6 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (26 Aug - Results & Review)

2. And Then The Bell Rang

The Wyatt Sick6’s presence on WWE programming has been mostly well received by fans, with a mixed reaction from critics. That view is likely to continue with Uncle Howdy’s in-ring debut Monday night.

Howdy, aka Bo Dallas, battled Chad Gable in a main event match that felt like anything but a main event. Unlike his fellow Wyatts who competed in a six-man tag a few weeks ago, Howdy wrestled in his mask. The match itself was fine for what it was, but Gable’s pre-match comments, noting that the bell was going to ring and people were going to find out that Howdy was just “an ordinary guy,” seemed prophetic.

Dallas doesn’t have the gravitas that his late brother did, and the match didn’t feel like an important struggle, even with Howdy calling Gable a “false profit” and declaring this a purge beforehand. At times, it felt like Gable was wrestling just any other wrestler. Then the ga-ga started, with American Made and the Wyatts flying around ringside, which understandably fired up the crowd, before Howdy hit the Sister Abigail for the pin.

It’s impossible to call this a failure, as fans popped for the match and some critics also deemed it a success. But it’s hard to watch this and feel like there’s a shelf life of any significance here. As always, one hopes to be proven wrong, and next week might bear fruit, but this felt like an act that has a limited universe in which to exist and a limited time to run its course.