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 11.07.16:
– Rich Swann & Sin Cara d. Brian Kendrick & Noam Dar @ 4:08 (TV TIME) [**1/4 ]
– Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows d. The New Day @ 6:45 (TV TIME) [**½]
– Survivor Series Qualifying Match: The Shining Stars d. Golden Truth @ 5:18 [¾*]
– Alicia Fox, Bayley & Sasha Banks d. Charlotte, Dane Brooke & Nia Jax @ 8:25 (TV TIME) [**]
– WWE Intercontinental #1 Contender Match: Sami Zayn pinned Rusev @ 5:00 (TV TIME) [**½]
– Kevin Owens d. Braun Strowman, Chris Jericho, Roman Reigns & Sami Zayn @ 10:58 (TV TIME) [***]

THE Right:

The New (Scottish) Day: Yes, this segment went way too long. Yes, I have this in the “right” because I am a total biased mark of The New Day. Before The New Day came out the other 4 teams bantered, much in the same way as the singles team did earlier in the night. That is one issue with this format of Raw vs Smackdown, everyone doesn’t like everyone on their team and the booking already feels tired. The New Day coming out with traditional Scottish attire, music and green pastures lighting up the entrance way was a stroke of genius. New Day’s promo was entertaining though, even though it went a little long. If you are a fan of The New Day then this segment is absolutely worth checking out.

Sing-a-Long: I read on Twitter as the segment was happening that people were speculating that the segment would be edited because of the crowd. I was ready for a train wreck, but what we got was the live crowd making Bayley feel more important than the creative team has been able to in her entire run on Raw thus far. Charlotte covering her ears as the fans serenaded Bayley was perfect and added to the moment well. I actually thought that Dana Brooke was going to get the spot when Charlotte introduced her, but was really pleased to be wrong. This wasn’t the quite the same formula the other teams used to set up their teams earlier with less bashing of each other and that felt nice.

Zayn vs. Ziggler: When Ziggler first issued the open challenge, Zayn is exactly the man I was hoping would take the spot. I feared they would squander the match on someone with Young or O’Neil however. The other popular vote, and by popular I mean what people feared WWE would do, was Rusev vs Ziggler. We saw plenty of that match last year and I don’t need to see it now. I popped when Stephanie announced that Sami was getting the shot, but then cringed with worry that they would give it to Rusev. This match was good, but nothing special. The finish with Zayn hitting Rusev with the kick while Rusev stood on the top rope was a thing of beauty. This is the second time Zayn and Rusev have faced this year on Raw and I haven’t loved either match. I would be interested to see what they could do with a long term program.

Fatal 5 Way: This was an interesting match for sure. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t a kendo stick being brought in 2 minutes into the match. This match did a great job at making Braun look strong against the top of the roster. Rollins beat Strowman senseless with the kendo stick for 30 seconds, only to have Strowman wrecking everyone about 30 seconds later. One has to wonder if this was really the best match for Stephanie to book. Having your five team members beating the hell out of each other with weapons less than 2 weeks before they are defending your brand is not exactly the best game plan. While the finish was cheesy of Reigns punching Owens out and onto Jericho, it worked well. Jericho is the one that could afford a pinfall more than anyone else here and it also gives Owens & Jericho a little more spark to their future feud.

puRgatoRy:
The Fifth Member Is: I feel like we all knew the answer was going to be Seth Rollins. However, after that “leak” of Sami Zayn getting the spot last week I think some were hoping that they would throw a curveball. Stephanie introduced the four already announced men and then brought out Rollins. This was a whole lot of talking from Stephanie, thankfully Owens & Jericho got some good jokes in before all hell broke loose. You know Vince was salivating at his WrestleMania 35 main event going face-to-face during this segment with Strowman and Reigns. The fatal five way match announcement was better than seeing them in a bunch of singles matches in my opinion and makes a lot of sense, as long as Owens doesn’t eat the pin.

The Debut of Noam Dar: We got the debut of a fresh face in the Cruiserweight division tonight. Noam Dar debuted in front of his homeland to the biggest ovation anyone in the division has received since it debuted. The match was your typical cruiserweight tag that saw everyone get some spots in, but no one really stood out. I was very confused by putting the hometown debuting superstar on the heel side of the coin. I swear they can get nothing right in this division. Kendrick (after being the one pinned) blaming Dar for the loss and attacking him allowed the crowd to pop for Dar’s comeback, which as we would see by the end of the night wouldn’t happen a lot. It would be nice if the American audience could keep the energy alive for him. Also with this being the second pin Swan has on Kendrick in three weeks, I hope that Swann now wins the title on the debut episode of 205 Live.

Goldberg & Brock II Videos: A basic review of everything you’ve seen the past month or so split into two videos. They also talked about 2004 a lot and the fact the Goldberg hasn’t wrestled in 12 years. The second video with Lesnar’s interview weaved in was better than Goldberg’s. Still trying hard to find a reason I care.

Anderson & Gallows vs The New Day: Solid match here that could have been enhanced if the crowd gave any cares. This would have been a good spot for a non-finish I would say. Anderson & Gallows have lost to The New Day so many times at this point that no one really takes them serious as contenders. It’s good to see Anderson & Gallows keep the momentum alive from their win over Enzo & Cass though.

Six Women One Ring: All the energy the crowd had in the previous segment was sucked out like a vortex once this got started. The biggest plus of the match was Nia Jax really looking like a beast. The crowd did not care unless Bayley was in the match, and even by the end of the match they barely cared about that. Bayley pinning Charlotte should be a further step in their feud, that should lead to Bayley’s title shot at

THE wRong:
The Shining Stars: No matter what gimmick these two have had it has been hard to enjoy them. I didn’t mind just Epico & Primo with A.W. as their manager, but that was back in 2012. Los Matadores were only interesting for El Torito. This gimmick has been bland and it seems they have gotten worse in the ring as their matches are so lifeless and boring. I didn’t like this match two weeks ago and I still didn’t like it here. Only good thing from this match was the segment earlier in the night with Truth telling Goldy that he had traded their spot for a timeshare.

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING

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The 1122nd edition is over…

4.0

The final score: review Poor

The 411

It took an hour for me to find anything “right” with this show, and even that could have easily ended up in purgatory. At times it felt like we were watching the same segment, just with different moving parts from the men, tag teams and ladies teams. Thankfully Sami beat Rusev and we will have bit of a dream match at Survivor Series with Zayn vs Ziggler. Most of this show just felt “there”, and the audience replied as so with little or no reaction to a lot of the show. Even with this lackluster build my level of excitement for Survivor Series stays high as the match quality should be strong.