7 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (August 13)
Downs...
6. Tacky ‘Tribute’ To The Anvil
Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart wasn’t a top-level, main event superstar in WWF/E, but his passing Monday was still no less sad. One-half of one of the best tag teams of the 80s, the Hart Foundation, Anvil was a staple of WWF television. He also was father to current Raw superstar, Natalya.
Previously when superstars have passed away, WWE has either shown a photo with their birth and death, brought everyone to the stage for a 10-bell salute, and/or aired a video package.
Instead of opening Raw doing one of those things, the show began with Ronda Rousey coming out and launching into a promo about fathers, turning the focus of Anvil’s passing away from him and his life to Nattie. Then Rousey pivoted to how Alexa Bliss has cheated to beat Natalya several times, so Ronda will avenge her at SummerSlam.
In the span of three minutes, we went from a tribute to Neidhart to a promo about the Raw Women’s Championship. WWE tried something different, and it failed. (Yes, they aired a nice tribute video later, but this came across badly to open the show.)