WWE RAW Review
December 6, 2016
By: Adam Martin of Wrestleview.com
It’s two weeks until WWE Roadblock (…end of the line) and the red brand was coming off an extremely well done main event last week featuring Sasha Banks and Charlotte.
Full disclosure before the comments go crazy: I have not been regular “live” viewer of this program for some time. It’s not a show that seems to warrant three straight hours of my time every Monday night given the rather lackluster effort the last year. Even with the introduction of the brand split back in July, it still left a lot to be desired.
Now that I will be taking over live coverage duties for a few weeks in place of Mike Tedesco (who will now be handling the blue brand for the time being), I’m approached last week going forward as an experiment to answer a simple question: is three hours too much? I’ve heard many people say the length of the show isn’t the real issue with RAW.
After a newsworthy and well paced show last week, I’m here to confirm three hours is just a bit much for my taste. Allow me to elaborate, please.
Charlotte makes Ric Flair cry again
It was a rather interesting move by WWE to completely ignore the awesome main event between Charlotte and Sasha Banks from last week in the opening video package. As the show progressed, I curtailed my internet rage and realized (as a rationale adult) that it was done on purpose to build to a video package later in the night to hype that Charlotte wanted to make a publicly apology to her father, Ric Flair, later in the evening.
I’m still not a huge fan of Sasha’s promo delivery. This was on full display when WWE posted a pre-show interview with her before last week’s RAW.
Yeah, not a fan. Despite lacking in the promo department, Sasha completely delivered along with Charlotte in the main event later that night. We are going to do it again in two weeks at Roadblock in an Iron Man match. I was very impressed with the Iron Man match between Sasha and Bayley in NXT. Whether or not these two can pull that off remains to be seen after a very lackluster match at Hell in a Cell. They definitely made up for it headlining RAW last week, but I get the sense the WWE audience is starting to grow a bit tired of this feud. Might be time to take a cool down after Roadblock.
As for the actual closing segment, I started to feel a little bad for Charlotte trying to talk over the audience (many who you could see leaving the arena). She worked through it and continues to show she is a very solid talker on the mic in her heel role. Adding Ric Flair to the mix is completely fine, although I could do without the Tommy Dreamer tears.
WWE reminds us about that whole Triple H angle
Since Kevin Owens captured the WWE Universal Championship back in August, we really haven’t had much of anything of a follow up regarding Triple H’s involvement. Outside of one backstage segment and a Kevin Owens interview, it’s been pretty quiet in the follow up department and I’m still wondering why we are asking that question in December. It would appear WWE wants to take a very slow build approach with Triple H’s involvement and Seth Rollins reminded us that was still a thing to open RAW last night. I’m willing to give WWE the benefit of the doubt if some actual plans are in place going forward. If not, oh boy. What a weird call after what was a really exciting way to close an episode of RAW in a long time.
Quick Thoughts
* It was good to see the Big Show back and in great shape.
* Jack Gallagher is easily the most entertaining character among the Cruiserweights.
* TJ Perkins doing a dab repeatedly in his matches is so hateable.
* Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn continue to impress when they work together.
* Bayley sure has lost a ton of steam on this show.
* Mark Henry squash matches always put a smile on my face.
* Another solid in-ring effort by Roman Reigns. If only the promos matched that.
* Didn’t totally hate the Enzo/Lana/Rusev segment. Last week was clearly better.
* Sheamus and Cesaro are really coming along nicely as a tag team.
Overall Impression
It was going to be pretty hard to follow up last week’s awesome main event and it showed. This certainly wasn’t the worst episode of RAW I’ve ever seen, but a show like this gives you zero incentive to tune in live when you can dial up clips on Twitter and YouTube on your own time. The growth of social media really has changed my WWE viewing habits and it’s already showing in the weekly television ratings for this show.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know what you thought of RAW in the comments below.
Follow me on Twitter: @adamwrestleview