5 botches, slip-ups, and outrageous moments from WWE Raw - October 30, 2017

Halloween is in the air. For many, that means spiced warm drinks as well as neighbourhood trick or treating for candy. For WWE, that means that some unlucky chaps got to compete in an obligatory pumpkin-themed StreetFight. The bar was set fairly high in a past outing when Dolph Ziggler superkicked a pumpkin off of the head of The Miz. Hence, the teams in this years' foray had to have assumed that they might fail to live up to the previous standards of excellence.

The Trick or StreetFight was not good and rightfully earned a spot on this week's list. Other botchy and outrageous moments include an awkward landing from a Seth Rollins' suicide dive, a decisive course correction for Asuka's main roster presentation, and a faint source of hope that Daniel Bryan just may get physical inside of WWE one day. Wishing that he will compete again in his current company realistically is a grasp at straws, but the Big Red Machine offered a tiny ray of hope.

First up is a right hook from Miz that didn't quite hit its mark.

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#5 Be careful not to catch a cold

Matt Hardy put on a barnburner of a match against The Miz. He hoped to score in the win against The Intercontinental Champion to carry that strap for the first time in his career. Sadly for him, tonight was not the night to accomplish that momentous feat.

Part of the reason for his loss has to be attributed to the fact that he sold the effects of the mere draft of this Miz lariat (or palm strike or whatever). This must have been a gust similar to Guile's Sonic Boom because Matt Hardy was stunned. This allowed Miz to continue his offence, and ultimately, he won the match to retain his title.

Matt might need to bust out some classic Street Fighter II if he wants to learn how to withstand The Miz.

#4 Ready to squash now

Asuka's main roster debut against Emma, as well as their follow-up match the next night on Raw, caused quite a stir. Many found the bout to be too competitive and hardly fitting of a supposedly unstoppable force. It's possible that Vince McMahon shared this sentiment because of just one week after her arrival, Asuka crushed this enhancement talent.

Stacie Cullen was the unlucky opponent of "The Empress of Tomorrow", who seemed intent on proving a point. Asuka's undefeated streak was no threat whatsoever as she won easily.

What's outrageous here is for WWE to drastically change their approach in the presentation of this new superstar in such a short amount of time. Also, the fact that poor Emma was fired from the company the after last week's matches makes the last week downright strange.

#3 Back in action?

Before this night of Raw, all evidence pointed to Daniel Bryan riding out his contract so that he might go wrestle in New Japan or Ring of Honor or wherever else. WWE was never going to medically clear him again. But then, thanks to Kane, this scuffle happened.

Daniel Bryan showed up on Raw to apologize for SmackDown's assault. This resulted in him being left alone in the dark with The Devil's Favorite Demon. Kane got physical by wrapping his hand around the SmackDown GM's throat, then appeared to chokeslam him.

Daniel Bryan in a dark match? #RAW

— TAZ (@OfficialTAZ) October 31, 2017

Realistically, no chokeslam actually happened. That was the benefit of shooting this segment in the dark, but still, the implication of Bryan being involved in the action and taking a bump is progress.

#2 Devilish landing

Seth Rollins went for a suicide dive through the ropes like he always does. That's a staple in his move set, so it was no shocker that he tried it during his match against Kane. This time, though, he didn't stick the landing just how he intended to.

It's hard to tell if he overshot this high-risk move or if Kane just caught him wrong. Whatever the reason, this was a nasty landing. Seth's head was one of the first parts of his body to hit the ground.

This Shield member ultimately suffered the same fate of Finn Balor from last week when he lost to The Big Red Machine. Kane also took out Finn as he made his way to the ring for this match and Chokeslammed Bryan in the dark backstage. Kane really has something against those little guys.

#1 Trick or streetfight

Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, who are former Raw Tag Team Champions, are horribly underutilized. Heath Slater & Rhyno, who are former SmackDown Live Tag Team Champions, are also horribly underutilized. It should be a cause for celebration that these four guys got a chance to have an actual match on this night on Raw... but, it wasn't.

This strange Trick or Streetfight simply did not work. The pumpkin gags, as well as Rhyno's choice of attire, felt out of place on this otherwise good episode of Raw. By the time they made it to the big table spot at the end of the match, the crowd was flat.

Both teams have proven that they're capable of putting on entertaining wrestling matches. Instead of just letting them simply do that, they were involved in this bad attempt at comedy. Someone, please give them a chance to wrestle properly, because they can.