The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly Of WWE Raw 10.21.19

THE GOOD: Ric Flair Promo – I am calling this a promo, only because it is Ric Flair. Otherwise, I would call it a rambling old man goes off on live television. Only The Nature Boy can make this kind of thing work. He hyped up Crown Jewel, hyped up Team Hogan, hyped up Friday’s Smackdown on FS1 and then hyped up his final team member: The Stud.

THE GOOD: Drew McIntyre VS Ricochet – I do not call him The Stud for nothing folks. He is my #1 draft pick for the red brand and is on the verge of FINALLY becoming the World Champion Vince McMahon envisioned ten years ago. This bout against Ricochet was nothing more than a means to an end. Yeah, it was pretty darn good, but who really cares? Drew is back and is not messing around anymore. After Crown Jewel, I make him Seth Rollins’ next challenger to the Universal Championship. Heck, have him win the 2012 Royal Rumble if you want to wait until WrestleMania 36 to crown him. It’s time. Awesome intensity, great victory and cool moment being endorsed by the one and only Ric Flair. Drew McIntyre, The Stud.

THE GOOD: Vignettes – Hey, Raw has a lot of new stars to showcase. I dug the quick video package. Andrade, Aleister Black, and Buddy Murphy were all showcased here. If you want to know more about their chances to succeed on Monday nights, check out my new 411mania column. Quite the read.

THE GOOD: Don’t Pick A Fight With Aleister Black – Note to self, do not knock on any doors backstage at a WWE event. You may be getting kicked in the face a few minutes later. Aleister Black wrecking local talent for weeks/months is exactly the plan I laid out in my new 411mania column before he…well, you have to read the column for the rest. Cheap plug aside, this was solid and put over the former NXT Champion like a million bucks. Cool little five minute segment before the top of the hour.

THE BAD: King’s Court – On the latest 411 Foresight Wrestling Podcast, Steve Madsen and I discussed this story line. He doesn’t think a subject like adultery should even be shown on WWE TV, much less when it involves a real life couple. My counter point was that if the acting is good, if the live crowds enjoy the drama and the couple can pull it off, go for it! They are all adults and can separate entertainment and reality. That being said, this entire story line has NOT been good and is NOT getting over with the fans. Thus, it’s not worth it. Jerry Lawler did his best, but even his beloved Cleveland fans gave him the “What?” treatment. Not good. The lone positive was the tease that Rusev will put a beatdown on Lashley ASAP! Maybe Lana will have a change of heart?

THE GOOD: Sin Cara VS Andrade – Kudos to Zelina Vega for that amazing outfit and amazing job taking out Sin Cara ringside. Pretty sweet. If we can get a little cruiserweight action like that every Monday night, I am cool with it. Andrade is somebody to watch out for. We all know his talent. Just watch his NXT Championship matches if you doubt me. Sky is the limit for him on RAW. Rey Mysterio and Andrade need to get back to feuding again. Please?

THE UGLY: Humberto Promo – No explanation needed.

THE GOOD: Street Profits Tease – Hmmmm, doesn’t like AJ Styles? Samoa Joe is the first guy I came up with. Either way, I like the idea of them main eventing Raw, and I always love subtle hints to a surprise mystery tag team partner. Who wants the smoke? About time these two are wrestling on Mondays.

THE GOOD: Viking Raiders VS Zack Ryder/Curt Hawkins – Ouch, no pyro. I felt bad for Zack Ryder, future WWE Hall of Famer. Just a way to showcase the new RAW Tag Team Champions The Viking Raiders.

THE BAD: Check Please – Yeah, not a strong segment. I loved the idea of Rusev going to demolish Lashey in front of Lana (maybe to prove something to her), but it fell flat. I am all for risqué, Attitude Era story lines happening every once in awhile. You need that kind of raw edge in wrestling sometimes. However, as mentioned above, you have to walk a fine line between over the top fun and just silliness. This isn’t entertaining.

