5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (21 Oct - Results & Review)

Downs…

4. Bumpy First Night Back

There’s no way to cushion this: Samantha Irvin leaving WWE is a huge blow to the product.

Irvin has become the modern-day Howard Finkel, the voice fans hear in their heads when wrestlers walk out, win a match or capture a title. She’s created numerous moments, whether it was her signature introductions of wrestlers like Chelsea Green, members of Imperium, or Cody Rhodes, or her announcements of major title wins like Rhodes at WrestleMania 40. Others will try to mimic her style, but they will almost certainly fall short.

WWE probably thought they were making a smart move in bringing back a familiar face for Monday night, with Lilian Garcia handling ring announcing duties on Raw. Unfortunately, she immediately flubbed her first lines while on camera, calling the number one contender’s tag team tournament, “number one container’s tournament.”

Garcia then announced Dominik Mysterio accompanying Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez to the ring (he did not) and did the same with members of the LWO, name-dropping Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro as coming to ringside when they were nowhere to be seen.

To be fair to Lilian, she could have been informed that they were part of the entourage, but that’s incredibly rough to go from Samantha’s incredible run to a series of bumps right out of the gate. She did have a strong performance introducing the Intercontinental Championship main event, so here’s hoping she was just shaking off the rust.