6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (14 August - Review)
Judgment Day is all over the show, Becky/Trish disappoints, world title feud set.
The SummerSlam afterglow has faded, and WWE very clearly is resetting its feuds, some promising, others less so, but Raw set the table Monday night.
The question at hand is whether these programs will capture fans’ imaginations and attention, or if they’re just something to occupy space and time as WWE heads into the season where its TV ratings take a hit from Monday Night Football. This phenomenon has played out before, with the company turning out lackluster placeholder angles heading into the fall, knowing that the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania season are just a few short months away.
That’s not to say that what Raw offered Monday night was underwhelming. But a Seth Rollins/Shinsuke Nakamura feud probably isn’t going to main-event the next PLE. However, Chad Gable and Gunther will likely be must-see television next week. So this isn’t exactly a hard-fast rule.
Raw was mostly solid, if unspectacular. It’s hard to get fired up when the fans in attendance are sleeping through large parts of the show, coming to life to sing Rollins’ theme and to react to finishing sequences. To be fair though, they had to suffer through a disappointing Becky Lynch/Trish Stratus match that had an awful finish and an even worse aftermath.
Let’s get to it…