8 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (August 1)
6. Effective Squashes
Some readers seem to be confused about squash matches, that it would be perfectly fine to establish Braun Strowman and Nia Jax by having them beat Alicia Fox, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel and Summer Rae week after week.
But while this column heartily endorses squash matches like the ones Jax and Strowman won Monday night, this should not go on in perpetuity. If Jax and Strowman are still beating local competitors two months from now, something is wrong. But in these first several weeks, it allows the announcers to gush and fans to “oooh” and “aaah” at their power moves without damaging the reputation of anyone on the main roster.
For example, Nia’s new finisher (at least, she won the match with it) of a fireman’s carry into a powerslam looked pretty effective, more so than the legdrop she had been using. It drew a pretty good reaction from the crowd. And Byron Saxton interviewing Evan Anderholm about why he’d volunteer to face Strowman (he gets $1,000 for the match, $5,000 if he wins!) was actually pretty funny.