6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (May 2)

Downs…

5. Is This Going Somewhere?

Given WWE’s history and pettiness as a company, it’s hard to have faith that they’ll come through and do right by a story and a wrestler, especially when that wrestler publicly peeled back the curtain.

Mustafa Ali returned to Raw last week three months after requesting his release via Twitter. He defeated The Miz, but then was promptly jumped by Ciampa before the announcers quickly switched gears.

Monday night, Ali was a guest on Miz TV, but everything kept going wrong for him. First, his music cut off mid-entrance. Then his mic wouldn’t work (and no one ringside would give him a working mic). Then Theory walked out and revealed that he had arranged for a United States Championship contender’s match… against him and Miz, which Ali lost. And finally, Ciampa attacked again, only for the announcers to quickly jump to the next topic.

All of it felt like a burial, but an artificial one. And that’s the tough thing to figure out here. Is WWE actually trying to tell a story about Ali wanting out of WWE, coming back and then the company just tries to keep him down? The technical glitches, the stacking of the deck in a match, Ciampa’s attacks, and even the quick transition before anyone can empathize.

The problem is – and this is why it’s a “down” – WWE’s track record with these stories is not good. There’s no goodwill built up here where we’d give them the benefit of the doubt to tell a good story and really make it work and be committed to seeing it through. So, consider this a tacit “down,” but we’ll see what next week brings.