2 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (20 Jul - Results & Review)
1. That Hot Tag-Team Opener
Bron Breakker and Austin Theory beat Je’Von Evans and Dragon Lee in a fast-paced, all-energy opener that set the tone for the show nicely. Or, to be more accurate, it should've set the tone. Nobody can point any fingers of blame at this quartet for what came next though. They were on fire throughout, and Detroit's faithful must've thought they were in one for heck of an episode.
Evans nailed his neat hot tag sequence too, and Michael Cole made sure to mention how aggressive Je’Von has been lately. He and Lee won’t be a long-term team, but they mesh well together due to similar styles and Dragon’s willingness to take a kicking then build heat for that aforementioned tag in from Evans. It was also nice to see Breakker getting the pin.
He’s cooled off significantly, of course, but he and Theory also gel well as a unit. That's worth saying despite all of the negativity surrounding Bron's de-push and what the future holds for him.
At ringside, Maxxine Dupri and Logan Paul even found ways to get involved in the action without making the segment all about them. Good on the pair for managing that, because having so many heel bodies around the place makes that challenging. Je'Von and Lee were outnumbered here, but the bout didn't turn into some elongated handicap scenario, and the match was better for that restraint.
So, to recap, both the opener and main event clicked in-ring. Everything else? Ouch. Raw needed a redraft if it had any hopes to succeed.
What did you think of this week's WWE Raw? For more like this, check out 3 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (17 July - Results & Review) and 4 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE Saturday Night's Main Event (18 July - Results & Review)!