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ABCs of WWE RAW

If You Haven't Read It, It's New to You

By Wendell MitchellPublished 5 years ago 20 min read
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Placeholder.  I'll make something better. Eventually...

What are the ABCs of Raw, you're probably asking? Excellent question. A is for Advancement. Under this subheading, I will discuss story/angle advancements. the little things/mannerisms that advance characters, and highlight advancements of in-ring and promo skills where applicable.

B is for Best Moments. Fair warning, I am a work-rate guy so week to week this session may be heavy on in ring highlights, but I do like one-liners, good delivery, and random acts of goofiness.

Finally, C is for Criticism. Going to keep this section short and sweet. I don't want to dog pile on any one performer nor am I going to target a smark favorite just to be contrary. This is simply my honest opinion on what I felt drags down the viewing experience. Not a worst or wrong moment, per say, but something that could be improved. Each section is done Top Ten Style. so enough preamble, let's get to it.

ADVANCEMENTS

1. Kofi's Mean Streak

How fun was it watching Kofi beat the snot out of Uso Red and screaming at him not to ever do whatever he did again? Big E got in on the action by calling Ryback "stoopid" and daring him to do something about it. Which he did, and I will comment on it more in another section. I enjoy when the New Day is booked this way. As a goofy guy that could have been accused of having a mean streak in my 20s, its nice to see heels booked as not just "eviler than thou" "bragging coward" or "monster." There are other avenues to explore. Guys aren't just their jobs after all. You can be evil to other people, but still have hobbies that random dude in the stands has too. Boo the action, not the person is how I feel. If you say something funny and you're a heel, it's still funny. Now if you curb stomp Dean Ambrose into cinder blocks I will call for bloody retribution. Anyway, New Day, Rocks!

2. HHH Not Giving Up on Find His Man

HHH is on the hunt; a man hunt. I've been asking for KO to take his rightful place as HHH's right hand man since before Rollin's injury in order to give Rollins either a push in proving himself or towards paranoia at being replaced. Cesaro makes sense and again, I've been advocating his involvement in the Authority since Daniel Bryan was feuding with them. Don't really care about ADR because he's a pretty flat character but it makes sense HHH talks to both secondary champs. Dean and Ziggler are the most outspoken anti-authority guys on the roster - something that could really, really elevate Dean in that DDP vs nWo mold. Don't think I forgot about the rib tape or didn't see the way he pulled himself up in the corner during his match with Ziggler. Poor Kalisto just isn't HHH's type I guess.

3. Chapped Lips are Worse Than A Punch to the Face

I love simple character notes like the male model taking a break from getting (illegally) punched in the face to have his valet moisten his lips.

4. Remember When I Looked Up to You

Points for the story being different from "you're just jealous I'm prettier than you" which sucks as a wrestling story. Paige is pretty good at being mean and even if she makes another face turn in the future, keep her how she is and just direct her at heels without bringing up their sex lives if at all possible. It only took us a couple of weeks to do this kind of promo/contract signing. Imagine if they had started three months ago.

5. Commentary During Tyler's Match

It may have been an excuse to question Tyler's manhood, but they did bring up the unfinished business with Ziggler, so good job doing your job commentary.

6. Del Rio Going After Kalisto's Mask

Del Rio is a jerk and here's confirmation and a reminder. This hopefully is followed up on later and Renee can ask how he could mistreat a fellow Hispanic so badly while attempting to join together two nations.

7. Roman Keeping it Short and Sweet

I have no real opinion about the content or delivery of Roman's material this week, but someone is hopefully catching on that this is how you handle Roman talking. Clear, concise reason for why he's about to punch a guy in the face and hug their ribs into dust.

8. Kalisto Getting and Inset Promo

Not exactly his "Austin 3:16" moment or even "goofy SNME" moment, but at least the audience gets to see him do the Misterio thing of catering to both English and Spanish speakers that like to see little dudes throw themselves at people.

9. Keeping Sin Cara Away

I don't know is this is intentional or not, but keeping Sin Cara Dos away from this works to establish Kalisto as a single's threat and could build towards something in the future.

10. Matches that Matter

I adore wrestling for the sake of wrestling in a certain context. WWE is usually not that context. But I am equally enamored by wrestling matches that serve a greater narrative. I appreciate when there are consequences and (shocking I know) wins and losses are treated like a big deal. So despite no upsets, it still was good to watch for the most part some quality wrestling with results that lead somewhere other than another round on the 50/50 Booking Carousel.

BEST MOMENTS

1. Poison Rana

What can I say, I mark for Reverse or inverted moves that make the cool move even cooler. Poison Ranas are pretty high on the list of "are you sure you know how to take this/are you sure you can pull this off without killing me" moves and when executed properly and at the right moment, they are as good a "stand up even if you're at home and mark" move as any. I do have a criticism for it on the next page however, but let's focus on the fact Neville is an instant highlight and should be US Champ instead of Del Rio. If you recall, Cena did not kick out of the Red Arrow.

