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 10.31.16:
– Trick or Street Fight: Enzo Amore pinned Luke Gallows @ 4:29 (TV TIME) [**¼]
– Cruiserweight Title: TJ Perkins d. Brian Kendrick by COUNT OUT @ 3:05 (TV TIME) [*½]
– Braun Strowman won a Battle Royal by last eliminating Sami Zayn @ 6:17 (TV TIME) [**]
– Cedric Alexander, Lince Dorado & Rich Swann d. Ariya Daivari, Drew Gulak & Tony Nese @ 5:50 [***]
– Nia Jax pinned Bayley @ 5:51 [**1/2]
– Cesaro & Sheamus d. The Shining Stars by submission @ 4:05 [**]
– United States Title: Roman Reigns © d. Chris Jericho by DQ @ 12:13 (TV TIME) [***¼]

THE Right:
Big Woody: I recognize that a lot of fans don’t enjoy holiday themed episodes or gimmicks like this but I love them. Perhaps it stems from my first ever WWF show being the Thanksgiving SmackDown episode in 2000 but I mark out for them every time. The match was certainly nothing great, but it was a lot of fun. The candy corn striped kendo stick that Gallows used to beat down Enzo was probably my favorite of all the Halloween themed gimmicks around ringside. I am also pleased that I got to make a “Big Woody” joke in regards to Big Cass’ Woody costume. I assume these two teams will continue feuding, despite likely being on the same team at Survivor Series.

“My Wife Loves You”: That line from Foley to Roman in response to the jeers Reigns received from Hartford made me pop. This was a good segment to advance the upcoming 5-on-5 at Survivor Series. I think these three being announced for the team was pretty much a given, but we had a nice promo to set it up. Jericho continues to be the most over babyface heel on the roster, I don’t think anyone is currently receiving more cheers. The shame in that is that Owens is being completely overshadowed almost every night. Owens more than held his own though with putting Foley in his place. Mick also continues his string of strong promos.

Charles Wright Homage!! : The New Day won Halloween 2016! Seeing Kofi as The Godfather, Woods as Papa Shango and Big E as Kama Mustafa was an amazing site. On par with this site was the promo New Day cut about the Survivor Series tag team match. My only gripe would be Woods stating that he did not watch SmackDown, but then seemed pretty knowledgable about all the teams once they started to discuss them. Still this 2 minute segment was an A+.

Cruiserweight 6 Man: I speak a little later about my frustrations with the CW division, but this match was fun. However, while the match was fun the big questions still are “what’s the point” and “why should anyone care?” We have seen a lot of these six man tags now for the division and really it is not helping to establish anyone. All six guys had a nice showcase here but the division is now two months old and the only real stars are Kendrick and Perkins. I would love to see a division ranking made for these guys, have singles matches with them and make them matter for something. WWE wants this division to be special, make it different. All the nitpicks about the division aside though, this match was a lot of fun and we didn’t have any commercials to interrupt the action!

Roman vs JeriKO: A good main event is always a good thing as it is the last thing we walk away remembering. This was a good main event, and not what I was expecting. Since we had not seen Rollins all night I fully expected him to make an early save and the match be turned into an unannounced Shield reunion tag team match. I was thankful to be wrong, instead we saw 12 minutes of Reigns and Jericho working a smart TV main event. Owens presence was never too strong which was a welcome change after last night’s Universal Title match. Bless the Hartford fans that still had the will to cheer for Rollins to come save Reigns after the match, I am not sure I would have had it in me after the show they had sat through. This crowd would have been great if you put a really hot show in front of them.

puRgatoRy:
Cruiserweight Title: The division is so frustrating. None of the matches have been worth going out of one’s way to watch since they debuted on Raw. As much love as I have for TJP I was hoping he would just lose the rematch and Kendrick could move along. However we got to watch three minutes of action out of a six minute match and nothing really happened. The match going to commercial after 24 seconds is one of the biggest frustrations I have with the way the current product is produced. I understand it’s all about selling the WWE Network, but what harm would it do to let us see the entire six minute match. Matches like this are hard to rate as I didn’t really see anything. Kendrick winning by count out leads me to believe we get a third straight PPV title match between the two at Survivor Series, which is not what the division needs.

