5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (Oct 24)
Uneven episode doesn't click well with distraction finishes, bland stories.
It’s tough to put a finger on it, but even though this week’s episode of WWE Raw scored some decent positives, this was not a very good program.
If your name was Johnny Gargano, it was a particularly disappointing episode. Raw just could not get out of the blocks Monday night, with a program that lacked compelling storytelling, good in-ring action and true star power. It felt like the show just limped along to the finish with a few peaks to the valleys.
The difficulty here is that Raw under the new regime is better at masking the negatives, so whereas before you could easily point to hugely disappointing moments, it’s a vibe thing now, a feeling you get after watching an hour and trying to recap what you experienced. You can pick a few things, but specifics are tough.
The wrestling isn’t bad, but it’s not memorable from week to week, plus they’ve gotten lazy with the finishes almost all involving distractions or interference. The stories aren’t ludicrously bad, but you aren’t seeing a late contender for feud of the year either.
Of course, there’s always next week for all of this, but this is definitely a “watch the YouTube videos and read a recap” week.
Let’s get to it…