2. Neville's Release German Suplex

Easily, my favorite subset of moves in all of wrestling are suplexes; especially overhead. I especially love them as counters and Neville had a beauty of one to counter Owen's reckless charge into the corner. I also like when smaller guys are allowed to throw bigger guys around when it makes sense to do so. I hate when a guy is pigeonholed into "high flyer" and isn't so much as allowed to hit a scoop slam even if he's only wrestling a guy fifteen pounds heavier. Rey Misterio only started doing suplexes as a tribute to Eddie. Remember when you were in second grade and everyone lost their mind when you picked that fifth grader up? Just me? Anyway, more throws and slams for the little guys please. If Brock can manhandle dudes that outweigh him by a full adult, I can buy a smaller professional athlete body slamming a normal sized heavyweight.

3. Neville's Sell for the Super Kick

I'm definitely a "cool moves" sort of guy, but I wouldn't love them nearly as much if people didn't make me believe they had an impact. Neville takes another spot with his beautiful "slowly falling down, getting tangled in the ropes, then hitting the floor" sell of Owen's super kick. It's the sort of thing you'd see in a kick boxing match. The lights get turned off temporarily and your body just goes limp. I'm not a fan of how many of his contemporaries would have sold that kick. You know the sell, where the guy gets hit and hurls himself into the announce desk like he was shot out of a t-shirt cannon. Less is more.

4. Dean Wrestling...for a While

It was beyond refreshing to see Dean Ambrose "Master Grappler" for several minutes. Dean's booked in a weird way where a lot of his detractors are convinced he is way worse than Roman at best and absolute garbage at worst. The guy has the chops (and not just his punch chop combo) to put on some good to great matches. I like the story of "Dean has nothing against Ziggler and will exchange holds with him, but once Ziggler starts throwing kicks to the mush, all bets are off." His performance was good, but not without criticism.

5. Ziggler Showing his Catch-as-Catch Can Skill

Ziggler is complicated. On one hand, he bumps like a face in peril coated in Flubber. On the other hand, he is about as smarmy a jerk as Cena but not as good on the mic. There's an undeniable amount of talent in the guy and if WWE were not so set in their "There can be only one" mentality, Ziggler could be the Foley tier of credible face world champions. For the record, the tiers are Austin Tier - No. 1 Guy but can be beat by...Rock Tier - Arguably as over if not more so than No. 1 Guy and is equally credible. Foley Tier - actual underdog that loses more than the other two tiers but when the chips are down and nobody expects it, pulls off the miracle upset and people don't see it as a fluke.

Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of Ziggler, but like most people in wrestling that display a certain level of talent, I root for their success and like to see what they can do when given an opportunity other than "make these more important people look good." It's nice to see him basically as an equal to Dean. There were moments when he had to make a comeback, but it wasn't the typical "Ziggler takes a beating, strings together a whole bunch of Attitude Era mid-card finishers and maybe wins, maybe loses." It was nice to see guys wrestling instead of brawling.

6. JBL/Dean Complementary Talking Points

I found it nice that during the course of Dean and Ziggler's match, JBL made the comment that it would be difficult to imagine Dean on Letterman (which is now Colbert's show, but you know, JBL's references are pretty dated.) He made his usual "LOONTIC FRINGE MAGGLE" declaration but then slowly integrated the talking point that Dean is also pretty crafty and not a complete loon. So Dean wins his match and immediately cuts a good promo on the sort of changes we can expect when he wins the belt. Replacing Cole with a Fish tank is one of those things I didn't know I wanted until someone mentioned it. It's kooky, but not "stab a mannequin with screwdrivers" sociopathic. It has elements of Dean being a quirky guy instead of a guy that tries to hit people with TVs that are still plugged in to a power source. More of this please and thank you.

7. Tyler's Leg Scissors Takedown into a Single Leg Crab

There wasn't much to R-Truth and Tyler (only Truth highlight is that the guy is in his forties and still has pretty nice abs) but Tyler got the W and got to show off some of his in-ring prowess. Shades of RVD, as JBL said with the Leg Scissors Takedown, but I love how he transitioned it into a Single Leg Crab even if nobody's tapped to that since Lance Storm and his ginormous wang were fixtures on the roster.

8. Kalisto's Sell for the Back Stabber

I will defend ADR's ring work until I'm (red,white,green) blue in the face, but his character arc is doing him no favors and his "kill Lucha guys" routine was old when he did it to Misterio. But this is the positive portion of the column, so let's give Kalisto some credit on that incredible sell of the back stabber and those kicks to break up the most convoluted finisher set up since the W-O-R-M.

