5 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (18 May - Results & Review)

Brock un-retires to attack Oba, LA Knight returns to scold, Tribal Combat is official for Clash.

WWE Raw Bron Breakker
WWE

The more you watch WWE programming in this post-WrestleMania period, the more it feels like you are watching a rerun.

Inoffensive, indistinguishable wrestling, blandly competent storylines, and crowds that performatively react to entrances, signature spots, and finishing sequences only dominate Raw these days.

The result is that your enjoyment of the product depends on your mood at the moment. If a viewer is optimistic and goes into the show ready to be entertained, they might well consider it a breezy watch. But if the viewer is sat with arms folded demanding to be impressed, they are going to come away frustrated and unfulfilled.

Raw on Monday night provided fans with wrestling that ranged from sloppy to serviceable, with some action that would qualify as “fine, but forgettable.” Very little of what happened between the ropes will matter beyond this episode, which is par for the course.

Some of the most notable developments came in backstage segments involving LA Knight and Ethan Page, as well as a shock return that set up a WrestleMania 42 rematch that will actually be mandatory viewing.

Let’s get to it…

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Contributor
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.