RAW Superthread

There was 8 matches last night.

4 of them were enhancement matches (Sami/Titus, Gallows/Anderson vs Golden Truth, Strowman's squash and Cesaro/Sheamus squash). By "enhancement match", I mean they seemed to serve no purpose to a story, but were seemingly only to have one person look good by beating another. If you missed the matches, you missed absolutely nothing.

And that's ignoring Swan/Nese, which was more pure filled with no story involved. Their purpose was to fill time.

So we're two weeks out from a PPV, and 5 of the 8 matches on display had no actual purpose with regards building towards the PPV.

Upside, I did enjoy the tag match (Jericho/Owens, as usual, being the highlight of the show, and bringing out the best in the New Day), the title switch was a good moment with, you know, consequences! And I don't mind the ending to Perkins/Kendrick cause it's obviously a storyline device building to a title match, and planting doubt in fans' minds that Perkins can win.

It's just....jesus, there's a lot of filler. And I don't buy the "three hours instead of two" nonsense either. It's laziness on WWE's part, because they are only interested in building three stories on Raw, and after that, everyone else just gets squash matches.

We're also one show left before the PPV, and we know ONE MATCH (Rusev vs Reigns). No idea of the main event, no idea of the tag title match (is it Cesaro/Sheamus or Gallows/Anderson facing the New Day? Or are we now doing Owens/Jericho as well?), no undercard. We can make reasonable guesses about some (Perkins/Kendrick, possible Seth/Owens if Seth is fit), but with 2 weeks to go, it would be nice if we had some confirmations....

They really struggle to use Reigns as a face. The crowd chant USA USA as he comes out as the US champ but instead of going the patriotic face route he goes the smug git route and then Lana who is super over comes out only for her to once again laugh in her face about how he messed up her wedding celebration. It's like they want to keep him getting mixed reactions instead of getting over

Gallows & Anderson were described as: "Dominant" and "running roughshod over the tag division" yet all I can remember from them before this show was seemingly a never ending run of loses to the New Day.

well at least them winning here was a stp in the right direction.

From the moment they said the womens match was the main event and referenced Trish and Lita etc it felt like it could be a big night for Sasha esp as it also means Charlotte does not have the loss on PPV and mess up her title defenses on PPV record while it also means they can book Charlotte vs Sasha in another title (re) match for the next Raw PPV.

Jeri-KO were all over the show so that def improved things.
Ashton & Masterson were actually decent on commentary / their interaction with Jeri-ko too

I feel bad about how much I just think ugghh when the Susan Kolman stuff starts, they really shouldn't do it and Conors cure 1 after another as that one is so much more suitable for the show but I guess Enzo & Cass did a decent job with their sctick to keep it ok.

The Kendrik / TJP match was decent for the cruiserweights as it had a storyline for the Raw crowd and will probably lead to the next title match but I was worried for Swann Vs Nese as unless they really had an incredible match the crowd were not given any reason to care about the match that had nothing on the line in it. Thankfully the crowd weren't dicks though and gave em a chance (no CM Punk type chants).

2 Raw's in a row with no Nia Jax... odd but I guess they couldn't have another squash after the Braun & Cesaro/Sheamus ones - too many people on Raw need protecting, I mean Bayley & Bo were having squash matches last week.

Main event time and we get a promo that goes back 2 years... for a Raw main event... they are so building to a big moment and a title switch. This also feels like a proper main event because of that feeling that maybe a title might change hands, maybe I shouldn't switch over cos I might miss something big... that said they have had better matches and there was one weird botch on the outside but it was a really good match, the crowd were into it (this is wrestling chant) and yes a big moment was delivered plus (even though there is almost zero contact Charlotte's moonsaults - this time corkscrew- to the outside do look great)

actually a really good Raw although the past few weeks and the 3 hour lenght made me not care as much as it was happening. Hope they can keep that standard up and maybe that will change

Also the Raw womens division is about to get better and less repetitive. I didn't get this in the version of Raw I saw but Emma(lina) is coming back! and seemingly they will be showing off her hotness even more now



calm down TBC.