6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (Aug 9)
2. Please Cheer Me
We’ve officially hit the desperation phase of the Drew McIntyre mega-face character.
The Scottish Warrior cut a pre-match promo asking for audience participation and bad-mouthing human punching bag Baron Corbin (here due to the Brand-to-Brand Invitational, remember that?). But worse, Drew cut an in-match promo, grabbing the mic when Corbin started begging and pleading that he was desperate. McIntyre asked how much it would cost to get him back on his feet.
The answer: $100,000. A laughable amount, so Drew asked if they should bump it to $200,000, or $300,000. This led to a countdown Claymore and the win.
But what really sealed the desperation to get fans to interact with and cheer McIntyre came in the pre-match promo, where Drew talked about his sword, now named Angela after his late mother. McIntyre talked about her struggles in life, as you could see Vince McMahon all but holding a flashing sign reading, “Please cheer him!”
It’s not that any of this is necessarily bad or wrong, but they’re really throwing everything at the wall, including using crowd-sweetening sound last week to make it seem like fans were cheering him like crazy (when they were using audio from SmackDown since you could actually hear Michael Cole).
It’s desperation, and it’s obvious. And WWE has no one to blame but itself for its horrible booking of a really great superstar.