9. The Entirety of Cesaro vs Roman

Full disclosure: I wanted to sit in the Cesaro section with HHH as the Siwss Superman advanced closer to the belt. But, and this is the thing that gets lost in the constant deluge of "smarks only love their own fantasy booking" on every wrestling site with open registration, I'm not mad that he lost. Cesaro was treated like he mattered. The commentary put him over, he got HHH to treat him like this generation's Benoit (wrestling wise) and then went out there and tore the house down with a very game Roman. Cesaro is almost like a living cheat code. He has this lithe, but still muscular frame that allows him to hit cross bodies and Cesaro Crushers like it ain't no thing. He can go hold for hold with the best of them. His uppercuts look painful and he has this ridiculous level of strength that let's him launch guys the size of Roman in the air like they're in a Capcom vs Marvel game. Roman has improved leaps and bounds in his ring-work even if super critical me still is waving at the bandwagon instead of booking a seat on it. But he's explosive and getting better at doing things in between his Exclamation Point Spots. That release German Suplex was pretty choice. This was by no mean a carry job, but Cesaro is still the stand out in the match. Dude did a cartwheel across the top rope! I'm a grown man and I almost jumped out of my bed. Could you imagine being a kid watching that? Cesaro is so much money in the making it's funny in that "I'm trying not to cry" sort of way.

Cesaro is my favorite type of wrestler - the wrestler that treats this like it's actually happening and not like he's an randomly selected video game character there to see what your signature and finishing moves look like. How many people not only avoid the apron drop kick, but counter it into something, in this case a crowd popping big swing? Who counters a jumping punch with an uppercut? I'm still bummed he didn't counter the spear into a Sharp Shooter, but maybe they're saving that for the week Vince gets heat stroke and HHH slips us a Cesaro vs Roman match for the belt.

10. Drama! Intensity! Women's Wrestling

There's been much back and forth about bringing a real and very tragic death into this feud. I am of the mind that heels should be despicable if they eventually lose in the end. That said, I think the abrupt nature in which Reid's death was inserted into this feud was poorly handled and I don't care who signed off on it. If you're going to do that, it's gotta be after blood - so to speak- has been spilled. Paige has to have come up short and becomes desperate to get in Charlotte's head. There needs to be a build. I know some people would still be outraged they went there, but it might work better if Paige is the one to bring it up, Charlotte attacks, then we get the sit down interview about Reid. I don't know. It's a touchy subject I rather they not have breached, but it has been written and could have been written better.

Now, I put this here with the best moments of the night because they're making an attempt to finally push a non Bella involved single's feud as important. Charlotte's delivery could use work, but Paige was very good, the intensity was there, and neither woman mentioned who the other was sleeping with or which of them had the most male admirers and female haters. The road to progress starts off bumpy before it gets paved.

And now, time to get a little critical...

CRITICISMS

1. Charlotte's Half of the Promo

If anyone has suffered from being outside the warm embrace of Full Sail and is still positioned to be a big deal, it is Charlotte. Some people may try to revoke my smark card (which I earned by being a certified geek and bonafide nerd) but I'd rank Charlotte as fourth on the main roster in-ring, below Sasha, Becky, and Nikki. I don't know what you can do about her delivery right now because the sample size is too small, but it might have to do with WWE's tendency to book their important faces as super underdogs that are super unbeatable and there's some sort of cognitive dissonance. Cena of course, rises above that. There were some good moments, as mentioned on the previous page, but overall, Charlotte just doesn't have the speaking experience to pull off this sort of promo.

2. The Laziest Rebound

Sweet Sassafrass, what the heck was up with that second attempt at the Rebound Lariat? I'm all in on Dean "Master Grappler" and getting ready to say "see, see, he can wrestling well" and he goes and pulls the most "well, gotta fit this in somewhere I guess" rebound he's ever done. Did you see that monstrosity? It felt like he took a seat to think about why he was doing it then did it. I don't get it. The crowd would pop just as hard if he just leveled dudes with Stan Hansen style lariats. Heck, pull a Misterio and bounce off the middle rope. This getting tangled in the ropes stuff needs to go.

3. Big Moves Failing To Win The Match

I get that the crowd expects certain finishing sequences (even if they look like something that would keep my kid down only because he's giggling too hard) and many of us bemoan roll ups as legitimate match enders, but man it hurts my suspension of disbelief when I see Kevin Owen's get spiked on his head with a Poison Rana or Dean get face smashed from the top rope and they kick out but I'm expected to believe that Ziggler would have won if he had just hit the Zig Zag. Familiarity is what you want at your live show, but you (or me at least) want something unexpected. Yes, I want to see a Red Arrow in person, but I'd be okay if he won with a move that stood a dude on his head. Nothing against any of the competitors, it's just WWE Style is full of these flat back bump finishers and dudes are kicking out of top rope Fisherman Busters and Falcoln Arrows like this is a wrestling game on the hardest difficultly level and they can beat you with a big boot.

