8 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Monday Night Raw (September 25 - Results & Review)
Downs…
3. Tommaso Ciampa Vs Ludwig Kaiser
Call it spoilt for choice or just plain spoilt, but reality of the raising of the quality bar in wrestling over the last decade or so has resulted in matches such as these being lost to time before the show has even ended, let alone the week.
Tommaso Ciampa Vs Ludwig Kaiser was good, but great is the new good, and when the bell-to-bell doesn't thrill, WWE's angle advancement has to count double. In this case, both developments here left a little something to be desired. Calling out the Intercontinental Champion, Ciampa got his Gunther showdown next week, but the titleholder put a contract signing in the way of that, and had his own boring business to get to.
The Imperium in-fighting sucks. Ludwig Kaiser and especially Giovanni Vinci living in some vague fear of Gunther's wrath feels more rote sub-Roman Reigns that how exactly the group would act in hard times. The chain-of-command stuff here (Vinci screwing up is Kaiser's problem, Kaiser screwing up will land him in hot water with 'Der Ring General') was trash too. These belong on the show for Gunther's incredible reign with the secondary title and having banger matches, not being caught doing their admin.