5 Ups & 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (June 7)

Lilly the Doll, WWE Raw main-eventer; Ripley pinned, Kofi/Riddle click.

Shayna Baszler
WWE

Raw has officially reached the point where when it does the most basic thing correctly, fans get excited simply because they managed to not screw something up. We’re now grading on a severe curve where “not doing the dumbest thing possible” is a plus.

But that doesn’t mean that Raw was good, or much more than “barely watchable,” on Monday night. The program continues its bottomless death spiral, with one MMA fighter zippering his mouth closed and locking it with a key, and another feuding with a grotesque doll. The company cut a bunch of talented wrestlers and is bringing back Eva Marie as an unironic babyface.

The writers continue to find new ways to cut Rhea Ripley’s knees out from under her, despite giving her a rocket push and pitting her against Raw’s top two female talents. What should have been a no-brainer to make a new star has turned into an absolute nightmare (pun intended).

They’re trying to book two goofs as babyface challengers for the United States Championship, but instead, they looked like geeks incapable of doing anything productive. But then, they begin a babyface push for a war veteran who has basically been accused of having PTSD.

They pinned the Raw Women’s Champion and closed Raw with a “Chucky” horror movie rip-off. But hey, the fans will be back in a month. Bet they can’t wait to see all of this in person!

Errrr… Well, 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.