RAW Deal: Vince McMahon is getting too old for this

LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA—To be honest, I don’t know what to tell you. 

I thought things were looking up after last week’s solid RAW. For some inconceivable reason (although I have a pretty solid theory) WWE fans were served a cold dish of tripe this Monday.  

To be fair, though: the show was actually not as offensive as my opinion suggests, but a good part of it was either lackluster or simply coasting along, and only a few parts of it were noteworthy. Against such a backdrop, the good becomes the just okay (which the WWE should not be settling for) and the worse becomes the worst (which they should completely avoid). I really just don’t understand why they do the boneheaded things they do sometimes. 

For example, I don’t understand why they just don’t return to a brand split to curb the overexposure of their relevant guys. Here’s something you might have noticed lately, if you’re an ardent WWE follower: we’ve been getting so many 6+ man tag team matches on WWE programming. SmackDown two weeks ago was capped by a monumental 10-man tag match, and the RAW a few days before that saw a big 6-man tag match with the main event players.  

This Monday, we got another 6-man tag match between Sheamus and the Usos against Cesaro and Gold & Stardust, and that’s just some downright lazy booking—they have three hours of RAW to fill, exactly the same amount of time as a PPV, and they couldn’t find more creative ways to advance each player’s respective story? Why couldn’t I get Cesaro squashing a jobber and having a promo battle with Sheamus to build up their match the traditional way? Why can’t I get the Dust Brothers messing with the Usos in a different match? Not that I didn’t think the 6-man tag match was good (because it really was) but must everything be crammed in a lazy package? 

I also don’t understand why Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins, a match already scheduled for this Sunday’s Night of Champions event, was given away in full and for free on TV. If you think this is a joke with an impending punchline, unfortunately, you’re wrong—they’re already billing the PPV match as a rematch. Is the WWE truly so desperate for ratings that they’d throw away what they told us was gonna be a special match? Never mind if shenanigans are going down in that same slot on Sunday—why would people tune in now?  

You can theorize that the absurdity of the decision is what will get people to tune in; that they’ll go on the Network (for $9.99—okay, sorry) for Night of Champions to find out how Vince McMahon is going to fix his latest booking gaffe, or whether he’ll get around to fixing it at all. Selling the product by erecting a shoddy structure and tearing it down to hype its reconstruction is not the way to go. The proper, traditional way of selling it by building it higher and higher so that people will be excited to see the finished structure is slowly disappearing the more this goes on, but I’d like to think that it’s all the product of a Vince who’s going senile. 

A Vince who refuses to relinquish the wheel, still blindly, drunkenly steering the ship into uncertain waters. Meanwhile, Triple H is standing frustrated in the corner, putting palm to face. 

High spots:

• I didn’t touch on this in the general review because of the more pressing overarching issues with this episode, but this Monday’s chapter of the John Cena/Brock Lesnar/Paul Heyman saga was masterfully handled. What started out as pure #ScumbagCena shenanigans with Cena (illegally) detaining Heyman in a room and threatening to beat him up cleverly turned into fodder for Paul Heyman’s “go over to the Dark Side” campaign, which he punctuates with a typically good Heyman promo. Stories become the good kind of complex when they’re self-aware enough to fuel their own growth, and tonight was a nice example of that. To cap it all off, we get a pre-Night of Champions brawl between Cena and Lesnar where Cena finally looks like he’s worth his challenge. Of course, that should only mean he’s losing again on Sunday.

• Again, as mentioned earlier, while I’m getting worn down by so many multi-man tag matches in mainstream wrestling as of late, Sheamus/Usos vs. Cesaro/Dust Brothers had some good action you should check out. Hopefully, it gets you hyped even more for their respective Night of Champions bouts.
• If you haven’t seen R-Ziggler from last Friday’s SmackDown, the WWE was kind enough to pretty much re-run the entire angle this Monday on RAW. It’s hilarious, although maybe not more so for those who’ve already seen it last Friday. That being said, the Ziggler/Miz feud is underrated in that it is the only midcard feud that’s consistently entertained me since SummerSlam. Kudos to everyone involved! 

• •While a terrible booking decision, Reigns vs. Rollins was a good match—even better than the mere idea of Reigns vs. Orton. If we have to take one positive thing away from it, it’s that we’re now guaranteed they can put on a fight worth watching.

Low blows:

• Bray Wyatt and the Family are currently treading water with a half-baked feud against the Family. While I don’t believe his star is permanently tarnished after the Cena and Jericho feuds, either find a better use for him or don’t use him yet. (A feud with the returning Christian would do him well.)
• WWE, your top Divas need more than five minutes to wrestle in a fashion that would properly establish them. One reason why the Divas can’t get a foothold is that the Divas who could wrestle well are shafted for time, and Divas who need time to get experienced don’t get it. It’s a vicious cycle.
• Cameron tried to get the referee to count a pinfall, but the ref wouldn’t do it. Why, you ask? Because Naomi was on her stomach. 

 

•Other than the unusual decision to give away Reigns/Rollins on free TV, this episode of RAW—the last one before the PPV, mind you—ended with the Rusev/Mark Henry segment. You know what would’ve bookended this show perfectly? JOHN CENA AND BROCK LESNAR BRAWLING! HOW HARD IS IT TO END THE SHOW WITH THAT? THEY’RE THE PPV MAIN EVENT!

What you may have missed last week: If you haven’t gone and seen NXT Takeover: Fatal 4-Way, YOU’RE MISSING OUT. No matter how dire the mainstream product is, there’s always something else out there that’s good. In this case, it’s still within the WWE’s walls—and if you must watch only one match from Takeover, go catch the fatal 4-way main event with Adrian Neville, Sami Zayn, Tyler Breeze, and Tyson Kidd. NXT, so far, is WWE wrestling done right. Still a good time to be a wrestling fan.

Next week: One of two things happens: either Lesnar shows up to RAW as WWE World Heavyweight Champion, or Cena does! – Rappler.com