What Was Wrong With This Week’s Monday Night Raw

It would explain a few things. While Monday Night Raw runs every week of the year, there are certain shows which are not exactly the same as others. The biggest show of the year has traditionally been the episode immediately following WrestleMania, as WWE treats the show like its season premiere. The show often includes debuts, returns, major developments and new stories kicking off. Almost none of that happened this year though and now we might know why.

This year’s post WrestleMania Monday Night Raw had almost nothing special to it, with the biggest developments being the returns of Ivar and Charlotte, the latter of whom had been around only five weeks before, and the possibility of Mace and T-Bar joining the Hurt Business. That is not a huge card and the show did not exactly look great, but there might have been a reason for the problems.

According to Fightful Select, WWE was short handed for the show, with several members of the Monday Night Raw roster either banged up from WrestleMania or not cleared to compete. This included Sheamus, who only appeared on Raw Talk after the show, while Riddle, who lost the US Title to Sheamus at WrestleMania, lost to Bobby Lashley. Riddle losing to Lashley was added in as there was no one else to face him.

Aside from Sheamus, other names missing from the show included new Raw Tag Team Champions AJ Styles and Omos, who won their titles at WrestleMania as well. There is no word on who was injured or unable to appear, or if anyone will be back for next week’s show. There were at least two wrestlers of the show due to Coronavirus related symptoms, though it is not clear if they tested positive.

This week’s show was kind of a mess. Check out some of the night:

Riddle vs. Bobby Lashley: Raw, April 12, 2021

Opinion: This does clear a few things up and makes it a little bit better, but that was not an easy Monday Night Raw to sit through. The wrestling was average at best and there were no major moments, but above all else, the show felt like it wasted a lot of the momentum they had from WrestleMania. It was the first night that WWE had fans in attendance for over a year and this was as good as they could do?

There were indeed circumstances beyond WWE’s control but at some point you need to find a way to make up for some of it. Instead, it felt like there was no effort put into the show and that is never a good sign. Above all else, it makes WWE seem like they do not care about a show that has a good reputation among its fans. That has been a problem for WWE for a long time, and losing one of their last big deals would be a horrible situation.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books.

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