6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (10 June - Results & Review)
3. Wrestling At Half-Speed
It’s really painful when watching a match where half the wrestlers seem to be throttling down from their normal rhythm to match other competitors, thus dragging the quality of the match itself down.
The phenomenon is worsened by a wrestler who is the cause of the slowdown being lackluster at best in the ring, negatively affecting everything happening around them.
Witness Carlito trudging along in his match alongside Judgment Day versus the LWO and Braun Strowman. Dragon Lee and Rey Mysterio were forced to slow down their usual high-octane pacing several times, with Lee in particular continuing to look like he’s wrestling with handcuffs and lead boots on.
On paper, this match should have been a fierce, vicious fight: Carlito betrayed the LWO and attacked Lee before WrestleMania 40; Judgment Day has been trying to take out Braun; and Dominik Mysterio still has nuclear heat with his father Rey. Instead, the match served as a backdrop for two things: a Strowman hot tag, and more Liv Morgan and Dominik drama. All the supposedly heated background felt tepid throughout.
As a result, Dragon Lee looked about as impressive as JD McDonagh did Monday night, and that’s not a good thing. He doesn’t need to blow the doors off on every match, but he also shouldn’t be “just a guy” in matches either.