4 Ups & 9 Downs From WWE Raw (2 Aug)

5. Daddy's Home

Bobby Lashley, MVP, and Goldberg's show-opening segment was the kind of mundane table-setter WWE has been booking in spots like this for years.

Such things are forgivable when the promos are strong enough to transcend the formula, but that wasn't the case here. Anyone with even a basic knowledge of how WWE books it shows could have scripted this confrontation when Goldberg's return was announced, but here's how it went anyway:-

1. Lashley and MVP hit the ring and reiterated that they weren't going to dignify Goldberg's SummerSlam challenge with a response.

2. Goldberg came out, insulted Lashley (hoping to draw the desired response), dropped a few soundbites, and left.

3. Later, after Goldberg returned to spear MVP, Bobby was angry enough to accept the challenge.

The addition of Goldberg's son Gage as a MacGuffin provided some variation, as MVP and Lashley getting into it with Bill Jr. led to the spear. Still, this is mundane in the extreme, and the "we want Wyatt!" chants didn't help either.