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Wrestling’s 4Rs: The Right, Wrong and Ridiculous of WWE Raw

September 24, 2016 | Posted by Jack Stevenson
6.5
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Wrestling’s 4Rs: The Right, Wrong and Ridiculous of WWE Raw  

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.


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Raw 9.19.16:
Non-Title Match: US Champion Rusev vs. Seth Rollins fought to a double countout 11:50
– Braun Strowman defeated Sin Cara @ 1:48 via pin
– Charlotte and Dana Brooke defeated Sasha Banks and Bayley @ 11:07 via pin
– Bo Dallas defeated Gary Graham @ 1:18 via pin
Bets of Seven Series Match: Cesaro [3] defeated Sheamus [3] @ 8:51 via pin
– Zayn, Kofi, Big E, Enzo and Cass defeated Jericho, Epico, Primo, Anderson and Gallows @ 5:28 via pin
#1 Contender’s Match: The Brian Kendrick defeated Cedric Alexander, Rich Swann and Gran Metalik @ 15:06 via submission
Non-Title Match: Roman Reigns defeated Universal Champion Kevin Owens @ 14:43 via escape

THE Right:
Rusev vs. Seth Rollins: An enjoyable and distinctive opening match that helped inch Seth Rollins that bit further towards the fan favourite status he should have been occupying ages ago. He seemed properly brave trying to chop down he mauling Rusev. While it was all leading to an inconclusive double count-out finish, on this occasion it wasn’t quite so frustrating, as neither man is in a position to be losing cleanly and we got an exciting brawl after the match was over, with Rollins flinging himself off the announce table and cleaning out Rusev with a high crossbody to add an exclamation mark to the whole segment. I liked this a good deal, and for the first time in a while it really feels like Rusev could be a credible main event threat, which is terrific news because he’s terrific and deserves immense success.

Cesaro vs. Sheamus: So over the last two weeks the main recurring storyline of these reviews has been ‘Jack argues with the comments section about whether or not it’s possible for someone to win a Best of 7 Series 5-2.’ At this point, I am willing to accept that my lack of knowledge of American sporting traditions led me to erroneously believe that it would be entirely normal for Cesaro and Sheamus to finish the series even if a winner had been confirmed by Match 6. Still, I wish we had got a winner in Match 6. I wish Sheamus had won this and taken a 4-2 victory because Cesaro’s comeback from 3-0 to tie it at 3-3 strains the boundaries of credibility. It’s more grating because Best of 7 Series’ are meant to be very straight laced affairs, with the concept borrowed from real, competitive sports that don’t feature men in their underwear. Yet their booking mostly seems to go for the ridiculously overdramatic, with someone racing into a 3-0 lead and then conveniently falling to pieces to set up a 7th match. No one wins from this sort of structure. Cesaro and Sheamus have each absorbed three consecutive defeats over the past month and a bit. Neither man is going to look super strong coming out of it, and each of the otherwise very good matches in the series have been tainted by the sense that the winner either doesn’t matter or isn’t in doubt. Of course, this was another tremendous slugfest between the two with little callbacks to previous bouts in the series, and the finale should be an absolute belter, but I also kind of wish it wasn’t necessary? The whole thing still goes in the right though, because the sheer talent of both men and the strength of their matches overcomes the lazy booking fairly handily. It’s just, the lazy booking would be so simple to change…

Here Come the Cruiserweights!: So, here’s the thing about cruiserweights and their place in 2016. When WCW first introduced cruiserweights to mainstream American wrestling, they did so as a tacit acknowledgement that a lot of their in ring product was fucking atrocious, primarily consisting of men in their mid forties shuffling aimlessly about, occasionally throwing a slow motion punch or kick at each other if they could be bothered. The cruiserweights were by and large not in their mid forties and were full of zest and ambition and had a proclivity for spring boarding to the outside and doing backflips, and as such they were wonderfully refreshing. But, in 2016 WWE, whose failings are the cruiserweights compensating for? Look at every other person who wrestled on this Raw, and you’ll notice that 97% of them are, bare minimum, highly competent and pretty entertaining. The point of this diatribe is that I’m nervous about the Cruiserweight Division. Their primary purpose is to have good matches, but there’s already several of those on Raw each week. In fact, the quality of the wrestling is one of the things that doesn’t need fixing about the show. That’s not to say that more great wrestling is ever a bad thing, but it might lead to a struggle to carve out a distinctive identity. The high flying antics are a total joy to watch, but the current WWE Champion can do them just as well, if not better, so that doesn’t necessarily set them apart either. Plus, a good chunk of matches feature a dive or two to the floor anyway…Having worried sufficiently about the future, however, I’m going to try and live in the present a bit and say that this four way was really great stuff, with three guys hell bent on getting themselves over with manic, soaring spots, and Brian Kendrick keeping everything together with his veteran instincts. Kendrick is a fine choice for number one contender. He had a really terrific Cruiserweight Classic (although who didn’t, I suppose? Ho Ho Lun?) and will obviously have no problem adjusting to the demands of the main roster. Good enough to indicate to justify the existence of the division going forward? Hmmm…

Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens: Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens have superb chemistry together, and while this wasn’t one of their best outings, it was still a good brawl and a decent use of the cage stipulation. The most dramatic moment, however, came at the conclusion of the bout, which saw Seth Rollins come out to rescue Reigns from the clutches of Owens and Rusev, leaping from the top of the cage to wipe them both out! It was a very exciting moment and the most heroic thing Rollins has done in two years, a promising sign indeed. This was a fine match, capped off with a hot angle, making for an overall enjoyable end to the show.

puRgatoRy:
Opening Promo: There’s no point in repeating every single week that opening every single Raw with the same old in ring promo is such an unbelievably lazy, stupid thing to do, because everyone who watches the show semi regularly is aware of it, apart from the people who really matter. It seems worthwhile bringing it up on this occasion though because actually, I really believe the main storyline on Raw at the moment, which ponders how much Stephanie McMahon knew about Triple H helping Kevin Owens to win the championship, is a very good one. Lots of different mini angles are spinning out of it- we’ve got Foley worrying that he’s being taken for a fool by Steph but trying to give her the benefit of the doubt and losing his authority over the roster in the process, we’ve got Rollins furious that HHH turned his back on him and convinced that Steph was in cahoots, and we’ve got Kevin Owens fending off the twin threats to his title from Rollins and Reigns. It should be excellent and in brief flashes it is, but it’s being filtered through the same old Raw format so the drama manifests itself in dry, repetitive promos like this one. Basically, Roman Reigns came out to the ring to vent his frustrations, and ended up arguing with the Raw GMs about how he’d been cheated out of major victories in two consecutive weeks by Triple H and then Rusev. Mick Foley started to talk about what a super swell all round delight of a human Roman Reigns is, which irritated me although I’m not sure whether it should. I don’t know if Reigns’ booking is so obnoxious any more, or whether it was for ages and so I’m hyper aware of any time he’s made to look even remotely strong. It all led to a rematch between Reigns-Owens being booked in the main event, and finally, when Kevin came out to protest, Foley made it a steel cage match. There were certainly things to like about all of this; Mick Foley growing increasingly frustrated that nobody trusts him anymore was great, because many of the best wrestling angles are laced with paranoia and suspicion, and in the end the whole segment led to a creation of a very good main event. I just wish that the positives hadn’t been so diluted by being forced to adhere to the exhausted, stifling Raw formula.

Sasha Banks & Bayley vs. Charlotte & Dana Brooke: A bit weird to seeing Charlotte and Dana working smoothly together after weeks of overt dissension, but honestly if they did split no one would care about Dana as a singles wrestler at the moment, and the angle was being rushed along too quickly anyway. It would be nice to see some consistency though. The match itself was OK but never quite got going, with everyone involved seemingly content to turn in an adequate performance.

Bo Dallas vs. Gary Graham: Of the three Raw wrestlers who are allowed the privilege of mauling hapless goons every week, Bo Dallas is kind of the weirdest. There’s an obvious benefit to the imposing duo of Braun Strowman and Nia Jax beating up scrawny dweebs every week, but having been presented as a dweeb himself for so long, Bo Dallas vs. Gary Graham seems almost like a match between two equals. I’m not sure what the purpose of Dallas singing nursery rhymes is or what WWE’s intentions are with all these squashes, but we’ll see if it heads anywhere interesting.

Cavalcade of characters: The usual really funny stuff from Chris Jericho in this segment, who belittled Mick Foley with an inspired, 1004 holds themed promo. It then transitioned into a sprawling, multi man segment, with Enzo & Cass, The New Day, The Shining Stars, the Club and Sami Zayn all coming out and trading barbs. Since there were precisely ten men in the ring, it’s unsurprising that the end game of this was a ten man tag match, but it was a pity the promo didn’t have more room to breathe overall. There could have been some really enjoyable interactions between Jericho, The New Day and Enzo & Cass, but they weren’t given enough time to let anything really fun happen. A watchable few minutes of TV on the whole, though.

10 Man Tag Match: A match that had the same problem as the promo that preceded it. Too many guys, not enough time. The sheer amount of bodies almost guaranteed that this would be a decent match since there was no chance of anyone tiring out and slowing the pace down, but it also made it hard to really hook in to. Nobody got a major opportunity to shine, and as such I’m not convinced this will have done wonders to make people very excited for any of the matches these ten will be involved in at Clash of Champions.

THE wRong:
Sin Cara vs. Braun Strowman: Strowman’s flattenings are beginning to lose their charm, particularly since the Nia Jax squashes have span off into a proper angle with Alicia Fox. Hopefully with the imminent return of Luke Harper, Strowman will find a greater sense of purpose…

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING

The 1113th edition is over…

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LOVE IT!

6.5
The final score: review Average
The 411
An extremely average episode of Raw for the most part. Very not bad. The debut of the Cruiserweights is worth watching, as are a few of the matches, but you'll surely get better wrestling from the pretty stacked Clash of Champions card. It's best seen as a reasonably effective way to kill three hours.
legend

article topics :

RAW, Wrestling's 4Rs, WWE, Jack Stevenson