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

1. Bait-And-Switch Matches

viking raiders new day
WWE.com

While the opening of Raw produced an entertaining display of pyrotechnics, the bout didn’t actually go to completion.

A falls count anywhere match ended in a draw, with both men being stretchered out. Then the second match, a tag bout between New Day and Viking Raiders, ended in a DQ because Samoa Joe interfered. And then a contest pitting Cesaro and No Way Jose never got started because the Swiss Cyborg attacked Jose on the outside and laid him out with a Neutralizer.

All of this was in the first hour of Raw, with four matches taking place and only one – a makeup six-man bout between New Day and Viking Raiders and Samoa Joe – reaching a conclusion via submission.

One of these would be fine. Even two over the course of an entire show wouldn’t be that bad. But all three in the first hour? That’s just ridiculous.

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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.