Hey, did anyone notice that today’s date adds up with each other? 10/8/18? That’s pretty neat. Anyways, I decided that I’m going back to my RAW review pieces again since I had some free time. Here is what I liked (Best), didn’t like (Worst) and everything else in between.
Best/Worst: Last Time Ever One More Time
The show began with the social security collector’s version of D-Generation X coming out and asking us and The Brothers of Destruction if they are ready for a return, as they will team up for the first time in over 8 years and….you guessed it, for the LAST TIME EVER. The actual promo itself was okay, but I have to say that this was a sad sight in some respects. Everything here just feels like a cheap sell-out. Not only is the concept of seeing something for the “last time ever” completely lost on WWE, but WWE will have no problem murking past endings that were perfect for the sake of a momentary convenience.
Undertaker and Shawn Michael’s series of matches 9 years ago was incredible, and it was a great way for HBK to ride off into the sunset. Undertaker and Triple H’s Hell In A Cell match with Shawn as the referee? The icing on the cake. Nothing else was needed. They could have just let it end there. But show Shawn the money, and all of what happened all those years ago pretty much means nothing now. I want to be so excited for HBK to return, and I guess if he gets himself back into ring shape, he probably can still be somewhat useful in the ring. But forgive me if I’m not peeing my pants to see a tag team match in which all the participant’s ages add up to over 200.
The point here is that HBK’s return doesn’t even feel all that special and we all know Shawn was just probably shown a shit-ton of money that he couldn’t refuse. WWE’s insistence on not letting legends be legends and wearing them out when they are past their primes shows their unwillingness to move on, a lack of trust in the current crop of stars, or both. Triple H vs. Undertaker at Super Shown Down was, for all intents and purposes, a disaster. Adding 50+-year-old HBK and a mayor in a Halloween costume won’t make this match better. It’d make more sense if this was taking place in a retirement home, but at a WWE PPV in 2018? Come on now.
Best/Worst: Double Turns? Cool!
Our first match of the night featured a rematch (you’ll probably hear that word a lot tonight) between Kevin Owens and Bobby Lashley with his new mouthpiece, Lio Rush. Here, it seems like we have a double turn on our hands. After an average match, Bobby Lashley continued to target Kevin Owens’ hurt leg that he sold towards the end of the match. I personally don’t care much for Bobby, because he has about as much charisma as a box of almonds, but I suppose someone who looks like him should be somewhat vicious, yeah? I’m not sure if I’m ready to see what a face version of Kevin Owens looks like because he seems to be the most natural heel on the roster, but I suppose there is a first time for everything. The double turn was surprising and well done, so that’s why I give it a best.
I give this segment a worst because of Lio Rush. I instantly signed onto the idea of Bobby having someone to do the speaking for him, but his live taunting of Kevin Owens throughout the match was just plain irritating. It’s one thing to gain heat if you’re being a dick for WWE storyline. But then there’s the kind of heat where you just want to change the channel (which I did) as to avoid hearing him. It was just cringe-worthy hearing him repeat the same lines and basically pose himself as Abraham Washington with dwarfism.
Worst: WWE Stands For “What’s With Elias?”
We then had a brief segment with Elias talking about John Cena, his hairstyle, the city of Chicago and his usual shtick. Normally, Elias’ segments are pretty harmless but this gets a worst because he seemed to have no purpose or focus without Kevin Owens this week. He’s currently in no feuds and has no beef with anyone. Ronda Rousey came out during Elias’ segment and he kinda just left afterward. So what was the purpose of him coming out? Just to get some cheap heat by mentioning the city’s sports team? Someone like Elias shouldn’t be in these segments where you are visibly just putting him there for the purpose of saying he was on the show. Give him something productive to work with. I’d rather not see him than putting him on the show with the obvious knowledge that he’s not important at the moment. At least then we’re being honest.
Worst: As The Bella Turns
My feelings on The Bella Twins are already documented, so I won’t have to go into why this match was a below average affair. I also hopefully don’t have to mention the frustration of WWE announcing not one, but two six-person tags for Super Show Down just to run it back again two nights later. Anyways, not only does this segment get a worst because turning on someone evidently gives you a title match by default instead of having to, you know, earn it, but primarily because of the result of the match. On Saturday, the match ended with Ronda Rousey inexplicably tapping out Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan simultaneously. This time, Ronda completed the trifecta by having Ruby tap out.
I just don’t get why The Riot Squad couldn’t get the win here. If the plan was to have Ronda get blindsided by The Bella Twins, why couldn’t you have done that during the match and at least give The Riot Squad SOME credibility with a victory? Instead, within a three-day stretch, the current RAW women’s champion taps out all members of the Riot Squad. So why exactly should anyone take them seriously? They don’t even have a gimmick. They’re just a theory on what a gimmick would look like.
