wrestling / Columns
Wrestling’s 4Rs: The Right, Wrong and Ridiculous of WWE Raw
Loading...How the 4Rs of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R’s. The column will run TWO-THREE times a week. We will group our feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and needs discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come. This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a “mark” column, nor a “smark” column, our goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. We will not apologize for our opinions, they are as they are, whether positive or negative.
Raw 8.0116:
QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
– Chris Jericho defeated Enzo @ 10:11 via DQ
– Braun Strowman defeated Jorel Nelson @ 0:46 via pin
– Darren Young defeated Titus O’Neil @ 1:58 via pin
– Cesaro defeated Sheamus @ 11:01 via pin
– Sin Cara and Neville defeated The Dudleyz @ 5:18 via pin
– Non-Title Match: Champion Sasha Banks defeated Dana Brooke @ 2:45 via pin
– Luke Gallows defeated Kofi Kingston @ 1:31 via pin
– US Title Match: Champion Rusev defeated Cesaro @ 9:45 via pin
THE Right:
The Demon AWAKENS: Since Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor was confirmed for Summerslam a few weeks ago, WWE have built to the match exclusively by having the two talk on the microphone. This sounds counter productive in the extreme, but it’s actually worked out OK so far. Rollins’ promo on this week’s Raw was fine, branding Balor disrespectful and arrogant while simultaneously making himself out to be one of the greatest wrestlers in history, but Finn’s segment was just superb. I mean, it was melodramatic nonsense, but that’s why it was superb. Pro wrestling doesn’t do subtle very well and is usually much better when it embraces ridiculousness and yet still manages to make some kind of vaguely serious point. As such, Balor explained the origins of his name, warned Rollins that he may just turn into a demon at Summerslam, and then his eyes exploded and he transformed into exactly that. It was more than a bit silly, but it did get the point across- Balor’s a real threat for the title at Summerslam and he’s not just the affable Irishman he appears to be. A bold promo that paid off handsomely.
Cesaro vs. Sheamus: Cesaro and Sheamus had the best match on last week’s show, and they came pretty close to achieving the same thing again. They played off their previous match nicely at times as well, such as mirroring its ending sequence only with Sheamus this time dodging the Neutraliser and the match continuing. For all his effort though, it wasn’t Sheamus’ night yet again, Cesaro getting him with a flash roll up to secure the victory. Two straight defeats to a perennial midcarder shows how far the Celtic Warrior has fallen since his WWE Championship run late last year, but the fact that he consistently appears on TV makes me think that there are still meaningful plans for his future. I’m glad that Cesaro got back to back clean victories, and it led smoothly into the main event match, which turned out to be even better!
Cesaro vs. Rusev: Any show with two Cesaro matches on it is doing something right. After polishing off Sheamus for the second week in a row, the Swiss Superman felt he’d earned his way into title contention, and so Mick Foley put him in a match with Rusev for the U.S. Championship in the main event. The bout got off to an electric start with Cesaro unleashing a barrage of uppercuts and the cannonball off the ring apron. Rusev had to throw him into the ring post three times just to calm him down. The intensity of the match barely relented as it wore on, which was impressive, and after Cesaro had swung the champion round and round, them seamlessly transitioned him into the Sharpshooter, it really felt like we might get a title change. Alas, Sheamus interfered to save Rusev’s skin, a finish which felt out of place in this otherwise no nonsense, hit each other as hard as we can until one of us has purple skin match. Still, if it sets up a couple of months of Rusev, Cesaro, Sheamus and Reigns taking it in turns to have awesome, lumpy brawls, it will have been a sacrifice worth making. Either way this was a really good match, and a really good way to sign off Raw.
puRgatoRy:
Chris Jericho makes more pals: Raw’s opening talking segment this time out featured Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, Enzo Amore and Big Cass- in fairness, if you must open Raw with the same kind of promo you always do, you couldn’t pick four better people to deliver it in interesting ways. The quartet traded some fun insults, and it’s great to see Jericho and Owens reestablishing their alliance again. They had great chemistry as two people who clearly despise each other but for mutual convenience are desperately trying to pretend they’re best pals and end up overcompensating. Unfortunately, this was all leading into a Chris Jericho-Enzo Amore match that didn’t really work at all. It never established any kind of rhythm and the crowd were disinterested. It only existed so Kevin Owens and Big Cass could interfere in it to set up a tag team bout at Summerslam, but they probably should have just finished the opening promo with a big brawl. It would have accomplished the same thing in much more efficient fashion.
