The go-home Show for Monday Night Raw came to us from Memphis, TN, home of the legendary ‘Jerry The King Lawler’. As the red brand builds to Clash of Champions, the first Raw only pay-per-view of the new era, in the coming week; we saw a lot of things we liked and a lot of things we did not.
As always, it was by no means a bad show and we’re sure the eventual pay-per-view will deliver, but Raw was just too long for us to be hooked throughout. But all said and done, we have to do our job, so let’s move to what we liked today.
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THE GOOD: What we liked from today’s show
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1- The Return of the steel cage
It’s always nice when WWE shakes things up to change the show. The steel cage was back for the first time on Raw since Ambrose and Sheamus had their match, this time with Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens. It wasn’t the greatest cage match in history by a long shot, but it was a fun end to a show that had begun to drag by then.
Of course, Seth Rollins found an excuse to jump again, this week.
2- Hot crowd
The live crowd can make or break an episode of Raw. Today’s crowd was loud, and red hot from the word go (they seemed to be Matt Hardy fans, screaming ‘Delete’ and ‘Brother Nero’ on numerous occasions). Give a round of applause to yourself, Memphis. You rock!
3- The list of Jericho
Chris Jericho was in multiple segments today and shone in each and every one of them. His comedy is not contrived and he manages to connect with the audience like few others on the roster do. He was annoyed with how Raw General Manager Mick Foley is running things, and as a consequence decided to compile what was ‘the list of Jericho’.
There was a segment backstage between him and Mick Foley in which the two of them broke kayfabe, and delivered hilarious lines, one after another. Well, if there’s someone watching over us, we hope that Chris Jericho never retires, and continues to entertain us like he does.
4- The Cruiserweights impressed in their first showing
Rich Swann, Brian Kendric, Cedric Alexander and Gran Metalik debuted on Raw today and put on one of the finest displays of high octane wrestling on the main roster in a long, long time. By the time the match was underway, 3 unknown superstars (remember that much fewer people tune into the Network to watch the CWC, as compared to the number that watch Monday Night Raw) and THE Brian Kenrick had got the Memphis crowd to chant ‘this is awesome’ on numerous occasions.
One may say that Kendrick going over his competition is a questionable choice, but then again, it’ll still be better than anything on the main roster.
5- Cesaro vs Sheamus
Sheamus and Cesaro had a very hard hitting match on Raw today. While the whole series has been entertaining, we can’t wait to see who goes over at Clash of Champions. Both the guys need the rub, and both of them are exciting characters. It’s always great to see two big guys work the way they do, in an era with so many smaller wrestlers on the roster.
THE BAD: And here’s what we disliked from today’s show
1- Botchy Mick Foley promo
This should go into Chris Jericho’s list. What should have been a legendary promo with Mick Foley introducing the Cruiserweights was spoiled by the GM botching his lines during his promo. The moment was gone, even though Foley recovered himself in time. But the dog is the fight in the dog fight is the dog. Let’s move on.
2- The length of the show
Sure, there was very little filler on the show this week, but Monday Night Raw just went on for too long. The flow of the show can be much more pacy and exciting. That would really solve a lot of problems with viewership. Also, maybe ad breaks can happen between matches, because when they happen during matches, the viewers may tune out completely.
3- No-show by the Cruiserweight Champion
Doesn’t it make sense to debut your new Cruiserweight Champion on Monday Night Raw, heading into a PPV? WWE logic, as usual, makes no sense.
IN CONCLUSION, Raw was 6.5/10 at best, with some hits and some duds.
