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| Protecting the Champions shouldn't be a once-a-year thing Photo Credit: WWE.com |
No, surprise debuts or random turns (although none of the latter happened tonight) shouldn't be the rule of the day. Smartass crowds who sometimes forget their freedom of expression should really not include hurling misogyny at women performers aren't showing up in every arena. Vince McMahon doesn't have a Scrooge McDuck-like vault filled with gold doubloons to pay Brock Lesnar to show up every week. And to a point, all those things being confined to one RAW, especially Lesnar taking fantasy booking right from my head and turning into an uncontrollable raging manbeast, creates the special kind of atmosphere that is special only to one show out of the 52-53 (depending on how the calendar falls) episodes a year. Only one show should be the RAW after WrestleMania.
But what about all the other things that made RAW special tonight? Certainly, booking the Intercontinental and United States Champions as confident, talented masters of their trade rather than pathetic wire-frames from Super Smash Bros. isn't something that could or should only be done once a year. So what if the titleholders are Daniel Bryan and John Cena respectively? Who says that WWE can only protect guys who need it but really don't need it at the same time? Why can't a monkey wrench be thrown into the plans every once in awhile and lead to things like Dean Ambrose making the challenge to Cena instead of Rusev for the 3927th time? These precepts aren't special; they're essential to having a wrestling show that is worth watching every week.
Every episode is not going to be as memorable as the RAW after Mania, but that's okay. Not every episode needs to go a mile a second. But building off tonight's show and constructing narratives that move forward instead of vacillating from side to side like a pendulum would be a wonderful way to build of what can only be described as WWE's most successful Sunday/Monday bookend since Payback and the RAW after last year.
If you've noticed, I don't really post these Instant Feedback entries that much anymore because WWE hasn't given me much a reason, the same reason why I eschewed the WrestleMania Countdown preview series. WWE had fallen into such a rut that writing about it each week seemed counterproductive. I don't like not writing about current shows. I want WWE to give me something to write about. Hopefully, this week wasn't just an aberrant sign of life before falling back into cardiac arrhythmia within two more weeks. Every week can't be the RAW after Mania, granted, but every week can certainly be the RAW after Mania, if that makes sense.