This is probably the most optimistic headline I could generate considering the absolute nonsense that occurred on last night’s first Monday Night RAW with a live audience back in Dallas, Texas, which combined with John Cena kicking off the show was the only reason I found to watch RAW this week.
We saw a returning Keith Lee answer the open challenge from WWE Champion Bobby Lashley, only to see him sacrificed in favour of a build for a pending clash between the All Mighty vs. Goldberg at Summerslam. NXT Champion Karrion Kross made his debut on the main roster, but considering the outcome one would have to question why.
Lee, a native Texan, returned to the red brand after months off television for personal reasons, looked like the ideal challenger for Bobby Lashley. It should be noted that the open challenge was only for an opportunity to earn a title shot; Lee would have to pin the champ in order to get a title match, which he didn’t do. The match almost became an afterthought, as hall of famer Goldberg returned to challenge the champion, setting the stage for Summerslam.
The very old troupe of Vince McMahon making a hometown talent, even though Lee is only from Texas and not necessarily from the Dallas area, lose in their home state is quite familiar, and rather annoying. But perhaps because I recall this pattern I was less surprised at Lee losing to Bobby Lashley. The All Mighty destroyed Kofi Kingston at Money in the Bank, that kind of dominance needs to continue to build and just losing to a guy who hasn’t been wrestling since January would make little sense.
But what happened to Karrion Kross, who has been undefeated since debuting on NXT a year ago and is the current NXT Champion, makes absolutely no sense.
Jeff Hardy is a first ballot hall of fame contender, but I think everyone agrees he is in the tail-end of his career. I was expecting this match to last no more than three minutes with Kross destroying a former WWE champion, either by choking Hardy out or that vicious elbow to the head that I saw Kross bust a cinder block over another man’s head with once long ago on Impact Wrestling.
However, the end sequence was nonsense, as Hardy hit a really short power bomb, then proceeded to use the ropes for leverage as HE PINNED Kross for the three count. As another indication of McMahon’s sick humour, Monday was Karrion Kross’ birthday…oh did I forget to mention that HE’S BEEN UNDEFEATED ON NXT AND IS THE NXT CHAMPION???
If this tweet doesn’t sum up the internal feeling of how Vince McMahon views his company’s third brand, which many would argue is the best one going on right now in WWE, I don’t know what does.
The worst part of this? The crowd will still sing along to ‘No Chance in Hell’ every time Vince returns on live WWE television, the crowd still chanted ‘Goldberg’ when the hall of famer came out, even though we all know the pending match with Lashley will be short as Goldberg can barely do anything in the ring other than his own finishers, that Goldbeg doesn’t really need a title shot, let alone the title and that crowd reaction to Kross was as dead and lukewarm as the ones for Jaxxon Ryker.
Regarding that last observation, Kross did not debut on RAW with Scarlett, which makes me wonder if she is the bigger draw in that duo that he is. If this doesn’t lead to Hardy migrating to NXT to challenge Kross for the title, I don’t know why they bothered with Kross’ RAW debut at all.
I will conclude that the silver lining to this shit development, but will probably never happen, is the way to build a pending brand war between the three brands for Survivor Series. Vince McMahon has essentially buried two former NXT talent, Lee and to a lesser extent Damian Priest, who looked like a patsy just mulling in the back watching Sheamus destroying Humberto Carrillo when Priest is clearly the next guy to challenge for the US title. By these actions, McMahon has told NXT that the talent they’ve built for this company’s future isn’t worth monkey crap on HIS show.
Two years ago, Triple H brought NXT over into the brand competition in Survivor Series because of some chatter that someone was ‘picking a fight’ with the black and gold brand, which in my opinion led to the best booked SS within the past decade. Now that the pandemic is receding and live audiences can congregate again, the 2021 Survivor Series doesn’t have to be another boring RAW and Smackdown feud.
Maybe picking on his guys is one small catalyst that would make Triple H assemble the troops over on NXT to ‘invade’ the main roster again, but then again this is pure fantasy booking but it’s the only way to justify the shitty booking Vince McMahon put on NXT this past Monday.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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