-Holy smokes did Brock Lesnar bite it on his entrance to the ring to close up Raw this week. It happens, but it rarely happens to Lesnar. He’s almost always polished and perfect out there when what he’s being asked to do doesn’t include a microphone.
It’s all about the war
-As for the rest of the show this week, it was centered all around final hype for Survivor Series and WarGames. And why wouldn’t it be?
-Look, I get that WWE has three top alpha characters on the babyface team for the men’s WarGames match. Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, and Roman Reigns should all want to be the leader of the team and blah, blah, blah. The thing is, the last thing WWE needs is another “can they coexist” storyline with their babyfaces. They ran it with the women around Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair and now with the men? Everyone comes across as unlikable when bickering the way these guys did in the show opening promo. Seeing them all in the ring together was compelling and the Reigns tease of “that belt would look better on my shoulder” was a great line, but the story didn’t need the dissension. Fans want to cheer their top guys while they beat up the bad guys. The total build wasn’t derailed or anything, but they got too cute.
From The Takedown on SI
-Gunther vs. Carmelo Hayes in the Last Time Is Now tournament was fantastic. A really good match with a strong story of Hayes working and working to secure yet another upset. Commentary sold it well.
What do you do with Carmelo Hayes?
-Gunther won the match as expected, but what of Hayes? He’s in a tough spot at the moment. The HIM character needs wins in order to be taken seriously. Plus, that character is more of a heel in style, but his size and in-ring capacity suit being a babyface more effectively. There are parts of his act that contradict one another right now.
-The Dominik Mysterio and Little Cena segment was hot garbage. Period and end of story. It felt like old Vince McMahon comedy crap and didn’t get that over with the audience. Dominik Mysterio is a good enough heel, where he can be trusted to get heat just being him. A missed opportunity and a bad look for Triple H booking that stayed away from this kind of thing for a while.
-Rey Mysterio is the best. Honestly, there wasn’t much to his match with JD McDonagh this week, but there didn’t need to be. That’s how over he is. Fans invest. Cool to see him get a clean win.
Bow down to Becky Lynch
-Bow down at the feet of Becky Lynch. Just a tremendous promo from her this week, while standing in front of her WarGames team. Lynch hysterically trolled WWE officials for the loss of her WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship last week, but was able to circle that loss into the build of not only WarGames at Survivor Series, but a future singles match with AJ Lee at some point too. Plus, Lynch introducing her team members with backhanded compliments was icing on the cake. Just a pro doing pro work.
-Solo Sikoa vs. Penta in the Last Time Is Now tournament only kind of happened. Penta was legit injured during the match and the bout was stopped. So, Sikoa moved on and with Gunther picking up the win earlier in the night, that clearly wasn’t the planned finish. Sikoa vs. Gunther is an odd heel vs. heel match. Penta vs. Gunther would not only have made more sense in that regard, but it would have been a better match in the ring too. Bummer. Hopefully Penta is ok.
The bare minimum
-Maxxine Dupri didn’t get much time to shine this week after winning the Intercontinental Championship last week, but at least she got some. She needed a moment to rehash the win with the crowd. This the was bare minimum, but we did get to see potential challengers in Ivy Nile and Roxanne Perez line up for her. There seems to be a plan here.
-Surprised we didn’t get more hype for Stephanie Vaquer vs. Nikki Bella at Survivor Series. It was a video package this week and that’s it. Vaquer needs more time in front of the audience to present as a top star of the women’s division. They can’t hide her in these promos and she’s plenty good enough on the microphone to hold her own during a go-home babyface promo in the ring.
Flat finish
-Logan Paul and Drew McIntyre won the advantage for WarGames by beating The Usos in a tag team match this week. That was the right call and the match was fine. Heels with the advantage always works better for WarGames because it gives the babyface team an instant mountain to climb. The brawl at the end was predictable and also felt a little flat because the show went off the air just seconds after it started.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
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