6 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (12 June - Review)
Title matches made, main event shines, Ripley gets new title, Lynch has off-night.
It bears mentioning every so often: WWE Raw would be a much better show if it was two hours and the writers carefully lopped off the excess material and tightened up some matches that don’t need to go through two segments.
But Monday night’s three-hour affair will continue, which means we’ll continue to get shows like this week’s offering, which mixed some good in-ring action, a couple entertaining segments and some decent storyline developments, but also included lackluster matches, groan-inducing moments and some downright forgettable scenes.
As good as Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn were Monday night, Becky Lynch had a night that should be buried six feet under and never spoken of again. Damian Priest and Dominik Mysterio had solid nights, but fellow Judgment Day cohorts Rhea Ripley and Finn Balor were left hanging a bit by some odd choices.
And as usual, the fans were deafening for Seth Rollins’ entrance song, but you could hear a pin drop during some of the matches, giving more evidence that they attend WWE events for participatory reasons, not to enjoy and react to wrestling.
Still, this week’s show was the usual mix of good, bad and meh, but definitely trending more toward the lackluster. Good wrestling alone isn’t going to carry the day in 2023.
Let’s get to it…