This week’s Raw is one of the most boring Raws in recent history. What promised to be a great watch half an hour into the show, turned into a total nightmare as it slowly progressed further and further. Around the two hour mark, the show was sending people into their sleep slowly but surely. Instead of being an exciting watch, this week’s Raw turned out to be a lullaby sung by WWE for its fans.
Among the surplus of unbearable things that occurred on Raw, we take a look at the ten things that stood out sorely n this week’s edition’s programming.
#10 Please be clear at least on paper
For fans watching Raw, WWE served a head scratcher just as we headed into the third hour of the programming. Del Rio, who was supposed to be Sheamus’ partner, turned on him and left him hanging dry and at the mercy of their opponents during tag team action.
Normally, this would have been a pleasant or shocking surprise for a fan. But this time, it was nothing but a head scratcher. Both Del Rio and Sheamus are heels and they both have separate feuds going on for each other. So, this decision to make Del Rio turn on Sheamus stood out sorely. WWE needs to be clear on who is a heel and a babyface at least on paper.
The only reason this has got such a low spot is that there are worse things than this up on the list.
#9 H-A-R-D vs S-A-W-F-T
Just because the crowd gets behind the S-A-W-F-T chat, it doesn’t mean that they don’t listen to what is being said. Social Outcasts are a group of jobbers who can’t even be termed as glorified. For some time now, their matches and segments have been relegated as toilet break by WWE fans.
On the other hand, Enzo and Cass are one of the hottest tag team in WWE right now. So, pitting them against each other makes no sense whatsoever. What happened to The Dudleys, The Usos, Primo and Epico and other tag teams that usually roam the place? This feud not only undermines the legitimacy of Enzo and Cass but also pushes Enzo and Cass further down the line instead of pushing them up.
If that is not criminal enough, the H-A-R-D chant performed by the Social Outcasts was the prime example of how hard WWE Creative thinks. Hard vs Soft seriously!!!
#8 The Wave match
We all know that Vince McMahon is high on Big Cass. But, that doesn’t excuse a four move squash match. That too a tag team match. Even Goldberg at his prime took atleast a minute to squash his opponent, but Enzo and Cass took just the time a wave started from one end of the audience and returned to the same audience. Isn’t that stretching things too far a little?
By all means, what was the use of that match? They could have just skipped the match and got on with things. That would have at least made it bearable to watch what followed.
#7 Make Darren Young Great Again!!!
First and foremost question, when was Dareen Young great in the first place? And if that is not enough to get one going about the vignettes, the vignette that aired today had Darren Young talking about WWE title. Seriously!!
Just because it is being aired, we can’t agree to everything that is being said. While Darren’s hope for aiming for the WWE title is commendable, a little bit more realistic ambition would have sufficed. What this segment did was to irk fans who were already being irritated with program.
#6 Summer Rae – The Mannequin
WWE has been talking about women’s revolution a lot, but using a talent to literally stand in the ring like a mannequin is awful. Provided that Summer Rae is not an A tier female wrestler in the roster, it doesn’t mean you have to use her like a doll.
And one other bugging question on my mind is, why didn’t the match start after that brawl? Nattie was surely on her way to the backstage, so what stopped the match from being started?
With such obvious flaws in storytelling, how can WWE hope to hook the viewers interest?
#5 Bravo! That’s how you settle scores
When someone insults you in front of your kids and calls you as a loser right before their eyes, any sane man in the world will be out for blood. Imagine that you are wrestler and you get an opportunity to get your hands on that man who insulted you inside the ring, things are surely going to get out of hands at one point or another.
When things go out of hand and you both are laid out on the floor, you get to your feet first and send him crashing to the ring announcers area. Then, instead of pursuing him into the ring announcers area like any sane man would do, you roll back inside the ring and claim a count out victory of all things and stand proudly. Bravo! That’s how you settle scores.
#4 That’s one hell of a cliffhanger
When Stephanie McMahon informed The Miz that he will be defending his championship against a surprise opponent and termed it as a cliffhanger, I was immensely excited. Here is a prime chance for a Superstar to return or a NXT Superstar to make his main roster debut. With all the rumours about injured Superstars returning before brand split and NXT call ups happening going around, this was set to be a real cliffhanger.
But, whom did WWE send out? Kane. Of all the superstars out there, why should it have to be Kane? A wrestler who is past his prime and someone very few care about in the current situation. This was the final nail on the coffin for me, this sent me into a bored mode that even the eventful ending of the show didn’t retrieve me from.
My God! That was one hell of a cliffhanger Stephanie! One hell of a cliffhanger!.
#3 Unpredictable as hell
Now we are popping into the elite list of things that happens every week on Raw, but doesn’t stand out that much due to the overall programming. As you can imagine, this week’s Raw didn’t have much on the part of overall programming.
When two matches featuring top stars of the company is set, there are few things bound to happen. Interference is one such thing. WWE did overplay the part of interference from The Club. Now every match Styles or Cena is in is guaranteed to have an interference from the part of The Club. And that is what exactly happened tonight.
Unfortunately, those were the only two matches that were worth watching on this edition of Raw. As I have pointed out earlier, each and every match of the night had some sore parts that stood out glaringly. This just magnifies these two matches predictability. This is how even good matches turn out in worst list due to their predictability.
Honestly, the only thing that wasn’t expected in the two matches that happened tonight was John Cena’s dropkick.
#2 Five-minute women’s matches are back
This trend was beginning to drop after Royal Rumble this year. Unfortunately, tonight the trend returned. Given how the entire night was boring, this trend stood out glaringly. WWE has been bragging about bringing a change in the women’s wrestling for quite some time now. But nothing has come out of it after the women’s division classic at WrestleMania.
Still a single character is being built; still only one feud happens at a time and just when WWE had more than one feud to book in the women’s division they resorted back to their old roots of booking women in extremely short matches. The whole segment with Natalya and Becky Lynch was hardly five minutes (in that two minutes were dedicated for Becky’s entrance.)
Given how talented performers Sasha Banks, Charlotte and Paige are, the amount of time allocated to that match wasn’t that great either. It left lot to be desired. It is as if WWE has taken us back to the time where only eye candies who doesn’t know how to wrestle wrestled.
These kind of bookings legitimately hurts the women’s division.
#1 How to turn a brilliant start into a murderous show
This is something that is solely reserved for this show. When Raw started tonight the first fifteen minutes were very eventful and interesting. then the show gradually deteriorated into mundane affairs making ti hard for the viewers to watch. In short, WWE Creative had a great start to this week’s Raw, but they screwed it up due to some lame booking decisions that can be only termed as lazy booking in hindsight.
With all these mistakes stemming from a single show, how could the show be interesting? WWE Creative needs to up their ante and get off their lazy couch to deliver us some top notch shows in the upcoming weeks to maintain a little bit of momentum heading into the brand split. Will WWE learn from its mistakes?
Bayley gives us a HUGE update on a top Superstar's upcoming return RIGHT HERE.
