5 Ups And 9 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (June 8th)

Another lackluster go-home Raw with a few silver linings.

What is it with WWE and go-home episodes of Raw lately? The last live WWE television program before a PPV is supposed to be when the company puts its best foot forward to convince fans to buy the pay-per-view, or in this case, purchase the WWE Network. Maybe it€™s the fact that the Network seems to be free every month for new subscribers, but the promotion is not churning out its €œA€ material. Case in point, with Money in the Bank six nights away, WWE took the opportunity to put six of the seven participants in three singles matches against each other. Where have we seen that before? Oh right, the go-home Raw before Elimination Chamber featured all six participants in the Intercontinental Championship chamber match in three singles matches against each other. All that does is ensure that we€™ll either have DQ finishes or half of the participants will head into the match with losses under their belts. In addition to this lazy, counterproductive booking, WWE also continued its effort to further neuter its standardbearer while patting itself on the back for being really popular on Facebook and Twitter despite drawing half the audience it did during the Attitude Era. Finding the silver linings this week was a little tougher than usual, but let€™s see what connected and what short-circuited this week.
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.