4 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (Results & Review - 23 Oct)
Stilted dialogue, underwhelming moments mar Raw highlighted by Rhodes' heroic stand.
That thud you heard was WWE Raw hitting the mat Monday night.
WWE must have realized they had their backs up against the wall competing for viewers with high-stakes playoff baseball and Monday Night Football, because they put forth one of their most pedestrian efforts in a good while.
If it wasn’t for the mountain of reporting that Vince McMahon is no longer involved in the creative process, this would have been a show many would have pointed to as evidence that Vince was still steering the ship behind the scenes.
Instead, this was just a dull, bland, badly written and booked program. It lacked consistent energy, solid booking and smart writing. Instead, this show included some really bad segments involving wrestlers who should be better on a weekly basis. It resurrected a horrible WWE trope of bickering brand GMs, which was one of the worst parts of the previous brand split.
Several of the superstars highlighted Monday night elicited underwhelming reactions from fans, which has to be demoralizing in some ways. Worse, some of these wrestlers were getting spotlight matches/segments, and they weren’t landing with the live crowd.
As usual, Raw managed to be functional and deliver a few solid moments, but overall, this was a huge disappointment of a show.
Let’s get to it…