Just when we thought Triple H could save the Post-WrestleMania Raw, the game changes once again.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00 So I'm not going to lie to you, the initial plan here today was to unleash a video called
00:04 How WWE Have Managed To Kill The Post-WrestleMania Curse.
00:08 And then Raw happened.
00:09 And for those of you who aren't aware of precisely what this curse is, well let me
00:12 talk to you.
00:13 Because over the years, the Raw after WrestleMania has played host to everything from epic comebacks,
00:19 huge debuts, party popper matches, cash-ins, you name it.
00:23 It's been exciting, it's been a party atmosphere, and it's what we know and love now.
00:27 Well, I say it's what we know and love now, that's not actually happened for a couple
00:31 of years, probably like, what, half a decade it feels like.
00:34 And that has now led to a period that feels somewhat cursed, because not only the Raw
00:38 after WrestleMania, but the months that follow Mania, they tend to, well WWE tends to see
00:42 a bit of a dip, and the crowd interest just seems to drop because nobody really cares
00:47 about what's happening, it doesn't feel like the people behind the curtain care, so
00:50 the people who are watching on at home and in stadiums and arenas around the world, they
00:53 also do not care.
00:54 But this year felt different coming in, it felt like there was finally some hope to cling
00:58 onto after a pretty solid to pretty good at times Raw 2 WrestleMania.
01:03 What could Triple H cook up, what could he do to hook us for the next coming months?
01:07 He did this.
01:08 So I am Gareth from Raw Culture Wrestling and this is how Triple H just made the post-WrestleMania
01:13 curse even worse.
01:15 So we need to address the elephant in the room straight away.
01:18 WrestleMania ended on a bit of a sour note, didn't it?
01:21 But it's fine, because Triple H sat there in the press conference after the whole two
01:24 night event and said this wasn't about finishing the story on the night, no no no, this was
01:28 just the chapter in the story, the next chapter's coming up on Raw, so we got something special
01:33 for you.
01:34 And that special was, well, he kicked off Raw by walking down to the ring and he had
01:37 a bit of an announcement to make.
01:39 And that was reported coming in, so a lot of people instantly thought, oh, is he going
01:42 to release some new belts, are they going to talk about the WWE/UFC merger, the Endeavor
01:46 stuff, what is he going to tell us all right now in the middle of the ring?
01:49 And what he did was pretty much stand there and go, yeah, WrestleMania was great, we did
01:53 really good, love you all, yeah, that thing happened where we got bought and merged together,
01:58 but nothing's changing, you're stuck with us.
02:01 And the way he phrased it is that the WWE that you know and love, the one that brought
02:04 you all the way to WrestleMania this year, that was going nowhere and it was going to
02:07 be much of the same.
02:08 Well, he lied, didn't he?
02:09 And to be honest, it felt very Vince McMahon-like to just stand there in the middle of the ring
02:13 and say this is us, then, now, forever, together, and what do you know, turns out Vinny Mack
02:18 had his fingerprints all over this Raw.
02:20 Because there's been a lot of reports, even just in the last few hours, that Vince McMahon
02:25 was very much in gorilla.
02:26 It was Triple H who started the night there, he was sat there, he was calling all the shots,
02:29 and then Vince just came in and went, no, I'm going to be the point man tonight, and
02:32 we're going to change it all.
02:34 They were changing stuff, apparently, throughout the show.
02:36 So the show was live and Vince was still going, no, we're not going to do that, we're going
02:39 to change this, and you know what, you felt it.
02:41 And that was precisely the kind of WWE that we had just before, you know, Triple H took
02:45 the reins and things started feeling a bit more hopeful.
02:47 And surprise, surprise, a lot of the talent backstage were not very happy about things
02:51 changing all over the place and apparently like triple threats being scrapped, and just
02:55 one person apparently even said that the entire place felt like it had just been newt.
02:59 So Vince McMahon, his moustache came in, just dropped a bomb, and probably started chuckling
03:03 and laughing at his big old brock that he got out on the night.
03:06 And I am jumping forward a little bit there because Cody did actually come out at the
03:10 start of the night and challenged Roman Reigns to a World Championship rematch, and Roman
03:14 of course wanted nothing to do with it.
03:16 But it's fine because then Paul Heyman said, oh you know what, we are going to have a big
03:21 old match tonight and you can have a tag match against Roman Reigns, but you have to choose
03:24 a partner from WrestleMania, who competed at WrestleMania, and that partner cannot compete
03:28 for Roman Reigns' belt if they team with you.
