RAW was decent. 6/10
The first hour was a bloody chore to watch. It felt like a waste of time and I had a feeling it was going to be a dreadful show.
But, thankfully, they turned it around and the show ended up being a mixed bag/decent one.
Positives:
- The New Day vs Gallows & Anderson was solid.
- Swann & Alexander vs Dorado & Gulak was rock solid. It was far from great, but they did good things here. The commercial break was unnecessary, I felt. But other than that, I liked the presentation, 'cause it felt like the CWC again.
- Cesaro & Sheamus vs Jobbers was fun. I liked their interactions here, I just don't really like how we got here. But, hey, man, I am all in on this tag team. The sad thing is, they're probably going to serve as the cannon fodder to The New Day as they head towards the record. Hope I'm wrong, though. Would love it if they dethroned The New Day.
- The Brian Kendrick/TJP stuff was good. Kendrick's promo was good, in particular.
- That Sasha/Charlotte segment was good. They had a strong delivery, Charlotte wasn't awful (she was actually pretty good) and Sasha bitchslapping Charlotte was glorious.
- TJ Perkins vs Tony Nese was good. Good RAW debut for the champ, he won and came out looking good, and so did Nese.
- The Highlight Reel segment with Y2J and KO was good. Y2J was as perfect as always, and so was KO. Also, loved KO saying "Go get a doctor's note that says I CAN'T WRESTLE BECAUSE KEVIN OWENS BROKE ME IN HALF!". That was seriously great. The segment was also good when Enzo and Cass showed up. LOL'd like a mad man when Y2J said he may be a Santa and he may sit in Cass' lap.
- KO & Y2J vs Enzo & Cass was a solid ME. Loved Corey Graves saying "Do we have another championship we can give to Kevin Owens?".
Anyways, the match was solid and all, and yes, KO needed the win after last week's ME, but you gotta hate Enzo & Cass losing here. Feels like they've lost a ton of momentum following their crap with The Shining Stars. They're probably going to go back to that, so with that said, they need to squash them in order to get back on track.
Negatives:
- Reigns vs Rusev was just as boring as their previous match on the go-home episode for SummerSlam. On top of that, they went like 25 minutes and then did the count-out thing. That's really not the best way to draw the interest from the fans at home and keep 'em invested. I mean, I do appreciate the fact that the show started with a match instead of a promo, but damn, son... This match should've been a 10 minute sprint, with Rusev and Roman brutalizing each other and followed by the count-out thing then. And oh, boy. Cole sure does love to mention that the Reigns/Rusev feud is personal. But, he never cares to explain why, because we all know it would make Roman look like a bad guy. Oh, well.
- Gallows and Anderson are done. Shame. Go back to NJPW, please. It's hard to care for a match we've seen a bunch of times with the same outcome almost every time. Also, Kofi being busted open looked... :damn:
- Bayley vs jobber match. That is not how squash matches should work. Plus, it was really meh.
- "You don't have to like it, but it's my decision." - Wait, that didn't sound like Mick!
:
- RIP Mick's balls. Damn, that segment with Stephanie was atrocious.
- The crowd sucked. Especially during the TJP/Nese match. Those douchebags pissed me off to no end. If BS like that keeps up, Vince might be like "OH FFS, THESE FLIPPY JOBBERS AREN'T WORTH THE TIME OR THE EFFORT. FROM NOW ON, YOU'LL BE RELEGATED TO HAVING 5 MINUTE MATCHES ONLY, DAMMIT!". And then, those same stupid idiot fans will wonder what caused it. Since we're on the CW subject, I really hope they have a plan for the division, because so far, it feels like this: "We will throw random guys out there and book 'em in random tag matches and only focus on the champion". Please, WWE. Make people care about the division. It really needs to feel fresh and different from the rest of the stuff on the show.
- And last, but not least, where was Sami Zayn? Back to doing nothing again? Just wonderful.
