4 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (Results & Review - 2 Nov)

Right out of the gate Monday night, Raw felt like it might have another good night as WWE heads into Crown Jewel this weekend. A captivating show-opening promo exchange and an entertaining title match got the program off to a solid start.

But the wheels would fall off in the second half of the program, grinding to a disappointing conclusion that evoked memories of WCW Nitro – and not in a good, nostalgic way.

John Cena announced the details of his classic, and yet it’s still unclear exactly how this event will work. At least we know when it will take place, what the new title belt looks like, who the first participant is, and what WWE’s true objective is: steering more subscriptions to Club WWE.

Roman Reigns had an interesting night, taking part in another spellbinding promo with Sami Zayn, and then showing up after a predictably dull, unsatisfying main event to lead the charge in another 946/Bloodline showdown that revealed a new member and led to a drawn-out beatdown that answered the question of whether an arena of 15,000 people can collectively sit in silence.

WWE will have blips of goodness, but the product is weighed down by turgid storylines, unacceptable levels of substandard wrestling, and a feeling that the creative team has “lost its fastball” (for non-baseball fans, they’ve essentially lost the ability to do the basics, which then renders everything else they do ineffective).

But at least we’ll crown a new, first-time-ever champion next month at the John Cena Classic.

Let’s get to it…