Braun vs. The Jobbers: Tonight the jobber team was made up of the entire Raw/Superstars undercard. I enjoyed the interaction between Braun and Foley backstage with Strowman demanding to be put on the 5-on-5 team and was excited to see the battle royal. However, once the battle royal began and we saw who was there I was reminded of how sad the undercard really looks right now. It was clear from the start that the only two men that stood a chance of wining and joining Team Raw was Strowman or Zayn. Cesaro & Sheamus could have pulled an upset, but I expect to see them on the Raw tag team side. The match itself was a typical battle royal, which means not very good or exciting. The ending with Zayn trying to be Chris Benoit to Braun’s Big Show was entertaining. Braun triumphed and I am happy for it. Though Sami on Team Raw would have likely increased the match quality, Strowman has potential and his weaknesses can be hid in the ten man match. I expect Braun to be eliminated by DQ at the show.

Team Charlotte: I was going to do two different write ups, one for the segment for Charlotte/Bayley and one for Bayley vs Jax, but really I felt the same about both. Charlotte talked, put herself over and ran down the lady who is likely her next opponent in Bayley. We have seen Bayley and Jax wrestle a few times in NXT, including a fantastic match last December at Takeover: London. This match however was not designed to reach that level but served it’s purpose. Jax looked like a monster and Bayley fought from underneath. Raw worked so hard to build Jax up for weeks, having her kill no-names and then eventually moving onto Alicia Fox at Night of Champions. However, we had not seen Jax from then until now on Raw or PPV. That means they spent 2 months building her up, let her be forgotten, and now they are building her back up again. The SmackDown ladies division may not have the names that Raw is presenting, but thankfully they have been able to maintain some equality in their division even though they are working with one less hour of TV a week. If there was a time to have a dusty finish, it was here.

Teams I Don’t Care About: As per usual the third hour of the show feels like a huge chore to sit through. Of the four men in the match, the only one I give a damn about is Cesaro and WWE continues to try and make me not even care about him. The match was very standard and in reality I wish they would have used it as a Survivor Series qualifier.

THE wRong:
Rusev Helps Promote Fantasy Warfare: Why am I supposed to care about this feud? It is being hyped as fantasy warfare becomes reality, but really it is better as fantasy. I can guarantee that every person could have a more interesting match on WWE 2K17 with Goldberg & Lesnar then we will get at Survivor Series. The reaction the fans have been giving Goldberg has been a big plus, but it is the only thing really enjoyable about the program thus far. We all knew that Lesnar was not going to face Goldberg tonight without being hyped. I hope that the two do not share an arena until Survivor Series to at least give that build. Also sacrificing Rusev, AGAIN, for a legend is beyond frustrating. He has been made a joke by The Rock, Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels and now Goldberg. The guy is money on the mic and very good in the ring, yet gets treated like a nobody whenever a star of the past is around. Goldberg has been out of the ring for 12 years now and the ring rust already was showing with the two moves he hit here. It looked like he slipped trying to go for the jackhammer originally on Rusev. Timing is a hard thing to get back and Bill has less than three weeks to do so.

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING

HELL IN A CELL THOUGHTS:
There are enough Hell in a Cell reviews floating around out there, so gonna just add my own on here.

– Roman Reigns © pinned Rusev to retain the US Title in a Hell in a Cell Match (***½)
– Bayley pinned Dana Brooke (*½)
– Anderson & Gallows d. Enzo & Cass (**)
– Kevin Owens © pinned Seth Rollins to retain the Universal Title in a Hell in a Cell Match (***¾)
– Brian Kendrick d. TJ Perkins © by submission to win the Cruiserweight Title (**½)
– Cesaro & Sheamus d. The New Day (c) by DQ; New Day retains the Tag Team Titles (**½)
– Charlotte pinned Sasha Banks © to win the Women’s Title in a Hell in a Cell Match (****)

The 1120th edition is over…

5.5

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

The show was mostly a split between the good and the purgatory, which isn’t terrible. However, the opening segment of the show was a drag and I really worry what is next for Rusev. The Cruiserweight division was a mixed bag tonight but still feels directionless. The ladies build worked okay as we head towards Survivor Series. The interesting item with the interpromotional matches at Survivor Series is going to be what happens with the under card. Between the men & tag team match there will be 15 guys booked from each roster and nearly the entire women’s divisions on both sides. It worries me that there are so many guys on the Raw roster that are so uninteresting that are going to be booked to fill up the now four hour show.