7 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (May 16)
Rebooked main event delivers, repetitive heel hijinks, Bliss botched, midcard gets love.
What a weird, strange and confusing night.
Some things actually happened on Raw on Monday night, but all anyone is probably going to be talking about are the strange circumstances that led to the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions walking out and forcing WWE to rewrite its main event on the fly. The idea that Sasha Banks and Naomi would leave the company high and dry sounds absurd on its face, and obviously more details will surface in the coming days.
Raw itself was a bit of a mess as a result, but you have to give WWE a bit of a pass on a lot of that. The show still had its usual issues, most notably its first three matches all featuring a babyface outnumbered by the heels in a singles match with outside interference. That kind of lazy booking really can’t be excused. Then there’s the issue of Alexa Bliss’ return being mishandled.
But on the flip side, Raw’s midcard actually is looking decent suddenly, and different acts are interacting with each other, which is refreshing. Cody Rhodes’ promo was solid, and the new #1 contender for the Raw Women’s Championship should provide a quality PLE matchup.
So yeah, this was a weird show. Good enough for passing marks, but not without its problems.
Let’s get to it…