5 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Oct 3)

5. It’s Beating Respect, Not Getting Beaten Into Respect

You can see what WWE was going for with Bobby Lashley versus Mustafa Ali, but they missed the mark with this one.

Everything very clearly was set up to show that Ali was stepping up and making an opportunity for himself by challenging Lashley, then refused to stay down as Bobby pummeled him. They were going for Mustafa being a scrappy competitor with a never-say-die attitude, but all he did was take a beating from a Lashley who barely suffered a scratch and shook off the one devastating move Ali landed – a 450 splash on his arm.

They weren’t horribly far off from making the point – Ali passing out from the Hurt Lock rather than tapping was a nice touch – but fans had no real reason to connect with or rally behind Mustafa, who had his first Raw match in seven weeks and his first singles match on the red brand in nearly four months.

The intention was there, but the execution was off-target. The respect aspect getting brushed off by a Seth Rollins attack didn’t help matters.