03:30 So Brock Lesnar popped up and everyone kind of went, yeah, that's cool, in concept, dream
03:35 match, what could go wrong?
03:36 Oh boy.
03:38 Because again, it felt like WWE just going back to the Brock well, like if in doubt,
03:42 bring Brock out and we'll just pop him in there in the main event kind of scene, and
03:45 just completely overshadow Cody, who had all this goodwill and everyone was so excited
03:49 to see him and see him win the big one, but of course, he was there to be killed later
03:53 on.
03:54 And just in general, it's worth noting that this entire Bloodline saga now, for me at
03:58 least, it feels a little tainted.
03:59 Like backstage, I had a few segments, like the Usos got sent home, and Roman was plotting
04:04 and thinking of ways he was going to beat Brock and Cody, but the entire thing, you'd
04:08 lost a bit of faith.
04:09 After what happened at Mania, you're like, oh, I don't really want to hitch my wagon
04:13 back to this thing again, because I've been burned quite a bit.
04:16 And speaking of getting burned quite a bit, we had Omos coming out and he completely blitzed
04:20 and set fire to Elias to the sound of crickets.
04:24 So so much for that Vince McMahon experiment that will continue, you rest assured.
04:28 But then there were a few positive flickers.
04:29 I really want to stress this.
04:30 There were a few moments throughout the show that made you think, you know what, it might
04:33 not be doomed.
04:34 We might have a chance here.
04:36 And you had Rey Mysterio coming out and cutting a promo and Austin Theory interrupted, and I
04:40 thought, you know what, I'm in on this.
04:42 Yeah, we could have some kind of Austin Theory attempt to be the next legend killer that
04:45 leads to a Randy Orton return and have that thing blow up.
04:48 So maybe, yeah, Theory, Rey Mysterio, a little feud for a while.
04:51 Let's see what goes on there.
04:52 But that's not what we got, because we got Dominic suddenly coming into the match and
04:55 interrupting and causing a distraction.
04:58 We had a distraction screwy finish for the for the end of that match, and it just felt
05:01 like more of the same of where we just come from over the last couple of months.
05:05 It was again, it was just rearing its head.
05:07 The Bad Bunny stuff felt fine, I guess, because he's going to bump like a madman.
05:11 You've got him at Backlash and all that kind of thing.
05:13 And having like a celebrity tag match again would be quite nice, I guess.
05:16 But I don't know.
05:18 But another thing that was a bit of a disappointment in this cursed road after WrestleMania is
05:22 the fact that we didn't get any of those new belts, new tag belts, new world title belts.
05:25 We didn't get anything.
05:26 We just had everyone walking around in their two belted goodness.
05:29 And those tag team championships, oh, they need a change, damn it.
05:33 But one thing that has definitely changed is KO and Sami Zayn and now your tag champs,
05:37 and they're so over.
05:38 Everyone was so happy to see them.
05:39 They got a promo in the ring and it was just like, yes, the good times.
05:42 Remember WrestleMania night one?
05:43 Oh, those were the days.
05:44 And then we had the Street Profits coming out to challenge the duo, and that felt relatively
05:49 fresh to be honest.
05:50 And I was like, OK, this could be cool.
05:51 This could be something fun.
05:52 And it was.
05:53 The match itself was a nice little showcase, bit of effervescent fun.
05:57 But I don't know where it's going and I cannot see a clear direction now for KO or Sami.
06:01 Are they just going to challenge every tag team and just see what goes on there?
06:05 That could be fine.
06:06 But you get the feeling because Vince does not like tag teams and he's not going to
06:09 put that much attention on them.
06:10 They could become an afterthought very, very quickly.
06:12 And that scares me.
06:14 And then we had whatever the hell that was with Seth Rollins when he just he'd won.
06:18 He'd won his match against Logan Paul.
06:20 It was a big old thing and everyone was singing along at WrestleMania.
06:23 WrestleMania moment.
06:24 And how did he follow this up?
06:25 No, he didn't go after a belt.
06:26 He didn't go after a brand new big old challenger.
06:28 He walked out into the middle of the ring and just did the conducting like the person
06:32 did at WrestleMania.
06:33 He was going.
06:38 It was weird.
06:39 Again, it felt like something where someone said, yeah, you're so over, buddy.
06:43 Just go out there and give them a moment that they're going to enjoy.
06:45 And I bet some people did.
06:47 I've won didn't because I felt like we just did nothing with any of Seth Rollins momentum.
06:51 But if you enjoyed it, then good for you.