4. No Promo Time for Half the Bracket

Where was Ziggler's impassioned "I will be the champion" proclamation. I know ADR bores people silly, but where was his "I will be a dual champion." Dean got one post match, so that's cool. Roman's the only one that got an actual in ring, in front of the people promo spot that was about him and not whether or not HHH wants to take him out for steaks later.

5. Wrestling For Wrestling's Sake

I love wrestling moves. You're not going to see many DDTs and Exploder Suplexes in the next Marvel Film (but how dope would it be for Hulk to hit Chaos Theory on Thanos? The dopest right?) so yeah, I can enjoy a couple of dudes beating the brakes off each other and trying to twist each other in ways that make chiropractors' eyes turn into dollar signs. But WWE has a way of just sending guys out there to run through the motions. Some people's motions are better than others, but a guy like R-Truth is only quasi-exciting the very first time you see him. The Usos are high energy but without a story, it's a bunch of "barely clearing the ropes" dives to the outside and "death by a dozen super kicks." A festive gathering of super kicks even. Again, cool in person, not so cool three episodes in a row. I don't even need a story or an angle so much as some sort of stakes. Six man tags rarely have them because there's no six man belt and they rarely run with the "trio has all the gold" story that would necessitate Six Man Tags as anything other than (admittedly sometimes fun) filler. Tyler needed a win is a talking point at least.

6. The Beauty Shot

Since I just brought up believable finishing sequences, I cannot overlook the fact that in a company where super kicks and DDTs are transition moves, the ultimate WCW midcarder transition move is someone's finisher. On one hand, it's R-Truth and on most nights I expect him to get pinned after failing to hit his Axe Kick, but on the other hand Alex Wright never won a match with this move and he was wrestling part time Black Jack dealers.

7. Ryback Dismantling the New Day by Himself

Nothing against Ryback personally as I sometimes dig his "more articulate Goldberg in RVDs singlet" aesthetic, but he's symptomatic of WWE's need to send the crowd home happy sometimes. The Usos helped a little, but mainly to keep Xavier from running away. My primary criticism is this match began as it ended: without a true purpose. I will never complain about New Day on my television, but I will complain if you don't give them something to do that builds to something to gets people to want to know what's next. New Day should have took their dirty victory and scampered away. Ryback and the Usos should have had to wait to get their hands on them. It's storytelling 101. They didn't stop Ultron the first time they saw him. John Rambo doesn't take down the police force in the first act. If you must give the live crowd instant gratification, use your dark segments. I'm not saying I know more about anything that anyone in WWE, but I feel like the whole purpose of dark segments is to do fun stuff for the crowd without messing with the supposed serial (though mostly episodic) narrative that you should be maintaining to keep eyeballs on the television show.

8. Should Have Done This Last Week

I did not weigh on this last week because enough was said to fill several fanposts, columns, comment sections, and forums, but suffice to say, I believe the Wyatts vs Brothers of Destruction story has been mishandled from a fundamental storytelling perspective. Like the above case with Ryback, you don't have the face utterly destroy the heels before you establish the idea that these heels are a threat and need to be beat beyond the fact that they're heels. Regardless of any other factor, if you're building to a confrontation that depended on the heels having the advantage, you don't immediately negate that advantage and have them look like they don't stand a chance before the next confrontation.

I was not particularly fond of Wyatt sending a couple of scrubs in evening gowns to fight a zombie cowboy and his demonic half brother, but it made more sense than all four Wyatts getting dispatched in a similar fashion.

Now, I will be the first one to request we send a fruit basket to Connecticut if UT and Kane bow before Wyatt at Survivor Series or we get some other swerve along the way that doesn't make Wyatt even more ineffectual.

9. No Tribute To Bockwinkle

I can go on Youtube and find like ten tributes right now. WWE could throw together one over the weekend? Not saying they are obligated of course, just you know, it would be nice to see a few highlights of a wrestler's career on my wrestling show instead R-Truth.

10. Back Stage Fall Out Still Does Better Character Development Than the Show

This may very well be a running criticism, but man, Dean and Roman laying down the law that even brothers have to fight if it's for the big one, is definitely something that should be featured on the show. I will never understand how so much good content is relegated to Youtube where a few thousand, maybe a hundred thousand people over the course of a week or two, instead of the weekly televised audience that might get to see why those "obsessive internet types" think this guy can be a star.

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About the Creator

Wendell Mitchell

A father of 3, Wendell is a cyber hobo with a love for storytelling and food. His interests include grappling, pro wrestling, anime, MMA, superheroes, comedy, at least one song in every musical genre except EDM, and cooking.

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