3 Ups & 7 Downs For WWE Raw (18 Aug - Results & Review)

2. A Paint-By-Numbers Plunder Brawl

For the past month, WWE has been on a dubious roll with its Raw main events: Heading into Monday, four straight main events had ended in disqualifications.

WWE’s solution? “Hey, we’re in Philadelphia, so let’s book an Extreme Rules match to satisfy the remaining ECW fans who still attend our shows, and it’ll guarantee a ‘clean’ finish.”

What resulted was a predictable plunder brawl between Jey Uso and Bron Breakker that almost had a shocking finish when three minutes into the match Jey clotheslined Bron over the top rope – right onto a shopping cart of plunder Uso had rolled to the ring. That damn near ground the match to a halt while Breakker tried to assess the damage and continue.

The bout did indeed continue, with kendo sticks, chairs, tables, trash cans, and lids getting involved. And despite the no-DQ nature of the match, we got a referee bump and copious amounts of interference from The Vision, LA Knight, CM Punk, and Roman Reigns before Jey splashed Bron through a table for the win.

It’s not an easy thing blasting a match where the wrestlers are battering each other with weapons, all for fans’ entertainment, but walloping each other with a chair does not on its own make for a fun time. Everything about this match – save for the shopping cart spot – was as predictable as imaginable, a choose-you-own-adventure book with the correct options already circled and the pages dog-eared.

So, yay for WWE finally figuring out a way around its main event DQ problem, but they still managed to both poorly and over-book Raw’s final match Monday night. And calling something that resembles every middling WWE plunder brawl an “Extreme Rules” match because you're in Philly just cheapens the name and whatever remains of the memory of true “Extreme Rules” matches.