Posted in: Mr. Tito
MR. TITO STRIKES BACK - The Post-Wrestlemania 31 WWE Monday Night RAW was AWESOME!
By Mr. Tito
Mar 30, 2015 - 11:11:27 PM

Follow Mr. Tito on Twitter.com: @titowrestling

For years upon years, I've been begging the WWE to entertain me. It just seemed that the WWE was in a holding pattern of pushing guys whom WWE Management liked and tearing down actual fan favorites. Additionally, they've sucked all of the realism out of the promotion with their disregard for title belts and psychology. There should be some kind of "sense of urgency" that makes wrestling fans want to tune in night after night.

Wrestlemania 31 delivered HUGE last night, particularly with the Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns match. Imagine that... Before Lesnar re-signed with the WWE, much of the internet fanbase were possibly needing medication to treat depression as a wrestling fan... But then he signs a 3 year extension and then that match... Sure, Lesnar vs. Reigns ripped off not just one but two Rocky films. In Rocky 3, Rocky starts taunting Clubber Lang (Mr. T) after getting punched repeatedly in the face. Rocky proclaimed "you ain't so bad" and taunted Clubber to pretty much wear himself out. Reigns was smiling and trash talking despite Lesnar beating him down. Then, just like in Rocky 4, Roman Reign busted Brock Lesnar open to greatly weaken the Mayor of Suplex City. In Rocky 4, it appeared that we were getting a repeat beating of Apollo Creed until Rocky busted Ivan Drago open with 1 punch. All downhill from there on Drago.

Of course, Rusev vs. John Cena also ripped off Rocky 4 with that awesome entrance of the old Russian national anthem which Ivan Drago proudly came out to in that movie. And Lana is pretty much influenced by Ivan Drago's Olympic swimming wife. Hopefully, Lana doesn't weird people out when she's older and date guys with big clocks hanging around their necks...

But it worked for Roman Reigns. I don't care what your source material is... Do you think that every movie is original? Every song is original? Everything is either borrowing or heavily influenced from something out there. I've long argued that WWE Management should just watch their own WWE Network or video library to get new ideas. Many fans are under 20 years old which means any great idea before 1995 is fair game to recycle. And why not? But hey, you can borrow from movies, too... No, I'm not talking about Terminator, as that HHH entrance may be the most ego-filled thing that I've ever seen in pro wrestling. But Rocky told a story of an underdog fighter which is what Roman Reigns was against the current WWE Champion and former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Brock Lesnar. By injecting some legitimate realism, such as Brock Lesnar being busted open the hardway, it told a story to show Roman Reigns having a legitimate shot at beating Brock Lesnar. Now, we can remember 1 great match that Roman participated in and that will help us accept future pushes for Reigns.

Tonight, Brock Lesnar proved why he's the most compelling character in the WWE since he rejoined the company on the night following Wrestlemania 28 in 2012. He's freakin' dangerous... Former UFC Heavyweight Champion and the WWE, for the most part, have built him up to live up to that hype. Since Extreme Rules 2013, he's been a wrecking ball into many WWE Superstars. He looked to do the same last night but he took a ringpost to the skull and was screwed out of his WWE Title when a fresh guy (at least 3 hours removed from his Orton match) joined the match. Seth Rollins finally cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase and that caused Lesnar to finally drop that title. Lesnar was FURIOUS at losing tonight and wanted to immediately use his rematch clause on RAW tonight. Looks like we were getting that Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins match but Rollins played the "pussy heel" well by running from Lesnar.

However, someone had to pay... Brock Lesnar lifted up the main announcer table and crushed poor Booker T and JBL, tossed J&J Security at the Spanish announce table, and then destroyed Michael Cole with an F5 (the shoes came off!). Lesnar destroyed a "cameraman" (indy wrestler) with repeat F5's before Stephanie McMahon suspended Brock Lesnar indefinitely. The segment felt REAL... And the San Jose were going bonkers over it.

This is what the WWE needed for a long time... REALISM. Stone Cole Steve Austin got over because his character felt real. He hated his boss and when he could, he whooped Vince McMahon's or anybody thrown at him from the Corporation. That "sense of urgency" was there for Austin not just to remain WWE Champion, but to take down the Corporation. Brock Lesnar is now obsessed with remaining WWE Champion and now has the Authority to take down. Uh oh... Brock Lesnar's credibility, though, as an in-ring performer is through the roof and could actually elevate Brock Lesnar to amazing drawing heights as a babyface.

I'm against John Cena and Daniel Bryan as midcard champions but at least they will be fighting champions. WWE has completely disregarded the midcard title when they completely forget that's been the path of many future World Champions. Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, the Rock, Triple H, Randy Orton, and John Cena... ALL wrestlers who got over as IC/US Champions and convinced WWE Management to let them take the next step and become World Champion. WWE has had this stupid mentality of "everybody on the roster can be World Champion" when history shows that wrestling promotions usually have just a handful of wrestlers who can legitimately draw. The midcard titles are like a built-in farm system for the WWE. Think of NXT as Double-A baseball whereas the IC/US Titles could be the Triple A leagues. That simple... Get over as a midcarder and THEN get the main event push. You can't put the cart before the horse.