THE GOOD: Cain/Rey/Shelton – Alright, this segment was all over the place. First, Mysterio talked about his past retirement tease. Then he talked about Brock Lesnar getting beat at Crown Jewel. Then he was interrupted by Paul Heyman for the usual Brock Lesnar speech. Then came Shelton Benjamin out of nowhere. Original Heyman Guy I suppose? Then after a little pushing around, we got Cain Velasquez to take down Mr. Benjamin a few times. Not sure what to make of this all. The live crowd WAS into…until Cain started throwing those punches. I wish he would have just entered the ring and delivered a suplex or something. Would have mocked Lesnar’s Suplex City and kept his in-ring skills to a minimum. Built up Crown Jewel a lot, which was the entire point. Call this in the middle and leave it at that.

THE GOOD: Humberto VS Seth Rollins – Welcome to Raw kid. How about a match against the Universal Champion? Dang. Talk about a big spot right off the bat. Sink or swim time Humberto Carrillo. I compare this to the John Cena vs. Kurt Angle matchup in June 2002. New kid on the block makes an impact on night one but falls short to the more seasoned veteran at the top of the mountain…but still wins respect. Seth Rollins and Humberto Carrillo burned it down tonight in Cleveland. I wish the crowd was a tad bit more receptive. However, I get it. No appearance by Bray Wyatt (or The Fiend). He is on Smackdown, which means maybe, just maybe, this brand split actually is legitimate.

THE BAD: NXT/Smackdown Promotion – NXT is still getting some love from USA Network but just barely. I know I saw one promo running down the card for Wednesday night. I just wish there was more than the usual standard advertisements thrown in between commercial breaks. Ditto for Smackdown on FOX. Well, FS1 this week. That won’t be a good number. We all know that television ratings could use a swift boost. I would have RAW promote the heck out of both shows NOW!

THE GOOD: 24/7 Title Nonsense – If Carmella and R-Truth are done, we needed a new champ. The Singh Brothers dancing around Bollywood with the gold is fine. Sure. It is silly and can last a couple of weeks. Me personally? I would go back to Drake Maverick and Renee trying to consummate their marriage. I want WWE to show them both sitting there on opposite ends of the bed. Drake losing his mind with a full beard, Renee reading a lovey dovey romance novel. Pure comedy gold with BOTH just losing all motivation to remain married until the 24/7 Championship is theirs! Get back to them.

THE BAD: No Women Matches – In a small defense of WWE here, Crown Jewel has no women matches to promote. Thus, in theory, there is nothing being built right now. On the flip side, I admit it. I didn’t even notice there were no women matches until I logged into Twitter just before posting and saw a post. My bad I guess. It never even occurred to me. You can draw your own conclusion as to what that means. Long story short, I don’t think it took away from the show whatsoever, just as I honestly didn’t even notice. Let’s not crucify WWE here. They have had women tag team titles introduced, Elimination Chamber matches, Money in the Bank matches Royal Rumbles, main events on pay-per-view, and just headlined Wrestle FREAKIN’ Mania! One bad night does not erase all of that. Still though, far too many talented women on the roster to not be seen at all throughout three hours.

THE GOOD: Main Event – Great hook with The Street Profits mystery tag team partner. I loved the idea of nobody showing up, even after the bell rang. The OC were able to take a three on two advantage. Like heel should do. Plus, it kept up the anticipation all the way until the very end of the show. As noted, I could only think of Samoa Joe as a guess. New to Raw, due for a face run and dislikes AJ Styles. other than that, it had to be someone debuting from NXT. The match was okay, but all anybody cared about was the fact that The Street Profits were main eventing their Raw debut match and had a surprise. Silly me. It was Kevin Owens! Another one of my guys to watch out for. Again, new 411mania column ladiesand gentlemen. He came out to even the odds, gave AJ Styles a stunner and allowed The Street Profits to pick up the win. Very cool.

SUMMARY: Pretty decent show. All of the ‘good’ segments were just barely passable with nothing being memorable or stand out. Drew McIntyre is back with a vengeance. Humberto had a strong showing, Crown Jewel received some build, and we had a fun main event. I will go with a 7 out of 10.