6 Ups And 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (July 1)

2. The Worst Excuses

This will continue to be a lowlight here in this column as long as WWE insists on forcing this ham-handed policy upon us.

WWE has decreed that no wrestling action can take place during a commercial break, which means the writers have to come up with “creative” ways to avoid it, such as 2-out-of-3-falls matches, DQ-restarts, quick rollups-rematches, etc. While avoiding some of the action during breaks is good, this has led to some godawful moments, and Monday was no exception.

Carmella defeated Alexa Bliss with a rollup in 10 seconds, leading to a break and then a new match between Mella and Nikki Cross. New Day and Viking Raiders’ match ended in a DQ before being restarted as a six-man tag. Miz and Elias had a 2/3 falls bout. And AJ Styles thought he beat Ricochet for the United States Championship, but the match had to be restarted.

These little gimmicks aren’t improving the product by letting us see all the in-ring action. It’s detracting from the show itself, especial the quality of the wrestling. The new regime would do well to ditch this idiotic edict immediately.