Neville & Sin Cara vs. The Dudley Boyz: This match was nothing special, but the ending was certainly intriguing. Neville pinned D-Von with the Red Arrow, and post match Bubba Ray Dudley looked distinctly displeased with his erstwhile partner. Bubba’s made no secret in the past of his desire to bring his Bully Ray character to WWE, and that’s presumably where this storyline is heading, assuming it isn’t randomly dropped like some other midcard angles are. I would be interested to see how that character would fare in a new environment, and a Bubba vs. D-Von PPV match would be unique. They might have set up something quite interesting here…
:The Doctors Are In: Maybe I’m an utter child, but I found this quite funny. It was just a series of testicle jokes but the way Anderson and Gallows deadpanned them all made me laugh, as did the inexplicable decision to dress up as doctors. The ensuing Kofi Kingston-Luke Gallows match was nothing, although Xavier Woods did get a rare moment as the heroic one of the New Day when he saved Kofi from another ringpost groin attack. The New Day’s title reign is sputtering towards its conclusion, but at least we got some decent immature genital based puns out of it.
THE wRong:
Wedding Crasher: A couple of weeks ago Rusev and Lana got married and that is excellent news. Mad congrats to the both of them. Imagine if their children have Lana’s looks and Rusev’s grizzly bear strength? They’ll be absolutely unstoppable. Anyway, this week’s Raw saw their wedding turned into a mini angle, as they took over the ring to show us all their wedding photos in a most obnoxious manner. This continued on and on until Roman Reigns came out to mock them, and brawl with Rusev, and accidentally though quite possibly on purpose send Lana into a wedding cake in a most undignified fashion. On paper, this should have cruised into the right. Wrestling weddings are usually zany fun, Rusev and Lana are often fantastic on the microphone, and we’ve all suffered through dreary evenings in which a family member bores us all to death by subjecting us to an endless parade of photos from their tedious life. Unfortunately, the segment just didn’t click at all on the night. Rusev’s arguably got the best sense of comic timing on the whole roster but he couldn’t quite bring to life an interminable procession of photos. I mean, it was meant to be dull, that was the whole point, but also the whole problem. If the denouement of the segment had been spectacular it might have all been justified, but of particular concern to some backstage will be how little the crowd appreciated Reigns saving them from the ordeal of the smug wedding photos. The reaction to him was lukewarm and his promo exhibited many of his worst characteristics. He was smugger than Rusev and Lana as he cheerfully stole their champagne and implied that Rusev disappointed his bride on their wedding night, when we all know that the guy’s in fact an absolute stallion. Lana getting a face full of cake was funny in the basic, childish way that anyone getting a face full of cake is funny, but it didn’t justify the overlong, stuttering segment that went before it. I’m still looking forward to Reigns and Rusev at Summerslam, but I hope the build improves from here.
Sasha Banks vs. Dana Brooke: Sometimes, with the Women’s division, it feels like one-step forward, one step back. Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte two weeks ago was real progress. Dana Brooke is real regress. It’s cruel to be too harsh on her, I suppose, because she clearly has potential and was honing it nicely on NXT, but then she was suddenly placed on Monday Night Raw waaaaay before she was ready, and the results have been matches like this. Sasha did what she could but Dana frequently looked like she had no confidence in herself, her offense was performed with no conviction, and the finish almost came off the rails because Charlotte was meant to inadvertently slap Brooke but didn’t really make any contact. And all that in just two minutes! A real shame.
THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING
