4 Ups & 10 Downs From WWE Raw (Oct 4)

Raw goes through the motions; Goldberg threatens murder; Belair/Flair fizzles.

Becky Lynch
WWE.com

The landscape of WWE has once again changed… zzzzzz.

Sorry, dozed off there.

Raw hosted the second night of the WWE Draft, with six rounds of exciting name-reading from Adam Pearce & Sonya Deville, with backstage shots of superstars “reacting” to no one in particular to the news they were moving to a different brand.

Matches were OK, but that’s really the lowest possible bar WWE should be clearing, not the top height. Everything seemed to drift along, with the draft and Crown Jewel’s upcoming matches getting all the attention.

Goldberg set a new low by continuing to threaten to kill Bobby Lashley at the PPV, which is emblematic of how tone-deaf this company truly is.

Overall though, Raw had a feeling of malaise about it despite all the pyro and yelling (and swearing!), like a truly bored and tired person downing three cups of coffee to try to artificially energize themselves. Sure, superstars like Big E, Becky Lynch, Drew McIntyre and (gasp!) Randy Orton were on, but “going through the motions” perfectly sums up this show.

We can generously chalk it up to the draft putting a hold on a lot of stuff, but it’s not like WWE had a week to plan for this show.

Let’s get to it…

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.