Raw Recap (April 17th 2017)


We kick things off with a recap of last weeks murder by Braun Strowman.

Braun comes out and gets a hero's welcome. Anyone can get over by just destroying Reigns. He is proud of himself for what he did last week. Angle comes out to tell Braun he has caused enough problems and that he has the night off. Braun is not happy about that and demands more competition. Angle also says he booked Reigns vs Strowman at Payback. Decent enough start. It did what it was meant to do.

Seth Rollins is on commentary for Samoa Joe vs Chris Jericho. Jericho has the light up scarf from WrestleMania. I'm not really sure why this match was booked, neither man should be losing before their respective PPV matches. The match was decent, with Joe winning via Coquina Clutch. After the match Joe cut a really good heel promo talking about Seth's joints popping. Seth cut a promo too.

The Drifter was middling backstage. Corey Graves was not a happy bunny. 

Braun does the murder on Golden Truth which makes me very happy as I can not stand R-Truth. Adam Pearce, Finlay and Jamie Noble (my new favourite 6-man team) turn up to calm down Braun.

Braun is sitting in the locker room and a referee tells him he has to leave. Braun tells him to fuck off.

Gallows and Anderson complain about not having opponents but it turns out they are wrestling Enzo and Cass. They do their thing, it wasn't very funny. Commentary also mentions that The Revival are out for roughly 8 weeks due to Dash Wilder suffering a broken jaw, which is a huge shame. This match was a fucking mess and the finish was a complete shambles. There was 3 botches within a minute. Enzo really is not a good wrestler. Make him Cass' manager already.

It's Miz TV with Dean Ambrose. Ambrose interrupts straight away. He gets a cheap home state pop. Miz runs down Ambrose for not looking like a superstar and Ambrose says it doesn't matter what he looks like. The segment is fine but I just find it incredibly lazy to go straight back to Ambrose vs Miz again, even after the shake-up. 

Kalisto is next on the Braun murder list. He throws him into a dumpster. He gets body checked by the Big Show, who tells him to pick on someone his own size. We have Braun vs Show tonight.

Next up, TJ Perkins vs Jack Gallagher. It's a good match but it was more about Aries vs Neville than the people in the match. They do get nearly 10 minutes though which is a bonus for the cruiserweights.

Akira Tozawa and Apollo Crews are back stage when Titus turns up to pitch the Titus Brand to Crews. It's moderately funny.

A backstage interview with the Hardy Boyz is interrupted by Sheamus and Cesaro who tell them that they will win a match that doesn't involve ladders.

We have a fatal 4-way number one contenders match for the women's title, Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss vs Sasha Banks vs Mickie James. Alexa gets the big home town pop. Good match. It's similar to many of WWE's multi man matches but there is enough action to keep it enjoyable. There are times when the crowd only cares about Alexa but that pays off when she wins.

Big Show talks about something.

Curt Hawkins issues another open challenge which Finn Balor accepts. 30 seconds later it's over. Easy night's work. No risk of concussion this week.

Jericho is interviewed by Tom Phillips, sorry, Mike Rome. He puts over Samoa Joe and says that he is preoccupied by Owens and his ugly face. The Drifter meanders past playing a tune so Jericho puts him on the list. I hope the Drifter never has a match.

Bray Wyatt cuts a typical nonsensical promo. Something about burning Randy Orton I think.

Alicia Fox is talking to Dana Brooke but Emma comes in from leftfield to stir the shit. Alicia throws a hissy fit and walks off.

Cesaro vs Jeff Hardy up next. It's a decent match but a few ugly looking sequences stop it from being more. Post match we get a handshake between all parties.

Heath Slater and Rhyno cut a promo but shit themselves when Braun walks past.

It's giant main event time, Braun vs Big Show. While not as good as their first match this was still a really good main event and it also had the always crowd pleasing finish of the ring breaking after a superplex. Braun manages to get to his feet but Show doesn't. It's a great way to end the show.

Thoughts

Not as entertaining as the last 2 weeks but that is to be expected. It wasn't bad though and the stuff with Braun was great. I really hope he beats Reigns at Payback but I just don't see it happening. The only really poor thing on the show involved Enzo so nothing to be surprised about there. While he occasionally gets carried away and rambles Booker T is still an upgrade on David Otunga. I dread his return. All in all it was a decent episode of Raw. 

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