4 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (July 19)

1. Stand Up For WWE

You know that WWE realizes that its corporate image has been through the wringer during the past week when they open the show with genuine good guy Titus O’Neil opening Raw and talking about how great the company is.

Titus’ promo was little more than PR damage control, as he talked about the goodwill that WWE spreads around the world. He talked about the obligatory “smiles on faces,” and talked about the causes they champion (wonder how the Be A Star and Girl Up campaigns feel about WWE right now) and how they never talk about anything “divisive,” like politics or religion – despite the fact that a former president who fomented an attempted insurrection is a WWE Hall-of-Famer.

Regardless, WWE is a safe haven for people of any race, economic status or nationality.

You got to feel for Titus, who marched out there to defend the company and use his own good name to try to inoculate a company that has fired literally hundreds of wrestlers and staff over the past two years in the name of “budget cuts” while posting record profits and whose chairman is facing unprecedented accusations of sexual trysts and coverups to the tune of millions of dollars.

The only thing that could have been worse is if Mr. McMahon stood next to Titus and put his arm around him while he delivered that promo.