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WWE has been really hit or miss when it comes to go-home shows before a big Pay-Per-View. Going into Survivor Series though, we must admit that WWE really stepped up their game. Live from Buffalo, New York, just when the show was beginning to drag...the show picked up its pace, and how!
There were at least two segments on Raw which made us sit up straight. The rest of the show did have a lot of filler matches, but let’s say that the positives outweighed the negatives.
Switching off our television sets, 3 hours after it began, we're more thrilled about Sunday than bored with the filler we were subjected to. Let’s travel right to the Keyback Center and take a look at the Best and Worst parts of this week’s edition of RAW then!
#1 Best: An epic face-off
Heading into this week, this is the segment we were most excited about. Unlike the last Heyman promo, this time the crowd was completely behind Goldberg, and Lesnar came across as the heel, who let his advocate speak for him, quite disinterestedly.
A completely dead crowd came alive for this segment! What this segment proved is that when wrestlers are not booked as comedy characters, but as actual brutal badasses, the crowd is far more invested in the contest at hand. The security dividing the two superstars just added legitimacy to their encounter. All the detractors of Goldberg can take a hike as he proved he still has it when he cleared the ring. He almost botched up a clothesline, but showed incredible balance to make the save.
While the monsters did not lock horns, it has us interested in the match on Sunday when the two forces of nature collide again.
#1 Worst: 60% of the show sucked bad
The high points of the show were fantastic indeed. But the low points on the other hand, were a nightmare to sit through. Do we really need to see Shining Stars and the Golden Truth team up at any point in our lives? We were doing great until that came along.
Sasha and Charlotte Flair teaming up led to some interesting moments, but that match did absolutely nothing for us. It’s almost like WWE came up with some good segments, and decided that the rest of the show did not matter at all. WWE could have shortened it by an hour, and we would have missed nothing, really.
#2 Best: The inter-brand confrontation
This is what we’ve wanted from Day 1. Not the brands competing internally, but them working together leading up to Sunday! The teams from both Raw and Smackdown came face to face finally, at the wee end of the show and yes, all hell did finally break loose.
We had a face-off between the two champions Kevin Owens and AJ Styles, we had Bray Wyatt confront his old cult-mate Braun Strowman, and finally, we had the much awaited Jericho and Ellsworth ‘list’ segment. This makes a lot more sense than what you’ll read about in the following page.
#2 Worst: Hostile reaction to the Cruiserweights
While we’re supposed to remain impartial as journalists, we really hope that The Cruiserweights move to Smackdown come Sunday. This is because the Raw audience has, quite rightly, not taken a liking to them. This match between the Cruiserweight Champion and Jericho’s worst enemy wasn’t bad at all.
The wily old veteran- THE Brian Kendrick messed up Sin Cara’s luchador mask, and used psychology to win this contest. But the crowd was disinterested from the word go, and it’s been so because of the booking so far. The Cruiserweights need to be allowed to cut loose, and show us their stuff!
If not, they’ll be a disaster on Smackdown as well, in two weeks.
#3 Best: The dominance of Braun Strowman
Smackdown has built several new stars since the brand split, including an absolute jobber. But on the other hand, Raw has built one monster comprehensively. And this man is Braun Strowman, who has developed into someone who can carry the ‘giant’ mantle after Big Show.
He has come a long way since his time in the Wyatt family, and Strowman’s booking has made him look dominant, as someone who can be a main event player in the future. Well, if this happens, the casual fans will stay hooked to a product which pushes a lot of physically smaller talents currently.
#3 Worst: Promoting the other brand, during a war!
It is widely speculated that the brand split happened to emulate the Monday Night Wars, where viewers could pick a brand to get behind. But how do we take this brand split seriously, when Michael Cole is congratulating Smackdown Live for completing 900 episodes?
Also promoting a Cruiserweight Show that is exclusive to Smackdown Live must mean that Kalisto is going over Brian Kendrick at Survivor Series, isn’t he? This is as bad as Tony Schiavone giving away Raw results on Nitro. Nobody believes that the two brands are working against each other. It seems like one big happy family.
#4 Best ever: Emmalina
Bye.
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