WRESTLING WITH RAW 9/16/19

Monday Night Raw - 9/16/19 Knoxville, Tennessee

Quick Results:

The OC defeated Cedric Alexander & The Viking Raiders

King Of The Ring Tournament: Baron Corbin defeated Chad Gable to become the King Of The Ring

Ricochet defeated Mike Kanellis

Rusev defeated Mike Kanellis

Rey Mysterio defeated Cesaro

Sasha Banks & Bayley defeated Bliss Cross

Lacey Evans defeated Dana Brooke

Seth Rollins defeated Robert Roode by DQ

Highlights:

• It seems that WWE is giving up on Cedric Alexander. After, not only being soundly defeated at Clash of Champions and again tonight on Raw, being beaten down after the two matches really makes Alexander look weak. It will take several months of rebuilding to make him seem like any credible threat to an opponent.

• I picked the King Of The Ring winner! It didn't go the way I expected, but I was right! Unfortunately, I think the tournament as a whole really didn't do a lot for the majority of the participants. Chad Gable seemed to get a lot of crowd support by the end of this match, but after being built as a "little guy" for so many weeks and then losing this match, can he really be seen as a top babyface contender? The same can be said for Ali and Buddy Murphy, who have not been seen on TV since their respective matches. While Corbin is the right guy for the King gimmick, I don't expect this to turn into a Main Event run for him...which, based on past history, probably wouldn't be a bad thing.

• The Kanellis' story just gets weirder every week. This week, they dragged in Ricochet and a returning Rusev. It was great to see Rusev after so long but dropping him in this terrible storyline does nothing good for him. How does it make him or Ricochet look good to quickly beat someone who always loses while being berated by his pregnant wife? This Kanellis story needs to end and no one else should get caught up with this garbage.

• The pre-recorded promo from AOP was fantastic! Allowing them to speak in their native language with subtitles; addressing real life rumors and issues of being called unsafe or hurting other wrestlers; calling all other tag teams soft and not man enough to face them; it was all great! I can't wait to see them back in the ring!

• Once again, all of the tag division, men and women, were treated as an afterthought on this show, if not completely undermined. Braun Strowman was a one-man wrecking crew, singlehandedly taking out both the Raw and Smackdown Tag Champions. This is the third time in as many years that Strowman has made the Tag Division look meaningless. Then later, the Women's Tag Championships were an afterthought to the rivalries between the Four Horsewomen. If championships or entire divisions aren't going to be taken seriously, then there is no reason to have them. This just proves to me that if you are a fan of tag team wrestling, then tune in to AEW in the coming weeks.

• Throughout the night, the 24/7 Championship skits with Mayor Kane were very entertaining. But on top of those, having Demon Kane appear at the end of the night was a great surprise! After clearing the ring, Kane is the latest victim of The Fiend. The ominous, slither and stare at Rollins after the attack was a great touch and starts to build towards the announced Hell In A Cell match between the Fiend and Rollins.

Overall, this episode was a high 2 out of 5. While it was great to see the returns of Rusev, AOP, and even Dana Brooke, the story-telling is still very lacking and the booking of most of WWE's talent really needs to be stepped up if they want any chance of competing with AEW.