6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (7 August)

DOWNS…

4. Not A Great Raw Debut/Return

Michael Cole
WWE

Switching up the commentary teams is not uncommon these days in WWE, but it’s hard to believe that the shakeup announced Saturday would lead to missing Corey Graves.

Michael Cole and Wade Barrett called their first Raw together Monday night, and while it was overall fine, they flubbed a few things that really shouldn’t have happened. Barrett repeatedly referred to “WrestleMania” while describing match results from SummerSlam this past weekend.

Cole tried to tell us that Mania is returning to the Northeast for the first time in 11 years at WrestleMania 40, referring to WM 29… and completely forgetting WrestleMania 35 in the same stadium just four years ago.

But probably the most frustrating part was listening to Cole trying to call the action, confusing Matt Riddle’s Final Flash knee for “what a kick!” and Chad Gable’s diving headbutt for a splash. That stuff is bad enough, but other times, Cole didn’t even bother to call moves. Graves at least will name-drop some of the more unique offense, like Gable’s cliffhanger DDT or Ricochet’s detonation kick.

The Voice of WWE just channeled his Vince McMahon with his own version of “whatamaneuver!”

Fans have just become accustomed to substandard professional wrestling match-calling in WWE, but given this was the first night of the latest switch, it just deserves mentioning here.

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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.