I am quite the fan of WWE programming as of late. The influx of new talent has brought with it a breath of fresh air to a product that desperately needed it. Yet, there is one thing that has continued to bug me as the weeks have gone by and that is the booking of Apollo Crews.
The 28 year old debuted with so much hope the night after Wrestlemania, rolling through Tyler Breeze in just over a minute. Sure, maybe it was a little odd that he debuted so quickly ahead of more seasoned NXT vets like Finn Balor, but still, it was exciting to see what was planned for him on the main roster. It’s not like they have nothing to work with. The Sacramento native has the body of a Greek god matched with the speed of a cruiserweight, and a little seasoning on the mic and WWE had a star in the making.
Following the Breeze match, Crews filled the next four weeks on Raw with four more squash matches, this time over Adam Rose, Curtis Axel, Heath Slater, and Stardust. That’s all well and good. Squash matches are one of the oldest tricks in the book for trying to get a guy over. The problem was it just felt so directionless, so generic. Baron Corbin was an imposing figure out of NXT who debuted the same night as Crews, yet he was thrown into a feud right away with Dolph Ziggler. Why didn’t Crews get the same treatment? It reeked of a lack of ideas from the creative team.
Those suspicions have become even more pertinent in the past two weeks. Enter the battle royal to determine the number 1 contender for Kalisto‘s United States Championship. We get a shot of the ring before the entrances start and who is in the ring already, but Apollo Crews. The fact that your new star, that you are trying to build does not get an entrance astounds me. For those who don’t know, typically in a WWE battle royal, the big stars that are participating get their own entrances, while the jobbers are already in the ring. How could WWE possibly justify making Crews look like such a bit player here? I’m not saying he needed to win the thing – in fact I think Rusev winning was a great move, as he is someone who undoubtedly needs to be built up again. But at least give him an entrance, make the fans believe that he has a legitimate shot at winning. On top of that, he was eliminated WAY too early in the match. Sheamus eliminated him with the ease of Brogue Kick. If they really wanted to make him look strong, let him go the distance, get down to the final four or even two. It would be a strong performance in defeat, like when a superstar goes long in the Royal Rumble match. WWE got absolutely everything wrong with Crews in the battle royal.
If two weeks ago wasn’t bad enough, he DID NOT EVEN APPEAR on this week’s edition of “the longest running weekly episodic television show in history”, in the words of everyone’s favorite commentator Michael Cole. Has creative already given up on him? Are they going to send him back to NXT? Repackage him? There should never have been this many question marks this early in his stay on the main roster. Crews should be as simple as anyone to get over, have him mow through some jobbers as they did, but then move him on to something meaningful.
I truly do hope that WWE gets their act together when it comes to Crews. I still firmly believe that he could be the biggest thing in the business if handled correctly and that is a big if. We’ll just have to wait and see if WWE can right a sinking ship.
(Main Photo: WWE.com)
