2 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (20 Jul - Results & Review)

Ups...

2. Main Event Duo Work Their Socks Off

Finally, some good. Honestly, finding it was like wading through a pool of crap to find some valuable Pokémon cards.

LA Knight vs. Jacob Fatu was a fine slow-burner in the main event slot. Yes, this writer has limited interest in what’s coming up at SummerSlam, but the match itself was more akin to old Fatu and that’s welcome. The pair didn’t rush anything here, and things built logically. On commentary, Michael Cole and Corey Graves even mentioned how surprised they were by the slow start, but it did help spotlight how intense things eventually got from the midway point onwards.

Again, all of The Bloodline stuff is boring at this stage, but Knight and Fatu deserve praise for the shift they put in to try and give those underwhelmed fans in Detroit something to be chirpy about. If nothing else, at least folks had a match like this to talk about on the ride home, and Jacob's match-winning moonsault looked spectacular. It'll always be impressive that a man with his build can move like he can - it's Bam Bam Bigelow-esque, even though Fatu has shifted some weight lately.

It would've been real easy for LA and Jacob to phone it in and rely on that mass brawl breaking out near the end to get by, but they didn't. There was an obvious amount of pride in their respective work, and that was great to see. Hard work goes a long, long way, especially on a show as lame duck as this week's Raw.