Worst: Here We Go Again
Up next, we have the first ever Universal Champion, a former RAW Women’s Champion and the previous WWE Champion involved in a mixed tag team match in a sign that neither of them will be doing anything worthwhile or important soon. This match is proof positive of how WWE can just pick and choose who they want to be main eventers and then have them go back to their true nature when WWE has no further use for them. It’s just really sad, because none of this matters and hyping this match (and it was a really poor match) just to promote the Mixed Match Challenge really shows how far some of these superstars have fallen, especially Bayley.
Best: Welcome Back, Kurt!
I’ll be honest in saying that I didn’t like how this segment started. I simply thought it was going to be either Baron Corbin entering the WWE World Cup on his own with a needless and drawn out jobber battle royal. Baron could just insert himself into the Cup, but seeing as how he forgets he has that kind of power, he puts himself in situations where it’s as if he isn’t the GM. I also thought the Conquistador was Heath Slater simply because he randomly popped in to ask for an opportunity backstage before the match. It ended up being a fun way to re-introduce Kurt Angle. I’m kind of miffed I didn’t notice it at first because Angle’s lack of a neck and general body posture makes it kind of obvious to point him out from a mile away.
Worst: What’s The Meaning Of This?
Nia Jax faced off against Ember Moon to remind us that there are more than a handful of women on RAW we should care about, and they had, well, a match if you want to call it that. Nia Jax won by count out, Nia shook Ember’s hands and that was that. Again, what’s the purpose of this? Did you just bring them out for the sake of having a match? Is Ember finally going to be used in a meaningful setting? What’s Nia’s deal? I hope you’re catching onto the theme of me taking issue with things that are done for the sake of doing it.
Best: I’m Only Giving This Segment a Best Because It Wasn’t Bad
We had Trish Stratus come to the ring to hype her match against Alexa Bliss at Evolution, Alexa says some typical heel things, some of the crowd chants “Boring” during her promo, and when Mickie and Alexa come to gang up on Trish, Lita makes a return and does some stuff. Well not really, but you get the idea. This was an okay segment to hype what was originally two separate singles match and now a straight tag team match. I can’t tell you that I care about the match because it doesn’t feel important, but it wasn’t bad, so I can give it a best.
Worst: Now This, This Was Bad
Can anyone try to explain to me what the plan with Bobby Roode and Chad Gable is? We’ve been running this hamster on the wheel week after week and I think it’s time to put it out of its misery. Either have Bobby just turn on Gable already or quit this altogether. There is no reason to continue to have the SAME exact thing involving different people week after week and not have the plot advance anywhere. Bobby seemed to take exception to Gable tagging it and getting the win, and before anything can be done about it, The Authors of Pain came to destroy everybody. So this probably means that there won’t be any finality to what happened tonight until next week at the earliest.
Initially, I was behind the tag team, but once it was clear that they were teasing the tag team break-up angle, they’ve shot themselves in the foot by needlessly dragging this thing out. Maybe they didn’t want to overdo it with the turns considering Bobby Lashley and The Bella Twins went over to the dark side on one night, but then if that was the case, why do this at all? Have a backstage segment teasing a break-up. Don’t go out there and do THE EXACT SAME match with no progression.
Worst: Paul Heyman
Don’t think I’ve ever had to say this about Paul Heyman ever, but I’m starting to grow weary of his visibly recycled speeches about Brock Lesnar. Heyman was trying to build up hype for the Universal Title match at Crown Jewel, but what did he really say here? All he does is exploit what WWE superstars are paid to do and basically give a long version of saying Lesnar will win the title back. Are you excited to see him? No. It just feels like Paul can’t say anything else other than some long-drawn out speech which is similar in some fashion to every other Lesnar-lauding promo that he’s cut since 2015. He just words it differently.
Best/Worst: Couldn’t This Have Been Done Before?
Finally, we have our main event which was another, you guessed it, rematch. This time it comes in the form of The Shield taking on The Dogs of War. This gets a Best because of course it does. The match was quite good, and I was into this version more than I was than the Super Show Down match. It was well worked, had underlying storylines that factored in throughout the match and it was overall well done. I gave it a worst, however, because I felt like this shouldn’t have happened tonight and should have happened on Saturday. The match tonight ended with Dean Ambrose walking off on his own after he took the pinfall loss at the end of the match. Roman Reigns inadvertenly hit Dean in Saturday’s match. Why couldn’t you have used that to cost The Shield the match and do the same thing there? It would make more sense that way. Tonight, Dean just straight up lost because he was distracted, but not because of miscommunication like in Saturday’s version.
The curse of 50/50 booking lingers in 2018, and I never see the point or value in having two entities in WWE trade wins for the sake of saying you beat the other. With the Dean Ambrose heel turn being teased sooner than later, what was the point in having The Shield win clean on Saturday if you were just planning to have them give the win back? The repetitive nature of WWE shows its visible laziness and lack of direction sometimes, but for all of those faults, it was still a nice way to tease what will happen next in The Shield discension storyline.
How’d you like RAW this week?
