One of the most exciting aspects of professional wrestling is that all it takes is a single moment to change a WWE superstar's career. While match endings, major spots, and promos might be scripted, its nature as a live performance (when it's not being pre-taped due to COVID-19) lends professional wrestling an ever-present air of unpredictability.
Fans know that at any moment, a show might deviate from the script to create something unique and organic -- a wrestler might botch a spot, shoot on their opponent, or improvise on the fly in a moment of brilliant (or terrible) inspiration. The April 27 edition of Raw featured exactly that kind of unexpected moment, and it came from one of the roster members who needed it the most: Apollo Crews.
Crews, who earned his spot in the upcoming Money in the Bank Ladder Match by defeating MVP, joined fellow Money in the Bank qualifiers Aleister Black and Rey Mysterio in a show-long feud against Zelina Vega's crew of associates, Andrade, Angel Garza, and Austin Theory. The feud began when Vega's associates crashed MVP's VIP Lounge segment to suggest that the three babyfaces give up their spots in Money in the Bank to Vega's crew. The ensuing brawl set up an impromptu six-man tag team match where Apollo Crews got the pin over U.S. Champion Andrade, despite having a much lower profile than Black or Mysterio.
The rivalry continued backstage, as Andrade raged over having been pinned by what he viewed as an undeserving competitor. Vega worked to calm her client, until Crews himself strolled up to confront the champion. Andrade informed Crews to his face that he couldn't beat him one on one and that he would prove it by offering Crews a future titles match even though he didn't deserve it. Crews immediately quipped "how bout now," and unleashed the mother of all slaps on Andrade.
Most wrestling attacks are designed to look fearsome without actually hurting the opponent. Some wrestling attacks don't look all that stiff on camera, but can actually be quite painful to take. But the slap that Apollo Crews rocked Andrade with was in a class of its own. It looked painful. It sounded painful. For the audience watching at home, it almost felt painful. The impact of Crews' palm on Andrade's face hit with one of the loudest cracks wrestling fans will ever hear on Raw, and knocked the very stout Andrade to the floor with the force of a full-on haymaker. If it was, in fact, a fully worked slap, then both Crews and Andrade deserve a medal for how well they sold it, because it looked, sounded, and felt like one of the stiffest shots WWE has captured on close-up in recent memory.
Within moments, it had been dubbed "the Slap Heard Round the World" on social media, inspiring an instant slew of memes, discussion, and reaction videos. There might not be a superstar on the Raw roster who could use this kind of pop more than Apollo Crews. Despite having a good look and a solid move set in the ring, Crews has struggled to establish himself even after four years on WWE's main roster. Outside of one match for the tag team titles with Titus O'Neil and one shot at Dean Ambrose's IC Championship -- both of which he lost -- Crews has mostly served as enhancement talent in WWE, going long stretches without appearing on television before being quietly traded back to Raw at the beginning of April, supposedly because Paul Heyman saw potential in him.
In only a month on Raw, Crews has already been given more airtime and character development than he received in the last year, and it seems he has Paul Heyman to thank for it. He's responded to Heyman's faith in him by putting on a 27 minute banger of a match with Aleister Black the night after WrestleMania 36 --the longest televised match of his WWE career -- and looking great in his Money in the Bank qualifying victory over MVP.
His hot streak continued following his "Slap Heard Round the World," as he got his first chance at the U.S. title that very evening. He looked great in his singles match with Andrade, and seemed to be well on his way to capturing his first title before injuring his knee on a missed frog splash. The ref declared that Crews was unable to continue and awarded the match -- and the title -- to Andrade, although Crews was protected by not taking a pinfall in the loss. He was later seen on crutches in an emotional backstage appearance and WWE soon announced that he would be pulled from his spot in the Money in the Bank Match due to injury.
While his injury appeared to be in kayfabe, there have been conflicting rumors online as to whether Crews really did hurt his knee or if it was simply a storyline injury. If it is a storyline injury, it could be setting Crews up to make a surprise return to Money in the Bank as the ultimate underdog fighting through the pain to reach the briefcase. It could also be a way to protect him from taking a loss at the MITB match and preserve him instead for a future title feud with Andrade.
If Crews is legitimately injured, than it couldn't have possibly come at a worse time for him. Much of the online reaction to Crews' "Slap Heard Round the World" was that people were happy to see him get more character development in one night on Raw than he'd previously gotten in four years in WWE. If his injury is merely the prelude to a larger story, that's great for Crews, but if it legitimately keeps him on the shelf, he could lose all of the momentum he's just built up. Hopefully Crews' injury will prove to be merely the set-up to a longer storyline, as WWE has a shot to build him into a real star if it can capitalize on his recent pop on social media.