6 Ups And 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (May 28)

1. An ‘Exhaustive’ Gauntlet Match

womens gauntlet
WWE.com

Remember the really great gauntlet match the men in the Elimination Chamber had a few months ago, when Seth Rollins put on a clinic of a performance for more than an hour?

WWE certainly did, so they booked a women’s gauntlet match for the last spot in the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match. In theory, it was a good idea, but in execution, it was a mess. Six mini-matches lasted a grand total of 20 minutes, with two of them lasting for more than half of that time (and a good chunk of action taking place during two commercial breaks).

Bayley racked off two wins in less than two minutes, but then Ruby Riott knocked her off in five minutes (with half of that during commercial). Riott won two more matches before losing to Sasha Banks (with their confrontation lasting about five minutes).

Michael Cole called the gauntlet match “one of the most exciting matches in WWE.” After watching Raw’s main event, we can safely call that a blatant lie. No one looked good in those rushed mini-matches. The would have been better off drawing straws for the final MITB spot.

Advertisement
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.