7 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE RAW (Jul 27)

4. Ali Suffers Glorified Squash

Bobby Lashley vs. Mustafa Ali could have been done without hurting the loser. There's a way of having Ali emerge from such a bout without losing any heat: it involves him mounting more than a few slithers of offense and scoring a close near-fall or two against the brute before eventually falling to his superior power, yet WWE took the opposite route last night.

This was effectively an extended squash. Lashley took 90% of the bout, completely controlling Ali throughout. Mustafa, who returned with great aplomb last week, looked like a helpless shmuck, only scoring a couple of hopeless offensive flurries before eating the dirt, leaving him far weaker than when he walked in.

Lashley should be beating a guy like Ali at the moment, given The Hurt Business' focus, though this layout was entirely harmful. If projecting complete and utter dominance was the goal then WWE could have had Lashley run through a goober in a couple of minutes. They instead sacrificed a pushable commodity who only came back to television last week, meaning investing in him is already pointless.