06:53 And speaking of people that you feel like there would be a drop the ball with in recent
06:56 times, well, Bobby Lashley, Bobby, Bobby Lashley, because not only was he completely overlooked
07:02 when it came to the WrestleMania card itself, apart from just walking out to the stage and
07:05 lifting his trophy and going, God, I hate this.
07:08 He was then backstage and got interrupted by Bronson Reed, who said, I kind of want
07:11 to match with you, but like not right now.
07:13 And then Mustafa Positavly turned up and got destroyed by Bobby Lashley.
07:17 And we've never seen that before.
07:19 Obviously somebody again trips and Vince McMahon clearly just like seeing Ali get battered.
07:25 So he got battered again.
07:26 We've just seen it a million times.
07:27 It was boring.
07:28 It was stale.
07:29 It broke my heart.
07:30 But again, just trying to remind you that there are some real, real sources of light
07:33 to be found on this roster, even in some of the darkest times.
07:37 Now, Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley, who came down to the ring and they had like a stare
07:40 down a showdown.
07:41 You were like this, this is the future.
07:43 Oh, that is, that is WrestleMania main event written all over it.
07:46 And what did they do?
07:47 They just, they stared at each other and said, not right now, but later.
07:51 Because right now what we've got instead of some triple threat matches that were apparently
07:55 the plan at one point before Vince ripped up every single piece of paper that he could
07:59 get his hands on, the plan was to have some triple threat matches to lead to like a number
08:03 one contendership for Bianca Belair's Raw Women's Championship.
08:06 But we didn't have that.
08:07 We had a number one contenders tag match and it was Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan teaming
08:11 up against Damage Control.
08:13 And you already know who lost because that experiment, that experiment has just been
08:16 a failure.
08:17 It's been the biggest failure of Triple H's run so far in creative.
08:21 And now you can like attach that to Vince's creative as well.
08:24 It's just been a disaster from start to finish.
08:26 And that was one of my big hopes heading into this post WrestleMania run.
08:29 Now that we were finally going to do something with Damage Control and the people within
08:32 that group, maybe just break them up and just send them on their separate ways, or just
08:35 give some real attention and thought to this women's tag division in general.
08:40 But I don't feel like we're going to get that.
08:41 Instead, I feel like you're just going to have Liv and Raquel being the challengers
08:44 of the month.
08:45 And then maybe they'll win.
08:46 Maybe those belts will just become trinkets again.
08:48 And then the way Becky Lynch leads to Trish stuff is probably going to evolve as well.
08:53 And just going on to that, they were backstage and they had a bit of a chat and they had
08:56 that smarmy energy that they've had all the way through this road to WrestleMania.
08:59 That's not their fault.
09:00 It's just the material they've been given and it didn't make them likable.
09:03 And you kind of could already see the Trish Stratus potential heel turn against Lynch.
09:08 Yeah, that could be exciting, but you just don't have faith after the way that they've
09:11 handled these women all the way into WrestleMania.
09:14 You do not have faith in either Triple H or Vince McMahon, do you?
09:17 And it's a damn shame to be honest, because all of these women deserve so much better.
09:20 They deserve more than the odd glance.
09:22 I think you had Raquel Rodriguez glance at Rhea Ripley and people thinking, oh my God,
09:26 that's it.
09:27 They're planting seeds.
09:28 It was a nothing thing.
09:29 They probably just looked at each other themselves and thought, you know what, if I look long
09:30 enough, somebody in the back might notice and might make it a thing.
09:33 But they probably won't because they don't do that.
09:35 They plant seeds.
09:36 They planted Becky Lynch and Rhea Ripley a couple of months back and that never turned
09:39 out to anything.
09:40 And another big disappointment that we need to talk about is, well, the lack of surprises,
09:44 real surprises, genuine, like roof shaking surprises on this post WrestleMania Raw.
09:50 Because we got one.
09:51 Yeah, we got Matt Riddle.
09:52 He came back.
09:53 It was lovely.
09:54 It was very nice, tidy, waddy trunks and he was dancing around.
09:56 He battered the Miz.
09:57 But that was kind of a return that a lot of people saw coming and they knew it was going
10:01 to happen sooner or later.
10:02 And it was a bit like the Ezekiel one.
10:04 Like last year, everyone was like, oh, he's back.
10:06 That's cool.
10:07 Yeah, great.
10:08 And then, my goodness, it was time for the main event.
10:11 I've done this so many times in this video because I'm just tired.
10:15 I'm tired, man.
10:16 I think you're tired as well.
10:18 We didn't deserve this, did we?
10:19 Because they build this massive dream match of a tag team main event and you just knew
10:23 it stunk.
