Wrestling With Monday Night Raw

08/26/19 New Orleans, LA

Quick Results:

• King Of The Ring Match- Ricochet defeated Drew McIntyre

• King Of The Ring Match- Baron Corbin defeated The Miz

• Smackdown Women's Champion Bayley defeated Nikki Cross in a non-title match

• Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler (Glorious Show-offs trademark pending) won an 8-team "Tag Team Turmoil Match" to become the #1 Contenders for the Raw Tag Titles defeating The Viking Raiders, The B-Team, Heavy Machinery, The OC, The Revival, Lucha House Party, and Hawkins & Ryder

• Sasha Banks defeated Natalya

• Cedric Alexander defeated Cesaro

• US Championship- AJ Styles defeated Braun Strowman by DQ

Highlights:

• Sasha Banks new brutal heel turn is very entertaining. Banks can still sell a move and make it look absolutely devastating! The finish to the match with Natalya was very creative with Banks locking in her submission and, as Natalya is reaching for the rope, Banks traps one arm and uses Natalya's other injured arm to choke her out for the tap. Fans have wanted Sasha to turn heel since she left NXT and it's great to see that finally happen. However, the feud with Natalya should be kept short and Sasha should be allowed to move on to face a higher tier opponent.

• The Tag Team Turmoil Match was another convoluted name for a Gauntlet Match. WWE has a habit of making long names, catch phrases, or tag lines while at the same time shortening wrestler's names to make them more memorable. It's starting to get obnoxious. One good thing that came out of this match was The Viking Raiders and The OC getting a double DQ in their matchup. At first I wasn't crazy about this, but after I thought about it, I think this should lead into a program with these two teams. Both of these teams were huge in Japan and on the Indies and this will be the first real feud for the Raiders on the main roster. They should put on some great matches together and hopefully the crowd will start to care more about both these teams.

• Both King Of The Ring matches were what you would expect, with Ricochet vs. McIntyre being by far the better of the two. They lead to next week's Raw Quarter Finals being Ricochet vs. Samoa Joe and Baron Corbin vs. Cedric Alexander.

• Bayley vs. Nikki Cross felt like just filler. There was no real reason for the match and no story. The same can be said for Cedric Alexander vs. Cesaro, but at least that match can be said to give Alexander momentum before his King Of The Ring match next week against Corbin.

• During the Strowman/AJ match, I realized the use of chairs as an offensive weapon needs to be stopped for a while. When Strowman started "cleaning house" against the OC, his attacks were lackluster in my eyes because it was very noticeable that the three men were getting into position and feeding their backs to Strowman to take the chair shot. Obviously, using a chair to the head or anything else should never be done for safety reasons but only doing back shots has grown stale and is a move that takes one out of the moment. I think it's time for the steel chair to be retired.

• I noticed all throughout this show issues with both crowd response and poor commentary:

---As far as crowd response, the crowd tended to be on the quiet side all night. But especially when a superstar's music first hits, there is no response from the crowd. Whether the issue is the music is too loud or the sound isn't being captured properly, there is a real disconnect when watching on TV. If fans watch at home and don't hear the kind of response that WWE wants certain people to get, then those fans won't elicit that response when they attend live. Perception is key.

---And then we come to the commentary. We've all heard the stories of how difficult it is to be a commentator and that they are often scripted or told what to say at any given time. But as a fan watching at home, the commentary has been lacking for some time. On this episode in particular, the constant bickering of the commentators back-and-forth was getting pretty annoying. Michael Cole in particular tends to focus on getting in his catch phrases rather than actually promoting the performers in the ring. "It's Boss Time," "He's in the Drop Zone," "Face first!" He calls every type of side or jumping kick a step-up enziguri, until one is actually performed (as in the Ricochet/Drew match) and then he doesn't call it all. And, while this is not entirely the commentator's fault, constantly touting the Women's Evolution while at the same time basing every women's feud on who is friends with whom. If WWE really wants to compete with AEW, one of the things they should look at shaking up is the way they do commentary. Last week, Vic Joseph stepped in and took over play-by-play and he was a huge breath of fresh air. I wouldn't be upset if he were to step in permanently while some other senior announcers took a role behind the scenes.

Overall, I give this show a 2 out of 5. Good, solid action in the ring but still lacking in story and getting the crowd engaged. And FIX THE COMMENTARY!