3 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (31 Oct)
2. The Same Sh*t Every Year
There's nothing wrong with light, holiday-specific material. Wrestling is inherently silly and can get away with being even dafter on certain shows.
It would help if the material was actually amusing, and this wasn't.
At first glance, it appeared that Riddle was dressed as somebody problematic - unusual! - but it turned out he was cosplaying as Ezekiel for Halloween. Holiday or no, his Trick or Street Fight with Otis was another regression from the halfway serious character he had played effectively under Triple H. Not the first time on this show, or in recent weeks for that matter, the booking fuelled a conspiracy theory that Vince McMahon is back in some capacity or other. That, or D-Generation X's Triple H isn't all too different from the relative and close friend he studied under for decades.
Aspects of the match were amusing. Otis dressed as an exotic dancer doing the worm was too dumb not to crack at, and Gable took a superb slapstick bump through a table. That was brilliantly timed.
Every year, a heel gets a pumpkin put over his head and takes a bump. Every year, without fail. Couldn't they have had a bit more fun with it? Couldn't they have failed to get it on this year, in a sight gag putting over Otis' preposterous neck?
No, because they think it's an absolute stitch.