIntyre was in the ring and made fun of CM Punk. Good job keeping Punk’s name in the viewers’ minds and making them look forward to their match when Punk returns. He told Seth Rollins to stop involving himself in The Bloodline as they will attack you and ruin our match for WrestleMania. I love the McIntyre character. He believes he is the good guy. When you think back when he was turning heel, he still sided with the babyfaces, but was against Jey Uso for costing him the match with Roman Reigns at Clash at the Castle. Everybody forgave Jey and Jey became a babyface, but Drew refused to forgive him. As more babyfaces told him to let it go, he was only against those babyfaces. He even teamed with Judgment Day at Survivor Series despite telling them I don’t like you, but I will team with you just to get my hands on Jey Uso. He took out CM Punk because he felt he did the locker room a favor and now is almost delusional that he is the savior of the locker room. The character has evolved so much in the last three months. This is very reminiscent of Bret Hart when he turned heel in the WWF against Steve Austin. Austin was the heel attacking Bret Hart and costing him matches, but yet the audience cheered Austin turning him babyface and turning Bret heel. Austin told Bret he was whining about everything. Bret also believed he was right and everybody was turning against him.
Nia Jax vs Liv Morgan: They’ve done a good job turning Jax into a killer heel since her return. Becky Lynch interfered and attacked Jax. Another new production technique since Kevin Dunn retired is that we don’t see the attack coming. All of a sudden, Becky appears out of nowhere because we don’t see her coming until she comes into the view of the camera and jumps Jax. It made sense that Morgan was mad at Lynch for costing her the match and told her she was selfish, possibly leading to a heel turn.
Michael Cole acknowledged the passing of Ole Anderson and a picture of Ole appeared on the screen. I don’t believe this would have happened if Vince was still in charge as they had heat with each other from the ‘80s. Good to see Triple H acknowledging wrestling’s history, especially with Ole Anderson having never worked for WWWF/WWF/WWE.
Jey Uso said he can’t seem to complete what he starts. Drew McIntyre told him I can relate to what you’re going through and you deserve this and they started brawling. This makes perfect sense for Drew’s character.
Cody Rhodes vs Grayson Waller: Waller is such an arrogant heel and coupled with Austin Theory, they are great together. Obviously both are being pushed at the level underneath Cody, so Cody went over. Earlier in the show, Waller mentioned that he did everything he could to protect Theory at Elimination Chamber and Theory gave him a look. Hopefully, they can stay together a little longer before breaking up, if that even is the plan. Paul Heyman came out after the match and told Cody to take The Rock’s name out of his mouth. Cody told him he is now hunting The Bloodline. Overall, everything had a storyline, so I consider this a good show.
Well, this is my opinion on the show. Email me at michaelschrute1985@gmail.com and let me know what you liked and didn’t like about the show or about this review. Thanks!
