8 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Aug 5)

1. An Attention-Grabbing Opening

You know how to hook fans on the opening seconds of Raw when you’re starting the show with a somewhat typical promo?

Start it almost midstream with the wrestler standing on the announcers’ desk berating the commentators. Right out of the gate, Samoa Joe was yelling at Michael Cole, Corey Graves and Renee Young, proclaiming his innocence in last week’s “attack” on Roman Reigns. The image of him standing there barking was eye-catching and captivating, which is the opposite of what we often get, with entrance music playing a superstar to the ring while the announcers prattle on.

It doesn’t hurt that Joe is great at showing intensity in his promos, which really helps get your attention too. The segment also served as a good way to show the footage from SmackDown (helpfully re-edited to look less hokey) of the equipment falling on Roman without seeming too forced.

And bonus points for Joe threatening to stay out there and shut down Raw, daring someone to interrupt him… only for Becky Lynch to stride out for her match. Bravo.