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

1. Distraction Finishes Ahoy!

Otis Johnny Gargano
WWE.com

WWE used to rely on the distraction via entrance music trope for so many finishes that it became a running gag. Well, they’ve thankfully abandoned that one for the most part, but there’s a new trope: the “distract the referee and attack the opponent from behind” method.

Raw featured seven matches Monday night, and four of those matches had distraction or interference finishes. Dakota Kai won when Iyo Sky distracted the ref and Bayley tripped Candice LeRae. Otis won when Chad Gable took the ref and Austin Theory attacked Johnny Gargano. Solo Sikoa won when Angelo Dawkins stopped to beat up the Bloodline. And Iyo Sky won after Bayley occupied the ref and Alexa Bliss took her and Dakota Kai out, but got topped by Sky.

That’s a huge number of finishes that are just shades different. In fact, Otis and Kai’s wins were virtually identical. Who books like that?

Yes, you need to protect people sometimes, but just don’t book the match if more than half your card is going to end with a distraction finish or interference.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.