10:24 It stunk of the Seth Rollins, Kofi Kingston stuff from a couple of years ago.
10:27 And he thought this is this is big.
10:29 This is like end of a pay-per-view big.
10:32 This isn't going to happen, is it?
10:33 And what do you know?
10:34 It did not.
10:35 Because as they were announcing everybody was in the match, Roman Reigns with his belt,
10:38 he was shaking his belt and Solo stood there like this and Brock's dancing with his titties.
10:43 And then Cody was getting announced and then Brock killed him.
10:46 He killed him because it was a Vince move.
10:48 He literally I can see it now.
10:49 He sat there with his little mustache.
10:50 He's saying, yeah, Brock, go out there, kill him.
10:52 They'll love it.
10:53 They'll love all the heat.
10:54 You look like a monster and we'll kill their baby because you just want to upset people,
10:59 don't you Vince?
11:00 And it worked.
11:01 Everyone was devastated.
11:02 Everyone was booing.
11:03 Everyone was like, oh, why am I bothering?
11:04 But is that really the feeling that you should have?
11:06 Night two, you got pretty much booze or shock, whatever it was.
11:08 You had a really kind of subdued audience after what had happened.
11:12 And then they just went and did the same thing on the Raw.
11:15 They just disappointed everyone and made everyone think, oh, great, not now what's going to
11:18 happen?
11:19 And I'll tell you what's going to happen.
11:20 Roman's going to disappear for another couple of months, just like he did last year.
11:23 And he's just going to go off.
11:24 I mean, I can have any World Championships.
11:26 They're going to be held to ransom.
11:27 They're going to be held hostage.
11:28 And we're going to have Brock and Cody, which is going to be a good match.
11:32 It's going to be brutal.
11:33 It's probably going to be great if Cody does win.
11:36 But that isn't even a given either, because with Vince, you could just turn up the day
11:39 before you go, you know what?
11:40 Well, I brought him in and then we'll just change the rules of what happened with Brock
11:43 not being able to challenge Roman.
11:44 I'm a lot Brock Roman again at SummerSlam.
11:47 This time it's personal.
11:48 I don't want to stress again that the Brock beating down of Cody was violent.
11:51 It was brutal.
11:52 It did make me a little bit intrigued.
11:54 I was like, you know what?
11:55 I do kind of want to see Cody try and kill this monster and beat him off.
11:59 But I don't think it's going to happen now, which is it's my WWE brain.
12:02 I've been infected.
12:03 Oh, I knew that could happen.
12:04 And that's not a good thing sometimes.
12:06 Honestly, you walked into this weekend with all the confidence in the world that Cody
12:09 was going to finish this story.
12:11 He was going to walk out onto the Raw after WrestleMania with both those belts, maybe
12:15 relinquish one, maybe debut a new design or something and just give these opportunities
12:19 to the people who've never really had those World Championship matches, allow himself
12:23 to elevate all these new talents.
12:24 And what did we get instead?
12:26 We got Cody in a heap lying over some still steps, Brock dancing with his boobies, Roman
12:31 walking out of the arena, no doubt for the next couple of months.
12:34 Now again, oh, it's just a letdown, isn't it?
12:36 Did we get a new tournament to announce the next world champion or some new contenders?
12:41 No, we got Brock killing Cody and Seth Rollins waving his hands around with some bug glasses
12:47 on because you're all silly idiots.
12:49 Zero mega returns, zero NXT call-ups, and that's probably for the best if Vince is
12:53 now back in charge.
12:54 Yes, the odd flicker of fun in a nice little match here or there, the odd angle that makes
12:58 you go, yeah, that could be something, but we deserve more than that.
13:01 We don't deserve, yeah, it could be something.
13:03 We deserve, oh my goodness, I can't take my eyes off this television for the next couple
13:06 of weeks, and we've just not got that, have we?
13:08 Instead, it looks as though Vince is well and truly back behind the creative wheel,
13:12 and this curse is not getting broken anytime soon.
13:15 What a life, eh?
13:17 And more Foo Laws for thinking it ever could.
13:19 Well that's been your very much hopeful How Triple H Just Made The Post WrestleMania
13:23 Curse Even Worse video.
13:24 Hope you enjoyed it.
13:26 I've been Gareth from WhatCulture Wrestling, thank you as always for watching this particularly
13:29 joyful video today.
13:30 Don't forget to like, share, subscribe to all things WhatCulture, and comment down below
13:35 what you think of that roar after WrestleMania and the joy that is about to head our way
13:40 over the next couple of months.
13:42 I'm James Blake, follow me on Twitter @GMorgan04, and I'll see you next time.