SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Edge – HIT: It probably goes without saying that everything WWE did on Raw has to be sort of graded on a curve given the circumstances. That doesn’t mean that they get a complete pass, and going forward they should be able to cope with the empty arena shows better and better with practice, but for now I am more forgiving. That being said, I really liked Edge’s promo. I don’t know if WWE learned from their mistakes with promos from Smackdown last week (the Bayley and Sasha Banks promo really stands out as problematic in approach), or if it is due to Edge’s skill and knowledge of how to handle himself (or a mix of the two?), but clearly this was a better presentation of a promo. Edge didn’t pretend to talk to the missing audience. He clearly was talking right to the camera to speak to the audience at home. His delivery was spot on. The scripting was also strong to address Randy Orton and all the things that he has done since the Royal Rumble. I’m not sure about a Last Man Standing match in an empty arena, but I guess time will tell how it goes.
Royal Rumble Replay – MISS: This isn’t a strong Miss due to grading on the curve as I mentioned above. Doing some type of replay on these shows, especially the 3 hour Raw, is a good idea. But, I don’t know that this was the best way to do it. Interrupting the show with such a long replay feels odd to me. Will fans watch? Will fans who don’t want to see the replay sit through it anyway? Or will they change the channel? If they do, will they come back? I would rather see two hours of uninterrupted new content, followed by an hour of some type of replay. I also don’t have much interest in seeing replays of events that are so recent. The Rumble was better than showing Elimination Chamber from less than a week before. But, I would rather see some classic content. Why not start with the very first Raw and march through in order? That would create a nostalgic feel. It might get some older fans to tune in. And it might create more of a desire to order the WWE Network to see more of that classic content.
Styles – Undertaker – HIT: This felt more or less like the exact same segment that would have happened with a crowd in the arena. And it worked overall in this context too. I’m not a fan of humanizing Undertaker like this. But once that decision has been made, this worked in that context to show Undertaker getting angry at AJ Styles’ antics. Styles gave a good performance. I laughed at his exchange with the rest of the OC in who was going to take the signed contract to the ring. The physicality with Undertaker attacking Gallows & Anderson was fine, but at some point you would want to see The OC get the better of him physically.
Mysterio vs. Andrade – HIT: This is a clear case of giving a Hit to something that otherwise wouldn’t have made the list due to grading on the curve. This was not a good enough match under other circumstances to warrant a Hit. But, it was nice to see some new wrestling action on a show that was over a third Royal Rumble replay and largely made up of hype videos for various WrestleMania matches (which were all well done). I didn’t like Asuka on guest commentary as it made no sense why she was out there, but I feel like WWE should get some credit for trying to spice things up and add some energy to the match without the live audience.
Becky Lynch Promo – HIT: This was certainly a better promo than what we saw on Smackdown. It worked well in the empty arena setting. Becky Lynch gave a good promo about Shayna Baszler which put Baszler over for her dominating performance in the Elimination Chamber, while also making a strong case for why she will be the exception to that dominance.
Kevin Owens Interview – HIT: This interview worked better than another brawl or match involving the Messiah Complex and Kevin Owens’ crew. We had the challenge from Seth Rollins a few weeks ago and we got Owens’ response here. This felt like WWE making the best of a bad situation in having Owens wanting to have the match at the Performance Center to sort of justify moving WrestleMania there. He did a great job of laying out his history with WWE going back to starting at the PC and some history with Rollins as well. I did expect there to be some type of stipulation from Owens to take Buddy Murphy and The Authors of Pain out of the equation.
Steve Austin – MISS: I did get a kick out of some of the content in the show closing segment with Stone Cold Steve Austin declaring 3:16 Day a national holiday. If there had been a crowd for this, it would have been better, but if I was part of that crowd I don’t think I’d be thrilled with paying to see Steve Austin reading from a bunch of index cards. He is so much better talking than reading. That part didn’t work for me. The idea that they would try to get some audience participation by having Byron Saxton holding up score cards was silly. Why did he have those score cards to begin with? It was fine to end with the stunners to Saxton and the celebration with Becky, but overall this was a disappointment and I don’t know how much can be blamed on the empty arena.
Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com’s WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown each week. Email him at jmezz_torch@yahoo.com. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonMezzera.
Idk…hard to call anything a miss given the circumstances. Just trying to give us new content alone is a Hit across the board.