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When Monday Night Raw delivers on a great night of wrestling, it should be praised. For the most part, that's what happened on this Labor Day edition. We got John Cena vs. Jason Jordan, The Miz vs. Jeff Hardy for the Intercontinental Championship, and a Steel Cage main event between Big Show and Braun Strowman — a particularly enjoyable watch. There was even a smattering of solid tag matches to fill the gaps.
Good on WWE for delivering, but now it's time to point out their flaws because they aren't getting off that easy. This time around, there were a couple of continuity issues that need to be pointed out, involving a revelation over who is actually running the Tuesday night cruiserweight show as well as the sketchy selection process of when they decide to reinforce the ring. Also, the current tag team champions really should work on their duo entrance before they hurt each other.
All of that as well as some raunchy crotch-related disses between John Cena and Roman Reigns lie ahead so continue on to see the botchiest and most outrageous moments of the night.
#5 Look behind you, Dean
We're kicking it off with a fairly minor botch from the show. Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose, the current Raw Tag Team Champions, made their way to the ring for their match against Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson. While posing at the top of the ramp, the pair collided innocently against each other.
The funny part in this is that Rollins was doing a fist pump into the air at the exact moment that they bumped into each other. Ambrose briefly turned around in a startled manner. It was as if he expected a crazed fan who jumped the barricade to be right behind him and he was totally ready to throw fists. Perhaps in an alternate universe, Dean Ambrose did turn around and deck Seth Rollins in that moment.
#4 Since when is Kurt Angle in charge of 205 Live?
Kurt Angle is the GM of Monday Night Raw. The Cruiserweights compete on his show and also have their own division-exclusive show on Tuesday night. Kurt would make the matches on Monday, yes, but what about Tuesday? Well, according to Neville in this backstage segment, Kurt is now exerting his GM-ship onto Tuesday nights.
Has he always been the man responsible for this show? If so, why does he never show up for it? This is quite a revelation if Angle is literally the man making matches for 205 Live. Since he's never there, it's safe to assume that it very well may be the most lawless hour on the WWE Network.
It's actually kind of a let-down that there's a specified man in power for that show. One thing that's set 205 Live apart from the other brands is its obvious lack of an authority figure. It's actually kind of refreshing to not be bombarded with this tired role. Fingers are crossed that he continues to not care enough about it to start showing up.
#3 Rough fall for Jeff Hardy
It's important to state that this bump by Jeff Hardy off of the apron and onto the floor was not a botch. If anything, that makes it all the more outrageous. Jeff Hardy electively chose to take this stiff landing onto the floor. The Miz swept Jeff's leg as he ran on the apron, causing him to fall senton-style to the ground below. Ouch!
It seems like Jeff Hardy is at that stage in his career where he chooses to save the riskier falls like this for the bigger shows. Surely, he can call those types of shots, right? He doesn't, though.
Good for him for going all out like this even during a losing effort on a Monday night like this. Personally, I wouldn't hold it against him if he played it safer in these contests and avoided these types of falls.
#2 Double-reinforcing is completely unnecessary
The ring getting reinforced is a cool visual, but it got a tad outrageous when WWE emphasized the need to "double-reinforce" the squared circle due to the fact that both men weigh close to 800 lbs together. The numbers don't hold water when compared to other matches on the very same show.
Look at the tag team match of Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose versus Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, which happened immediately before the main event. That contest featured four men that weigh in at a combined total of 948 lbs (according to their billed weight on Wikipedia). Surely they were slamming each other hard enough to the mat at some point to warrant concern for the structural integrity of the ring, right?
Also, the cruiserweight tag match earlier in the night featured Enzo Amore, Cedric Alexander, Gran Metalik, Drew Gulak, Tony Nese, and Noam Dar in action. Those six men weigh in at a combined total of 1,148 lbs. They were at least all standing in the ring together at the same time. Why wouldn't this match get the same treatment when there's over a half-ton of humanity flipping around?
Sure, there's also the steel cage to account for this time around but they've reinforced the ring in the past for these two when there was no cage at all. It's a cool claim but the numbers ultimately don't hold up.
#1 "Big Dog" is now a double entendre
Last week, John Cena called out Roman Reigns during their promo battle because The Big Dog paused too long trying to remember his lines. This week, Cena decided to go below the belt (literally) with this unscripted shot.
After addressing this unfortunate wardrobe malfunction, Cena told Reigns that he was checking to see if Roman had b*lls or not. Roman then retorted that John would be looking for those. This turned out to be a fun case of two alpha males challenging each others' masculinity.
In reality, this could very well have been a scripted moment disguised as off the cuff. An open fly wasn't actually visible to the viewing audience. Also, Roman was unusually quick with a comeback. It's suspicious to call this an improvised moment, but ultimately, it doesn't matter all that much if it were "real" or not because it was still outrageously funny.
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