BOTH Dolph Ziggler vs. Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose vs. John Cena were OFF THE HOOKS amazing tonight! Loved every second of both babyface based matches!

Just look at the past 2 nights with the WWE Tag Titles... Fatal 4 Way and now this 8 Man Tag. Just go out there with uniform or regular tag teams and hit repeat double team moves. Just ambush us as fans with spots and excitement that only tag wrestling can bring. The psychology of a tag match is that it features REST... Wrestlers waiting on the outside are fresh and can explode when tagged in. Nothing but fun tonight on RAW... Just to prove my point about Tag Team wrestling, the Divas Tag Match was lots of fun tonight. I actually like the incorporation of Naomi for helping the Usos lately for their feud with Tyson Kidd/Cesaro and their manager Natalya. It advertised Naomi quite well, allowed her to hit the Butt finisher, and now she can get a big pin on Nikki Bella for that tag match.

Then you have wrestlers like Damien Mizdow... He won the Money in the Bank but the WWE Creative Team thought that it was a mistake and after his John Cena match, they depushed the poor guy... They insulted him by giving him stupid gimmick after stupid gimmick. Then, the next stupid gimmick was to be the Miz's "stuntman". Rather than be upset at the latest goofy gimmick, Damien Sandow embraced it much like Wade Barrett began to embrace the "Bad News" gimmick. At some point, the WWE Creative Team needs to stop receiving the full blame. Wrestlers, themselves, need to take ownership for their own fates. If they expect McMahons and a bunch of Hollywood writers to figure them out as wrestlers, they'll be waiting a long time for their opportunity. Unless you can come up with a better idea and convince WWE Management to use it, attempt to make something of whatever opportunity to get on camera has been given to you. Do you think that it was easy for a guy named "Hunter Hearst Helmsley" to get over? HHH owned that name and was proud of it... Mizdow was crazy over tonight and that's because he took ownership of the goofy gimmick that he was given and made something of himself. Nice win over Stardust by Mizdow tonight.

Speaking of making the best out of opportunities, I thought Neville did very well in his WWE debut by destroying Curtis Axel. Because I don't have the WWE Network, I don't watch NXT... Therefore, I never saw Neville wrestle until tonight. It's refreshing to not have NXT influence my expectations on future WWE superstars. Good lord, Neville has a motor on him and has crazy athleticism that I've seen only a few (like Rey Mysterio) have. Guy should have a decent career...

I don't know what to say about Sheamus's new look. Mohawk with a braided beard? Meh... But he's a HEEL again which is better for him. Honestly, he has a lot to prove based on his past failures from WWE Management overpushing him. He's a good in-ring performer, though... Hopefully, WWE Creative gets it right on Sheamus this time around.

Rusev destroyed Goldust. I hope that WWE handles Rusev's anger towards Lana well. Again, just go back and watch your WWE Network to see the amazing heat that "Macho Man" Randy Savage had with Miss Elizabeth back in the day.

The Main Event was Roman Reigns/Ryback/Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins/Kane/Big Show. NICE continuity of Randy Orton not only reminding Seth Rollins of beating him last night at Wrestlemania 31, but also NOT getting pinned to lose the WWE Title at Wrestlemania 30. THANK YOU. I've been asking about that for an entire year now and it just seemed like Randy Orton had no "sense of urgency" to go after that WWE Title following Wrestlemania 30. He got royally screwed during that match not just by Batista tapping out to lose the match, but also because of how Daniel Bryan was added to that Wrestlemania 30 match. I always appreciate continuity and history acknowledgement in pro wrestling. Always. Seth Rollins then taunted Randy Orton that he had "3 problems" when Big Show and Kane showed up. And then a handicap match was formed, 3 on 1. But that just opened up good opportunities for Ryback and Roman Reigns to team up with Randy Orton. I liked this as the main event as it just serves to build up the eventual Seth Rollins vs. Randy Orton WWE Title match. No problem with this... Fans were still shitting on Roman Reigns, but damn, they loved Ryback hitting his finisher on Big Show. Good sequences of finishers to eventually give the faces the win. No Brock Lesnar to finish, however, but the point was made earlier and I don't mind others getting the spotlight.

This was a GREAT Monday Night RAW. Sure, post-Wrestlemania crowds are RED HOT anyway... But everybody knows a great show when they see it. San Jose's fans were hot throughout this show and 3 hours of screaming is NOT easy to do (unless you're a trained adult film star, I suppose). They did the freakin' WAVE during the Main Event. INSANE!

LAST WORD: This could very well be the BEST MONDAY NIGHT RAW EVER! I've seen so many RAW shows that I cannot be definitive on that statement, but this is every bit of an A+ show brothers! LOVE THIS CREATIVE DIRECTION! Feed me more!

Someone recommend a good, yet cheap USB plug into my HD Television (LG) that isn't internet ready. We need to get the WWE Network already. Boycott over!

SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE!

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