5 botches and outrageous moments from WWE Raw (January 30, 2018)

WWE offered three straight days of wrestling in the town of Philadelphia, which is a lot. Looking back at the stretch, that town got a solid stretch of wrestling. Raw capped off the long weekend and ended up being a good night of in-ring competition. John Cena faced off against Finn Balor, The Miz defended his IC Title against Roman Reigns, and Asuka competed against Sasha Banks. All were above-average matches, so no complaints about the show overall.

What will be complained about are a few specific spots, especially those that made the viewers fear for the lives of the competitors. Both Apollo Crews and Sasha Banks had scary mishaps during their matches, with one of them even receiving a plea from Mick Foley to remove a spot from their moveset. In addition to those two moments that are early contenders for botch of the year, a couple of outrageous moments fill out this list of some of the cringe-worthy moments from Raw.

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#5 Slightly bloody Braun

Braun Strowman finding new things to flip over has yet to get old and WWE should be applauded for their decision to repeat the tactic over and over again. Not every instance can be 'ambulance-flipping' good, but each moment is a surefire crowd pop. This week, Braun flipped the announce stand and everything on top of it. All of the announcers were absent, which in hindsight would've made it the best Braun flip spot yet.

In the aftermath, the camera showed Strowman surmising the damage at the top of the entrance ramp and he was strangely bleeding from his left shoulder. It's an unexplained injury that had to have happened during the Kane attempted murder. This served as the only instance of bloodletting on this night.

#4 A rowdy Philly fan

It's no secret that Roman Reigns has more than a few detractors. Being at the top of the card evokes a strong reaction, especially in a passionate city like Philadelphia. While posing in the corner in the front of the crowd, one particular anti-Roman fan showed off a choice hand gesture to show The Big Dog how he felt about him.

Look to the left of Roman as he pumped his fist in the air to see the man in question. Even though it's blurry, it's obvious which particular finger was being brandished. During the hey-day of the Attitude Era, thousands of fans may have done the same thing in full view of the hard camera simultaneously. However, in this more PG era, that's an action that's not very family friendly.

#3 Sasha's stiff knees

There's another Sasha Banks move that caught more attention from this Raw, and we'll get to that one in a moment. But first, here's her attempt at her signature double knees attack that didn't connect quite as smoothly as usual.

Normally, both knees connect right above the shoulders and the opponents head is between her knees as they both fall to the mat. Sasha's right knee connected slightly better this time around and looked like some snug contact with Asuka's face. Sasha did not land on her knees as normal. This move was replayed in slow motion after this match, and why not? It looked stiff.

#2 Trouble for Titus Worldwide

Titus O'Neil and Apollo Crews have scored a couple of wins over The Bar in recent weeks, earning them a Raw Tag Team Title match. It was a decent contest as well as a good effort by Titus Worldwide except for one incredibly scary moment when Apollo landed terribly off of a powerbomb.

It appeared that Crews was going to counter this move with a hurricanrana but maybe the communication was off. He still took the move as if it were a powerbomb, landing very awkwardly. It's hard to see Sheamus here because Apollo was closer to the camera but he actually completes a full rotation as if he received the 'rana. The announcers marvelled at how quickly Crews recovered and resumed offence.

#1 Scary dive from Sasha

With the arrival of Ronda Rousey and Asuka's big win at the Royal Rumble, Sasha Banks is left out of the buzz at the top of the women's roster. While facing Asuka in a singles match on Raw, she found herself in a moment that got plenty of people talking. However, it wasn't necessarily under the best conditions to garner that water cooler talk.

While diving out of the ring towards 'The Empress of Tomorrow', Sasha got no momentum whatsoever and flopped to the floor before she even cleared the ropes. Asuka kicked at her as if to halt her momentum even though it was obvious that it made no difference. The ref immediately went to check on her after landing because, in that moment, everyone feared for her safety.

She was thankfully alright but that didn't stop the hardcore legend Mick Foley from offering concern. On Twitter, he asked for her to remove that spot from her arsenal after "too many close calls." Let's hope she heeds his warning.

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