6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (8 December - Results & Review)
Gunther, Bron deliver fantastic promos ahead of big matches; good, inessential wrestling fills Raw.
There must be a middle ground between “completely inconsequential” and “life or death,” correct?
Such is the difficulty in watching a wrestling program where much of the action carries little or no actual stakes, but is ultimately enjoyable. WWE Raw offered up some entertaining matches that really did not carry any weight. They didn’t move someone’s career in a particular direction or really stick out in your memory after the closing bell rang.
That’s not to say that Raw was disappointing by any stretch. But the highest points from Monday’s show came on the mic, with two outstanding promos bookending the program and raising the trajectory of two main-event wrestlers: Gunther and Bron Breakker. In both cases, the promos firmly established their characters while also “talking people into the door” for their upcoming matches.
The in-ring action was fine for what it was, but one can’t avoid feeling as though the wrestling on the whole was a step above bog-standard rather than something truly remarkable. It’s hard to criticize something when you don’t have actual gripes beyond having seen so much similar wrestling that it blends together. Raw also included a couple of logic gaps, but that’s to be expected these days, as the booking feels disjointed and inconsistent.
Still, it’s hard to call this offering anything other than an easy watch as we creep toward the holidays and the start of a new year.
Let’s get to it…